bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Overweight and obesity in a Swiss city: 10-year trends
Authors: Kyle Ursula G , Kossovsky Michel P , Genton Laurence , Pichard Claude
Published: February 2007

Background

Increased rates of overweight/obesity have been reported in recent years in developed countries. This population study of healthy subjects evaluated the changes in overweight/obesity prevalence in 2003, compared with 1993, and determined the association of age, sex and leisure-time activity with body mass index (BMI), fat-free mass index (FFMI) and fat mass index (FMI).

Design

Two transversal samples of convenience.

Participants

Healthy volunteers (1993, n = 802; 2003, n = 1631).

Methods

Fat-free mass was determined using the bioelectrical impedance multiple regression equation. Multivariable linear regression, including confounding variables (age, sex, leisure-time activity), was used to model the body composition evolution between the 1993 and the 2003 subjects.

Results

BMI and FMI were higher in 2003 than in 1993, P < 0.001. FFMI was not higher in 2003 than in 1993, P = 0.38. More subjects were overweight/obese in 2003 than in 1993 (27.5 versus 17.2%, chi-square P < 0.001), and had a high FFMI (30.2 versus 21.8%, chi-square P < 0.001) and high FMI (28.0 versus 20.3%, chi-square P < 0.001). Multivariate linear regressions showed that leisure-time activity was negatively, and sex, age and inclusion year were positively associated with BMI, FFMI and FMI (the exception was a negative association with sex) (P < 0.001).

Conclusion

Overweight prevalence increased between 1993 and 2003 in a Swiss city, and was associated with a higher fat mass. This observation remained statistically significant after adjustment for age, sex and leisure-time activity.
Determinants of high vitamin A supplementation coverage among pre-school children in Mali: the National Nutrition Weeks experience
Authors: Ayoya Mohamed Ag , Bendech Mohamed Ag , Baker Shawn K , Ouattara Fatimata , Diané Konaké Alima , Mahy Lina , Nichols Lisa , Touré Aménatou , Franco Ciro
Published: February 2007

Objectives

To assess vitamin A supplementation (VAS) coverage of children aged 6–59 months and the factors that favour or limit this coverage during the National Nutrition Weeks in Mali.

Design

Cross-sectional study. Interviews about demographic factors and children's adherence to the vitamin A capsule distribution programme were conducted. Professionals' knowledge of vitamin A and various aspects related to the supplementation strategy were assessed.

Setting

Five regions out of the eight regions in the country, in addition to Bamako District. Three rural communes were selected in three regions to represent rural areas.

Subjects

Parents or caregivers of children under 5 years of age, health agents who participated in the weeks, and community and administrative leaders.

Results

At least 80% of the children received the supplement. More ‘traditional’ communication channels (town criers, friends and family members) appeared to be more effective in reaching the target groups than modern methods, i.e. radio and television. Mothers' possession of a radio (Pearson χ2 = 5.03; P = 0.025) and fathers' education (Pearson χ2 = 19.02; P < 0.001), possession of a radio (Pearson χ2 = 8.93; P = 0.003) and listening to it (Pearson χ2 = 7.62; P = 0.006) all appeared to be statistically and significantly associated with children's coverage. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, only the study site (urban/rural) (P = 0.004), ‘traditional channels’ (P = 0.02) and fathers' education (P = 0.04) were significantly associated with children's coverage. Knowledge about VAS was high among community and administrative leaders, and health professionals. The planning and implementation of activities at the district level were found to be good in general.

Conclusion

National Nutrition Weeks provide a successful example of a periodic VAS strategy with high coverage among children aged 6–59 months in Mali. Campaigns aimed at informing and sensitising populations during the Nutrition Weeks should also target children's fathers.
The Social Liminality of Musicians: Case Studies from Mughal India and Beyond
Authors: BUTLER BROWN KATHERINE
Published: February 2007

This paper offers a new, cross-cultural paradigm for understanding the location of professional musicians in modern social hierarchies. Basing my argument on Victor Turner’s theories of liminality and on primary-source research on North Indian musicians in the Mughal empire (c. 1658–1858), I maintain that professional musicians in most, if not all, societies possess institutionally liminal status. Although the occupation of ‘musician’ is relatively low, being essentially both service profession and cultural labour, the cultural capital that accrues to the product of their labour – their music – enables musicians to cross over into higher-status spaces, to mingle on more equal terms with their patrons, and, in the moment of performance, to exercise power over them. While this may offer opportunities of permanent social elevation for the best performers, in many societies patrons may apply subtle social sanctions to those who attempt to overstep the boundaries, in order to keep musicians in their place. While this hypothesis has clear resonances with Merriam’s famous tripartite formulation of low status/high importance/tolerance of ‘deviance’, institutional liminality also makes sense of the puzzling exceptions to his rule.
Music, Time, and Dance in Orchestral Performance: The Conductor as Shaman
Authors: COTTRELL STEPHEN
Published: February 2007

This paper explores the relationship between music, time, and movement in those Western art music rituals within which orchestral performance occurs. It begins by reviewing some of the literature on the symphonic performance event itself, particularly the work of Christopher Small, who has written about this at length. It goes on to consider the nature of the conductor’s gestures within these events, and argues that these can be construed as a form of dancing, and that the functional ambiguity of these gestures serves only to enhance their symbolic significance; their greater importance, in fact, is in connection with the creation of another world of time. Finally, the paper compares the work and gestures of conductors with shamanistic practice in other cultures, both in terms of the conductor’s role within the concert hall and as a result of the images of them presented to us in various media.
Factors relating to terminally ill cancer patients' willingness
to continue living at home during the early phase of home care after
discharge from clinical cancer centers in Japan
Authors: HIRABAYASHI YUKA , MIYASHITA MITSUNORI , KAWA MASAKO , KAZUMA KEIKO , YAMASHITA KOHSUKE , OKAMOTO NAOYUKI
Published: February 2007

Objective: To assess the willingness of Japanese terminally
ill cancer patients to continue living at home during the early phase of
home care after discharge from a Clinical Cancer Center (CCC) in Japan,
and to identify factors relating to their willingness to continue living
at home.

Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey of a
convenient sample of both Japanese terminally ill cancer patients and
their caregivers (PFCs) was conducted (n = 294, effective
response rate 25.0%). Questionnaires were mailed and medical records were
accessed for 73 pairs of respondents, comprising one terminally ill cancer
patient and one PFC.

Results: At about 10 days after discharge, 64 patients (88%)
wished to continue living at home. A hierarchical logistic regression
analysis was performed on the data. It was found that the fewer the
medical treatments undergone (OR = 0.20, 95% CI: 0.05–0.72), the
higher the patients' perception that their condition was consistent
with care at home (OR = 2.77, 95% CI: 1.08–8.62) and with their
functional well-being (OR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.08–2.17). In addition,
the higher the caregivers' satisfaction with life (OR = 2.37, 95% CI:
1.15–5.77), the more willing patients tended to be to continue
living at home.

Significant of results: The willingness of Japanese
terminally ill cancer patients to continue living at home appears to be
affected by caregiver status. This indicates a need for discharging
facilities to monitor the state of home assistance and to investigate the
nature of assistance required for continuing home care.
Struggling in change at the end of life: A nursing inquiry
Authors: HUTCHINGS DEANNA
Published: February 2007

Objective: The purpose of this human science nursing inquiry is to explore the meaning of struggling in change for persons at the end of life.

Methods: Guided by Parse's theory of human becoming, a descriptive exploratory method was used to answer the research question: What is the meaning of the experience of struggling in change for persons at the end of life? Eight persons who were living with dying described experiences of struggling in change during face-to-face audiotaped interviews.

Results: A process of analysis–synthesis revealed three themes that are discussed in relation to extant related literature and interpreted in light of the human becoming perspective.

Significance of results: Findings from the study contribute new knowledge about human experience at the end of life from a human science perspective and offer new insights on struggling in change as a rhythmical pattern of living and dying. Implications for palliative practice, research, and education are discussed.
Crying: A force to balance emotions among cancer patients in palliative home care
Authors: RYDÉ KERSTIN , FRIEDRICHSEN MARIA , STRANG PETER
Published: February 2007

Objective: Crying is a common but seldom studied phenomenon in palliative care. The aim of this study was to explore the significance of patients crying in a palliative care context.

Methods: Tape-recorded interviews with 14 cancer patients in palliative home care were carried out. To gain deeper understanding, a hermeneutic analysis and interpretation was used.

Results: Crying was described in different dimensions: (1) intense and despondent crying as a way of ventilating urgent needs, (2) gentle, sorrowful crying as a conscious release of emotions, and (3) quiet, tearless crying as a protection strategy. Crying seems to be an expression for an inner emotional force, provoked by different factors, which cause changes in the present balance. To cry openly but also to cry on the inside meant being able to achieve or maintain balance. Crying may be something useful, which could create release and help reduce tension, but it may also have a negative impact as it consumes energy and creates feelings of shame.

Significance of results: Professionals need to understand the different levels of crying. In such situations sometimes comforting the patient may not be the best solution, as some may need privacy.
The physician's disease: The impact of medical knowledge on personal illness
Authors: TUTTLE JEFFREY P.
Published: February 2007

Objective: When physicians confront a personal illness of a serious nature, they may discover that the transition to the sick role is challenging, and the inability to relinquish their stethoscope may cause undo anxiety. The physician–patient relationship is intrinsically asymmetrical, and the role of the physician is to regulate the amount of information patients need in order to become educated about their illness and to make informed decisions about their treatment plan. This article explores the challenges in the physician–patient relationship when the patient is also a physician.

Methods: This article is a literature review of publications involving the unique challenges physician–patients experience when suffering from serious personal illness.

Results: The medical knowledge physician–patients harbor has the potential to complicate their ability to cope with difficult or terminal diagnoses. Paradoxically, knowledge about a condition may fuel anxiety instead of alleviating the fear associated with the unknown. Medical knowledge therefore may entail a certain loss of innocence, and physicians are often unable to revert to being “mere” patients. Furthermore, managing this anxiety in physician–patients may prove to be challenging to the treating physician.

Significance of results: From a medical perspective, physician–patients need to be addressed like any other patient. Psychologically, however, these patients are unique, and the specific challenges their education and experience bring into the consultation room needs to be explicitly addressed.
The Rediscovery of the Human: Basic Texts of Viktor E. Frankl
Authors: KISSANE DAVID
Published: February 2007

The Rediscovery of the Human: Basic Texts of Viktor E. Frankl.
Translated by Rabbi Dr. Shimon Cowen and Liesl Kosma. Monographs in
Judaism and Civilization. Melbourne: Institute for Judaism and
Civilization, 2006. ISBN 0-9585933-5-3, 74 pages.

Three seminal essays by Viktor Frankl highlight the deep spirituality
that he believed to be at the heart of man's search for meaning and
purpose in this world. Humanity returns consciously or unconsciously to
this universal spirituality in its quest for a fulfilling existence.
BENDÍGAME
Authors: NEIMEYER ROBERT A.
Published: February 2007

Poetry/fiction.
Security Scholars for a Sensible Foreign Policy: A Study in Weberian
Activism
Authors: Jackson Patrick Thaddeus , Kaufman Stuart J.
Published: February 2007

It has always been true that foreign policy debates tend to proceed on
a weak evidentiary base, with clever quips or stirring oratory regularly
trumping sound analysis. According to Thucydides, for example, the
Athenian assembly that endorsed the Sicilian expedition during the second
Peloponnesian War had only the haziest conception of the adversaries'
capabilities. Contemporary politics is distinctive not in the sloganeering
quality of political discourse, but in the divergence between the quality
of information available to society as a whole and the quality of
information used in making decisions. For example, it was clear to any
open-minded observer by the time of the Congressional vote in 2002 that
implications of collaboration between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda lacked
any basis in reliable evidence. By the time the Bush Administration
initiated war in 2003, claims about Iraq's nuclear, chemical, and
biological weapons capabilities were also partially debunked and
increasingly dubious. Still, the war went forward, and many Americans
continued to believe the Bush Administration's false claims even
after the Administration itself had abandoned them.
Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of
Islamism
Authors: Moghadam Valentine M.
Published: February 2007

Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of
Islamism. By Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2005. 312p. $60.00 cloth, $24.00 paper.

Michel Foucault is the man who gave us trenchant critiques of
modernity in books such as Madness and Civilization, Discipline and
Punish, and The History of Sexuality. His arguments about
the body, power, and knowledge have influenced a number of
interdisciplinary studies and created a generation of
“Foucauldians.” However, one set of his writings has been
decidedly uninfluential: the set pertaining to the Iranian Revolution of
1978–79. Those journalistic essays—written for the Italian and
French press (Corriere della serra and Nouvel
Observateur)—are the subject of this fascinating and
comprehensive volume by Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson.
Hearing the Other Side: Deliberative versus Participatory
Democracy and Citizen Speak: The Democratic Imagination in
American Life
Authors: Leib Ethan J.
Published: February 2007

Hearing the Other Side: Deliberative versus Participatory
Democracy. By Diana C. Mutz. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
184p. $60.00 cloth, $20.99 paper.

Citizen Speak: The Democratic Imagination in American Life.
By Andrew J. Perrin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. 208p.
$45.00 cloth, $19.00 paper.

Deliberative democracy is no longer reserved for the theorists.
Empiricists now want a part of the action. With their various tools,
social scientists are testing and considering both deliberative democratic
institutions (e.g., juries, town hall meetings, deliberative polls, and
other fora for citizen discussion) and the preconditions of context and
character that theorists have proposed are necessary to make deliberative
democracy work. Political scientist Diana Mutz and sociologist Andrew
Perrin have written new books purporting to bring empirical work to bear
on the claims of deliberative democratic theory. Both books are short and
illuminating, though their postures as serious challenges to deliberative
democratic theory are overstated and potentially misplaced. This failure
to undermine the enterprise of deliberative democracy, however, does not
prevent each from making a serious contribution to helping us understand
how citizens engage in political debate and discussion among themselves in
their everyday environments.
Madison's Managers: Public Administration and the Constitution
and The Politics of Crisis Management: Public Leadership Under
Pressure
Authors: Hale Dennis
Published: February 2007

Madison's Managers: Public Administration and the
Constitution. By Anthony M. Bertelli and Laurence E. Lynn, Jr.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. 240p. $60.00 cloth,
$25.00 paper.

The Politics of Crisis Management: Public Leadership Under
Pressure. By Arjen Boin, Paul 't Hart, Eric Stern, and Bengt
Sundelius. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 182p. $70.00 cloth,
$27.99 paper.

No undergraduate public administration course would be complete
without at least a perfunctory attempt to summarize the never-ending
debate about what public administration is. From Woodrow Wilson to
“scientific management” to the Brownlow Committee to the
Willowbrook Conference and beyond, the position papers and studies pile
up; yet the debate (which often seems more like a monologue) continues.
Students find this debate unsatisfying, and it is easy to see why. For a
craft that prides itself above all on its relevance to practical affairs
(as Woodrow Wilson put it, administration is “government in
action”), the arguments that students are most often exposed to have
the arid scholasticism of medieval disputes about angels dancing on pins.
If public administration is so practical, students must be thinking, why
cannot its theorists just cut to the chase and tell us how to do it? Or
even what it is?
The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India
Authors: Thakar Milind
Published: February 2007

The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary
India. By Paul R. Brass. Seattle: University of Washington Press,
2003. 448p. $50.00 cloth, $35.00 paper.

Rioting in South Asia is commonly understood as a form of political
activity, and the idea that it may not be spontaneous but planned is not a
novel one. However, in The Production of Hindu Muslim Violence in
Contemporary India, Paul Brass makes the more interesting claim that
riot-prone cities are those that are marked by institutionalized systems
that create, control, and direct the course of riots. He bases these
ideas—developed in his earlier work Theft of an
Idol—on four decades of research carried out in the northern
Indian town of Aligarh, home to a sizable and historic Muslim community.
Brass argues that polarizing issues or incidents by themselves do not lead
to riots, but that a toxic mix of interested politicians, an existing
discourse of communalism, an ineffective administration, and a specialized
network that “produces” riots enhances the likelihood that
such incidents will eventuate in riots. In describing this social
construction of rioting, Brass highlights interesting features, such as
the need for a group to dominate the narrative describing the riot, which
establishes it as a defensive rather than offensive measure, thereby
creating legitimacy for the violence.
Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences
Authors: Berman Sheri
Published: February 2007

Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences.
By Alexander L. George and Andrew Bennett. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005.
331p. $50.00 cloth, $20.00 paper.

In recent years, there has been a surge in work on what has come to be
known as “qualitative methods.” The trend is essentially
reactive, developing as a response to the outpouring of work on
quantitative and formal methods and the assertions by scholars in those
areas that case studies and historical work are impressionistic,
unscientific, and noncumulative. To counter such claims, some of the
field's most distinguished qualitative scholars (e.g., Stephan Van
Evera, Guide to Methods for Students of Political Science, 1997;
James Mahoney and Dietrich Rueschemeyer, eds., Historical Analysis in
the Social Sciences, 2003; and Marc Trachtenberg, The Craft of
International History, 2006) have spent much time and ink to show
that researchers who eschew regressions or game theory can be just as
methodologically aware and sophisticated as those who embrace them.
Alexander George and Andrew Bennett's Case Studies and Theory
Development in the Social Sciences is an impressive and welcome
addition to this literature.
Social Movements and State Power: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia,
Ecuador
Authors: Goldfrank Benjamin
Published: February 2007

Social Movements and State Power: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia,
Ecuador. By James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer. Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto
Press, 2005. 288p. $90.00 cloth, $29.95 paper.

Anyone interested in the recent renewal of social movement activity
and the rise of ostensibly left or center-left governments in Latin
America might be tempted to pick up this book, with its provocative jacket
photo and appealing title. Unfortunately, the book cover is nearly the
only thing going for this sectarian jeremiad from James Petras and Henry
Veltmeyer. If one is looking for serious scholarship, or even solid
journalism, neither can be found here. Instead, one finds a poorly
organized collage, including descriptions of recent history, critiques of
government policies, and tendentious and contradictory evaluations of left
strategy. Despite the promise of the title, the authors do not engage the
literature on social movements, nor do they contribute much in the way of
new analytical perspectives. The class analysis announced in the
introduction only emerges occasionally in the subsequent chapters, and
even then it is applied mechanically and reductively, yielding an
extremely limited capacity to help us understand the character and
trajectory of social movements or the nuances of political behavior in
diverse contexts. Important cross-national differences in terms of
political institutions, ethnic composition, and international constraints
are not addressed, much less systematically compared. Furthermore, the
book lacks consistent citations of sources, and serious empirical and
orthographic errors are sprinkled throughout. Those knowledgeable about
the countries in question might be amused by the almost congenital
inability to spell correctly the names of politicians, political parties,
and labor confederations; those without such knowledge, especially
undergraduate students, will only be confused or misinformed.
Roxanne L. Euben
Authors: Euben Roxanne L.
Published: February 2007

The attacks on September 11, 2001 released a barrage of public
rhetoric characterizing the 19 Muslim hijackers as evil fanatics “in
love with death” and animated by a “hatred of freedom.”
A spate of scholarship, op-ed articles, and policy papers devoted to
anatomizing the “problems with Islam”—a propensity for
violence and authoritarianism, an archaic conflation of religious and
political domains, the pent-up rage of Muslims “left behind”
by modernity—soon flooded airwaves, newspapers, and bookstores, in
many cases recycling arguments several decades and even centuries old.
Counterclaims about the inherently peaceful and tolerant essence of Islam
quickly followed, and a very peculiar American public debate about Islamic
authenticity was born.
Gilles Kepel
Authors: Kepel Gilles
Published: February 2007

Completed in 2005, Robert Pape's Dying to Win: The Strategic
Logic of Suicide Terrorism is based on extensive research conducted
by the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism. This book belongs to what one
might call the quantitative school of terrorism studies, as it relies
mainly on data gathered on suicide attacks and their perpetrators over the
last two decades. Its author takes issue with the conclusions of those who
stress the importance of the doctrine of Islam in the shaping of the
suicide terror phenomenon. Such a debate is part and parcel of a wider
dispute within U.S. academia, boosted by 9/11 and its Iraqi aftermath,
though it was already rooted in the “Orientalism” battle back
in the 1980s. However, it also touches on an ongoing conflict between
scholarship and partisanship: Should academics take sides and advocate
specific policies, at the risk of submitting their scholarly credentials
to the political goals they champion, or should they shun away from
politics, at the risk of remaining clad in their ivory tower while social
debates rage, uninfluenced by their expertise? The issue of terrorism is
crucial to that matter.
Commission 14: Atomic & Molecular Data
Authors: Johansson Sveneric , Federman Steven R. , Wahlgren Glenn M. , Adelman Saul J. , Biémont Emile , Federman Steve R. , Johansson Sveneric , Lawler Jim , Mickelson Michael , Morton Donald , Ryabchikova Tanya , Smith Peter L. , Stehle Chantal , Wahlgren Glenn M.
Published: March 2007

This triennial report from Comm. 14 covers the topics Atomic Spectra and Wave-length Standards, Atomic Transition Probabilities, Collision Processes, and Line Broadening.
Why are cooperatives important in agriculture? An organizational economics perspective
Authors: VALENTINOV VLADISLAV
Published: February 2007

This paper develops an organizational economics explanation for agricultural cooperatives by building upon the transaction cost theory of family farms. According to this theory, the importance of family farms in Western agriculture is a result of the low feasibility of hierarchical organization in agricultural production due to supervision and monitoring difficulties. This paper argues that the transaction cost-economizing effect of family farms has a price in the form of their limited ability to realize economies of scale and to develop market power comparable to that of their up- and downstream trading partners. The role of agricultural cooperatives is shown to help overcome these limitations in order to take advantage of the transaction-cost economizing properties of family farms. This explanation of agricultural cooperatives is sector-specific in the sense that it traces the benefits of cooperative organization back to the organizational attributes of agricultural production.
Mechanical origin of power law scaling in fault zone rock
Authors: Sammis Charles G. , King Geoffrey C. P.
Published: February 2007

A nearest neighbor fragmentation model, previously developed to explain observations of power law particle distributions in 3D with mass dimension D3 ≈ 2.6 (D2 ≈ 2.6 in 2D section) in low‐strain fault gouge and breccia, is extended to the case of large strains to explain recent observations of D3 ≈ 3.0 (D2 ≈ 2.0 in 2D section) in the highly strained cores of many exhumed fault zones. At low strains, the elimination of same‐sized nearest neighbors has been shown to produce a power law distribution which is characterized by a mass dimension near D3 ≈ 2.6. With increasing shear strain these isolated same‐size neighbors can collide, in which case one of them fractures. The probability of two same size neighbors colliding and fragmenting in a simple shear flow is a function of the size and density of the two particles. Only for a power law distribution with D3 = 3.0 is this collision probability independent of the size of the particles.
Residence times and temporal variations of 210Po in aerosols and precipitation from southeastern Michigan, United States
Authors: McNeary Daphne , Baskaran Mark
Published: February 2007

Daughter products of 222Rn (such as 210Pb, half‐life = 22.1 years, and 210Po, half‐life = 138 days) have been widely used as tracers to determine the removal rates of aerosols as well to obtain analog information on the behavior of other chemical species in the lower atmosphere. To establish the first data set on the depositional fluxes of 210Po in bulk precipitation and concentrations in air samples from the midwestern United States, we measured the depositional fluxes of 210Pb and 210Po in the bulk (wet plus dry) and dry fallout by deploying a rain collector (dry and bulk) for a period of 17 months. We also collected 30 aerosol samples during this period to assess the temporal variations of these nuclides in the surface air in Detroit, Michigan. The activity of 210Po in the surface air ranged from below detection limit to 0.118 mBq m−3 (mean of 0.072 mBq m−3). The specific activities of 210Po and 210Pb in aerosols ranged between 0.28 and 4.48 Bq g−1 (mean of 0.87 Bq g−1) and 2.7 and 30 Bq g−1 (mean of 13.6 Bq g−1), respectively; these values are about 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than the surface soil. The mean activity ratios of 210Po/210Pb in the bulk precipitation and dry fallout were found to be 0.049 (n = 27) and 0.25 (n = 8), corresponding to residence times of 15 and 75 days, respectively. Higher values in the dry fallout are attributed to resuspension of very fine older material from the ground. The 210Po/210Pb activity ratios in the aerosols varied between 0 and 0.210 (mean of 0.075), with corresponding residence times of 0–61 days (mean of 22 days). The mean deposition velocity and bulk washout ratio obtained using 210Po is compared with those obtained for 210Pb. From the measured aerosol mass concentrations and calculated values of the depositional velocity, the calculated depositional fluxes of aerosols are reported.
Polymorphisms of CD3ε in cynomolgus and rhesus monkeys and their relevance to anti‐CD3 antibodies and immunotoxins
Authors: Liu Yuan Yi , Wang Zhirui , Thomas Judith , Goodwin K Jeanine , Stavrou Scott , Neville David M
Published: February 2007

The monoclonal antibody FN18 has been used as a marker for monkey T cells and as a T‐cell‐depleting reagent when conjugated to diphtheria toxin that was mutated to prevent binding to non‐targeted cells. The antibody recognizes a conformational epitope on the ectodomain of monkey CD3ε and displays a range of binding activity to the T cells from different rhesus and cynomolgus monkeys. Our quantitative fluorescence‐activated cell sorting analysis of the FN18 reactivity to T cells from different rhesus and cynomolgus monkeys showed that there are at least three levels of FN18 reactivity in the monkeys tested: high, moderate and low. On the basis of available DNA sequence information, we determined the gene structure of rhesus CD3ε chain and designed primers that can be used to amplify and quickly sequence the ectodomain of monkey CD3ε. Our sequence analysis revealed that the extent of nucleotide sequence variation in this area is greater than that previously reported. In addition to the amino acids at positions 45 and 50, we demonstrated that position 35 of CD3ε was also important and substitution of amino acid A for V at this position greatly reduced T‐cell reactivity to FN18. We found that T cells from monkeys with high FN18 reactivity all had V, E and R at positions 35, 45 and 50 in CD3ε, respectively; those having low FN18 reactivity were homozygous in CD3ε with at least one of the changes: V35 to A, E45 to G and R to 50Q, whereas members in the moderate group are heterozygous, having both V and A, E and G, R and Q at these locations. A cytotoxicity assay revealed that T cells from a heterozygous rhesus monkey with moderate FN18 reactivity were much (about 40 times) less sensitive to a FN18‐derived immunotoxin than those from a homozygous rhesus monkey having high FN18 reactivity.
Spatially resolved series resistance of silicon solar cells obtained from luminescence imaging
Authors: Trupke T. , Pink E. , Bardos R. A. , Abbott M. D.
Published: March 2007

The fast determination of the spatially resolved series resistance of silicon solar cells from luminescence images is demonstrated. Strong lateral variation of the series resistance determined from luminescence images taken on an industrial screen printed silicon solar cell is confirmed qualitatively by a Corescan measurement and quantitatively by comparison with the total series resistance obtained from the terminal characteristics of the cell. Compared to existing techniques that measure the spatially resolved series resistance, luminescence imaging has the advantage that it is nondestructive and orders of magnitude faster.
Low temperature, low pressure nanoimprinting of chitosan as a biomaterial for bionanotechnology applications
Authors: Park Inkyu , Cheng Jim , Pisano Albert. P. , Lee Eung-Sug , Jeong Jun-Ho
Published: March 2007

Micro- and nanoscale structures of chitosan were fabricated by nanoimprinting lithography and biochemically functionalized for bionanodevice applications. Chitosan solutions were prepared and a nanoimprinting process was developed for it, where chitosan solution is used as a functional resist for nanoimprinting lithography. A low temperature (90°C) and low pressure (5–25psi) nanoimprinting with polydimethylsiloxane mold could achieve not only microscale structures but also nanoscale features such as nanowire and nanodots down to 150nm dimensions. The nanoimprinted structures were chemically modified and used for the immobilization of protein molecules.
Fabrication of n-type nanotube transistors with large-work-function electrodes
Authors: Moon Sunkyung , Lee Soon-Gul , Song Woon , Lee Joon Sung , Kim Nam , Kim Jinhee , Park Noejung
Published: March 2007

The authors found experimentally that carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNFETs) could exhibit n-type characteristics even though their electrodes consist of a large-work-function metal such as Co. To explain their result, which is contrary to the general belief that CNFETs with large-work-function electrodes always lead to p-type characteristics, ab initio electronic structure calculation for the metal-carbon nanotube junction was performed, which showed that the Fermi level alignment at the junction could sensitively depend on microscopic structures of the metal-carbon nanotube junction. This suggests that deposition method of electrodes as well as the metal type could be utilized to obtain n-type CNFETs.
Thermal effects on the critical current of spin torque switching in spin valve nanopillars
Authors: Schneider M. L. , Pufall M. R. , Rippard W. H. , Russek S. E. , Katine J. A.
Published: March 2007

In spin valve nanopillars, temperature affects the spin torque reversal of the free magnetic layer. The authors compare values of zero temperature critical switching current Ic0 extrapolated from room temperature pulsed current switching measurements to those of quasistatic current sweeps at 5K. The values extrapolated from the room temperature pulsed switching probability measurements are always less than or equal to those of the low temperature quasistatic measurements. Further, the room temperature device-to-device variations of the critical switching current are drastically reduced at low temperature, where the Ic0 agrees with theory. Finally, the authors find that Ic0 scales with the free layer volume, as expected.
Thermodynamics of the B–Ca, B–Sr, and B–Ba systems: Applications for the fabrications of CaB6, SrB6, and BaB6 thin films
Authors: Shang Shunli , Liu Zi-Kui
Published: March 2007

Using the thermodynamic descriptions previously modeled in the boron-alkaline earth metal systems, B–Ca, B–Sr, and B–Ba, the pressure-temperature phase diagrams of these systems have been obtained in the present work, which provide insights into appropriate processing conditions for depositions of the divalent alkaline-earth metal hexaborides, CaB6, SrB6, and BaB6. The present work indicates that the lower the growth pressures, the wider the growth temperature ranges and, in turn, the more favorite control of the growth of thin films for the ferromagnetic hexaborides.
Depth of Fields: Travel Photography and Spatializing Modernities in Northern Pakistan
Authors: Besio Kathryn
Published: February 2007

Western travelers move throughout the world—especially to places in ‘the East’—believing themselves to be harbingers of modernity, spreading capitalism, socioeconomic development, Western culture, and other promises of modernization to places they assume are existing in states of pristine Otherness. In this paper I look at interactions between travelers and locals that reveal differing spatial imaginaries of ‘modernity’, and at how these reflect and produce different narratives of who is modern and where modernity exists. By using ethnographic material, I examine discursive and material interactions surrounding modernity through the examples of travelers' practices of photography, dress, and knowledge of Muslim women's veiling. In this paper I look to a located, gendered, and particular expression of an Islamic modernity, one that embraces improvements in quality of life that modern technologies of health care, agricultural production, and sanitation may bring, and which simultaneously embraces nonsecular ways of being in the world.
Seasonal changes in the diet of the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) from three different Mediterranean habitats in south-western Australia
Authors: Martin Gary R. , Twigg Laurie E. , Zampichelli Lina
Published: February 2007

Abstract.�Seasonal changes in the diet of rabbits from three temperate (Mediterranean) areas in south-western Australia were identified using microscopic determination of the percentage occurrence of various food groups in sampled stomachs. The sites differed in soil type and in the availability of summer perennials, native vegetation bush remnants (size of, and number of plant species), improved pastures, and summer rainfall, and hence, enabled a comparison of the diet of rabbits from the different vegetation communities. Although the diet of these rabbits was quite flexible, with some switching in food items occurring between seasons, there were marked differences in the proportion of monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous species eaten in each habitat. There was a strong reliance on seeds (1-5 species) during late spring and summer in all three habitats. Guildford grass (Romulea rosea) leaf and corms were a major component of the diet in the two habitats where this species was common. Further, as a result of the summer die-off of pasture species, there was a shift in where rabbits sourced food items during winter and summer. Pasture species were eaten during winter, but rabbits fed mainly on those dicotyledons found only in the surrounding scrub during summer. This suggests that rabbits may impact negatively upon such remnant vegetation at this time. Rabbits in all three habitats consumed several plant species with high water content (>54%) during summer, presumably to help maintain their water balance. Rabbits also consumed the seeds and foliage of several weed/nuisance species in each habitat, but any role of rabbits in weed dispersal was not determined.
1080 aerial baiting for the control of wild dogs and its impact on spotted-tailed quoll (Dasyurus maculatus) populations in eastern Australia
Authors: Körtner G.
Published: February 2007

To further investigate the non-target impact of baiting using sodium monofluoroacetate (compound 1080) to control wild dogs, a population of radio-collared spotted-tailed quolls was subject to an experimental aerial baiting exercise. The trial was conducted at a site on the New England Tablelands, New South Wales, without a recent history of that practice. Sixteen quolls were trapped and radio-collared before baiting. Fresh meat baits were delivered from a helicopter at a rate of 10–40 baits km–1. In addition to 1080 (4.2 mg), each bait contained the bait marker rhodamine B (50 mg), which becomes incorporated into growing hair if an animal survives bait consumption. Two quoll mortalities were recorded following aerial baiting. Both quolls died 3–5 weeks after baiting when baits, on average, retained little 1080. None of the carcasses contained traces of 1080, but the test result is less reliable for the quoll that was found 19 days after its death although tissue was well preserved because of the cool weather. Nevertheless, given that this animal died 34 days after bait delivery, it appears likely that none of the radio-collared quolls succumbed to baiting. In contrast, vibrissae samples collected from 19 quolls captured after the baiting showed that 68% had eaten baits and survived. Furthermore, multiple bait takes were common, with up to six baits consumed by one female. The results demonstrate that most, if not all, quolls survived the baiting trial, including those that consumed dog baits. Hence bait consumption figures per se are not indicative of mortality rates attributable to poisoning.
Oral toxicity of p-aminopropiophenone to ferrets
Authors: Fisher P. , O'Connor C.
Published: February 2007

Ferrets (Mustela furo) are pests in New Zealand and new methods are being sought for their control. The hydrochloride form of p-aminopropiophenone (PAPP) was highly toxic to ferrets when delivered by gavage, with LD50 and LD99 values of 15.52 and 20.80 mg kg–1, respectively. Signs of toxicosis progressed through pallor and cyanosis, impaired coordination, prostration with reduced responses to stimuli, with death in ~2 h. In a preliminary assessment of effective doses of PAPP in bait, 19 of 20 ferrets consumed chick carcasses containing ~46 mg PAPP within 40 min. Ferrets that ate chick baits all showed signs of toxicosis, with 32% mortality. Three ferrets died within 151 min and the other three within the following 14 h. Ferrets that died ingested 29.9–79.3 mg PAPP per kilogram bodyweight. The low mortality was attributed to decreased bioavailability of PAPP delivered in food, and increased doses need to be tested to establish an effective lethal concentration of PAPP in baits for ferrets. Future development of bait formulations will also need to take into account the role of emesis in reducing efficacy. Bait formulations incorporating microencapsulated PAPP may improve bioavailability and the basis for a new option for the management of ferrets in New Zealand.
Mechanism of metal-independent decomposition of organic hydroperoxides and formation of alkoxyl radicals by halogenated quinones
Authors: Zhu Ben-Zhan , Zhao Hong-Tao , Kalyanaraman Balaraman , Liu Jun , Shan Guo-Qiang , Du Yu-Guo , Frei Balz
Published: March 2007

The metal-independent decomposition of organic hydroperoxides and the formation of organic alkoxyl radicals in the absence or presence of halogenated quinones were studied with electron spin resonance (ESR) and the spin-trapping agent 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline
N
-oxide (DMPO). We found that 2,5-dichloro-1,4-benzoquinone (DCBQ) markedly enhanced the decomposition of
tert
-butylhydroperoxide (
t
-BuOOH), leading to the formation of the DMPO adducts with
t
-butoxyl radicals (
t
-BuO
•
) and methyl radicals (
•
CH
3
). The formation of DMPO/
t
-BuO
•
and DMPO/
•
CH
3
was dose-dependent with respect to both DCBQ and
t
-BuOOH and was not affected by iron- or copper-specific metal chelators. Comparison of the data obtained with DCBQ and
t
-BuOOH with those obtained in a parallel study with ferrous iron and
t
-BuOOH strongly suggested that
t
-BuO
•
was produced by DCBQ and
t
-BuOOH through a metal-independent mechanism. Other halogenated quinones were also found to enhance the decomposition of
t
-BuOOH and other organic hydroperoxides such as cumene hydroperoxide, leading to the formation of the respective organic alkoxyl radicals in a metal-independent manner. Based on these data, we propose a mechanism for DCBQ-mediated
t
-BuOOH decomposition and formation of
t
-BuO
•
: a nucleophilic attack of
t
-BuOOH on DCBQ, forming a chloro-
t
-butylperoxyl-1,4-benzoquinone intermediate, which decomposes homolytically to produce
t
-BuO
•
. This represents a mechanism of organic alkoxyl radical formation not requiring the involvement of redox-active transition metal ions.
RNA aptamers directed to discrete functional sites on a single protein structural domain
Authors: Shi Hua , Fan Xiaochun , Sevilimedu Aarti , Lis John T.
Published: March 2007

Cellular regulatory networks are organized such that many proteins have few interactions, whereas a few proteins have many. These densely connected protein “hubs” are critical for the system-wide behavior of cells, and the capability of selectively perturbing a subset of interactions at these hubs is invaluable in deciphering and manipulating regulatory mechanisms. SELEX-generated RNA aptamers are proving to be highly effective reagents for inhibiting targeted proteins, but conventional methods generate one or several aptamer clones that usually bind to a single target site most preferred by a nucleic acid ligand. We advance a generalized scheme for isolating aptamers to multiple sites on a target molecule by reducing the ability of the preferred site to select its cognate aptamer. We demonstrate the use of this scheme by generating aptamers directed to discrete functional surfaces of the yeast TATA-binding protein (TBP). Previously we selected “class 1” RNA aptamers that interfere with the TBP's binding to TATA-DNA. By masking TBP with TATA-DNA or an unamplifiable class 1 aptamer, we isolated a new aptamer class, “class 2,” that can bind a TBP·DNA complex and is in competition with binding another general transcription factor, TFIIA. Moreover, we show that both of these aptamers inhibit RNA polymerase II-dependent transcription, but analysis of template-bound factors shows they do so in mechanistically distinct and unexpected ways that can be attributed to binding either the DNA or TFIIA recognition sites. These results should spur innovative approaches to modulating other highly connected regulatory proteins.
KCNQ potassium channel mutations cause cardiac arrhythmias in
Drosophila
that mimic the effects of aging
Authors: Ocorr Karen , Reeves Nick L. , Wessells Robert J. , Fink Martin , Chen H.-S. Vincent , Akasaka Takeshi , Yasuda Soichiro , Metzger Joseph M. , Giles Wayne , Posakony James W. , Bodmer Rolf
Published: March 2007

Population profiles of industrialized countries show dramatic increases in cardiovascular disease with age, but the molecular and genetic basis of disease progression has been difficult to study because of the lack of suitable model systems. Our studies of
Drosophila
show a markedly elevated incidence of cardiac dysfunction and arrhythmias in aging fruit fly hearts and a concomitant decrease in the expression of the
Drosophila
homolog of human
KCNQ1
-encoded K
+
channel α subunits. In humans, this channel is involved in myocardial repolarization, and alterations in the function of this channel are associated with an increased risk for Torsades des Pointes arrhythmias and sudden death. Hearts from young
KCNQ1
mutant fruit flies exhibit prolonged contractions and fibrillations reminiscent of Torsades des Pointes arrhythmias, and they exhibit severely increased susceptibility to pacing-induced cardiac dysfunction at young ages, characteristics that are observed only at advanced ages in WT flies. The fibrillations observed in mutant flies correlate with delayed relaxation of the myocardium, as revealed by increases in the duration of phasic contractions, extracellular field potentials, and in the baseline diastolic tension. These results suggest that K
+
currents, mediated by a KCNQ channel, contribute to the repolarization reserve of fly hearts, ensuring normal excitation-contraction coupling and rhythmical contraction. That arrhythmias in both WT and
KCNQ1
mutants become worse as flies age suggests that additional factors are also involved.