Unusual Position Research Articles

Practical Applications of Alpha, Beta & the Blend

Smart beta is empowering. It brings investment insights—previously available only to professional or elite investors—to the ordinary investor. But asset managers need to clarify their approaches so that investors can better understand how it fits into a portolio. In a recent webcast, Institutional Investor Journals’ Cathy Scott sat down with BlackRock’s Andrew Ang, AQR’s Cliff Asness and State Street Global Advisors’ Jennifer Bender to discuss active, passive and blended approaches to smart beta. Andrew contends that there is no passive approach to smart beta: “Everything is active! Nothing is passive in the investment process.” Jen begs to differ, and she challenges Andrew to be careful about making promises. Cliff finds himself in the unusual position of being the peacemaker as he attempts to uncover similarities.

A diverse saurischian (theropod–sauropod) dominated footprint assemblage from the Lower Cretaceous Jiaguan Formation in the Sichuan Basin, southwestern China: A new ornithischian ichnotaxon, pterosaur tracks and an unusual sauropod walking pattern

A sample of fallen blocks of fluvial sandstone from the Lower Cretaceous Jiaguan Formation of Sichuan Province yielded an assemblage of dinosaur and pterosaur tracks preserved as natural impressions and casts. Collectively the assemblage reveals 132 tracks representing at least 30 trackways of tridactyl and didactyl theropods, sauropods, ornithopods and pterosaurs. Ichnotaxonomically, the trackways of small tridactyl theropods (pes lengths 7–18 cm) are indeterminable, whereas the trackway of a small didactyl dromaeosaur (pes length up to 7.5 cm) is tentatively assigned to cf. Velociraptorichnus. The sauropod trackways are assigned to cf. Brontopodus based on the medium to nearly wide-gauge pattern. Other characteristics are the U-shaped manus and strong heteropody. One sauropod trackway shows a peculiar pattern with a lack of left manus imprints, and an unusual position and rotation of right manus imprints. Different scenarios and explanations for this phenomenon are discussed. Ornithopod trackways are the most abundant in the sample and characterized by pes imprints of a small biped that are assigned here to the new ichnospecies Caririchnium liucixini. It is characterized by an unusual broad shape and weak mesaxony. Bivariate analysis of different Caririchnium ichnospecies reveals increasing mesaxony toward the larger forms, a trend that is the reverse of typical theropod ichnotaxa, where large imprints have weak mesaxony. Three isolated, small pterosaur tracks (two manus, one pes) are visible on a single surface. They show strong similarities to the widespread ichnogenus Pteraichnus. This is the ninth report of tetrapod tracks from the Jiaguan Formation in recent years and represents one of the most diverse assemblages recorded to date. It is also rare evidence of typical didactyl dromaeosaur tracks and the co-occurrence of sauropod and ornithopod tracks in a fluvial depositional environment representing arid climate conditions.

Unusual position of foramen spinosum and its clinical significance

Unusual position of foramen spinosum and its clinical significance

A Tale of Two Blogs: Lessons Learned Establishing The Top Shelf and La Cocina Histórica at the University of Texas at San Antonio

When establishing a blog, Special Collections departments face a variety of decisions that will affect the future shape of the blog and its readership. The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Libraries Special Collections is in the unusual position of publishing two blogs with distinct audiences and content: a general department blog, The Top Shelf, and a collection-specific blog, La Cocina Histórica. This article examines various strategies employed by both of these blogs in the areas of content, targeted audience, management and authorship responsibility, media exposure, and platform-choice and how those strategies affect blog readership.

Visions and Revisions: Seamus Heaney, ‘Foreign’ Poetry, and The Problem of Assimilation

This essay considers the unusual position of Irish and Polish cultures and how it correlates to the construction of lyric subjects that appear unassimilable to dominant postcolonial literary-critical paradigms. Translation and assimilation become crucial concepts when understood in relation to attempts to take inspiration from foreign sources, especially when such attempts do not accord with typical patterns of influence. These concepts, however, only reveal their utility when they are grounded. The problem of assimilation is here considered in reference to debates over the Eastern European influences behind Seamus Heaney’s volume The Haw Lantern , which reveal the cultural pressures brought to bear upon a well-known poet whose work challenges dominant assumptions about the proper idiom of the Anglo-American lyric.

Fighting to the Death: Weapon Injuries in a Mass Grave (16th–17th Century) from Bucharest, Romania

AbstractArchaeological excavations carried out in 1972 and 2010–2011 in the University Square, Bucharest, Romania, brought to light 688 graves belonging to the Saint Sava Church Cemetery, dating between the middle of the 16th century and middle of the 19th century. At 35 metres from the western boundary of the cemetery, a mass grave containing three adult male skeletons was unearthed. The unusual position of the skeletons and the high incidence of traumatic injuries on the bones posed several questions concerning the historical and archaeological context of this grave. Osteological analysis of the skeletons revealed that all three individuals exhibited a series of occupational stress markers, indicating similar activities and associated with moderate physical activity during life. A total number of 24 perimortem lesions (caused mainly by sabres but also by blunt objects and projectiles) were recorded on the skeletal remains. The high percentage of cranial injuries may indicate that the head was the main target, demonstrating the intention to incapacitate the victims quickly and being different from those connected to executions in the period. Eight of these lesions were produced by sharp objects similar to sabres used by professional soldiers during the 16th–17th century in southeastern Europe.The osteological profile of the individuals and the injuries they sustained suggest that the victims had a military background and were probably killed at the end of the 16th century during a violent dispute. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An Unusual Complication and Position 0f Pancreatic Pseudocyst: Gastric Intramural Pseudocyst

Gastric intramural pseudocyst is a very rare clinical condition which may develop as a complication of chronic pancreatitis. Herein, we present the case of a 46 years-old man with a history of chronic alcoholic pancreatitis who was admitted for epigastric pain. Clinical and imaging evaluation showed a gastric intramural pseudocyst. Notably, following three months of follow-up we observed complete and spontaneous resolution of symptoms mirrored later by CT proved spontaneous drainage of the pseudocyst.Pseudocysts of the gastric wall are very rare, and the exact mechanisms leading to its formation are unknown. The drainage is indicated only to treat or prevent gastric obstruction, infection or bleeding.

High-resolution structure of a type IV pilin from the metal-reducing bacterium Shewanella oneidensis.

BackgroundType IV pili are widely expressed among Gram-negative bacteria, where they are involved in biofilm formation, serve in the transfer of DNA, motility and in the bacterial attachment to various surfaces. Type IV pili in Shewanella oneidensis are also supposed to play an important role in extracellular electron transfer by the attachment to sediments containing electron acceptors and potentially forming conductive nanowires.ResultsThe potential nanowire type IV pilin PilBac1 from S. oneidensis was characterized by a combination of complementary structural methods and the atomic structure was determined at a resolution of 1.67 Å by X-ray crystallography. PilBac1 consists of one long N-terminal α-helix packed against four antiparallel β-strands, thus revealing the core fold of type IV pilins. In the crystal, PilBac1 forms a parallel dimer with a sodium ion bound to one of the monomers. Interestingly, our PilBac1 crystal structure reveals two unusual features compared to other type IVa pilins: an unusual position of the disulfide bridge and a straight α-helical section, which usually exhibits a pronounced kink. This straight helix leads to a distinct packing in a filament model of PilBac1 based on an EM model of a Neisseria pilus.ConclusionsIn this study we have described the first structure of a pilin from Shewanella oneidensis. The structure possesses features of the common type IV pilin core, but also exhibits significant variations in the α-helical part and the D-region.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12900-015-0031-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

An atypical lateral hernia and concomitant inguinal and umbilical hernias in a patient with polycystic kidney disease and an intracranial aneurysm - a combined approach of clinical and radiological investigation, endoscopic hernia repair, and anatomical cadaver model documentation and a systematic review of the literature.

Atypical hernias are difficult to diagnose due to their rarity and often unspecific symptoms. In the literature there exist hints to peri-inguinal hernias, i.e. direct lateral hernia, but most of them are forms of Spigelian hernias. Since the majority were described during the first half of the past century or even earlier, only very few cases have been documented using modern diagnostic techniques. We report a unique case of a 51 year old patient presenting with an atypical inguinal hernia with concomitant inguinal and umbilical hernias in combination with cystic kidney disease and intracranial aneurysm. The atypical position of the hernia was assumed from clinical inspection, ultrasound and CT scan and verified during pre-peritoneoscopy. Using an anatomical cadaver dissection approach, we followed the unusual position of the hernia through the abdominal wall below the aponeurosis of the external oblique muscle. After a thorough literature search, we assume that the present hernia containing a hernial sac has not been documented before, especially not in such a multidisciplinary approach comprising radiological, surgical and anatomical localisation and endoscopic treatment in a patient with a clinical situation being aggravated by large cystic kidneys leading to dialysis-dependency. Rare hernias have been described as being often associated with concomitant inguinal or other hernias, a predisposition for the male gender and a pathogenic mechanism related to other soft tissue defects such as cystic kidney disease or cranial aneurysm. Thus, we consider this a unique case that has not been documented in this constellation previously, which may increase the awareness for these rare hernias.

An Aggressive Ameloblastic Fibroma in Maxilla of a 5-Year-Old Child—Reconstruction of the Defect with Buccal Flap Advancement—A Conservative Approach

Ameloblastic fibroma (AF) is a rare tumour of mixed odontogenic origin that can occur either in mandible or maxilla but is most frequently found in the posterior region of mandible. Age of occurrence is generally between first and second decades of life. It is often mistaken for a den tigerous cyst due to presence of an impacted tooth. The diagnosis of AF usually occurs accidentally by routine radiographic examination for an impacted tooth. Histologically it consists of odontogenic ectomesenchyme resembling the dental papilla, epithelium resembling dental lamina and enamel organ without dental hard tissues. There is controversy in the literature as to whether the treatment should be conservative or a radical resection should be done. A conservative treatment strategy, such as enucleation and curettage, is usually sufficient. We describe a case of massive ameloblastic fibroma in a 5-year-old child with an unusual position in maxillary posterior region and without any impacted tooth. Surgical resection of the tumor through Weber Ferguson approach was done under GA with 2 years of follow-up without any recurrence.

Polyamine stimulation of eEF1A synthesis based on the unusual position of a complementary sequence to 18S rRNA in eEF1A mRNA.

It is thought that Shine-Dalgarno-like sequences, which exhibit complementarity to the nucleotide sequences at the 3'-end of 18S rRNA, are not present in eukaryotic mRNAs. However, complementary sequences consisting of more than 5 nucleotides to the 3'-end of 18S rRNA, i.e., a CR sequence, are present at -17 to -32 upstream from the initiation codon AUG in 18 mRNAs involved in protein synthesis except eEF1A mRNA. Thus, effects of the CR sequence in mRNAs and polyamines on protein synthesis were examined using control and polyamine-reduced FM3A and NIH3T3 cells. Polyamines did not stimulate protein synthesis encoded by 18 mRNAs possessing a normal CR sequence. When the CR sequence was deleted, protein synthetic activities decreased to less than 70% of intact mRNAs. In eEF1A mRNA, the CR sequence was located at -33 to -39 upstream from the initiation codon AUG, and polyamines stimulated eEF1A synthesis about threefold. When the CR sequence was shifted to -22 to -28 upstream from the AUG, eEF1A synthesis increased in polyamine-reduced cells and the degree of polyamine stimulation decreased greatly. The results indicate that the CR sequence exists in many eukaryotic mRNAs, and the location of a CR sequence in mRNAs influences polyamine stimulation of protein synthesis.

Synthesis and Crystal Structure of Mn3(Sb2O2)(VO4)2–x(SbO3)xCl2 (0.08 < x < 0.13), a Vanadium Oxochloride with a VV – SbIII Split Position

AbstractThe compounds Mn3(Sb2O2)(VO4)2–x(SbO3)xCl2 (x = 0.08, 0.10, and 0.13) crystallize in the triclinic space group P$\bar{1}$. The compounds were synthesized through chemical reactions at 550 °C in sealed evacuated silica tubes. The crystal structure is a three‐dimensional framework structure having small channels running along [100]. The manganese oxochloride octahedra [MnO5Cl] and [MnO4Cl2] are connected by edge sharing to form chains that are separated by [VO4], [SbO4], and [SbO3] building blocks. The compound exhibits an unusual split position in between Sb3+ and V5+ so that either [VO4] or [SbO3] form when the two cations replace each other. The Sb/V ratio within the split position has been investigated by measuring three different crystals and the amount of antimony in the split position has shown to vary in the range of 4–6 %.

Fieldnotes from a war zone: South Ossetia, September 2008

Editors’ note: Immediately following the August 2008 war in and around South Ossetia, two London-based peacebuilding organisations active in the South Caucasus, Conciliation Resources and International Alert, commissioned Larisa Sotieva to conduct research into the situation on the ground in the aftermath of the war. Sotieva, who grew up in South Ossetia and has a long track record in humanitarian and peacebuilding work in the South Caucasus, was in an unusual position to be able to conduct research within the area. She did not, however, have access to territory controlled by the Georgian side during a fortnight of fieldwork and was therefore only able to cover those areas under the control of the Russian military at that time. This paper, which is based on that research, is not an academic article, but an eye-witness account documenting the general situation and fate of the people whom the researcher was able to contact, as well as particular examples offering insights into the situation in South Ossetian society at the time of writing (September-October 2008). Research findings were circulated to a limited policy-oriented audience in March 2009 and have now been edited into this paper for publication. The editors thank International Alert and Conciliation Resources for permission to publish this material.

Speleothem and biofilm formation in a granite/dolerite cave, Northern Sweden

Tjuv-Antes grotta (Tjuv-Ante's Cave) located in northern Sweden is a round-abraded sea cave ('tunnel cave'), about 30 m in length, formed by rock-water abrasion in a dolerite dyke in granite gneiss. Abundant speleothems are restricted to the inner, mafic parts of the cave and absent on granite parts. The speleothems are of two types: cylindrical (coralloid, popcorn-like), and flowstone (thin crusts). Coralloids correspond to terrestrial stromatolite speleothems in which layers of light calcite alternate with dark, silica-rich laminae. The dark laminae are also enriched in carbon and contain incorporated remains of microorganisms. Two types of microbial communities can be distinguished associated with the speleothems: an Actinobacteria-like biofilm and a fungal community. Actinobacteria seem to play an important role in the formation of speleothem while the fungal community acts as both a constructive and a destructive agent. A modern biofilm dominated by Actinobacteria is present in the speleothem-free parts of the dolerite and located in cave ceiling cracks. These biofilms may represent sites of early speleothem formation. Because of its unusual position in between two types of host rock, Tjuv-Ante's Cave represents a unique environment in which to study differences in microbe-rock interactions and speleothem genesis between the granite and dolerite host rock. Our study shows that the mafic rock is superior to the granite in hosting a microbial community and to support formation of speleothems.

Epiphytic Eunotia (Bacillariophyceae) on Podostemum from Santa Catarina, southern Brazil, including new observations on morphology and taxonomy of some rare recorded species

Eunotia is a highly diverse diatom genus in the Neotropics. Considerable morphological variability of the valve showed in several species of the genus resulted in a quite confused taxonomy. Twelve Eunotiataxa attached to Podostemum spp. were investigated using the light microscopy (LM). Additionally, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used in order to investigate the fine morphology of most abundant taxa. Samples were collected from four rivers from the State of Santa Catarina between March 2009 and July 2010. The freshwater diatom flora from this south Brazilian state is poorly known in relation to its neighboring states. Eunotia biseriatoides has intermediate features betweenEunotia and Perinotia, and the circumscription of these genera is discussed here. Eunotia odebrechtiana is very similar in morphology to E. biseriatoides, and the synonymy is proposed, as well as the transfer of the variety E. odebrechtiana var.essequiboensis to the species E. biseriatoides. The fine structure of E. epithemioides is showed for the first time in SEM, revealing the unusual position of the rimoportula in this genus. A new variety, E. pseudosudetica var. rotundata var. nov., was proposed and compared with the typical one. Except by E. veneris, all other eleven taxa presented here are new records for the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil.

Structural insights of mediated electron transfer by P450 BM3 monooxygenase

P450 BM3 is a 119-kDa water-soluble heme monooxygenase originating from Bacillus megaterium. P450 BM3 and variants are known to oxidize structurally diverse substrates. However, the requirement for the natural cofactor, NADPH, limits cell-free applications of P450 BM3 in drug synthesis, fuelling efforts to establish alternative cofactor system. Hence, P450 BM3 variants have been generated which circumvent the requirement for NADPH, and enabled P450 BM3 to be driven with alternative electron sources. In this study, crystal structures of the P450 BM3 M7 heme domain variant (F87A, V281G, M354S) with and without cobalt (III) sepulchrate are reported. Cobalt (III) sepulchrate acts as an electron shuttle in an alternative cofactor system employing zinc dust as the electron source. The crystal structure shows a binding site for the mediator cobalt (III) sepulchrate at the entrance of the substrate access channel. The mediator occupies a position which is far from the active site and distinct from the binding of the natural redox partner (FAD/NADPH binding domain). The unusual binding position suggests that the mediator shuttles electrons to the heme-centre through new routes. Electron transfer could occur by a `through-protein' or a `substrate-relayed' pathway. The latter seems more plausible since it would ensure efficient use of electrons only in the presence of a substrate in the active site. The structural evidence also indicates that the use of a positively charged mediator is important to effectively reduce the catalytic heme domain. Understanding the mediator-monooxygenase interface opens new avenues for tailoring P450 BM3 to match application demands. Structural and molecular understanding of mediated electron transfer enables a paradigm shift from a mediator acceptance screening to a rational mediator design which considers only stability and electron transfer performance parameters.

Determination of the Position of the Impurity Yb3+ ion in the CsCaF3 crystals

CsCaF3 crystals doped with Yb3+ ions have been studied using the electron paramagnetic resonance and optical spectroscopy methods. Several types of paramagnetic Yb3+ centers were found, among which a paramagnetic center in the unusual position was established. The parameters of the corresponding spin Hamiltonians and schemes of the energy levels of the observed centers were determined.

Molecular simulation study on Hofmeister cations and the aqueous solubility of benzene.

We study the ion-specific salting-out process of benzene in aqueous alkali chloride solutions using Kirkwood-Buff (KB) theory of solutions and molecular dynamics simulations with different empirical force field models for the ions and benzene. Despite inaccuracies in the force fields, the simulations indicate that the decrease of the Setchenow salting-out coefficient for the series NaCl > KCl > RbCl > CsCl is determined by direct benzene-cation correlations, with the larger cations showing weak interactions with benzene. Although ion-specific aqueous solubilities of benzene may be affected by indirect ion-ion, ion-water, and water-water correlations, too, these correlations are found to be unimportant, with little to no effect on the Setchenow salting-out coefficients of the various salts. We further considered LiCl, which is experimentally known to be a weaker salting-out agent than NaCl and KCl and, therefore, ranks at an unusual position within the Hofmeister cation series. The simulations indicate that hydrated Li(+) ions can take part of the benzene hydration shell while the other cations are repelled by it. This causes weaker Li(+) exclusion around the solute and a resulting, weaker salting-out propensity of LiCl compared to that of the other salts. Removing benzene-water and benzene-salt electrostatic interactions in the simulations does not affect this mechanism, which may therefore also explain the smaller effect of LiCl, as compared to that of NaCl or KCl, on aqueous solvation and hydrophobic interaction of nonpolar molecules.

Race in Cuba: Essays on the Revolution and Racial Inequality

Is there a Cuban racial problem? This charged question opens up one of the essays in Esteban Morales Domínguez's book Race in Cuba: Essays on the Revolution and Racial Inequality (p. 87). The author is a noted scholar and one of the most prominent black advocates for racial equality in Cuba today. His short answer to the question is a categorical “yes,” an unusual position that he expounds in 11 short essays and 3 interviews collected in this book. The pieces were all written, and some of them published, in Cuba between 2002 and 2012 and translated into English for their North American publication. What often makes the discussion of race in Cuba particularly difficult is the entanglement of such discussion with internal and international polemics about the revolution itself, a problem Morales Domínguez must also contend with. Although racial issues have figured prominently in Cuban historiography and cultural studies in the United States during the last 25 years, Morales Domínguez boldy argues that a problematic “silence” has long enveloped the race question in Cuba on various fronts, including research, media, education, and politics, among others. Some of his publications, including this book, attempt to disrupt that silence. A letter signed in 2009 by 60 African American scholars and activists drawing attention to racial discrimination and repression in Cuba seemingly constituted an external trigger for the turnaround. The book presents a critical Afro-Cuban perspective on race from inside the revolution that addresses both international and domestic publics. Morales Domínguez calls on Cubans to take control of their own race story and to engage in an internal discussion on manifestations of racism, which some sectors in the island would prefer to supress as either potentially divisive or simply irrelevant. What makes these essays a compelling read is not only this alternative analysis of race in the revolution that may be gaining traction in Cuba. The author's ways of navigating political, national, and racial affiliations in crafting his arguments are important, too.Although these somewhat repetitive essays are directed to a general audience, chapter 11, a bibliographic essay on Afro-Cuban-related academic work produced in Cuba during the last 50 years, may be of particular interest to Cubanist scholars. To be sure, the extensive list seems to contradict Morales Domínguez's claim that the study of race and Afro-Cubans has been consistently neglected in the island for years. But his critique of this body of work goes deeper. According to him, much of this research, wittingly or unwittingly, is informed by historical or anthropological perspectives that tend to code the material as folklore or relegate it to the past, thereby sidestepping urgent presentist questions about racial dynamics and discrimination in revolutionary Cuban society.Morales Domínguez's essays are not really in-depth studies of the factors leading to the problems he criticizes. They are preliminary sketches of selected events that he weaves into a simple narrative that has begun to circulate more broadly. Fidel Castro's exhortations in 1959 to end racism found closure in the Second Declaration of Havana (1962), which stated that discrimination had been superseded with the transition to socialism. Political fear of internal divisiveness in the face of threats from external enemies, the material opportunities offered to all by the socialist revolution, and an idealist (dogmatic) view of socialist harmony silenced the discussion of race and ignored lingering forms of racism. Economic fissures in the mid-1980s, the eventual collapse of the socialist bloc, and the economic reorganization of the 1990s, along with the market-driven forces it unleashed, triggered, according to the official view, the (re)emergence of disturbing racial inequalities. For others, including the author, these forces seem to exacerbate latent racial cleavages that had not been properly addressed in the past.Morales Domínguez does not seem to go beyond a call for awareness and public discussion of the deep racial inequities that, he seems to argue, are incompatible with continuing engagement with a socialist project. There is no mention of possible organizational spaces in civil society or of legal initiatives against discrimination, which he identifies as liberal solutions. The author also opposes affirmative action policies in a socialist polity (pp. 197–98). Ultimately, while he recognizes similar objectives in the diasporic struggle against racism inside and outside Cuba, liberal and socialist approaches to the problem differ. He aligns the “new battle” against racism in Cuba with the “deepening [of] socialism” rather than with any change of regime (p. 201). At this point, broader polemics about the revolution seem again to dissipate the focus on more specific and robust ways to enact racial change in Cuba. One is left to wonder what other proposals are presently under discussion among other Afro-Cuban men and women on the island.

The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century by Joel F. Harrington (review)

Reviewed by: The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century by Joel F. Harrington B. Ann Tlusty The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century. By Joel F. Harrington. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013. Pp. xxvi + 283. Cloth $28.00. ISBN 978-0809049929. As Joel Harrington notes in the preface to this intriguing portrait of Frantz Schmidt, executioner in Nuremberg from 1578 to 1618, the story it tells is first that of a man, and second that of the world in which he lived and worked. Both the man and his world evolved in interesting ways during this period, and it is this evolution that frames Harrington’s lively and very readable book. The story is based primarily on Frantz Schmidt’s diary (first published in 1801), a chronicle-like list of entries describing the many hundreds of executions and public punishments he performed from his first hanging in 1573 until he retired in 1618. Harrington provides immediate context with a variety of local records produced during Schmidt’s lifetime in Hof, Bamberg, and Nuremberg, at the same time locating developments in these towns within the more general framework of early modern German social, political, and legal history. As a result he is able to tell the story of a life on the margins from multiple perspectives, the most interesting of which is Schmidt’s own. To this end, Harrington often lets the “faithful executioner” speak for himself, incorporating many direct quotes from Schmidt’s diary into his narrative. Shunned as members of a dishonorable caste but enjoying a relatively high economic status, early modern executioners were in the unusual position of living as privileged outcasts. Schmidt’s lifetime coincided with the high point of the instrumentalization of public executions as dramas of contrition and redemption and as demonstrations of government power. This “golden age of the executioner” (26) provided ample opportunity for Schmidt to ply his trade and to leave a colorful record of its grisly details. Harrington organizes Schmidt’s personal story around the stages of his professional career, beginning with his early life as an apprentice to his father and concluding with his late-life struggle to realize his lifelong dream of redeeming the family name and providing himself and his progeny with honorable status as professional healers. Throughout the book, Harrington attempts to interpret Schmidt’s entries not only as a record of early modern crime and punishment, but also as a chronicle of the executioner’s personal relationship with his job and his condemned victims. This is especially challenging during Schmidt’s early years, when the entries are generally [End Page 419] terse and lack detail. As time passes and the executioner matures, his entries become longer and more thoughtful, providing more to work with in teasing out motives and judgments. What Harrington finds in this process is a man who understood and fulfilled his role as a member of a dishonorable caste, but was not satisfied to accept his fate as permanent. In both his personal life and his professional judgments, Schmidt was careful to distinguish between his own dishonorable status and the kinds of disreputable choices made by those he was charged with punishing. Throughout his life, Schmidt also displayed deeply religious values and avoided any hint of scandalous behavior, even eschewing drink (a rare choice for a man during the sixteenth century). Never far from the surface of Schmidt’s pious judgments and exemplary conduct, Harrington concludes, was his “relentless campaign” (184) to restore his family to honor—a battle that was ultimately won, at least in the legal sense. Recreating a life in all of its details is never easy, and it is in these details that some questions arise, in particular in defining and delineating the different categories of honor and dishonor that characterized life in the early modern German city. While Harrington is convincing in distinguishing Schmidt’s forthright behavior from his legal status as a dishonorable person, these lines are somewhat blurred in describing other actors in Schmidt’s world. It is not clear, for example, why such professions as butchers or tanners are...