bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Rethinking Reform Comedies: Colley Cibber’s Desiring Women
Authors: McGirr Elaine M.
Published: May 2013

Against the critical consensus, this article argues that reform comedies are significant aesthetic and ideological works, dramatically coherent and expertly crafted, with a clear moral and satirical intent. Focussing on Colley Cibber, and especially his The Careless Husband (1704), I demonstrate that a detailed examination of these comedies, and especially of their stagecraft, challenges long-held critical beliefs about the eighteenth century stage and its representation of women. Cibber’s satires are not misogynistic attacks on woman’s supposedly natural hypocrisy, but rather moral comedies of manners and performative social behaviours that allow women to gain their ends and satisfy their desires.
“Excuse what difficiencies you will find:” Methodist Women and Public Space in John Wesley’s Arminian Magazine
Authors: Winckles Andrew O.
Published: May 2013

Through examining conversion narratives by Methodist laywomen published in John Wesley’s Arminian Magazine I argue that these women use the conventions of narrative to reform their subjectivities post-conversion and break down binaries between public/private, internal piety/external action, rich/poor. The entry of these women’s stories into print provides a glimpse of how spiritual experience authorized women’s entry into a developing evangelical public sphere and resisted the developing narrative of domestic piety. By focusing on ordinary laywomen we can understand how Methodism worked to redefine the relationship between gender, religion, and subjectivity during the long eighteenth century.
Serpentine Sideboards, Hogarth’s Analysis , and the Beautiful Self
Authors: Wells K.L.H.
Published: May 2013

Hogarth’s Analysis of Beauty is well known for its celebration of the waving “line of beauty” and serpentine “line of grace.” This paper analyzes a serpentine sideboard, now in the Chipstone Collection, as an embodiment of Hogarth’s aesthetic system. By arguing that the sideboard embodies Hogarth’s aesthetics, this essay explores how the beautiful inanimate object acted as a model body for its contemporary viewers. Beauty was constructed as an attribute of the elite, and the responsibility to be a beautiful self was conferred more heavily on women than on men, so that the Chipstone sideboard can be read as a classed and gendered thing that negotiates aesthetic objectification.
African Slaves, English Slave Narratives, and Early Modern Morocco
Authors: Beach Adam R.
Published: May 2013

Scholars who work on English slave narratives written by those who were held in bondage in Morocco need to contextualize these narratives in relation to the history of Moroccan imperialism in sub-Saharan Africa and to the wide-spread Moroccan enslavement of black Africans. This contextualization will lead to a fuller understanding of English slave narratives, especially the way they depict often hostile relationships between white European and black African slaves. This methodology also allows for a fuller appreciation of the ways that slave masters often divide their bondsmen into separate racial groups and encourage hostile relations between them. In this light, English slave narratives have much to tell us about these inter-slave hostilities and the effectiveness of slave management practices in the early-modern world.
Daniel Defoe’s Contribution to the Dispute over Occasional Conformity: An Insight into Dissent and “Moderation” in the Early Eighteenth Century
Authors: Deschamps Yannick
Published: May 2013

According to the traditional interpretation, Defoe’s position on occasional conformity rests on a paradox: on the one hand, he was hostile to this practice; on the other, he was critical of the bill for preventing it. The issue seems to lie in this apparent contradiction. However, as we shall show, Defoe did not uniformly condemn the practice of occasional conformity. Nor was his denunciation of the bill prohibiting it constant. His position on these two related questions underwent a decisive change during the autumn of 1703. I argue that it was primarily due to his recruitment as Harley’s propagandist.
The Locus of the Fashion Shop in Russian Literature from 1764 to 1806
Authors: Ivleva Victoria
Published: May 2013

This article examines the evolution in the cultural perception of the fashion shop in eighteenth-century Russian literature. I argue that in the context of eighteenth-century culture, a fashion shop became a heterogeneous locus of cultural negotiations where Russia engaged in the process of redefining its identity through its encounters with the West. My analysis explores the evolution of the image of the merchant and of the female customer within this space, and the influence of state ideology in regard to Gallomania and national identity on the perception of the locus.
The Role of Dreams in the Political Affairs of the Safavid Dynasty
Authors: Ahmadi Nozhat
Published: May 2013

This article explores a new window into Safavid political history – Safavid dream narratives. In that era, dreams were told to justify the kings’ deeds and to legitimise their hegemony. These dreams, the symbols in the dreams, and the way they were interwoven into the political affairs of the time reflect the widely held beliefs of the people in dreams and dream interpretation. Moreover, dream narratives divulge how political and religious goals could be pursued and achieved through dream-telling and dream interpretation. This article examines why, and in which periods, dreams were appropriated by Safavid kings as legitimising instruments. The author will analyse influential dream narratives from a wide range of Safavid texts and determine the different categories of dreams that were related.
The Symbolic Expression of Power and Religion in the Public Buildings in Safavid Iran: A Conceptual Interpretation
Authors: Sani Rafooneh Mokhtarshahi
Published: May 2013

In this paper, the ideologies of Shari‘ati and Foucault are used to signify and explore the characteristics of Iranian architecture during the Safavid period (1501–1722) with respect to symbolism regarding religion and power. This study focuses on the architecture of public buildings constructed during the Safavid era. These buildings reflect the Safavid rulers’ views of political power and religious beliefs. Applying the ideas of Shari‘ati and Foucault through a survey of Safavid architecture yields five characteristics common to Safavid public buildings: ‘light-floating buildings’, ‘horizontality’, ‘inward-outward flow’, ‘illusion’, and ‘contrast and dualism’. Each of these characteristics is symbolic of Safavid beliefs regarding religion and power.
Conversion to Shi‘ism in East Africa
Authors: Jaffer Abbas
Published: May 2013

Islam and Christianity both continue to spread in East Africa, in part due to organized proselytization efforts. In this study, converts to Islam in Tanzania and Kenya will be interviewed to determine to what extent their conversion was influenced by a local Islamic propagation organization. The study will also explore whether the converts feel that the organization’s religious and non-religious activities, such as economic development activities, are serving their needs, or whether there is a disconnect between the Islamic propagation organizations and the converts they are serving.
The Information Ecosystems of National Diplomacy: The Case of Spain, 1815–1936
Authors: Cortada James W.
Published: May 2013

Workers in information-intensive professions live in an information ecosystem in which they create, analyze, store, and communicate information as their core activities. This article illustrates how that happens through the historical case study of Spanish diplomats over the course of more than a century. Their information ecosystem proved extensive, encompassing institutions, bodies of tacit and explicit knowledge, and routine and ad hoc collections of information. This essay offers a model of how to explore the history of a profession’s information ecosystem, relying on administrative histories, memoirs, and an analysis of the extant paper trail left by these diplomats.
Information Infrastructure and Descriptions of the 1857 Fort Tejon Earthquake
Authors: Finn Megan
Published: May 2013

In 1857 Californians experienced the largest earthquake in the state’s history. Few people lived near the earthquake’s epicenter, so the earthquake was small in terms of damage and loss of life, but it still was felt from San Diego to San Francisco. After the earthquake, Californians wanted to understand what had happened elsewhere. They circulated narratives about the earthquake by boat and horseback in letters and newspapers. Californians made sense of the earthquake without standardized timekeeping or modern scientific theories. The descriptions and explanations of the earthquake that surfaced were shaped by and reflected the 1857 information infrastructure.
“The King’s Library of Manuscripts”: The State Paper Office as Archive and Library
Authors: Riordan Michael
Published: May 2013

The State Papers were the principal executive instruments of the early modern English state. By 1610 they were kept in the State Paper Office, remaining there until 1854, when they were subsumed into the Public Record Office. This article examines whether the State Paper Office, over two centuries, had more characteristics of a modern archive or a library. To do so, it looks at the key archival processes of appraisal, and arrangement and description, as well as exploring whether, like modern archives, the records were understood contextually or, like a modern library, they were regarded as discrete containers of information.
Of Dustbowl Ballads and Railroad Rate Tables: Erudite Enactments in Historical Inquiry
Authors: Ekbia Hamid R. , Suri Venkata Ratnadeep
Published: May 2013

History is a heavily document-driven field. The character of these documents varies from era to era and from case to case, and their content constitutes what can be broadly called “historical information.” Historical information, however, is not fixed, stable, or even cumulative; rather, it is enacted through the epistemic culture and practices of historians. Our study of two well-known historical cases in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—the monopolistic practices of railroad operators in the American West and the Dust Bowl phenomenon in the Midwest—show how historians enact information by adopting a fluid strategy toward their sources of information and their changing notions of evidence. At the same time, they also show that these enactments maintain a certain degree of consistency and continuity with the overall body of knowledge of the scholarly community, giving them a more “educated” character and differentiating them from the routine enactments of daily life. In this article, we explore the historiographical practices engaged by historians that enable this kind of enactment.
Ritualized Violence against Sorcerers in Fifteenth-Century France
Authors: Pfau Aleksandra
Published: May 2013

This article examines local practices for controlling sorcery in the context of a small group of fifteenth-century letters of remission in cases where the crime is that of inflicting mortal injury on a putative sorcerer. The people thus targeted are often local healers, and the aggressive violence begins in an attempt to undo perceived harm or illness caused by the healer. The author shows how one aspect of their integration rests uncomfortably (for the healers) upon a substrate of manipulative and ritualized violence. The death is thus represented by the letter writers as an accidental effect of a process whose aim was not murder at all. The stories told in these letters underscore the close relations between village practices, storytelling, and royal justice.
Burchard’s strigae , the Witches’ Sabbath, and Shamanistic Cannibalism in Early Modern Europe
Authors: Wilby Emma
Published: May 2013

This article looks at folkloric beliefs about maleficent spirits and spirit-hordes as these affect the witchcraft literature in early modern Europe. The author proposes a possible model for viewing and understanding the cultural matrix that the witchcraft literature makes visible in anthropological treatments of shamanistic cannibalism. Isolating features of what she calls a “predatory cosmology” in these accounts, the author points out many parallels with the aspects of the stories retailed about vampiric strigae. She accentuates the point that beliefs do not exists in isolation: the supernatural is humanly mediated; it is always embedded in a matrix of praxis, and this matrix sometimes influences learned discourse as well.
Nocturnal Journeys and Ritual Dances in Bernardino of Siena
Authors: Bailey Michael D.
Published: May 2013

This article takes its starting point in a story from a famous fifteenth-century sermon against sorcery by Bernardino of Siena. The story involves a solitary page travelling through a rural area who finds a group of people dancing on a threshing floor; at dawn, all the dancers vanish but one one girl to whom the page is holding fast. This girl is not treated by Bernardino as a sorceress, though the larger context of the story makes the absence of the perception of sorcery something of a puzzle. In search of possible origins for this story, the author examines an array of parallels, suggesting ultimately that Bernardino’s story could be linked to actual folk practices that involved nocturnal dancing.
A Phenomenological Reading of Zhuzi
Authors: Yeo Jong-Hyun
Published: May 2013

This essay situates Tetsurō Watsuji within contemporary approaches to social cognition. It argues for Watsuji's current relevance, suggesting that his analysis of embodiment and social space puts him in step with some of the concerns driving ongoing treatments of social cognition in philosophy of mind and cognitive science. It is further shown how Watsuji offers a fruitful contribution to this discussion by lending a phenomenologically informed critical perspective. First, some interpretative work is done to explore Watsuji's conception of embodied intersubjectivity. The focus in particular is on Watsuji's conception of what is termed here the "hybrid" body as well as his distinctive treatment of interpersonal space—what Watsuji terms "betweenness" (aidagara). Next, these notions are connected to current treatments of social cognition within philosophy of mind and cognitive science. Made explicit are several of the ways that Watsuji challenges the core cognitivist and internalist presuppositions behind the Theory of Mind paradigm, and experimental work is drawn from, among other sources, developmental psychology and gesture studies to support Watsuji's alternative characterization of embodied social interaction.
The "Mandate of Heaven": Mencius and the Divine Command Theory of Political Legitimacy
Authors: Nuyen A. T.
Published: May 2013

Commentators have recently turned their attention to the Confucian notion of the mandate of heaven. The question is: Is the ruler legitimate because Heaven says so, or does Heaven say so because he is qualified as a legitimate ruler (i.e., by the way he benefits the people)? The answer depends on how the notion of mandate of heaven is interpreted. In what might be called the liberal interpretation, the mandate of heaven lies in the will of the people. In what might be called the conservative reading, the mandate to rule lies in a heaven that transcends the people. To subscribe to the latter is to subscribe to what might be called the "Divine Command Theory of political legitimacy," analogous to the Divine Command Theory of morality. By contrast, the liberal reading of "mandate of heaven" is analogous to the "moral autonomy" position. Mencius' view on political legitimacy will be discussed in terms of the Divine Command Theory so as to permit a comparison with Kant's account of moral judgments. It will be argued that Kant manages to avoid being impaled on either horn of the Euthyphro dilemma by grasping both horns. In the same way, Mencius' view can be read as one that incorporates both the liberal and the conservative positions. It will be argued that such reading is more consistent with textual evidence and renders Mencius' position more coherent.
Traces of Consequentialism and Non-Consequentialism In Bodhisattva Ethics
Authors: Davis Gordon
Published: May 2013

Barbra Clayton and Charles Goodman have recently proposed interpretations of Mahāyāna philosophy that take its fundamental ethical commitments to be consequentialist. There are aspects of the bodhisattva ideal, however, that result in a distinctive constraint on what might otherwise amount to a commitment to consequentialist maximization. Though the doctrinal provenance of this constraint is unique, the constraint itself is in some ways akin to a feature of Kant's ideal of the kingdom of ends. This does not make Mahāyāna ethics proto-Kantian, but it does suggest that its complexity does not rule out an analysis in terms of familiar consequentialist and non-consequentialist theoretical elements.
Watsuji's Phenomenology of Embodiment and Social Space
Authors: Krueger Joel
Published: May 2013

This essay situates Tetsuro Watsuji within contemporary approaches to social cognition. It argues for Watsuji's current relevance, suggesting that his analysis of embodiment and social space puts him in step with some of the concerns driving ongoing treatments of social cognition in philosophy of mind and cognitive science. It is further shown how Watsuji offers a fruitful contribution to this discussion by lending a phenomenologically informed critical perspective. First, some interpretative work is done to explore Watsuji's conception of embodied intersubjectivity. The focus in particular is on Watsuji's conception of what is termed here the "hybrid" body as well as his distinctive treatment of interpersonal space—what Watsuji terms "betweenness" (aidagara). Next, these notions are connected to current treatments of social cognition within philosophy of mind and cognitive science. Made explicit are several of the ways that Watsuji challenges the core cognitivist and internalist presuppositions behind the Theory of Mind paradigm, and experimental work is drawn from, among other sources, developmental psychology and gesture studies to support Watsuji's alternative characterization of embodied social interaction.
What it Means to Interpret: A Standard Formulation and its Implicit Corollaries in Chinese Buddhism
Authors: Jin Tao
Published: May 2013

This study asks two related questions. First, how did the Chinese Buddhists generally think of the nature of interpretation? Second, how did they address the issue of inconsistency inherent in their answer to the first question? The first answer is straightforward, for the model of "truth, teaching, and interpretation" is widely accepted as the "standard formulation" of the nature of interpretation. This answer, however, has an obvious flaw: if the very reason why teaching requires interpretation lies in its unavoidable dependence on intellection, which obstructs its effective transmission of truth, how can interpretation, which is equally if not more reliant on intellection, adequately transmit the truth in a way in which teaching fails? The second answer thus addresses this inconsistency. It argues that while there has never been an explicitly formulated answer to this question, theoretical reflections on unrelated topics seem to have created a general intellectual atmosphere that would allow people to ignore or at least comfortably live with the obvious inconsistency, that is, an atmosphere that would supplement and, in that sense, justify and sustain the answer to the first question; unformulated but supplementary, such theoretical reflections constitute the implicit corollaries of the standard formulation.
Interpreting the Divyadhvani : On Why the Digambara Sect Is Right about the Nature of the Kevalin
Authors: Kabay Paul
Published: May 2013

One of the issues dividing the Digambara and Śvetāmbara sects of Jainism centers on the nature of the kevalin —where a kevalin is a being that has achieved kevalajñāna or omniscience. According to the Śvetāmbara sect the kevalin continues to act much like a normal human being (eating, preaching, walking, etc.) after his enlightenment. But the Digambara sect denies this. They claim that the kevalin ceases to act at the moment of his enlightenment. Reason is given here for thinking that the Digambara sect is right about the nature of the kevalin . It is argued that the kevalin is a trivialist, that is, someone who believes that everything is the case. According to Graham Priest, precisely because a trivialist believes everything, he is unable to act. Because he believes that a given state of affairs already obtains, the trivialist cannot form the intention to bring about that state of affairs. Why is the kevalin a trivialist? An answer is attempted by raising a paradox in Jain epistemology. According to various doctrinal sources, the kevalin is infallible and omniscient. But the mode of this knowledge is a priori, because the kevalin is causally isolated from the rest of reality. How is it possible for the kevalin to know everything infallibly without there being any connection between himself and the objects of his knowledge? The only solution to this paradox is to postulate that everything is true and that the kevalin believes everything to be true. It is then shown that this trivialist account of Jain epistemology coheres nicely with Jain logic and metaphysics. Given that the kevalin is a trivialist and given the conclusion that the trivialist cannot act, the kevalin cannot act. Therefore, the Digambara sect is right about the nature of the kevalin .
Enacting Selves, Enacting Worlds: On the Buddhist Theory of Karma
Authors: MacKenzie Matthew
Published: May 2013

The concept of karma is one of the most general and basic for the philosophical traditions of India, one of an interconnected cluster of concepts that form the basic presuppositions of Indian philosophy. The focus of this essay is on two interrelated aspects of the Buddhist theory of karma. After some preliminary comments on the general philosophical notion of karma and on the enactivist approach to philosophical psychology, I will explore the distinctively Buddhist idea that through the karmic process we enact ourselves—that is, we make and remake ourselves through our actions. Second, I will discuss the idea that we also enact our world(s) through karma—that is, our patterns of action and reaction bring forth meaningful worlds, which in turn shape those very patterns for better or worse. Finally, I will briefly discuss the character and cultivation of enlightened action, action free from the production of karma.
On Intellectual Skepticism: A Selection of Skeptical Arguments and Ṭūsī's Criticisms, with Some Comparative Notes
Authors: Fatoorchi Pirooz
Published: May 2013

This essay deals with a selected part of an epistemological controversy provided by ṣūusī in response to the skeptical arguments reported by Rāzī that is related to what might be called "intellectual skepticism," or skepticism regarding the judgments of the intellect, particularly in connection with self-evident principles. It will be shown that Rāzī has cited and exposed a position that seems to be no less than a medieval version of empiricism. ṣūusī, in contrast, has presented us with a position that rejects such empiricism. The comparative aim of this essay is to draw attention to some similarities as well as some points of divergence between the kind of skeptical debate we are focusing on here, and some relevant epistemological discussions in the later traditions in the West.
The Case of Alma Rubens or the Trans-gendered Imagination in José Manuel Poveda
Authors: Theumer Kathrin
Published: May 2013

The sparse scholarship on José Manuel Poveda's feminine heteronym, Alma Rubens, has emphasized the innovative style and racy content of his/her twenty-four prose poems or poemetos. But the heteronymic process as it is revealed in Rubens's debut poem, "Agua profunda y escondida" and the three chronicles in which Poveda introduces and describes Rubens have not been closely analyzed. Because Rubens is imagined as a woman, as sexually androgynous, as object of Poveda's desire, and as the creator of a new poetry, heteronymic embodiment here affords an opportunity for creative expansion and it issues a challenge to stable notions of gender identity and artistic subjectivity.
Nature, Woman and Lyrical Ambiguity in Shen Congwen's Writing
Authors: Xiao Jiwei
Published: May 2013

Shen Congwen, one of the most accomplished modern Chinese writers, is known for his native-soil literary works. In this paper, I study the power and limits of the lyrical mode that characterizes his native-soil writings by making a connection between the aesthetics of nature and gender. I observe that Shen's poetic appropriation of nature and woman-as-nature allows him to create a sensuously decentralized and morally ambiguous lyricism that resists the pull of social realism, the key mode of the May-fourth literature. In many of his short stories, nature images not only help to accentuate vivid psychological activities of female characters, but also add layers of aesthetic unsettledness, opacity, and elasticity to the text. However, Shen's lyrical ambiguity, when examined through his gendered double perspectives of "imaginary femininity" and male authorial subjectivity, is not free of epistemic violence and contradictions that often afflict the narrative representations of the native Other. Shen formulates his (male) authorial subjectivity upon an essentialization of female body and sexuality. My reading of Shen's fiction Biancheng (Border Town) and his ethnographic essay "Fenghuang" ("Phoenix Town") shows that as the native woman becomes the spatial marker on the literary map of West Hunan, she is inscribed into the semiotic world of nature and non speech, unable to articulate her subjectivity as a historical and ethical being.
Ilustración interrumpida, independencia inacabada: Blanco White y El Español
Authors: MacDonald Lunden
Published: May 2013

Aprovechándose de la prensa periódica en Madrid y Sevilla de fines del siglo XVII y principios del XIX, José María Blanco y Crespo cuestionó abiertamente las estructuras socio-políticas de España y se acercó críticamente a los errores de pensamiento y de acción que se habían institucionalizado y que contribuyeron a la decadencia de la nación. Auto-exiliado después de este período turbulento y de la subsecuente invasión Napoleónica, el ahora nombrado Joseph Blanco White continuó sus esfuerzos periodísticos desde Inglaterra en El Español (1810-1814). El presente artículo traza el desarrollo del acercamiento crítico a la política llevado a cabo por Blanco y expresado mientras vivió en la Península, y descubre la plataforma ilustrada de democracia representativa y la visión moral-patriótica-restorativa que el autor describió en las páginas de El Español .
‘In Between the Fireflies’: Community art with senior women of chinese heritage around issues of culture, language and storytelling
Authors: Mcleod Heather , Ricketts Kathryn
Published: May 2013

Participants were empowered through their engagement in the process of two recent separate community art research projects that highlighted the benefits of dialogue in art-making and increased participation as facilitators ceded authority to participants. Both projects used ethnography
and narrative methods. The participants were senior women of Chinese heritage in Western Canada who could not fluently speak Canada’s dominant languages and some could not read or write in any language. Their involvement focused around issues of culture, language and storytelling. Reflecting
on the projects suggested new avenues of research to learn more distinctly about such empowerment, and facilitated our personal creative work. Based on this learning, we continue to develop new initiatives for the education of pre-service teachers that will involve possibilities for transformation
and the counter-hegemonic. Dialogue benefits art-making, and the possibilities for participation in creative community education projects are increased when planners surrender power to participants.
Interface Shear Strength Testing of Geogrid-Reinforced Construction and Demolition Materials
Authors: Arulrajah A. , Rahman M. A. , Piratheepan J. , Bo M. W. , Imteaz M. A.
Published: May 2013

The interface shear strength properties of geogrid-reinforced recycled construction and demolition (C&D) materials were determined in this research to assess the viability of using geogrid-reinforced C&D materials as alternative construction materials. The C&D materials investigated were recycled concrete aggregate (RCA), crushed brick (CB), and reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). Biaxial and triaxial geogrids were tested as the geogrid-reinforcement materials. The interface shear strength properties of the C&D materials were ascertained by using a large direct shear test (DST) equipment. Large-scale DST was conducted for unreinforced and geogrid-reinforced C&D materials. The interface peak and residual shear strength property of unreinforced and geogrid-reinforced RCA was found to be higher than that of CB and RAP. RAP was found to have the lowest interface shear strength properties of the C&D materials. The higher strength triaxial geogrids were found to attain higher interface shear strength properties than that of the lower strength biaxial geogrids. The DST results, however, indicated that the interface shear strength properties of the geogrid-reinforced C&D materials were less than that of the respective material without reinforcement. This can be attributed to the lack of interlock between the geogrids and the recycled C&D aggregates, as well as the current conventional testing method for DST that induces a shear plane at the boundary between the lower and upper boxes where the geogrid is placed. The unreinforced and geogrid-reinforced RCA, CB, and RAP were found to meet the peak and residual shear strength requirements for typical construction materials in civil engineering applications.
The Ventral Midline Thalamus Contributes to Strategy Shifting in a Memory Task Requiring Both Prefrontal Cortical and Hippocampal Functions
Authors: Cholvin Thibault , Loureiro Michaël , Cassel Raphaelle , Cosquer Brigitte , Geiger Karine , De Sa Nogueira David , Raingard Hélène , Robelin Laura , Kelche Christian , Pereira de Vasconcelos Anne , Cassel Jean-Christophe
Published: May 2013

Electrophysiological and neuroanatomical evidence for reciprocal connections with the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the hippocampus make the reuniens and rhomboid (ReRh) thalamic nuclei a putatively major functional link for regulations of cortico-hippocampal interactions. In a first experiment using a new water escape device for rodents, the double-H maze, we demonstrated in rats that a bilateral muscimol (MSCI) inactivation (0.70 vs 0.26 and 0 nmol) of the mPFC or dorsal hippocampus (dHip) induces major deficits in a strategy shifting/spatial memory retrieval task. By way of comparison, only dHip inactivation impaired recall in a classical spatial memory task in the Morris water maze. In the second experiment, we showed that ReRh inactivation using 0.70 nmol of MSCI, which reduced performance without obliterating memory retrieval in the water maze, produces an as large strategy shifting/memory retrieval deficit as mPFC or dHip inactivation in the double-H maze. Thus, behavioral adaptations to task contingency modifications requiring a shift toward the use of a memory for place might operate in a distributed circuit encompassing the mPFC (as the potential set-shifting structure), the hippocampus (as the spatial memory substrate), and the ventral midline thalamus, and therein the ReRh (as the coordinator of this processing). The results of the current experiments provide a significant extension of our understanding of the involvement of ventral midline thalamic nuclei in cognitive processes: they point to a role of the ReRh in strategy shifting in a memory task requiring cortical and hippocampal functions and further elucidate the functional system underlying behavioral flexibility.
Shh/Boc Signaling Is Required for Sustained Generation of Ipsilateral Projecting Ganglion Cells in the Mouse Retina
Authors: Sánchez-Arrones Luisa , Nieto-Lopez Francisco , Sánchez-Camacho Cristina , Carreres M. Isabel , Herrera Eloisa , Okada Ami , Bovolenta Paola
Published: May 2013

Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) signaling is an important determinant of vertebrate retinal ganglion cell (RGC) development. In mice, there are two major RGC populations: (1) the Islet2-expressing contralateral projecting (c)RGCs, which both produce and respond to Shh; and (2) the Zic2-expressing ipsilateral projecting RGCs (iRGCs), which lack Shh expression. In contrast to cRGCs, iRGCs, which are generated in the ventrotemporal crescent (VTC) of the retina, specifically express Boc, a cell adhesion molecule that acts as a high-affinity receptor for Shh. InBoc−/−mutant mice, the ipsilateral projection is significantly decreased. Here, we demonstrate that this phenotype results, at least in part, from the misspecification of a proportion of iRGCs. InBoc−/−VTC, the number of Zic2-positive RGCs is reduced, whereas more Islet2/Shh-positive RGCs are observed, a phenotype also detected inZic2andFoxd1null embryos. Consistent with this observation, organization of retinal projections at the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus is altered inBoc−/−mice. Analyses of the molecular and cellular consequences of introducingShhinto the developing VTC andZic2andBocinto the central retina indicate that Boc expression alone is insufficient to fully activate the ipsilateral program and that Zic2 regulatesShhexpression. Taking these data together, we propose that expression ofBocin cells from the VTC is required to sustain Zic2 expression, likely by regulating the levels of Shh signaling from the nearby cRGCs. Zic2, in turn, directly or indirectly, counteractsShhandIslet2expression in the VTC and activates the ipsilateral program.
Parallel Pathways for Cross-Modal Memory Retrieval inDrosophila
Authors: Zhang Xiaonan , Ren Qingzhong , Guo Aike
Published: May 2013

Memory-retrieval processing of cross-modal sensory preconditioning is vital for understanding the plasticity underlying the interactions between modalities. As part of the sensory preconditioning paradigm, it has been hypothesized that the conditioned response to an unreinforced cue depends on the memory of the reinforced cue via a sensory link between the two cues. To test this hypothesis, we studied cross-modal memory-retrieval processing in a genetically tractable model organism,Drosophila melanogaster. By expressing the dominant temperature-sensitiveshibirets1(shits1) transgene, which blocks synaptic vesicle recycling of specific neural subsets with theGal4/UASsystem at the restrictive temperature, we specifically blocked visual and olfactory memory retrieval, either alone or in combination; memory acquisition remained intact for these modalities. Blocking the memory retrieval of the reinforced olfactory cues did not impair the conditioned response to the unreinforced visual cues or vice versa, in contrast to the canonical memory-retrieval processing of sensory preconditioning. In addition, these conditioned responses can be abolished by blocking the memory retrieval of the two modalities simultaneously. In sum, our results indicated that a conditioned response to an unreinforced cue in cross-modal sensory preconditioning can be recalled through parallel pathways.
EPAC Inhibition of SUR1 Receptor Increases Glutamate Release and Seizure Vulnerability
Authors: Zhao Kunpeng , Wen Ruojian , Wang Xiaoxi , Pei Lei , Yang Ying , Shang You , Bazan Nicolas , Zhu Ling-Qiang , Tian Qing , Lu Youming
Published: May 2013

EPAC (Exchange Proteins Activated by cAMP) regulates glutamate transmitter release in the central neurons, but a role underlying this regulation has yet to be identified. Here we show that EPAC binds directly to the intracellular loop of an ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channel type-1 sulfonylurea receptor (SUR1) receptor consisting of amino acids 859–881 (SUR1859–881). Ablation of EPAC or expression of SUR1859–881, which intercepts EPAC-SUR1 binding, increases the open probability of KATPchannels consisting of the Kir6.1 subunit and SUR1. Opening of KATPchannels inhibits glutamate release and reduces seizure vulnerability in adult mice. Therefore, EPAC interaction with SUR1 controls seizure susceptibility and possibly acts via regulation of glutamate release.
Prefrontal Cholinergic Mechanisms Instigating Shifts from Monitoring for Cues to Cue-Guided Performance: Converging Electrochemical and fMRI Evidence from Rats and Humans
Authors: Howe William M. , Berry Anne S. , Francois Jennifer , Gilmour Gary , Carp Joshua M. , Tricklebank Mark , Lustig Cindy , Sarter Martin
Published: May 2013

We previously reported involvement of right prefrontal cholinergic activity in veridical signal detection. Here, we first recorded real-time acetylcholine release in prefrontal cortex (PFC) during specific trial sequences in rats performing a task requiring signal detection as well as rejection of nonsignal events. Cholinergic release events recorded with subsecond resolution (“transients”) were observed only during signal-hit trials, not during signal-miss trials or nonsignal events. Moreover, cholinergic transients were not observed for consecutive hits; instead they were limited to signal-hit trials that were preceded by factual or perceived nonsignal events (“incongruent hits”). This finding suggests that these transients mediate shifts from a state of perceptual attention, or monitoring for cues, to cue-evoked activation of response rules and the generation of a cue-directed response. Next, to determine the translational significance of the cognitive operations supporting incongruent hits we used a version of the task previously validated for use in research in humans and blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD)-functional magnetic resonance imaging. Incongruent hits activated a region in the right rostral PFC (Brodmann area 10). Furthermore, greater prefrontal activation was correlated with faster response times for incongruent hits. Finally, we measured tissue oxygen in rats, as a proxy for BOLD, and found prefrontal increases in oxygen levels solely during incongruent hits. These cross-species studies link a cholinergic response to a prefrontal BOLD activation and indicate that these interrelated mechanisms mediate the integration of external cues with internal representations to initiate and guide behavior.
Computational Inference Methods for Selective Sweeps Arising in Acute HIV Infection
Authors: Leviyang Sivan
Published: May 2013

During the first weeks of human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) infection, cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs) select for multiple escape mutations in the infecting HIV population. In recent years, methods that use escape mutation data to estimate rates of HIV escape have been developed, thereby providing a quantitative framework for exploring HIV escape from CTL response. Current methods for escape-rate inference focus on a specific HIV mutant selected by a single CTL response. However, recent studies have shown that during the first weeks of infection, CTL responses occur at one to three epitopes and HIV escape occurs through complex mutation pathways. Consequently, HIV escape from CTL response forms a complex, selective sweep that is difficult to analyze. In this work, we develop a model of initial infection, based on the well-known standard model, that allows for a description of multi-epitope response and the complex mutation pathways of HIV escape. Under this model, we develop Bayesian and hypothesis-test inference methods that allow us to analyze and estimate HIV escape rates. The methods are applied to two HIV patient data sets, concretely demonstrating the utility of our approach.
Assessing Genome-Wide Statistical Significance for Large p Small n Problems
Authors: Diao Guoqing , Vidyashankar Anand N
Published: May 2013

Assessing genome-wide statistical significance is an important issue in genetic studies. We describe a new resampling approach for determining the appropriate thresholds for statistical significance. Our simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach accurately controls the genome-wide type I error rate even under the large p small n situations.
A Continuous Method for Gene Flow
Authors: Palczewski Michal , Beerli Peter
Published: May 2013

Most modern population genetics inference methods are based on the coalescence framework. Methods that allow estimating parameters of structured populations commonly insert migration events into the genealogies. For these methods the calculation of the coalescence probability density of a genealogy requires a product over all time periods between events. Data sets that contain populations with high rates of gene flow among them require an enormous number of calculations. A new method, transition probability-structured coalescence (TPSC), replaces the discrete migration events with probability statements. Because the speed of calculation is independent of the amount of gene flow, this method allows calculating the coalescence densities efficiently. The current implementation of TPSC uses an approximation simplifying the interaction among lineages. Simulations and coverage comparisons of TPSC vs. MIGRATE show that TPSC allows estimation of high migration rates more precisely, but because of the approximation the estimation of low migration rates is biased. The implementation of TPSC into programs that calculate quantities on phylogenetic tree structures is straightforward, so the TPSC approach will facilitate more general inferences in many computer programs.
Asymptotic Distributions of Coalescence Times and Ancestral Lineage Numbers for Populations with Temporally Varying Size
Authors: Chen Hua , Chen Kun
Published: May 2013

The distributions of coalescence times and ancestral lineage numbers play an essential role in coalescent modeling and ancestral inference. Both exact distributions of coalescence times and ancestral lineage numbers are expressed as the sum of alternating series, and the terms in the series become numerically intractable for large samples. More computationally attractive are their asymptotic distributions, which were derived in Griffiths (1984) for populations with constant size. In this article, we derive the asymptotic distributions of coalescence times and ancestral lineage numbers for populations with temporally varying size. For a sample of size n, denote by Tm the mth coalescent time, when m + 1 lineages coalesce into m lineages, and An(t) the number of ancestral lineages at time t back from the current generation. Similar to the results in Griffiths (1984), the number of ancestral lineages, An(t), and the coalescence times, Tm, are asymptotically normal, with the mean and variance of these distributions depending on the population size function, N(t). At the very early stage of the coalescent, when t → 0, the number of coalesced lineages n − An(t) follows a Poisson distribution, and as m → n, n(n−1)Tm/2N(0) follows a gamma distribution. We demonstrate the accuracy of the asymptotic approximations by comparing to both exact distributions and coalescent simulations. Several applications of the theoretical results are also shown: deriving statistics related to the properties of gene genealogies, such as the time to the most recent common ancestor (TMRCA) and the total branch length (TBL) of the genealogy, and deriving the allele frequency spectrum for large genealogies. With the advent of genomic-level sequencing data for large samples, the asymptotic distributions are expected to have wide applications in theoretical and methodological development for population genetic inference.
Pigment Pattern Formation in the Guppy,Poecilia reticulata, Involves the Kita and Csf1ra Receptor Tyrosine Kinases
Authors: Kottler Verena A , Fadeev Andrey , Weigel Detlef , Dreyer Christine
Published: May 2013

Males of the guppy (Poecilia reticulata) vary tremendously in their ornamental patterns, which are thought to have evolved in response to a complex interplay between natural and sexual selection. Although the selection pressures acting on the color patterns of the guppy have been extensively studied, little is known about the genes that control their ontogeny. Over 50 years ago, two autosomal color loci, blue and golden, were described, both of which play a decisive role in the formation of the guppy color pattern. Orange pigmentation is absent in the skin of guppies with a lesion in blue, suggesting a defect in xanthophore development. In golden mutants, the development of the melanophore pattern during embryogenesis and after birth is affected. Here, we show that blue and golden correspond to guppy orthologs of colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor a (csf1ra; previously called fms) and kita. Most excitingly, we found that both genes are required for the development of the black ornaments of guppy males, which in the case of csf1ra might be mediated by xanthophore–melanophore interactions. Furthermore, we provide evidence that two temporally and genetically distinct melanophore populations contribute to the adult camouflage pattern expressed in both sexes: one early appearing and kita-dependent and the other late-developing and kita-independent. The identification of csf1ra and kita mutants provides the first molecular insights into pigment pattern formation in this important model species for ecological and evolutionary genetics.
Competition Between the Sperm of a Single Male Can Increase the Evolutionary Rate of Haploid Expressed Genes
Authors: Ezawa Kiyoshi , Innan Hideki
Published: May 2013

The population genetic behavior of mutations in sperm genes is theoretically investigated. We modeled the processes at two levels. One is the standard population genetic process, in which the population allele frequencies change generation by generation, depending on the difference in selective advantages. The other is the sperm competition during each genetic transmission from one generation to the next generation. For the sperm competition process, we formulate the situation where a huge number of sperm with alleles A and B, produced by a single heterozygous male, compete to fertilize a single egg. This “minimal model” demonstrates that a very slight difference in sperm performance amounts to quite a large difference between the alleles’ winning probabilities. By incorporating this effect of paternity-sharing sperm competition into the standard population genetic process, we show that fierce sperm competition can enhance the fixation probability of a mutation with a very small phenotypic effect at the single-sperm level, suggesting a contribution of sperm competition to rapid amino acid substitutions in haploid-expressed sperm genes. Considering recent genome-wide demonstrations that a substantial fraction of the mammalian sperm genes are haploid expressed, our model could provide a potential explanation of rapid evolution of sperm genes with a wide variety of functions (as long as they are expressed in the haploid phase). Another advantage of our model is that it is applicable to a wide range of species, irrespective of whether the species is externally fertilizing, polygamous, or monogamous. The theoretical result was applied to mammalian data to estimate the selection intensity on nonsynonymous mutations in sperm genes.