bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Breaking the Interpretive Monopoly: A Re-Examination of Verse 4:34
Authors: Mubarak Hadia 
Published: February 2005

AbstractAs verse 4:34 is central to the Qurānic paradigm on gender relations, the question of "wife-beating" has become a contentious issue in Islamic scholarly discourse. Does "wadribuhunna", a verb in imperative form that is read to authorize the "beating", "striking", or "scourging" of a wife, actually give husbands divine sanction to beat their wives? If so, upon what basis or authority does one derive such a meaning? First, this paper examines the historical development of certain misogynistic concepts that became embedded in Islamic academic discourse as a result of the classical exegetes' commentary on this verse, which were undoubtedly influenced by the patriarchal paradigm of the medieval period from which they were produced. Second, this paper utilizes the classical exegetes' own purported methodology to reinvestigate the meanings of this verse in a way that can reconcile its practical application with the Qurān's egalitarian ideals and Islam's conception ofGod's absolute justice.
Qur'ān, Gender and Interpretive Possibilities
Authors: Wadud Amina 
Published: February 2005

AbstractVerily All men and women who have surrender themselves unto Allah and all believing men and believing women and all truly devout men and devout women, and all men and women who are true to their word and all men and women who are patient in adversity and all men and women who humble themselves before Allah and all men and women who give in charity and all self-denying men and all self-denying women and all men and women who remember Allah unceasingly, for all of them has Allah readied forgiveness of sins and a mighty reward.
Women Reading the Qur'¯n: Religious Discourse and Islam
Authors: Guardi Jolanda 
Published: February 2005

AbstractCan a woman be a Muslim and a feminist? This is the question that most often comes up from the public when we pause to analyze the latest women's readings of the sacred text of Islam. Here I'll try to answer this question, thanks to the help of some Muslim experts in Qur'ānic hermeneutics. With a reading that demonstrates how Muslim women can fight for freedom within the exegeses of the Qur'ān, contrary to what conservative (because they've given it a patriarchal reading) as well as progressive (because they believe it's necessary to depart from the text to approach various nuances of secularism) Muslims believe possible. The "door of interpretation" has definitely been re-opened.
Gender Biases in Qur'ānic Exegesis: A Study of Scriptural Interpretation from a Gender Perspective
Authors: Umar Nasaruddin 
Published: February 2005

AbstractThis paper scrutinizes some gender biases residing in Scriptural exegesis—especially Qur'ānic interpretations—that exist and grow in Muslim societies. Most Muslims believe that the existing Qur'ānic exegesis is taken for granted, so it cannot be examined any more. As a matter of fact, an interpretation is man-made, which is not eternal. An interpretation is a product of an exegete. Therefore, Muslims actually can create many approaches to understanding the Qur'ān. However, this does not imply that the methodological approach utilized here is solely suitable for the Qur'ān. Perhaps, other Scriptures and religions can benefit from this approach. And when we talk about Scripture, we cannot avoid relating it to other subjects such as religion, culture, norms, values, language and so on. Since the Scripture is a part of religion, then the religion also becomes subject to examination. However, this study will only focus on the Scriptural exegesis, while the topic of religion will be used only when it is necessary.
"Do Not Search for Another King, One Whom God Has Not Given You": Questions on the Elevation of Zär'ä Ya'eqob (1434-1468)
Authors: Derat Marie-Laure 
Published: February 2005

AbstractWhen Zär'ä Ya'eqob became king of Ethiopia in 1434, he was far from being the only candidate for the office. One of his homilies, The Epistle of Humanity, relates that he was opposed by a group led by Beht wäddäd and former Tegré Mäkwanenn Isayeyyas, and including many members of his own family. This episode is essential to an understanding of the policy of Zär'ä Ya'eqob in the first years of his reign, when he tried to establish his authority in Tigré and especially in Aksum by means of a consecration ceremony, the foundation of monasteries, and the nomination of a liqä Aksum. The first version of the chronicle of Zär'ä Ya'eqob, however, scarcely mentions this episode while the second version totally conceals it. The different ways the homily and the royal chronicle deal with the beginning of Zär'ä Ya'eqob's reign inform us about Ethiopian royal historiography.
Ad Hominem Reviews and Rejoinders: Their Uses and Abuses
Authors: Strenski Ivan 
Published: February 2005

AbstractAuthors as well as reviewers can become subject to the charge of ad hominem argumentation, both in the review in question, and in rejoinders to the original review. However, the nature of the ad hominem review is neither precisely defined nor understood. This is especially the case insofar as post-modern sensibilities incline us to see the review as a rhetorical entity as well as a logical one. The principal forms of ad hominem argument are identified, discussed and considered in terms of their logical and rhetorical validity in the review.
A Comparison between SISO and MIMO Modal Analysis Techniques on a Membrane Mirror Satellite
Authors: Ruggiero Eric J. , Inman Daniel J. 
Published: February 2005

The future of space satellite technology lies in the development of ultra-large, ultra-lightweight space structures, orders of magnitude greater in size than the current satellites. Such large crafts will increase communication and imaging capabilities from orbits. Many such proposed ultra-flexible satellites are inflated structures. To get these ultra-large structures in space, they will have to be stored within the Space Shuttle cargo bay and then inflated on-orbit. However, the highly flexible and pressurized nature of these ultra-large spacecraft poses several daunting vibration and control problems. Disturbances (i.e., on-orbit maneuvering, guidance and attitude control, and the harsh environment of space) wreck havoc with the on-orbit stability, pointing accuracy, and surface resolution capability of the inflated satellite. Fortunately, recent advances in integrated smart material systems promise to provide solutions to these problems. Recent research into the use of Macro-Fiber Composite (MFC®) devices integrated into the dynamic measurement and vibration control of inflated structures has had promising results (Wilkie et al., 2000). These piezoelectric-based devices possess a superior electro-mechanical coupling coefficient making them superb actuators and decent sensors in dynamic analysis applications. Initially, research was performed on an inflated torus using single-input, single-output (SISO) testing techniques. Since then, steps have been taken to outline a new, multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) testing technique for these ultra-large structures. This study applies these results to an inflated torus with bonded membrane mirror to extract modal parameters, such as the damped natural frequencies, associated damping, and mode shapes within the frequency bandwidth of interest for these structures (5–200 Hz). Further, the nonlinear dynamic behavior of the inflated torus and membrane mirror is accentuated through a comparison of SISO and MIMO modal analysis techniques, and a discussion of the nonlinear results follows. The purpose of this work is to apply the results from prior works to an inflated torus with bonded membrane mirror to accomplish the following three goals: (1) to establish a baseline dynamic characterization of the test structure using SISO modal analysis techniques;(2) to perform a MIMO modal analysis of the test structure to identify natural frequencies, mode shapes, and damping ratios, and compare these MIMO results to the SISO analysis; and(3) to use the discrepancies between the two testing technique results as a platform for discussing the nonlinear nature of the test structure. In the future, the results of this work may form the premise for an autonomous, self-contained system that can both identify the vibratory characteristics of an ultra-large, inflated space craft and apply an appropriate control algorithm to suppress any unwanted vibration – all while on-orbit.
Concurrent Design and Evaluation Based on Structural Optimization using Structural and Function-oriented Elements at the Conceptual Design Phase
Authors: Takezawa Akihiro , Nishiwaki Shinji , Izui Kazuhiro , Yoshimura Masataka , Nishigaki Hidekazu , Tsurumi Yasuaki 
Published: February 2005

Computer-aided engineering (CAE) has been successfully used in mechanical industries such as automotive industries. CAE enables us to quantitatively evaluate the mechanical performances of products and to propose an effective way to improve their performances using optimization techniques without building physical prototypes. However, CAE tools are usually utilized not at the conceptual design phase, but at the evaluation phase following the detailed design phase. This is because current CAE tools require detailed design data that does not yet exist at the conceptual design phase, and such tools also inhibit the provision of useful design suggestions that, ideally, match the way of thinking and insight of design engineers. Thus, at present, no CAE tools exist that can assist the conceptual design decision making process of design engineers. On the other hand, conceptual design processes are of great significance when seeking to create innovative and high-performance products and to shorten their development time. In order to fulfill the designer’s needs during the conceptual design phase, a new type of CAE method must be constructed, one that enables concurrent design support and evaluation, and fits the way design engineers think and explore design insights. This article presents a new structural optimization method that supports concurrent decision making so that design engineers can work to obtain innovative designs and evaluate the mechanical design details of mechanical structures at the conceptual design phase. This method is developed based on the concept of product-oriented analysis and discrete, function-oriented elements, such as beam and panel elements, since these can provide design suggestions concerning the structural evaluation of reasons as to why certain design ideas obtained are reasonable or optimal in the design sense. The basic ideas and specifications needed to construct the method are explained and the construction of the structural optimization design method is discussed. The optimization algorithm is developed using the ground structure approach and CONLIN sequential convex programming. The examples provided demonstrate the utility of the proposed methodology for supporting design engineers’ concurrent decision making, so that innovative mechanical designs can be evaluated at the conceptual design phase.
Systemic protein delivery by muscle-gene transfer is limited by a local immune response
Authors: Wang Lixin , Dobrzynski Eric , Schlachterman Alexander , Cao Ou , Herzog Roland W. 
Published: February 2005

Abstract
Adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors have been successfully used for therapeutic expression of systemic transgene products (such as factor IX or erythropoietin) following in vivo administration to skeletal muscle of animal models of inherited hematologic disorders. However, an immune response may be initiated if the transgene product represents a neoantigen. Here, we use ovalbumin (OVA) as a model antigen and demonstrate immune-mediated elimination of expression on muscle-directed AAV-2 gene transfer. Administration to immune competent mice resulted in transient systemic OVA expression. Within 10 days, OVA-specific T-helper cells had been activated in draining lymph nodes, an inflammatory immune response ensued, and OVA-expressing muscle fibers were destroyed by a cytotoxic CD8+ T-cell response. Use of a muscle-specific promoter did not prevent this immune response. Adoptively transferred CD4+ cells transgenic for a T-cell receptor specific to OVA peptide-major histocompatibility complex class II showed antigen-specific, vector dose-dependent proliferation confined to the draining lymph nodes of AAV-OVA–transduced muscle within 5 days after gene transfer and subsequently participated in lymphocytic infiltration of transduced muscle. This study documents that a local immune response limits sustained expression of a secreted protein in muscle gene transfer, a finding that may have consequences for design of clinical protocols.
Plasma antibodies against heat shock protein 70 correlate with the incidence and severity of asthma in a Chinese population
Authors: Yang Miao , Wu Tangchun , Cheng Longxian , Wang Feng , Wei Qingyi , Tanguay Robert M 
Published: February 2005

Abstract
Background
The heat shock proteins (Hsps) are induced by stresses such as allergic factors and inflammatory responses in bronchi epithelial cells and therefore may be detectable in patients with asthma. However, the etiologic link between anti-Hsps and asthma (its severity and related inflammatory responses such as interleukin-4 and immunoglobulin E) has not been established. We determined whether antibodies against Hsp60 and Hsp70 were present in patients with asthma and evaluated their associations with risk and severity of asthma.

Methods
We determined the levels of anti-Hsp60 and anti-Hsp70 by immunoblot and their associations with risk and symptom severity of asthma in 95 patients with asthma and 99 matched non-symptomatic controls using multivariate logistic regression analysis.

Results
Compared to the controls, asthma patients were more likely to have detectable anti-Hsp60 (17.2% vs 5.1%) and anti-Hsp70 (33.7% vs 8.1%) (p ≤ 0.001). In particular, the presence of anti-Hsp70 was associated with a greater than 2 fold risk for asthma (adjusted OR = 2.21; 95% CI = 1.35~3.59). Furthermore, both anti-Hsp60 and anti-Hsp70 levels were positively correlated with symptom severity (p < 0.05) as well as interleukin-4 and immunoglobulin E (p < 0.05). Individuals with antibodies against anti-Hsp60 and anti-Hsp70 were more likely to have a family history of asthma (p < 0.001) and higher plasma concentrations of total immunoglobulin E (p = 0.001) and interleukin-4 (p < 0.05) than those without antibodies.

Conclusions
These data suggest that anti-Hsp60 and especially anti-Hsp70 correlate with the attacks and severity of asthma. The underlying molecular mechanisms linking antibodies to heat shock proteins and asthma remain to be investigated.
An ant colony optimisation algorithm for the 2D and 3D hydrophobic polar protein folding problem
Authors: Shmygelska Alena , Hoos Holger H 
Published: February 2005

Abstract
Background
The protein folding problem is a fundamental problems in computational molecular biology and biochemical physics. Various optimisation methods have been applied to formulations of the ab-initio folding problem that are based on reduced models of protein structure, including Monte Carlo methods, Evolutionary Algorithms, Tabu Search and hybrid approaches. In our work, we have introduced an ant colony optimisation (ACO) algorithm to address the non-deterministic polynomial-time hard (NP-hard) combinatorial problem of predicting a protein's conformation from its amino acid sequence under a widely studied, conceptually simple model – the 2-dimensional (2D) and 3-dimensional (3D) hydrophobic-polar (HP) model.

Results
We present an improvement of our previous ACO algorithm for the 2D HP model and its extension to the 3D HP model. We show that this new algorithm, dubbed ACO-HPPFP-3, performs better than previous state-of-the-art algorithms on sequences whose native conformations do not contain structural nuclei (parts of the native fold that predominantly consist of local interactions) at the ends, but rather in the middle of the sequence, and that it generally finds a more diverse set of native conformations.

Conclusions
The application of ACO to this bioinformatics problem compares favourably with specialised, state-of-the-art methods for the 2D and 3D HP protein folding problem; our empirical results indicate that our rather simple ACO algorithm scales worse with sequence length but usually finds a more diverse ensemble of native states. Therefore the development of ACO algorithms for more complex and realistic models of protein structure holds significant promise.
The architecture of mammalian ribosomal protein promoters
Authors: Perry Robert P 
Published: February 2005

Abstract
Background
Mammalian ribosomes contain 79 different proteins encoded by widely scattered single copy genes. Coordinate expression of these genes at transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels is required to ensure a roughly equimolar accumulation of ribosomal proteins. To date, detailed studies of only a very few ribosomal protein (rp) promoters have been made. To elucidate the general features of rp promoter architecture, I made a detailed sequence comparison of the promoter regions of the entire set of orthologous human and mouse rp genes.

Results
A striking evolutionarily conserved feature of most rp genes is the separation by an intron of the sequences involved in transcriptional and translational regulation from the sequences with protein encoding function. Another conserved feature is the polypyrimidine initiator, which conforms to the consensus (Y)2C+1TY(T)2(Y)3. At least 60 % of the rp promoters contain a largely conserved TATA box or A/T-rich motif, which should theoretically have TBP-binding capability. A remarkably high proportion of the promoters contain conserved binding sites for transcription factors that were previously implicated in rp gene expression, namely upstream GABP and Sp1 sites and downstream YY1 sites. Over 80 % of human and mouse rp genes contain a transposable element residue within 900 bp of 5' flanking sequence; very little sequence identity between human and mouse orthologues was evident more than 200 bp upstream of the transcriptional start point.

Conclusions
This analysis has provided some valuable insights into the general architecture of mammalian rp promoters and has identified parameters that might coordinately regulate the transcriptional activity of certain subsets of rp genes.
Detection of virulence genes in Malaysian Shigellaspecies by multiplex PCR assay
Authors: Thong Kwai Lin , Hoe Susan Ling Ling , Puthucheary SD , Md Yasin Rohani 
Published: February 2005

Abstract
Background
In Malaysia, Shigella spp. was reported to be the third commonest bacterial agent responsible for childhood diarrhoea. Currently, isolation of the bacterium and confirmation of the disease by microbiological and biochemical methods remain as the "gold standard". This study aimed to detect the prevalence of four Shigella virulence genes present concurrently, in randomly selected Malaysian strains via a rapid multiplex PCR (mPCR) assay.

Methods
A mPCR assay was designed for the simultaneous detection of chromosomal- and plasmid-encoded virulence genes (set1A, set1B, ial and ipaH) in Shigella spp. One hundred and ten Malaysian strains (1997–2000) isolated from patients from various government hospitals were used. Reproducibility and sensitivity of the assay were also evaluated. Applicability of the mPCR in clinical settings was tested with spiked faeces following preincubation in brain heart infusion (BHI) broth.

Results
The ipaH sequence was present in all the strains, while each of the set1A, set1B and ial gene was present in 40% of the strains tested. Reproducibility of the mPCR assay was 100% and none of the non-Shigella pathogens tested in this study were amplified. The mPCR could detect 100 colony-forming units (cfu) of shigellae per reaction mixture in spiked faeces following preincubation.

Conclusions
The mPCR system is reproducible, sensitive and is able to identify pathogenic strains of shigellae irrespective of the locality of the virulence genes. It can be easily performed with a high throughput to give a presumptive identification of the causal pathogen.
Cα-H···O=C hydrogen bonds contribute to the specificity of RGD cell-adhesion interactions
Authors: Bella Jordi , Humphries Martin J 
Published: February 2005

Abstract
Background
The Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) cell adhesion sequence occurs in several extracellular matrix molecules known to interact with integrin cell-surface receptors. Recently published crystal structures of the extracellular regions of two integrins in complex with peptides containing or mimicking the RGD sequence have identified the Arg and Asp residues as key specificity determinants for integrin recognition, through hydrogen bonding and metal coordination interactions. The central Gly residue also appears to be in close contact with the integrin surface in these structures.

Results
When hydrogen atoms are modelled on the central Gly residue with standard stereochemistry, the interaction between this residue and a carbonyl group in the integrin surface shows all the hallmarks of Cα-H···O=C hydrogen bonding, as seen in the collagen triple helix and in many crystal structures of small organic molecules. Moreover, molecular dynamic simulations of the docking of RGD-containing fragments on integrin surfaces support the occurrence of these interactions. There appears to be an array of four weak and conventional hydrogen bonds lining up the RGD residues with main chain carbonyl groups in the integrin surface.

Conclusions
The occurrence of weak Cα-H···O=C hydrogen bonds in the RGD-integrin interaction highlights the importance of the conserved Gly residue in the RGD motif and its contribution to integrin-ligand binding specificity. Our analysis shows how weak hydrogen bonds may also play important biological roles by contributing to the specificity of macromolecular recognition.