bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Attention and Sensory Gain Control: A Peripheral Visual Process?
Authors: Handy Todd C. , Khoe Wayne 
Published: December 2005

Abstract
Attention-related sensory gain control in human extra-striate cortex is believed to improve the acuity of visual perception. Yet given wide variance in the spatial resolution of vision across the retina, it remains unclear whether sensory gain operates homogenously between foveal and nonfoveal retinotopic locations. To address this issue, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) in a variant of the canonical spatial attention task. Participants were cued to expect targets at either fixation (foveal targets) or at a location several degrees above fixation (parafoveal targets). At both target locations, manual reaction times were shorter for cued relative to uncued targets, indicating that attention was consistently oriented to the cued location. Nevertheless, attention-related increases in sensory-evoked cortical activity were only observed at the parafoveal target location, as measured by the amplitude of the lateral occipital P1 ERP component. A second experiment replicated this data pattern using targets with lower stimulus contrast, indicating that the absence of a P1 effect for foveal targets could not be attributed to a saturated P1 response under higher-contrast stimulus conditions. When considered in light of retinogeniculate projections to cortex showing systematic changes in their physiological organization beginning within a degree of visual angle of the fovea, our findings support the proposal that the strategic functions of visual attention may vary with the retinotopic location involved.
No "Sombre Satan": C. S. Lewis, Milton, and Re-presentations of the Diabolical
Authors: Stutz Chad 
Published: December 2005

AbstractC.S. Lewis is most often read as a staunch "anti-Satanist" and critic of romanticized readings of Milton's Satan, a view derived largely from his Preface to Paradise Lost. Elsewhere, however, Lewis disagrees strongly with Milton's representations of Satan, Hell, and demons, most notably in his fictional works Perelandra, That Hideous Strength, and The Screwtape Letters. To rectify what he saw as the "harm" caused by Milton's humanized depiction of the diabolical, Lewis draws upon elements of a long medieval tradition which Milton had largely avoided—the tradition of "grotesque" representation. In appropriating this tradition, Lewis aims to re-introduce a sense of terror in connection with the diabolical, a move which both suggests the violence and brutality of certain forms of evil and disallows any sympathetic identification with the Devil on the part of the reader. In contrast to Milton, then, Lewis portrays a Devil that is aggressive and animalistic, and a Hell that is despotic and intrinsically unstable. At the same time, however, Lewis was keenly aware that especially in modern society the diabolical can often exist within the seemingly "normal," and his employment of the grotesque finally urges a chilling recognition of the terrible within each of us.
The Economy of Salvation: Narrative and Liminality in Rembrandt's Death of the Virgin
Authors: Bernier Ronald 
Published: December 2005

AbstractThis essay examines Rembrandt's 1639 etching, The Death of the Virgin, an image which, despite a comprehensive literature on the artist's graphic work, has received little critical attention beyond formal analyses of the print as evidence of the artist's stylistic transition from an elaborate Baroque sensibility, typical of the 1630s, to a more restrained vision of the 1640s. It considers the special nature of the depicted subject, the transitus of the Virgin from earthly to heavenly life and the promise that miracle holds for the eternal life of all believers. Taking into account official Protestant and Reformed iconoclast proscriptions of the cult of the Virgin, as well as the iconographic features of literary, visual and personal sources, the author re-interprets the subject of the spiritual mystery beyond a dominantly literal and narrative depiction of the moment of death, to an exegesis on the promise of and faith in salvation, specifically through the intercession of the Virgin, she who transcends finite mortality and who holds, according to the faithful, that special 'liminal' place between the divine and the earthly.
When He would Compose from Fragments a World Perfect at Last: Theology and Poetics in Czeslaw Milosz's "From the Rising of the Sun"
Authors: Stankiewicz David 
Published: December 2005

AbstractThis essay considers the place of religious and theological thought in the work of 20th century Nobel Laureate, Czeslaw Milosz (1911–2004). In a manner unique in contemporary world literature, Milosz approached and utilized these realms as a means to formulate and examine questions that are both timely and timeless. Focusing on sections I, II, and VII of the long poem-sequence, "From the Rising of the Sun," (along with discussions of other key poems and texts) the essay explores the dynamic interplay between theological thought and poetic craft in Milosz's work. Section I, "The Unveiling," introduces both the key themes the poem sequence explores (being and time, the meaning of history and individual lives, fall and redemption) as well as key poetic techniques (direct descriptive invocation and nuanced use of verb tense). Section II functions as a poetic embodiment of a particularly Miloszian, unorthodox "Manichaenism," an outlook that finds no basis for human values in the natural order of the world. Embedded in this section is a poetic gesture of hope that is more fully explored in Section VII. In this concluding section Milosz, using a full-range of poetic techniques ranging from the dramatic-narrative to the direct invocation of vanished reality, explores the heterodox theological concept of apokatastasis, or total restoration, as a gesture of profound hope that has theological, ethical, and aesthetic implications.
Netting the Butterfly Man: The Significance of Vladimir Nabokov in W. G. Sebald's The Emigrants
Authors: Shrayer Maxim , Curtin Adrian 
Published: December 2005

AbstractIn this essay, we examine the role of Vladimir Nabokov in W. G. Sebald's The Emigrants (1992; Eng. tr. 1996), both as a character in the novel (as the unannounced "butterfly man") and as an intertextual and metaphysical point of reference. It is our contention that this authorial intervention on Sebald's part may stem from the fact that both the German-born Sebald and the Russian-born Nabokov were spiritual witnesses to the Shoah, and though they were non-Jewish authors, they were committed to the artistic reckoning of this event through writing and memory. To this end, we offer a reading of The Emigrants that re-interprets the book in the light of Nabokov's continued presence, juxtaposing the artistic systems of these two authors and considering their respective approaches to catastrophe, as well as the shared possibility in their art that the human spirit may survive and endure.
By Popular Demand: The Effect of Public Opinion on Income Inequality
Authors: Andersen Robert , Heath Anthony , Weakliem David 
Published: December 2005

AbstractThis paper examines the relationship between public support for wage differentials and actual income inequality using data from the World Values Surveys. The distribution of income is more equal in nations where public opinion is more egalitarian. There is some evidence that the opinions of people with higher incomes are more influential than those of people with low incomes. Although the estimated relationship is stronger in democracies, it is present even under non-democratic governments, and the hypothesis that effects are equal cannot be rejected. We consider the possibility of reciprocal causation by means of an instrumental variables analysis, which yields no evidence that income distribution affects opinion.
Trust and National Character: Japanese Sense of Trust, Cross-National and Longitudinal Surveys
Authors: Yoshino Ryozo 
Published: December 2005

AbstractThis paper overviews people's sense of trust as it is reflected in the response data of questionnaire surveys. I will study the variability of people's trust systems in order to explore the stability over time and the change due to the short-term changes of economic and political conditions. To begin with, I will explain briefly the history of our longitudinal and cross-national survey on national character. Secondly, I will summarize some aspects of people's sense of trust in our longitudinal survey of Japanese national character. Thirdly, I will present cross-national comparative analysis of trust in our seven-country survey and our East Asia survey. Fourthly, I will consider the acculturation of the Japanese immigrants in Brazil, Hawaii, and the West Coast of USA. Finally, I will provide some comments on cross-national scaling of trust for our future research.
The Grand Strategy of Charles V (1500-1558): Castile, War, and Dynastic Priority in the Mediterranean
Authors: Espinosa Aurelio 
Published: December 2005

AbstractThis paper analyzes two imperial policies, the dynastic strategy of Charles V and the nationalist agenda of the Castilian clerical elite. The Protestant Reformation forced Charles to assess his priorities according to his conviction of religious unity and his dynastic claim of universal monarchy. Charles' ambitions compromised Spain's entrepreneurial agenda, which consisted of the defense of the Mediterranean against the Ottomans. Seeking to protect the coalescing transatlantic system and established commercial networks of Spanish businessmen, the Spanish administration under President Tavera (1524-1539) failed to convince Charles to focus on the Muslim enemy and to allow the German people to decide their own religious destinies. Instead, Charles sought to contain his universal monarchy in Europe, and his decision to restore religious unity in the empire resulted in the overextension of Spanish resources and the eventual decline of Spain.
Our Lady of the Rosary, African Slaves, and the Struggle Against Heretics in Brazil, 1550-1660
Authors: Meznar Joan 
Published: December 2005

AbstractIn the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as first French Huguenots and then Dutch Calvinists threatened Portuguese control of Brazil, Jesuit missionaries promoted devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary as a defense against both heresy and heretics. African slaves, as well as Indians and white settlers, were encouraged to join Confraternities of the Rosary in order to deepen their commitment to the Catholic faith and, by extension, to the Catholic political cause. Using sermons that the Jesuit father Antonio Vieira preached to black Confraternities of the Rosary, the article addresses the appeal these brotherhoods held for African slaves, and ways in which they became centers for the survival of African traditions in Catholic Brazil.
Measured Reciprocity: English Ambassadorial Gift Exchange in the 17th and 18th Centuries
Authors: Jansson Maija 
Published: December 2005

AbstractThis article examines the nature of ambassadorial gifting by placing the subject within the framework of the important works on gifts and giving. It explains the place of gifts within the ceremonials preceding negotiation, and the reason for that. Ultimately it shows how the value of ambassadorial gifts was calculated in order to create a certain reciprocity in giving.
Mineralogical controls on storage of As, Cu, Pb and Zn at the abandoned Mathiatis massive sulphide mine, Cyprus
Authors: Hudson-Edwards K. A. , Edwards S. J. 
Published: December 2005

AbstractThe Mathiatis massive sulphide deposit in Cyprus was a low-grade (0.3% Cu), three million ton ore body of pyrite and minor chalcopyrite occurring within basaltic lavas of the Troodos ophiolite. Cessation of mining in 1987 left a deep open pit surrounded by large heaps of spoil, which are undergoing oxidation and leaching. The aim of this study was to determine the mineralogical controls on the storage and potential remobilization of As, Cu, Pb and Zn within, and from, mine spoil heaps. Most of the spoil samples collected, and related materials (stream sediment, reaction zone between a boulder of massive pyrite and calcareous chert, salt crusts on stream beds), are enriched in As (27—220 ppm), Cu (110—400 ppm), Pb (10—140 ppm) and Zn (290—12,000 ppm) relative to both the basalt and calcareous chert (As 4—10 ppm, Cu 20—76 ppm, Pb 3—6 ppm, Zn 39—200 ppm).Arsenic, Cu, Pb and Zn in the spoil and related materials are associated with Fe(-Al-S)-O, Fe(-Al-Mg)-S-O, Al(-Mg-Fe)-S-O and Mg(-Al-Fe)-S-O phases (the brackets represent minor components of less than 20 wt.% within the phases). Chemical extraction work using CaCl2 suggests that Cu, Zn and to some extent, As, are potentially more soluble than Pb. This is corroborated by the very high total concentrations of Cu and Zn in both the secondary salt crusts and the reaction zone material, high CaCl2-extractable As, Cu and Zn in the salt crusts, and aqueous data for the Mathiatis mine area collected for a European Union LIFE report. This may have implications for ecosystem health and water quality in the Mathiatis area and areas of similar mineralogy and climate world wide.
Generation of highly purified and functionally active human TH1 cells against Aspergillus fumigatus
Authors: Beck Olaf , Topp Max S. , Koehl Ulrike , Roilides Emmanuel , Simitsopoulou Maria , Hanisch Mitra , Sarfati Jacqueline , Latgé Jean Paul , Klingebiel Thomas , Einsele Hermann , Lehrnbecher Thomas 
Published: December 2005

AbstractInvasive aspergillosis remains a serious complication in patients undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT). Since it became clear that lymphocytes provide a critical secondary defense against fungi, adoptive transfer of functionally active anti-Aspergillus T cells might be an option to restore adaptive immune effector mechanisms. Using the interferon (IFN)-γ secretion assay, we isolated human activated T cells upon stimulation with a cellular extract of Aspergillus fumigatus. Culturing this cell population for 14 days, we obtained an average of 1.1 × 107 cells from a single 100-mL blood draw in 7 of 7 healthy individuals. Within another 14 days, these cells were expanded to an average number of 2.0 × 108 T-helper 1 (TH1) cells secreting IFN-γ on stimulation with Aspergillus antigens. Testing various fungal antigen extracts, similar proportions of IFN-γ-producing CD3+/CD4+ cells were obtained upon activation with antigen extracts of A fumigatus, A flavus, A niger, and Penicillium chrysogenum, whereas no significant IFN-γ production was observed upon activation with antigen extracts of Alternaria alternata and Candida albicans. In addition, generated T cells were able to induce damage to A fumigatus hyphae, and significantly increased hyphal damage induced by human neutrophils. CD4+ T-cell-mediated alloreactivity of generated anti-Aspergillus T cells was clearly reduced compared with that of the original cell population. In conclusion, we present a simple and feasible strategy for rapid generation of a high number of functional active T cells against Aspergillus from a single blood draw. Our data suggest that functionally active T cells against Aspergillus could be a promising treatment option for patients undergoing allogeneic SCT. (Blood. 2006;107: 2562-2569)
A new decoding algorithm for hidden Markov models improves the prediction of the topology of all-beta membrane proteins
Authors: Fariselli Piero , Martelli Pier Luigi , Casadio Rita 
Published: December 2005

Abstract

Background
Structure prediction of membrane proteins is still a challenging computational problem. Hidden Markov models (HMM) have been successfully applied to the problem of predicting membrane protein topology. In a predictive task, the HMM is endowed with a decoding algorithm in order to assign the most probable state path, and in turn the labels, to an unknown sequence. The Viterbi and the posterior decoding algorithms are the most common. The former is very efficient when one path dominates, while the latter, even though does not guarantee to preserve the HMM grammar, is more effective when several concurring paths have similar probabilities. A third good alternative is 1-best, which was shown to perform equal or better than Viterbi.

Results
In this paper we introduce the posterior-Viterbi (PV) a new decoding which combines the posterior and Viterbi algorithms. PV is a two step process: first the posterior probability of each state is computed and then the best posterior allowed path through the model is evaluated by a Viterbi algorithm.

Conclusion
We show that PV decoding performs better than other algorithms when tested on the problem of the prediction of the topology of beta-barrel membrane proteins.
Mining published lists of cancer related microarray experiments: Identification of a gene expression signature having a critical role in cell-cycle control
Authors: Finocchiaro Giacomo , Mancuso Francesco , Muller Heiko 
Published: December 2005

AbstractBackgroundRoutine application of gene expression microarray technology is rapidly producing large amounts of data that necessitate new approaches of analysis. The analysis of a specific microarray experiment profits enormously from cross-comparing to other experiments. This process is generally performed by numerical meta-analysis of published data where the researcher chooses the datasets to be analyzed based on assumptions about the biological relations of published datasets to his own data, thus severely limiting the possibility of finding surprising connections. Here we propose using a repository of published gene lists for the identification of interesting datasets to be subjected to more detailed numerical analysis.ResultsWe have compiled lists of genes that have been reported as differentially regulated in cancer related microarray studies. We searched these gene lists for statistically significant overlaps with lists of genes regulated by the tumor suppressors p16 and pRB. We identified a highly significant overlap of p16 and pRB target genes with genes regulated by the EWS/FLI fusion protein. Detailed numerical analysis of these data identified two sets of genes with clearly distinct roles in the G1/S and the G2/M phases of the cell cycle, as measured by enrichment of Gene Ontology categories.ConclusionWe show that mining of published gene lists in the absence of numerical detail about gene expression levels constitutes a fast, easy to perform, widely applicable, and unbiased route towards the identification of biologically related gene expression microarray datasets.
-In silico functional characterization of a double histone fold domain from the Heliothis zea virus 1
Authors: Greco Claudio , Fantucci Piercarlo , De Gioia Luca 
Published: December 2005

Abstract

Background
Histones are short proteins involved in chromatin packaging; in eukaryotes, two H2a-H2b and H3-H4 histone dimers form the nucleosomal core, which acts as the fundamental DNA-packaging element. The double histone fold is a rare globular protein fold in which two consecutive regions characterized by the typical structure of histones assemble together, thus originating a histone pseudodimer. This fold is included in a few prokaryotic histones and in the regulatory region of guanine nucleotide exchange factors of the Sos family. For the prokaryotic histones, there is no direct structural counterpart in the nucleosomal core particle, while the pseudodimer from Sos proteins is very similar to the dimer formed by histones H2a and H2b

Results
The absence of a H3-H4-like histone pseudodimer in the available structural databases prompted us to search for proteins that could assume such fold. The application of several secondary structure prediction and fold recognition methods allowed to show that the viral protein gi|22788712 is compatible with the structure of a H3-H4-like histone pseudodimer. Further in silico analyses revealed that this protein module could retain the ability of mediating protein-DNA interactions, and could consequently act as a DNA-binding domain.

Conclusion
Our results suggest a possible functional role in viral pathogenicity for this novel double histone fold domain; thus, the computational analyses here reported will be helpful in directing future biochemical studies on gi|22788712 protein.
High performance workflow implementation for protein surface characterization using grid technology
Authors: Merelli Ivan , Morra Giulia , D'Agostino Daniele , Clematis Andrea , Milanesi Luciano 
Published: December 2005

Abstract

Background
This study concerns the development of a high performance workflow that, using grid technology, correlates different kinds of Bioinformatics data, starting from the base pairs of the nucleotide sequence to the exposed residues of the protein surface. The implementation of this workflow is based on the Italian Grid.it project infrastructure, that is a network of several computational resources and storage facilities distributed at different grid sites.

Methods
Workflows are very common in Bioinformatics because they allow to process large quantities of data by delegating the management of resources to the information streaming. Grid technology optimizes the computational load during the different workflow steps, dividing the more expensive tasks into a set of small jobs.

Results
Grid technology allows efficient database management, a crucial problem for obtaining good results in Bioinformatics applications. The proposed workflow is implemented to integrate huge amounts of data and the results themselves must be stored into a relational database, which results as the added value to the global knowledge.

Conclusion
A web interface has been developed to make this technology accessible to grid users. Once the workflow has started, by means of the simplified interface, it is possible to follow all the different steps throughout the data processing. Eventually, when the workflow has been terminated, the different features of the protein, like the amino acids exposed on the protein surface, can be compared with the data present in the output database.