bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Development, not division: local versus external perceptions of the Niger–Nigeria boundary
Authors: Miles William F. S.
Published: June 2005

This article traces the evolution of the Nigérien–Nigerian boundary over the past 20 years. It focuses in particular on a single border crossing that separates two neighbouring Hausa villages of equivalent demographic size, administrative status, and economic importance. During the past two decades, border control, monitoring and surveillance have gradually intensified, resulting in the establishment of immigration and customs offices on the Nigerian side of the boundary and a douane (customs) post on the Nigérien side. However, local inhabitants do not view these changes in terms of ethnic partition or division. Rather, they see border control infrastructure positively, in terms both of development and national identity. For the border line Hausa, identity is not zero-sum: feeling more and more Nigérien/Nigerian does not result in diminution of their ‘Hausa-ness’. Post-9/11 international pressures to intensify border controls and monitoring in regions where Muslim extremists are thought to shelter highlight contradictions between indigenous and international conceptions of the African frontier.
Brain MRI abnormalities in schizophrenia: same genes or same environment?
Authors: RIJSDIJK F. V. , van HAREN N. E. M. , PICCHIONI M. M. , McDONALD C. , TOULOPOULOU T. , POL H. E. HULSHOFF , KAHN R. S. , MURRAY R. , SHAM P. C.
Published: June 2005

Background. Structural brain volume abnormalities are among the most extensively studied endophenotypes in schizophrenia. Bivariate genetic model fitting (adjusted to account for selection) was used to quantify the genetic relationship between schizophrenia and brain volumes and to estimate the heritability of these volumes.

Method. We demonstrated by simulation that the adjusted genetic model produced unbiased estimates for endophenotype heritability and the genetic and environmental correlations. The model was applied to brain volumes (whole brain, hippocampus, third and lateral ventricles) in a sample of 14 monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs concordant for schizophrenia, 10 MZ discordant pairs, 17 MZ control pairs, 22 discordant sibling pairs, three concordant sibling pairs, and 114 healthy control subjects.

Results. Whole brain showed a substantial heritability (88%) and lateral ventricles substantial common environmental effects (67%). Whole brain showed a significant genetic correlation with schizophrenia, whereas lateral ventricles showed a significant individual specific correlation with schizophrenia. There were significant familial effects for hippocampus and third ventricle, but the analyses could not resolve whether these were genetic or environmental in origin (around 30% each).

Conclusions. Using genetic model fitting on twin and sibling data we have demonstrated differential sources of covariation between schizophrenia and brain volumes, genetic in the case of whole brain volume and individual specific environment in the case of lateral ventricles.
Effects of psychotherapy on hippocampal volume in out-patients with post-traumatic stress disorder: a MRI investigation
Authors: LINDAUER RAMÓN J. L. , VLIEGER ERIK-JAN , JALINK MARGJE , OLFF MIRANDA , CARLIER INGRID V. E. , MAJOIE CHARLES B. L. M. , DEN HEETEN GERARD J. , GERSONS BERTHOLD P. R.
Published: June 2005

Background. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have especially reported smaller hippocampal volume in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), most of them war or sexual abuse victims. The present study compares the hippocampal volumes of out-patients with PTSD who had low co-morbidity rates to those of trauma-exposed control subjects without PTSD, and measures hippocampal volume changes in these patients after brief eclectic psychotherapy. We hypothesized that smaller hippocampal volumes are specific to PTSD and that hippocampal volume changes after effective psychotherapy would be measurable.

Method. Eighteen patients with PTSD and 14 traumatized control subjects were examined with MRI. In a randomized clinical trial, the PTSD patients were assigned to treatment (n=9) or waiting-list group (n=9). After the former received psychotherapy for 4 months, the MRI was repeated on both PTSD groups. Three temporal lobe structures were manually segmented: hippocampus, amygdala, and parahippocampal gyrus. Volumetric analysis was used to measure grey matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid.

Results. PTSD patients had significantly smaller hippocampal volumes at baseline (total 13·8%, right 13·5%, left 14·1%) compared to the control subjects. After effective psychotherapy, however, no volume changes were found in the smaller hippocampi.

Conclusions. We confirmed previous findings of smaller hippocampal volume in PTSD in a new population made up of out-patients who experienced different types of traumas, reducing co-morbidity to a minimum. Smaller hippocampal volumes did not change after effective psychotherapy, even while symptoms resolved.
Religion's evolutionary landscape: Counterintuition, commitment, compassion, communion
Authors: Atran Scott , Norenzayan Ara
Published: June 2005

Religion is not an evolutionary adaptation per se, but a recurring cultural by-product of the complex evolutionary landscape that sets cognitive, emotional, and material conditions for ordinary human interactions. Religion exploits only ordinary cognitive processes to passionately display costly devotion to counterintuitive worlds governed by supernatural agents. The conceptual foundations of religion are intuitively given by task-specific panhuman cognitive domains, including folkmechanics, folkbiology, and folkpsychology. Core religious beliefs minimally violate ordinary notions about how the world is, with all of its inescapable problems, thus enabling people to imagine minimally impossible supernatural worlds that solve existential problems, including death and deception. Here the focus is on folkpsychology and agency. A key feature of the supernatural agent concepts common to all religions is the triggering of an “Innate Releasing Mechanism,” or “agency detector,” whose proper (naturally selected) domain encompasses animate objects relevant to hominid survival – such as predators, protectors, and prey – but which actually extends to moving dots on computer screens, voices in wind, and faces on clouds. Folkpsychology also crucially involves metarepresentation, which makes deception possible and threatens any social order. However, these same metacognitive capacities provide the hope and promise of open-ended solutions through representations of counterfactual supernatural worlds that cannot be logically or empirically verified or falsified. Because religious beliefs cannot be deductively or inductively validated, validation occurs only by ritually addressing the very emotions motivating religion. Cross-cultural experimental evidence encourages these claims.
An evolutionary theory of schizophrenia: Cortical connectivity, metarepresentation, and the social brain
Authors: Burns Jonathan Kenneth
Published: June 2005

Schizophrenia is a worldwide, prevalent disorder with a multifactorial but highly genetic aetiology. A constant prevalence rate in the face of reduced fecundity has caused some to argue that an evolutionary advantage exists in unaffected relatives. Here, I critique this adaptationist approach, and review – and find wanting – Crow's “speciation” hypothesis. In keeping with available biological and psychological evidence, I propose an alternative theory of the origins of this disorder. Schizophrenia is a disorder of the social brain, and it exists as a costly trade-off in the evolution of complex social cognition. Paleoanthropological and comparative primate research suggests that hominids evolved complex cortical interconnectivity (in particular, frontotemporal and frontoparietal circuits) to regulate social cognition and the intellectual demands of group living. I suggest that the ontogenetic mechanism underlying this cerebral adaptation was sequential hypermorphosis and that it rendered the hominid brain vulnerable to genetic and environmental insults. I argue that changes in genes regulating the timing of neurodevelopment occurred prior to the migration of Homo sapiens out of Africa 100,000–150,000 years ago, giving rise to the schizotypal spectrum. While some individuals within this spectrum may have exhibited unusual creativity and iconoclasm, this phenotype was not necessarily adaptive in reproductive terms. However, because the disorder shared a common genetic basis with the evolving circuitry of the social brain, it persisted. Thus schizophrenia emerged as a costly trade-off in the evolution of complex social cognition.
Gods are more flexible than resolutions
Authors: Ainslie George
Published: June 2005

The target article proposes that “counterintuitive beliefs in supernatural agents” are shaped by cognitive factors and survive because they foster empathic concern and counteract existential dread. I argue that they are shaped by motivational forces similar to those that shape our beliefs about other people; that empathic concern is rewarded in a more elementary fashion; and that a major function of these supernatural beliefs may be to provide a more flexible alternative to autonomous willpower in controlling not only dread but also many other unwelcome urges.
Teleological perception without a biological perceiver?
Authors: Ohlmann Théophile , Amblard Bernard , Isableu Brice
Published: June 2005

Strong between- and within-animal differences during spatial activities lead us to claim that a given animal is directly sensitive to a given substructure of the global array. This vicarious subset is not cut out by the senses but by redundancies emerging from physical properties. We argue that the subset is not a single ambient array, or a combination of single ambient arrays, but a complex holistic part of the global array.
Counterfactuality in counterintuitive religious concepts
Authors: Barrett Justin L.
Published: June 2005

In sketching a preliminary scientific theory of religion, Atran & Norenzayan (A&N) generally agree with cognitive scientists of religion in the factors that coalesce to form religion. At times they misrepresent, however, the notion of “counterintuitive” concepts as they apply to religious concepts, confusing counterintuitive with counterfactual, category mistakes, and logical contradiction.
Underconstraint and overconstraint in psychiatry
Authors: Bezzubova Elena , Globus Gordon
Published: June 2005

Hallucination lies at an intriguing border between psychiatry and philosophy. Although Behrendt & Young (B&Y) tie their proposal to Kantian transcendental idealism, other philosophical positions are equally consistent. Cognition is underconstrained by reality not only in hallucination but also in autism and dreaming. Sensory underconstraint is insufficient to encompass schizophrenia. There is also a breakdown in integrative capacity on the cognitive side. From a wider clinical perspective than schizophrenia, there can be underconstraint or overconstraint in sensory and cognitive functionalities.
On the subject of perceptual illusions, and the ambiguity of perceptual information
Authors: Pedersen Arve Vorland , Sigmundsson Hermundur
Published: June 2005

Stoffregen & Bardy (S&B) make the point that the statement “I am moving” made by subjects in a “swinging room” cannot be explained as an illusion of motion, and there is thus no perceptual illusion. In this they are correct. There is in fact motion, but of the environment. We argue that the subjects misinterpret this because the information to the visual system is ambiguous and also deceiving.
Supernatural agents may have provided adaptive social information
Authors: Bering Jesse M. , Shackelford Todd K.
Published: June 2005

Atran & Norenzayan's (A&N's) target article effectively combines the insights of evolutionary biology and interdisciplinary cognitive science, neither of which alone yields sufficient explanatory power to help us fully understand the complexities of supernatural belief. Although the authors' ideas echo those of other researchers, they are perhaps the most squarely grounded in neo-Darwinian terms to date. Nevertheless, A&N overlook the possibility that the tendency to infer supernatural agents' communicative intent behind natural events served an ancestrally adaptive function.
Thalamocortical dysfunction and complex visual hallucinations in brain disease – Are the primary disturbances in the cerebral cortex?
Authors: Collerton Daniel , Perry Elaine
Published: June 2005

Applying Behrendt & Young's (B&Y's) model of thalamocortical synchrony to complex visual hallucinations in neurodegenerative disorders, such as dementia with Lewy bodies and progressive supranuclear palsy, leads us to propose that the primary pathology may be cortical rather than thalamic. Additionally, the extinction of active hallucinations by eye closure challenges their conception of the role of reduced sensory input.
Future research in cognitive science and religion
Authors: Bulkeley Kelly
Published: June 2005

From a religious studies perspective, Atran & Norenzayan (A&N) succeed in arguing for the influence of evolved cognitive functions in religious phenomena. To develop their argument further, four suggestions are offered: (1) Look beyond the ordinary to the extraordinary; (2) culture matters more than ever; (3) theists need not despair, atheists ought not celebrate; and (4) dreaming is a primal wellspring of religion.
Different religions, different emotions
Authors: Cohen Adam B. , Keltner Dacher , Rozin Paul
Published: June 2005

Atran & Norenzayan (A&N) correctly claim that religion reduces emotions related to existential concerns. Our response adds to their argument by focusing on religious differences in the importance of emotion, and on other emotions that may be involved in religion. We believe that the important differences among religions make it difficult to have one theory to account for all religions.
Threat, safeness, and schizophrenia: Hidden issues in an evolutionary story
Authors: Gilbert Paul
Published: June 2005

There is evidence that people with schizophrenia have difficulties in some (recently evolved) competencies for processing social information. However, a case can be made that vulnerabilities can also lie in (previously evolved) threat and safeness processing systems. Evolutionary models may need to consider interactions between genetic sensitivities, early experiences of threat/safeness, and later cognitive vulnerabilities. Psychological treatments must address issues of experienced threat and safeness before working on more cognitive competencies.
The embodied bases of supernatural concepts
Authors: Cornwell Brian R. , Barbey Aron K. , Simmons W. Kyle
Published: June 2005

According to embodied cognition theory, our physical embodiment influences how we conceptualize entities, whether natural or supernatural. In serving central explanatory roles, supernatural entities (e.g., God) are represented implicitly as having unordinary properties that nevertheless do not violate our sensorimotor interactions with the physical world. We conjecture that other supernatural entities are similarly represented in explanatory contexts.
Schizophrenia: A benign trait
Authors: Hardcastle Valerie Gray
Published: June 2005

While schizophrenia may be genetically determined up to a point, neither it nor its nearest relatives offer any sort of reproductive advantage to its sufferers. Instead, from an evolutionary point of view, schizophrenia is benign – it neither promotes nor inhibits survival to reproduction. Because it is benign, its rate of occurrence should remain fairly constant over time.
Consciousness and emotions are minimized
Authors: Fabrega, Jr. Horacio
Published: June 2005

In the case of religion, explanations based on emotion should be privileged over those based on “cold” cognition. The origins of religious beliefs are as critical to understanding religion as are the group phenomena which sustain them. In addition, religion's relationship to the growth of knowledge is neglected by the target authors. The balance between the costs and benefits of religion will vary depending upon the phase of an individual society's cultural evolution.
GAS doesn't “turn the engine” when states are sequential or context-dependent
Authors: Gabora Liane
Published: June 2005

Selection theory requires multiple, simultaneously-actualized states. In cognition, each thought changes the “selection pressure” against which the next is evaluated; they are not simultaneously selected amongst. Cognitive change occurs not through selection among discrete “neural configurations,” but through interaction between conceptual web and context. This introduces a non-Kolmogorovian probability distribution, hence a classical formalism (e.g., selection theory) cannot be used.
Paradoxical sleep and schizophrenia have the same neurobiological support
Authors: Gottesmann Claude
Published: June 2005

During the paradoxical dreaming sleep stage, characterized by hallucinations and delusions, as in schizophrenia, the increased subcortical release of dopamine, the presynaptic inhibition of thalamic relay nuclei, and serotonergic disinhibition are in accordance with the model for the mechanism of hallucination-induction.
The superstitions of everyday life
Authors: Hogan Robert
Published: June 2005

In this commentary I attempt to extend the argument made by Atran and Norenzayan in two ways. First, I distinguish between the causes and the consequences of religious belief and speculate on the positive and negative consequences of religion. Second, I raise some questions about individual differences in religiosity and suggest that the origins of nonbelief are worth investigating.
Hallucinations and antipsychotics: The role of the 5-HT2A receptor
Authors: Goudie Andrew James , Cole Jonathan Charles
Published: June 2005

Behrendt & Young's (B&Y's) novel “unifying model” of hallucinations, although comprehensive, fails to incorporate research into the possible role of 5-HT2A receptors in the mode of action of novel “atypical” antipsychotic drugs (which treat hallucinations effectively), and into the role of such receptors, which are located in thalamocortical circuits, in mediating drug-induced hallucinations.
Counterintuition, existential anxiety, and religion as a by-product of the designing mind
Authors: Kelemen Deborah
Published: June 2005

In arguing for religion as a side effect of everyday cognition, Atran & Norenzayan (A&N) provide useful analyses of the strengths of the “naturalness-of-religion” position over others; however, experimental shortcomings limit the contributions of their empirical work. A relevant addendum involves considering research on children's orientation to teleological explanations of natural phenomena, which suggests that relatively rich cognitive proclivities might underlie religious thought.
Hallucinations and nonsensory correlates of neural activity
Authors: Harris Kenneth D.
Published: June 2005

Behrendt & Young (B&Y) suggest that hallucinations occur as a result of decoupling of neuronal populations from sensory control. I propose that such a decoupling is in fact a constant feature of brain activity, even under nonpathological conditions. This position is justified by evidence from recent neurophysiological recording studies. I suggest that hallucinations arise because of a breakdown in segregation of internally and externally generated activity in a neuronal population.
The evolutionary social psychology of religious beliefs
Authors: Kirkpatrick Lee A.
Published: June 2005

Atran & Norenzayan (A&N) are correct that religion is an evolutionary by-product, not an adaptation, but they do not go far enough. Once supernatural beliefs are enabled by processes they describe, numerous social-cognitive mechanisms related to attachment, social exchange, coalitional psychology, status and dominance, and kinship are crucial for explaining the specific forms religion takes and individual and cultural differences therein.
A possible role for non-gamma oscillations in conscious perception: Implications for hallucinations in schizophrenia
Authors: Kirk Ian J.
Published: June 2005

Behrendt & Young (B&Y) propose a useful theoretical framework for the study of processes underlying perception and hallucinations. It focuses on gamma oscillations in thalamocortical networks and the role of the reticular thalamic nucleus in modulating these oscillations. I suggest that their theoretical model might also be applied to the investigation of temporal encoding deficits in disorders such as dyslexia. I further suggest, however, that a role for slower rhythms, such as theta, might also be considered when investigating perceptual experience.
An epistemological account of visual consciousness
Authors: Sparks Peter D. , Krieckhaus E. E.
Published: June 2005

O'Regan & Noë's (O&N's) explanation of our stream of experience as activities depends on their denial of that palpable, most real aspect of experience: what they call “qualitative experience.” Given the ontological primacy of the qualitative givenness of our experience and the complete absence of actions as experiences in our stream of consciousness, though, all such reductionistic attempts must fail.
Are the DTI results positive evidence for George Bernard Shaw's view?
Authors: Verleger Rolf , Lencer Rebekka
Published: June 2005

We discuss how Burns' conception may be further extended to integrate research on eye movement abnormalities, but then point to a contradiction between Burns' conception of schizophrenia as the genetic price for human social life and the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data, which constitute his central piece of evidence.
Toward a new scientific study of religion
Authors: Martin Luther H.
Published: June 2005

Atran & Norenzayan (A&N) have proposed a study of religion based in the cognitive sciences. Their final conclusions, however, incorporate functionalist definitions. Further, key features by which they characterize religion are not instantiated by some historical evidence. Nevertheless, the foci of their arguments are central to any study of religion and should provoke further research and experimentation along the lines suggested.
Deregulation of the balance between data and conceptually driven processing: A shift toward the conceptual
Authors: Meis Anthony C.
Published: June 2005

Behrendt & Young (B&Y) propose that a dysfunction in the reticular thalamic nucleus contributes to disinhibition of specific thalamic nuclei, allowing cortical attention mechanisms to engage thalamic relay neurons, causing underconstrained activation of the cortex and hallucinations. The following hypothesis challenges the notion of impaired sensory gating by providing the alternative view that hypofrontality reduces the power of incoming stimuli, causing internal drives to override consciousness, resulting in hallucinations.
Elaborating the social brain hypothesis of schizophrenia
Authors: Burns Jonathan Kenneth
Published: June 2005

I defend the case for an evolutionary theory of schizophrenia and the social brain, arguing that such an exercise necessitates a broader methodology than that familiar to neuroscience. I propose a reworked evolutionary genetic model of schizophrenia, drawing on insights from commentators, buttressing my claim that psychosis is a costly consequence of sophisticated social cognition in humans. Expanded models of social brain anatomy and the spectrum of psychopathologies are presented in terms of upper and lower social brain and top-down and bottom-up processes. Finally, I argue that cerebral asymmetry evolved as an emergent property of primary intrahemispheric reorganisation in hominoids.
Getting real about experience
Authors: Myin-Germeys Inez , Myin Erik
Published: June 2005

The idea that experience is essentially subjective rather than of the real world is paradoxical and deeply flawed. The external world is, much more than a mere constraint, essential to meaningfully describe experience and neural activity. This is illustrated by an analysis of the phenomenology of veridical perception and by the study of experience in psychopathology by the Experience Sampling Method (ESM).
Religion is neither costly nor beneficial
Authors: Pyysiäinen Ilkka
Published: June 2005

Some forms of religion may in some cases alleviate existential anxieties and help maintain morality; yet religion can also persist without serving any such functions. Atran & Norenzayan (A&N) are unclear about the importance of these functions for a theory of the recurrence of religious beliefs and behaviors.
Underconstrained thalamic activation + underconstrained top-down modulation of cortical input processing = underconstrained perceptions
Authors: Sarter Martin , Berntson Gary G.
Published: June 2005

Behrendt & Young's (B&Y's) theory offers a potentially important perspective on the neurobiology of schizophrenia, but it remains incomplete. In addition to bottom-up contributions, such as those associated with disturbances in sensory constraints on cognitive processes, a comprehensive model requires the integration of the consequences of abnormal top-down modulation of input processing for the evolution of “underconstrained” perceptions. Dysfunctional cholinergic modulation of input functions represents a necessary mechanism for the generation of false perceptions.
Schizophrenia: A disorder of affective consciousness
Authors: Schutter Dennis J. L. G. , van Honk Jack
Published: June 2005

Behrendt & Young (B&Y) propose an explanation for schizophrenia in terms of a cortical default in the interaction between consciousness and cognition. However, schizophrenia more likely involves miscommunication between subcortical and cortical affective circuits in the brain, a default in the interaction between consciousness and emotion. The typical “affective” nature of hallucinations in schizophrenia provides compelling evidence for subcortical involvement.
Cognition and communication in culture's evolutionary landscape
Authors: Schaller Mark
Published: June 2005

Atran & Norenzayan's (A&N's) analysis fits with other perspectives on evoked culture: Cultural beliefs might emerge simply from the fact that people share a common cognitive architecture. But no perspective on culture can be complete without incorporating the unstoppable role of communication. The evolutionary landscape of culture will be most completely mapped by theories that describe specifically how communication translates evolved cognitive canals into cultural beliefs.
Is religion adaptive?
Authors: Sosis Richard , Alcorta Candace
Published: June 2005

We argue that religious ritual's ability to facilitate communication and the pervasiveness of its basic characteristics across societies, as well as its precedence in other social species, suggests that religious behavior is more than a mere by-product. Religious constructs constitute associationally conditioned mnemonics that trigger neuroendocrine responses which motivate religious behaviors. The adaptive value of these constructs resides in their utility as memorable and emotionally evocative primes.
Brainstem-thalamic neurons implicated in hallucinations
Authors: Steriade Mircea
Published: June 2005

I propose that hyperactivity (or increased numbers) of neurons in the brainstem reticular core promote hallucinations by excessive excitation, coupled with disinhibition, of target thalamocortical neurons. This idea stems from animal experiments using kainate-induced overexcitation of midbrain reticular neurons leading to hallucinatory-type behavior during wakefulness, as well as from data in schizophrenic patients showing an increased number of neurons in mesopontine cholinergic neurons.
Agency, religion, and magic
Authors: Sperber Dan
Published: June 2005

Atran & Norenzayan (A&N) ask: “Why do agent concepts predominate in religion?” This question presupposes that we have a notion of religion that is (1) well enough defined, and (2) characterized independently of that of supernatural agents. I question these two presuppositions. I argue that “religion” is a family resemblance notion built around the idea of supernatural agency.
After the fall: Religious capacities and the error theory of morality
Authors: Stingl Michael , Collier John
Published: June 2005

The target article proposes an error theory for religious belief. In contrast, moral beliefs are typically not counterintuitive, and some moral cognition and motivation is functional. Error theories for moral belief try to reduce morality to nonmoral psychological capacities because objective moral beliefs seem too fragile in a competitive environment. An error theory for religious belief makes this unnecessary.
How is female mate choice affected by male competition?
Authors: Wong Bob B. M. , Candolin Ulrika
Published: June 2005

The plethora of studies devoted to the topics of male competition and female mate choice belie the fact that their interaction remains poorly understood. Indeed, on the question of whether competition should help or hinder the choice process, opinions scattered throughout the sexual selection literature seem unnecessarily polarised. We argue, in the light of recent theoretical and empirical advances, that the effect of competition on mate choice depends on whether it results in the choosy sex attaining high breeding value for total fitness, considering both direct and indirect fitness benefits. Specifically, trade‐offs may occur between different fitness benefits if some are correlated with male competitive ability whilst others are not. Moreover, the costs and benefits of mating with competitive males may vary in time and/or space. These considerations highlight the importance of injecting a life‐history perspective into sexual selection studies. Within this context, we turn to the sexual selection literature to try to offer insights into the circumstances when competition might be expected to have positive or negative implications for pre‐copulatory female choice. In this regard, we elaborate on three stages where competition might impact upon the choice process: (i) during mate detection, (ii) mate evaluation, and (iii) in dictating actual mating outcomes. We conclude by offering researchers several potentially rewarding avenues for future research.
THIRTY YEARS WITH AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
Authors: Glazer Nathan
Published: June 2005

Affirmative Discrimination: Ethnic Inequality and Public Policy(1975) criticized government policies requiring goals and timetables from federal contractors in order to implement affirmative action, arguing that this opposed the clear language of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 aiming at a color-blind society, was unnecessary, and threatened a full-scale Balkanization in employment procedures. It also criticized school busing and nascent programs to require publicly supported housing to reach some statistical goal in proportions of Black and White. In time, the author changed his position, as indicated in the introduction to the 1987 edition ofAffirmative Discrimination. In particular, he saw the virtue and necessity of race preference in admission to institutions of higher education, recognizing the degree to which slavery and discrimination had placed blacks in a unique position of disadvantage, and the imperative for a democratic society to incorporate in its leading institutions all major elements of the population.
Walter White and Passing
Authors: Janken Kenneth R.
Published: June 2005

Walter White, the blond, blue-eyed Atlantan, was a voluntary Negro,
that is, an African American who appears to be White but chooses to live
in the Black world and identify with its experiences. He joined the NAACP
national leadership in 1918 as assistant
secretary and became secretary in 1931, serving at this post until his
death in 1955. His tenure was marked by an effective public antilynching
campaign and organizational stability and growth during the Depression
years and by controversy over his leadership style. For him,
posing as a Caucasian—and then telling all who would listen about
his escapades—had three interrelated purposes. First, he developed
inside information about mob psychology and mob violence, publicity of
which was critical to the NAACP's campaign against lynching. Second,
White hoped to show Whites in particular the fallacy of racial
stereotyping and racial categorization. Third, by emphasizing the dangers
he courted—and even embellishing on them—he enhanced his
racial bona fides at key times when his Black critics called into question
his leadership.
FAMILY STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATIONAL POWER: A Multiracial/Ethnic Analysis of Women and Men
Authors: Smith Ryan A. , Elliott James R.
Published: June 2005

This study examines how dimensions of family structure, specifically marriage and parenthood, influence authority attainment among men and women of different racial and ethnic identities. Using survey data from the Multi-City Survey of Urban Inequality, we reach several empirical conclusions. First, the link between family structure and authority attainment is much stronger for women than men, and it revolves more strongly around marriage than parenthood. Second, while marriage decreases White women's odds of holding positions of higher authority, it increases these odds for Black women and Latinas. Third, this “marital bonus” for Black women is most pronounced in predominantly White work settings, allowing them to “play against” stereotypes of group members as single mothers. Fourth, and by contrast, the “marital bonus” for Latinas is strongest in predominantly Latina workplaces, suggesting that Latinas must conform to strong cultural expectations for marriage if they are to gain authority in ingroup work settings. These findings help to illuminate how race, ethnicity, and gender intersect to produce unique linkages between family structure and individual opportunities for organizational power.
“TRUE TO OUR NATIVE LAND”: Distinguishing Attitudinal Support for Pan-Africanism from Black Separatism
Authors: Spence Lester K. , Shaw Todd C. , Brown Robert A.
Published: June 2005

There have been several recent attempts to operationalize and measure empirically attitudinal support for Black nationalism. However, scholars have not yet reached a consensus as to what precisely constitutes Black nationalism and its manifestations. Our work addresses three critical questions. First, is Black nationalism a uni-dimensional or a multi-dimensional construct? Second, is Black nationalism another form of xenophobia? Third, is support for Black nationalism a function of time? Some scholars note that Black nationalism takes on the character of its material context and that it cannot be easily subsumed into a trans-historical ideology (Reed 2002; Robinson 2001). We indirectly test these hypotheses by examining the relationship between two components of Black nationalism—Black separatism and Pan-Africanism. To test these hypotheses, we analyze data from the 1979–1980 National Survey of Black Americans (NSBA). Overall, we establish the determinants of support for Black separatism and Pan-Africanism while distinguishing these ideologies' similarities and differences.
FEATURED ARTICLE: CONVENIENTLY BLACK: Self-Delusion and the Racial Exploitation of African America
Authors: Baugh John
Published: June 2005

Commentary on the Following Publications

McWhorter, John H.,Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America. New York: Free Press, 2000, 285 pages, ISBN 0 684 83669 6, $24.00.

McWhorter, John H.,Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority. New York: Gotham Books, 2003, 264 pages, ISBN 1 59240 001 9, $25.00.
DREAMIN' OF BLACK FREEDOM AND FIGHTING FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE
Authors: Ransby Barbara
Published: June 2005

Manning Marable, The Great Wells of Democracy: The
Meaning of Race in American Life. New York: Basic Books, 2002, 304
pages, ISBN: 0-456-04393-3, $27.50.

Robin D. G. Kelley, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical
Imagination. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2002, 248 pages, ISBN:
0-8070-0976-8, $24.00.
Aerosol optical depths and direct radiative perturbations by species and source type
Authors: Reddy M. Shekar , Boucher Olivier , Balkanski Yves , Schulz Michael
Published: June 2005

We have used the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique General Circulation Model (LMDZT GCM) to estimate the relative contributions of different aerosol source types (i.e., fossil fuels, biomass burning, and “natural”) and aerosol species to the aerosol optical depth (AOD) and direct aerosol radiative perturbation (DARP) at the top‐of‐atmosphere. The largest estimated contribution to the global annual average AOD (0.12 at 550 nm) is from natural (58%), followed by fossil fuel (26%), and biomass burning (16%) sources. The global annual mean all‐sky DARP in the shortwave (SW) spectrum by sulfate, black carbon (BC), organic matter (OM), dust, and sea salt are −0.62, +0.55, −0.33, −0.28, and −0.30 Wm−2, respectively. The all‐sky DARP in the longwave spectrum (LW) is not negligible and is a bit less than half of the SW DARP. The net (i.e., SW+LW) DARP distribution is predominantly negative with patches of positive values over the dust source regions, and off the west coasts of Southern Africa and South and North America. For dust aerosols the SW effect is partially offset by LW greenhouse effect.
Monitoring the response of vegetation phenology to precipitation in Africa by coupling MODIS and TRMM instruments
Authors: Zhang Xiaoyang , Friedl Mark A. , Schaaf Crystal B. , Strahler Alan H. , Liu Zhong
Published: June 2005

While temperature controls on vegetation phenology in humid temperate climates have been widely investigated, water availability is the primary limit on vegetation growth in arid and semiarid ecosystems at continental and global scales. This paper explores the response of vegetation phenology to precipitation across Africa from 2000 to 2003 using vegetation index data from the Moderate‐Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and daily rainfall data obtained from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). The results indicate that well‐defined thresholds exist in cumulative rainfall that stimulate vegetation green‐up in arid and semiarid regions of Africa. Therefore cumulative rainfall provides an appropriate criterion for determining the onset of the rainy season, which can be used to predict the onset of vegetation green‐up. Following the end of the rainy season, the onset of vegetation dormancy occurs with a lag of about 54 and 84 days in the Sahelian and sub‐Sahelian region and in southern Africa, respectively. Further, spatial patterns in vegetation phenology can be divided into three distinct regions in arid and semiarid ecosystems of Africa because of well‐defined patterns in rainfall seasonality. In response to rainfall patterns controlled by the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the Sahelian and sub‐Sahelian region, the timing of vegetation phenology shifts gradually in a north‐south direction at a rate of 0.12 d/km for green‐up onset and 0.05 d/km for dormancy onset. In contrast, patterns in vegetation phenology and rainfall seasonality are much more complex in southern Africa. The shift rates and trends in this region are consistent locally but vary abruptly across different ecosystems or climate regimes. Multiple annual cycles of vegetation growth closely follow rainy seasons in parts of the Greater Horn of Africa.
Charge structure and lightning sensitivity in a simulated multicell thunderstorm
Authors: Mansell Edward R. , MacGorman Donald R. , Ziegler Conrad L. , Straka Jerry M.
Published: June 2005

A three‐dimensional dynamic cloud model is used to investigate electrification of the full life cycle of an idealized continental multicell storm. Five laboratory‐based parameterizations of noninductive graupel‐ice charge separation are compared. Inductive (i.e., electric field‐dependent) charge separation is tested for rebounding graupel‐droplet collisions. Each noninductive graupel‐ice parameterization is combined with variations in the effectiveness of inductive charging (off, moderate, and strong) and in the minimum ice crystal concentration (10 or 50 L−1). Small atmospheric ion processes such as hydrometeor attachment and point discharge at the ground are treated explicitly. Three of the noninductive schemes readily produced a normal polarity charge structure, consisting of a main negative charge region with an upper main positive charge region and a lower positive charge region. Negative polarity cloud‐to‐ground (CG) flashes occurred when the lower positive charge (LPC) region had sufficient charge density to cause high electric fields. Two of the three also produced one or more +CG flashes. The other two noninductive charging schemes, which are dependent on the graupel rime accretion rate, tended to produce an initially inverted polarity charge structure and +CG flashes. The model results suggest that inductive graupel‐droplet charge separation could play a role in the development of lower charge regions. Noninductive charging, on the other hand, was also found to be capable of producing strong lower charge regions in the tests with a minimum ice crystal concentration of 50 L−1.
An analysis of the chemical processes in the smoke plume from a savanna fire
Authors: Trentmann Jörg , Yokelson Robert J. , Hobbs Peter V. , Winterrath Tanja , Christian Theodore J. , Andreae Meinrat O. , Mason Sherri A.
Published: June 2005

Photochemistry in young plumes from vegetation fires significantly transforms the initial fire emissions within the first hour after the emissions are injected into the atmosphere. Here we present an investigation of field measurements obtained in a smoke plume from a prescribed savanna fire during the SAFARI 2000 field experiment using a detailed photochemical box‐dilution model. The dilution used in the model simulations was constrained by measurements of chemically passive tracers (e.g., CO) near and downwind of the fire. The emissions of the dominant carbonaceous compounds, including oxygenated ones, were taken into account. The field measurements revealed significant production of ozone and acetic acid in the gas phase. The photochemical model simulations also predict ozone production, but significantly less than the measurements. The underestimation of the ozone production in the model simulations is likely caused by shortcomings of our current understanding of ozone photochemistry under the polluted conditions in this young smoke plume. Several potential reasons for this discrepancy are discussed. One possible cause could be the neglect of unmeasured emissions or surface reactions of NO2with methanol or other hydrocarbons. In contrast to the field measurements, no significant production of acetic acid was simulated by the model. We know of no gas‐phase reactions that cause the production of acetic acid on the timescale considered here. Though many processes were well‐simulated by the model, there is a need for further research on some key photochemical processes within young plumes from biomass burning and the potential interactions between gas and the particulate phases. These fundamental photochemical processes may also be of importance in other polluted environments.
Enhanced layer of black carbon in a north Indian industrial city
Authors: Tripathi S. N. , Dey Sagnik , Tare Vinod , Satheesh S. K. , Lal Shyam , Venkataramani S.
Published: June 2005

During a comprehensive aerosol field campaign as part of Indian Space Research Organization Geosphere Biosphere Programme (ISRO‐GBP), aircraft measurements of vertical profiles of aerosol black carbon (BC) were made during winter, for the first time, at Kanpur (80°20′E and 26°26′N), an urban industrial location in Northern India. Two vertical profiling from the same day (morning and afternoon) of BC showed that BC decreases with height up to ∼600 m and then increases up to 900 m before becoming more or less constant with height. Potential temperature profile, derived from concurrent measurements of temperature, shows a stable layer at the same altitude where BC shows increased concentration. This vertical structure of boundary layer was further confirmed by separate temperature and relative humidity profiles obtained from balloonsondes during December. The increased BC at ∼900 m suggests the presence of enhanced BC layer, which will have significant implications to BC radiative forcing and modifying cloud properties.
Burial rate of Mercury's polar volatile deposits
Authors: Crider Dana , Killen Rosemary M.
Published: June 2005

Delay Doppler images of Mercury's polar regions showing enhanced radar backscatter have been interpreted as evidence for water ice in the polar craters and are consistent with pure water ice covered by about 20 cm of regolith. In this paper we assume that the volatile at the Hermean poles is water ice, and that it was initially deposited at one time in a clean layer. We constrain the time of such an impact by determining the rate of regolith emplacement. The rate of burial of ice deposits in polar craters on Mercury is estimated to be 0.43 cm/Myr. If the ice deposits in Hermean polar craters are both clean and buried by 20 cm of regolith, they must be relatively recently emplaced, <50 Myr ago. The predicted H concentration in the uppermost meter of regolith is calculated as a function of both time since emplacement of the ice and initial thickness of the ice layer. The combination of neutron data and radar data can provide additional insight into the size and age of ice deposits at Mercury.
Multidecadal fluctuations of winter rainfall over southwest Western Australia simulated in the CSIRO Mark 3 coupled model
Authors: Cai Wenju , Shi Ge , Li Yun
Published: June 2005

Previous studies have suggested that the observed winter rainfall reduction since the late 1960s over southwest Western Australia (SWWA) is consistent with what is expected from greenhouse forcing but the relative importance of potential causes is not conclusive. Here, we investigate the possibility of the rainfall reduction being a part of multidecadal variability using outputs of the CSIRO Mark 3 climate model. We find that multidecadal‐long drying trends comparable to the observed exist in an experiment without climate change forcing. The model multidecadal‐long rainfall decline manifests as a reduction in high‐intensity rainfall events and is accompanied by an upward trend of the southern annular mode (SAM) with an increasing midlatitude mean sea level pressure (MSLP). Thus, multidecadal variability could primarily be responsible for the observed winter rainfall reduction, and could potentially superimpose on a greenhouse‐induced drying trend to generate an even greater reduction than what has been observed thus far.
Extraction of polar mesosphere summer echoes from SuperDARN data
Authors: Hosokawa K. , Ogawa T. , Arnold N. F. , Lester M. , Sato N. , Yukimatu A. S.
Published: June 2005

An algorithm for automated extraction of polar mesosphere summer echoes (PMSE) from near‐range measurements of the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) is applied to observations obtained by the Syowa East (69.01°S, 38.61°E) and Iceland East (63.77°N, −20.54°W) radars whose fields‐of‐view are magnetically conjugate. The rate of PMSE occurrence in the SuperDARN data is greatly enhanced in summer months, reaching a maximum of ≈90% in Iceland and 60% in Syowa near the summer solstice. The diurnal variation of PMSE occurrence reaches a maximum near the noon meridian, with a distinct minimum at 20LT. These features are consistent with those derived from previous VHF radar observations, suggesting that the SuperDARN data contain large numbers of PMSE events. The interhemispheric asymmetry of PMSE occurrence is also estimated, and it is shown that the PMSE activity is ≈1.5 times higher in the Northern Hemisphere (N.H.) than in the Southern Hemisphere (S.H.). Thus, interhemispheric asymmetry in PMSE occurrence appears to exist, but is much weaker than that predicted previously based on VHF radar observations.