Search

Review Essays on Recent Scholarship: Maus on Contemporary Literary Dissenters; Coffman on Religion and Postmodernism; Di Leo on Big Little Magazines

Successful implementation of an active vibration control system is strictly correlated to the exact knowledge of the dynamic behavior of the system, of the excitation level and spectra and of the sensor and actuator’s specification. Only the correct management of these aspects may guarantee the correct choice of the control strategy and the relative performance. Within this paper, some preliminary activities aimed at the creation of a structurally simple, cheap and easily replaceable active control systems for metal panels are discussed. The final future aim is to control and to reduce noise, produced by vibrations of metal panels of the body of a car. The paper is focused on two points. The first one is the realization of an electronic circuit for Synchronized Shunted Switch Architecture (SSSA) with the right dimensioning of the components to control the proposed test article, represented by a rectangular aluminum plate. The second one is a preliminary experimental study on the test article, in controlled laboratory conditions, to compare performances of two possible control approach: SSSA and a feed-forward control approach. This comparison would contribute to the future choice of the most suitable control architecture for the specific attenuation of structure-born noise related to an automotive floor structure under deterministic (engine and road-tyre interaction) and stochastic (road-tyre interaction and aerodynamic) forcing actions.

University life has its pleasures. For some, there is pleasure in conversing and spending time with one's colleagues or students. Others enjoy the challenge of pursuing research or solving problems. Others still take delight in teaching and service to their university. Roland Barthes even theorized as to the specific kinds of pleasure involved in one of the most rudimentary of university acts, namely, reading texts. To view academe as bereft of pleasure is to see it without one of its most appealing dimensions and enduring characteristics. Arguably, the pleasure of academe is one of the key factors in its continuous persistence since the formation of academies in the ancient world. It is hard to believe that without pleasure the academy would have survived--if not thrived--this long. In addition to all the other things that academe is to and for us, it is a source of pleasure. So, one might ask, just what are the "pleasures" of academe? And furthermore, are they something we should aim to maximize? What is the role of "enjoyment" in educational theory and practice? And how should we organize the academy such that students, faculty, and administrators can optimize enjoyment? What does it mean to say that we take "delight" in our teaching or research--or, dare I say--administration? And how can we ensure that these delightful aims are sought, if not also achieved? These are good--or at least reasonable--questions. So why does no one seem to be asking them today? Is the problem with the pleasure of the academy similar to the one Barthes identified with the text? "No sooner has a word been said, somewhere, about the pleasure of the text," comments Barthes, "than two policemen are ready to jump on you: the political policeman and the psychoanalytical policeman: futility and/or guilt, pleasure is either idle or vain, a class notion or an illusion" (57). Are the politics of the academy such that pleasure gained in the pursuit of education is regarded as illicit? Or is it that once the topic is placed in the hands of the psychoanalytical police it is drowned in guilt and/or futility? Either way, pleasure curiously absents--or at least distances--itself from the text of academe. Foregrounded, however, are the "pains" of academe. Each week the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed provide us with field reports on the current state of academic suffering: increasing student debt, loss of academic freedom, job insecurity, unreasonable teaching and research expectations, bad colleagues, evil administrators, clueless students. Scores of recent titles track the decline and fall of higher education as we know it--and continuously remind us of our existential condition in higher ed's house of pain. The working assumption is that examination of what pains us is smart, insightful, and committed, whereas what pleasures us is naive, vapid, and vain. I think there are several reasons why we dwell on academe's painful aspects--and why we avoid serious engagement with its pleasurable dimensions--and would like here to begin to reflect on them. If nothing else, I would like to offer that we need to achieve a better balance between accounts of the pains of academe--and its pleasures. While saying what we don't like or want to avoid is important, so too is expressing what we enjoy--and what gives us pleasure in the academy. Such accounts are important because of the formative role they can play in shaping attitudes and conversations about the academy of the future. If we continue to primarily view the academy through the lens of pain and suffering, that is, its negative or repellant aspects, rather than pleasure and enjoyment, that is, its positive or appealing aspects, it will become increasingly difficult to articulate a future vision of the academy that amounts to something more than merely one that avoids pain. While this is admirable, it is not the end we should seek. Rather, we should work to establish a vision wherein academic pleasure is part of the groundwork of the academy--and I don't mean an academy where we take pleasure in our pain. …

For the working-class student, higher education was supposed to be everything that the working-class world was not, even if the image of the ivory tower and the promise of release from the working-class life have never been realized or fulfilled. Demystifying the university has had the unintended effect of killing the working-class dream of going to college as an escape from a way of life that our parents and their parents hoped their children could avoid. Working-class college graduates today are still part of the working class in spite of allegedly having fulfilled one of the sufficient conditions for exit from the working class, namely, receiving a college degree. This chapter provides an account of how this happened.

The birth of the neoliberal university might be traced back to 1996, when a relatively unknown associate professor of Comparative Literature at the Universite de Montreal caused a stir by publishing a book that showed how colleges and universities are run more like businesses or corporations than educational institutions. Widely read and cited, Bill Readings' The University in Ruins (1996) was a shot across the bow of academe. It announced that business values were supplanting academic values in the administration of universities--and laid the groundwork for a chorus of ever more dystopic political and economic accounts of the state of higher education. Readings' book was highly influential and convinced a lot of folks whose primary area of research was not higher education to start thinking and writing about the corporate conditions of academe. Over the course of the next dozen years (1996-2008), many other fine accounts of the corporate logic of the contemporary university and its implications came out including CUNY sociologist Stanley Aronowitz's The Knowledge Factory: Dismantling the Corporate University and Creating True Higher Learning (2001), former Harvard President Derek Bok's Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education (2003), freelance journalist and New America Foundation fellow Jennifer Washburn's University, Inc.: The Corporate Corruption of Higher Education (2005), and more recently, Ohio State University English professor, Frank Donoghue's The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities (2008). From Bok reporting how he received year after year "one proposition after another to exchange some piece or product of Harvard for money--often, quite substantial sums of money" (x) to Donoghue boldly predicting that while "professors have only been around for the last eighty years" (xi), don't count on them being around for the next eighty, each of these studies provided a slightly different voice to the growing chorus that the economic base of higher education in America has in fundamental ways, changed. For the most part, the consensus has been that the financial changes within the university have been for the worse--and are not reversible. However, of late, there seems to be a change in tone in discussions about the fate of the university. Whereas just five years ago, Frank Donoghue could proclaim "I offer nothing in the way of uplifting solutions to the problems that I describe" (xi), after the collapse of the economy (which occurred after the publication of Donoghue's book), this no longer seems possible--or at least responsible. With so many academics underemployed and unemployed, and so many students strapped with debt that will take most of their working lives to pay off and fewer real employment opportunities, academics now seem ready to get down to problem-solving--rather than merely bemoaning changes in academic culture. Though the financial hurricane of 2008 may not have destroyed the corporate practices of universities, as a number of more recent studies show, the house of higher education is still tenuously standing--though desperately in need of reform. In this article, I would like to argue that what is needed in conversations about higher education in America are not more accounts about the growing corporatization of the university, increasing focus on research and specialization, diminishing faculty academic freedom, and rising costs and student debt. By now, most will agree that these and other changes have occurred in the American higher educational system. Rather, what is needed is more inquiry on the university from the point of view that there may be no going back to the way things were; that what we might call the "modern" university (that is, the model used at least since 1915, the founding year of the AAUP) is dying--if not dead--and that the new university that is emerging out of the ashes of the modern university will be fundamentally different. …

Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease type 1A (CMT1A) is associated with increased gene dosage for PMP22 . Therapeutic approaches are currently aiming at correcting PMP22 over-expression. It is unknown whether PMP22 can be used as a biological marker of disease progression and therapy efficacy. We performed quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction on skin biopsies of 45 patients with CMT1A, obtained at study entry and after 24-months of treatment either with ascorbic acid or placebo. Data of a subgroup of patients were also compared with matched healthy subjects. Finally, we analysed PMP22 messenger RNA levels in sural nerve biopsies. We did not find significant differences in the levels of any known PMP22 transcripts in treated or untreated patients with CMT1A, thus confirming that ascorbic acid does not impact on the molecular features of CMT1A. Most importantly, we did not observe any correlation between PMP22 messenger RNA levels and the different clinical and electrophysiological outcome measures, underscoring the weakness of PMP22 to mirror the phenotypic variability of patients with CMT1A. We did not find increased PMP22 messenger RNA levels in skin and sural nerve biopsies of patients with CMT1A compared with relative controls. In conclusion, this study shows that ascorbic acid does not impact on PMP22 transcriptional regulation and PMP22 is not a suitable biomarker for CMT1A. * Abbreviations : cAMP : cyclic adenosine monophosphate CMT1A : Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease type 1A

Forty-four years ago a box carried within it a message concerning the death of the author. It also carried within it other works which demonstrate what art after the author looks like. One would have hoped that by this time the death of the author would have become part of the modus operandi of the arts of the present. Such though does not appear to be the case. Not only are some critics, like Jane Gallop and Sean Burke, challenging the notion that the author was ever dead--even for those who coined the "familiar" poststructuralist "slogan" (Gallop 1) (1)--but contemporary critical, textual, and editorial practices seem more attuned to asserting the aesthetic sovereignty of dead authors than allowing "texts" or "writing" to speak on their own behalf. For me, critical and editorial acts that allow the "author" to impede the free circulation of texts and determine textual practices bind us to an aesthetic and critical past we allegedly were supposed to have overcome. Editors and critics today need to strive for textual practices that move beyond the reliance on "authors" and "authorship"--and instead learn to revel in the collaborative textual multitude afforded us by the age of digital multimedia. A resurrection of the author is simply not acceptable--even if the age of high theory which announced the death of the author is also itself dead. (2) Let's take the opportunity now to turn back to the message in the box--and work our way forward from it to the critical and editorial present. DEATH IN A BOX The box which delivered the message of the death of the author was the multimedia magazine, Aspen, founded in the early 1960s by Phyllis Johnson, an editor at magazines such as Women's Wear Daily and Advertising Age ("Aspen Magazine"). Described as "the first three-dimensional magazine," "each issue came in a customized box or folder filled with materials in a variety of formats" (Wikipedia entry), including "booklets, posters, postcards, flipbooks, vinyl recordings, and in one issue, a reel containing four Super-8 films" ("Aspen Magazine"). Johnson, who said that "Aspen should be a time capsule of a certain period, point of view, or person," and had different designers and editors for each of its ten issues, published the first issue in the winter of 1965--and its last issue in 1971 ("Aspen Magazine"). While the first two issues contained materials related to the ski resort town from which the magazine took its name, the third issue, edited by Andy Warhol and David Dalton, left the town behind and took up instead pop art. Warhol and Dalton's issue included, among other items, a vinyl recording of guitar feedback by John Cale of the Velvet Underground--and excerpts from fourteen papers presented at the Berkeley Conference on LSD. (3) It is within the context of LSD papers and John Cale feedback that this multimedia magazine released in Issue 5/6 a provocation by Roland Barthes entitled "The Death of the Author." (4) Though Barthes's article would also appear the following year in French in Manteia, a bound magazine also in its fifth issue, it is wonderfully appropriate that a piece which figuratively unbinds the author from the text and criticism would first appear in a literally unbound magazine--one which Johnson "wanted to get away from the bound magazine format, which is really quite restrictive" ("Aspen Magazine"). Edited by Brian O'Doherty, with art direction by David Dalton and Lynn Letterman, Aspen 5/6 was published Fall-Winter 1967 by Roaring Fork Press, NYC. In addition to Barthes's "Death of the Author" (translated from French by Richard Howard), two other essays were included in the box (George Kubler's "Style and Representation in Historical Time" and Susan Sontag's "The Aesthetics of Silence"). In addition, among the vinyl recordings found in the box were Samuel Beckett's "Text for Nothing #8" (1958) read by Jack MacGowan, "Excerpts from Nova Express" (1964) read by their author, William Burroughs, and an excerpt from Alain Robbe-Grillet's Jealousy, "Now the shadow of the southwest column . …

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) plays an important role in the human response to various internal and external stimuli, which can modify homeostasis, and exerts a tight control on essential functions such as circulation, respiration, thermoregulation and hormonal secretion. ANS dysfunction may complicate the perioperative course in the surgical patient undergoing anesthesia, increasing morbidity and mortality, and, therefore, it should be considered as an additional risk factor during pre-operative evaluation. Furthermore, ANS dysfunction may complicate the clinical course of critically ill patients admitted to intensive care units, in the case of trauma, sepsis, neurologic disorders and cardiovascular diseases, and its occurrence adversely affects the outcome. In the care of these patients, the assessment of autonomic function may provide useful information concerning pathophysiology, risk stratification, early prognosis prediction and treatment strategies. Given the role of ANS in the maintenance of systemic homeostasis, anesthesiologists and intensivists should recognize as critical the evaluation of ANS function. Measurement of heart rate variability (HRV) is an easily accessible window into autonomic activity. It is a low-cost, non-invasive and simple to perform method reflecting the balance of the ANS regulation of the heart rate and offers the opportunity to detect the presence of autonomic neuropathy complicating several illnesses. The present review provides anesthesiologists and intensivists with a comprehensive summary of the possible clinical implications of HRV measurements, suggesting that autonomic dysfunction testing could potentially represent a diagnostic and prognostic tool in the care of patients both in the perioperative setting as well as in the critical care arena.

To investigate autonomic nervous system (ANS) function in mitochondrial disorders (MD).MD are characterized by a wide range of clinical features, including heart abnormalities and peripheral and central nervous systems involvement. Rarely autonomic symptoms have been reported.22 patients with MD underwent a battery of cardiovascular reflex tests including five tests of parasympathetic function and four tests of sympathetic function. Power spectral analyses (PSA) of heart rate variability in the supine and upright positions were also evaluated. Plasma levels of adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine were determined in the standing and lying positions.Only 4/22 patients referred symptoms related to ANS dysfunction. 46% of patients had a definite autonomic damage (i. e. an autonomic score/= 4). 36% showed moderate alterations with an autonomic score in the range 2-3 and 18 % had a normal autonomic function. MD patients had a significantly (p0.03) lower increase of adrenaline level after standing.Our data indicate an autonomic dysfunction in more than 80% of MD patients, even in the absence of a clinically manifested autonomic involvement. Cardiovascular autonomic investigation might be systematically employed in the characterization of MD.

Background Biliary tract cancers are uncommon tumors with a poor prognosis and most patients present with invasive and inoperable disease at diagnosis. Chemotherapy represents a palliative treatment, with poor response rates and a median survival of less than 6 months. Oxaliplatin and gemcitabine have shown an interesting activity as single agents in this group of patients. Patients and methods We carried out a multicenter phase II study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of combined oxaliplatin and gemcitabine in locally advanced and metastatic biliary tract carcinoma. The schedule of chemotherapy included oxaliplatin 100 mg/m2 on day 1 and gemcitabine 1000 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8, every 21 days. Results All the 24 patients were evaluable for response and toxicity. According to RECIST criteria we observed one complete response and 11 partial responses for an overall response rate of 50%. Overall survival for all the patients on study was 12 months (range 2–30). According to WHO criteria, three patients (12.5%) suffered grade 3 neutropenia and three patients (12.5%) grade 3 thrombocytopenia. Only two patients (8%) suffered grade 3 neuropathy. Conclusions Oxaliplatin and gemcitabine chemotherapy seems to be effective with a favorable safety profile in first-line chemotherapy of advanced biliary tract cancers.

We investigated the relationship between somatic and autonomic neuropathy in 40 chronic alcoholics. Electromyographic and neurographic studies of upper and lower limbs and a battery of six cardiovascular reflex tests were carried out. A score for somatic or autonomic neuropathy was calculated. All parameters were investigated for possible relationship with total life dose (TLD) of alcohol intake. Somatic neuropathy was detected in 25 patients (62.5%) and autonomic neuropathy in 13 patients (32.5%). Nineteen patients (47.5%) presented only a somatic neuropathy, six patients (15%) had only an autonomic neuropathy, and seven (17.5%) had a combined somatic and autonomic neuropathy. TLD was significantly higher in the group of patients with combined neuropathy than in the group with isolated somatic neuropathy. There was no significant correlation between laboratory parameters of somatic and autonomic neuropathy. Our findings do not support the existence of a parallel involvement of peripheral somatic and autonomic cardiovascular nerve fibers in chronic alcoholism.

Background and purpose Charcot−Marie−Tooth disease (CMT) is a very slowly progressive neuropathy which makes it difficult to detect disease progression over time and to assess intervention efficacy. Experience from completed clinical trials with ascorbic acid and natural history studies confirm difficulties in detecting such changes. Consequently, sensitive-to-change outcome measures (OMs) are urgently needed. Methods The relative responsiveness of clinical scales of the Italian−UK ascorbic acid trial (placebo arm) were assessed by using the standardized response mean (SRM), which is the ratio of the paired scores mean change over time to the standard deviation of the score change (0 is worst responsiveness). Results Little worsening of OM scores was found over 2 years. In detail, the primary OM of the trial, the CMT Neuropathy Score version 1 (CMTNSv1), showed low responsiveness (SRM 0.13). Some CMTNS items showed slightly greater responsiveness (CMT Examination Score 0.17; CMTNS Signs 0.19). Myometric assessments of handgrip and foot dorsiflexion strength were the most responsive (SRM −0.31 and −0.38, respectively). Amongst the other measures, the nine-hole peg test, which assesses upper limb functioning, showed the best sensitivity to change (SRM 0.28). Conclusions Overall these OMs showed low or negligible responsiveness, confirming the need to improve current OMs and to develop novel ones for prognostic and interventional studies. However, handgrip and foot dorsiflexion myometry are worth retaining for future trials as they were the most responsive and are likely to be clinically relevant for patients.

Di Leo: Why does foregrounding the significance of criticism and interpretation make you a curmudgeon? I would say just the opposite. I don't think that teachers have really thought enough about how to incorporate theory into the teaching of literary texts. The result is either a misappropriation of theory and criticism in their classroom, or an avoidance of theory and criticism in the classroom. The worst instance of the former is what I call the "cookie cutter approach" to theory which works something like this: apply literary theory "A" to literary text "B". Result: a valid interpretation of literary text "B" (and a successful use of literary theory "A"). On this strategy, students think that criticism and theory is some kind of game wherein points are scored for the production of valid interpretations. Textbooks like many of the volumes in the Bedford series in Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism that have primary texts along with selections like "What is Deconstruction?" and "What is Feminism?" promote this type of trivial use of theory, albeit I think unwittingly. In other cases, theory and criticism is entirely avoided in the classroom either because it is perceived by the teacher to

Background: X-linked Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMTX), caused by mutations in the gene encoding connexin32, is the second most common form of inherited demyelinating neuropathy, next to CMT 1A, and accounts for 10–20% of all hereditary demyelinating neuropathies. Aims of the study: To describe clinical and electrophysiological data of an Italian family carrying a novel mutation in the Cx32 gene. Patients and methods: Clinical, electrophysiological, and genetic findings of three patients carrying the Ser128Leu mutation in the intracellular domain of the Cx32 gene were reported. Brain MRI studies were also performed. Results: In our family the disease was characterized by a moderate-to-severe polyneuropathy affecting similarly males as well females. In the proband the phenotype was quite unusual in terms of late-onset, rapidity of evolution and severity. Abnormal brain MRI in association with CNS symptoms were also observed. Both sons had also clinical evidence of CNS involvement. Conclusions: The Ser128Leu mutation in the Cx-32 gene is a novel substitution, which has not been reported so far. This novel mutation could be added to the group of Cx-32 mutations with CNS phenotypes. The identification of new CMTX causing mutations is a crucial step for carrier detection and pre-symptomatic diagnosis.

One of the consequences of neoliberalism in higher education is increasing focus on the achievement of status and prestige. As noted earlier, this has resulted in a shift from academic-focused missions to prestige-focused missions. One of the results of this shift in university mission is increasing pressure on faculty to produce higher levels of scholarship, particularly at institutions seeking to raise their status. Deborah Rhode aptly describes this as “upward drift” and notes that “an increasing number of schools have sought to enhance their reputations by supporting research.”1

Higher education in America is undergoing some radical changes. Many within the academy fear that they are changes for the worse—and that the vision of the academy they believe in is on the brink of complete destruction. Whereas twentieth-century American professors enjoyed a high degree of control over university curriculum and the fundamental right to critically inquire into any subject without fear of losing their position within the university, academics in the new millennium are facing increasing degrees of curricular scrutiny, as well as department closures, unreasonable expectations, and job insecurity. This, coupled with the possibility of academic life without tenure and academic freedom, is fundamentally changing the manner in which many approach academe.

Neoliberalism was a part of publishing culture long before it hit academic culture. Its ascent in the publishing world is one of a gradual intensification of market considerations over aesthetic or scholarly ones—a story that holds to varying degrees both within the corporate publishing industry and now within the university and small press publishing world. However, it is not one that has been widely considered—though it needs to be. The aim of this chapter is to provide a prolegomenon to neoliberalism in publishing and to establish its inroads to and convergences with academic culture.1

American higher education under the spell of neoliberalism is obsessed with ranks and brands. Data collected on student and faculty performance informs internal and external rankings that are then used to position and determine the value of nearly all aspects of academic culture. To be highly ranked is one of the greatest forms of visibility, prestige, and value in neoliberal academic culture; to be lowly ranked—or worse yet, unranked—is a sign of nonperformance, if not also nonexistence. Ranking is both a tangible fruit of neoliberalism’s obsession with measurement and performance display, and a some-what self-fulfilling affirmation of the importance of assessment—as assessment is used to validate rank, but so too is rank used to validate assessment.

The present work is aimed to numerically validate the experimental drop test results [1], related to the landing gear of a general aviation aircraft, in order to define an appropriate simulation methodology able to save time, costs and risks due to structural design and experimental test campaign required in the certification phase. The aircraft selected for this research activity is the AP-68TP-300 Spartacus, an Italian nine-seat, twin-engined, high wing monoplane, realized by Vulcanair S.p.a.. The multi-body approach has been developed through the MSC Adams software, starting from a simplified 1D model up to a more detailed 3D one. The comparison between numerical and experimental results in terms of load factors has been carried out in accordance with CS-23 [2-3] (Certification Specifications for Normal, Utility, Aerobatic and Commuter Aeroplanes), and it has shown a good correlation, especially for the 3D model, since it better fits the real behavior of the entire system.

��� If austerity is the measure of responsible academic conduct in the age of neoliberalism, then transparency is its watchdog. It is widely touted today as that which protects the public from both the misuse of academic resources and poor governance of the university. The public has come to expect increasing levels of transparency in the administration and governance of higher education both as a means of accountability and a mode of publicity. Implied in these calls for more transparency is a mistrust and cynicism regarding higher education in America. But transparency carries with it a lot of baggage. 1 For one thing, calls for transparency always carry with them an implicit opposition to privacy and secrecy. Namely, increased transparency entails decreased privacy; and more publicity means less secrecy. The roots of the latter, in particular, can be connected to the rise of the modern state as one grounded not on secret practices, but rather on transparency, or more accurately, publicity. The emergence of representative governments in Europe in the second half of the eighteenth century established a consideration of publicity and transparency as protections against bad administration and misrule. 2 As such, philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jeremy Bentham, and Immanuel Kant played a large role in establishing the social, political, and ethical foundations of transparency. And it is these foundations that need to be recalled in order to gain some perspective on the role and function of transparency in higher education theory and practice today. The general questions raised in this essay are fairly transparent ones. Namely, what does it mean to call for “transparency” in the conduct of higher education? And is this a good thing? That is, is transparency something that contributes to the well-being of the university and those whose lives and education are connected to it—or is it something that works in the opposite direction? For that matter, what do we mean when we ask for “more” transparency from our colleagues? And how is this different from those whose aim is “perfect” transparency in the conduct of academe? While there is no doubt that transparency often can bring about greater levels of understanding and 1 For an account of austerity as the measure of responsible academic conduct, see Di Leo

Background: Biliary tract cancers are uncommon tumors with a poor prognosis and most patients (pts) present with invasive and inoperable disease at diagnosis. Chemotherapy represents a palliative treatment, but single or combination-drug schedules have demonstrated poor response rates with a median survival less than 6 months. Recently O and G have showed an interesting activity as single agents in this group of pts. Methods: We carried out a multicenter phase II study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of combined O and G in locally advanced and metastatic biliary tract carcinoma. The schedule of chemotherapy included O 100 mg/m2 on day 1 and G 1000 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8, every 21 days. Inclusion Criteria were: histological diagnosis of biliary tract carcinoma, age

Austerity is the measure of responsible academic conduct in the age of neoliberalism. To tout its power and promise is a key aspect of being a fully engaged member of neoliberal academe; to deny its value and benefi t is a central component of resisting neoliberal academe—and perhaps even moving beyond it. The docile subjects of the neoliberal academy are perfectly constituted to follow austerity measures into one of the darkest chapters in the history of democratic education. 1 Those within the academy who even offer the slightest hint of resistance to the allegedly perfect logic of austerity open themselves to marginalization—and ultimately failure. However, assessing the role of austerity in the academy is not as uncomplicated as it may seem. From the perspective of austerity as an arm of the repressive and destructive neoliberal practices and policies of higher education, austerity is all darkness and no light. But even if this is the most recent and high profi le aspect of austerity in the academy, it is not its only dimension—nor even its most longstanding. Rather, austerity has played a large role in defi ning the emotional, moral, and pedagogical life of the academy. Namely, austerity has come to be a regulative emotional, if not also moral, imperative in the conduct of academic life. Furthermore, these emotional and moral imperatives pre-date the rise of neoliberalism and its austerity agenda. Austerity as an emotional and moral imperative has long shaped the conduct of academic life. For some, this has been a problem; for others, it has been simply a part of being an academic. Nevertheless, the rise of neoliberalism in the academy has intensifi ed the emotional and moral effects of its traditional relationship with austerity to the point where one must ask whether the resultant academic environment is a healthy or an unhealthy 1 The notion of the docile subjects of neoliberal academe is established in some depth in my recent book, Corporate Humanities in Higher Education: Moving Beyond the Neoliberal Academy (2013a). Two other sources on this topic are Davies, Gottsche, and Bansel (2006) and Fanghanel

The development of sputtering-magnetron techniques makes possible the manufacturing of thin-film coated rf cavities for high-energy accelerators of various superconducting alloys or compounds. In this context high-quality (Nb1−xTix)N films have been produced by dc magnetron sputtering and carefully characterized. These films, for x≤0.5, exhibit a critical temperature Tc as high as NbN (Tc=17 K) but show a markedly lower normal state resistivity. The calculated BCS surface impedance of the films is also lower than for NbN. The overall properties of the (Nb1−xTix)N films are compared with those of other superconductors, and the suitability of this material for the production of superconducting sputter-coated copper cavities for particle physics accelerators is demonstrated. The potential interest of (Nb1−xTix)N films for superconducting electronics is also briefly outlined.

A 75-year-old man with HCV hepatitis developed at the age of 70 presented with rest and action tremor localized at both hands and progressive cognitive impairment with memory loss. Four years later he begun to complain of progressive fatigue, occasional falls, numbness at the extremities and orthostatic hypotension. One month after admission, he rapidly worsened with inability to walk, mainly because of autonomic failure. Neurological examination revealed gait disturbances, including a wide base of support and short stride, slurred speech, reduction of upward gaze, rest and action tremor at both hands, intrinsic hand muscle and anterior tibialis muscle wasting and weakness on both sides, absent deep tendon reflexes, loss of vibration sense at lower limbs, and bilateral pes cavus. Routine laboratory studies, autoantibodies, thyroid function, neoplastic markers and immunoelectrophoresis were normal. Cryoglobulins were absent, whereas CSF protein content was increased (142 mg/dl). Autonomic nervous system investigation detected severe orthostatic hypotension. Nerve conduction studies showed absent sensory potentials and a marked reduction of compound motor action potential amplitudes and of motor conduction velocities. A sural nerve biopsy revealed remarkable onion bulb-like changes, endoneurial and perivascular infiltrations of inflammatory cells. Psychometric tests showed mild cognitive impairment. Brain MRI was consistent with normotensive hydrocephalus. The findings indicated the presence of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, autonomic nervous system involvement and normal pressure hydrocephalus. A condition of multiple system atrophy (MSA) might be taken into account, even if somatic peripheral nerve involvement may rarely occur in MSA. Moreover the normal pressure hydrocephalus could be due to the high protein content in CSF (Fukatsu R et al., 1997).

In order to realize high quality tunnel and Josephson junctions, thin films of the superconducting compound YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7−x have been realized “in situ” by a combined sputtering — evaporation technique. The films and tunnel junctions fabrication processes are described. Results concerning the structural and electrical properties of the films are also presented.

To the Editor.— Abdominal involvement is unusual not only in Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF), as pointed out by Davis and Bradford inThe Journal(1982;247:2811), but also in another milder rickettsiosis, which, surprisingly, has an increased incidence in our country. Boutonneuse fever (BF), caused by Rickettsia conorii , is related to RMSF for several reasons, including a history of tick contact and/or eschar, summer incidence, fever, or characteristic rash. Report of Cases.—Case 1.— We have observed 1 a case of pancreatic involvement in a 41-year-old man seen in an emergency room for abdominal pain and fever. During the next 24 hours, a characteristic maculopapular rash appeared. In addition, other data provided evidence for the diagnosis as follows: (1) positive serologic test findings (ELISA, positive for specific R conorii antigen and a positive Weil-Felix reaction for Proteus 0X2 antigen), (2) progressive increase of amylasemia (up to 1,000 units/L; reference

BACKGROUND: In overwork weakness (OW), muscles are increasingly weakened by exercise, work or daily activities. Although it is a well-established phenomenon in several neuromuscular disorders, it is debated whether it occurs in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT). Dominant limb muscles undergo a heavier overload than non-dominant and therefore if OW occurs we would expect them to become weaker. Four previous studies, comparing dominant and non-dominant hand strength in CMT series employing manual testing or myometry, gave contradictory results. Moreover, none of them examined the behaviour of lower limb muscles. METHODS: We tested the OW hypothesis in 271 CMT1A adult patients by comparing bilateral intrinsic hand and leg muscle strength with manual testing as well as manual dexterity. RESULTS: We found no significant difference between sides for the strength of first dorsal interosseous, abductor pollicis brevis, anterior tibialis and triceps surae. Dominant side muscles did not become weaker than non-dominant with increasing age and disease severity (assessed with the CMT Neuropathy Score); in fact, the dominant triceps surae was slightly stronger than the non-dominant with increasing age and disease severity. DISCUSSION: Our data does not support the OW hypothesis and the consequent harmful effect of exercise in patients with CMT1A. Physical activity should be encouraged, and rehabilitation remains the most effective treatment for CMT patients. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.