bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Lost in Translation: Interpreting the Failure of Privatisation in the Brazilian Electric Power Industry
Authors: TANKHA SUNIL 
Published: February 2009

AbstractDid Latin American privatisation policies fail because of flawed implementation of fundamentally sound policies or because privatisation policies were themselves seriously flawed? Using the Brazilian electric power reforms as a narrative tool, this paper examines the causal chain assumed by large-scale privatisation policies that were implemented as part of structural reform and adjustment programmes. The paper concludes that many privatisation policies and the economic stabilisation programmes within which they were embedded were not mutually reinforcing in the way that policymakers had expected, and that in their application much of what privatisation theories had claimed was lost in translation.
Sentencing the Social Question: Court-Made Labour Law in Cases of Occupational Accidents in Argentina, 1900–1915
Authors: SCHJOLDEN LINE 
Published: February 2009

AbstractThis article shows how Argentine judges effectively came to make labour law when ruling in occupational accident cases between 1900 and 1915. During this period, in the absence of a specific occupational accident law, a number of Argentine workers who had been victims of occupational accidents sued their employers for damages according to the Civil Code. By reinterpreting the principles of the Civil Code in these cases, Argentine judges attempted to accommodate aspects of a new social and economic reality to an increasingly outdated legal framework. The article argues that, in doing so, these judges articulated their own solution to one of the central issues of the time: the ‘social question’. Furthermore, the article shows how the judiciary's particular solution to the social question effectively defined the kind of citizenship rights workers were able to claim in court.
The Future of Christianity in Latin America
Authors: LEVINE DANIEL H. 
Published: February 2009

AbstractThe Christianity of the future in Latin America will remain dominant but now plural and competitive. The decline of Catholic monopoly and the surge of Protestant and Pentecostal churches, visible since the 1980s but with deeper roots, are explained in the context of social, cultural and political changes that have drawn churches into public space in new ways. The impact of democracy, violence, and a newly open civil society on churches and religious life is visible in new ideas about rights and associational life and in the withdrawal of the institutional churches from political confrontation, diversification of political positions and multiplication of voices in all churches.
Hannah Arendt, 1906–1975
Authors: Villa Dana 
Published: February 2009

AbstractThis essay provides an overview of the life and theoretical concerns of Hannah Arendt. It traces the way her experience as a German Jew in the 1930s informed her analysis of totalitarianism in The Origins of Totalitarianism and her idea of the “banality of evil” in Eichmann in Jerusalem. The essay takes issue with those of Arendt's critics who detect a lack of “love of the Jewish people” in her writing. It also traces the way Arendt's encounter with totalitarian evil led to a deeper questioning of the anti-democratic impulses in the Western tradition of political thought—a questioning that finds its fullest articulation in The Human Condition and On Revolution. Throughout, my concern is to highlight Arendt's contribution to thinking “the political” in a way friendly to the basic phenomenon of human plurality. I also highlight her recovery and extension of the main themes of the civic republican tradition.
Philosophy as a Way of Life: The Case of Leo Strauss
Authors: Smith Steven B. 
Published: February 2009

AbstractIn this paper I consider Strauss's case for philosophy as a “way of life.” Strauss's case rests, I believe, on a view of philosophy first as a quest—an erotic aspiration—for knowledge of the whole and second as committed to a skeptical view of our ability ever to attain to such knowledge. Moreover, can the philosophic life defend itself against its most powerful alternative, namely, the case for revealed religion or does philosophy itself rest upon an act of faith of its own? I argue that philosophy has the resources to defend itself but only once it is understood as an open-ended (“zetetic”) search for truth. Only by returning to a conception of philosophy as “skeptic in the original sense of the term” can philosophy avoid the twin dogmatisms of faith and unbelief.
Moral Pluralism and Liberal Democracy: Isaiah Berlin's Heterodox Liberalism
Authors: Galston William A. 
Published: February 2009

AbstractWhile Isaiah Berlin considered himself principally as a political theorist in the liberal tradition, his was an unorthodox liberalism in both method and substance, rooted in the confluence of three traditions—British, Russian, and Jewish. Unlike many liberals, he wrestled with the tension between universalism and particularism, and also between individualism and communalities. He rejected all monistic approaches to morality (including liberal monism) but repudiated as well the moral relativism of much modern thought, espousing instead value pluralism. While we cannot arrive at a universally valid conception of the summum bonum, we can specify the summun malum—the great evils of the human condition. Berlin saw political theory as a branch of moral philosophy but drew political morality from political life rather than imposing it on politics. The range of goods and principles that human beings rightly prize cannot be combined into harmonious wholes in either our individual or collective existence. Some goods exclude others, and we must choose among them.
Michael Oakeshott, 1901–1990
Authors: Fuller Timothy 
Published: February 2009

AbstractMichael Oakeshott, one of the most important political thinkers in the second half of the twentieth century, has been understood to be a skeptical conservative, a romantic, a liberal individualist, an historian of political thought, a philosopher, a charismatic teacher. Each of these characterizations conveys something to be found in his life and work. This essay offers an intellectual portrait of his life's work from early to late through consideration of his major works from Experience and its Modes (1933) to Rationalism in Politics (1962; 1991), to the culmination in On Human Conduct (1975). His understanding of political philosophy is examined. The usefulness of the aforementioned characterizations is assessed.
Kinematic analysis of a fully decoupled translational parallel manipulator
Authors: Ruggiu M. 
Published: February 2009

SUMMARYThe paper describes the kinematic analysis of a new translational parallel manipulator (TPM). The manipulator consists of a fixed base, with a moving platform connected to the base by three identical legs with PUPR chains. The axes of the actuated motions are orthogonal. This configuration provides a very simplified kinematic analysis with fully decoupled input–output linear equations, absence of translational singularities, isotropy and ease of determining the workspace for the moving platform.
Shape-shifting, sound-change and the genesis of prodigal writing systems
Authors: LAING MARGARET , LASS ROGER 
Published: February 2009

In a series of articles we have looked at individual early Middle English writing systems and explored aspects of multivocal sound/symbol and symbol/sound relationships. This article combines previous observations with new material, and provides insights into the genesis of these relations and how they may interconnect. Since many early Middle English texts survive as copies, not originals, they may give clues to the orthographic systems of their exemplars too.We investigate the ‘extensibility’ of Litteral and Potestatic Substitution Sets. Writing systems may be economical or prodigal. The ‘ideal’ economical system would map into a broad phonetic or a phonemic transcription: that is, one ‘sound’, one symbol. In early Middle English there is no one standard written norm, so there is potentially less restraint on diversity than in standard systems. Further extensibility is built into the system. We show that much of what tends to be dismissed as ‘scribal error’ rather represents writing praxis no longer familiar to us – flexible matrices of substitution and variation.
The estimated risk of miscarriage should be corrected for induced abortion rates
Authors: ESKILD ANNE , VATTEN LARS J. , NESHEIM BRITT‐INGJERD , VANGEN SIRI 
Published: February 2009

AbstractObjective. We wanted to study to what extent induced abortion rates influence the age‐dependent estimates of miscarriage risk. Design. Register‐based study. Setting. Linkage between hospital records and the Norwegian Population Registry. Population. Included were all women 15–49 years of age in Oslo, Norway, who were pregnant during the three‐year study period, 27,932 women. Methods. We estimated proportions with miscarriage according to maternal age with and without inclusion of women with induced abortion in the denominator. Main outcome measure. Proportions with miscarriage in each age group and odds ratios of miscarriage, with age group 25–29 years as the reference. Results. When only women with pregnancies intended to term were included in the denominator, 9.4% of the women were estimated to have miscarriage as the only reproductive event during the three‐year period and 6.8% had both miscarriage and delivery. The corresponding figures when also women with induced abortions were included in the denominator, were 7.0 and 5.0%. When taking induced abortion into account, the reduction in estimated proportion with miscarriage during the study period was greatest in the age groups with the highest induced abortion rates, women 15–19 years old (from 22.8 to 6.4%) and women 45–49 years old (from 57.9 to 41.0%). Conclusions. Estimates of age‐dependent risk of miscarriage may be strongly influenced by induced abortion rates.
Polynomials, meanders, and paths in the lattice of noncrossing partitions
Authors: Savitt David 
Published: February 2009

For every polynomial

f
f

of degree

n
n

with no double roots, there is an associated family

C

(
f
)

\mathcal {C}(f)

of harmonic algebraic curves, fibred over the circle, with at most

n
−
1

n-1

singular fibres. We study the combinatorial topology of

C

(
f
)

\mathcal {C}(f)

in the generic case when there are exactly

n
−
1

n-1

singular fibres. In this case, the topology of

C

(
f
)

\mathcal {C}(f)

is determined by the data of an

n
n

-tuple of noncrossing matchings on the set

{
0
,
1
,
…
,
2
n
−
1
}

\{0,1,\ldots ,2n-1\}

with certain extra properties. We prove that there are

2
(
2
n

)

n
−
2

2(2n)^{n-2}

such

n
n

-tuples, and that all of them arise from the topology of

C

(
f
)

\mathcal {C}(f)

for some polynomial

f
f

.
Ghrelin receptor agonist (TZP‐101) accelerates gastric emptying in adults with diabetes and symptomatic gastroparesis
Authors: EJSKJAER N. , VESTERGAARD E. T. , HELLSTRÖM P. M. , GORMSEN L. C. , MADSBAD S. , MADSEN J. L. , JENSEN T. A. , PEZZULLO J. C. , CHRISTIANSEN J. S. , SHAUGHNESSY L. , KOSUTIC G. 
Published: February 2009

SummaryBackground  TZP‐101 is a synthetic, selective ghrelin agonist in development for gastroparesis.Aim  To assess safety and effects of TZP‐101 in diabetes patients with symptomatic gastroparesis.Methods  Adults with type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus received placebo and TZP‐101 (80, 160, 320 or 600 μg/kg) infusions in a cross‐over manner following a radiolabelled meal. Blood glucose levels were stabilized using a hyperinsulinemic‐euglycemic clamp. Primary endpoints were gastric half emptying and latency times. Secondary measures included assessment of gastroparesis symptoms and endocrine responses.Results  Ten patients with type 1 (n = 7) or 2 (n = 3) diabetes, moderate‐to‐severe gastroparesis symptoms and ≥29% retention 4 h after a radiolabelled solid meal were enrolled. TZP‐101 produced significant reductions in solid meal half‐emptying (20%, P = 0.043) and latency (34%, P = 0.037) times vs. placebo. Reductions in overall postmeal symptom intensity (24%) and postprandial fullness (37%) following TZP‐101 infusion were not statistically significant. Most adverse events were mild and self‐limiting and there were no identifiable differences in numbers or types of adverse events between TZP‐101 and placebo.Conclusions  This proof‐of‐concept study demonstrates that the ghrelin agonist TZP‐101 is well‐tolerated in diabetes patients with moderate‐to‐severe chronic gastroparesis and shows statistically significant improvements in gastric emptying.
Novel fungal disease in complex leaf‐cutting ant societies
Authors: HUGHES DAVID P. , EVANS HARRY C. , HYWEL‐JONES NIGEL , BOOMSMA JACOBUS J. , ARMITAGE SOPHIE A. O. 
Published: February 2009

Abstract1. The leaf‐cutting ants practise an advanced system of mycophagy where they grow a fungus as a food source. As a consequence of parasite threats to their crops, they have evolved a system of morphological, behavioural, and chemical defences, particularly against fungal pathogens (mycopathogens).2. Specific fungal diseases of the leaf‐cutting ants themselves have not been described, possibly because broad spectrum anti‐fungal defences against mycopathogens have reduced their susceptibility to entomopathogens.3. Using morphological and molecular tools, the present study documents three rare infection events ofAcromyrmexandAttaleaf‐cutting ants byOphiocordycepsfungi, agenus of entomopathogens that is normally highly specific in its host choice.4. As leaf‐cutting ants have been intensively studied, the absence of prior records ofOphiocordycepssuggests that these infections may be a novel event and that switching from one host to another is possible. To test the likelihood of this hypothesis, host switching was experimentally induced, and successfully achieved, among five distinct genera of ants, one of which was in a different sub‐family than the leaf‐cutter ants.5. Given the substantial differences among the five host ants, the ability ofOphiocordycepsto shift between such distant hosts is remarkable; the results are discussed in the context of ant ecological immunology and fungal invasion strategies.
Four‐level interactions: herbivore use of ferns and subsequent parasitoid–hyperparasitoid performance
Authors: MORSE DOUGLASS H. 
Published: February 2009

Abstract 1. Variables affecting species at the ends of trophic chains may modify the success of members with which they do not directly interact. The majority of such examples involve three trophic levels, but hyperparasitoids provide an excellent opportunity to examine four‐level relationships.2. The gregarious hyperparasitoid Aprostocetus sp. (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) commonly attacks the primary parasitoid Alabagrus texanus (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), by far the commonest parasitoid of the moth Herpetogramma theseusalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae).3. Larvae of this moth feed on ferns of two families, sensitive fern Onoclea sensibilis (Dryopteridaceae) and marsh fern Thelypteris palustris (Thelypteridaceae), in the study area, an old field in Maine, U.S.A.4. I test the hypotheses that the ferns indirectly affect the reproductive success of the hyperparasitoids and that the ferns produce similar effects at intermediate links.5. The moths experienced similar success on the two ferns, and the primary parasitoid performed similarly on moths reared from both ferns. The hyperparasitoid parasitized similar proportions of the primary parasitoid from moths that fed on sensitive fern and marsh fern.6. However, hyperparasitoid broods on primary parasitoids from moths feeding on marsh fern contained approximately one‐third more offspring, whose individuals were significantly larger than those from sensitive fern, even though their hosts’ sizes did not differ significantly.7. An indirect effect, related to the primary producers, thus strongly affected Trophic Level 4 in the absence of a significant effect at intermediate levels. To the best of my knowledge, this relationship has not been previously reported in a multi‐year or field‐based study of a natural system.
Subterranean aquatic Oligochaeta
Authors: DES CHÂTELLIERS MICHEL CREUZÉ , JUGET JACQUES , LAFONT MICHEL , MARTIN PATRICK 
Published: February 2009

Summary1. Aquatic oligochaetes appear to be pre‐adapted to live in the subterranean environment. However, in the absence of genuine troglomorphic characters, the stygobiotic status of groundwater oligochaetes can currently be inferred only from their exclusive presence in the subterranean environment.2. Aquatic oligochaetes constitute a diverse and mostly endemic fauna. Of the more than 100 species currently considered to be stygobionts, 60% are known only from their type locality. In the Rhône‐Alpes region of France, about 93% of samples taken from caves and galleries were found to contain oligochaetes of which 13 species are classified as stygobionts.3. Oligochaete biodiversity in aquatic subterranean environments probably originated by both preservation of relict forms and speciationin situ, possibly followed by radiations favoured by heterogeneous and fragmented habitats. Close phylogenetic affinities between some tubificid species from continental waters and the deep sea suggest a marine origin of part of the subterranean oligochaetes.4. Oligochaetes are well known to promote bioturbation in surface habitats. Similar information on subterranean oligochaetes is scarce, but some evidence suggests notable bioturbation activity also of hypogean species, and they may also play other ecological roles (e.g. as prey and consumers) where present in high densities.5. Valuable studies to enhance knowledge of subterranean aquatic oligochaetes include continued exploration of a variety of groundwater habitats, phylogeographic surveys that take advantage of molecular methods, analyses of species traits of both stygobiotic and epigean oligochaetes in subterranean environments, and laboratory studies to describe life histories and resolve other aspects of oligochaete biology and ecology.
Temporal discrepancies in the association between the apoB/apoA‐I ratio and mortality in incident dialysis patients
Authors: Chmielewski M. , Carrero J. J. , Qureshi A. R. , Axelsson J. , Heimbürger O. , Berglund L. , Bárány P. , Rutkowski B. , Lindholm B. , Stenvinkel P. 
Published: February 2009

Abstract.Background.  In the general population, a high apoB/apoA‐I ratio is a strong risk factor for cardiovascular disease and mortality. However, whether this is the case in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients is currently unknown.Study design.  The apoB/apoA‐I ratio was evaluated in 391 incident CKD stage 5 patients examined close to dialysis initiation, and again after 1 year of dialysis in a subgroup of 182 patients, subsequently followed for up to 3 years.Results.  Baseline values of the apoB/apoA‐I ratio as well as changes in the ratio during the first year of dialysis correlated with body mass index (BMI) and fat mass. The baseline apoB/apoA‐I ratio showed no association with 4‐year mortality. However, after adjustment for confounders, a high apoB/apoA‐I ratio (>0.9) predicted short‐term (first year) survival [hazard ratio (HR): 0.35; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.13–0.85)] and long‐term (next 3 years) mortality (HR: 1.72; 95% CI: 1.01–2.96). An increase in the apoB/apoA‐I ratio during the first year of dialysis was linked to a survival advantage thereafter (HR: 0.48; 95% CI: 0.22–0.98). However, this association lost its significance (HR: 0.62; 95% CI: 0.26–1.36) after adjustment for indices of protein‐energy wasting.Conclusions.  A high apoB/apoA‐I ratio and an increase in this ratio during the first year on dialysis were associated with short‐term survival advantage in CKD patients. This paradoxical relationship represents an example of the so‐called reverse epidemiology phenomenon in CKD patients and suggests that the apoB/apoA‐I ratio should always be interpreted with caution in this patient population.
Plasma folate and total homocysteine levels are associated with the risk of myocardial infarction, independently of each other and of renal function
Authors: Van Guelpen B. , Hultdin J. , Johansson I. , Witthöft C. , Weinehall L. , Eliasson M. , Hallmans G. , Palmqvist R. , Jansson J.‐H. , Winkvist A. 
Published: February 2009

Abstract.Objectives. To investigate the relationship between plasma folate, vitamin B12 and total homocysteine concentrations, dietary intake of folate and vitamins B12, B6 and B2, and the risk of first acute myocardial infarction (MI).Design. Nested case‐referent study with up to 13 years of follow‐up.Setting. The population‐based Northern Sweden Health and Disease Study, with 73 879 participants at the time of case ascertainment.Subjects. A total of 571 MI cases (406 men) and 1569 matched referents. Of the cases, 530 had plasma samples available, and 247 had dietary B‐vitamin intake data.Results. Plasma concentrations of folate were inversely associated, and total homocysteine positively associated, with the risk of MI, independently of each other and of a number of established and novel cardiovascular risk factors, including renal function [multivariate odds ratio for highest vs. lowest quintile of folate 0.52 (95% CI 0.31–0.84),Pfor trend = 0.036, and homocysteine 1.92 (95% CI 1.20–3.09),Pfor trend = 0.006]. For plasma vitamin B12 concentrations, and vitamin B12, B6 and B2 intake, no clear risk relationship was apparent. Though not statistically significant, the results for folate intake were consistent with those for plasma concentrations.Conclusions. In this large prospective study of a population without mandatory folic acid fortification, both folate and homocysteine were strongly associated with the risk of myocardial infarction, independently of each other and of renal function. Although randomized trials of folic acid supplementation are needed to determine causality, our findings highlight the potential importance of folate, or sources of folate, in incident cardiovascular disease.
Isotropic high‐resolution three‐dimensional confocal micro‐rotation imaging for non‐adherent living cells
Authors: SAUX B. LE , CHALMOND B. , YU Y. , TROUVÉ A. , RENAUD O. , SHORTE S.L. 
Published: February 2009

SummaryRecently, micro‐rotation confocal microscopy has enabled the acquisition of a sequence of micro‐rotated images of nonadherent living cells obtained during a partially controlled rotation movement of the cell through the focal plane. Although we are now able to estimate the three‐dimensional position of every optical section with respect to the cell frame, the reconstruction of the cell from the positioned micro‐rotated images remains a last task that this paper addresses. This is not strictly an interpolation problem since a micro‐rotated image is a convoluted two‐dimensional map of a three‐dimensional reality. It is rather a ‘reconstruction from projection’ problem where the term projection is associated to the PSF of the deconvolution process. Micro‐rotation microscopy has a specific difficulty. It does not yield a complete coverage of the volume. In this paper, experiments illustrate the ability of the classical EM algorithm to deconvolve efficiently cell volume despite of the incomplete coverage. This cell reconstruction method is compared to a kernel‐based method of interpolation, which does not take account explicitly the point‐spread‐function (PSF). It is also compared to the standard volume obtained from a conventional z‐stack. Our results suggest that deconvolution of micro‐rotation image series opens some exciting new avenues for further analysis, ultimately laying the way towards establishing an enhanced resolution 3D light microscopy.