Worldly Ascetics: Managing Family, Status, and Territory in Early Modern Shugendō

Definitions of Japan’s Shugendō tradition often emphasize how its adherents, known as yamabushi or shugenja, took as their primary goal the acquisition of supernatural power and enlightenment via ascetic practice in the mountains. While mountain austerities were central to the tradition, settled, spouse-keeping yamabushi organized into households constituted the majority of its members in the late medieval and early modern periods; the study of their economic, political, and social activities have been neglected. The Shugendō organization headquartered at Mt. Haguro, one of the Dewa Sanzan triad of sacred mountains within present-day Yamagata prefecture, administered yamabushi and miko priestesses based in communities throughout northern Japan. Using the Sanada Shichirōzaemon and Sanada Shikibu households, elite yamabushi families based in Tōge at the foot of Mt. Haguro, this study investigates the lives and activities of spouse-keeping shugenja within the Shugendō tradition during Japan’s early modern period (1600-1867). Existing in a liminal space between the seeming dichotomies of worldly and ascetic, lay and monastic, and folk and elite, the Sanadas and their peers navigated a complicated web of relationships to preserve their positions and fortunes. Working with documents from the previously unread Sanada Gyokuzōbō archive, this study argues for the centrality of the household unit within Japanese religious traditions. The privileges and obligations of the Sanada households, as well as their relationships with superiors and subordinates, both at Mt. Haguro and in its parishes, were based on the household rather than the individual, and were passed on from house head to house head. As local elites, the Sanada households enjoyed a hereditary place of honor within Haguro’s social, ritual, and political hierarchies. Documentation was a necessary strategy to maintain their customary privileges and duties both at the organization’s headquarters at Mt. Haguro and within its parishes across northern Japan. Networks that linked the Sanada families with superiors on Haguro’s summit and subordinates in parishes, as well as their lay patrons, the Nanbu family of daimyo, were defined and defended by documents exchanged within these networks

Science education for responsible social action

This dissertation explores a model of science education for responsible social action, tested in practice through field implementation during a teacher workshop and revised using data and self-reflection. Change was recognized as a basic phenomenon of the universe and schools were offered as logical means for preparing for social change. The intent of this study was to provide a broad framework for science education while at the same time broadening what it entails. Movement from a focus on content to one of preparation for social action is the major objective presented for science education. This study is both analytical and introspective in that an educational model was developed and altered after analysis and self-reflection. There appears to be an intimate and necessary relation between the action experiences of the model developer and the model itself. An attempt is made to identify and explore those dimensions which might make the model more workable

Hypercholesterolemia is associated with hyperactive cardiac mTORC1 and mTORC2 signaling

Nutritional excess and hyperlipidemia increase the heart’s susceptibility to ischemic injury. Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) controls the cellular response to nutritional status and may play a role in ischemic injury. To explore the effect of hypercholesterolemia on cardiac mTOR signaling, we assessed mTOR signaling in hypercholesterolemic swine (HC) that are also susceptible to increased cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury. Yucatan pigs were fed a high-fat/high-cholesterol diet for 4 weeks to induce hypercholesterolemia, and mTOR signaling was measured by immunoblotting and immunofluorescence in the non-ischemic left ventricular area. Total myocardial mTOR and raptor levels were markedly increased in the HC group compared to the normocholesterolemic group, and directly correlated with serum cholesterol levels. mTOR exhibited intense perinuclear staining in myocytes only in the HC group. Hypercholesterolemia was associated with hyperactive signaling upstream and downstream of both mTOR complexes, including myocardial Akt, S6K1, 4EBP1, S6 and PKC-alpha, increased levels of cardiac hypertrophy markers, and a trend toward lower levels of myocardial autophagy. Hypercholesterolemia can now be added to the growing list of conditions associated with aberrant mTOR signaling. Hypercholesterolemia produces a unique profile of alterations in cardiac mTOR signaling, which is a potential target in cardiac diseases associated with hypercholesterolemia and nutritional excess

Phosphorylation and translocation of heat shock protein 27 and αB-crystallin in human myocardium after cardioplegia and cardiopulmonary bypass

ObjectivesCardiac surgery using cardioplegia and cardiopulmonary bypass subjects myocardium to hypothermic reversible ischemic injury that can impair cardiac function. Research in animal and cell models demonstrates that acute myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury causes phosphorylation of heat shock protein 27 and αB-crystallin. Phosphorylation of heat shock protein 27 and αB-crystallin is implicated in the regulation of both beneficial and detrimental responses to ischemic injury. The phosphorylation status of these proteins in human myocardium after ischemic insults associated with cardioplegia and cardiopulmonary bypass is unknown.MethodsRight atrial appendage and chest wall skeletal muscle samples were collected from patients before and after cardioplegia and cardiopulmonary bypass. Cardioplegia and cardiopulmonary bypass-induced changes in phosphorylation and localization of heat shock protein 27 and αB-crystallin were determined using immunoblot and confocal microscopy with total and phospho-specific antibodies.ResultsCardioplegia and cardiopulmonary bypass increased the phosphorylation of heat shock protein 27 on serine 15, 78, and 82, and αB-crystallin on serine 59 and 45, but not serine 19. The majority of heat shock protein 27 and αB-crystallin localized to I-bands of cardiac myofilaments and shifted to a detergent insoluble fraction after cardioplegia and cardiopulmonary bypass. Cardioplegia and cardiopulmonary bypass–induced phosphorylation of specific heat shock protein 27 and αB-crystallin residues were associated with additional subcellular locations. Increases in phosphorylation of heat shock protein 27 and αB-crystallin were negatively correlated with cardiac function after surgery.ConclusionCardiac surgery using cardioplegia and cardiopulmonary bypass is associated with phosphorylation and myofilament translocation of heat shock protein 27 and αB-crystallin in human myocardium. Phosphorylation of specific heat shock protein 27 and αB-crystallin serine residues is associated with distinct localization. Understanding the human myocardial small heat shock protein response may have significant implications for surgical myocardial protection

Insulin treatment enhances the myocardial angiogenic response in diabetes

ObjectiveGrowth factor and cell-based angiogenesis are attractive therapeutic options for diabetic patients with end-stage coronary disease. Reduced collateral vessel formation observed in diabetes is associated with increased expression of anti-angiogenic proteins, angiostatin and endostatin. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of insulin treatment on the diabetic angiogenic response to chronic myocardial ischemia.MethodsYucatan miniswine were treated with alloxan (pancreatic β-cell specific toxin, 150 mg/kg) and divided into two groups. In the diabetic group (DM, n = 8), blood glucose levels were kept greater than 250 mg/dL, and in the insulin-treated group (IDM, n = 6), intramuscular insulin was administered daily to keep blood glucose less than 150 mg/dL. A third group of age-matched swine served as nondiabetic controls (ND; n = 8). Eight weeks later, all animals underwent circumflex artery ameroid constrictor placement to induce chronic ischemia. Myocardial perfusion was assessed at 3 and 7 weeks after ameroid placement using microspheres. Microvascular function, capillary density, and myocardial expression of anti-angiogenic mediators were evaluated.ResultsDiabetic animals exhibited significant impairments in endothelium-dependent microvessel relaxation to adenosine diphosphate and substance P, which were reversed in insulin-treated animals. Collateral-dependent perfusion in the ischemic circumflex territory, which was profoundly reduced in diabetic animals (−0.18 ± 0.02 vs +0.23 ± 0.07 mL · min−1 · g−1; P < .001), improved significantly with insulin treatment (0.12 ± 0.05 mL · min−1 · g−1; P < .01). Myocardial expression of anti-angiogenic proteins, angiostatin and endostatin, showing a 4.3- and 3.6-fold increase in diabetic animals respectively (both P < .01 vs ND), was markedly reduced in insulin-treated animals (2.3- and 1.8-fold vs ND; both P < .01).ConclusionsInsulin treatment successfully reversed diabetic coronary endothelial dysfunction and significantly improved the endogenous angiogenic response. These pro-angiogenic effects may be mediated through downregulation of anti-angiogenic mediators. Insulin therapy appears to be a promising modality to enhance the angiogenic response in diabetic patients

A posteriori inclusion of parton density functions in NLO QCD final-state calculations at hadron colliders: The APPLGRID Project

A method to facilitate the consistent inclusion of cross-section measurements based on complex final-states from HERA, TEVATRON and the LHC in proton parton density function (PDF) fits has been developed. This can be used to increase the sensitivity of LHC data to deviations from Standard Model predictions. The method stores perturbative coefficients of NLO QCD calculations of final-state observables measured in hadron colliders in look-up tables. This allows the posteriori inclusion of parton density functions (PDFs), and of the strong coupling, as well as the a posteriori variation of the renormalisation and factorisation scales in cross-section calculations. The main novelties in comparison to original work on the subject are the use of higher-order interpolation, which substantially improves the trade-off between accuracy and memory use, and a CPU and computer memory optimised way to construct and store the look-up table using modern software tools. It is demonstrated that a sufficient accuracy on the cross-section calculation can be achieved with reasonably small look-up table size by using the examples of jet production and electro-weak boson (Z, W) production in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 14 TeV at the LHC. The use of this technique in PDF fitting is demonstrated in a PDF-fit to HERA data and simulated LHC jet cross-sections as well as in a study of the jet cross-section uncertainties at various centre-of-mass energies

Carnivore hotspots in Peninsular Malaysia and their landscape attributes

Mammalian carnivores play a vital role in ecosystem functioning. However, they are prone to extinction because of low population densities and growth rates, and high levels of persecution or exploitation. In tropical biodiversity hotspots such as Peninsular Malaysia, rapid conversion of natural habitats threatens the persistence of this vulnerable group of animals. Here, we carried out the first comprehensive literature review on 31 carnivore species reported to occur in Peninsular Malaysia and updated their probable distribution. We georeferenced 375 observations of 28 species of carnivore from 89 unique geographic locations using records spanning 1948 to 2014. Using the Getis-Ord Gi*statistic and weighted survey records by IUCN Red List status, we identified hotspots of species that were of conservation concern and built regression models to identify environmental and anthropogenic landscape factors associated with Getis-Ord Gi* z scores. Our analyses identified two carnivore hotspots that were spatially concordant with two of the peninsula’s largest and most contiguous forest complexes, associated with Taman Negara National Park and Royal Belum State Park. A cold spot overlapped with the southwestern region of the Peninsula, reflecting the disappearance of carnivores with higher conservation rankings from increasingly fragmented natural habitats. Getis-Ord Gi* z scores were negatively associated with elevation, and positively associated with the proportion of natural land cover and distance from the capital city. Malaysia contains some of the world’s most diverse carnivore assemblages, but recent rates of forest loss are some of the highest in the world. Reducing poaching and maintaining large, contiguous tracts of lowland forests will be crucial, not only for the persistence of threatened carnivores, but for many mammalian species in general

The flavor-changing single-top quark production in the littlest Higgs model with T parity at the LHC

The littlest Higgs model with discrete symmetry named "T-parity"(LHT) is an interesting new physics model which does not suffer strong constraints from electroweak precision data. One of the important features of the LHT model is the existence of new source of FC interactions between the SM fermions and the mirror fermions. These FC interactions can make significant loop-level contributions to the couplings $tcV$, and furthermore enhance the cross sections of the FC single-top quark production processes. In this paper, we study some FC single-top quark production processes, $pp\to t\bar{c}$ and $pp\to tV$, at the LHC in the LHT model. We find that the cross sections of these processes are strongly depended on the mirror quark masses. The processes $pp\to t\bar{c}$ and $pp\to tg$ have large cross sections with heavy mirror quarks. The observation of these FC processes at the LHC is certainly the clue of new physics, and further precise measurements of the cross scetions can provide useful information about the free parameters in the LHT model, specially about the mirror quark masses.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure

MAMBO 1.2mm observations of luminous starbursts at z~2 in the SWIRE fields

We report on--off pointed MAMBO observations at 1.2 mm of 61 Spitzer-selected star-forming galaxies from the SWIRE survey. The sources are selected on the basis of bright 24um fluxes (f_24um>0.4mJy) and of stellar dominated near-infrared spectral energy distributions in order to favor z~2 starburst galaxies. The average 1.2mm flux for the whole sample is 1.5+/-0.2 mJy. Our analysis focuses on 29 sources in the Lockman Hole field where the average 1.2mm flux (1.9+/-0.3 mJy) is higher than in other fields (1.1+/-0.2 mJy). The analysis of the sources multi-wavelength spectral energy distributions indicates that they are starburst galaxies with far-infrared luminosities ~10^12-10^13.3 Lsun, and stellar masses of ~0.2-6 x10^11 M_sun. Compared to sub-millimeter selected galaxies (SMGs), the SWIRE-MAMBO sources are among those with the largest 24um/millimeter flux ratios. The origin of such large ratios is investigated by comparing the average mid-infrared spectra and the stacked far-infrared spectral energy distributions of the SWIRE-MAMBO sources and of SMGs. The mid-infrared spectra exhibit strong PAH features, and a warm dust continuum. The warm dust continuum contributes to ~34% of the mid-infrared emission, and is likely associated with an AGN component. This constribution is consistent with what is found in SMGs. The large 24um/1.2mm flux ratios are thus not due to AGN emission, but rather to enhanced PAH emission compared to SMGs. The analysis of the stacked far-infrared fluxes yields warmer dust temperatures than typically observed in SMGs. Our selection favors warm ultra-luminous infrared sources at high-z, a class of objects that is rarely found in SMG samples. Our sample is the largest Spitzer-selected sample detected at millimeter wavelengths currently available.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ (51 pages; 16 figures). The quality of some figures has been degraded for arXiv purposes. Full resolution version available at this http://www.iasf-milano.inaf.it/~polletta/mambo_swire/lonsdale08_ApJ_accepted.pd