bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Suppression of the GnRH Pulse Generator by Neurokinin B Involves a κ-Opioid Receptor-Dependent Mechanism
Authors: Grachev P. , Li X. F. , Kinsey-Jones J. S. , di Domenico A. L. , Millar R. P. , Lightman S. L. , O'Byrne K. T.
Published: September 2012

Neurokinin B (NKB) and its receptor (NK3R) are coexpressed with kisspeptin, Dynorphin A (Dyn), and their receptors [G-protein-coupled receptor-54 (GPR54)] and κ-opioid receptor (KOR), respectively] within kisspeptin/NKB/Dyn (KNDy) neurons in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus (ARC), the proposed site of the GnRH pulse generator. Much previous research has employed intracerebroventricular (icv) administration of KNDy agonists and antagonists to address the functions of KNDy neurons. We performed a series of in vivo neuropharmacological experiments aiming to determine the role of NKB/NK3R signaling in modulating the GnRH pulse generator and elucidate the interaction between KNDy neuropeptide signaling systems, targeting our interventions to ARC KNDy neurons. First, we investigated the effect of intra-ARC administration of the selective NK3R agonist, senktide, on pulsatile LH secretion using a frequent automated serial sampling method to obtain blood samples from freely moving ovariectomized 17β-estradiol-replaced rats. Our results show that senktide suppresses LH pulses in a dose-dependent manner. Intra-ARC administration of U50488, a selective KOR agonist, also caused a dose-dependent, albeit more modest, decrease in LH pulse frequency. Thus we tested the hypothesis that Dyn/KOR signaling localized to the ARC mediates the senktide-induced suppression of the LH pulse by profiling pulsatile LH secretion in response to senktide in rats pretreated with nor-binaltorphimine, a selective KOR antagonist. We show that nor-binaltorphimine blocks the senktide-induced suppression of pulsatile LH secretion but does not affect LH pulse frequency per se. In order to address the effects of acute activation of ARC NK3R, we quantified (using quantitative RT-PCR) changes in mRNA levels of KNDy-associated genes in hypothalamic micropunches following intra-ARC administration of senktide. Senktide down-regulated expression of genes encoding GnRH and GPR54 (GNRH1 and Kiss1r, respectively), but did not affect the expression of Kiss1 (which encodes kisspeptin). We conclude that NKB suppresses the GnRH pulse generator in a KOR-dependent fashion and regulates gene expression in GnRH neurons.
“So short a space of time”: Early Modern Convent Chronology and Carmelite Spirituality
Authors: Hallett Nicky
Published: September 2012

The representation of time in early modern spiritual self-writing has received little critical attention. This essay seeks to redress that neglect. It focuses on the conception of time in the writings of Carmelite nuns, considering English women’s formulations alongside those of the Discalced founder-reformer, Teresa de Jesus of Avila, whose ideas were themselves shaped in response to Augustine’s theories of temporality. The essay also draws on work by a range of philosophers, most particularly Auerbach, Kant, Kierkegaard, Kristeva, and Levinas. It concludes that early modern nuns’ writing casts new light on ideas of time in a period much-occupied with contentions between theologians and those engaged in empirical enquiry.
Roving Nuns and Cistercian Realities: The Cloistering of Religious Women in the Thirteenth Century
Authors: Jordan Erin L.
Published: September 2012

This article uses evidence from Cistercian abbeys in Flanders and Hainaut during the thirteenth century to reconsider the role of enclosure policies in shaping the experience of religious women. The frequency with which nuns appear in the charters outside of their cloisters, when combined with the developments in medieval spirituality that produced an array of lay religious groups during this period, suggests that Cistercian policy considered enclosure to be important symbolically more than pragmatically. Unlike Periculoso, the aim was never unilaterally to confine women to their cloisters. Revising our understanding of this legislation results in repositioning monastic women within the spiritual landscape of medieval Europe, and indicates that nuns in the high Middle Ages were not nearly as disadvantaged by gender expectations as previously believed. Further, it encourages us to question the presumed relationship between enclosure and the decline and eventual dissolution of so many nunneries in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Crumbs of News: Early Modern English Nuns and Royalist Intelligence Networks
Authors: Walker Claire
Published: September 2012

The wealth of recent scholarship on early modern English news culture has paid scant attention to women as consumers and producers of news. This article argues that women not only read about the tumultuous events of the Civil War and Interregnum, but that they participated in the collection, transmission, and interpretation of news. Abbess Mary Knatchbull of the Benedictine abbey in Ghent not only operated as the royalists’ postmistress in the 1650s, she also accessed reports from England about unfolding political events, which she passed on to the prince’s ministers. Much of this information was transmitted in correspondence, but the abbess also forwarded printed newsbooks and compiled manuscript newsletters for the royalists. This essay reveals how cloistered nuns engaged directly with the public sphere through their access to news, and how their receipt and transmission of intelligence cemented their position as valuable royalist agents in the 1650s.
Innovation and Spiritual Value in Medieval Monastic Art: The Case of the Main Narthex Portal at Vézelay
Authors: Low Peter
Published: September 2012

This essay explores the peculiar character of innovation in monastic art around 1100 CE, and what specially monastic concerns may have motivated this underacknowledged thirst for invention. It focuses on the relationship between the main portal at the Cluniac abbey of Vézelay, created in the early twelfth century, and a number of Anglo-Saxon manuscript illuminations, produced in the monastic scriptorium at Winchester in the tenth century. A careful examination of these works of art reveals that the makers of the portal at Vézelay, in a triangular process of creation, drew on the earlier Anglo-Saxon imagery as well as on a number of biblical texts, with the aim of creating something that celebrated tradition but that was also consciously new — something that by way of its originality would capture the attention of its audiences on both an aesthetic and an intellectual level, and thereby justify its presence in a monastic setting.
Feature-positive and feature-negative learning in honey bees
Authors: Abramson Charles I. , Cakmak Ibrahim , Duell Meghan E. , Bates-Albers Leah M. , Zuniga Enoc M. , Pendegraft Loma , Barnett Amanda , Cowo Carmen L. , Warren Joshua J. , Albritton-Ford Aaron C. , Barthell John F. , Hranitz John M. , Wells Harrington
Published: September 2012

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) were presented sequential trials where bees were given the choice between a feeding plate with one blue and two white circles, and one with three white circles. Each bee was tested under two different reward scenarios (treatments). During the feature-positive treatment bees received 4 μl of 2 M sucrose when choosing the feeding plate with one blue and two white circles, but received 4 μl of saturated NaCl solution when choosing the feeding plate with three white circles. During the feature-negative treatment bees were rewarded when visiting the feeding plate with three white circles, while visitation to the feeding plate with one blue and two white circles only offered bees the NaCl solution. As an experimental control a set of bees was offered sequential trials where both the feeding plate with one blue and two white circles, and the one with three white circles offered the sucrose reward. Bee feeding plate choice differed between the feature-positive and feature-negative treatment. Bees favored the feeding plate type with the sucrose reward in each treatment, and never consumed the NaCl solution when encountered in either treatment. Further, behavior of bees during both the feature positive and the feature negative treatments differed from that of control bees. However, neither feature positive nor feature negative learning reached high levels of success. When we tested bees using simply the choice of blue versus white targets, where one color held the sucrose reward and the other the salt water, a bee's fidelity to the color offering the sugar reward quickly reached very high levels.
Walking on smooth and rough ground: activity and timing of the claw retractor muscle in the beetlePachnoda marginata peregrina(Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae)
Authors: Bußhardt Philipp , Gorb Stanislav N.
Published: September 2012

The activity pattern of the claw retractor muscle of Pachnoda marginata peregrina beetles was examined in this study. We found this muscle to be located in the tibia, without a femoral part, as is the case in other insects. Electromyograms (EMGs) of the muscle revealed a rather similar activity pattern during beetle locomotion on rough and smooth substrates. We recorded units with small and large amplitude, with the smaller one being active during almost the entire stance phase, the larger one roughly in the first half of stance. Small but significant differences were found in the precise onset and end of activity. Both small and large units began their activity earlier on the rough surface. While there was no difference at the end of activity in the small unit between both surfaces, the large unit ended its activity significantly earlier on the rough substrate. The spike frequencies on both surfaces were also significantly different for both small and large units. The small unit showed a higher spike frequency on the smooth surface, while the large unit had a higher spike frequency on the rough surface. From our experiments, we conclude that the muscle is controlled by the same basic activity pattern on different surfaces, with some adjustments due to sensory feedback. The adjustments cause differences in onset and end of activity, as well as in spike frequency of the involved muscle units.
Protein-induced weight increase of the gastrointestinal tract of locusts improves net nutrient uptake via larger meals rather than more efficient nutrient absorption
Authors: Clissold Fiona J , Brown Zuben P , Simpson Stephen J
Published: September 2012

Increasing the tissue biomass and/or volume of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is commonly seen when animals feed on poor quality diets. This increase can simply permit larger meal sizes, but may also rebalance nutritionally imbalanced ingesta by allowing selective absorption of limiting nutrients. In an insect herbivore, the migratory locust, a synthetic diet with a high ratio of protein to carbohydrate was found to induce weight enhancement of the GIT. When normalized for sex and overall body size, increases to the mass of the foregut and midgut caeca resulted in higher absorption (20-30%) of both protein and carbohydrate when subsequently feeding on three chemically and structurally different grasses. Greater net absorption of macronutrients occurred because these locusts ate larger meals that transited at the same time and with the same digestive efficiency as locusts in which the GIT was not enlarged. Thus, plasticity of the GIT did not improve nutritional homeostasis, but increased the rate of nutrient uptake.
Study of Influence of Salt Additives on Mixed Reverse Micelles via Reverse Microemulsion Chromatography and UV–visible Spectroscopy
Authors: Chaladze Rusudan , Gvaramia Manuchar , Kurtanidze Manoni , Bezarashvili George , Rukhadze Marina
Published: September 2012

Reverse micellar mobile phases based on poly(oxyethylene) (4) lauryl ether (Brij 30) and sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT) were used as mobile phases in HPLC. The chromatographic behavior of the model compounds was studied on the basis of reverse micellar mobile phases modified by salt additives. The binding of o-nitroaniline (o-NA) to the micelles of Brij 30 was determined by UV–visible spectroscopy. The different influences of kosmotropic and chaotropic anions on the binding constant Kb was revealed. This may be controlled by the different arrangement of kosmotropic and chaotropic ions in the water core of reverse micelles.
Spontaneous Motion of a Belousov–Zhabotinsky Reaction Droplet Coupled with a Spiral Wave
Authors: Kitahata Hiroyuki , Yoshinaga Natsuhiko , Nagai Ken H , Sumino Yutaka
Published: September 2012

In our previous work, we reported that a droplet of a Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction medium moves in one direction and then in the opposite direction, when a chemical wave propagates spherically inside the droplet. In the present study, we report our new results on the continuous motion of the BZ droplet, i.e., on the rotational and repeated back-and-forth motion when a spiral wave and a scroll ring propagated inside the droplet, respectively.
Consumer Deliberation and Product Line Design
Authors: Guo Liang , Zhang Juanjuan
Published: September 2012

This paper studies optimal product line design when consumers need to incur costly deliberation to uncover their valuations for quality. To induce deliberation, a firm must maintain quality dispersion and cut the price of the high-end product so that consumers are motivated to deliberate in the hope that high-end consumption fits their needs. To prevent deliberation, the firm may have to offer downgraded quality at a low price so that an impulsive purchase will not appear too wasteful. Whether the firm should induce deliberation depends on how much surplus it creates by aligning the supply of quality with heterogeneous demand for quality and how much surplus it captures during this process. Interestingly, equilibrium firm profit, consumer surplus, and social welfare can all increase with the cost of deliberation. We extend the model to accommodate consumers' heterogeneous prior beliefs of their valuations for quality. We also discuss how market research could benefit from taking into account the endogeneity of consumer deliberation.
Organizational Economics of Capability and Heterogeneity
Authors: Argyres Nicholas S. , Felin Teppo , Foss Nicolai , Zenger Todd
Published: September 2012

For decades, the literatures on firm capabilities and organizational economics have been at odds with each other, specifically relative to explaining organizational boundaries and heterogeneity. We briefly trace the history of the relationship between the capabilities literature and organizational economics, and we point to the dominance of a “capabilities first” logic in this relationship. We argue that capabilities considerations are inherently intertwined with questions about organizational boundaries and internal organization, and we use this point to respond to the prevalent capabilities first logic. We offer an integrative research agenda that focuses first on the governance of capabilities and then on the capability of governance.
Organizing for Innovation in the Digitized World
Authors: Yoo Youngjin , Boland Richard J. , Lyytinen Kalle , Majchrzak Ann
Published: September 2012

Our era is one of increasingly pervasive digital technologies, which penetrate deeply into the very core of the products, services, and operations of many organizations and radically change the nature of product and service innovations. The fundamental properties of digital technology are reprogrammability and data homogenization. Together, they provide an environment of open and flexible affordances that are used in creating innovations characterized by convergence and generativity. An analysis of convergence and generativity observed in innovations with pervasive digital technologies reveals three traits: (1) the importance of digital technology platforms, (2) the emergence of distributed innovations, and (3) the prevalence of combinatorial innovation. Each of the six articles in this special issue relates to one or more of these three traits. In this essay, we explore the organizational research implications of these three digital innovation traits and identify research opportunities for organization science scholars. Examples from the articles in this special issue on organizing for innovation in the digitized world are used to demonstrate the kind of organizational scholarship that can faithfully reflect and inform innovation in a world of pervasive digital technologies.
Soluble polymer-supported organocatalysts
Authors: Yang Yun-Chin , Bergbreiter David E.
Published: September 2012

Organocatalysts have been extensively studied for the past few decades as alternatives to transition-metal catalysts. Immobilizing organocatalysts on polymer supports allows easy recovery and simple product purification after a reaction. Select examples of recent reports that describe the potential advantages of using soluble polymers to prepare soluble polymer-supported organocatalysts useful in organic synthesis are reviewed.
Social Interactions of Students with Disabilities Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication in Inclusive Classrooms
Authors: Chung Yun-Ching , Carter Erik W. , Sisco Lynn G.
Published: September 2012

The purpose of this study was to explore the naturally occurring social interactions for students with disabilities who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) in general education classrooms. We observed 16 students who used AAC and received services under the categories of autism or intellectual disability. Participants primarily interacted with their support personnel and infrequently conversed with peers despite often being in close proximity. Few interaction episodes were initiated by students who used AAC, and initiations to peers and adults appeared to serve somewhat different functions. Students with disabilities relied more heavily on facial expressions and gestures than on the use of their AAC devices. Recommendations for promoting interaction opportunities among students are offered, and future research directions are suggested.
Clinical and Genetic Correlates of Growth Differentiation Factor 15 in the Community
Authors: Ho Jennifer E , Mahajan Anubha , Chen Ming-Huei , Larson Martin G , McCabe Elizabeth L , Ghorbani Anahita , Cheng Susan , Johnson Andrew D , Lindgren Cecilia M , Kempf Tibor , Lind Lars , Ingelsson Erik , Vasan Ramachandran S , Januzzi James , Wollert Kai C , Morris Andrew P , Wang Thomas J
Published: September 2012

BACKGROUND

Growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15), a stress-responsive cytokine produced in cardiovascular cells under conditions of inflammation and oxidative stress, is emerging as an important prognostic marker in individuals with and without existing cardiovascular disease (CVD). We therefore examined the clinical and genetic correlates of circulating GDF15 concentrations, which have not been investigated collectively.

METHODS

Plasma GDF15 concentrations were measured in 2991 participants in the Framingham Offspring Study who were free of clinically overt CVD (mean age, 59 years; 56% women). Clinical correlates of GDF15 were examined in multivariable analyses. We then conducted a genomewide association study of the GDF15 concentration that included participants in the Framingham Offspring Study and participants in the PIVUS (Prospective Investigation of the Vasculature in Uppsala Seniors) study.

RESULTS

GDF15 was positively associated with age, smoking, antihypertensive treatment, diabetes, worse kidney function, and use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), but it was negatively associated with total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol. Clinical correlates accounted for 38% of interindividual variation in the circulating GDF15 concentration, whereas genetic factors accounted for up to 38% of the residual variability (h2 = 0.38; P = 2.5 × 10−11). We identified 1 locus of genomewide significance. This locus, which is on chromosome 19p13.11 and includes the GDF15 gene, is associated with GDF15 concentration (smallest P = 2.74 × 10−32 for rs888663). Conditional analyses revealed 2 independent association signals at this locus (rs888663 and rs1054564), which were associated with altered cis gene expression in blood cell lines.

CONCLUSIONS

In ambulatory individuals, both cardiometabolic risk factors and genetic factors play important roles in determining circulating GDF15 concentrations and contribute similarly to the overall variation.
Troponin I Measured by a High-Sensitivity Assay in Patients with Suspected Reversible Myocardial Ischemia: Data from the Akershus Cardiac Examination (ACE) 1 Study
Authors: Røsjø Helge , Kravdal Gunnhild , Høiseth Arne Didrik , Jørgensen Marit , Badr Pirouz , Røysland Ragnhild , Omland Torbjørn
Published: September 2012

BACKGROUND

Whether cardiac troponin concentrations are increased by reversible myocardial ischemia is controversial. Differences in the structure of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and cTnT may have implications for diagnostic utility.

METHODS

cTnI was measured with a prototype high-sensitivity (hs) assay in 198 patients referred for myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) before exercise stress testing, immediately after, and 1.5 and 4.5 h later. We categorized patients according to MPI results and compared hs-cTnI concentrations with hs-cTnT concentrations.

RESULTS

Baseline hs-cTnI was higher in patients with reversible myocardial ischemia (n = 19) vs the other patients (n = 179): median 4.4 (quartiles 1–3: 2.3–7.1) vs 2.5 (1.4–4.3) ng/L, P = 0.003. Baseline hs-cTnI and hs-cTnT concentrations were correlated (r = 0.46, P < 0.001) and the areas under the ROC curve for hs-cTnI and hs-cTnT in diagnosing reversible ischemia were similar: 0.71 vs 0.69, P = 0.77. Whereas hs-cTnI increased immediately after exercise (P < 0.001 vs baseline measurements) in patients without ischemia, it increased after 4.5 h in patients with reversible ischemia (P = 0.01). The increment in hs-cTnI concentrations was comparable between groups; thus, measuring hs-cTnI after exercise stress testing did not improve diagnostic accuracy over baseline measurements, and hs-cTnI concentrations were not found to be associated with reversible myocardial ischemia in multivariate analysis. By linear regression analysis, age, male sex, history of hypertension, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor use, and lower left ventricular ejection fraction were associated with higher baseline hs-cTnI concentrations.

CONCLUSIONS

In patients referred to MPI, hs-cTnI concentrations were not closely associated with reversible myocardial ischemia, but rather were influenced by variables associated with structural alterations of the myocardium.
Experimental Determination of Kinetic Parameters for the Removal of Ethylacetate and Xylene in a Biofilter
Authors: Viswanathan Saravanan , Rajasimman Manivasagan , Natarajan Rajamohan
Published: September 2012

The biofilter packed with pressmud and inoculated with activated sludge obtained from pharmaceutical industry wastewater treatment plant was employed for the removal of ethyl acetate and xylene in this study. The effect of process variables like gas flow rates (0.03, 0.06, 0.09 and 0.12 m3 h-1), inlet concentration of ethyl acetate (1.75, 3.0, 7.0 and 10.5 g.m-3) and xylene (0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 1.2. g.m-3) on the performance of biofilters was validated. The removal efficiency exceeded 97% for ethyl acetate at inlet concentrations up to 3.0 g.m-3 and 95% for xylene at inlet concentrations up to 0.4 g m-3. The maximum elimination capacity of 165 g m-3 h-1 and 66 g m-3 h-1 for the mixture of ethyl acetate and xylene were obtained. A steady state mathematical model was tested and proved to adequately describe the experimental results at the two operating regimes for both ethyl acetate and xylene.
Between Safety and Security: The Policy Challenges of Transporting Toxic Inhalation Hazards
Authors: Branscomb Lewis M. , Ellis Ryan N. , Fagan Mark
Published: September 2012

The transportation of hazardous materials is vital to the U.S. economy and inherently dangerous. In the decade since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, policymakers have struggled to confront the distinct safety and security challenges associated with hazardous materials transportation. Reducing the risks of “toxic inhalation hazards,” a dangerous subset of hazardous materials, from both accidents and intentional disruptions is an ongoing source of controversy. In this paper, we examine proposed risk mitigation measures and outline a policy program designed to reduce the risks associated with hazardous materials transportation. The analysis highlights the limitations and counterproductive nature of narrowly-targeted strategies exclusively designed to confront either safety or security, and emphasizes the importance of comprehensive risk-mitigation strategies.
Medical Response Capabilities to a Catastrophic Disaster: "House" or House of Cards?
Authors: Donahue Donald A. , Godwin Evelyn A. , Cunnion Stephen O.
Published: September 2012

Planning for a disaster is often influenced by the dual factors of perception of probabilities and current technology. Response design is built upon assumptions on the size, scope, and severity of the catastrophe. Yet, history documents myriad disasters that far surpassed even the direst predictions. Similarly, response mechanisms build upon what is in use at the time in terms of equipment, transportation, and employment. Current planning factors may prove inadequate to address a disaster of historical proportion. The authors offer a review of significant disasters as a measure of the potential scope of needed medical response and the inherent shortcomings therein. They call for a more comprehensive approach to medical response planning.
Aid-effectiveness and Donor Coordination from Paris to Busan: A Cambodian Case Study
Authors: Cameron Camille , Low Sally
Published: September 2012

Discussions of aid effectiveness have, since 2005, been dominated by the Paris Declaration process. The Paris principles were revisited in Accra in 2008 and, most recently, in Busan in December 2011 at the fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness. While it is too early to say what Busan’s significance will be, it is timely to take stock of the progress and shortcomings of the entire Paris Declaration process, of which Busan is a part. This paper contributes to that inquiry by considering aid-effectiveness principles and processes in a specific context: the law and justice sector in Cambodia. The evidence for our analysis comes from interviews with Cambodians and non-Cambodians - donors, government officials, aid workers, academics, and private citizens - conducted from 2008 to 2011. We find very limited success in the Paris Declaration process, confined mainly to a lessening of duplication and ‘donor chaos’. We explore the reasons for these modest results, including the fundamental flaw in aid-effectiveness discourse and activity of a too polite, if not naïve or even cynical assumption that donors and developing country governments are speaking the same political language. We identify and explore two challenges for the law and justice sector in Cambodia. The first is for donors to think about how to change the way they ‘do business’ and the second is how to achieve this in circumstances of weak local governance, institutions and political will. We conclude that, as donors regard the law and justice sector as high risk, most will be sorely challenged to live up to their Busan commitment to try to manage risk rather than avoid it.
The Next Generation of Science Standards: Implications for Biology Education
Authors: Bybee Rodger W.
Published: September 2012

The release of A Framework for K–12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas (NRC, 2012) provides the basis for the next generation of science standards. This article first describes that foundation for the life sciences; it then presents a draft standard for natural selection and evolution. Finally, there is a discussion of the implications of the new standards for biology programs in general and curriculum, instruction, and assessment in particular.
Issue-Oriented Science: Using Socioscientific Issues to Engage Biology Students
Authors: Lenz Laura , Willcox Maia K.
Published: September 2012

In today’s global society, with science and technology advancing at a rapid pace, issues about biological topics are common. A typical standards-based high school or general college-level biology classroom naturally lends itself to teaching issue-oriented science. In an issue-oriented classroom, students analyze and discuss personal, societal, and global issues that require an application of relevant scientific evidence. Learning in the context of issues can help engage students in higher-order thinking skills that will help them to become the scientifically literate citizens needed in the current global community.
Assessment of an ELISA Laboratory Exercise
Authors: Robinson David L. , Lau Joann M.
Published: September 2012

The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is a powerful immunological technique for quantifying small amounts of compounds and has been used in research and clinical settings for years. Although there are laboratory exercises developed to introduce the ELISA technique to students, their ability to promote student learning has not been thoroughly assessed. We found that a commercially available ELISA kit increased student performance on pre- and post-tests in three undergraduate college courses, especially in those taught to general-education students. Student confidence levels about ELISA methodology, as well as comfort level in performing the technique, increased significantly in both general- education and biology-major courses.
Plant Reproduction & the Pollen Tube Journey – How the Females Lure the Males
Authors: Lorbiecke René
Published: September 2012

The growth of pollen tubes is one of the most characteristic events in angiosperm reproduction. This article describes an activity for visualizing the journey and guidance of pollen tubes in the reproductive structures of a flowering plant. The activity uses a semi-in vivo system with rapid-cycling Brassica rapa, also known as Fast Plants. Isolated ovules were used to attract pollen tubes that were triggered to grow through explants of female flower parts. The activity provides insight into the in vivo situation of plant reproduction, appealing visual results, and the development of science process skills.
Unusual and Typical Features of a NovelRestorer-of-FertilityGene of Sugar Beet (Beta vulgarisL.)
Authors: Matsuhira Hiroaki , Kagami Hiroyo , Kurata Masayuki , Kitazaki Kazuyoshi , Matsunaga Muneyuki , Hamaguchi Yuko , Hagihara Eiki , Ueda Minoru , Harada Michiyo , Muramatsu Aki , Yui-Kurino Rika , Taguchi Kazunori , Tamagake Hideto , Mikami Tetsuo , Kubo Tomohiko
Published: September 2012

Male gametogenesis in plants can be impaired by an incompatibility between nuclear and mitochondrial genomes, termed cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS). A sterilizing factor resides in mitochondria, whereas a nuclear factor, Restorer-of-fertility (Rf), restores male fertility. Although a majority of plant Rf genes are thought to encode a family of RNA-binding proteins called pentatrico-peptide repeat (PPR) proteins, we isolated a novel type of Rf from sugar beet. Two BACs and one cosmid clone that constituted a 383-kbp contig covering the sugar beet Rf1 locus were sequenced. Of 41 genes borne by the contig, quadruplicated genes were found to be associated with specific transcripts in Rf1 flower buds. The quadruplicated genes encoded a protein resembling OMA1, a protein known from yeast and mammals to be involved in mitochondrial protein quality control. Construction of transgenic plants revealed that one of the four genes (bvORF20) was capable of restoring partial pollen fertility to CMS sugar beet; the level of restoration was comparable to that evaluated by a crossing experiment. However, the other genes lacked such a capability. A GFP-fusion experiment showed that bvORF20 encoded a mitochondrial protein. The corresponding gene was cloned from rf1rf1 sugar beet and sequenced, and a solitary gene that was similar but not identical to bvORF20 was found. Genetic features exhibited by sugar beet Rf1, such as gene clustering and copy-number variation between Rf1 and rf, were reminiscent of PPR-type Rf, suggesting that a common evolutionary mechanism(s) operates on plant Rfs irrespective of the translation product.
Die erste Rezeption russischer Opern in Italien: Ein Leben für den Zaren in Mailand
Authors: Ottomano Vincenzina
Published: September 2012

A Life for the Tsar by Michail Glinka was staged on 20 May 1874 at the Teatro dal Verme in Milan. The paper discusses the impact this opera had on the Italian public, including some of the echoes in the foreign press. The style and dramaturgical content of Glinka’s masterpiece sparked off an authentic querelle which was similar to — indeed perhaps even more violent than — the one caused by Wagner’s operas, which were also receiving their first hearings in Italy. The increasingly frequent staging of operas from the Slavic repertoire brought to the fore a fundamental problem in this transition period. The insinuation of an extraneous element — which in the case of Italy immediately found a casus belli in Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar — necessarily meant acknowledging the inescapable crisis of everything which had heretofore been confined within national borders or had relied on a substantially Euro-centric viewpoint.
Politics, music and cosmopolitism: the operatic output of Joseph Poniatowski (1816–1873) in its social and political contexts
Authors: Golianek Ryszard
Published: September 2012

Joseph (Giuseppe or Józef) Poniatowski (1816–1873), Polish prince, singer, opera composer and politician, spent all his life abroad: firstly in Italy, then in France and, finally, in England. His artistic output comprises twelve operas composed between 1839 and 1872; nine of them to Italian and three to French texts. Being an amateur composer, he notwithstanding succeeded in staging his operas in many operatic theatres of renown, including La Scala, Covent Garden, Teatro San Carlo, Teatro La Fenice and the Paris Opéra. The paper presents the composer’s output in the social and political contexts of his times. Prince Poniatowski started his international career as a plenipotentiary minister of Tuscany in Paris, London and Brussels; then he settled down in Paris and became a French citizen and even a French senator. He enjoyed the close friendship of Napoleon III with whom he went into exile to England after the Sedan defeat. In all of his three domiciles he presented his operas to the audiences. However, as shown by the press reviews, their reception changed from appreciation to indifference, which was caused by the different political and social backgrounds in the particular countries.
The evolution of the idea of ‘National’ as a multi-level construct within 19th-century Croatian musical culture
Authors: Tuksar Stanislav
Published: September 2012

The idea of ‘national’ in Croatian 19th-century music shows evolutionary tendencies, which can be articulated in four phases. It started in the period 1800–1830 as a construct leading towards higher general musical standards, displaying universality above particularity as its ideal. It continued in the period 1830–1850 with pragmatic treatment of music as incidental to poetry, supporting non-musical, mostly political issues, where universality equaled particularity. It achieved in the period 1850–1870 the status of a substantial part in the scholarly re-construction of national history, still equaling universality with particularity. Finally, as a concept of ethnic or national art music, it reached in the period 1870–1916 a status of general interest in national cultural life and education, displaying particularity above universality.
Die opern von Ivan Zajc zwischen nationalismus und Panslawismus
Authors: Katalinić Vjera
Published: September 2012

Ivan Zajc (Rijeka/Fiume, 1832 — Zagreb, 1914), a composer and teacher, came to Zagreb in 1870, after his schooling in Milan, and operetta career in Vienna. His task was: 1) to establish a permanent opera ensemble within the National Theatre, 2) to prepare and perform a standard operatic repertoire, and 3) to create Croatian national operas. The article deals with a segment of his operatic output in the sphere of national music, articulated in his national-historic trilogy (Mislav, Ban Leget and Nikola Šubić Zrinjski), but also in a “merry folk opera” Zlatka, and some elements can be traced in his later work Primorka. The article deals also with his three operas (Lizinka, Pan Tvardovski, Gospodje i husari), where the composer (together with his librettists) tried to approach pan-Slavic ideas. The discussed elements are the changes in ideological directions of these operas, their plots and their musical presentation, as well as opinions of both the composer and his librettists, and the reception of these works performed in Zagreb are discussed.
Music and Italian National Identity: Mme de Staël’s Corinne ou l’Italie
Authors: Piperno Franco
Published: September 2012

Mme De Staël’s Corinne ou l’Italie (1807) offered the most influential statement on Italy and the Italians by a foreign writer in 19th-century Europe. It gives a fruitful opportunity to investigate what a 19th-century foreign writer thought both of Italian music and of music as a symbol of the Italian national identity. The overview of the Italian operatic repertoire and opera productions leads to the conclusion that Italy as a nation was substantially absent from the operatic scene while, on the contrary, the Italian society made of opera the most typical entertainment and of the ‘palchetto’ an unavoidable status symbol. A similar picture of Italian society and opera is already outlined in De Staël’s novel, which created a ‘Romantic’ myth of Italy and a portrait of Italian ‘musicality’ as a typical and essential element of Italy’s cultural identity and as a substitute of a still lacking political identity of that nation. The paper investigates the cultural and philosophical origin of this view of Italian musical culture and its impact on the European perception of Italy as a nation during the 19th century.
Ein Genie des Ertragens. Zur Zweihundertjahrfeier Ferenc Erkels
Authors: Tallián Tibor
Published: September 2012

An apprisal of the life and activities of Ferenc Erkel (1810–1893), founder of the genre and institution of Hungarian national opera.
National identity, national music and popular music in the Italian Music Press during the long 19th century
Authors: Tedesco Anna
Published: September 2012

Discusses the notions of national identity, national music and popular music as they emerged in Italian music periodicals during the years 1840–1890, in relation to the process of Italy’s political unification and the dissemination of foreign operas such as French grands opéras in the years 1840–1870 and Wagner’s Musikdramen from 1871 on. Essays and articles by relevant critics and musicians, such as Abramo Basevi and Francesco D’Arcais are discussed. Articles by lesser known journalists such as Pietro Cominazzi and Mattia Cipollone are also taken into account. The use of words like “national” and “popular” is analysed when referring to Italian opera, to its history and to the operas by foreign composers.
Deutsche Nationalidole in der italienischen Oper des 19. Jahrhunderts
Authors: Grempler Martina
Published: September 2012

Freedom fighters and national heroes frequently appeared on the operatic stage of the 19th century. Rossini used the story of Wilhem Tell, Verdi composed an opera about Jeanne D’Arc, the national heroine of France, and in La battaglia di Legnano Emperor Barbarossa figures as the incarnation of the menace for the Italians’ longing for freedom, exerted through centuries by the sovereigns of German-speaking countries. The article deals with Italian operas about personalities of German history who had special importance in the national discourse of their own country. In particular it focuses on the historical characters of Arminius and Charlemagne, already present on the operatic stage in the 17th century. Their representation underwent essential modifications in the age of the Risorgimento.
Die deutsche monumentale Oper nach Wagner
Authors: Loos Helmut
Published: September 2012

Opera is an exceedingly multiform and multilayered genre which has in its disposition as Gesamtkunstwerk not only to meet the most varied artistic demands, but which because of the great spiritual and pecuniary expenditure necessary for its production, also takes a highly exposed position in the sociocultural environment of its birth and performance. As courtly opera it served the representation and increase of dynastic glory, in the guise of the German Singspiel it strengthened bourgeois self-esteem and as rescue opera it compensated collective anxiety states. The early romantic claim of music to be considered as Kunstreligion was transferred to opera by Richard Wagner who as Ludwig van Beethoven’s self-appointed heir catapulted himself in the position of a Führer of the bourgeois society with the aim to give through his works trend-setting impulses for its further development. His adaptations of German myths exerted a dominating influence and have found a diversified following. As componists of monumental operas are primarily to be named August Bungert, Felix von Weingartner, Felix Draeseke, Max von Schillings, Cyrill Kistner and last but not least Richard Strauss.
Die Erkel-Werkstatt. Die Anfänge einer Arbeitsteilung in der Komposition
Authors: Kim-Szacsvai Katalin
Published: September 2012

The question of external collaboration in the working out of Ferenc Erkel’s operatic scores had been raised as early as 1861, after the premiere of Bánk bán, but only one hundred years later were the autographs subjected by László Somfai to a critical assessment. His findings induced him to determine Act 2 of the celebratory opera Erzsébet, premiered in 1857, as the first work in which Erkel in part delegated the task of orchestration to his friend Franz Doppler. Dezső Legánÿ later attempted to date the beginning of the “Erkel Workshop” into the year 1844 when Erkel first tried his hand at the then new genre of népszínmü (folk-play). The present paper invalidates Legánÿ’s surmise and on the basis of a meticulous analysis of newly discovered drafts illuminates to which degree and with what method Erkel, then as always pressed for time, was helped out by Doppler in the orchestration of Erzsébet.
Aïda’s French premiere at the Opéra in 1880
Authors: Profio Alessandro
Published: September 2012

Nine years after its creation in Cairo and eight after the European premiere at La Scala, Aida was produced at the Paris Opéra for the first time on 22 April 1880, in a French translation by Camille du Locle and Charles Nuitter. Verdi himself conducted the first performances. This significant derogation, that was refused to Wagner at the time of Tannhäuser (1861), was contrary to the performance traditions of the Opéra, and drew the attention of the habitués. The artistic ocurrence of the premiere became one of the more relevant society events of the year, and its political dimension determined the reception of the work. Verdi himself was conscious of the advantages and the disadvantages of this situation. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to refuse the proposition of the Opéra without causing a diplomatic incident. From the standpoint of the music, the critical reception, too, was oriented by political reflections about the “nation” and “national music.” The question, why did the Opéra open its doors to an Italian work, which kept distant from the French tradition, even though the original version had been translated and modified in some parts, emerged in a few writings. The paper will set the reception of the opera in an aesthetical context that the book by Gustave Bertrand, Les nationalités musicales étudiées dans le drame lyrique (Paris: Didier, 1872) had provided.
Jewish nationalism in opera
Authors: Filler Susan
Published: September 2012

From the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe supported the development of musical theater in Yiddish. Given the difficulties of life in the shtetl, comprising isolation from non-Jewish neighbors, limited educational opportunities, poverty and political oppression, Yiddish opera functioned as a statement of Jewish nationalism. In this paper, I will discuss the historical conditions under which it was presented, including the following factors: effect of folk music styles documented in the field research of ethnomusicologists in Eastern Europe; topicality of subject matter in Yiddish opera as definition of the growing Jewish nationalist political movement; and identity and background of important composers and performers of the genre, and the effect of emigration to the United States on the style and content of their work.
Ödön Mihalovich: Toldi szerelme (Toldis Liebe). Eine ungarische Oper vom Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts
Authors: Szerzô Katalin
Published: September 2012

On 18 March 1893 the opera Toldi by Ödön (Edmund von) Mihalovich (1842–1929) was premiered at the Royal Hungarian Opera House in Budapest. Three month later Ferenc Erkel, founder and single most important composer of the Hungarian national opera died. One of the funeral speeches at his burial was held by Mihalovich. This gesture was meant as a symbolic mounting of the guard on the national operatic scene. However, Toldi, written on a libretto based on Toldi szerelme (Toldi’s Love), the middle epic of János Arany’s Toldi trilogy, proved to be unsuccesful. It was staged again as Toldi’s Love in 1895 after a thorough revision. One cannot overlook the fact that in the newly composed third act Mihalovich wanted to write the loyalist counterpart of the conflictuous third act in Erkel’s Bánk bán. The paper discusses the question whether the first and only opera on a Hungarian text by the solid Wagnerite Mihalovich could at the time fulfil the official national expectations and become the representative national opera of the Millennium, that is, the Thousand Year Jubilee of the Carpathian Basin’s conquest by the Hungarian tribes, celebrated in 1896.
The Makings of Good Science: Epistemology and Ethics
Authors: NEVO ISAAC YANNI
Published: September 2012

In this paper, I argue that while scientific knowledge is both an intrinsic and an instrumental good, good science does not consist in maximizing such knowledge without regard to anything else. Rather, like the good life, or the good society, good science requires a careful weighing and balancing of knowledge as a value and the values of a free society, including the rule of law, the inviolability of human rights, and the constraints of social justice. Science is, and should be, committed to knowledge and truth, but a science committed only to knowledge and truth is a hostage to fortune, and may find itself, at every turn, allied with inhumanity and injustice, ultimately undermining, thereby, the very possibility of a free society and of free inquiry along with it. Various historical cases of morally tainted scientific knowledge are brought up and discussed along these lines.