bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Taylor Approximations for Model Uncertainty within the Tweedie Exponential Dispersion Family
Authors: Alai Daniel H. , Wüthrich Mario V.
Published: December 2009

The use of generalized linear models (GLM) to estimate claims reserves has become a standard method in insurance. Most frequently, the exponential dispersion family (EDF) is used; see e.g. England, Verrall. We study the so-called Tweedie EDF and test the sensitivity of the claims reserves and their mean square error of predictions (MSEP) over this family. Furthermore, we develop second order Taylor approximations for the claims reserves and the MSEPs for members of the Tweedie family that are difficult to obtain in practice, but are close enough to models for which claims reserves and MSEP estimations are easy to determine. As a result of multiple case studies, we find that claims reserves estimation is relatively insensitive to which distribution is chosen amongst the Tweedie family, in contrast to the MSEP, which varies widely.
Asymptotic Ruin Probabilities of the Lévy Insurance Model under Periodic Taxation
Authors: Hao Xuemiao , Tang Qihe
Published: December 2009

Recently, Albrecher and his coauthors have published a series of papers on the ruin probability of the Lévy insurance model under the so-called loss-carry-forward taxation, meaning that taxes are paid at a certain fixed rate immediately when the surplus of the company is at a running maximum. In this paper we assume periodic taxation under which the company pays tax at a fixed rate on its net income during each period. We devote ourselves to deriving explicit asymptotic relations for the ruin probability in the most general Lévy insurance model in which the Lévy measure has a subexponential tail, a convolution-equivalent tail, or an exponential-like tail.
Plasma Surface Modification of Nickel Titanium Shape Memory Alloys
Authors: Wai-Kwok Yeung Kelvin , MC Cheung Kenneth , Dip-Kei Luk Keith , Wu Shuilin , Liu Xuanyong , Chu Chenglin , Yuan Chung Chi , Kim-Ho Chu Paul
Published: December 2009

Nickel-titanium (NiTi) shape memory alloys are very potential for surgical implantation due
to two unique properties: super-elasticity and shape memory effect. These advantages cannot be seen
in current biomedical metallic materials such as medical grade titanium alloys and stainless steels.
However, nickel ion release remains a major concern particularly for large implants placed on the
spine or joints, as fretting is always expected at such implant junctions. Therefore, an advanced surface
treatment using plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) technology to tackle this issue
Evaluation of In Vivo Toxicity of Carbon Nanotubes in Zebrafish
Authors: Cheng Jinping , Han Cheng Shuk
Published: December 2009

The potential widespread use of nanomaterials has led to a strong concern about the impact of these new
nanomaterials on human health and the environment. The exposure pathways, in vitro cytotoxicity, pulmonary and
respiratory toxicity and biodistribution of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) will be reviewed in the first part of this chapter.
Once CNTs are produced cheaply in large amounts, they will be used more widely around the world, and profoundly
influence the aquatic environment and aquatic species as a consequence. The second part of this chapter will discuss
zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a powerful and versatile in vivo model system in the toxicology research of
nanomaterials. The widespread habitat of this fish species makes them an ideal model to study the ecological
consequence of nanomaterials being discharged in large quantities in the aquatic system. The zebrafish is also a
widely used model organism of human development and diseases, making them an excellent model to study
biocompatibility of nanomaterials being introduced inside the vertebrate bodies. The impact of CNTs on the aquatic
environment was investigated by examining the properties of pristine CNTs under several environmental conditions
with developing zebrafish embryos. The in vivo biodistribution and long term effects were further studied using
purified and chemically modified CNTs by introducing them into the 1-cell stage embryonic cell and the circulation
system of the transparent zebrafish embryos. The study suggests that extensive purification and functionalization
processes can help improve the biocompatibility of CNTs.
Association Between a CTGF Gene Polymorphism and Systemic Sclerosis in a French Population
Authors: GRANEL BRIGITTE , ARGIRO LAURENT , HACHULLA ERIC , FAJARDY ISABELLE , WEILLER PIERRE-JEAN , DURAND JEAN-MARC , FRANCES YVES , DOMBEY ANNE-MARIE , MARQUET SANDRINE , LESAVRE NATHALIE , DISDIER PATRICK , BERNARD FANNY , HATRON PIERRE-YVES , CHEVILLARD CHRISTOPHE
Published: December 2009

Objective.

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a life-threatening autoimmune disease characterized by chronic fibrosis of the skin and internal organs. Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) is believed to be a primary mediator of chronic fibrosis. We assessed the possible association between 7 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the CTGF gene and scleroderma in a French population (registration number 2006/0182).

Methods.

We conducted a case-control study with 241 scleroderma patients and 269 controls. Seven SNP were genotyped using the TaqMan system. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed. In silico electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction analyses were done to assess the effect of the SNP on CTGF gene expression.

Results.

The frequency of the rs9399005TT genotype was significantly lower in SSc patients than in controls. This association remained significant after adjustment for gender. An association was detected between the rs9399005 and the diffuse and limited cutaneous forms. Multivariate analysis between SSc patients and controls taking into account all 7 SNP and sex revealed that only sex and the rs9399005 SNP were associated with disease. DNA analysis by EMSA indicated that the T allele bound nuclear factors that were also bound by the C allele. The binding affinity was higher for the T allele. Analysis of the human database and experiments with human hepatocyte cell line indicated the existence of an alternative transcript containing the rs9399005 polymorphism in its 3’UTR region. In silico analysis indicated that this polymorphism may alter the structure of CTGF messenger RNA.

Conclusion.

These findings suggest that CTGF gene polymorphisms may contribute to susceptibility to scleroderma.
Rezensionen
Authors: Zehrt-Liebendörfer Christine , Frick Holger , Schnetzer Marc-Adrien , Szpiro George G.
Published: December 2009

Rezensionen zu:
P.R. Girard:
Quaternions, algèbre de Clifford et physique relativiste
. 184 Seiten, SFr 70.00. Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes PPUR, Lausanne, 2004; ISBN 2-88074-606-X,
von Christine Zehrt-Liebendörfer;
und zu:
J.B. Tyler:
Why Size Matters. From Bacteria to Blue Whales
. 161 Seiten mit 35 Abb., ca. sFr. 30.–. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, 2006; ISBN 0-691-12850-2,
von Holger Frick;
und zu:
D.G. Luenberger.
Information Science
. 448 pages, € 81.57. Princeton University Press, 2006; ISBN 0-69112418-3,
von Marc-Adrien Schnetzer;
und zu:
R. Taschner:
Zahl, Zeit, Zufall. Alles Erfindung?
Mit einem Vorwort von Daniel Kehlmann. 187 Seiten, sFr 38.90. Ecowin-Verlag, Salzburg, 2006; ISBN 3-9024-0444-2,
von George Szpiro.
Rezensionen
Authors: Stocker Hj. , Schneebeli H.R. , Leuenberger Chr.
Published: December 2009

Rezensionen zu:
U.-P. Tietze, M. Klika, H. Wolpers (Hrsg.):
Mathematikunterricht in der Sekundarstufe II. Bd
. 1: Fachdidaktische Grundfragen – Didaktik der Analysis. xiv + 348 Seiten, sFr. 52.50; ISBN 3-528-16766-1. Bd. 2: Didaktik der Analytischen Geometrie und Linearen Algebra. xiv + 293 Seiten, sFr. 40.30; ISBN 3-528-06767-5. Bd. 3: Didaktik der Stochastik. xviii + 319 Seiten, sFr. 42.00; ISBN 3-528-06999-6. Vieweg, Wiesbaden, 2000/2002,
von Hj. Stocker;
und zu:
L. Lovász, J. Pelikán, K. Vesztergombi:
Discrete Mathematics, Elementary and Beyond
. ix + 290 Seiten, sFr. 68.50. Springer, Berlin u.a. 2003; ISBN 0-387-95585-2,
von H.R. Schneebeli;
und zu:
Steven G. Krantz:
Mathematical Apocrypha. Stories and Anecdotes of Mathematicians and the Mathematical
. xiii + 214 Seiten, $ 32.95. Mathematical Association of America, 2002; ISBN 0-88385-539-9,
von Chr. Leuenberger.
Rezensionen
Authors: Wegmann Daniel , Szpiro George G.
Published: December 2009

Rezensionen zu:
S. Raychaudhuri:
Computational Text Analysis for Functional Genomics and Bioinformatics
. 312 Seiten, ca. sFr. 70.–. Oxford University Press, New York, 2006; ISBN 0-1985-6741-3,
von Daniel Wegmann;
und zu:
M. Mashaal: Bourbaki.
A Secret Society of Mathematicians
. 260 Seiten, $ 29.00. American Mathematical Society, 2006; ISBN 0-8218-3967-5,
von George Szpiro.
Gonadal apoptosis during sex reversal of the rice field eel: implications for an evolutionarily conserved role of the molecular chaperone heat shock protein 10
Authors: He Yan , Shang Xuan , Sun Junhua , Zhang Lei , Zhao Wei , Tian Yihao , Cheng Hanhua , Zhou Rongjia
Published: December 2009

Role of apoptosis in gonadal transformation of the rice field eel remains unknown. Here we report characterization of apoptotic pattern of testis, ovary, and ovotestis of the rice field eel, a vertebrate with natural sex reversal characteristic. DNA laddering assay showed typical ladder with step around 200 bp in the gonads, especially in testis. Terminal transferase dUTP nick end labeling on gonads indicated obvious apoptotic signals in the seminiferous tubules. Western blot analysis revealed that pro‐apoptotic genes, Caspase 9 and p53, were upregulated and anti‐apoptotic factor Bcl2 was downregulated in testis compared with both ovary and ovotestis. These data indicated that sex reversal process is accompanied by gonadal apoptosis with the highest proportion of cell death in the testis. Furthermore, we identified the Hsp10 by differentially screening of testis, ovary, and ovotestis using microarray technique, which is evolutionarily conserved and differentially expressed during gonadal transformation. Downregulation of Hsp10 is consistent with high apoptosis during the gonadal transformation. Flow cytometry assay confirmed that Hsp10 inhibits the apoptosis in male gonadal cells. Moreover, upregulation and mis‐localization at sub‐cellular level of the HSP10 together with its partner HSP60 is associated with tumorigenesis in human testis. These results suggest that downregulation of Hsp10 would be one of the main causes of apoptosis in testis, overexpression of Hsp10 suppresses apoptosis, and potentially results in testis tumorigenesis, which provide clues for understanding the mechanisms of germ cell apoptosis. Development of Hsp10 as a diagnostic marker or even treatment target will be promising in testis cancer diagnosis and therapy. J. Exp. Zool. (Mol. Dev. Evol.) 314B:257–266, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Resection margins and other prognostic factors regarding surgically treated glottic carcinomas
Authors: Karatzanis Alexander D. , Waldfahrer Frank , Psychogios George , Hornung Joachim , Zenk Johannes , Velegrakis George A. , Iro Heinrich
Published: December 2009

Background and Objectives

This study aims to assess the prognostic significance of free histopathologic margins in the surgical treatment of glottic cancer. Furthermore, it evaluates other prognostic factors regarding cases that receive surgical management for glottic lesions.

Methods

A retrospective case‐series study was conducted at an academic tertiary referral center. The files of 1,314 cases that underwent primary surgical treatment for glottic cancer were studied. Various prognostic factors, including age, surgical procedure, T classification, N classification, histological grade, and status of margins were assessed in univariate and multivariate analyses. All variables were investigated for their association with local and regional disease control as well as disease specific and overall survival.

Results

Status of margins significantly affected disease specific survival and local control regardless of tumor stage in this series. All other variables assessed in the univariate analysis for their association with survival were also found to be significant. However, status of surgical margins and N classification were the only significant variables in multivariate analysis.

Conclusion

The prognostic value of negative surgical margins for the treatment of glottic cancer cannot be overestimated. Responsibility of the surgeon during primary surgical treatment of glottic carcinomas is emphasized. J. Surg. Oncol. 2010;101:131–136. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Explicit integration of bounding surface model for the analysis of earthquake soil liquefaction
Authors: Andrianopoulos Konstantinos I. , Papadimitriou Achilleas G. , Bouckovalas George D.
Published: December 2009

This paper presents a new plasticity model developed for the simulation of monotonic and cyclic loading of non‐cohesive soils and its implementation to the commercial finite‐difference code FLAC, using its User‐Defined‐Model (UDM) capability. The new model incorporates the framework of Critical State Soil Mechanics, while it relies upon bounding surface plasticity with a vanished elastic region to simulate the non‐linear soil response. Stress integration of constitutive relations is performed using a recently proposed explicit scheme with automatic error control and substepping, which so far has been employed in the literature only for constitutive models aiming at monotonic loading. The overall accuracy of this scheme is evaluated at element level by simulating cyclic loading along complex stress paths and by using iso‐error maps for paths involving change of the Lode angle. The performance of the new constitutive model and its stress integration scheme in complex boundary value problems involving earthquake‐induced liquefaction is evaluated, in terms of accuracy and computational cost, via a number of parametric analyses inspired by the successful simulation of the VELACS centrifuge Model Test No. 2 studying the lateral spreading response of a liquefied sand layer. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Sexual functioning in long‐term survivors of Hodgkin's lymphoma
Authors: Recklitis Christopher J. , Sanchez Varela Veronica , Ng Andrea , Mauch Peter , Bober Sharon
Published: December 2009

Objective: Studies of Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) survivors have reported long‐term adjustment problems including sexual dysfunction, but the prevalence and persistence of sexual problems in HL survivors have not been well characterized. This study aimed to address these questions by comparing sexual health in a large cohort of long‐term HL survivors with a noncancer control group.

Methods: A mailed survey including questions about current sexual problems and sexual satisfaction was completed by 465 HL survivors and 205 sibling controls. Survivors ranged from 20 to 82 years (median=44) and were treated ⩾7 years prior (median=18).

Results: Sexual problems were commonly reported by HL survivors, with 54.2% reporting decreased sexual activity and 41.4% reporting decreased interest. When survivors' current sexual functioning was compared with the control group, however, no differences were found, and overall sexual satisfaction was positive in both groups. Among survivors, age was not associated with sexual problems but had a small significant negative association with satisfaction (ρ=−0.12; p<0.05). No associations between time since diagnosis, disease stage, and chemotherapy treatment and sexual functioning were found.

Conclusions: Consistent with previous studies, HL survivors reported high rates of current sexual problems. However, no differences in sexual problems or sexual satisfaction were found between survivors and controls. Results indicate that over the long term, survivors' sexual functioning does not differ from noncancer controls. Findings underscore the importance of including healthy control groups to determine whether difficulties reported by cancer survivors can be attributed to cancer treatment. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Gastric Clipping for Morbid Obesity: The Initial Results of a Clinical Trial
Authors: Chao Seh‐Huang
Published: December 2009

Objective

We inaugurated a clinical trial using laparoscopic gastric clipping to treat morbid obesity patients. We report the 2‐year results.

Design

Ten patients with morbid obesity underwent laparoscopic gastric clipping to promote weight loss. A novel metallic clip was applied to the outside wall of the upper fundus of the stomach by a laparoscopic technique. The clip allowed a restricted passage of meals through a mucosa tunnel 0.4–0.6 cm in diameter.

Measurements

The body weight and feeding status of the patients were monitored periodically. Barium meal studies at 1 day and 2 years after the clipping were compared.

Results

Ten patients (3 men, 7 women) with body weight of 117 ± 18.2 kg (101.8–156.5) and body mass index (BMI) 43.4 ± 5.2 (40–56) were included. The gastric clips were successfully applied laparoscopically in all patients. The operation time ranged from 65 to 210 minutes and showed a learning curve. The excess body weight loss was progressive and long lasting postoperatively. The mean BMI and percentage of excess body weight loss at the 2‐year period was 32.01 ± 4.89 kg/m2 and 64.4%, respectively. The mean BMI 2 years after surgery was significantly decreased compared with that before surgery. Barium meal studies did not show significant sliding or migration of the clips at 2‐year follow‐up. No mortality or late complications occurred.

Conclusions

Our results indicate that laparoscopic gastric clipping is a safe, simple, and effective treatment for patients with morbid obesity.
The role of crown architecture, leaf phenology and photosynthetic activity in promoting complementary use of light among coexisting species in temperate forests
Authors: Ishii Hiroaki , Asano Shoko
Published: December 2009

Mixed forests comprising multiple tree species with contrasting crown architectures, leaf phenologies, and photosynthetic activity, tend to have high ecosystem productivity. We propose that in such forests, differentiation among coexisting species in their spatial and temporal strategies for light interception, results in complementary use of light. Spatial differentiation among coexisting tree species occurs as a result of adaptation of crown architecture and shoot/leaf morphology to the spatially variable light conditions of the canopy, sub‐canopy, and understory. Temporal differentiation occurs as a result of variation in leaf phenology and photosynthetic activity. The arrangement of leaves in both space and time is an important aspect of plant strategies for light interception and determines photosynthetic carbon gain of the plant canopy. For example, at the shoot level, morphological and phenological differentiation between long and short shoots reflects their respective shoot functions, indicating that spatial and temporal strategies for light interception are linked. Complementary use of light is a consequence of the spatiotemporal differentiation in light interception among coexisting species. Because coexisting species may show differentiation in strategies for resource acquisition (functional diversification) or convergence with respect to some limiting resource (functional convergence), the relative importance of various crown functions and their contribution to growth and survival of individuals need to be evaluated quantitatively and compared among coexisting species.
Managing Mental Health Conditions in Primary Care Settings
Authors: Hackley Barbara , Sharma Chanchal , Kedzior Angela , Sreenivasan Shared
Published: December 2009

Depression is one of the most commonly encountered conditions in women's health, but many providers lack the knowledge and skills needed to identify and manage depression in primary care settings. This article discusses strategies that can improve the identification and treatment of depression. In addition, it describes how these strategies were incorporated into an urban inner‐city health center. These strategies used in this setting can be adapted for use in either comprehensive health care centers or in practices providing primarily obstetric and gynecologic services.
Generalized Riemann Problems in Computational Fluid Dynamics
Authors: Ben-Artzi Matania , Falcovitz Joseph
Published: December 2009

Numerical simulation of compressible, inviscid time-dependent flow is a major branch of computational fluid dynamics. Its primary goal is to obtain accurate representation of the time evolution of complex flow patterns, involving interactions of shocks, interfaces, and rarefaction waves. The Generalized Riemann Problem (GRP) algorithm, developed by the authors for this purpose, provides a unifying 'shell' which comprises some of the most commonly used numerical schemes of this process. This 2003 monograph gives a systematic presentation of the GRP methodology, starting from the underlying mathematical principles, through basic scheme analysis and scheme extensions (such as reacting flow or two-dimensional flows involving moving or stationary boundaries). An array of instructive examples illustrates the range of applications, extending from (simple) scalar equations to computational fluid dynamics. Background material from mathematical analysis and fluid dynamics is provided, making the book accessible to both researchers and graduate students of applied mathematics, science and engineering.
Algorithms on Strings
Authors: Crochemore Maxime , Hancart Christophe , Lecroq Thierry
Published: December 2009

The book is intended for lectures on string processes and pattern matching in Master's courses of computer science and software engineering curricula. The details of algorithms are given with correctness proofs and complexity analysis, which make them ready to implement. Algorithms are described in a C-like language. The book is also a reference for students in computational linguistics or computational biology. It presents examples of questions related to the automatic processing of natural language, to the analysis of molecular sequences, and to the management of textual databases.
Java Frameworks and Components
Authors: Nash Michael
Published: December 2009

This book is a practical tool for Java programmers. It provides the necessary information for them to be able to find, evaluate and select an application framework suitable to their needs. It explains in plain language the benefits of frameworks and component technologies, specifically in relation to web application development. The book is unique in that it does not focus on any specific technology, yet at the same time uses examples from several different frameworks to explain the underlying principals. This gives it a broad appeal to developers that are not sure which framework is right for their purpose, while at the same time making it a practical tool. Application frameworks are large often very complex tools that many developers do not yet fully understand. This means they cannot take advantage of the substantial benefits such a technology can bring to their development project - they often are re-inventing the wheel repeatedly. As the market for web applications begins its second wave, this book provides the critical information for developers to make the transition into componentized framework-based development, keeping them ahead in an increasingly competitive market. An emphasis on quality and globalization is maintained throughout, as these factors become essential in new projects.
Emergency Sedation and Pain Management
Authors: Burton John H. , Miner James
Published: December 2009

Procedural sedation and analgesia represents one of the great advances in the maturation of emergency medicine as a discrete speciality within medicine. Once the exclusive domain of the anesthesiologist, sedation and pain management procedures are now a routine part of all emergency department practices. Emergency Sedation and Pain Management is a comprehensive medical text addressing emergency sedation and analgesia with specific emphasis on treatment of the emergency department patient. The easily accessible, clinically oriented format allows the reader fast and efficient access to the key points in each chapter. The text presents a clinical approach to the treatment of pain in emergency patients, including pediatric and adult populations. Analgesia, sedation, and anesthetic techniques are presented in an informative, authoritative, and concise format - written and edited by physicians with extensive research as well as clinical emergency medicine expertise. The chapters are richly supplemented with tables, photographs, and step-by-step illustrations.
Extreme Prematurity
Authors: Miller Geoffrey
Published: December 2009

Extreme Prematurity examines the controversial issues surrounding the clinical management of this group of neonates by the intervention of modern neonatal intensive care. The foregoing of life-sustaining treatment is of particular importance. The subject matter is very relevant because of the alarming increase in multiple and preterm births, due to the increase in women who are undergoing assisted reproductive procedures, and the large increase in premature labor. No recent book covers the subject in such comparable breadth. The first section of this very timely monograph covers the epidemiology and practices in different parts of the world; the second section covers bioethics considerations, including ethical theories, moral principles and quality of life issues; the third section covers national and international guidelines; the last section covers medical law aspects in the US and around the world.
Exchange Rate Volatility, Trade, and Capital Flows under Alternative Exchange Rate Regimes
Authors: Sercu Piet , Uppal Raman
Published: December 2009

Recent years have seen a substantial increase in the volatility of exchange rates. This trend has prompted economists and finance analysts to question if the observed behaviour of exchange rates is consistent with a rational model. Does that volatility hinder trade? What are financial markets' effects on countries' investment decisions, and how would changes in fixed exchange rates affect growth and welfare? What are the requirements to make such changes feasible? Professors Sercu and Uppal examine these issues in the context of dynamic general equilibrium models, explicitly considering the role of financial markets while allowing for commodity markets to be segmented across countries. They show that the theoretical models for exchange rates in this context are quite different from those put forth by monetary theorists and proponents of purchasing power parity arguments.
The Limits of Royal Authority
Authors: MacKay Ruth
Published: December 2009

In what is sometimes called the age of absolutism, Castilian nobles and commoners, tribunes and towns, were to a considerable degree able to resist and shape royal commands. Whereas there was little open conflict, there was sometimes a surprising degree of autonomy, rights and reciprocity on the part of the king's vassals. This is a study of one such form of resistance: the opposition to military levies. This opposition took place during a period of crisis, during the 1630s and 1640s, when the Crown's need to raise an army came into conflict with a notion of kingship that was far from absolute. From the king's advisory councils to parliament, from city councils and seigneurial estates, to the most humble villages, Castilians had recourse to a wide range of political and juridictional means with which to dispute the king's claims and avoid conscription.
The Story of an African Famine
Authors: Vaughan Megan
Published: December 2009

This account of the 1949 famine in colonial Malawi employs a wide variety of historical sources, ranging from Colonial Office documentation to the songs of women who lived through the tragedy. The analysis of the causes and development of the famine takes the reader through a detailed agricultural and social history of Southern Malwai in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing in particular on the nature of social and economic stratification, changes in kinship systems and the position of women and placing all this within the wider context of the impact of colonial rule.
Geography in Early Judaism and Christianity
Authors: Scott James M.
Published: December 2009

In this 2002 book, James M. Scott focuses on a particular Old Testament pseudepigraphon - the Book of Jubilees, the revelation of an angel to Moses announcing the expectation of a messiah from Judah. He traces the appropriation of the Book of Jubilees in early Christian sources from the New Testament to Hippolytus and beyond, and more specifically focuses on the reception of Jubilees 8–9, an expansion of the so-called Table of Nations in Genesis 10 (1 Chronicles 1). The book takes an interdisciplinary approach based on detailed analysis of primary sources, much of which is seldom considered by New Testament scholars, and explores the neglected topic of ancient geographical conceptions. By studying geographical aspects of the work, Dr Scott is able to relate Jubilees to both Old and New Testament traditions, bringing important new insights into Christian concepts of annunciation.
Vital Accounts
Authors: Rusnock Andrea A.
Published: December 2009

Why did Europeans begin to count births and deaths? How did they collect the numbers and what did they do with them? Through a compelling comparative analysis, Vital Accounts charts the work of the physicians, clergymen and government officials who crafted the sciences of political and medical arithmetic in England and France during the long eighteenth-century, before the emergence of statistics and regular government censuses. Andrea A. Rusnock presents a social history of quantification that highlights the development of numerical tables, influential and enduring scientific instruments designed to evaluate smallpox inoculation, to link weather and disease to compare infant and maternal mortality rates, to identify changes in disease patterns and to challenge prevailing views about the decline of European population. By focusing on the most important eighteenth century controversies over health and population, Rusnock shows how vital accounts - the numbers of births and deaths - became the measure of public health and welfare.
From Cooperation to Complicity
Authors: Hayes Peter
Published: December 2009

From Cooperation to Complicity is a study of the Degussa corporation, a firm which played a pivotal role in the processing of plundered precious metals in Nazi-occupied Europe and controlled the production and distribution of Zyklon B, the infamous pesticide used to gas the inmates of Auschwitz and Majdanek concentration camps, during the Third Reich. The author traces the extent of the corporation's involvement in these and other Nazi war crimes, including the Aryanization of Jewish-owned property and the exploitation of forced labour, and delineates the motivations for such conduct.
Olympic Victor Lists and Ancient Greek History
Authors: Christesen Paul
Published: December 2009

This book is a comprehensive examination of Olympic victor lists. The origins, development, content, and structure of Olympic victor lists are explored and explained, and a number of important questions, such as the source and reliability of the year of 776 for the first Olympics, are addressed. Olympic victor lists emerge as a clearly defined type of literature that is best understood as a group of closely related texts. This book offers a fresh perspective on works by familiar writers such as Diodorus Siculus and a sense of the potential importance of less-well-known authors such as Phlegon of Tralleis.
Aristotle and Beyond
Authors: Broadie Sarah
Published: December 2009

Written over a period of thirty-five years, these essays, first published in 2007, explore the topics of causation, time, fate, determinism, natural teleology, different conceptions of the human soul, the idea of the highest good and the human significance of leisure. While most of the essays take as their starting-point some theme in Ancient Greek philosophy, they are meant not as exegesis but as distinctive and independent contributions to live philosophizing. Written with clarity, precision without technicality, and philosophical imagination, they will engage a wide range of readers, including scholars and students of Ancient Greek philosophy and others working on more contemporary analytical concerns.
Color Atlas of Cutaneous Excisions and Repairs
Authors: Lee Ken K. , Swanson Neil A. , Lee Han N.
Published: December 2009

This full-color atlas presents an in-depth pictorial display of cutaneous surgery designed for all those interested in improving their surgical skills, from students and residents to experienced surgeons across a wide range of medical specialties. It provides step-by-step instructions through a series of more than 400 detailed color photographs, including supplementary illustrations demonstrating appropriate techniques. The excisions and resulting defects featured within, although primarily centered around the head and neck, cover a variety of locations. The repairs vary in type and size in order to provide multiple options in reconstruction. The chapters are separated into anatomic regions such as the eyelid, the ear, and the scalp, allowing the reader easy access to specific anatomic defects. This atlas is the culmination of the years of experience gained by the authors in the surgical management of skin cancers.
Justification Defenses and Just Convictions
Authors: Schopp Robert F.
Published: December 2009

This major study advances an interpretation of criminal justification defences that views them as an integral component of the structure of the criminal law. Criminal law is defined here as the institutional representation of the underlying principles of political morality in a liberal society. The book extends the traditional scope of the legal and philosophical discussion of justification defences. It integrates philosophical analysis with a consideration of contemporary applications, it shows how these defences are key components of criminal law, and it explores the relationship between legal and moral justification.
Wisdom, Authority and Grammar in the Seventh Century
Authors: Law Vivien
Published: December 2009

The works of the seventh-century writer Virgilius Maro Grammaticus are among the most puzzling medieval texts to survive. Ostensibly a pair of grammars, they swarm with hymns, riddles, invented words and imaginary writers. Conventionally interpreted either as a benighted barbarian's unfortunate attempt to write a 'proper' grammar, or as a parody of the pedantic excesses of the ancient grammatical tradition, these texts have long been in need of an alternative reading. Why should a grammarian attack the very notion of authority, thereby destabilizing his own position? The search for an answer leads us via patristic exegesis and medieval wisdom literature to the tantalizingly ill-documented reaches of heterodox initiatory traditions. Vivien Law's book opens important new perspectives on the intellectual life of the early Middle Ages and on the decoding of medieval literature in general.
Plato and the Hero
Authors: Hobbs Angela
Published: December 2009

Plato's thinking on courage, manliness and heroism is both profound and central to his work, but these areas of his thought remain under-explored. This book examines his developing critique of both the notions and embodiments of manliness prevalent in his culture (particularly those in Homer), and his attempt to redefine them in accordance with his own ethical, psychological and metaphysical principles. It further seeks to locate the discussion within the framework of his general approach to ethics, an approach which focuses on concepts of flourishing and virtue, rather than on consequences or duty. The question of why courage is necessary in the flourishing life in its turn leads to Plato's bid to unify the noble and the beneficial and the tensions this unification creates between human and divine ideals. The issue of manliness also raises problems of gender: does Plato conceive of the ethical subject as human or male?
Cauchy and the Creation of Complex Function Theory
Authors: Smithies Frank
Published: December 2009

Between 1814 and 1831, the great French mathematician A. L. Cauchy created practically single-handedly a new branch of pure mathematics. Complex function theory was and remains of central importance, and its creation marked the start of one of the most exciting periods in the development of mathematics. In this book Dr Smithies analyses the process whereby Cauchy created the basic structure of complex analysis, describing first the eighteenth-century background before proceeding to examine the stages of Cauchy's own work, culminating in the proof of the residue theorem and his work on expansions in power series. Smithies describes how Cauchy overcame difficulties including false starts and contradictions brought about by over-ambitious assumptions, as well as the improvements that came about as the subject developed in Cauchy's hands. Controversies associated with the birth of complex function theory are described in detail. Throughout, new light is thrown on Cauchy's thinking during this watershed period. This book makes use of the whole spectrum of available original sources; it will be recognised as the authoritative work on the creation of complex function theory.
The Principle of Legality in International and Comparative Criminal Law
Authors: Gallant Kenneth S.
Published: December 2009

This book fills a major gap in the scholarly literature concerning international criminal law, comparative criminal law, and human rights law. The principle of legality (non-retroactivity of crimes and punishments and related doctrines) is fundamental to criminal law and human rights law. Yet this was the first book-length study of the status of legality in international law - in international criminal law, international human rights law, and international humanitarian law. This was also the first book to survey legality/non-retroactivity in all national constitutions, developing the patterns of implementation of legality in the various legal systems such as Common Law, Civil Law, Islamic Law, and Asian Law around the world. This is a necessary book for any scholar, practitioner, and library in the area of international, criminal, comparative, human rights, or international humanitarian law.
Structure and Scale in the Roman Economy
Authors: Duncan-Jones Richard
Published: December 2009

This book by the author of The Economy of the Roman Empire: Quantitative Studies considers important interlocking themes. Did the Roman Empire have a single 'national' economy, or was its economy localised and fragmented? Can coin and pottery survivals demonstrate the importance of long-distance trade? How fast did essential news travel by sea, and what does that imply about Mediterranean sailing-patterns? Further subjects considered include taxation, commodity-prices, demography, and army pay and manpower. The book is very wide-ranging in its geographical coverage and in the evidence that it explores. By analysing specific features of the economy the contrasting discussions examine important questions about its character and limitations, and about how surviving evidence should be interpreted. The book throws new and significant light on the economic life of Europe and the Mediterranean in antiquity, and will be valuable to ancient historians and students of European economic history.
Chaucer and the Tradition of the Roman Antique
Authors: Nolan Barbara
Published: December 2009

This is a detailed investigation of Chaucer's poetics in Troilus and Criseyde and the Knight's Tale in relation to an important continental narrative tradition. It is the first such wide-ranging study since Charles Muscatine's seminal Chaucer and the French Tradition and the first book to argue in detail that Chaucer's poems, Boccaccio's Filostrato and Teseida and the twelfth-century French romans antiques participate in a distinct formal tradition within the protean field of medieval romance. By close examination of the formal and ethical designs of each poem, Barbara Nolan explores both the compositional practices shared by all of the poets she discusses, and their calculated differences from each other. Her analysis culminates in a full examination of Chaucer's richly original response to the continental verse narratives from which he borrowed. No other study offers so full and careful a delineation of the compositional features that distinguish the roman antique from other forms of romance in the Middle Ages.
Shakespearean Suspect Texts
Authors: Maguire Laurie E.
Published: December 2009

There are forty-one problematic play texts, variously classified as 'bad quartos' or 'memorial reconstructions', from Shakespeare's time. Textual criticism of these quartos has been fraught with assumption and contradiction. Laurie Maguire examines all the texts in detail. She deconstructs the theories of W. W. Greg and his followers, scrutinizing the methods by which critics diagnose texts as 'bad', and examines the historical evidence for the concept of memorial reconstruction (compilation from the recollection of actors or spectators). The valuable contextual material includes fresh analysis of the New Bibliographers, the rise of English studies, Renaissance oral culture and textual problems in non-suspect texts. The assembly of textual information about all the suspect texts in tabular form makes the book an essential reference work. The result is a study which covers a vast textual subject without sacrificing detail.
The Sickroom in Victorian Fiction
Authors: Bailin Miriam
Published: December 2009

In this exploration of the significance of illness in the Victorian literary imagination Miriam Bailin maps the cultural implications and narrative effects of the sickroom as an important symbolic space in nineteenth-century life and literature. Dr Bailin draws on non-fictional accounts of illness by Julia Stephen, Harriet Martineau and others to illuminate the presentation of illness and ministration, patient and nurse, in the fiction of Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens and George Eliot. She argues that the sickroom functions as an imagined retreat from conflicts in Victorian society, and that fictional representations of illness serve to resolve both social conflict and aesthetic tension. Her concentration on the sickroom scene as a compositional response to insistent formal as well as social problems yields fresh readings of canonical works and approaches to the constituent elements of Victorian realist narrative.
H. G. Wells
Authors: Batchelor John
Published: December 2009

H. G. Wells wrote almost a hundred books, yet he is generally remembered for only a handful of them. He is known above all as a writer who heralded the future, yet throughout his life he clung to fixed attitudes from the Victorian past. He began his career as a draper's apprentice; by the age of forty-five he had secured an international reputation as the author of The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, Kipps and Tono Bungay; he went on to establish himself as an influential educator, polemicist and sage. In this book John Batchelor offers a readable introduction to Wells's huge and varied output as a writer and thinker. He guides the reader through the whole oeuvre, and argues persuasively that at his best Wells was a great artist: a man with a remarkable, restless imagination (not limited, as many critics have implied, merely to his early romances) and with a coherent and responsible theory of fiction.
Constructions of 'the Jew' in English Literature and Society
Authors: Cheyette Bryan
Published: December 2009

Bryan Cheyette combines cultural theory, discourse analysis, and new historicism with close readings of work by Arnold, Trollope and George Eliot, Buchan and Kipling, Shaw and Wells, Belloc and Chesterton, T. S. Eliot and James Joyce, to argue that 'the Jew' lies at the heart of modern English society: not as a stereotype, but as the embodiment of confusion and indeterminacy.
Galdós and the Irony of Language
Authors: Urey Diane F.
Published: December 2009

Benito Pérez Galdós was the foremost Spanish novelist of the nineteenth century. His novels are frequently compared with those of Dickens and Balzac, and considered examples of nineteenth-century realism. In a speech before the Spanish Academy of Language, Galdós himself declared that the novel is 'an image of life'; scholars have often considered that image to be an uncritical reflection, or even a biased misrepresentation of the Spanish society of the time. This book shows, by detailed analysis of Galdós narrative techniques, how his novels display a much more skeptical and ironical attitude toward the ability of language to represent reality, than has previously been recognized. Rather than attempting to judge the accuracy of Galdós' image of life the author analyzes the linguistic means by which the novels recreate life in their own image. With close and discriminating attention to detail the author illustrates Galdós' narrative irony with examples from the serie contemporénea, the most highly acclaimed period of his writing. She analyzes the ironic possibilities under three main headings: depiction of characters, description of places, and the narrative voice. A final chapter describes the fusion of these devices in the novella Torquemada en la hoguera. This clearly argued study, structuralist in approach and sensitive to nuances of style and language, will appeal to students of modern critical theory and comparative literature as well as to Hispanists.
The Last Years of Soviet Russian Literature
Authors: Brown Deming Bronson
Published: December 2009

This is the only book, Russian or Western, that provides a comprehensive survey of developments in Russian prose over the last fifteen years of the Soviet regime. Deming Brown examines the work of established writers, such as Fazil Iskander and Andrei Bitov, together with many new figures who emerged during this period. Special attention is given to the evolving patterns of publication during the period: the rehabilitation of suppressed writers and the first publication of writings that had formerly belonged to the literary underground. This is an excellent introduction, of interest to scholars and students alike, to the varied writings of some eighty contemporary Russian authors, and to trends in literary criticism and publication.
Descartes and the Passionate Mind
Authors: Brown Deborah J.
Published: December 2009

Descartes is often accused of having fragmented the human being into two independent substances, mind and body, with no clear strategy for explaining the apparent unity of human experience. Deborah Brown argues that, contrary to this view, Descartes did in fact have a conception of a single, integrated human being, and that in his view this conception is crucial to the success of human beings as rational and moral agents and as practitioners of science. The passions are pivotal in this, and in a rich and wide-ranging discussion she examines Descartes' place in the tradition of thought about the passions, the metaphysics of actions and passions, sensory representation, and Descartes' account of self-mastery and virtue. Her study is an important and original reading not only of Descartes' account of mind-body unity but also of his theory of mind.
What Spacetime Explains
Authors: Nerlich Graham
Published: December 2009

Graham Nerlich is one of the most distinguished of contemporary philosophers of space and time. Eleven of his essays are here brought together in a carefully structured volume, which deal with ontology and methodology in relativity, variable curvature and general relativity, and time and causation. The author has provided a new general introduction and also introductions to each part to bring the discussion more up to date and draw out the general themes. The book will be welcomed by all philosophers of physics, and of science in general.