Ideal Paradigm Research Articles

Little Dorrit’s Fourth Volume. Twenty-first Century Remediation of a Victorian Classic

The current interest in the Victorian period is particularly evident in the multitude of successful period dramas and cinema productions deriving their inspiration from Victorian history and culture. Dickens’s Little Dorrit, generated by the difficulties of understanding a ‘new’ world dominated by more and more complicated machines, and markets, is possibly the ideal paradigm to explore this ‘Victorianomania’ because this novel strikes us “no less forcefully today in its indictment of society's ability to destroy through greed and crushing self-interest” (Kirschner 2009).This study carries out a threefold analysis of Little Dorrit's remediation in the twenty-first century: visual remediation – Xue’s 2012 Little Dorrit; audio-visual remediation – the BBC series; and web remediation – fan fiction – in order to investigate Dickens’s appeal and longevity in contemporary media.

PARADIGMA DAN AKTUALISASI INTERPRETASI DALAM PEMIKIRAN MUḤAMMAD AL-GHAZĀLĪ

Abstract. Muḥammad al-Ghazālī is one of the prominent thinkers of Ikhwān al-Muslimin. He has been regarded by some scholars to possess progressive ideas and accomodative and contextual character. This paper, exemines the coherency of al-Ghazālī’s thought of interpretation and his paradigm manifested in his works on exegesis. In conclusion, the ideal interpretation paradigm offered by al-Ghazālī as knife analysis of the Koran texts is not fully applied. In fact, he intends to interpret the verses of the Koran textually. The question is where the inductive method of interpretation of the Koran which he thinks as the Qur'anic method. There is a discontinuity of thought which al-Ghazālī does not realize in reference to his paradigm for his interpretation.Kata Kunci: al-Ghazālī, interpretasi, paradigma, kontekstualisasi

Update on tick-borne rickettsioses around the world: a geographic approach.

Tick-borne rickettsioses are caused by obligate intracellular bacteria belonging to the spotted fever group of the genus Rickettsia. These zoonoses are among the oldest known vector-borne diseases. However, in the past 25 years, the scope and importance of the recognized tick-associated rickettsial pathogens have increased dramatically, making this complex of diseases an ideal paradigm for the understanding of emerging and reemerging infections. Several species of tick-borne rickettsiae that were considered nonpathogenic for decades are now associated with human infections, and novel Rickettsia species of undetermined pathogenicity continue to be detected in or isolated from ticks around the world. This remarkable expansion of information has been driven largely by the use of molecular techniques that have facilitated the identification of novel and previously recognized rickettsiae in ticks. New approaches, such as swabbing of eschars to obtain material to be tested by PCR, have emerged in recent years and have played a role in describing emerging tick-borne rickettsioses. Here, we present the current knowledge on tick-borne rickettsiae and rickettsioses using a geographic approach toward the epidemiology of these diseases.

Research on Urban Feminine Public Space

There have made great progress in urban space research which based on the individual bodily difference in the context of postmodernism. Feminine space also has been focused in the Architecture. In China, women often are regarded as one unit of sub-groups, whose living condition and living space had undergone great changes. Based on the bodily difference, from the view of functional requirements, behavior needs, physical needs and psychological requirements of women, the paper discusses the major existing problems in four aspects, which concluding function layout, transport supply, service facilities and space identify. Combined architecture and geography, sociology, urban planning, the paper uses the method of cognitive map and preference method to explore feminine cognitive pattern and behavior model, thus construct the ideal paradigm of urban feminine public space.

Decision-making impulsivity in disordered eating: outcomes from a discounting task

Discounting tasks are ideal paradigms for examining impulsivity in decision-making processes. Eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa, are associated with increased impulsivity, poor coping, and dysfunctional reward-processing, all of which have implications for how these individuals manage decisions, both in and out of treatment. The current study examined discounting behavior in women at risk for anorexia nervosa as a novel way to examine decision-making processes within this population. Results suggest that women at risk for anorexia nervosa display increased impulsivity in certain decision-making contexts. These results have implications for the conceptualization and treatment of women with or at-risk for disordered eating.

No pain, no gain?: Dissatisfied female consumers’ anecdotes with footwear products

The purpose of this research was to identify the key determinants that evoke consumer dissatisfaction with footwear, within the framework of the expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm. Particular attention was directed towards the pre-purchase decision-making factors and post-purchase wearing behaviour. Thirteen participants were recruited through the snowball sampling method and data were collected from in-depth interviews with each participant. This study identified six external variables and three internal factors in the pre-purchase stage that affect consumer expectations for footwear product performance. In the post-purchase stage, results revealed that consumers make a continuous compromise between the ideal and reality and paradigm shifts may occur regarding consumer satisfaction. The findings of this study urge the footwear industry to recognise fundamental issues with the current system of mass production and exploit innovative solutions to provide quality products and services to consumers who are not yet satisfied.

Oligomeric State of a Pannexin Channel

Pannexins are a recently-discovered family of integral membrane proteins in vertebrates that form non-selective homomeric or heteromeric pores in the plasma membrane. These channels seem important in ATP signaling in the central nervous system and the immune response, as well as in ischemic and apoptotic cell death, yet their mechanism remains unknown. One important question is how pannexin subunits come together to form the large channel. While the membrane topology suggests that pannexins resemble hexameric connexins, there has been no bona fide evidence supporting such structural analogy between the two distinct large-pore channels with no sequence similarity. To address how many subunits constitute pannexin channels, we first identified a pannexin orthologue that forms a monodisperse oligomer upon solubilization in a relatively mild detergent, such as dodecyl maltoside, using the fluorescence detection size exclusion chromatography strategy. Interestingly, we discovered that most of the 28 arbitrarily collected pannexin channels from multiple organisms tend to aggregate or dissociate into monomers upon solubilization in detergents, making the selected stable pannexin channel an ideal paradigm for biochemical characterization. We subsequently purified this stable pannexin channel using a baculovirus-insect cell expression system. In this poster, we present the oligomeric state of the pannexin channel measured through multi-angle light scattering and crosslinking experiments.

Impact of oncology‐related direct‐to‐consumer advertising

Little is known about the impact of direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) on appropriate versus inappropriate prescribing. Aromatase inhibitor (AI) therapy for breast cancer provides an ideal paradigm for studying this issue, because AIs have been the focus of substantial DTCA, and because they should only be used in postmenopausal women, age can serve as a simple surrogate marker of appropriateness. Data regarding national DTCA spending for the AIs were obtained from TNS Multimedia; hormonal therapy prescription data were obtained from IMS Health. Time series analyses were performed to characterize the association between monthly changes in DTCA spending for the AIs and monthly changes in the proportion of all new hormonal therapy prescriptions represented by the AIs from October 2005 to September 2007. Analyses were stratified by age, considering prescriptions for women ≤ 40 (likely premenopausal) to be inappropriate and those for women > 60 (likely postmenopausal) to be appropriate. Monthly dollars spent on AI-associated DTCA varied considerably ($118,600 to $22,019,660). Time series analysis revealed that for every million dollars spent on DTCA for the AIs, there was an associated increase 3 months later in the new AI prescription proportion of 0.15% for all ages (P < .0001) and 0.18% for those > 60 years (P < .0001), but no significant change for those ≤ 40 at any time from 0 to 6 months. DTCA for the AIs was associated with increases in appropriate prescriptions with no significant effect on inappropriate prescriptions, suggesting that DTCA may not foster inappropriate medication use for certain drug classes.

Pensieri shakespeariani come leggi dello stato. Letteratura e diritto in Karl Kraus

It is not possible to understand Karl Kraus, claims Walter Benjamin, without assuming that in the oeuvre of the Viennese writer everything takes place in the sphere of In Kraus’s thought legal issues are strongly related to literature and language. His concept of law stems from a higher ideal of ‘justice’; justice is based on language and language has a strong ideal and prescriptive value. Through the use of quotation Kraus charges literature and journalism with betraying language, while on the other hand he charges law with betraying justice. This essay aims at demonstrating trough an interdisciplinary approach that Kraus did not only involve law issues in his literary writings, he also invested some literary works – especially Shakespeare’s plays – with a legal value. In Kraus’s thought Shakespeare is a symbol of consubstantiality between reality and literature, and an 'encyclopedia' providing eternally valid categories. As an ideal paradigm for the interpretation of reality, Shakespeare is the utopian background of Kraus’s reflection on language and justice, bearing witness to the indissolubility, in Kraus’s thought, of literature and law.

Evoked Potentials Reflecting the Rule State during the Wisconsin Card Sort (P01.192)

Objective: To test a cognitive-dynamics theory (CDT) of decision-making utilizing EEG measurements during the Wisconsin Card Sort Task. Background Decision-making is an essential component of cognitive function that can be represented using a CDT approach. Decision-making is modelled as rule application to internal state models and to various choice states to achieve a desired outcome. The Wisconsin Card Sort Task (WCST) provides an ideal paradigm for measuring decision-making. In the WCST users learn a rule then adapt as the rule is changed unexpectedly. Design/Methods: Electroencephalographic data was collected from nine healthy adults using a NeuroScan NuAmps amplifier with a 32 lead EEG cap. Subjects completed 10 consecutive correct rule applications during 6 rounds of the Wisconsin Card Sort Task. EEG data were analyzed using Matlab with EEGLab extension. Results: The decision-making component of the EEG record was defined as the time immediately following card presentation. The first-correct-decision epochs were averaged and compared with the eight consecutive post-decision epochs that followed this decision turning point: A positive wave of 15 uV appeared at approximately 350 ms in both cases. In contrast, the first-orrect-decision potential remained positive for 400-1000 ms at 15 uV but this persistent positivity is absent in the post-decision waveforms. Conclusions: A robust signal has been identified representing the rule discovery component of decision-making. Cognitive computation is reflected in the late positive wave demonstrated at 400-1000 ms during which the subject is making a decision but is not yet sure of the correct rule. This wave disappears as the rule is learned. The strong positive wave at around 350 ms is apparent in both cases and may reflect the dynamics and network interactions of the decision making process. These signals confirm that the cognitive dynamics model can be interrogated using these psychophysical tools. Disclosure: Dr. Farrar has nothing to disclose. Dr. Bergethon has nothing to disclose.

Intersecting Factors Lead to Absolute Pitch Acquisition That is Maintained in a “Fixed do” Environment

the skill of absolute pitch (ap) has been proposed as an ideal paradigm for investigating the complex relationships that exist between the genome and its expression at a cognitive and behavioral level (the phenotype). Yet despite this, we still have limited understanding of the early conditions that might be necessary or sufficient for development of this skill, and the influence of the current music environment has not been explored. To investigate these issues we undertook a detailed characterization of the early and current music environment of 160 musicians, and then identified factors predictive of varying extent of AP ability. The results demonstrate a similar contribution of past and present environmental influences, with a combination of factors (rather than any given factor) most salient in AP musicians. The novel finding for the role of the current environment suggests that auditory processing models emphasizing plasticity effects are relevant to AP ability.

Cognitive phenotyping of amyloid precursor protein transgenic J20 mice

Transgenic mice that express familial Alzheimer's disease mutant forms of the human amyloid precursor protein (hAPP) have proved to be invaluable in determining the impact that the neurotoxic amyloid-β peptide has in vivo. In addition to the propensity to accumulate cerebral amyloid plaques, a crucial characteristic of hAPP mouse models is their cognitive impairments. To date the most widely used test for analyzing cognitive impairment in hAPP mice is the Morris water maze (MWM) which, due to the fact that mice are not “natural” swimmers, may not always be the ideal paradigm to investigate cognitive behaviours. Furthermore, not all cognitive impairments have been replicated across research laboratories. In the current study, we characterised the cognitive abilities of the J20 transgenic mouse line (expressing the Swedish 670/671KM->NL and Indiana (717V->FhAPP mutations) and non-transgenic mice. Mice were assessed in the cheeseboard task (i.e., a ‘dry version’ of the MWM) and a variety of other cognitive paradigms to test fear conditioning, object recognition and short-term memory to broaden the understanding of the cognitive deficits in J20 mice. hAPP transgenic mice perform normally in tasks for fear conditioning, short-term object recognition and short-term memory of context familiarity. However, they were profoundly impaired in their spatial reference memory capabilities in the cheeseboard task. The cheeseboard task has potential to replace the MWM task in situations where the MWM is not suitable for particular mouse models.

Bloch dispersion and high frequency homogenization for separable doubly-periodic structures

Bloch waves are considered for a class of explicitly solvable two-dimensional periodic structures, as models of photonic structures; the class of structures chosen reduce to coupled one-dimensional problems. These provide benchmarks upon which asymptotic techniques can be tested and are also of interest in their own right. Two specific cases are considered: a generalized two-dimensional Mathieu-like equation and that of piecewise constant checkerboard media; the latter provides an ideal paradigm as the resulting dispersion relations are explicit and give virtually the only two-dimensional, non-trivial, dispersion relations for Bloch waves. The dispersion relations demonstrate many features of topical interest such as stop-bands and flat dispersion curves corresponding to slow light. Illustrative calculations show all-angle-negative refraction at higher frequencies than normal, so lensing and cloaking effects are obtained.The separable structures are used to illustrate the efficacy of homogenization theory, near the edges of the Brillouin zone, when the wavelength and microstructural lengthscales are of similar order. Conventional homogenization is widely assumed to be ineffective for modeling photonic crystals as it is limited to low frequencies when the wavelength is long relative to the microstructural lengthscales. Here high frequency homogenization theory, which is free of the conventional limitations, is used to generate effective partial differential equations on a macroscale, that have the microscale embedded within them through averaged quantities.

A MISREADING OF POETIC PROPORTIONS: THOMAS MOFOLO AND LÉOPOLD SÉDAR SENGHOR'S CHAKA(S): TWO AFRICAN TEXTS IN CONVERSATION

Léopold Sédar Senghor's Chaka (1951) was published at a time when Hitler's dominion still resonated over Europe, and African countries had begun to claim their right to self-determination. Because Senghor's poem gave centre-stage to a controversial historical figure reputed for his warfare, comparatively little has been written about the poem. Chaka was, at best, denied the critical attention customarily given to the literary and ideological value of Senghor's work and at worst gravely misunderstood by the public at large. One of the elements lacking from this monolithic response to Senghor's poem is the recognition and understanding of its source, Sotho writer Thomas Mofolo's Chaka (1925). It is argued that a text's apparent contradiction and inherent complexity cannot be elucidated without a proper understanding of its intertextuality. This paper will investigate Senghor's reading of Mofolo in order to shed light on the dynamic of a dialogue that happened in the direction most obviously ignored by literary theories still today: not between metropole and peripheries but within the peripheries. Senghor did not simply choose Chaka (the historical figure and novelistic character) but he chose Mofolo as well because his work offered the Senghorian challenge an ideal paradigm: the political and cultural affirmation of what is essentially African through the arts and through literature in particular. The paper proposes a close reading of Senghor's Chaka, to show that the poem is a transcultural version of Mofolo's novel that remains compatible with his ideology of Negritude.

Exploring the fundamental dynamics of error-based motor learning using a stationary predictive-saccade task.

The maintenance of movement accuracy uses prior performance errors to correct future motor plans; this motor-learning process ensures that movements remain quick and accurate. The control of predictive saccades, in which anticipatory movements are made to future targets before visual stimulus information becomes available, serves as an ideal paradigm to analyze how the motor system utilizes prior errors to drive movements to a desired goal. Predictive saccades constitute a stationary process (the mean and to a rough approximation the variability of the data do not vary over time, unlike a typical motor adaptation paradigm). This enables us to study inter-trial correlations, both on a trial-by-trial basis and across long blocks of trials. Saccade errors are found to be corrected on a trial-by-trial basis in a direction-specific manner (the next saccade made in the same direction will reflect a correction for errors made on the current saccade). Additionally, there is evidence for a second, modulating process that exhibits long memory. That is, performance information, as measured via inter-trial correlations, is strongly retained across a large number of saccades (about 100 trials). Together, this evidence indicates that the dynamics of motor learning exhibit complexities that must be carefully considered, as they cannot be fully described with current state-space (ARMA) modeling efforts.

Green Wireless Communications: A Time-Reversal Paradigm

Green wireless communications have received considerable attention recently in hope of finding novel solutions to improve energy efficiency for the ubiquity of wireless applications. In this paper, we argue and show that the time-reversal (TR) signal transmission is an ideal paradigm for green wireless communications because of its inherent nature to fully harvest energy from the surrounding environment by exploiting the multi-path propagation to re-collect all the signal energy that would have otherwise been lost in most existing communication paradigms. A green wireless technology must ensure low energy consumption and low radio pollution to others than the intended user. In this paper, we show through theoretical analysis, numerical simulations and experiment measurements that the TR wireless communications, compared to the conventional direct transmission using a Rake receiver, reveals significant transmission power reduction, achieves high interference alleviation ratio, and exhibits large multi-path diversity gain. As such it is an ideal paradigm for the development of green wireless systems. The theoretical analysis and numerical simulations show an order of magnitude improvement in terms of transmit power reduction and interference alleviation. Experimental measurements in a typical indoor environment also demonstrate that the transmit power with TR based transmission can be as low as 20% of that without TR, and the average radio interference (thus radio pollution) even in a nearby area can be up to 6dB lower. A strong time correlation is found to be maintained in the multi-path channel even when the environment is varying, which indicates high bandwidth efficiency can be achieved in TR radio communications.

On the Role of Flexibility in Protein-Ligand Interactions: the Example of p53 Tetramerization Domain

The recognition of protein surfaces by designed ligands has become an attractive approach in drug discovery. However, the variable nature and irregular behavior of protein surfaces defy this new area of research. The easy to understand "lock-and-key" model is far from being the ideal paradigm in biomolecular interactions and, hence, any new finding on how proteins and ligands behave in recognition events paves a step of the way. Herein, we illustrate a clear example on how an increase in flexibility of both protein and ligand can result in an increase in the stability of the macromolecular complex. The biophysical study of the interaction between a designed flexible tetraguanidinium-calix[4]arene and the tetramerization domain of protein p53 (p53TD) and its natural mutant p53TD-R337H shows how the floppy mutant domain interacts more tightly with the ligand than the well-packed wild-type protein. Moreover, the flexible calixarene ligand interacts with higher affinity to both wild-type and mutated protein domains than a conformationally rigid calixarene analog previously reported. These findings underscore the crucial role of flexibility in molecular recognition processes, for both small ligands and large biomolecular surfaces.

Nearby Construction Influences the Physiology of Research Animals: Beyond Stress Hormones

A dirty little secret in science is that there are many factors beyond the control of researchers that may compromise the results of even carefully controlled experiments. Although the methods sections of scientific papers tend to overlook the fact, researchers are not in complete control of the environment of research animals. Everything from nearby construction (1, 2) to shipping during particular developmental stages has been shown to influence (3) is suspected of influencing (4, 5) a wide variety of dependent variables. In as systematic an experiment as is possible considering the vagaries of building construction or renovation, in this issue of Endocrinology, Raff et al. (6) have again raised the important issue and documented the physiological effects of one serious impediment to animal research, environmental factors that the researcher cannot control. Here the investigators provide positive evidence that nearby construction can be devastating to experiments. During a 3-month construction project near their animal facility, the plasma levels of ACTH, corticosterone, and aldosterone in their rats each doubled or tripled contrasted with the period before or after the construction. In contrast to a previous report of the effects of construction (1), no effect was seen on body weight during construction. Similarly, no effect was seen on plasma renin, CRH mRNA in the hypothalamus, POMC mRNA in the anterior pituitary, or on a variety of genes in the pituitary and adrenal gland. Nevertheless the effects on plasma levels of ACTH, corticosterone, and aldosterone were quite dramatic. The paper by Raff et al. (6) should serve as another wake-up call to researchers, administrators, and planners that the effects of nearby construction can be devastating to experimental results. During nearby construction, the researcher or others in the animal room may not hear noise or feel vibrations, or a construction worker or planner may believe that the work will have no influence on the experiments. Unfortunately, this does not mean that the animals are not influenced physiologically. Often these stressors are ignored by researchers who do not work on stress. It could be argued that only those individuals who study stress should be concerned about the effects of stressors associated with construction, and those who do not study stress need not be concerned. However, it can also be argued that it is unwise to draw the conclusion from studies like that of Raff et al. (6) that construction affects only stress systems. The increase in levels of ACTH, corticosterone, and aldosterone reported by Raff et al. (6) undoubtedly have secondary effects on other systems influenced by these hormones. As one example, corticosterone influences neurogenesis within the hippocampus (7). Consequently, it is likely that the results of experiments on hippocampal-associated memory would also be influenced by the construction stress. Similarly, because prenatal stressors can alter the levels of plasma testosterone in fetal rats (8), and consequently the sexual differentiation of the brain (9) and behavior (10), researchers working on sexual differentiation of the brain or behavior or on any physiological or behavioral endpoint that is sexually differentiated should be concerned about prenatal stress associated with nearby construction. There are sometimes stressors that researchers not only cannot control, but that they may not even know about. A few years ago, my research group was in the middle of a quite large, parametric experiment to determine the ideal paradigms and doses of ovarian hormones for inducing

The Psychometrics of Photographic Cropping: The Influence of Colour, Meaning, and Expertise

Cropping is the central act of photography, the viewfinder of a camera being used to crop a portion of the visual world which is then surrounded with a frame. Six studies are described which show that the act of cropping is carried out reliably and confidently by both expert and non-expert participants. Two studies confirm that some croppers are better croppers than others, their cropped images being preferred aesthetically over the croppings of less-good croppers. Colour had little impact on cropping decisions, whereas thresholded monochrome images ('Mooney images') dramatically altered crop positions. That suggests that cropping can be driven top-down, by the meaning of objects in photographs, but the fact that the Mooneyised images are still cropped consistently, suggests that image structure, perhaps in the form of low-level image properties, may still be important. Experts crop pictures differently from non-experts, and they take longer, viewing a wider range of possible crops, pausing longer to assess crops, and using more formal terminology when reflecting on their cropping decisions. Experts' crops are not, however, preferred more, either by non-expert viewers or by expert viewers. Cropping, it is suggested, is an ideal paradigm for experimental aesthetics, allowing precise experimental control with Fechner's Method of Production, a technique which normally is not easy to use.

Neural Correlates of Motion-induced Blindness in the Human Brain

Motion-induced blindness (MIB) is a visual phenomenon in which highly salient visual targets spontaneously disappear from visual awareness (and subsequently reappear) when superimposed on a moving background of distracters. Such fluctuations in awareness of the targets, although they remain physically present, provide an ideal paradigm to study the neural correlates of visual awareness. Existing behavioral data on MIB are consistent both with a role for structures early in visual processing and with involvement of high-level visual processes. To further investigate this issue, we used high field functional MRI to investigate signals in human low-level visual cortex and motion-sensitive area V5/MT while participants reported disappearance and reappearance of an MIB target. Surprisingly, perceptual invisibility of the target was coupled to an increase in activity in low-level visual cortex plus area V5/MT compared with when the target was visible. This increase was largest in retinotopic regions representing the target location. One possibility is that our findings result from an active process of completion of the field of distracters that acts locally in the visual cortex, coupled to a more global process that facilitates invisibility in general visual cortex. Our findings show that the earliest anatomical stages of human visual cortical processing are implicated in MIB, as with other forms of bistable perception.