1 Corinthians 15_3b-5: Primitive Christian Proclamation

Therefore, for matters of limitation, it shall be the purpose of this paper to examine one specific text in the Pauline corpus in which Paul himself cites something he had received. In 1 Corinthians 15:3b-5 Paul describes the gospel which the Corinthians came to believe and by which they were saved. Does this passage tell us anything about Paul\u27s relationship with the apostles in Jerusalem? What does it tell us of the chief emphases in the gospel Paul had received

(at)america.jp: Identity, nationalism, and power on the Internet, 1969-2000

america.jp explores identity, nationalism, and power on the Internet between 1969 and 2000 through a cultural analysis of Internet code and the creative processes behind it. The dissertation opens with an examination of a real-time Internet Blues jam that linked Japanese and American musicians between Tokyo and Mississippi in 1999. The technological, cultural, and linguistic uncertainties that characterized the Internet jam, combined with the inventive reactions of the musicians who participated, help to introduce the fundamental conceptual question of the dissertation: is code a cultural product and if so can the Internet be considered a distinctly American technology?;A comparative study of the Internet\u27s origins in the United States and Japan finds that code is indeed a cultural entity but that it is a product not of one nation, but of many. A cultural critique of the Internet\u27s domain name conventions explores the heavily-gendered creation of code and the institutional power that supports it. An ethnography of the Internet\u27s managing organization, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), investigates conflicts and identity formation within and among nations at a time when new Internet technologies have blurred humans\u27 understanding of geographic boundaries. In the year 2000, an effort to prevent United States domination of ICANN produced unintended consequences: disputes about the definition of geographic regions and an eruption of anxiety, especially in China, that the Asian seat on the ICANN board would be dominated by Japan. These incidents indicate that the Internet simultaneously destabilizes identity and ossifies it. In this paradoxical situation, cultures and the people in them are forced to reconfigure the boundaries that circumscribe who they think they are

Uncertainty - enemy of democracy? : influence of uncertainty on leadership evaluations and the role of self-esteem and power

Die Vorteile demokratischer Führung scheinen heutzutage außer Frage zu stehen. Dennoch kann das Phänomen autoritärer Führung in vielen politischen und ökonomischen Kontexten weiterhin beobachtet werden. Warum sollten Personen, die eigentlich demokratische Werte befürworten, dazu neigen autoritäre Führung für erfolgreich zu halten? Bisherige Forschung weist auf einen Zusammenhang zwischen äußeren Bedrohungen und einem Anstieg autoritärer Einstellungen und Verhaltensweisen hin. Die vorliegende Arbeit spezifiziert und erweitert diese Ergebnisse, indem sie die Auswirkungen subjektiver Unsicherheit auf die Einstellung gegenüber autoritären Führungspersonen untersucht. Dabei wird davon ausgegangen, dass in diesem Zusammenhang der Selbstwert (SW) einer Person eine entscheidende Moderatorvariable darstellt. Im Vergleich zu Personen mit hohem SW sind Personen mit niedrigem SW durch einen Mangel an Selbstsicherheit und Kontrollgefühl geprägt. Basierend auf einem Erwartungs-Wert Modell wird deshalb angenommen, dass vor allem Personen mit niedrigem SW eine autoritäre Reaktion auf Unsicherheit zeigen sollten, während Personen mit hohem SW eine demokratische Reaktion aufweisen. Macht ist eine Ressource, die sowohl Selbstsicherheit als auch das Gefühl von Kontrolle vermitteln kann. Deshalb wird postuliert, dass die Salienz von hoher Macht die unterschiedlichen Unsicherheitsreaktionen von Personen mit niedrigem und hohem SW aufheben sollte. Um diese Annahmen zu testen, wurden explizite und implizite Maße der Führungsbewertung (IATs) sowie ein non-verbales Machtmaß entwickelt und validiert. In den vorliegenden Studien zeigte sich ein konsistentes Bild. Unter Sicherheit bevorzugen sowohl Personen mit niedrigem als auch mit hohem SW demokratische gegenüber autoritärer Führung. Unter Unsicherheit zeigen Personen mit niedrigem SW jedoch eine Abnahme und Personen mit hohem SW eine Zunahme in ihrer demokratischen Präferenz. Wie erwartet vermag die Salienz von hoher Macht, diese Reaktionen auf Unsicherheit aufzuheben. Die Verwendung impliziter Maße war für die Aufdeckung der vorliegenden Ergebnisse entscheidend, was auf ihren besonderen Wert für die Autoritarismusforschung hindeutet

A comparative study of mechanisms of surfactant inhibition

AbstractPulmonary surfactant spreads to the hydrated air–lung interface and reduces the surface tension to a very small value. This function fails in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and the surface tension stays high. Dysfunction has been attributed to competition for the air–lung interface between plasma proteins and surfactant or, alternatively, to ARDS-specific alterations of the molecular profile of surfactant. Here, we compared the two mechanisms in vitro, to assess their potential role in causing respiratory distress. Albumin and fibrinogen exposure at or above blood level concentrations served as the models for testing competitive adsorption. An elevated level of cholesterol was chosen as a known adverse change in the molecular profile of surfactant in ARDS. Bovine lipid extract surfactant (BLES) was spread from a small bolus of a concentrated suspension (27 mg/ml) to the air–water interface in a captive bubble surfactometer (CBS) and the bubble volume was cyclically reduced and increased to assess surface activity of the spread material. Concentrations of inhibitors and the concentration and spreading method of pulmonary surfactant were chosen in an attempt to reproduce the exposure of surfactant to inhibitors in the lung. Under these conditions, neither serum albumin nor fibrinogen was persistently inhibitory and normal near-zero minimum surface tension values were obtained after a small number of cycles. In contrast, inhibition by an increased level of cholesterol persisted even after extensive cycling. These results suggest that in ARDS, competitive adsorption may not sufficiently explain high surface tension, and that disruption of the surfactant film needs to be given causal consideration

Reply to Cleveland et al.’s “Detecting (trans)gene flow to landraces in centers of crop origin: lessons from the case of maize in Mexico”

Cleveland et al. (2005, Environ. Biosafety Res. 4: 197–208) offer useful suggestions for monitoring transgenes in landraces of maize, but we disagree with their statement that the scientific conclusions of our paper (Ortiz-García et al., 2005, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102: 12338–12343) are not justified. First, contrary to their perception, our survey was not designed to evaluate transgenes in the whole State of Oaxaca, but rather to monitor a specific portion of the District of Ixtlán de Juárez where the presence of transgenes had been reported previously by Quist and Chapela (2001, Nature 414: 541–543). Second, our paper described two methods for estimating frequencies of undetected transgenic seeds, while Cleveland et al. recommend a third approach that explicitly estimates effective population size. They argue that the effective population size of our seed samples is smaller than we assumed, leading to false claims about our detection accuracy. However, we employed a robust statistical approach to compensate for possible bias by using numbers of maternal plants, in addition to numbers of seeds, to provide a conservative estimate of the minimum number of independent samples. When we re-analyzed our 2004 data using effective population sizes, our conclusion that transgenic seeds were “absent or extremely rare” did not change, nor did the general range of possible frequencies of undetected transgenic seeds. Unlike Cleveland et al., we advocate using combined probability tests to analyze data across localities. Third, our critics argue that we accepted the null hypothesis that transgenes were absent. Actually, we assumed that transgenes were present in local landraces, and we used parameter estimation methods to calculate the probability of failing to detect transgenic individuals at a range of frequencies. In agreement with Cleveland et al., we reiterate that there is a clear need for additional surveys with rigorous sampling methods to provide estimates of transgene frequencies over broad geographic areas in Mexico

Coping with or buffering against the negative impact of social exclusion on basic needs: A review of strategies

In this chapter, we give an overview of research on strategies that help cope with or buffer against the negative psychological consequences of social exclusion. Coping strategies are utilized after the individual has shown reflexive responses to social exclusion (e.g., need threat, negative affect) and should facilitate psychological recovery. Specifically, coping strategies help prevent maladaptive reflective responses to social exclusion such as social withdrawal and aggression by restoring basic needs satisfaction and improving mood. As social withdrawal and aggression are more likely to occur in response to social exclusion when no affiliation opportunity is available or the prospect of social acceptance is low, we focus on coping strategies that can be utilized in such situations, namely reminders of social bonds, social surrogates, and turning to religion. In contrast to coping strategies, buffering strategies are utilized prior to or at the onset of an exclusionary episode and are intended to mitigate or prevent the reflexive responses to social exclusion. Until recently, research findings suggested that reflexive responses to social exclusion are resistant to change. In this chapter, however, we suggest and empirically substantiate the psychological resource hypothesis, according to which strategies that help build up strong psychological resources, such as belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaningfulness, may prove effective as buffers against the reflexive responses to social exclusion. The buffering strategies discussed in this chapter are social companionship during the exclusionary event, belonging to a majority, thinking about money, and visualizing oneself in a powerful position

Methyl-β-cyclodextrin restores the structure and function of pulmonary surfactant films impaired by cholesterol

AbstractPulmonary surfactant, a defined mixture of lipids and proteins, imparts very low surface tension to the lung–air interface by forming an incompressible film. In acute respiratory distress syndrome and other respiratory conditions, this function is impaired by a number of factors, among which is an increase of cholesterol in surfactant. The current study shows in vitro that cholesterol can be extracted from surfactant and function subsequently restored to dysfunctional surfactant films in a dose-dependent manner by methyl-β-cyclodextrin (MβCD). Bovine lipid extract surfactant was supplemented with cholesterol to serve as a model of dysfunctional surfactant. Likewise, when cholesterol in a complex with MβCD (“water-soluble cholesterol”) was added in aqueous solution, surfactant films were rendered dysfunctional. Atomic force microscopy showed recovery of function by MβCD is accompanied by the re-establishment of the native film structure of a lipid monolayer with scattered areas of lipid bilayer stacks, whereas dysfunctional films lacked bilayers. The current study expands upon a recent perspective of surfactant inactivation in disease and suggests a potential treatment

The effect of puromycin on retention of conditioned cardiac deceleration in the goldfish

The electrocardiogram was used to measure conditioned heart rate deceleration to a light-off signal paired with a punishing electrical shock in the goldfish. The learned response was retained for several days but was rapidly lost with extinction trials. Intracranial injections of puromycin administered just before or immediately after a training session did not appear to block formation of memory of this response. This result is discussed in relation to previous studies on the possible effects of puromycin on conditioned fear and instrumental learning.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/34063/1/0000341.pd

The politics hurdle: Joint effect of organizational culture and gender on lack of fit experiences

We propose that an organizational culture where playing politics is important for advancement, compared with an organizational culture where showing competencies is important, elicits stronger lack of fit experiences for women than for men. In a pre- study, playing politics was perceived as dominant, typically male work behaviors, whereas showing competencies was perceived as competent, typically female work behaviors. We then tested in two experiments (689 individuals, integrated in a small-scale meta-analysis) the joint effect of organizational culture and gender on four lack of fit indicators (self-concept conflict, fear of backlash, intention to seek power positions, concerns about one’s skills). As expected, women indicated more lack of fit experi- ences than men in politics cultures, but not in competencies cultures. Our findings suggest that perceived organizational culture may play an important role in understanding the dynamics of career advancement of women and men