bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Affectionate Mothers and the Colossal Machine: Feminism, Social Assistance and the State in Uruguay, 1910-1932
Authors: Ehrick Christine
Published: February 2007

In 1910, the Uruguayan Public Assistance Law established the concept of universal poor relief, declaring that “anyone … indigent or lacking resources has the right to free assistance at the expense of the state.” Nothing better than this law qualifies Uruguay for its distinction as the ‘first welfare state’ in Latin America. As in other countries, much of the first social assistance legislation targeted poor women and children and relied on elite women for much of its implementation. In the Uruguayan case, the primary intersections between public assistance and private philanthropy were the secular “ladies’ committees” (comités de damas), charitable organizations without direct ties to the Catholic Church. These organizations were also an important catalyst for liberal feminism in Uruguay, whose chronology—from the foundation of the National Women's Council in 1916 through the women's suffrage law of 1932—closely parallels the history of the early Uruguayan welfare state. Following a discussion of the formation of the National Public Assistance and its significance for class and gender politics in Uruguay, this article will summarize the evolving relationship between the Uruguayan social assistance bureaucracy and one of these groups, theSociedad“La Bonne Garde,” an organization that worked with young unmarried mothers. It then discusses how a formal and direct relationship with the state helped make the Bonne Garde and other groups like it a principal point of entry for many elite women in the early phases of Uruguayan liberal feminism. Finally, this article shows how processes set in motion in the 1910s resulted in a relative marginalization of elite women from both state welfare and organized liberal feminism in the 1920s. Through an examination of the history of these ladies’ committees, we gain new insight into both welfare state formation in its earliest Latin American example as well as some of the elements and circumstances which helped shape liberal feminism in Uruguay.
Public Works and Local Elites: The Politics of Taxation in Tlaxcala, 1780-1810
Authors: Riley James D.
Published: February 2007

In the winter of 1791-1792, meetings were being held in all of the principal towns of the Mexican province of Tlaxcala. Decisions had been reached that something had to be done about the recurring flooding of the Zahuapa river in central Tlaxcala and, independently, about the lack of an adequate water supply for the southeastern provincial town of Huamantla. As a result of these meetings, two independent projects began both of which were locally conceived and, more importantly, locally funded. In a burst of civic pride groups of Spanishvecinos(landowners and merchants who claimed Tlaxcala as their home) and Indian communities collaborated in constructing and financing these improvements. The work on the Zahuapa lasted until 1802, and the work to supply water in Huamantla was ongoing in 1810 when the Hidalgo revolt interrupted it. What is interesting about these decisions is not the success of the projects themselves—the first failed badly and the second was foundering when aborted—but rather what they highlight about the way Spanish and Indian leadership in local communities interacted politically in the late Bourbon period, both with each other and with Bourbon officialdom.
The Beginnings of Modern Ornithology in Venezuela
Authors: Arnal Yolanda Texera
Published: February 2007

Among all the zoological species, birds are the easiest to observe and study. Their diurnal habits, the songs, and visual features make them conspicuous. These characteristics have made birds one of the bestknown animal groups even though ornithologists do not make up a large community among zoologists. For Ernst Mayr, an ornithologist who has made significant contributions that go beyond his own field, the accessibility of birds to research has allowed ornithologists to make important discoveries in several new fields of biology, ranging “from new systematics and speciation research to endocrinology and behavioral biology.”
Widows’ Rights Questioned: Indians, the State, and Fluctuating Gender Ideas in Central Highland Ecuador, 1870-1900
Authors: O'Connor Erin
Published: February 2007

This essay uses court disputes over indigenous widows’ land rights to examine the impact of an expanding national state on indigenous peasant interpersonal relations in late nineteenth-century Ecuador. In doing so, it offers a response to historian Carmen Ramos Escandón's recent call for historical studies of changing family life in order “to know how this domestic web is related to social processes in a broader sense and how the organization of the family contradicts or reflects society's structures.” Specifically, the confrontations under scrutiny reveal the extent to which indigenous peasants’ notions of marriage and widowhood rights adhered to, diverged from, or were influenced by state views of gender relations. Most court cases from the central highland province of Chimborazo in this period uncover parallels between indigenous and state views of marriage and widowhood; yet the three focal cases here, in which widows’ privileges came under question, highlight differences between indigenous and state understandings of gender relations. In the first case, an Indian woman's father-in-law recognized her right as a widow to inherit a portion of her former mother-in-law's lands; court officials, however, decided to uphold patriarchal legal standards when they granted the land in question to the woman's second husband rather than to her. In two other cases, widows’ claims were undermined not by state authorities themselves, but by Indian men in their own communities. Calling upon patriarchal notions that were at the center of the state's marriage laws, these men wrested control of property from women whose customary claims to it were stronger than theirs. Though cases like these rarely appeared in the court data from Chimborazo, they are illuminating because they promote an exploration of the relevance of ethnically distinct gender ideologies.
Denounced by Lévi Strauss Clah Luncheon Address
Authors: Schwartz Stuart B.
Published: February 2007

When in 1984 I accepted an invitation from editor Frank Smith at Cambridge University Press to collaborate in a new “Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas,” I was naive and somewhat unaware of the potential intellectual dangers and pitfalls involved in what seemed to me, at that time, to be a challenging and worthwhile project. Now, eighteen years later, and having been recently been denounced as the Americanist equivalent of a Holocaust Revisionist by no less than Claude Lévi-Strauss, the grand figure of structural anthropology and arguably the most distinguished scholar in his field in the late Twentieth Century, I am forced to question myself and the whole enterprise of trying to write such as history. Lévi-Strauss's critique was published in the French anthropology journalL'Homme. It was a thunderbolt cast from Olympus— a place which as Brazilian anthropologist Roberto da Matta has recently reminded us, is located roughly between the Rue des Ecoles and the Boulevard St. Michel—and I find it particularly discouraging since its author was one of my intellectual heroes andTristes tropiquesone of the formative books of my own education. To be accused by him of editing a volume that is “politically correct,” and “post-modernist” I find slightly amusing. [I carry a copy of the review to show my graduate students whose characterizations of me tend to run in quite the opposite direction]. Why a Lévi-Strauss should use the analogy of holocaust denial to criticize a work edited by two guys named Salomon and Schwartz is itself worthy of consideration, but it is not what concerns me in these remarks.
The Devil, Women, and the Body in Seventeenth-Century Puebla Convents
Authors: López Rosalva Loreto
Published: February 2007

The mystical and supernatural experiences that many nuns faced in seventeenth-century convents in Puebla shaped New Spain's spirituality. These experiences and the way they were recounted provided the elements for an archetype of conduct and for socially accepted virtues. Using their imagination, these nuns, servants of God, enlightened and morally exemplary, maintained a direct relationship between the convent, the supernatural world, and colonial society.

Anthropological studies of popular religion have emphasized, almost exclusively, the collective and public aspects of religious expression but have ignored private, individual piety. Yet collective and private religious expressions have been linked throughout history. When individual manifestations of religious expression were socially endorsed, these private forms of piety influenced the creation of identity and models of behavior. Because these archetypes of religious conduct were so important within colonial culture as a whole, it is important to gain an understanding of the events that led to their formation and the way in which they travelled from the culture of the convent to that of the larger society.
Mira lo que hace el diablo: The Devil in Mexican Popular Culture, 1750-1856
Authors: Lipsett-Rivera Sonya
Published: February 2007

As she lay bleeding to death from an accidental knife wound, María Josefa Vargas said to her husband: “Look what the Devil has done (Mira lo que hace el diablo).” María Josefa and her husband, José Rosario, were both indigenous, natives of Almoloya and Tenancingo respectively, and at the time living in Malinalco in the Valley of Mexico. They had been fighting playfully over some meat that María Josefa had bought to makececinaMock anger and a very sharp knife made for bad companions, and José Rosario accidentally cut María Josefa in the leg.

María Josefa's words are one of those elusive examples of the key place occupied by the Devil in Mexican popular culture in the late eighteenth century. By the late colonial period the Devil seems to have become more of a concern for rural Mexicans, particularly within indigenous communities, than he had been before. Once a European import, the Devil had become a more evident part of the symbols used by Indians in the countryside. He had become less of a concern to Church and State authorities and was rather used to explain accidents, such as the one cited above, but more frequently as an excuse or a reason for unacceptable conduct, such as violence or illicit sexuality.
The Devil and Deviance in Native Criminal Narratives From Early Mexico
Authors: Sousa Lisa
Published: February 2007

In 1686, Marcial de la Cruz, a Zapotec from the community of San Francisco Cajonos, confessed that he had murdered his wife, Catalina María, two years earlier. Tired of running from authorities, burdened with a guilty conscience, and concerned about the house and land that he had left behind, Marcial returned to tell his fantastic story. He recalled how on the day of the murder Catalina had convinced native officials from the neighboring community of San Mateo to release him from jail, where he was being detained because of a dispute over a mule. On the way back to San Francisco, Marcial stopped to bathe in the river, but Catalina decided to continue walking. After bathing, Marcial hurried along the narrow path to catch up with his wife, but she was nowhere in sight. Then, suddenly, a jaguar jumped out from behind a large maguey plant, poised to attack. Fearing for his life, Marcial commended himself to God and held out the rosary that he wore around his neck to fend off the ferocious animal. He picked up a large stick and struck the jaguar three times. As the jaguar dropped to the ground, Marcial heard a voice say to him in Zapotec “Cuckold, don't kill that woman,” and he saw the jaguar transform into his wife. Stunned by this terrifying vision, he sought refuge in the convent of Santo Domingo in Oaxaca City. His flight from authorities would eventually take him to Mexico City, Puebla, Vera Cruz, and Chiapas before he returned to San Francisco Cajonos.
“To Honor the Ashes of Their Forebears”: The Rise and Crisis of African Nations in the Post-Independence State of Buenos Aires, 1820-1860
Authors: Chamosa Oscar
Published: February 2007

During most of the nineteenth century, more than fifty organized African nations existed in Buenos Aires with the official name of African Associations. They were also known by the popular names of tambos, tangos and, later on and more loosely, of candombes. Beginning in 1822, the provincial government chartered ten African Associations with the goal of encouraging the emancipation of slaves by appealing to mutual aid and self-reliance. Along the way, the African Associations were expected to pay for the education of the recently emancipated freemen, delivering them from illiteracy and turning them into self-governing citizens of the new republic. To the dismay of liberal politicians, the African Associations defied government expectations and chose more autonomous directions. The purpose of this article is to analyze the interplay of government officials and candombe leaders in an attempt to reveal the internal organization of such associations. Although Buenos Aires was never a major destination of the African diaspora in the Americas, the rare quality of the records produced by the local police department, in charge of looking after the African nations, sheds light on a phenomenon of hemispheric dimensions.
Politics By Peaceful Means: Artisan Mutual Aid Societies in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Lima, 1860-1879
Authors: García-Bryce Iñigo
Published: February 2007

In July 1866, Lima conducted its independence celebrations with great fanfare. The festivities began at the main portal of the walled city, where the members of various patriotic associations gathered to celebrate Independence Day. The participants included theSociedad de Fundadores de la Independencia, the veteran corps from both the Independence Wars and from the recent war with Spain, the national fire brigades, and the members of an artisan society named theSociedad de Artesanos de Auxilios Mutuos. Together they sang the national anthem while standing at the foot of a Tree of Liberty, a republican symbol dating back to the French Revolution. They subsequently marched into the city, thus initiating two days of celebrations that included fireworks displays and an intricate reenactment, in Lima's central plaza, of the recent naval combat with Spain. In the course of the ceremonies, two artisans were presented with prizes, one for the most outstanding piece of craftsmanship (in the 1866 celebration the prize was won by Vicente Pedraza for making an organ) and the other for the artisan who had shown the most bravery during the recent military encounter with Spain. The prizes were in the amount of 200 soles. At another point in the celebrations the Chief of the Artisan Fire Brigade gave a patriotic speech and following the speech a young girl offered the President Mariano Ignacio Prado a laurel wreath in the name of the artisans.
Succession and Death: Royal Ceremonies in Colonial Puebla
Authors: Ramos Frances L.
Published: February 2007

On 6 March 1701, the municipal government of Puebla de los Angeles received a cédula commanding the performance of an oath ceremony, orjura del rey, for the new Bourbon monarch, Philip V. Twelve days later, a second cédula arrived, ordering the celebration of royal funerary honors, orexequias reales, for the last Spanish Habsburg king, Charles II. Puebla's municipal leaders, orregidores, attributed great importance to public ceremony and began planning for the events immediately upon receiving Queen Mariana's instructions. Like the political elites of many early modern cities, Puebla's councilmen consistently dedicated a significant share of the city's resources to mount spectacles to commemorate such events as viceregal entrances, patron saints’ days, royal births and marriages, and Spanish military victories. These occasions provided local leaders with opportunities to instruct the populace in the authority of the king's primary representative, the primacy of the Catholic faith, the power of the city's leaders, the importance of hierarchy in colonial society, and the loyalty due the royal family and the Spanish Empire.
The "Freer Men" of Ham Radio: How a Technical Hobby Provided Social and Spatial Distance
Authors: Haring Kristen
Published: February 2007

The hobby of amateur radio-communicating by wireless with individuals around the world-focused on technology. At the same time, however, it served important social functions in the lives of participants. This article analyzes hobbyists' rhetoric about family life and household space to document how men operating "ham" radios in mid-twentieth century America altered the social geography of middle-class homes. During a postwar period of sexual identity anxiety and when women controlled domestic environments, ham radio strengthened men's claims on masculinity and privacy. Amateur radio operators developed a distinct technical identity, based in personal identity and material culture, that allowed them to simultaneously achieve social and spatial distance.
Distant Ventriloquism: Vocal Mimesis, Agency and Identity in Ancient Greek Performance
Authors: Davis C. B
Published: February 2007

This essay presents evidence from mostly non-dramatic sources that provides relevant cultural context for the problem of voice characterization in ancient theatre. The exposed cultural codes show that vocal difference often signified a change of speaker, whether from one represented character to another, or from the human medium to the possessing demon or spirit. A deep and even sentimental linking of voice, identity, and agency in Greek culture suggests that vocal difference was important in signifying character identity and the agency behind speech.
Subversive Dancing: The Interventions in Jawole Willa Jo Zollar's Batty Moves
Authors: Chatterjea Ananya
Published: February 2007

This essay analyzes the movement vocabulary and choreographic structure
of Batty Moves, a piece created by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and
performed by her company, Urban Bush Women, in order to suggest how
the dancing bodies here comment on history and rewrite current cultural
stereotypes. It focuses specifically on how the dancers, manipulating
typical movement phrases from ballet, modern dance, and African-based
movement, negotiate an aesthetic-cultural framework that critiques the
fetishization of the black female body while enabling reclamations of
black female sexuality.
Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham
Authors: Kraut Anthea
Published: February 2007

This article situates Hurston's largely neglected theatrical presentations
of West Indian folk dance alongside the better-known dance work of Baker
and Dunham in order to trace shifts in the racialized meanings surrounding
black vernacular dance stagings in the early decades of the twentieth
century. A comparative survey of the three artists exposes an important
if complicated historical transition from stereotypical representations
of black primitivity to more nuanced representations of a black diaspora.
Microscopic and Macroscopic Responses to Inequalities in the Governance of Security: Respective Experiments in South Africa and Northern Ireland
Authors: Kempa Michael , Shearing Clifford D. , Cartwright John R , Jenneker Madeleine
Published: February 2007

Michael Kempa and Clifford Shearing (in collaboration with John Cartwright and Madeleine Jenneker) examine the multiple 'nodes' of policing in the global era. Through focusing upon the illustrative examples of South Africa and Northern Ireland, a range of normative concerns that are associated with the proliferation of non-state policing and disorder intolerant public policing are identified, and two adaptive policy responses to these concerns are explored.
A Failure of Rural Protection
Authors: Manby Bronwen
Published: February 2007

Bronwen Manby examines violent crime on the South African farm as well as government responses to this type of crime, in the shape of the 'rural protection plan'. She argues that while there are deficiencies in the response to violent crime against farm owners, the system has tended to favour protection of farm owners over other farm residents
Crime, Police and Public in Transitional Societies
Authors: Shaw Mark
Published: February 2007

Mark Shaw considers the nature of crime in societies in transition, and focuses on the causal factors for increased levels of crime during periods of political, economic and social change. He argues that evidence that the fight against crime in transitional societies is being won is far from conclusive, and a series of policy dilemmas that confront such societies are presented.
Farewells to the Peasantry
Authors: Bernstein Henry
Published: February 2007

Henry Bernstein suggest why, despite its remarkable intellectual history, debates about the nature of the peasantry probably are no longer relevant. However, studies of agrarian petty commodity production and the relations of class and capital to rural life and agriculture remain vital.
Species Trouble: The Abjection of Adolescence in E. B. White's Stuart Little
Authors: Gubar Marah
Published: February 2007

According to Gubar, Stuart Little mirrors the plight of the adolescent caught between the two categories of child and adult. Neither entirely mouse nor human, Stuart is both an embarrassment and an asset to his family. Similarly, critics have been hard pressed to agree on a response. It is Gubar's contention that "Stuart Little is so exclusively about the ongoing operation of growing up that readers fail to recognize adolescence as an explicit theme."
Phoenix Risen: The Resurrection of Global Finance
Authors: Cohen Benjamin J.
Published: February 2007

Of all the many changes of the world economy since World War II, few have been nearly so dramatic as the resurrection of global finance. A review of five recent books suggests considerable diversity of opinion concerning both the causes and the consequences of financial globalization, leaving much room for further research. Competing historical interpretations, stressing the contrasting roles of market forces and government policies, need to be reexamined for dynamic linkages among the variables they identify. Likewise, impacts on state policy at both the macro and micro levels should be explored more systematically to understand not just whether constraints may be imposed on governments but also how and under what conditions, and what policymakers can do about them. Finally, questions are also raised about implications for the underlying paradigm conventionally used for the study of international political economy and international relations more generally.
Governing China's Transition to the Market: Institutional Incentives, Politicians' Choices, and Unintended Outcomes
Authors: Yang Dali L.
Published: February 2007

This essay reviews two books that seek to account for China's success in making economic reforms and sustaining rapid growth. One perspective explains China's reformist approach in terms of politicians making choices under certain institutional rules. The other sees an economic logic of market transition and emphasizes policymakers' limited abilities in governing the economy. The essay assesses the merits of these competing claims. It calls for better specification of the causal linkages between institutional rules and politicians' choices and concludes that both the dynamics and dilemmas of China's political economy are explained in terms of increasing market competition. Finally the essay evaluates the argument that decentralization leads to market segmentation and points to the Chinese government's evolving role in dealing with the economy.
Eugenic Ideas, Political Interests, and Policy Variance: Immigration and Sterilization Policy in Britain and the U.S.
Authors: Hansen Randall , King Desmond
Published: February 2007

A burgeoning literature in comparative politics has sought to incorporate ideas into political analysis. In this article the authors categorize the main ways in which this incorporation has occurred—ideas as culture, ideas as expert knowledge, ideas as solutions to collective action problems, and ideas as programmatic beliefs—and explicate the different assumptions about causality and the permanence of ideas implied by these different frameworks. This theoretical exercise is then applied to an empirical examination of eugenic ideas about sterilization and immigration and their influence on public policy in Britain and the United States between the world wars. Given that ideational ideas were (broadly) equally powerful in both countries, the cases provide a basis for shedding light on when and how extant ideational frameworks influence public policy. Employing primary sources the authors conclude that ideas remain powerful expressions of societal interests but depend upon key carriers to realize such expressions.
Improving Forecasts of State Failure
Authors: King Gary , Zeng Langche
Published: February 2007

This article offers the first independent scholarly evaluation of the claims, forecasts, and causal inferences of the State Failure Task Force and its efforts to forecast when states will fail. State failure refers to the collapse of the authority of the central government to impose order, as in civil wars, revolutionary wars, genocides, politicides, and adverse or disruptive regime transitions. States that sponsor terrorism or allow it to be organized within their borders are all failed states. This task force, set up at the behest of Vice President Gore in 1994, has been led by a group of distinguished academics working as consultants to the U.S. CIA. State Failure Task Force reports and publications have received attention in the media, in academia, and from public decision makers. The article identifies several methodological errors in the task force work that cause its reported forecast probabilities of conflict to be too large, its causal inferences to be biased in unpredictable directions, and its claims of forecasting performance to be exaggerated. However, the article also finds that the task force has amassed the best and most carefully collected data on state failure to date, and the required corrections provided in this article, although very large in effect, are easy to implement. The article also demonstrates how to improve forecasting performance to levels significantly greater than even corrected versions of its models. Although the matter is still a highly uncertain endeavor, the authors are nevertheless able to offer the first accurate forecasts of state failure, along with procedures and results that may be of practical use in informing foreign policy decision making. The article also describes a number of strong empirical regularities that may help in ascertaining the causes of state failure.
East Asia in the “New Era” in World Politics
Authors: Dittmer Lowell
Published: February 2007

In the ongoing war on terrorism that highlights the “new era” in world politics, East Asia constitutes a crucial swing vote. Its importance derives from its growing economic heft in the world, as well as its central role in three key trends that have characterized international politics since the end of the cold war: globalization, regionalism, and a reequilibration of the national balance of power. This article examines the impact of September 11 on the region, focusing on these three trends as indicators. It finds that while the impact of the war has been in significant respects different in Southeast Asia and in Northeast Asia, in both subregions the dominant preference has been to pursue this new campaign more as a police effort than as a “war” against selected alleged terrorist-harboring nation-states. In this respect, antiterrorist efforts have been modest but thus far fairly effective. Yet the antiterrorist effort has not eclipsed other realms of international diplomacy (such as economic cooperation and regional development) to the extent that it has in American foreign policy. Thus there is some risk that the divergent priorities of Washington and the East Asian nations may unwittingly contribute to a form of regional consolidation in which the U.S. plays a diminished role.
Machine Translation and Global English
Authors: Raley Rita
Published: February 2007

This essay critiques Warren Weaver's articulation of machine translation as a problem of cryptography and his analogizing of the treatment of language within the context of machine translation to C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards's Basic English project. Basic language, with its privileging of communicability and immediate legibility, is the precondition for the global network of programming languages. Focusing on the underlying principles of machine translation, functionality, and performativity, this essay argues for a homology between machine translation and global English: both exist in the technocratic mode and abide by the principle of instrumental rationality.
Primed Vesicles Can Be Distinguished from Docked Vesicles by Analyzing Their Mobility
Authors: Nofal Shahira , Becherer Ute , Hof Detlef , Matti Ulf , Rettig Jens
Published: February 2007

Neurotransmitters are released from nerve terminals and neuroendocrine cells by calcium-dependent exocytosis of vesicles. Before fusion, vesicles are docked to the plasma membrane and rendered release competent through a process called priming. Electrophysiological methods such as membrane capacitance measurements and carbon fiber amperometry accurately measure the fusion step of exocytosis with high time resolution but provide only indirect information about priming and docking. Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM) enables the real-time visualization of vesicles, near the plasma membrane, as they undergo changes from one molecular state to the other. We devised a new method to analyze the mobility of vesicles, which not only allowed us to classify the movement of vesicles in three different categories but also to monitor dynamic changes in the mobility of vesicles over time. We selectively enhanced priming by treating bovine chromaffin cells with phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) or by overexpressing Munc13-1 (mammalian Unc) and analyzed the mobility of large dense-core vesicles. We demonstrate that nearly immobile vesicles represent primed vesicles because the pool of vesicles displaying this type of mobility was significantly increased after PMA treatment and Munc13-1 overexpression and decreased during tetanus toxin expression. Moreover, we showed that the movement of docked but unprimed vesicles is restricted to a confined region of ∼220 nm diameter. Finally, a small third population of undocked vesicles showed a directed and probably active type of mobility. For the first time, we can thus distinguish the molecular state of vesicles in TIRFM by their mobility.
Myotonic dystrophy in two European grey wolves ( Canis lupus )
Authors: Pákozdy Á. , Leschnik M. , Nell B. , Kolm U. , Virányi Z. , Belényi B. , Molnár M. , Bilzer T.
Published: February 2007

Two related European Grey wolves (
Canis lupus
) with the history of muscle stiffness beginning at 2 weeks of age were examined in this study. Muscle tone and muscle mass were increased in both animals. Muscle stiffness was worsened by stress so that the animals fell into lateral recumbency. Blood chemistry revealed mildly increased serum creatine kinase activity. Abnormal potentials typical of myotonic discharges were recorded by electromyography. Cataract, first-degree atrioventricular (AV) block and inhomogeneous myocardial texture by ultrasound suggested extramuscular involvement. Myopathology demonstrated dystrophic signs in the muscle biopsy specimen. The presumptive diagnosis based on the
in vivo
findings was myotonic dystrophy. Immunochemistry of the striated muscles revealed focal absence of dystrophin 1 and beta-dystroglycan in both cases. Cardiac and ophthalmologic involvement suggested a disorder very similar to a human form of myotonic dystrophy. This is the first description of myotonic dystrophy in wolves.
Jelnyelv, munkamemória és kérgi aktivitás
Authors: Demeter Gyula
Published: February 2007

A tanulmány első
részében áttekintjük a hallássérültek által alkalmazott kódolási típusokat a
rövid távú emlékezetben. A siketeknél a legtöbb esetben hiányzik a hallóknál
használt fonetikai-akusztikai kód, viszont képesek bizonyos mértékben az
artikulációs kód alkalmazására. Világossá vált az is, hogy lehetséges az
információk jelbeli kódolása, abban az esetben ha az ingerek bemutatása is
ebben a modalitásban történik. A jelnyelvbeli kód használata a rövid távú
memória feladatokban a feladat jellegétől és a vizsgált személyek
képességeitől, nyelvi kompetenciájától egyaránt függ. A siketek kisebb rövid
távú memória kapacitása ellenére a munkamemória feladatokban hasonlóan
teljesítenek, mint halló társaik, ami arra utal, hogy a siketek számára is
hasonló erőforrások állnak rendelkezésre, ha a nyelvi információk online
manipulációjáról van szó. Az auditív rendszer nagyon hatékony a különböző
hangok sorrendjének megtartásában, és lehetséges, hogy a hallók és a siketek
eltérően kódolják a szeriális információkat (a rövid távú memória kapacitásbeli
különbségei ebből is származhatnak), az előbbiek sorrendi, míg a jelölők téri
kódolási stratégiára támaszkodnak. A jelnyelv sajátos lehetőséget kínál a nyelv
neuronális szerveződésének tanulmányozására. A tanulmány második részében
megvizsgáljuk, hogy az eltérő szenzoros bemenet hogyan befolyásolja a nyelv
kérgi reprezentációját. Igazából a hangos beszéd és a jelnyelv estében is
hasonló kérgi aktivációs mintázatot figyelhetünk meg, ami arra utal, hogy a
nyelvi feldolgozás kérgi központjainak szerveződését nem a különböző szenzoros
modalitások határozzák meg, hanem a természetes nyelvek belső szerkezete.
Újdonság-detekció időskorban: Pszichofiziológiai vizsgálatok
Authors: Czigler István , Balázs László , Pató Lívia , Poszet Emese , Weisz Júlia
Published: February 2007

A folyamatban lévő
viselkedés irányításához nem tartozó események („újdonságingerek”) orientációs
folyamatokat válthatnak ki. Ezek olyan idegrendszeri folyamatokkal járnak
együtt, melyek az eseményhez kötött potenciálok két összetevőjében, az N2b- és
P3a/P3
újdonság
-hullámban mutatkoznak meg. Idős személyeknél e
hullámok akusztikus és vizuális ingerek esetében is kisebbek, csúcsuk pedig
később jelentkezik, mint a fiataloknál. A késés összefüggésbe hozható az
időskori mentális lassulás általános jelenségével. Az amplitúdóváltozásban
szerepet játszik a gátlási működések hatékonyságának csökkenése. A változás
nyomon követhető habituációs folyamatok életkori különbségében: az
orientációval kapcsolatos több eseményhez kötött potenciál-összetevő
amplitúdója fiataloknál a kísérlet előrehaladtával, az egyes ingerlési
blokkokon belül, illetve azonos ingerek ismételt megjelenésekor kisebb lesz. A
bemutatott vizsgálatok arra utalnak, hogy az N2b-összetevő az újdonságingerekre
kialakuló információfeldolgozási, illetve válaszszerveződési konfliktusokkal
áll kapcsolatban, a P3a/P3
újdonság
-hullám pedig az orientációt
kiváltó ingerek feldolgozását követő folyamatok során jön létre.
Optimizmus és egészség
Authors: Szondy Máté
Published: February 2007

A tanulmány a
különféle optimizmus - konstruktumok (vonás optimizmus, attribúciós optimizmus,
irreá­lis optimizmus, valamint terápia - specifikus optimizmus) és a fizikai
egészségi állapot közti kapcsolatot vizsgálja. A legtöbb áttekintett kutatás
pozitív kapcsolatot talált az optimizmus és a különböző egészségmutatók közt.
Az optimista személyek a kevésbé optimista személyekkel összehasonlítva
szubjektíven jobbnak ítélik egészségi állapotukat, és ez a különbség az
objektíven (szakember által) mért tünetszám tekintetében is fennáll. Az
optimizmus általában jobb immunműködéssel (kivételt képeznek a
kontrollálhatatlan stresz-szor­helyzetek) és gyorsabb gyógyulási sebességgel
jár. És végül az optimista személyek szignifikánsan tovább élnek a pesszimista
személyekhez képest. Az optimizmus és a fizikai egészség közti pozitív
kapcsolatot több tényező is befolyásolja. Az optimisták kevesebb stresszorral
találkoznak, azokat eltérően értékelik és máshogy küzdenek meg velük, mint a
kevésbé optimista személyek. Az optimizmus szintje befolyásolja az
egészségmagatartást, valamint a betegségmagatartást. Végül annak a lehetősége
is fennáll, hogy az optimizmus és a fizikai egészség közti kapcsolat hátterében
egy harmadik változó, a neuroticizmus áll. Tanulmányunk kritikai nézőpontot
alkalmaz, rámutat a téma kutatását nehezítő elméleti és módszertani
nehézségekre.
Beérkezett könyvek
Authors: Pléh Csaba
Published: February 2007

Arisztotelész:
Lélekfilozófiai
írások.
(Fordította: Steiger Kornél) Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 2006 David Hume:

Értekezés az emberi természetről
. (Fordította: Bence György) Akadémiai
Kiadó, Budapest, 2006 Kelso,
J. A. Scott és Engstrøm, David A.:
The complementary nature.
MIT
Press, Cambridge, MA, 2006 Fehér Márta,
Zemplén Gábor és Binzberger
Viktor (szerk.):
Értelem és
történelem.
L'Harmattan, Budapest, 2006 Márkus
Attila:
Neurológia.
Pszichológia szakos hallgatók számára.
Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 2006 Cayton, H., Graham, N. és Warner,
J.:
Alzheimer-kór és a demencia egyéb fajtái
. (Fordította: Nikowitz
Krisztina) SpringMed Kiadó, Budapest, 2006 Houdé, Olivier:
10
leçons de psychologie et pédagogie
. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 2006 Velicskovszkij, Borisz M.:
Kognyityivnaja nauka. Osznovi pszichologii
poznanyija
. Vol. I-II.Academa-Szmüszl. Moszkva, 2006 Fábri György
(szerk.):
A tudománykommunikáció értelme/értéke.
Tudástársadalom
Alapítvány, Budapest, 2006 Ropolyi
László:
Az Internet természete.
Internetfilozófiai értekezés.
Typotex, Budapest, 2006
Integrated Crop–Livestock Systems in the Southeastern USA
Authors: Franzluebbers A. J.
Published: February 2007

Opportunities to integrate crops and livestock are abundant throughout the southeastern USA due to a mild climate and a rich natural resource base that can produce different crops throughout the year. Although not currently common, integration of forage and grazing animals with cropping systems could benefit both production and environmental goals. This report summarizes research from some of the key components that could produce viable integrated crop–livestock production systems: sod‐based crop rotation, cover cropping, intercropping, and conservation tillage. Sod‐based crop rotations have been effective in breaking pest cycles and restoring soil organic matter, which critically controls a wide diversity of key soil and plant properties and processes. Cover cropping by itself has many agronomic benefits, but its adoption appears to be limited, because of cost without immediate economic benefit. Grazing of cover crops could provide an immediate economic benefit to producers, especially with the development of conservation tillage technologies to avoid deterioration of soil and water quality. The potential for advancement of integrated crop–livestock systems is exemplified in a few current research projects in the Coastal Plain and Piedmont regions. With greater integration of crops and livestock, new management guidelines and experiences will be needed, but the quantity and quality of production and economic return could increase, while at the same time placing less degrading pressure on soil and water resources.
Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy for Direct Imaging of Reaction Rates
Authors: Wittstock Gunther , Burchardt Malte , Pust Sascha E. , Shen Yan , Zhao Chuan
Published: February 2007

Not only in electrochemistry but also in biology and in membrane transport, localized processes at solid–liquid or liquid–liquid interfaces play an important role at defect sites, pores, or individual cells, but are difficult to characterize by integral investigation. Scanning electrochemical microscopy is suitable for such investigations. After two decades of development, this method is based on a solid theoretical foundation and a large number of demonstrated applications. It offers the possibility of directly imaging heterogeneous reaction rates and locally modifying substrates by electrochemically generated reagents. The applications range from classical electrochemical problems, such as the investigation of localized corrosion and electrocatalytic reactions in fuel cells, sensor surfaces, biochips, and microstructured analysis systems, to mass transport through synthetic membranes, skin and tissue, as well as intercellular communication processes. Moreover, processes can be studied that occur at liquid surfaces and liquid–liquid interfaces.
The expression level of luciferase within tumour cells can alter tumour growth upon in vivo bioluminescence imaging
Authors: Brutkiewicz Susan , Mendonca Marc , Stantz Keith , Comerford Kathleen , Bigsby Robert , Hutchins Gary , Goebl Mark , Harrington Maureen
Published: February 2007

In vivo bioluminescence imaging is becoming a very important tool for the study of a variety of cellular and molecular events or disease processes in living systems. In vivo bioluminescence imaging is based on the detection of light emitted from within an animal. The light is generated as a product of the luciferase–luciferin reaction taking place in a cell. In this study, we implanted mice with tumour cells expressing either a high or a low level of luciferase. In vivo bioluminescence imaging was used to follow tumour progression. Repeated luciferin injection and imaging of high and low luciferase‐expressing tumours was performed. While low luciferase‐expressing tumours grew similarly to vector controls, growth of the high luciferase‐expressing tumours was severely inhibited. The observation that a high level of luciferase expression will inhibit tumour cell growth when an animal is subjected to serial in vivo bioluminescence imaging is potentially an important factor in designing these types of studies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Enantioselective reduction of pentoxifylline to lisofylline using whole‐cell Lactobacillus kefiri biotransformation
Authors: Pękala; Elżbieta , Godawska‐Matysik Anna , Żelaszczyk Dorota
Published: February 2007

Lisofylline (LSF) is a drug candidate that has been under investigation for acute respiratory distress syndrome, acute lung injury, septic shock and mucositis. As LSF is not commercially available in our country, we produced it for pharmacokinetic studies. In the present work whole‐cell reduction of pentoxifylline [1‐(5‐oxohexyl)‐3,5‐dimethylxanthine] to LSF [1‐(5R‐hydroxyhexyl)‐3,5‐dimethylxanthine] using Lactobacillus kefiri DSM 20587 was investigated. Glucose or 2‐propanol was used as a co‐substrate to regenerate the NADPH cofactor. The reaction conditions were optimized. The influence of different concentrations of co‐substrates on the yield and enantioselectivity of the biotransformation of pentoxifylline into LSF were tested. Maximum yield (100%) of biotransformation was reached in the presence of glucose as a co‐substrate. At glucose concentrations of 675 and 900 mM the bioreduction of pentoxifylline proceeded highly enantioselectively (enantiomeric excess for the R enantiomer of 98%).
Genetic engineering, expression, and activity of a fusion protein of a human neurotrophin and a molecular Trojan horse for delivery across the human blood–brain barrier
Authors: Boado Ruben J. , Zhang Yufeng , Zhang Yun , Pardridge William M.
Published: February 2007

Neurotrophins, such as brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), do not cross the blood–brain barrier (BBB). Certain monoclonal antibodies (MAb) to the human insulin receptor (HIR) do cross the BBB via receptor‐mediated transport, and can act as a molecular Trojan horse to ferry across the BBB an attached drug. A genetically engineered fusion protein was produced whereby the amino terminus of human BDNF is fused to the carboxyl terminus of the heavy chain of a chimeric HIRMAb. The HIRMAb‐BDNF fusion protein reacted equally with antibodies to human IgG and BDNF. The bi‐functionality of the fusion protein was retained as the affinity of the fusion protein for the HIR was identical to that of the chimeric HIRMAb, and the affinity of the fusion protein for the trkB receptor was identical to that of BDNF. The fusion protein was equi‐potent with BDNF in a neuroprotection assay in human neural cells. The pharmacokinetics (PK) of the fusion protein was examined in the adult Rhesus monkey. The mean residence time (MRT) of the fusion protein in blood was >100‐fold longer than the MRT of BDNF. Therapeutic levels of BDNF were produced in primate brain following the intravenous administration of the fusion protein. A fusion protein tandem vector was engineered that allowed for isolation of a CHO cell line that produced the fusion protein at high levels in serum free medium. Neurotrophins, such as BDNF, can be re‐formulated to enable these molecules to cross the human BBB, and such fusion proteins represent a new class of human neurotherapeutics. Biotechnol. Bioneg. 2007;97: 1376–1386. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Model Studies on a Carprofen Derivative as Dual Photosensitizer for Thymine Dimerization and (6–4) Photoproduct Repair
Authors: Trzcionka Jérôme , Lhiaubet‐Vallet Virginie , Paris Cecilia , Belmadoui Noureddine , Climent Maria José , Miranda Miguel Angel
Published: February 2007

Cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPD) and (6–4) photoproducts are among the main UV‐induced DNA lesions. Both types of damage are mostly repaired in prokaryotes by photolyase enzymes. The repair mechanism of (6–4) photolyases has still not been fully elucidated, but it is assumed that back rearrangement to the oxetane occurs prior to repair. In this work, a non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drug derivative corresponding to the dechlorinated methyl ester of carprofen (namely methyl 2‐(carbazol‐2‐yl)propanoate, PPMe) has been used to achieve the photosensitized cycloreversion of model oxetanes (formally resulting from photocycloaddition between benzophenone and 1,3‐dimethylthymine or 2′‐deoxyuridine), by employing fluorescence spectroscopy, laser flash photolysis, HPLC and NMR. Although PPMe is able to photoinduce the cycloreversion of both oxetanes, the fluorescence quenching of PPMe is faster for the 2′‐deoxyribose‐containing oxetane; this underlines the importance of the structure in such studies. Moreover, PPMe was shown to photoinduce the formation of thymidine cyclobutane dimers through a triplet–triplet energy transfer from a vibrationally excited state, as suggested by the enhanced PPMe triplet quenching by thymidine with increasing temperature. These results reveal a dual role of PPMe in DNA photosensitization, in that it photoinduces either damage or repair.
Imidazole Coordinated Sandwich‐type Antimony Poly‐oxotungstates Na9[{Na(H2O)2}3{M(C3H4N2)}3(SbW9O33)2]·xH2O (M=NiII, CoII, ZnII, MnII)
Authors: Cui Rui‐Rui , Wang Hu‐Lin , Yang Xin‐Yu , Ren Shu‐Hu , Hu Huai‐Ming , Fu Feng , Wang Ji‐Wu , Xue Gang‐Lin
Published: February 2007

The imidazole covalently coordinated sandwich‐type heteropolytungstates Na9[{Na(H2O)2}3{M(C3H4N2)}3‐ (SbW9O33)2]·xH2O (M=NiII, x=32; M=CoII, x=32; M=ZnII, x=33; M=MnII, x=34) were obtained by the reaction of Na2WO4·2H2O, SbCl3·6H2O, NiCl2·6H2O [MnSO4·H2O, Co(NO3)2·6H2O, ZnSO4·7H2O] and imidazole at pH≈7.5. The structure of Na9[{Na(H2O)2}3{Ni(C3H4N2)}3(SbW9O33)2]·32H2O was determined by single crystal X‐ray diffraction. Polyanion [{Na(H2O)2}3{Ni(C3H4N2)}3(SbW9O33)2}3]9− has approximate C3v symmetry, imidazole coordinated six‐nuclear cluster [{Na(H2O)2}3{Ni(C3H4N2)}3]9+ is encapsulated between two (α‐SbW9O33)9−, the three rings of imidazole in the polyanion are perpendicular to the horizontal plane formed by six metals (Na‐Ni‐Na‐Ni‐Na‐Ni) in the central belt, and π‐stacking interactions exist between imidazoles of neighboring polyanions with dihedral angel of 60°. The compounds were also characterized by IR, UV‐Vis spectra, TG and DSC, and the thermal decomposition mechanism of the four compounds was suggested by TG curves.