Epic Sea Battle at Night: a Revolutionary Play with the Economic Thinking of Milton Friedman

The play Epic Sea Battle at Night was originally staged in 1967, to commemorate two of China’s People’s Liberation Army’s military triumphs over the Taiwanese navy two years previously. Produced at the height of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the play is an example of the exploitation of the arts as an ideological instrument, celebrating military heroism and political conviction. Stills from the play were included in, China Pictorial 11, an English language propaganda pamphlet that was distributed to Western Imperialists in order to educate them in Maoist policy. Today, these images are clear representations of ideology. More than forty years after the Cultural Revolution, the ideology under which we live, neo-liberal late-capitalism, deliberately shirks from such blatant displays of propaganda. We have supposedly the freedom to believe whatever we like in a post-ideological age, and yet core beliefs about meritocracy, individualism and competitiveness frequently go unchallenged. By juxtaposing the visual language of ideology with the text of the capitalist manifesto, the re-enactment of a scene from Epic Sea Battle at Night harnesses the aesthetics of the past so as to allow us to reconsider the alleged neutrality of the present. The design of the stage, the positioning of the actors, costumes and props of the current production closely resembled those documented in China Pictorial 11, yet the actors’ monologues belong to a completely different context. No less heroic and utopian in tone than the speech given by the political instructor of gunboat 874 in the original play, the capitalist manifesto was an attempt to give a concrete language to the shapeless ideology of the present, and to force the invisible currents that govern life today, in China as in the West, to the surface. Neither a lecture on neo-liberal economics, nor a theatrical performance of a narrative, the piece appropriated the format of the propaganda play to re-evaluate the relationship between art and politics now.

Kinetic models as a route to control acrylamide formation in food

Reports that heat processing of foods induces the formation of acrylamide heightened interest in the chemistry, biochemistry, and safety of this compound. Acrylamide-induced neurotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, genotoxicity, and carcinogenicity are potential human health risks based on animal studies. Because exposure of humans to acrylamide can come from both external sources and the diet, there exists a need to develop a better understanding of its formation and distribution in food and its role in human health. To contribute to this effort, experts from eight countries have presented data on the chemistry, analysis, metabolism, pharmacology, and toxicology of acrylamide. Specifically covered are the following aspects: exposure from the environment and the diet; biomarkers of exposure; risk assessment; epidemiology; mechanism of formation in food; biological alkylation of amino acids, peptides, proteins, and DNA by acrylamide and its epoxide metabolite glycidamide; neurotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, and carcinogenicity; protection against adverse effects; and possible approaches to reducing levels in food. Cross-fertilization of ideas among several disciplines in which an interest in acrylamide has developed, including food science, pharmacology, toxicology, and medicine, will provide a better understanding of the chemistry and biology of acrylamide in food, and can lead to the development of food processes to decrease the acrylamide content of the diet.

The effect of cooking on acrylamide and its precursors in potato, wheat and rye

The relationship between acrylamide and its precursors, namely free asparagine and reducing sugars, was studied in simple cakes made from potato flake, wholemeal wheat and wholemeal rye, cooked at 180 degrees C, from 5 to 60 min. Between 5 and 20 min, large losses of asparagine, water and total reducing sugars were accompanied by large increases in acrylamide, which maximized in all three products between 25 and 30 min, followed by a slow linear reduction. Acrylamide formation did not occur to any extent until the moisture contents of the cakes fell below 5%. A comparison of each type of cake with a commercial product, made from the same food material, showed that acrylamide levels in all three commercial products were well below the maximum levels in the cooked cakes.

Measurement of paraben concentrations in human breast tissue at serial locations across the breast from axilla to sternum

The concentrations of five esters of p-hydroxybenzoic acid (parabens) were measured using HPLC-MS/MS at four serial locations across the human breast from axilla to sternum using human breast tissue collected from 40 mastectomies for primary breast cancer in England between 2005 and 2008. One or more paraben esters were quantifiable in 158/160 (99%) of the tissue samples and in 96/160 (60%) all five esters were measured. Variation was notable with respect to individual paraben esters, location within one breast and similar locations in different breasts. Overall median values in nanograms per gram tissue for the 160 tissue samples were highest for n-propylparaben [16.8 (range 0–2052.7)] and methylparaben [16.6 (range 0–5102.9)]; levels were lower for n-butylparaben [5.8 (range 0–95.4)], ethylparaben [3.4 (range 0–499.7)] and isobutylparaben 2.1 (range 0–802.9). The overall median value for total paraben was 85.5 ng g−1 tissue (range 0–5134.5). The source of the paraben cannot be identified, but paraben was measured in the 7/40 patients who reported never having used underarm cosmetics in their lifetime. No correlations were found between paraben concentrations and age of patient (37–91 years), length of breast feeding (0–23 months), tumour location or tumour oestrogen receptor content. In view of the disproportionate incidence of breast cancer in the upper outer quadrant, paraben concentrations were compared across the four regions of the breast: n-propylparaben was found at significantly higher levels in the axilla than mid (P = 0.004 Wilcoxon matched pairs) or medial (P = 0.021 Wilcoxon matched pairs) regions (P = 0.010 Friedman ANOVA).

Variation, asymmetry and working memory in the process of second language acquisition

Calls for understanding the interface between L2 linguistic knowledge and development (Gregg 1996; Carroll 2001; Towell 2003) provide a context for analysing the role of memory (Paradis 2004), specifically working memory (Baddeley 1986, 2003) in L2 development. Miyake and Friedman (1998) have claimed that Working Memory (WM) may be the key to L2 acquisition, especially in explaining individual variation in L2 acquisition. Recent findings found a robust connection between greater working memory (WM) capacity and rapid, successful acquisition of L2 vocabulary, reading and oral fluency (Service 1992; Harrington and Sawyer 1992; Fortkamp 1999). This study adds to the growing body of research by investigating correlations between WM and variation in grammatical development, focusing on asymmetries in processing L2 English wh-constructions in an immersion setting.

A theoretical investigation of a-Fe2O3–Cr2O3 solid solutions

We have examined the thermodynamic stability of a-Fe2O3–Cr2O3 solid solutions as a function of temperature and composition, using a combination of statistical mechanics with atomistic simulation techniques based on classical interatomic potentials, and the addition of a model magnetic interaction Hamiltonian. Our calculations show that the segregation of the Fe and Cr cations is marginally favourable in energy compared to any other cation distribution, and in fact the energy of any cation configuration of the mixed system is always slightly higher than the combined energies of equivalent amounts of the pure oxides separately. However, the positive enthalpy of mixing is small enough to allow the stabilisation of highly disordered solid solutions at temperatures of B400 K or higher. We have investigated the degree of cation disorder and the effective cell parameters of the mixed oxide as functions of temperature and composition, and we discuss the effect of magnetic interactions and lattice vibrations on the stability of the solid solution.

Selecting valuable information to remember: age-related differences and similarities in self-regulated learning

It is often necessary to selectively attend to important information, at the expense of less important information, especially if you know you cannot remember large amounts of information. The present study examined how younger and older adults select valuable information to study, when given unrestricted choices about how to allocate study time. Participants were shown a display of point values ranging from 1–30. Participants could choose which values to study, and the associated word was then shown. Study time, and the choice to restudy words, was under the participant's control during the 2-minute study session. Overall, both age groups selected high value words to study and studied these more than the lower value words. However, older adults allocated a disproportionately greater amount of study time to the higher-value words, and age-differences in recall were reduced or eliminated for the highest value words. In addition, older adults capitalized on recency effects in a strategic manner, by studying high-value items often but also immediately before the test. A multilevel mediation analysis indicated that participants strategically remembered items with higher point value, and older adults showed similar or even stronger strategic process that may help to compensate for poorer memory. These results demonstrate efficient (and different) metacognitive control operations in younger and older adults, which can allow for strategic regulation of study choices and allocation of study time when remembering important information. The findings are interpreted in terms of life span models of agenda-based regulation and discussed in terms of practical applications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)(journal abstract)