Skulls, Tree Bark, Fossils

Studies of material objects in the field of memory studies have followed diverse epistemological and disciplinary trajectories, but their shared characteristic has been the questioning of philosophical assumptions concerning human relations with inanimate things and lower-level organic objects, such as plants, within the Aristotelian hierarchy of beings. Rather than accept at face value their categorizations as passive or deficient in comparison to the human subject, critical scholarship has reformulated the place and role of nonhuman entities in culture. This essay examines the nexus of materiality and memory in the work of the French philosopher and art historian Georges Didi-Huberman, with the focus on the questions of mnemonic affordance of things and plants. The essay proposes that Didi-Huberman’s project can be approached from the perspective of “undoing” the key binaries of Western historiography of art and material culture: surface/depth, exteriority/interiority, visibility/invisibility, and malleability/rigidity. Focusing on imaginal representations of memory objects in Didi-Huberman’s two essays Bark and Being a Skull, the essay situates these texts within the context of his philosophical reading of Aby Warburg’s iconology, and argues that Didi-Huberman’s undoing of the binaries that have traditionally structured thinking about materiality and memory could be productively approached as a philosophical project of transvaluating surface.

Investigating the Links between UK House Prices and Share Prices with Copulas

We investigate the nonlinear links between the housing and stock markets in the UK using copulas. Our empirical analysis is conducted at both the national and regional levels. We also examine how closely London house prices are linked to those in other parts of the UK. We find that (i) the dependence between the different markets exhibits significant time-variation, (ii) at the national level, the relationship between house prices and the stock market is characterised by left tail dependence, i.e., they are more likely to crash, rather than boom, together, (iii) although left tail dependence with the stock market is a prominent feature of some regions, it is by no means a universally shared characteristic, (iv) the dependence between property prices in London and other parts of the UK displays widespread regional variations.

The shared fish stocks conservation: revisiting the unconnected enforcement

“There is plenty of other fish in the sea," goes the old cliché as many stocks have been overfished by industrial fisheries, that the over-activity made some fish species in danger. The scope of this paper covers the enforcement issue of Southern Bluefin Tuna (SBT) as endangered fish species. Taking Indonesia, New Zealand, and Australia as member States who catch SBT, this paper is a conceptual study using content analysis aiming to review how these three-member States officially treat SBT stocks. Based on the discussion, it found that since the shared characteristic of SBT, in areas beyond national jurisdiction it might create regulatory gaps. While international provisions have been entered into force in respect of endangered fish stocks in high seas areas, however, a lacuna remained in which the law cannot reach the national fishing area. This situation may lead to a discrepancy framework at the national level. Therefore, this paper argues that connectivity is crucial to link enforcement among relevant States with the real interest. In this context, the enforcement must consider the movement path of SBT from a coastal State (the spawning ground), the flag State (the fishing vessel), and the Port State (the place to land SBT).

Memetic Relationships as Tillet’s Shared Characteristics

The field of knowledge organization, and cataloguing in particular, has increasingly become concerned with bibliographic relationships. Tillett (2001) developed a taxonomy of bibliographic relationships that is largely shared by Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR), with the exception of the “shared characteristic” relationship including such features as shared creator or subject headings. This paper will offer another possible shared characteristic: “memes.” Memes are units of cultural inheritance and include literary tropes, character archetypes, and genre conceits, and can link otherwise unconnected works. Le domaine de l'organisation des connaissances, et du catalogage en particulier, se préoccupe de plus en plus des relations bibliographiques. Tillett (2001) a développé une taxonomie des relations bibliographiques qui est largement partagée par les Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR), à l'exception de la relation «caractéristique partagée» incluant des caractéristiques telles que le partage de créateur ou de vedettes-matière. Cet article proposera une autre caractéristique commune possible: les mèmes. Les mèmes sont des unités d'héritage culturel qui comprennent des tropes et des archétypes de personnages et de genre, et qui peuvent lier des œuvres autrement non liées.

Low-grade Osteosarcomatous Dedifferentiation of an Atypical Lipomatous Tumor in a Pediatric Patient

Atypical and malignant lipomatous tumors are infrequent in the pediatric population. Within this uncommon cohort, the morphologically and genetically related spectrum of atypical lipomatous tumor/well-differentiated liposarcoma/dedifferentiated liposarcoma (ALT/WDL/DDLS) is markedly rare. Their shared characteristic molecular aberration is a genomic amplicon of a region of chromosome 12q, including the oncogenes MDM2 and CDK4. We present an unusual case of a pediatric patient with an ALT, with recurrence after 2 years in the form of a bone-forming mass, radiologically and pathologically mimicking parosteal osteosarcoma, a tumor also molecularly characterized by amplification of MDM2 and CDK4. However, with ample histologic sampling, a single focus of lipogenic differentiation was identified, thus representing the first near complete low-grade osteosarcomatous dedififferentation reported within ALT/WDL/DDLS and the first ever in pediatric patient. The case serves a reminder of a diagnosis differential and pitfalls within MDM2-amplified tumors.

Introduction: Ascribing Meaning to the Semantic Field “Sacred” in Academic Research and Current Journalism

The term “sacred” has a long history, but this introduction demonstrates that the concept of a contrast between the sacred or holy and the profane or trivial arose only at the beginning of the 20th century. A shared characteristic of definitions of the sacred or holy is that they are something special which is separated from the profane or trivial world. In the research discourse, sacred is not just a critical but also a controversial term.In our two case studies, we set out to analyze how meaning is ascribed to the semantic field “sacred”. Building on Laclau’s concept of empty signifiers (Laclau 1996) and the understanding that sacred and related terms of the lexical/semantic field are not stable but have ever-changing meanings, we explore how the semantic field is filled in academic and contemporary journalistic contexts.

Elevated CXC chemokines in urine noninvasively discriminate OAB from UTI

Overlapping symptoms of overactive bladder (OAB) and urinary tract infection (UTI) often complicate the diagnosis and contribute to overprescription of antibiotics. Inflammatory response is a shared characteristic of both UTI and OAB and here we hypothesized that molecular differences in inflammatory response seen in urine can help discriminate OAB from UTI. Subjects in the age range of (20–88 yr) of either sex were recruited for this urine analysis study. Urine specimens were available from 62 UTI patients with positive dipstick test before antibiotic treatment. Six of these patients also provided urine after completion of antibiotic treatment. Subjects in cohorts of OAB ( n = 59) and asymptomatic controls ( n = 26) were negative for dipstick test. Urinary chemokines were measured by MILLIPLEX MAP Human Cytokine/Chemokine Immunoassay and their association with UTI and OAB was determined by univariate and multivariate statistics. Significant elevation of CXCL-1, CXCL-8 (IL-8), and CXCL-10 together with reduced levels for a receptor antagonist of IL-1A (sIL-1RA) were seen in UTI relative to OAB and asymptomatic controls. Elevated CXCL-1 urine levels predicted UTI with odds ratio of 1.018 and showed a specificity of 80.77% and sensitivity of 59.68%. Postantibiotic treatment, reduction was seen in all CXC chemokines with a significant reduction for CXCL-10. Strong association of CXCL-1 and CXCL-10 for UTI over OAB indicates mechanistic differences in signaling pathways driving inflammation secondary of infection in UTI compared with a lack of infection in OAB. Urinary chemokines highlight molecular differences in the paracrine signaling driving the overlapping symptoms of UTI and OAB.

Design of Cloud Computing Resources Based on Web Access Model

Cloud computing is a term within coined within the past several years. The mere mention of the term may cause confusion or disagreement on the scope of cloud computing. This paper provides out of a large resources, and charging according to the actual amount of resources consumed is a shared characteristic of cloud computing.