Short Letter Research Articles

Definitions

In the January issue, PCMR published a paper that asked the seemingly simple question of ‘What is a vertebrate pigment cell?’ (Schartl et al., PCMR 29, 8–14, 2016). An interesting question for a journal that uses ‘pigment cell’ in its title! When I was a young student, I loved definitions, the more universal they were the better. Nevertheless, my thesis advisor told me that there is really no downside to making up one's own private definition as long as one rigorously adheres to it during a particular discourse. Later, I realized just how hard it is to come up with a precise definition. What is a human organism, for instance? Roughy 1014 cells sharing a common genome, or an assembly of perhaps one thousand species whose non-human cells collectively outnumber the human cells by orders of magnitude? Or what is a gene? A coding sequence?—too restrictive. Evolutionarily selectable?—so are intragenic regions, etc. The authors of the above PCMR paper restrict their definition to cells that make pigment. But what are the criteria that allow us to lump them together in this way? Function, such as generation of color? Well, pigment cells can also be found in internal organs, and the function still eludes us for many. Lineage and development, cell biology, or biochemical pathways? All too diverse and often unknown. And so no definition of a pigment cell will easily please everyone. Indeed, another publication in these pages implied that the provenance of pigment should perhaps not be part of the definition, at least not of the definition of pigment cell differentiation, as recipient cells nonetheless differentiate into pigmented cells using a specialized genetic program to acquire pigment, just not to produce it themselves (Weiner et al., PCMR 27, 1014–31, 2014). In any event, whatever is your preferred definition, there will always be exceptions: you will probably not want to exclude albino melanocytes from among pigment cells, nor count erythrocytes or ‘melanophages’ among them. So what are definitions good for? Above all, I believe, they help students who yearn for order in the seemingly chaotic world that is biology and who have difficulties understanding why two scientists can use the same term for different things. But once students learn to live with the complexity in biology, the usefulness of all-encompassing definitions may fade. In fact, universally acceptable definitions are often quite toothless as they have to accommodate every possible exception. Nevertheless, some authors argue for their value as conceptual guides. As pointed out by Schartl et al., a definition of pigment cells guides us in classifying these cells according to chosen criteria and may point to specific gaps in our knowledge. This in itself is a worthwhile exercise, and so I hope, as do the authors, that their definition paper ‘will evoke lively discussion in the community’. The current issue has many interesting subjects to offer as well. In an extensive review article, Dorothy Bennett discusses the important question of senescence in melanoma. Original articles cover aspects from genotyping to methods in phenotyping and short letters areas from genetics of pigmentation to correlations between pigmentation and pain perception. You will also realize that the term ‘clinical’ now seems more frequent in PCMR, and this trend may continue. In any event, I hope you enjoy our publication as much as I enjoy serving as Editor, and I wish you all much enthusiasm and success.

Introduction: On the Limitations of Military Doctrine

This special document is an original English translation of a 2015, thirty-three page (in Hebrew), Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strategy paper, marking the first time that the IDF has published an official account of its fundamental driving principles. An introductory essay by Ahmad Samih Khalidi, “On the Limitations of Military Doctrine,” places the strategy document in the context of Israel's failures in the 2006 Lebanon war. The document, itself headed by a short letter from Israeli chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, encompasses a broad spectrum of grand strategy analysis, prediction, and recommendation, against a complex matrix of operational, tactical, and logistical measures. It comprises three main parts: first, a succinct “Strategy Document” that describes Israel's strategic and operational environment and that delineates the basic principles guiding its military actions (chapters 1–3); second, a description of the IDF's command structure and procedures (chapter 4); and third, the prescription of a series of follow-up steps (chapter 5). In brief bullet points, the strategy document covers national goals, threat perceptions, the domestic, regional, and international contexts, technical and technological challenges, the main functions and roles of the IDF, the different conditions (or “operating statuses”) for the use of force, the importance of cyberwarfare, intelligence, questions of legitimacy, issues of command and control, resource utilization, defense capabilities, special operations, and the priorities for five years. Israel's traditional concerns with the threat from Arab states are downgraded in favor of the threat posed by sub- or non- state actors (Hamas and Hezbollah), and “distant” players (Iran).

The role of accounting in behavioral finance

This short letter argues that insights from behavioral accounting are highly relevant for studies examining human aspects in finance. This is important because research focusing on the users of financial information and their characteristics often assumes that financial information in itself is neutral, unbiased and value-free. However, the information used by investors and capital markets participants for making economic decisions is prepared by accountants, who use their professional judgments by interpreting and applying accounting standards.

On a New Type of Optical Illusion

This is a short open letter to the French-speaking scientific community dated January 1833. It is significant for offering the first published, unequivocal description of the “illusion of movement” achieved using animated dra known as the Phenakistiscope. Joseph Plateau’s letter can be paired with the next article in this issue, an almost contemporaneous essay by Simon Stampfer that outlines near identical discoveries in greater detail. Together, these texts provide the foundation for a key aspect of cinematographic technology and its artistic potential.

Epistolary Declamation: Performing Model Letters in Medieval English Classrooms

Medieval teachers inherited the grammatical and rhetorical pedagogy of antiquity and adapted it to their own needs. Letters came to replace speeches as the predominant target genre for composition instruction, and the model letters found in most medieval textbooks on letter writing ( artes dictandi ) resemble the classical declamationes in important respects. Their clearly articulated structure is modeled on that of an oration, their distinctive stylistic features presuppose oral presentation, and their typical pairing almost certainly reflects a continuing tradition of classroom disputation. We cannot know exactly how these texts would have been performed by medieval students, but there are enough clues in the surviving treatises to justify an attempt to re-create at least some features of such performances. Several short model letters, including one letter paired with its response, illustrate the performative and controversial rhetoric that characterized the classroom practices of dictatores in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century England.

Édouard Glissant, philosophe: Héraclite et Hegel dans le Tout-Monde by Alexandre Leupin

Reviewed by: Édouard Glissant, philosophe: Héraclite et Hegel dans le Tout-Monde by Alexandre Leupin Neal Allar Alexandre Leupin. Édouard Glissant, philosophe: Héraclite et Hegel dans le Tout-Monde. Paris: Hermann, 2016. Pp. 382. 27 €. Édouard Glissant has often been called a novelist, an essayist, a theorist, and—his preference—a poet, but he has less frequently been called a philosopher. Despite the ontological and epistemological thrust of his notions of creolization, Relation, and the Tout-Monde, Glissant always balked at the self-enclosed systems associated with philosophy. Yet his work, in its terminological consistency and conceptual rigor, undeniably develops a kind of system—a système non systématique, to quote a short letter that Glissant wrote to his friend and colleague Alexandre Leupin. This paradox lies at the heart of Leupin’s rich and original new study, Édouard Glissant, philosophe, which argues that Glissant is a philosopher precisely in his challenge to Plato’s banishment of poetry from the realm of rational philosophical inquiry. Against the Platonic quest for fixed forms of Truth and Being, Glissant allows the unpredictable play of poetic language to generate an ontic system of ongoing creation and perpetual becoming. He thereby inscribes himself into a lineage running from Heraclitus through Hegel, following a particular line of Western thought in order ultimately to dispel the idea that philosophy belongs exclusively to the West. According to Leupin, Hegel is Glissant’s primary philosophical interlocutor throughout his career. On the surface, this is a surprising claim given that Hegel’s name shows up sparingly in Glissant’s work (compared with, say, Deleuze) and that, when Glissant does mention Hegel, particularly in Le discours antillais (1981), it is to criticize his Eurocentrism, universalist History, and racism. Yet, as Leupin demonstrates in detail, Hegel was a key figure in Glissant’s education, and Hegelian processes underlie much of his thinking: the negation of African cultures in the slave trade forces the synthesis of new Caribbean cultures, in Relation; reflections on particularities always open onto a broader thinking of totality; and for both thinkers, human knowledge originates in a poème primordial, although for Glissant this poem is not a simple origin but an ongoing, endless textual “weave.” Early authors of this poème primordial, Leupin explains, included the pre-Socratics, especially Heraclitus, whose maxims on totality and becoming Glissant would adopt and reconfigure. Glissant’s egalitarian vision of the Tout-Monde—where forms, ideas, bodies, and landscapes interact in the same immanent space—largely results from his conversation with these ante- and anti-Platonic philosophers. Glissant is not the only twentieth-century thinker to question the Platonic tradition, however, and we know that Glissant was in direct conversation with at least two others: Deleuze and Derrida. Leupin mentions them both several times but never analyzes their relationship to Glissant in detail. While Édouard Glissant, philosophe is refreshing in its claim that Glissant is a philosopher irreducible to academic labels rather than a postcolonial ‘theorist’ reliant on post-structuralism, the reader is left with questions about how Glissant conversed with his contemporaries. Given Leupin’s close personal relationship with Glissant, he would seem particularly well positioned to address these questions. Still, this book is an indispensable reference for how Glissant engages deeply with Western philosophy and constructs a stunningly original philosophical system (albeit non systématique) of his own. [End Page 160] Neal Allar Tsinghua University Copyright © 2016 L’Esprit Créateur

Comments on “Fuzzy multicriteria decision making method based on the improved accuracy function for interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets” by Ridvan Sahin

In the above paper, the author proposed an improved accuracy function, and then by using the function, a multicriteria fuzzy decision-making method is established. However, the application example given in the above cited reference is inappropriate to show the accuracy function’s advantages. In this short letter, we redefine a set of data; the practicality and effectiveness of the proposed approach are demonstrated with the use of the presented data.

PENGEMBANGAN KURIKULUM LEMBAGA PENGAJIAN ANAK (LPA) DI KOTA KULON

Abstract: This study shows that the implementation of the pengajian Anak Institute (LPA-Children's Religious Teaching Institute) in Kota Kulon have resulted that students have the ability to read the letters of the Koran and ability to practice five prayers etc (wudlu, rote short surah, and prayer). Subject matter provided in the LPA Kota Kulon is material relating to read the letters of the Koran and the implementation of the five daily prayers: material about the purification ritual, prayer readings, prayer movements memorizing short letter (Juz Amma), and daily prayer. In leaming to read the letters of the Quran, the main source of the material is lqro Book and the Koran. These LPA using a system of private' or khalagoh system (individual system) to study Qur'an, uses classical system for the Islamic education generally. The method used in leaming to read the letters of the Quran using methods Igro and only a few were still using traditional methods (methods Alif Ba Ta). The method used in Islamic education, among others: methods of lectures, assignments, drill (habituation), and the method of demonstration. This type of evaluation to assess the results of leaming are generally formative (assessment at the end of a material/sub-subject/subjects) and conducted orally (Oral Test). There are several LPA which doing formative evaluation, sub-summative and summative and put it into a report book leaming progress of students (book report cards).
 Keywords: Curriculum, Children's Religious Teaching Institute.

Classical selection and quantum Darwinism

This short letter in response to Wojciech Zurek’s article “Quantum Darwinism, classical reality, and the randomness of quantum jumps” points out extant rebuttals in the literature to some of the author’s key claims.On the first page of his arXiv.org version of the Physics Today article (http://arxiv.org/abs/1412.5206), Zurek states thatdecoherence selects preferred pointer states that survive interaction with the environment. They are localized and effectively classical. They persist while their superpositions decohere. Decoherence marks the border between quantum and classical, alleviating concern about flagrant … manifestations of quantumness in the macroscopic domain.Here we consider emergence of “the classical” starting at a more fundamental pre-decoherence level, tracing the origin of preferred pointer states.However, the idea that preferred pointer states naturally “emerge” from the quantum level has been refuted in the literature, in particular in a paper11. R. E. Kastner, Stud. Hist. Philos. Mod. Phys. 48, 56 (2014), and references therein. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2014.06.004 showing that “classical” pointer states do not emerge unless a key aspect of classicality has been tacitly assumed from the beginning. In other words, the “quantum Darwinism” program is fatally circular.The assumption generating the circularity usually takes the form of a predesignated system that is considered separable from its environment (the same assumption appears in the discussion about information flow in Zurek’s article). The system acquires decohered observable (or stable) states because it is presumed to be distinguishable from a designated set of environmental subsystems, all assumed as having random phases—with respect to each other and the system. The only correlations between the system and the environmental subsystems are assumed to be established via the designated Hamiltonians.However, in the absence of this sort of predesignated partitioning of all degrees of freedom into the system and its surroundings—measurement apparatus, environment, and so forth—where the initial phase of each subsystem is random, the desired decoherence and emergence of pointer states, or einselection, do not follow. The partitioning is inevitably based on what a human observer would be able to identify and measure, such as distinguishable atoms and molecules, so the account is dependent on assuming the classical realm of the observer.The need for this pre-partitioning fatally conflicts with the claim that classicality emerges naturally from the quantum realm: Absent a pre-partitioning of all degrees of freedom into uncorrelated systems of interest, classical pointer states do not emerge. With unitary-only dynamics (lacking nonunitary collapse), the quantum realm does not have any a priori preference for the assumed uncorrelated degrees of freedom. On the contrary, a unitary-only evolution would typically begin with a maximally entangled universal state.As I noted in reference 11. R. E. Kastner, Stud. Hist. Philos. Mod. Phys. 48, 56 (2014), and references therein. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2014.06.004, one can observe the decoherence process experimentally, but that observation does not demonstrate that einselection occurs in a unitary-only dynamics or that classicality emerges in such a dynamics. A key missing ingredient in quantum Darwinism is some real physical randomization process, such as collapse, that could create an observer-independent, physical partitioning at the quantum level. Without such a process, quantum Darwinism contains the same kind of logical circularity as Boltzmann’s H-theorem, which attempted to derive irreversible thermodynamic laws from reversible laws. Boltzmann inadvertently smuggled in irreversibility by assuming molecular chaos; quantum Darwinists smuggle in classicality via their partitioning of the universe into distinguishable systems of interest that interact with mutually randomized environmental subsystems.In his article, Zurek does not address this refutation of quantum Darwinism and repeats the refuted claims and circular assumptions. Similar criticisms of quantum Darwinism’s presumption of classically distinguishable primordial systems, raised by Jasmina Jeknić-Dugić, Miroljub Dugić, and collaborators,2–42. J. Jeknić-Dugić, M. Dugić, A. Francom, Int. J. Theor. Phys. 53, 169 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10773-013-1794-x3. J. Jeknić-Dugić, M. Dugić, A. Francom, M. Arsenijević, Open Access Libr. J. 1, e501 (2014). https://doi.org/10.4236/oalib.11005014. M. Dugić, J. Jeknić, Int. J. Theor. Phys. 45, 2215 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10773-006-9186-0 and Chris Fields’s concern about the division of primordial degrees of freedom into a classically distinguishable system and environment55. C. Fields, Phys. Essays 24, 518 (2011). https://doi.org/10.4006/1.3644391 have also not been countered by proponents of quantum Darwinism.I acknowledge and thank Miroljub Dugić for his helpful comments.REFERENCESSection:ChooseTop of pageREFERENCES <<CITING ARTICLES1. R. E. Kastner, Stud. Hist. Philos. Mod. Phys. 48, 56 (2014), and references therein. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2014.06.004, Google ScholarCrossref2. J. Jeknić-Dugić, M. Dugić, A. Francom, Int. J. Theor. Phys. 53, 169 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10773-013-1794-x, Google ScholarCrossref3. J. Jeknić-Dugić, M. Dugić, A. Francom, M. Arsenijević, Open Access Libr. J. 1, e501 (2014). https://doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1100501, Google ScholarCrossref4. M. Dugić, J. Jeknić, Int. J. Theor. Phys. 45, 2215 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10773-006-9186-0, Google ScholarCrossref5. C. Fields, Phys. Essays 24, 518 (2011). https://doi.org/10.4006/1.3644391, Google ScholarCrossref© 2015 American Institute of Physics.

Cost-effectiveness of comprehensive medication reviews versus noncomprehensive medication review interventions and subsequent successful medication changes in a Medicare Part D population.

An estimated 1.5 million preventable medication-related adverse events occur annually, with some resulting in serious injury and even death. To help address this issue, the Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services (CMS) now require medication therapy management (MTM) programs to offer comprehensive medication reviews (CMRs) to all Medicare Part D beneficiaries at least once a year. During a CMR, patients receive an extensive amount of medication and educational information. In contrast, noncomprehensive medication reviews (non-CMRs) are more targeted and focus on resolving a particular medication-related problem (MRP) via short patient consultations, patient letters, and direct provider interventions. To conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis comparing CMRs with non-CMR interventions on successful medication regimen changes and reductions in adverse drug events (ADEs). This decision analytic model compared the cost-effectiveness of CMRs with other intervention methods (non-CMRs) from a payer's perspective. For this model, a successful outcome was defined as a beneficiary case devoid of an ADE due to MRPs. The model was extensively tested and subjected to a thorough one-way sensitivity analysis and a second-order probabilistic sensitivity analysis with 10,000 iterations from the variable distributions. Non-CMR interventions were less costly and more effective than CMRs. The point estimate for direct medical costs was $193 for CMRs and $157 for non-CMRs, and the estimated probability of avoiding an ADE was 0.93 and 0.94 for CMRs and non-CMRs, respectively. The 10,000 iteration-Monte Carlo simulation scatterplot and cost-effectiveness acceptability curve (CEAC) revealed a dominance by non-CMRs in preventing harmful ADEs from cost and effectiveness perspectives; however, there was an overlap in the 95% CIs for both cost and ADEs prevented. Despite this, a non-CMR intervention saved estimated $5,377.08 per ADE prevented. One-way sensitivity analysis indicated the results were sensitive to the cost of treating a preventable ADE. In 100% of cases, the CEAC demonstrated that non-CMRs were likely the most cost-effective intervention regardless of the health plan's willingness to pay. The cost-effectiveness acceptability curve suggests that non-CMR interventions were less costly and more effective than CMRs; however, there was overlap in the 95% CIs for costs and ADEs prevented. In all cases, the CEAC demonstrated that non-CMRs were the most economical intervention with regard to time and cost. Non-CMRs show promise as a viable method to address MRPs, reduce ADEs, and improve patient-related health outcomes.

Sixteen Years of the Roche Organ Transplantation Research Foundation

Sixteen Years of the Roche Organ Transplantation Research Foundation

Evidence for an eye-movement contribution to normal foveal crowding.

Along with contour interaction, inaccurate and imprecise eye movements and attention have been suggested to contribute to poorer acuity for "crowded" versus uncrowded targets. To investigate the role of eye movements in foveal crowding, we compared percent correct letter identification for short and long lines of near-threshold letters with different separations. Five normal observers read short (4 to 6 letters) and long (10 to 12 letters) lines of near-threshold, Sloan letters with edge-to-edge letter separations of 0.5, 1, and 2 letter spaces. Percent correct letter identification for the 2 to 4 interior letters in short strings and the 8 to 10 interior letters in long strings was compared with a no-crowding condition. Letter identification was significantly worse than the no-crowding condition for long letter strings with a separation of 1 letter space and for both long and short letter strings with a separation of 0.5 letter spaces. Observers more often reported the incorrect number of letters in long than in short letter strings, even for a separation of 2 letter spaces. Similar results were obtained during straight-ahead gaze and while viewing in 30 to 40 degrees left gaze, where two of the five observers exhibited an increase in horizontal fixational instability. We argue that lower percent correct letter identification and more frequent errors in reporting the number of letters in long compared with short letter strings reflect an eye-movement contribution to foveal crowding.

Verba superba. Ein Blick in Ekkeharts IV. Dichterwerkstatt

Summary – In this article, the abstract instructions given by Ekkehart IV to his brother Immo are examined in detail. These instructions were written as a poetic composition recommending the replacement of common expressions by “lofty words” which grant a higher literary level to a poem. The recommended lexical material ranges from typical poetic expressions from the classical age to metaphors for Christian topics. After the abstract section, Ekkehart appends two short letters as examples of elevated poetic style; the content of these two related letters ascends, in a way, from the earthly realm into paradise. How the use of “lofty words” affects the versification of a biblical text (which is in every single word true for Christians) is shown through lexical analysis of the first verses of Ekkehart’s comprehensive “epigrammatic epic” of the entire Scriptures – that is, an analysis of the verse inscriptions (tituli) to the never realized fresco cycle for the Mainz Cathedral. Ekkehart’s undertaking benefits from contemporary allegorical exegesis.

Graham Greene

Graham Greene Percival Everett (bio) I had done some work on the reservation nearly ten years earlier, helping to engineer an irrigation ditch that brought water from a dammed high creek down to the pastures of Arapaho Ranch. I slept on a half-dozen different sofas during the seven months of the project. The tribe paid me well and I left, thought that was the end of it. Then just a few weeks ago I received a letter from a woman named Roberta Cloud. I was not so much surprised by the call as I was by the fact that she was still alive. She actually had a friend write for her as she was blind now, the letter stated. The friend said that Roberta needed my help. It was a short letter, to the point, without many details. The letter ended with an overly formal, “until I see you I am sincerely, Roberta Cloud.” I made the drive up from Fort Collins on a Thursday. I left in the morning and stopped at Dick’s Dogs in Laramie for an ill-advised early lunch. I loved the dogs, but they never loved me back. I drove into a stiff early winter wind that caused my Jeep to burn more gas than usual. The high profile, flat-faced vehicle felt like it was on its heels as I pressed into the breeze. I hit Lander mid-afternoon and drove straight through to Ethete. Ethete was just a gas station with a convenience store. There was a yellow light at the intersection that flashed yellow to all four directions. I stopped and grabbed myself a cup of coffee. A heavy-set woman rang up my drink and the packaged cake I’d put on the counter. “Think it will snow?” I asked. “Eventually,” she said. I nodded. “Can you tell me how to get to Roberta Cloud’s house?” “She’s on Seventeen Mile Road.” “Where on the road? Closer to here or Riverton.” “Did you know it ain’t seventeen miles, that road?” “How long is it?” “Changes,” she said. “I’ve never measured it myself. Some people say it’s only thirteen miles. Dewey St. Clair said it’s nineteen, but I think he just said that because he was always late for work.” “How will I know Roberta’s house?” “She’s at the first bend. There’s a purple propane tank in the yard. Big one.” “Thanks.” I drove back to 17 Mile Road and turned east. After a couple of miles I saw the bend and there was the big purple tank. Someone had scrawled Indian Country across it in white paint, but the last letter of the first word and the last two of the second were worn off, so it read India Count. I rolled into the yard and waited behind the wheel for a few minutes. A black dog came trotting from the house next door. I got out and opened the back of my [End Page 243] Jeep. I placed a carton of cigarettes on a stack on three new dishtowels and a twenty-dollar bill on top of that. The dog walked me to the door. I knocked lightly. I didn’t remember Roberta all that well. I recalled only that she was the oldest person I had ever talked to. She looked to be ninety back then. The gift was customary. I didn’t know if she smoked, but the tobacco was important. I knocked harder and a woman called for me to enter. I did. Roberta Cloud sat in a rocker across the room, backlit by the sun through a window. She didn’t rock. “Ms. Cloud?” “Yes?” “It’s Jack Keene.” “Mr. Keene, you came.” “Yes, ma’am. You call, I come. That’s the way it works.” “I could get used to that,” she said. “I have a few things for you,” I told her. “Thank you, Mr. Keene.” She pointed to the table. I put down the towels, cigarettes, and the money. “Please, call me Jack.” “Sit down, Jack.” I sat on the sofa under the window. The sun came through the glass and hit my...

The problem of the authorship of the Greek Odarion to Saint Casimirus (1604)

The present article focuses on the question of the authorship of the Greek Odarion to St. Casimirus, one of the most outstanding pieces of Greek poetry in Early Modern Lithuania, recently famed for its dual versification. This amusing piece of work, located in the collection of the panegyrical texts to the same saint, carrying the title THEATRVM S. CASIMIRI, IN QVO IPSIVS PROSAPIA, VITA, MIRACVLA, &amp; illustris pompa in solemni eiusdem apotheoseos instauratione, Vilnae Lithuaniae Metropoli V. Id. Maij, Anno D[omi]ni M. DC. IV. instituta graphice proponuntur. […] Editum ibidem [sc. Vilnae], eodem anno [sc. 1604], operis Typographicis Academiae SOCIETATIS IESV, was performed orally during the solemnities that took place 10–12 May in 1604 in Vilnius due to the recent canonization of this saint. The true author of this collection is actually unknown and the same is applicable to the Odarion. Gregorius Swięcicki, the member of Vilnius chapter, whose name appears in several parts of the convolute (especially, under the short introductory letter Author Lectori), is generally being taken as an author’s name for the whole printed collection (including Odarion). This position was recently questioned due to the detection of one more important part of the convolute, the so-called Pompa Casimiriana written by certain Quirinus Cnoglerus Austrius. The main idea of this article is to reveal the complicated cultural, educational and confessional surroundings of such a litterary composition as Odarion and give several suggestions concerning the personalities who might be called its authors. First of them is Austrian “philhelenic” humanist and probably convertite Quirinus Cnogler, the author of the panegyrical oration (sermo panegyricus) Pompa Casimiriana (s. l., s. a. [=Vilnae 1604?]) and a number of occasional, publicistical, polemical writings of different scope. Another “candidate” is Swedish poet Laurentius Boierus (1561–1619), the author of Carolomachia (Vilnae, 1606) and meanwhile unknown, not-extant poem Pompa Casimiriana (Brunsbergae, 1604), mentioned by various Jesuit bibliographies. Finally, the third of the „candidates“ is Ioannes Kraykowski of Polish/Lithuanian origin, the student of rhetoric at Vilnius Jesuit college, the author of various occasional Latin and Greek verses and one larger poem, Epos de S. Casimiro (Vilnae, 1604), composed for the mentioned solemnities of S. Casimirus and dedicated to his patron Fabian Plemięcki. The article doesn’t solve the problem of the authorship of Odarion completely and leaves the question open. Nevertheless, a certain strand of tentative conclusions is to be drawn. First of all, the authorship of Gregorius Swięcicki is to be reduced, reserving him only the name of the organizer or co-author of the whole collection (Theatrum S. Casimiri). The role of all the professors and students (especially the members of pious congregations and rhetorical/poetical ‘academies’) of Vilnius Jesuit academy is to be stated more firmly, too. Certain lexical and methodological affinities between Odarion and a couple of Greek compositions of Ioannes Kraykowski (including his Greek Odarion, written in dactylic tetrameters) enable us to state the hypothesis that he was its actual author. Nevertheless, the outstanding “philhelenism” of Quirinus Cnoglerus and the intricate manner of the self-camouflage (writing suppresso nomine) of Laurentius Boierus still remain as a serious claim for the name of the author of Odarion.

Binswanger disease may benefit from omental arteries.

Binswanger disease may benefit from omental arteries.

The Long and Short of Genetic Counseling Summary Letters: A Case-control Study.

Genetic counseling summary letters are intended to reinforce information received during genetic counseling, but little information is available on patient/family responses to these letters. We conducted a case-control study to assess the effectiveness of two different letter formats. Parents of children receiving a new diagnosis were enrolled. The control group (n = 85) received a genetic counseling summary letter in a narrative format, 4-5 pages in length. After the control enrollment period, genetic counselors were trained by a professional medical writer to develop a concise letter format. The case group (n = 64) received a concise letter, approximately 1.5 pages in length, utilizing simple sentences, lay terms, and lists/bullet points. Parents completed a survey 4weeks after the visit to rate the letter's format, usefulness, and their emotional reaction. Results show that parents in the case group rated the letter more highly (p = 0.023), particularly in the emotional response dimension (rating changes in anxiety, depression, fear, ability to cope, and confidence in response to the letter). Parents in the case group also rated the genetic counseling session more highly (p = 0.039). In the control group, parents without a college degree were more likely to rate the letter as too long and the level of medical detail as too high. In the case group, no significant differences were seen between parents with or without a college degree. These data suggest that a short genetic counseling summary letter is rated higher by parents, and is particularly associated with a more positive emotional reaction. A short letter format highlighting the basic facts related to the genetic condition may be more useful to parents of diverse educational backgrounds, and may support a positive emotional adaptation at the time of a new diagnosis. Genetic counselors may benefit from specific instruction in medical and educational writing.

The Monumental Failure of Howards End

E. M. Forster opens his 1910 Howards End with letters, remarking One may as well begin with Helen's letters to her sister (5). The initial resignation to epistolary form (which persists for only two relatively short letters) quickly foregrounds Howards End's uncertain position on continuum of novel's generic evolution. Neither experimental nor rigorously realist, Howards End seems to reside in indeterminate space between and Victorian novel--indeed, Fredric Jameson calls Forster at best a closet modernist (159). Nevertheless, Forster's work has often been read by critics as demanding inclusion in canon. (1) Howards End, I contend, practices a limited modernism that is rooted in very gap between its traditional form and its modern content that renders it so difficult to characterize. The novel's symbolic economy is mobilized around discord between realist, Victorian form of Howards End and its modernist, Edwardian content. The and its titular house, Howards End, overlap within same signifier, Howards End. The letters that open bear a metonymic relationship with house (and thus novel) in that this correspondence itself is about architecture. This interchangeability and variation between architecture and space represents, as I will show, novel's central formal configuration. Helen responds to her sister, an absent interlocutor, by launching into a lengthy description of architectural and spatial make-up of eponymous house: From hall you go right or left into a dining-room or drawing-room ... there's a very big wych-elm--to left as you look up--leaning a little over house, and standing on boundary between garden and meadow (5). Forster describes house and its environs in terms of how both determine motions of daily life and define space; instead of being confirmed, however, this correlation between spatial categories and social life they are meant to impose is compromised and ultimately undermined as progresses. Howards End is often understood as a that is primarily concerned with place by virtue of its title alone; title also marks English home as novel's definitive 'place.' Critics have often taken lead from title: while as Jon Hegglund claims, [e]ven most casual reader of Howards End cannot fail to notice centrality of houses in novel (401), rigorous readers have also focused on symbolic centrality of house. (2) Beyond walls of house, Jason Finch has identified persistent attention that critics have paid to the spirit of a place, genius loci in Forster's work, which absorbs house itself into a broader, though still localized, consideration of place and being (2). Howards End has also been included in notable assessments of significance of colonial in modernism; Jed Esty best sums up this approach in claiming that, for Forster, metropolitan perception subsumes lost value of territorial coherence while registering epistemological privilege associated with modernity's borderless (28). In this line of argument--which originates with Fredric Jameson--the unrepresentable but economically necessary colonial spaces can only be articulated in a discourse that opposes 'lost' totality of premodern with chaotic totality of metropolis. In this essay, I reconcile readings of that focus on home itself with those that center around colonial and domestic/metropolitan divide. As I will show, Howards End tries and fails to serve as 'monumental' English space that Forster sets it up to be, partially due to its status as a pastiche that attempts to pass as an 'authentic' English home. Furthermore, in contrast with house, colonial space in can only haunt margins of text, and while definitively different from monumental architecture of home, it is absent in a way that emphasizes novel's incomplete spatial representation of English nation. …

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Evaluating velopharyngeal closure with real-time MRI

Sir, It was with great interest that we read the article titled “Feasibility study to assess clinical applications of 3T cine MRI coupled with synchronous audio recording during speech in evaluation of velopharyngeal insufficiency in children” by Sagar and Nimkin [1]. We believe dynamic real-time MRI will become a prevalent tool in studying velopharyngeal closure and, when associated with detailed anatomical scans, should provide added clinical information compared to the current imaging modalities, videofluoroscopy and nasendoscopy. In this regard, the authors must be commended for their detailed comparison of real-time MRI with those techniques. However, it is worth highlighting that contrary to what is stated in the article, many studies of velopharyngeal closure using real-time MRI have been published in the imaging literature, most of them with synchronised audio recording. Studies focussing specifically on velopharyngeal closure include but are not limited to those by Beer et al. [2], which compared the technique to X-ray videofluoroscopy, Bae et al. [3] at 3 T, and Scott et al. [4], which included data at both 1.5 and 3 T. The last two studies were carried out with simultaneous audio recording. There are far too many speech studies using real-time MRI to mention in a short letter, although the work conducted at the University of Southern California both on acquisition and analysis [5, 6] is worth highlighting. We strongly encourage the interested reader to refer to the recent review of the field [7]. When studying velopharyngeal closure, the dynamic frame rate is a key issue, and we are concerned that only two frames per second (fps) were used in the study by Sagar and Nimkin [1]. Although there is no doubt this is sufficient to study sustained phonation, it appears to be insufficient for speech studies. All the previously mentioned studies [2–6] were acquired at substantially faster rates (5–25 fps). In our clinical experience, for various speech samples in normal phonation all closure events are detected at rates around 10 fps [8]; however, some are already missed at 5 fps. A lower frame rate will increase both blurring and the number of missed closure events; it could potentially lead to an incorrect diagnosis of velopharyngeal insufficiency if closure is short and not sampled. Higher frame rates (e.g., 30 fps [9] or more than 100 fps [10]) are achievable and can be required for linguistics and co-articulatory events studies. However, they are obtained using non-cartesian acquisitions, which have been recently developed and are not necessarily available on standard scanners. Furthermore, they usually rely on delayed-reconstruction, which is a limiting factor to conduct an interactive clinical speech study as would be desirable for velopharyngeal closure assessment. Real-time MRI of speech is a very active field of research, and new publications in this area are a welcome addition to the body of knowledge. However, a consensus on best practise for acquisition methodology is still to emerge, and until such time, we would recommend newcomers to err on the side of caution and try to obtain the best spatial-temporal resolution compromise that can be achieved with their chosen acquisition method.