Unfolding Sequence Research Articles

SOPHOCLES' AJAX: EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

This paper examines the staging of Sophocles’ Ajax, and some aspects of its treatment of the traditional story. Starting from Scullion’s argument against the standard assumption that there is a change of location after the exit of the chorus at 814, we work out the consequences of the single location for the play as a whole. In tracing the unfolding sequence of events on stage it becomes clear that Sophocles has organised this sequence in a way consistently calculated to surprise the audience. We argue that he was seeking the same effect in his adaptation of the traditional story. First, there is reason to believe that Sophocles has made a surprising innovation with respect to the antecedents of the play’s action that makes Ajax a more radically problematic figure. Secondly, we suggest that Sophocles may have placed Odysseus’ resolution of the confrontation between Teucer and the Atreids in a new and surprising light by integrating the action of this play with subsequent events more closely than is generally recognised. The dramatic strategy we identify is thematically appropriate in a play in which the leading character enunciates the principle that ‘nothing is beyond expectation’ (648), and which closes with the reflection that we need to see to understand (1418-20).

Old Testament Theology. Volume 1. Israel's Gospel. By John Goldingay. Pp. 940. Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press, 2003. isbn 0 8308 2561 4

On any reckoning this is a weighty volume and, as the first of three, it will, no doubt, be widely read and reflected on for several years to come. As a subject Old Testament theology has undergone a significant revival of interest, with substantial volumes from H. D. Preuss, W. Brueggemann, R. Knierim, E. Gerstenberger, and Rolf Rendtorff all appearing in recent years. At the same time the centenary celebration for the work of Gerhard von Rad has reopened the debate whether the idea of a salvation-history approach to the subject, which is adopted by Goldingay, provides a new solution to old problems, or simply adds a new one. The large differences between these various recent presentations show that the subject has not been able to settle arguments about methodology which coloured its introduction in the first half of the twentieth century. In many respects this volume from John Goldingay makes a relatively straightforward and uncomplicated contribution to the subject, only marginally engaging directly with the issue how it possesses an independent academic status. Readers of his earlier preliminary survey of its basic themes, Theological Diversity and the Authority of the Old Testament (1987), will already be prepared for its strongly conservative approach and for its adoption of a salvation-historical understanding of the nature of biblical theology. The theologian's task is seen essentially to be that of showing how the being and nature of God has been revealed through very specific historical events. These are made known through the record of them in biblical narrative, the doctrine of creation serving as a prelude and introduction to their unfolding sequence.

Models for Anchoring and Acquiescence Bias in Consumption Data

Item non-response in household survey data on economic variables such as income, assets or consumption is a well-known problem.Follow-up unfolding bracket questions have been used as a tool to collect partial information on respondents that do not answer an open-ended question.It is also known, however, that mistakes are made in answering such unfolding bracket questions.In this paper, we develop several limited dependent variable models to analyze two sources of mistakes, anchoring and acquiescence (or yeasaying), focusing on the first bracket question.We use the experimental module of the AHEAD 1995 data, where the sample is randomly split into respondents who get an open-ended question on the amount of total family consumption - with follow-up unfolding brackets (of the form: is consumption $X or more?) for those who answer don t know or refuse - and respondents who are immediately directed to unfolding brackets.In both cases, the entry point of the unfolding bracket sequence is randomized.We compare models in which the probability of a mistake depends on the deviation between the true consumption amount and the entry point amount $X and models in which it does not.We find that allowing for acquiescence bias substantially changes the conclusions on the selective nature of non-response to the open-ended question and on the distribution of consumption expenditures in the population.Once acquiescence bias is taken into account, anchoring in the first bracket question plays only a minor role.

A Test for Anchoring and Yea-saying in Experimental Consumption Data

In the experimental module of the AHEAD 1995 data, the sample is randomly split into respondents who get an open-ended question on the amount of total family consumption - with follow-up unfolding brackets (of the form: is consumption $X or more?) for those who answer don't know' or refuse' - and respondents who are immediately directed to unfolding brackets. In both cases, the entry point of the unfolding bracket sequence is randomized. These data are used to develop a nonparametric test for whether people make mistakes in answering the first bracket question, allowing for any type of selection into answering the open-ended question or not. Two well-known types of mistakes are considered: anchoring and yea-saying (or acquiescence). While the literature provides ample evidence that the entry point in the first bracket question serves as an anchor for follow-up bracket questions, it is less clear whether the answers to the first bracket question are already affected by anchoring. We reject the joint hypothesis of no anchoring and no yea-saying at the entry point. Once yea-saying is taken into account

A stereomorphologic study of bone matrix apposition in HA-implanted cavities observed with SEM, being prepared by a microvascular cast and freeze–fracture method

In order to obtain further understanding of the relationship between hydroxyapatite (HA) with regard to its properties as an implantation bed, dense HA particles were implanted into the tibiae of dogs. Following the healing periods of 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months and 6 months, the specimens were prepared with a combination of a microvascular cast method and a freeze–fracture technique, allowing observations to be made with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Under SEM, osteogenesis among the HA particles developed in a programmed sequence. The unfolding sequence revealed that the sinusoidal capillaries provided the initial evidence of vascularization preceding new bone formation, with microvessels creeping along the interparticular space among the HA particles. Having established an intimate contact existing between the microvessels, collagen fibres and the HA surface, the HA particles served as a supporting scaffold for the vessels to creep over and to connect with each other to form a vascular network. The way that the collagen fibres attached to the HA particles was either through globular depositions or via directly abutting themselves on to the HA surface. On closer inspection the osteoblasts with extracellular collagen fibrils were observed over the HA surface. By appositional growth, osteoblasts laid down a bone matrix in successive layers, forming a woven bone around the HA particles. As the implantation time increased, bony tissues gradually transformed into mature bone occupying all of the interparticular space. This study successfully revealed the spatial relationship between bone cells, collagen fibres and blood vessels in an osteogenetic sequence among HA particles, as revealed by a microvascular cast and the freeze–fracture method.

Selective Dysfunction of Tool-Use: A Failure to Integrate Somatosensation and Action

Apraxia is thought to reflect a disruption to high-level perceptual, cognitive and motor systems that form a distributed praxis network. Some authors suggest that apraxic deficits are unique to the neurology clinic; however, mounting evidence suggests that apraxic deficits are observable in natural contexts (e.g. Foundas et al., 1995). Naturalistic gesture production involves the integration of conceptual knowledge, gesture ideation, visual and somatosensory cues, and executive processes. Impairments in this context are therefore of interest from a clinical and theoretical standpoint. We present the case of a young female stroke patient (CK) demonstrating a novel limb praxis profile. CK’s conceptual, evocation and praxis executive stages were evaluated: performance was contrasted to 30 healthy controls. CK was able to pantomime and imitate transitive gestures, suggesting that her ideational, executive and visual analytic systems were intact. Moreover, CK showed a good conceptual understanding of tools, objects and actions. However, CK demonstrated poor gesture production when actually using the tool associated with the action – a chronic and bilateral deficit that persisted at a 5-year follow-up assessment. Thus, CK’s deficit appears to represent a specific and chronic disruption to high-level praxis systems that incorporates tactile inputs into the unfolding gesture production sequence.

Native fluorescence and mag-indo-1-protein interaction as tools for probing unfolding and refolding sequences of the bovine serum albumin subdomain in the presence of guanidine hydrochloride.

Changes in the fluorescence spectrum of tryptophans Trp 134 and Trp 212 in bovine serum albumin (BSA) and of Trp 214 of human serum albumin in the presence of the chaotropic agent guanidine hydrochloride (Gnd) were studied. A detailed analysis of the fluorescence spectrum of native BSA yielded the fluorescence spectrum for each tryptophan of BSA. Modifications in the binding of Mag-indo-1 to BSA, which results in a specific quenching of the fluorescence spectrum of Trp 134 associated with an energy transfer from Trp 134 to the protein-bound Mag-indo-1, were also investigated. Changes occurring when the Gnd concentration is decreased stepwise cover a larger concentration scale of Gnd than the reverse protocol, allowing one to suggest that the resulting conformational changes in the subdomain IA of BSA involve at least three different steps.

Concurrent manufacturing of parts and tools for the sheet-metal industry

The manufacturing of complex bent parts can be supported effectively by computer-aided planning methods. Software systems are already available for unfolding, laser cutting and bending sequence determination. The paper focuses on methods that support the design of non-standard bending tools and the flexible manufacturing of such tools using laminated object modelling (LOM) technology. The developed system allows for concurrent planning and manufacturing of bending parts and tools. Within the framework of this system, neural networks are applied for automated tool design.

An unusual coexistence of sulphate-reducing bacteria and algae in a confined groundwater production system

Abstract An unusual occurrence of the coexistence of algae, oxygen and hydrogen sulphide from sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) in an overseas groundwater production system is described that had an interesting origin and some important implications both for groundwater professionals and for the water industry in general. A deep, confined anaerobic groundwater source containing SRBs was being pumped to a new municipal water treatment works by underground pipeline from a wellfield some 3 km distant. Pumping continued at a steady rate of around 70 000 m 3 /d for a period of three months from start-up without significant problems. However, in the fourth month of operation, progressively serious fouling problems appeared in the sand filters that nearly caused a plant shutdown, with the consequent near loss of supply of a major drinking water source for a nearby city. This paper describes the cause of those problems and highlights both the complex chain of events and the biochemical interactions involved, with particular emphasis on the unusual coexistence of SRBs and algae in a groundwater system. This apparent paradox is explained in terms of an unfolding sequence of seemingly unconnected events with a rather surprising origin.

Proton Exchange and Basepair Kinetics of Yeast tRNAPhe and tRNAASP1

Nuclear magnetic resonance measurements of proton exchange were performed on yeast tRNA(Phe) and yeast tRNA(Asp), at temperatures from 20 to 45 degrees C, in the presence of various levels of salt, phosphate, added magnesium, and pH. The dynamical changes of the tRNA molecule were interpreted, with the aid of firmly established assignments and the use of the saturation recovery technique. In tRNA(Phe), the exchange rates in zero magnesium indicated early melting of the acceptor stem, tertiary structure, and D stem. However, in the presence of even low levels of magnesium the D stem remained intact up to high temperature, stabilized by a Mg2+ ion. A similar unfolding sequence was observed in tRNA(Asp). The difference between these two tRNAs was the thermal behavior of the tertiary resonance U8-A14. In tRNA(Phe), this base pair showed sharp rate increases between 32 and 39 degrees C. However, in tRNA(Asp), it remained intact up to 36 degrees C and disappeared at 39 degrees C, even if there was not important kinetic broadening. By measuring the temperature dependence of the exchange rates, we obtained an activation energy of 40-60 kcal/mol for all the imino protons of yeast tRNA(Phe) in zero magnesium. The same activation energy was obtained for tRNA(Phe) with equimolar concentration of magnesium. By investigation of the dependence of the exchange rates of these imino protons on solution conditions, we observed the transition from kop rate limiting in the absence of magnesium to kex rate limiting in the presence of magnesium.

Somalia: Background and prospects

The fragmented reports of events in Somalia serve to make the situation there appear as a series of isolated incidents, rather than an unfolding sequence with roots deep in the culture and past of the country. Malcolm Page here briefly sketches the background to the present situation, putting recent events into context and analysing the impact of Western intervention, concluding with, prospects for the future of Somalia and some preliminary lessons for the UN from their ongoing involvement in a complex conflict.

Psychology of time awareness

Mind transforms the continuance of physical spacetime into moments (the absolute Now) and blends these moments into an apparent continuity through an overlapping of unfolding capsules. The flow of psychological time is an illusion based on the rapid replacement of these capsules. Each mind computes the measure of time passing and duration from the decay of the surface present in relation to a core of past events. As each new surface is generated, that surface, the rim of the immediate past, recedes in the wake of rising contents. This recession, an uncovering of phases latent in the original traversal, exposes layers in the past forming the content of the immediate past moment. The surge of the microgeny to a surface that dissolves the instant it appears, the priority of the Self in the unfolding sequence, the feeling of agency, create a Self in a state of becoming, a Self that travels in time like the crest of a wave, always in pursuit of a future just beyond the grasp of the present.

Ten reasons why ANOVA theory and research fail to explain attribution processes: 2. Methodological problems

In this, the second of two companion papers, five major methodological problems of questionnaire research into Kelley’s ANOVA model are identified: the formulation of instructions; the choice of stimulus events; the manipulation of information variables; the choice of attribution measures; and the application of process-probing methods. It is argued that the absence of any sophisticated process propositions in Kelley’s theory, in conjunction with the five methodological problems, has led to a poverty of acceptable evidence about how people process unfolding sequences of behaviour (episodes). In conclusion, some of the process-probing methodologies of cognitive science are considered as a remedy to the naive models and methods of attribution researchers.

Underlying Themes in the Witchcraft of Seventeenth-Century New England

IT is faintly embarrassing for a historian to summon his colleagues to still another consideration of early New England witchcraft. Here, surely, is a topic that previous generations of writers have sufficiently worked, indeed overworked. Samuel Eliot Morison once commented that Salem witch-hunt was, after all, but a small incident in history of a great superstition; and Perry Miller noted that with only minor qualifications the intellectual history of New England can be written as though no such thing ever happened. It had no effect on ecclesiastical or political situation, it does not figure in institutional or ideological development.1 Popular interest in subject is, then, badly out of proportion to its actual historical significance, and perhaps sane course for future would be silence. This assessment seems, on face of it, eminently sound. Witchcraft was not an important matter from standpoint of larger historical process; it exerted only limited influence on unfolding sequence of events in colonial New England. Moreover, literature on subject seems to have reached a point of diminishing returns. Details of fact have been endlessly canvassed, and main outlines of story, particularly story of Salem, are well and widely known. There is, to be sure, continuing debate over one set of issues: roles played by persons most directly involved. Indeed historiography of Salem can be viewed, in large measure, as an unending effort to judge participants-and, above all, to affix blame. A number of verdicts have been fashionable at one time or another. Thus ministers were really at fault; or Cotton Mather in particular; or whole culture of Puritanism; or core group of afflicted girls (if their fits are construed as conscious fraud).2 The most recent, and in some ways most so-