Older Issues Research Articles

The molecular vista: current perspectives on molecules and life in the twentieth century

This essay considers how scholarly approaches to the development of molecular biology have too often narrowed the historical aperture to genes, overlooking the ways in which other objects and processes contributed to the molecularization of life. From structural and dynamic studies of biomolecules to cellular membranes and organelles to metabolism and nutrition, new work by historians, philosophers, and STS scholars of the life sciences has revitalized older issues, such as the relationship of life to matter, or of physicochemical inquiries to biology. This scholarship points to a novel molecular vista that opens up a pluralist view of molecularizations in the twentieth century and considers their relevance to current science.

Comics of the New Europe: Reflections and Intersections, edited by Martha Kuhlman & José Alaniz

This book is undeniably a welcome study. Welcome because there are too few studies on European comics in general and even less about marginal[ized] ones, in English. Except for a couple of them (e.g., Bunjevac), the majority of the authors named in this study will be unknown to most scholars outside these “New” (i.e., mostly Slavic) European countries. But it is interesting to discover new talents and new issues, or new ways of bringing up older issues (e.g., trauma, censorship...). Like the...

Breaking down bureaucracy will give providers a chance

This is all set to be a watershed year for the early years sector, with the introduction of the national funding formula sure to have a major impact on settings, but many older issues still remain problems.

Gathering the ’Net: Efforts and Challenges in Archiving Pacific Websites

Gathering the ’Net:Efforts and Challenges in Archiving Pacific Websites Eleanor Kleiber (bio) In addition to more traditional material—books, journals and other serial publications, brochures, music, films, manuscripts, photographs, postcards and archives—the University of Hawai‘i-Mānoa (uhm) Library’s Hawaiian and Pacific Collections are now actively collecting websites. With so many new websites being created in and about the Pacific Islands region, and so much more information being made available online—and at times exclusively so—it has become increasingly clear to the librarians of these collections that to adequately document this period in history it is necessary to collect and preserve websites. The uhm Library has been attempting to archive websites in one form or another since 2001. This essay will discuss the importance of collecting Pacific websites, describe how the Hawaiian and Pacific Collections are finding solutions for the inherent challenges of preserving websites, and explore some potential future directions that would strengthen the project and meet the information and research needs of the Pacific Islands region. Why Preserve Websites The uhm Library’s Hawaiian and Pacific Collections have long recognized the research value of websites. In many ways the uh effort seeks to parallel a web archiving project being conducted at the Library of Congress (loc), which (as noted on the loc website) is “composed of sites selected by subject specialists to represent web-based information on a designated topic. It is part of a continuing effort by the Library to evaluate, select, collect, catalog, provide access to, and preserve digital materials for researchers today and in the future.”1 In the most recent survey of web archiving initiatives, forty-two institutions were identified worldwide, [End Page 158] with the vast majority of those focused on archiving websites limited to the hosting institution, its nation, or its region or state within a nation (Gomes, Mirana, and Costa 2011). This same survey identified the uhm web archiving project as one of only two initiatives that seek to collect internationally, based on a specific geographic area2—although, as will be discussed, the national libraries of Australia and New Zealand do collect beyond their national boundaries. Vast amounts of information from and about the Pacific are being created digitally and made available via the Internet. Governments, nongovernmental organizations, and businesses use web pages as informational brochures, as tools for interacting with and serving citizens and customers, and as repositories for their work. Blogs are a tool frequently used by citizens to voice individual opinions, at times counter to government preference. Pacific websites are also a meeting place for the Pacific diaspora, connecting far-flung communities and collecting their voices as new cultural identities are navigated and shaped. And, of course, Pacific websites create strong connections between the Pacific region and the rest of the world. Pacific history, culture, and identity are being created and explored using the medium of the web, and librarians in the uhm Hawaiian and Pacific Collections feel it is important that all of this information is preserved for the long-term benefit of researchers and for the citizens of the Pacific. Although of extreme importance, websites are not a stable medium and thus cause multiple challenges for long-term preservation. For one, websites are constantly changing and being updated, much as if there was a new edition of the same book being published daily. Therefore the same website must be repeatedly “collected.” Organizations that produce serial publications may only maintain the most current issue online, assuming that older issues are not of interest (when in fact they can be of great historical value). Then there is the regularity with which entire websites completely and irretrievably disappear. Broken links and “404 not found” messages are well-known and frustrating realities to even the most casual user of the Internet. While printed annual reports do not disintegrate when organizations shut down, websites disappear as soon as there is no funding to maintain them on a server. Government websites are highly susceptible to change or deletion in response to shifting political agendas. With so many economic and social fluctuations that have immediate impact on the existence of a website, libraries should not and cannot...

Paradoxes of design: energy and water consumption and the aestheticization of Norwegian bathrooms 1990–2008

AbstractIn this article we explore the widely held assumption that aestheticized consumption is bound to escalate. In our study of 20 years of representations of bathrooms in Norway's most popular interior design magazine Bonytt, we found support for the hypothesis that since the early 1990s new uses of bathrooms as sites for the construction and expression of identity and social aspirations have become more salient. We also have reason to believe that these new uses may be related to increased energy and water consumption. However, we also encountered aspects that indicate a more contingent and paradoxical relation. First, Bonytt calls explicitly for reflexive consumerism, enabling readers to deliberate the degree of aestheticization of their bathrooms. Second, while mostly showing large bathrooms, ‘aesthetic fixes’ are proposed by Bonytt, which let small bathrooms appear larger – without increased energy consumption for space heating. Third, aesthetics is used to propagate new, energy saving technologies (e.g. LEDs). And fourth, water and energy wasting practices shown in newer Bonytt issues (e.g. large shower heads) have largely replaced wasteful practices present in older issues (e.g. whirlpools). Thus, at least in these cases the shifts in fashions promoted by Bonytt may only be surface phenomena, which leave more fundamental trends untouched. These four observations are examples of how a productive relation between design and sustainability can be achieved. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

The journey is the reward

Byline: T. Sathyanarayana Rao You have achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what you're doing is work or play. Warren Beatty. Quoted in Deccan chronicle Bengaluru Edition, 19[sup] th Oct 2009 What a wonderful year it was! I have picked up the quote above simply because the exhilaration of many positives we had over shadowed all the toil it entails in getting the journal in shape and in time. Before I get to mention the Pubmed Central indexing of our journal, there are a few points to be certainly noted. *The journal is getting released each time, in time. The final issue of the last year 51(4) was in web by early December and the New Year Issue, Jan - March 2010 is already in web in the second week of Jan 2010. I will assure you, being certain of continuity in the office, that the April-June issue will be ready by February 2010. *The special supplement of Dementia under the guest editorial of Dr. K.S. Shaji is a big hit and is already well quoted. *I must thank Dr. Sudheer Kumar, Organizing Secretary, ANCIPS, 2009 at Agra for the timely arrangement made for the publication of abstracts in April supplement. Indexing of the Journal Apart from the many indexing agencies quoted in the general information sheet in the journal, the crowning glory was the indexing of our journal at Pubmed Central. I must thank our president, Dr. E. Mohandas, Immediate Past Presidents Dr. P.C. Shastri and Dr. Indla Ramasubba Reddy and the incoming president Dr. Ajit Avasthi at the outset. Dr. Govind M. Bang, Honarary General Secretary, Dr Asim Kumar Mallick, Honarary Treasurer deserve special mention. I am grateful to our editorial office bearers, Dr. G. Swaminath, Dr. Roy Abraham Kallivayalil, Dr. G. Prasad Rao, Dr. Ajith V. Bhide and Dr. Sandeep Grover, Editorial board members, Journal Committee members, National and International Advisory Board members, the reviewers and the authors who made this possible. Ultimately much of the credit must go to Dr. Sahu and his team at Medknow Publications, Mumbai, who are responsible for this achievement. My sincere thanks also go to Prof Mario Maj, Dr. J. Mezzich and the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), in particular Dr. Helen Hermann, Dr. Jair Mari, Dr. Vikram Patel, Dr. Christian Keiling and others. Very specifically I am grateful to Prof Maj and all in the task force, as well as observer Dr Shekhar Saxena, consultant Prof Norman Sartorius, Anna Engstrom and those in WPA who have helped including members of the executive committee for support and advice. The major success of indexing goes to Dr. Sahu and his team. I like to quote his letter which also makes our responsibilities increase many told: From Dr. Sahu, Medknow Publications and Media Pvt Ltd Dated 11[sup] th September 2009 'We are pleased to inform that the Indian Journal of Psychiatry is now indexed with PubMed. One can search the articles published in IJP from 2009 onwards from PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmedandterm=%22Indian%20J%20Psychiatry% 22 [Journal]). All the articles will get linked to IJP's website in next three to four days. The full text of IJP is also archived with PMC (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/tocrender.fcgi?journal=938andaction=archive) and searchable separately from Entrez PubMed. We will provide the back volumes to PMC in a couple of weeks so that all the articles from 2007 of IJP are available in PubMed. Older issues will be added over a few months. This being one of the important milestones, it is important that we continue to maintain and improve the quality of papers by rigorous peer-review and maintain the publication schedule so as to take the maximum advantage of PubMed indexing. …

Pay to Play on the Internet

Pay to Play on the Internet

The Latest on Latest (Entry) and Other Hot News on Seriality

Summary Jean Hirons presented the latest developments regarding the definition of serial and the bibliographic description of serialesque works. In particular she discussed the modified model C, a conceptual model for separating the bibliographic world into monographic and ongoing entities (as opposed to the current separation into monographic and serial); and incorporating entry, a proposed method for handling title changes for electronic journals that impose the new title on all of the older issues.

The policy agenda: challenges for the new Europe

This article argues that, just as science and technology policies played a key role in the early 1980s in dispelling Euro-pessimism and establishing a new momentum towards European integration, so, in the early 1990s, science and technology policies offer a viable way to confront Europe's present crisis of confidence. The agenda has shifted. Today the issues of unemployment, the environment and how best to assimilate the countries of Eastern and Central Europe jostle for priority alongside the older issues of competitiveness and globalization. In spite of the pessimism, none of these challenges is insuperable. On the contrary, it is argued, a co-ordinated supply-side response which gives priority, East and West, to encouraging investment in new equipment, new skills and energy-saving clean technologies, provides a route both out of recession and to increased competitiveness in the global market place.

The Value of the Tax Treatment of Original‐Issue Deep‐Discount Bonds: A Note

IN A 1979 ARTICLE in this journal, Livingston [5] examined the tax treatment of original-issue deep-discount bonds (OIDs), and concluded that this tax treatment made the bonds highly disadvantageous to potential bondholders and firms. Nevertheless, from March 1981 through April 1982, almost 14% of the funds raised in the domestic bond market were raised with bonds issued at deep discounts from their par values. These OIDs had yields to maturity below comparable bonds being issued at par with coupons reflecting current interest rates (i.e., current coupon bonds, or CCBs). To explain the attractiveness of OIDs to investors, market analysts have noted that the bonds were less likely to be called by the issuer, that they had a more certain yield to maturity, and that an inverted yield curve made OID cash flows more appealing.' This note reexamines the perceived tax disadvantages on OIDs issued prior to July 1, 1982 and shows that it applies most strongly to the purchase of new OIDs by taxable investors. However, after some seasoning, OIDs will become attractive to taxable investors because they begin to produce capital gain income. In fact, original holders who are nontaxable may be able to earn very high holding-period returns by selling seasoned OIDs to taxable holders in the secondary market.2 Although the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 eliminates this advantage on new issues, older issues will still benefit from it.

A minting policy for commemorative coins

The official commemorative coins have exhibited an extraordinary increase in price during the last ten years. This has been accompanied by a commensurate increase in the sale of new issues. In 1973 alone, the Israeli Treasury generated a net profit of over 5 million dollars from the sale of commemorative coins. The Bank of Israel was interested in safeguarding the future profit generating potential of minting new coins and in learning how decisions relating to minting policy influence the long-range profits. Therefore, (1) the relationship between various coin characteristics and economic data, and the market price of old issues, as well as (2) the relationship between the profit from a new issue and the gains experienced from older issues and other coin characteristics, were determined using regression analysis. Based on the above, a dynamic model was constructed to show the relationship between the controllable variables (various minting policies) and the long-range present value of the net profit to be generated by them. Since the derivation of an optimal analytic solution seemed infeasible, several minting policies were simulated, and as a result a set of improved policies recommended.

An Examination of the Quantum Theories. I

Reference to quantum theory has become quite the fashion, and to base an expectation on an already receding episode with relativity theory, a great philosophical assault of interpretation of quanta is brewing in many quarters. The author of this series of studies would be content if by a plain statement of “what is the case” at this stage he could stem the more quixotic efforts, or rather reveal their unreal character to the spectators who may be enmeshed in the spell cast over such adventures. It is constantly necessary to restate the physicists' claims plainly in their positive content—as Einstein himself did once for relativity theory—so that one may know what is no-man's land and what is everyman's land in the new territory. This in itself is largely but a hope since there is no unanimity as to all the facts, and, worse, unanimity is no guarantee of stability. Nevertheless, the painstaking revision that is constantly going on on the experimental front enables us to arrange at least the data on a well-ordered scale of reliability. It then becomes much easier to detect false props to otherwise attractive theories, to discriminate live matter from the débris of progress, and to speculate on future growth. For such reasons the present examination of the various quantum theories will proceed from a presentation of facts and theories to their appraisal and then to a proposal concerning the organization of the facts, concepts and theories. The subject is very complex: There are several quantum theories, some of which are already referred to as “classical” although these themselves were anti-classical (anti-Newtonian); all have claimed success in their time; all have serious hiatuses, including the present. The author has chosen to hark back to some of the older issues before appraising the latest claims.