bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Pindaric Temporality, Goethe's Augenblick, and the Invariant Plot of Tiutchev's Lyric
Authors: Maslov Boris
Published: December 2012

This article puts forward a genealogy of one of the principal temporalities associated with German (pre-)Romantic lyric, the time of a privileged moment (“ewiger/prägnanter Augenblick”). The same temporality is shown to dominate the lyric oeuvre of Fyodor Tiutchev, a Russian Romantic, the proximity of whose poetics to German models is otherwise well documented. As the article maintains, this distinct presentist temporality, along with a concomitant metaphysical stance on the relation between the human and the divine realms, ultimately derives from Pindar's victory odes, which are argued to represent a key resource both for the ideal of lyric propagated in Germany in the Geniezeit and (more unexpectedly) for Tiutchev's lyric practice. The first two sections of the article contain an overview of the chief temporal categories that occur in Pindar's corpus (and, more generally, in Ancient Greek literature of the archaic period) and a discussion of the ways in which his temporal imagination relates to the ideological concerns of the victory ode.

Beyond these specific objectives, which lie in the fields of literary and conceptual history, the article discusses the theoretical implications of a close association between distinct temporal patterns and poetic genres, as well as the issue of the priority of literary vs. philosophical influences on cultural perceptions of time.
Baudelaire without Benjamin: Contingency, History, Modernity
Authors: Singh Sonam
Published: December 2012

Walter Benjamin's two essays on Charles Baudelaire — “The Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire” (1938) and “On Some Motifs in Baudelaire” (1939) — are regularly taken as profound readings of that poet's work. This essay argues that, whatever claims may be made for Benjamin as a philosopher, mystic, correspondent, revolutionary, martyr, memoirist, or stylist, his readings of Baudelaire are inadequate. The essay, proceeding in three parts, first offers an account of the surprisingly uncritical reception of Benjamin as a reader of Baudelaire. Second, it examines Benjamin's crude methodology and peremptory interpretations in his two essays on Baudelaire. Finally, it offers a close comparative reading of Baudelaire's lyric “The Swan” and Benjamin's ninth aphorism in “On the Concept of History,” staging an unexpected and revealing correspondence between the two works to argue that “The Swan” is no less a thesis on the concept of history and affords rather more stunning illuminations of the modern condition. Both the poem and the aphorism feature incapacitated winged creatures, debris, bad weather, and, most strikingly, a speaker who stands in the present, considers the past, and ponders the endurance of human disaster. However, the ethics and aesthetics that emerge in Baudelaire's lyric could not be more inhospitable to Benjamin's messianism. And ultimately, this essay claims, to endorse Benjamin's vision of modernity is to refuse an alternative genealogy of modernity that could well take, once free and clear of Benjamin's shadow, Baudelairean “contingency” as its watchword and Baudelaire's complex staging of irresolvable psychic and social antagonisms as its praxis.
Friedrich Kittler (1943–2011)
Authors: Godzich Wlad
Published: December 2012

This is a brief introduction to the life and work of Friedrich Kittler placed in the context of his relation to Heidegger, Foucault, and Lacan.
The Humility of Thought: An Interview with Friedrich A. Kittler
Authors: Khayyat E.
Published: December 2012

Conducted at Gutenberg University in Mainz on May 13, 2011, this interview documents Friedrich A. Kittler’s last public appearance before he passed away. Kittler speaks about his life’s work, addressing issues ranging from the history of the Greek alphabet to Soviet language politics; from Germany’s coming to terms with its Nazi past to contemporary memory studies; from world literature and globalization to the humanities education today; from his intellectual debt to Martin Heidegger and Michel Foucault to his first exposure to the work of Theodor Adorno, and his relationship with Jacques Derrida and Paul de Man.
Transnationalization and the University: The Perspective of Global Modernity
Authors: Dirlik Arif
Published: December 2012

This article discusses the impact of transnationalization on higher education, drawing primarily on material related to US universities. Transnationalization refers here both to the effort of universities to branch out globally, following corporate models, and to their search at home for foreign undergraduate student “consumers.” The two processes are transforming the university, with pressures to shift the context of higher education from the national to the global that have important institutional and educational consequences. Cultural globalization and the emergence of a “transnational capitalist class” offer new opportunities in the search for “paying” customers. Financial pressures at home make transnationalization almost irresistibly attractive. These forces have triggered the global expansion of elite universities and the rush of public institutions, in particular, to make themselves attractive to foreign students, hailing mostly from the wealthier classes of East and South Asia. The People’s Republic of China holds a particular fascination as a source of students, who also bring with them the promise of commercial links. Notable among accommodations of the PRC is the compliance of US institutions with officially sponsored projections of “soft power” through the so-called Confucius Institutes. The financial gain from the “education industry” has become attractive to states such as the United States, the UK, Canada, et cetera, as well as to universities. On the other hand, transnationalization challenges the local responsibilities of universities as institutions of learning intimately connected with practices of citizenship. The curricular preference of foreign students for marketable subjects also intensifies pressures to reorient university education more closely to transnational corporate needs.
The Inorganic Community: Hypotheses on Literary Communism in Novalis, Benjamin, and Blanchot
Authors: Alloa Emmanuel
Published: December 2012

If literary avant-garde journals and their communities have been, in the twentieth century, a space for creating, if not sustaining, major political utopias, it should help explain why this “literary communism,” as Jean-Luc Nancy called it, is not a weakened or substitutional form of politics. No myth without narration, no implementation without an instrumentation, no organic unity without a political organ voicing its claim, in short: no organicity without an organon. But can there be a (literary) community that does not aim at the achievement of its own assumed truth, a form of writing in common that does not serve to convey a meaning, but bears witness, in its very form, to the fragmentation of meaning? This essay examines three attempts of an affirmative answer to this question by reappraising three interrelated experimental cases: Jena around 1800 and the Athenaeum journal of the Early Romantics; Walter Benjamin’s journal projects, from the Angelus Novus to the prison camp journal at the end of his life; Maurice Blanchot and the failed trans-European project of what was arguably the most ambitious intellectual journal enterprise of the century, the Revue internationale in the early 1960s.
The Recovery of the Literal: Learning from the Renaissance How to Circumnavigate the Globe
Authors: Waters Lindsay
Published: December 2012

In this essay, Waters highlights a characteristic of Renaissance humanism long acknowledged but always in need of renewed appreciation: the way that some people gave new attention to the literal, the minute, and the particular. The implications of this shift were so radical they turned the world upside down, making possible, even imperative to some, the overthrow of monarchs; the circumnavigation of a globe, the roundness of which had not been until then fully grasped; closer inspection of the heavens; and the reading of the text of the Bible and other key documents, such as The Donation of Constantine. Waters claims that what was at stake was a shift from medieval holism as a frame of mind to modern atomism. He goes to the heart of the positive and the negative sides to the development of what he calls “bitsiness,” the systematic emphasis on the literal and the particular, by giving an account of what it was like for him as a person who had grown up in an orthodox Catholic family in America in the second half of the twentieth century to suddenly find himself, in reading Milton, to be living in a world where bitsiness was the rule. He had to learn to read things literally, not allegorically, to circumnavigate his world just as Renaissance scientists, poets, and explorers had. Renaissance humanism gave him tools, spiritual exercises, for learning to train his attention to the words on the page and to stop seeing them through a distorting haze.
“When I Die, I Won’t Stay Dead”: The Future of the Human in Suzan-Lori Parks’s The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World
Authors: Colbert Soyica Diggs
Published: December 2012

“‘When I Die, I Won’t Stay Dead’: The Future of the Human in Suzan-Lori Parks’s The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World” puts thing theory in conversation with theorizations of temporality, claiming that things rupture the subject/object binary by dislocating subjects and objects in time. The essay shows how the things in Suzan-Lori Parks’s play The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World and Kara Walker’s cutout Middle Passages reorient subjects in time. Demonstrating a relationship between history, as a temporal category, and notions of the human that perpetuate the devaluing of blackness, this essay examines, through an analysis of Parks’s play and Walker’s cutout, what I call an aesthetic of “disalienation,” which loosens the hold of ever-present racial signifiers ready to reinscribe racist formulations of blackness. Through their acts of artistic innovation, Parks and Walker recalibrate time and permanently relegate the subject/object binary, and therefore black inhumanity, to a thing of the past.
HISTORY FROM WAY ABOVE
Authors: Katz David S.
Published: December 2012

This contribution to part 4 of the Common Knowledge symposium “Fuzzy Studies: On the Consequence of Blur” shows how the reputedly radical position that history is not about eternal truths but about the creative construction of a convincing narrative of past events is not an argument of recent vintage. In the days when postmodernism was a technical term used mainly by scholars of art and architecture—and indeed, decades before then—professional historians were grappling with the incapacity of facts to write themselves into a universally satisfying, single version of history. Successive presidents of the American Historical Association such as Andrew Dickson White, Carl Becker, Charles Beard, and William McNeill admitted that writing history is a desperate attempt at pattern recognition in a fuzzy discipline. Pattern recognition is a tool, valuable as a stage in historical thinking, but destined ultimately to come undone. What remains, then, is fuzzy thinking. It can be a good thing, the article concludes, to let our thinking about history remain a blur or, at least, to bear in mind that any patterns we recognize in the past are liable to dissolve under a different light.
AMBIGUITY, AMBIENCE, AMBIVALENCE, AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Authors: Pinkus Karen
Published: December 2012

In this contribution to the Common Knowledge symposium “Fuzzy Studies: On the Consequence of Blur,” the words ambiguity, ambivalence, and ambience are shown to share the common prefix, from Latin, ambi-, defined in most modern dictionaries as “around, on both sides.” Ambi captures some, but not all, so Leo Spitzer has argued, of the multiple senses (physical surrounding, spiritual embrace, air) that Greeks infused into the prefix peri. Ambiguity and ambience (“going around,” “that which surrounds”), as well as the more modern ambivalence (coined in the context of psychonanalysis), suggest different angles of perception, but all represent fuzzy modes, modes that would seem to have no place in science, especially in climate science, which is pressed to be ever more precise. Yet an analysis of the genealogy of these terms and, in particular, of the differential relation between “around” and “on both sides” may reveal that the very fuzziness of ambi is precisely what is required to grasp the chaotic complexity of the environment.
GHOSTLIER DEMARCATIONS
Authors: Jackson Michael D.
Published: December 2012

This memoiristic essay is a contribution to the Common Knowledge symposium titled “Fuzzy Studies: On the consequence of blur.” While probing his personal memories and making a case for devaluing our intellectual constructs, the author, an anthropologist, examines paintings by Paul Cézanne and Pieter Bruegel, poems by Wallace Stevens and W. H. Auden. The essay argues that each self-deluding “reality” we construct is only temporary, destined to fall back into the elusive, undifferentiated zone of overlap and ambiguity from which it has emerged. Therefore, the author urges, we should temper the intellectual “rage for order” with an openness to chaos and contingency, along with sustained and careful attention to creative works and religious practices in which the mind appears to grasp its limits. In this way, we may substitute what Stevens called “ghostlier demarcations” for our clear, exact, and self-deceptive certainties.
ON SORT OF KNOWING
Authors: Ziporyn Brook
Published: December 2012

The article, a contribution to the Common Knowledge symposium “Fuzzy Studies: On the Consequence of Blur,” analyzes the metaphysical assumptions behind the valorization of “clear and distinct ideas,” apodictic knowledge, and definitiveness, and it suggests alternatives derived from Daoist sources, where a different model of knowing prevails. That model undermines the idea of purposive willing in the service of goals known in advance, and undermines as well the bases for any human or divine activity designed to achieve definite ends. If purpose is not privileged either metaphysically or ethically, the concomitant notion of unambiguous fact is also shaken. In the absence, even in principle, of any form of knowing, human or divine, that is unambiguous and apodictic, there is no reason to grant ontological privilege to the paradigm of “unambiguous potential objects of knowledge.” This article concludes by asking and in part answering what the world looks like, what sort of human cognition and activity is most appropriate, in the absence of clear purposes, definite knowledge, and unambiguous facts.
Biomechanics of human bipedal gallop: asymmetry dictates leg functions
Authors: Fiers Pieter , De Clercq Dirk , Segers Veerle , Aerts Peter
Published: December 2012

Unilateral skipping or bipedal galloping is one of the gait types humans are able to perform. In contrast to many animals, where gallop is the preferred gait at higher speeds, human bipedal gallop only occurs spontaneously in very specific conditions (e.g. fast down-hill locomotion). This study examines the lower limb mechanics and explores the possible reasons why humans do not spontaneously opt for gallop for steady state locomotion on level ground. In 12 subjects, who were required to run and gallop overground at their preferred speed, kinematic and kinetic data were collected and mechanical work at the main lower limb joints (hip, knee, ankle) was calculated. In a separate treadmill experiment, metabolic costs were measured. Analysis revealed that the principal differences between running and galloping are located at the hip. The asymmetrical configuration of gallop involves distinct hip actions and foot placing, giving galloping legs different functions compared with running legs: the trailing leg decelerates the body in vertical direction but propels it forward while the leading leg acts in the opposite way. Although both legs conserve mechanical energy by interchanging external mechanical energy with potential elastic energy, the specific orientation of the legs causes more energy dissipation and generation compared with running. This makes gallop metabolically more expensive and involves high muscular stress at the hips which may be the reasons why humans do not use gallop for steady state locomotion.
Feed-forward and visual feed-back control of head roll orientation in wasps (Polistes humilis, Vespidae, Hymenoptera)
Authors: Viollet Stéphane , Zeil Jochen
Published: December 2012

Flying insects keep their visual system horizontally aligned suggesting that gaze stabilization is a crucial first step in flight control. Unlike flies, hymenopteran insects, such as bees and wasps do not have halteres that provide fast, feed-forward angular rate information to stabilize head orientation in the presence of body rotations. We tested whether hymenopteran insects use inertial (mechano-sensory) information to control head orientation from other sources, such as the wings, by applying periodic roll perturbations to male Polistes humilis wasps flying in tether under different visual conditions indoors and in natural outdoor conditions. We oscillated the insects' thorax with frequency modulated sinusoids (chirps) with frequencies increasing from 0.2Hz to 2Hz at a maximal amplitude of 50° peak-to-peak and maximal angular velocity of ±245°/s. We found that head roll stabilization is best outdoors, but completely absent in uniform visual conditions and in darkness. Step responses confirm that compensatory head roll movements are purely visually driven. Modelling step responses indicates that head roll stabilization is achieved by merging information on head angular velocity presumably provided by motion-sensitive with information on head orientation, presumably provided by light level integration across the compound eyes and/or ocelli (dorsal light response). Body roll in free flight reaches amplitudes of ±40° and angular velocities greater than 1000°/s, while head orientation remains horizontal for most of the time to within ±10°. In free flight, we did not find a delay between spontaneous body roll and compensatory head movements and suggest that this is evidence for the contribution of a feed-forward control to head stabilization.
Electrical Properties of Amorphous Carbon Semiconductor Prepared Using a Naphthalene Precursor
Authors: Inoue Yasunori , Sugano Mayo , Kawakami Shunsuke , Kitano Masaaki , Nakajima Kiyotaka , Kato Hideki , Hara Michikazu
Published: December 2012

An amorphous carbon (a-C) semiconductor was prepared by the pyrolysis of naphthalene in the presence of AlCl3 under a nitrogen gas flow. Electrical properties, such as the Seebeck coefficient (S) and electrical conductivity (σ), of the a-C materials were studied as a function of the heat treatment temperature (773–1273 K) and time (5–30 h). The electrical conductivity of a-C increased with the heating temperature. At a heating temperature of 873 K, a-C exhibits p-type semiconducting behavior (S = 0.41 mV K−1, σ = 2.0 × 10−5 S cm−1) and consists of a mixture of sp2-bonded carbon sheets (average sheet size: ca. 1.0 nm) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). After prolonged heat treatment (30 h) at 873 K, the electrical conductivity of a-C was increased by a factor of approximately 50 without loss of the semiconductivity (S = 0.20 mV K−1, σ = 9.6 × 10−4 S cm−1). The increase in the electrical conductivity of a-C is attributed to the decomposition of insulating PAH compounds by the prolonged heat treatment. Thus, precise control of the heating temperature and time has a significant effect on the p-type semiconductivity and electrical conductivity of a-C materials.
OR Forum—Quantum Mechanics and Human Decision Making
Authors: Agrawal Paras M. , Sharda Ramesh
Published: December 2012

In physics, at the beginning of the twentieth century it was recognized that some experiments could not be explained by the conventional classical mechanics, but the same could be explained by the newly discovered quantum theory. It resulted in a new mechanics called quantum mechanics that revolutionized scientific and technological developments. Again, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is being recognized that some experiments related to the human decision-making processes could not be explained by the conventional classical decision theory but the same could be explained by the models based on quantum mechanics. It is now recognized that we need quantum mechanics in psychology as well as in economics and finance. In this paper we attempt to advance and explain the present understanding of applicability of quantum mechanics to the human decision-making processes. Using the postulates analogous to the postulates of quantum mechanics, we show the derivation of the quantum interference equation to illustrate the quantum approach. The explanation of disjunction effect experiments of Tversky and Shafir (Tversky A, Shafir E (1992) The disjunction effect in choice under uncertainty. Psych. Sci. 3(5):305–309) has been chosen to demonstrate the necessity of a quantum model. Further, to suggest the possibility of application of the quantum theory to the business-related decisions, some terms such as price operator, state of mind of the acquiring firm, etc., are introduced and discussed in context of the merger/acquisition of business firms. The possibility of the development in areas such as quantum finance, quantum management, application of quantum mechanics to the human dynamics related to healthcare management, etc., is also indicated.
Addressing the Pushback Time Allocation Problem at Heathrow Airport
Authors: Atkin Jason A. D. , De Maere Geert , Burke Edmund K. , Greenwood John S.
Published: December 2012

This paper considers the problem of allocating pushback times to departing aircraft, specifying the time at which they will be given permission to push back from their allocated stand, start their engines, and commence their taxi to the runway. The aim of this research is to first predict the delay (defined as the waiting time at the stand or runway) for each departure, then to use this to calculate a pushback time such that an appropriate amount of the delay is absorbed at the stand, prior to starting the engines. A two-stage approach is used, where the feasibility of the second stage (pushback time allocation) has to be considered within the first stage (takeoff sequencing). The characteristics of this real-world problem and the differences between it and similar problems are thoroughly discussed, along with a consideration of the important effects of these differences. Differences include a nonlinear objective function with a nonconvex component; the integration of two sequence dependent separation problems; separations that can vary over time; and time-slot extensions. Each of these factors has contributed to the design of the solution algorithm. Results predict significant fuel-burn benefits from absorbing some of the delay as stand hold, as well as delay benefits from indirectly aiding the runway controllers by reducing runway queue sizes. A system for pushback time allocation at London Heathrow has been developed by NATS (formerly National Air Traffic Services) based upon the algorithm described in this paper.
Quantification of Globotriaosylsphingosine in Plasma and Urine of Fabry Patients by Stable Isotope Ultraperformance Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry
Authors: Gold Henrik , Mirzaian Mina , Dekker Nick , Joao Ferraz Maria , Lugtenburg Johan , Codée Jeroen DC , van der Marel Gijs A , Overkleeft Herman S , Linthorst Gabor E , Groener Johanna EM , Aerts Johannes M , Poorthuis Ben JHM
Published: December 2012

BACKGROUND

Biochemical markers that accurately reflect the severity and progression of disease in patients with Fabry disease and their response to treatment are urgently needed. Globotriaosylsphingosine, also called lysoglobotriaosylceramide (lysoGb3), is a promising candidate biomarker.

METHODS

We synthesized lysoGb3 and isotope-labeled [5,6,7,8,9] 13C5-lysoGb3 (internal standard). After addition of the internal standard to 25 μL plasma or 400 μL urine from patients with Fabry disease and healthy controls, samples were extracted with organic solvents and the lysoGb3 concentration was quantified by UPLC-ESI-MS/MS (ultraperformance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–tandem mass spectrometry). Calibration curves were constructed with control plasma and urine supplemented with lysoGb3. In addition to lysoGb3, lyso-ene-Gb3 was quantified. Quantification was achieved by multiple reaction monitoring of the transitions m/z 786.4 > 282.3 [M+H]+ for lysoGb3, m/z 791.4 > 287.3 [M+H]+ for [5,6,7,8,9] 13C5-lysoGb3, and 784.4 > 280.3 [M+H]+ for lyso-ene-Gb3.

RESULTS

The mean (SD) plasma lysoGb3 concentration from 10 classically affected Fabry hemizygotes was 94.4 (25.8) pmol/mL (range 52.7–136.8 pmol/mL), from 10 classically affected Fabry heterozygotes 9.6 (5.8) pmol/mL (range 4.1–23.5 pmol/mL), and from 20 healthy controls 0.4 (0.1) pmol/mL (range 0.3–0.5 pmol/mL). Lyso-ene-Gb3 concentrations were 10%–25% of total lysoGb3. The urine concentration of lysoGb3 was 40–480 times lower than in corresponding plasma samples. Lyso-ene-Gb3 concentrations in urine were comparable or even higher than the corresponding lysoGb3 concentrations.

CONCLUSIONS

This assay for the quantification of lysoGb3 and lyso-ene-Gb3 in human plasma and urine samples will be an important tool in the diagnosis of Fabry disease and for monitoring the effect of enzyme replacement therapy in patients with Fabry disease.
Long-Term Treatment with a Health Product (Squina Diacylglyceryl Ether) Enhances Innate and Adaptive Immunity in Mice
Authors: LEUNG Hoi Yan , KO Kam Ming
Published: December 2012

This study aimed to investigate the effects of a health product Squina (Diacylglyceryl Ether) (DAGE) on innate and adaptive immunity in mice. Both ex vivo/ in vivo mouse models and an in vitro system using cultured mouse splenocytes were recruited for the assessment of innate and adaptive immunity. For the innate immune response, DAGE extract treatment enhanced the LPS-induced IL1-β secretion by activated macrophages in vitro and long-term DAGE treatment (0.18 and 1.8 g/kg × 20 doses) elevated the phagocytic activity of macrophages, as well as natural killer cell activity in mice. The DAGE-induced increase in macrophage phagocytic and natural killer cell activities were accompanied by the suppression of tumor growth in Sarcoma-180 cell-inoculated mice. For the adaptive immune response, long-term DAGE treatment enhanced the splenocyte index and concanavalin A- stimulated proliferation ex vivo in mice. Consistently, the incubation with DAGE extract potentiated the concanavalin A-stimulated proliferation in mouse splenocytes in vitro. In conclusion, the results show that long-term DAGE treatment produces stimulatory effects on both innate and adaptive immunity in mice.
How Do We Get Cobb-Douglas and Leontief Functions from CES Function: A Lecture Note on Discrete and Continuum Differentiated Object Models
Authors: Saito Tetsuya
Published: December 2012

Most lectures teach the relationship between the CES, Cobb-Douglas, and Leontief functions using the value of elasticity of substitution, namely, in the discrete object model. This lecture note aims at being a reference for algebraic computations of the Leontief and Cobb-Douglas functions by taking limits of CES functions both in discrete and continuum goods models. The argument on the discrete case uses l'H�pital's rule as usually done. The argument on the continuum case also uses l'H�pital's rule to show the convergence to the Cobb-Douglas function. To guarantee the convergence to the Leontief function, however, we rely on the squeeze principle.
On the Teaching of Price Discrimination in Block Pricing: A Refinement
Authors: Cao Bolong
Published: December 2012

In many textbooks, an important assumption difference between the standard picture for block pricing and the intuitive discussions on this pricing scheme is often ignored. This practice leads the students to misunderstand this picture as an illustration for price discrimination against heterogeneous buyers. In this article, I analyze how some textbook narratives can lead to this misinterpretation. Then, I provide a simple example that shows how block pricing discriminates buyers with heterogeneous demands. A real life example as applied to the transportation rates of natural gas for block pricing is also provided and discussed.
Using Experiments to Illustrate the Role of Network Externalities in Technology Adoption and Industry Evolution
Authors: Parker Wheatley W.
Published: December 2012

This experiment helps students to understand the importance of network externalities in technology adoption and the evolution of industries. Students observe the roles of lock-in and critical mass in technology adoption, understand how pricing affects adoption, and see welfare implications of network externalities. Given examples of network effects in firm and government action (e.g., the advanced television systems committee, antitrust litigation for the credit/debit card industry, and private strategy in newer DVD technologies (HD DVD vs. Blue-Ray)), this experiment fits courses that wish to illustrate these ideas and provides a starting point for a more detailed study of network externalities
Efficiency and Productivity of Indian Life Insurance Industry
Authors: Chakraborty Kalyan , Dutta Anirban , Sengupta Partha Pratim
Published: December 2012

This paper investigates technical efficiency and productivity growth in Indian life insurance industry in the era of deregulation. The empirical study uses DEA method and Malmquist productivity index to measure and decompose technical efficiency and productivity growth, respectively. The results suggest that the growth in overall productivity is mainly attributed to improvement in efficiency. Higher pure technical efficiency and lower scale efficiency indicate the insurance firms have generally, moved away from the optimal scale over the study period. The truncated regression exploring the main drivers of efficiency in the long run found claims ratio, distribution ratio, and firm-size influence technical efficiency positively. The study also found firms that had both life and non-life businesses are more efficient than firms that has only life insurance business.
Measuring Cultural Responsiveness in the Classroom Component of a School-wide Model of Positive Behavior Support at the Elementary Level
Authors: Utley Cheryl A.
Published: December 2012

This study was designed to measure teachers’ self-assessment of elements across 4 domains and compliance in implementing a school-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) features in an urban elementary school. Within the classroom domain, teachers’ perceptions of cultural responsiveness (CR) were assessed. The participants were 14 teachers and 335 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. The participants were administered the Effective Behavior Survey(EBS), Systems Evaluation Tool (SET), and the Culturally Responsive Survey (CRS). Results of the EBS and SET revealed that (a) participants reported 63% of school-wide, 50% of non-classroom, 59% of classroom, and 24% of individual systems were in place and; (b) fidelity of implementation was 90%, indicating that participants were in compliance with the SWPBS program; and (b) 50% of the participants were perceived as CR, 57% employed CR instructional designs, 63% engaged in CR interactional styles, and 73% employed CR teaching practices
Student-Faculty and Peer Interactions among Immigrant College Students in the United States
Authors: Stebleton Michael J. , Soria Krista M. , Aleixo Marina B. , Huesman Ronald L.
Published: December 2012

This study examined student-faculty interactions and peer interactions among immigrant college students attending 4-year research universities in the United States. Using the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) survey completed by 58,000 undergraduate students from six large, public research universities, the researchers used analysis of variance and multiple linear regression analyses to explore differences between immigrant populations. The results suggest that there are significant differences between immigrant and non-immigrant college students with regard to their sense of belonging, faculty interactions, and peer interactions. There are also differences within immigrant waves and generational status. Implications and recommendations for educators in multicultural learning and teaching contexts are outlined.
Material schmecken: Die Materialsammlung der ETH Zürich – ein Kooperationsprojekt der ETH-Bibliothek mit dem Departement Architektur und dem Netzwerk Material-Archiv
Authors: Joachim Markus
Published: December 2012

The Materials Collection is newly established at the ETH-Bibliothek in Zurich in cooperation with the Department of Architecture. As part of the Baubibliothek (building library), the collection presents a publicly accessible, systematically structured exhibition of sample materials that offers a unique symbiosis with the corresponding literary and media holdings. The collection ranges from basic, historical materials to the most important materials used in the built environment today, right down to the latest materials in the technological vanguard. To supplement the physical objects, collaboration with the network Material-Archiv (Materials Archive Association) has provided a material-specific database which details the technical characteristics and contexts of the materials and products. This joint project was launched in 2011. The collection is continually expanding and already includes about 1000 objects.
Sammlungen – Das Herz der Bibliothek
Authors: Rothkirch Eva , Jensen Borries
Published: December 2012

The collections of the Berlin State Library rate among the most opulent and diverse library holdings in the world. The newly created collection pages within the library’s website allow a systematic and uniform description and presentation of these collections and enable the transfer of the electronic data to other portals and websites. This paper presents an overview of both the backend and the frontend of this new service and details its realization within the WCMS TYPO3.
Compact dual-band spectrograph
Authors: Pavlycheva Nadezhda K. , Muslimov Eduard R.
Published: December 2012

A concept and design method of a dual-band flat-field spectrograph is presented. In the proposed optical scheme, the working range of wavelengths is divided into two subranges. A reflection holographic grating is used in the first subrange, and a transmission concave holographic grating is used in the second one. Both of them are aberration-corrected flat-field gratings. As an example, a scheme of spectrograph for spectral range from 278 to 560 nm is considered.
Aristotle on Fire Animals (Generation of Animals iii 11, 761b16-24)
Authors: Macfarlane Patrick
Published: December 2012

In a short passage in Generation of Animals iii 11, 761b16-24, Aristotle appears to argue for the existence of life on the moon, or what commentators call ‘fire animals’. Just what this passage is supposed to mean is far from clear. This paper provides the background for Aristotle’s notion of fire animals in his predecessors, including Plato and the Presocratics, and then traces the theme into late antiquity. The paper also integrates the topic of fire animals into Aristotle’s natural philosophy. Finally, the paper demonstrates that Aristotle’s remarks on fire animals provide a unique window into his natural philosophy, particularly his cosmology.
Problēmata Mēchanika, the Analytics, and Projectile Motion
Authors: Anders John
Published: December 2012

The project of this paper is to look at problēmata in the Organon, how the Mēchanika employs problēmata, what these texts can teach us about each other, and the significance of all these things for the difficulties that Aristotelian natural philosophy encounters in explaining projectile motion. My treatment of the last item will highlight a pun used in the Mēchanika and argue that it makes a serious point. The paper proceeds as follows: first I will briefly present a reading of how problēmata are understood by Aristotle in the Organon. Next I will examine how problēmata are treated in the Mēchanika. Then I will put these two views of problēmata in dialogue with each other. Lastly I will utilize this discussion to address some of the well-known difficulties associated with Aristotle’s account of projectiles, and what this might mean for Aristotelian natural philosophy as a whole.
Der Lebensmittelhaushalt des Herrn Saralaneozan/Šahr-Ālānyōzān Neuedition von zwei Speiselisten und einem Geschäftsbrief aus dem sassanidischen Ägypten
Authors: Sänger Patrick , Weber Dieter
Published: December 2012

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Emulsion synthesis of dicalcium phosphate particles for the preparation of calcium phosphate cements with improved compressive strengths and reduced setting times
Authors: Wächter Sabine , Moseke Claus , Groll Jürgen , Gbureck Uwe
Published: December 2012

This study aimed to produce nanosized secondary calcium phosphate powders (CaHPO
Ensuring defined porosity and pore size using ammonium hydrogen carbonate as porosification agent for calcium phosphate scaffolds
Authors: Lindner Markus , Schickle Karolina , Bergmann Christian , Fischer Horst
Published: December 2012

Up to now, it has been very challenging to manufacture a degradable bone replacement material having a specific pore size as well as a specific percentage of porosity which can be set independently of one another. We hypothesize that this is possible by using ammonium hydrogen carbonate (NH
Combined effects of CO2, temperature, irradiance and time on the physiological performance of Chondrus crispus (Rhodophyta)
Authors: Sarker Mohammed Yusuf , Bartsch Inka , Olischläger Mark , Gutow Lars , Wiencke Christian
Published: December 2012

In natural environments, marine biotas are exposed to a variety of simultaneously acting abiotic factors. Among these, temperature, irradiance and CO2 availability are major factors influencing the physiological performance of marine macroalgae. To test whether elevated levels of CO2 may remediate the otherwise reduced performance of uncalcified seaweeds under the influence of other stressful abiotic factors, we performed multi-factorial experiments with the red alga Chondrus crispus from Helgoland (North Sea) with two levels of CO2, temperature and irradiance: low and high pCO2 levels were tested in combination with either (1) optimal and low irradiances or (2) optimal and sub-lethal high temperatures for growth. Performance of C. crispus was evaluated as biomass increase and relative growth rates (RGR), gross photosynthesis and pigment content. Acclimations of growth and photosynthesis were measured after 4 and 8 days. Acclimation time was crucial for elucidating single or combined CO2 effects on growth and photosynthesis. Significant CO2 effects became evident only in combination with either elevated temperature or reduced irradiance. Growth and photosynthesis had divergent patterns: RGR and biomass significantly increased only under a combination of high pCO2 and elevated temperature; gross photosynthesis was significantly reduced under high pCO2 conditions at low irradiance. Pigment content varied in response to irradiance and temperature, but was independent of pCO2.
Switching between parathormone (PTH) assays: the impact on the diagnosis of renal osteodystrophy
Authors: Bekő Gabriella , Butz Henriett , Berta Klára , Tislér András , Olajos Ferenc , Vásárhelyi Barna , Patócs Attila
Published: December 2012

Background:Clinical guidelines for decision-making in chronic kidney disease (CKD) consider parathormone (PTH) levels. The measured PTH values differ if novel full length PTH(1-84) assays are used instead of earlier intact iPTH assays. In this study we analyzed how the classification of CKD patients alters when iPTH assays are switched to PTH(1-84) assays.

Methods:Plasma samples were collected prior to dialysis sessions from 110 consecutive CKD patients on maintenance hemodialysis. PTH levels were determined with iPTH assays (Elecsys, Architect and DiaSorin Liaison N-tact) and PTH(1-84) assays (Elecsys and Liaison). Using KDIGO guidelines patients were classified as being below, above and in the recommended target range (RTR) of PTH. The results of classification with different assays were evaluated and, a novel calculation method of RTR was implemented.

Results:The prevalence of patients with PTH in RTR is comparable with each assay, but the individual patients differed. PTH(1-84) Elecsys and Liaison assays classified more patients as being below RTR than iPTH Elecsys and Architect but not Liaison N-tact assay (27.3%, 22.7% vs. 41%, 31.8%, and 36.4%, respectively). In turn, PTH(1-84) Elecsys and Liaison assays identified less CKD patients with PTH above the RTR than iPTH except N-tact assays (6.4%, 10% vs. 16.3%, 19%, and 6.3%, respectively). Using our calculation method, our discrimination values for PTH(1-84) assays to achieve classification identical to that with iPTH Elecsys were lower than those recommended by the manufacturer.

Conclusions:Current guidelines for the treatment of secondary hyperparathyroidism in CKD should consider the type of assays used for PTH measurement. Each laboratory should assess its own RTR for PTH tests to achieve comparable classification. The presented calculation is simple, it mimics an everyday situation, switching from one assay to another one, and provides useful RTR values for PTH tests.
Analysis of serous body fluids using the CELL-DYN Sapphire hematology analyzer
Authors: Keuren Jeffrey F.W. , Hoffmann Johannes J.M.L. , Leers Mathie P.G.
Published: December 2012

Background: Correct cell enumeration and differential analysis of body fluids are important in the diagnosis and management of several diseases. Currently, microscopic analysis is still considered the “gold standard”. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the analytical performance of the CELL-DYN Sapphire hematology analyzer for automated differentiation of cells in serous fluids and to explore whether manual analysis of the raw data files could improve the differential count compared with reference microscopy.

Methods: A total of 105 serous fluids (39 peritoneal and 66 pleural effusions) were analyzed by the CELL-DYN Sapphire using standard whole-blood algorithm. Additionally, we performed optimized manual gating of the Sapphire raw data file using standard flow cytometry software.

Results: The standard Sapphire algorithm showed substantial deviations from the reference microscopic differentiation: polymorphonuclear cell counts were too high because they contained some monocytic cells. However, when optimized manual gating strategy is used, a good correlation and negligible bias were found.

Conclusions: We have demonstrated that with a modified algorithm, CELL-DYN Sapphire will provide reliable identification and enumeration of blood cells in peritoneal and pleural fluids
Advancing haemostasis automation – successful implementation of robotic centrifugation and sample processing in a tertiary service hospital
Authors: Sédille-Mostafaie Nazanin , Engler Hanna , Lutz Susanne , Korte Wolfgang
Published: December 2012

Background: Laboratories today face increasing pressure to automate operations due to increasing workloads and the need to reduce expenditure. Few studies to date have focussed on the laboratory automation of preanalytical coagulation specimen processing. In the present study, we examined whether a clinical chemistry automation protocol meets the preanalytical requirements for the analyses of coagulation.

Methods: During the implementation of laboratory automation, we began to operate a pre- and postanalytical automation system. The preanalytical unit processes blood specimens for chemistry, immunology and coagulation by automated specimen processing. As the production of platelet-poor plasma is highly dependent on optimal centrifugation, we examined specimen handling under different centrifugation conditions in order to produce optimal platelet deficient plasma specimens. To this end, manually processed models centrifuged at 1500 g for 5 and 20 min were compared to an automated centrifugation model at 3000 g for 7 min.

Results: For analytical assays that are performed frequently enough to be targets for full automation, Passing-Bablok regression analysis showed close agreement between different centrifugation methods, with a correlation coefficient between 0.98 and 0.99 and a bias between –5% and +6%. For seldom performed assays that do not mandate full automation, the Passing-Bablok regression analysis showed acceptable to poor agreement between different centrifugation methods.

Conclusions: A full automation solution is suitable and can be recommended for frequent haemostasis testing.
Deep congenital hemangioma: prenatal diagnosis and follow-up
Authors: den Boer Anne M. , Breugem Corstiaan C. , Pasmans Susanne G.M. , Pistorius Lourens R. , Schuitemaker Nico , Raphael Martine F.
Published: December 2012

Congenital hemangiomas (CHs) are rare benign vascular tumors that are present at birth after full development in utero. With the increasing importance of prenatal screening and improved imaging techniques, vascular tumors will be detected more frequently during examination. Ultrasonographers and obstetricians should be aware of these vascular tumors, their differential diagnosis and prognosis. Not only caregivers need optimal counseling, but also the professionals involved should have knowledge about these anomalies because of an increased risk of complications during and after the delivery of the child. Here, we present a child with a CH of the leg and discuss prenatal diagnosis, intra-partum management, and postnatal follow-up.
Near abelian profinite groups
Authors: Hofmann Karl H. , Russo Francesco G.
Published: December 2012

A compact p-group G (p prime) is called
near abelian if it contains
an abelian normal subgroup A such that G/A has a dense cyclic
subgroup and that every closed subgroup of A is normal in G. We relate near abelian groups to a class of compact groups, which are rich in permuting subgroups. A compact group is called quasihamiltonian (or modular)
if every pair of compact subgroups commutes setwise. We show that for p ≠ 2 a compact p-group G is near abelian
if and only if it is quasihamiltonian. The case p = 2 is discussed separately.
Synthesis of new derivatives of 2-imino-2,5-dihydrofurans
Authors: Avetisyan Aida , Karapetyan Lusine
Published: December 2012

New N-substituted 2-imino-2,5-dihydrofurans were synthesized by using several efficient approaches starting from readily available 2-imino-2,5-dihydrofurans. All new compounds were characterized by NMR and IR spectral data and elemental analysis.
Convenient synthetic route to 3-cyanopyridine-2(1H)-one derivatives with aromatic substituents
Authors: Piroyan Aleksandr , Melikyan Gagik
Published: December 2012

A new efficient method of synthesizing 3-cyano-pyridine-2(1H)-ones containing variable substituents at position 4 and various aromatic substituents at position 1 of the pyridinone ring has been developed. The method is based on the reaction of ylidenecyanoacetic acid ethyl esters with dimethylformamide dimethyl acetal, the re-amination of obtained derivatives with several aromatic amines in glacial acetic acid and the final cyclization of the intermediate products to targeted N-aryl-3-cyano-pyridine-2(1H)-ones. The condensation reactions of some of the synthesized compounds with several aldehydes have been investigated.