bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS: A quantity survey of intravenous administration of metronidazole in its different forms in a tertiary teaching hospital
Authors: Lee L. L. , Rowland J. , Ling C. H. Y. , Fiakos E.
Published: August 2010

The aim of this paper is to examine the prescribing patterns and cost of various formulations of metronidazole in a hospital setting over a 3‐month period. Oral metronidazole has high bioavailability (98.9%) with peak plasma concentrations averaged at 2.3 h after dosing. Despite the high bioavailability of oral metronidazole, many patients continue to receive metronidazole intravenously when they are suitable for oral preparation. An audit of 120 consecutive patients prescribed metronidazole was conducted at the Liverpool Hospital, NSW, from March to July 2005. There were 65 men and 55 women (age 18–93). Of the 120 patients, 16 were on oral, 1 on rectal and 103 were on intravenous metronidazole. Treatment was initiated based on clinical diagnoses. Potential pathogens were subsequently identified on only 21 occasions. The use of metronidazole as an oral preparation was contraindicated in 27 patients (22.5%) who were nil‐by‐mouth. Of these, rectally administered metronidazole was contraindicated in only eight patients. The average course of intravenous metronidazole was 8.0 ± 9.7 days (mean ± SD). The total number of intravenous metronidazole treatment days was 824. Oral metronidazole would have been possible in 618 out of the 824 days. The estimated cost to administer each dose of oral, suppository and intravenous forms of metronidazole is $A0.11, $A1.34 and $A6.09 respectively. Thus, substantial savings could be achieved if oral metronidazole were to be administered whenever possible. The early use of oral or rectal metronidazole should be encouraged when there are no clinical contraindications.
CLINICAL PERSPECTIVES: Management strategies for recurrent vasovagal syncope
Authors: Vaddadi G. , Corcoran S. J. , Esler M.
Published: August 2010

Vasovagal syncope (VVS) is the commonest cause of recurrent syncope and has a high level of morbidity in both young and elderly patients. Diagnosis and treatment are often unsatisfactory despite the fact that syncope has a lifetime cumulative incidence of 35%. A detailed history can often yield an accurate diagnosis in most young patients. Older patients are more likely to present in an atypical manner and although the yield is low, a more comprehensive diagnostic assessment may be needed. It is important to identify patients with low supine systolic blood pressure who are prone to recurrent VVS. These patients represent a distinct subtype of VVS and may respond to a tailored therapeutic approach. Treatment options for VVS are limited because of a paucity of randomized trials. The backbone of therapy is educating the patient, avoiding precipitating factors, maintaining hydration and the application of physical counter‐pressure manoeuvres. Drug therapy is rarely warranted; however, fludrocortisone, α‐agonists, such as midodrine and dihydroergotamine, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors may be helpful in some patients. Permanent cardiac pacing is rarely needed and randomized trials do not support its use.
Comparative proteomics and activity of a green sulfur bacterium through the water column of Lake Cadagno, Switzerland
Authors: Habicht Kirsten S. , Miller Mette , Cox Raymond P. , Frigaard Niels‐Ulrik , Tonolla Mauro , Peduzzi Sandro , Falkenby Lasse G. , Andersen Jens S.
Published: August 2010

Primary production in the meromictic Lake Cadagno, Switzerland, is dominated by anoxygenic photosynthesis. The green sulfur bacterium Chlorobium clathratiforme is the dominant phototrophic organism in the lake, comprising more than half of the bacterial population, and its biomass increases 3.8‐fold over the summer. Cells from four positions in the water column were used for comparative analysis of the Chl. clathratiforme proteome in order to investigate changes in protein composition in response to the chemical and physical gradient in their environment, with special focus on how the bacteria survive in the dark. Although metagenomic data are not available for Lake Cadagno, proteome analysis was possible based on the completely sequenced genome of an isolated strain of Chl. clathratiforme. Using LC‐MS/MS we identified 1321 Chl. clathratiforme proteins in Lake Cadagno and quantitatively compared 621 of these in the four samples. Our results showed that compared with cells obtained from the photic zone, cells collected from the dark part of the water column had the same expression level of key enzymes involved in carbon metabolism and photosynthetic light harvesting. However, most proteins participating in nitrogen and sulfur metabolism were twofold less abundant in the dark. From the proteome analysis we were able to show that Chl. clathratiforme in the photic zone contains enzymes for fixation of N2 and the complete oxidation of sulfide to sulfate while these processes are probably not active in the dark. Instead we propose that Chl. clathratiforme cells in the dark part of the water column obtain energy for maintenance from the fermentation of polyglucose. Based on the observed protein compositions we have constructed possible pathways for C, N and S metabolism in Chl. clathratiforme.
The Impact of Organizational and National Cultural Differences on Social Conflict and Knowledge Transfer in International Acquisitions
Authors: Vaara Eero , Sarala Riikka , Stahl Günter K. , Björkman Ingmar
Published: August 2010

abstract

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the effects of organizational and national cultural differences on international acquisitions. We argue that cultural differences prompt social identity building that leads to ‘us versus them’ thinking and thereby creates the potential for social conflict. We also maintain that the same cultural differences can contribute to learning in terms of knowledge transfer. We develop a structural equation model to test these hypothesized effects on a sample of related international acquisitions. Our analysis shows that cultural differences at the organizational level are positively associated with social conflict, but that national cultural differences can decrease social conflict. Furthermore, both organizational and national cultural differences are positively associated with knowledge transfer. This analysis shows the importance of disentangling the various effects that cultural differences have on international acquisitions. It also suggests that national cultural differences are less of a problem in international acquisitions than is usually assumed.
The Anatomy Lesson: A Note on the Merton Thesis
Authors: Turner Bryan S.
Published: August 2010

In the sociology of science, the historical analysis of the rise of seventeenth-century experimental science has been dominated by the research of Robert Merton, who argued that Protestant asceticism paved the way for scientific world-views. Merton was criticized by L.S. Feuer who claimed that science was in fact the outcome of hedonism not asceticism. This article supports the Merton thesis on the basis of a note on the historical development of anatomical dissections with special reference to public dissections in Holland m the seventeenth century. The principal difficulty for both Merton and Feuer is that scientific medicine in pre-modern societies was not differentiated from either religion or law. The anatomy lesson was in fact a juridical and moral drama.
Race and Class Revisited – Conceptualising Race and Racisms
Authors: Anthias Floya
Published: August 2010

This paper casts a critical eye on the ‘race’ and class debate in the British literature on race. It begins by arguing that ‘race’ derives its analytical status from its location within the wider category of ‘ethnos An exploratory framework is provided that defines racism’ and distinguishes it from race’ A number of central positions on the links between race and class are then reviewed and their theoretical and empirical difficulties discussed. The paper concludes by arguing that race and racism cannot be located as emanating essentially from specific class interest Racism is considered as a form i)f discourse and practice that can be harnessed to different political projects including those of class and nation building. Race on the other hand derives its ontological and analytical status from modes by which communal difference and identity are attributed and proclaimed.
To Risk or Not to Risk? Uses and Limitations of Mary Douglas on Risk-Acceptability for Understanding Health and Safety at Work and Road Accidents
Authors: Bellaby Paul
Published: August 2010

The recent Greening of politics in the West has encouraged rapid development of research into both environmental hazards and risk perceptions among the public. There are also longstanding traditions of research into behaviour under risk in such disparate fields as superpower relations (Allison 1971), inter-country commercial transactions, the economics of uncertainty, and the study of natural disasters (Torry 1979). Relatively few sociologists or social anthropologists have contributed. A major exception is Mary Douglas (1982, 1985, 1987). This paper is an attempt to make use of her work and to tests its limits, in answering two empirical questions: How do managers and workers address workplace hazards? And, how do motorcyclists and drivers behave on the roads?
Money in Marriage: How Patterns of Allocation Both Reflect and Conceal Power
Authors: Burgoyne Carole B.
Published: August 2010

This paper examines perceptions of money within marriage, focusing upon the concepts of control and ownership. It considers the criteria involved in Pahl's (1983; 1989) typology for the allocation of income, and their ability to capture the dynamic perceptual elements associated with change. These issues were explored by means of data from semi-structured interviews, using mainly middle-class couples (thirteen women and nine of their partners) in the 30–50 year age-range. Most of the women were in the process of returning to the labour market following an absence of at least eight years.

The findings demonstrate, on the one hand, that Pahl's revised typology (1989), which includes an emphasis on the person possessing overall control, can be used to trace major shifts in the balance of economic power as a function of the life-cycle and associated changes in the source of income. On the other hand, the findings also show that a couple's report of their financial arrangements, concerning the ‘pooling’ of income, can yield the erroneous impression that resources are equally shared. In particular, the ‘rights’ of ownership associated with having earned the income may remain hidden, and lead to patterns of overall control with potential consequences for a non-earning, dependent partner.
Regulating Truancy: The Role of the Education Welfare Service
Authors: Wardhaugh Julia
Published: August 2010

This paper considers the responses made by the Education Welfare Service to school non-attendance, or ‘truancy’. The historical development of the service is examined, along with Victorian discourse on schooling. This discourse provided the rationale for the introduction of compulsory schooling, and contributed to the pathologisation of truancy. The development of a ‘pathology of truancy’ over the past century has involved, firstly, the categorisation of truants, and secondly, the regulation of truants and their families. The dichotomy between ‘care’ and ‘control’ measures is central to an understanding of these two processes of categorisation and regulation. These processes are discussed with reference to the Education Welfare Service in a city in the North Midlands. The article concludes with an exploration of possible future developments within the national service, in the light of the Children Act 1989.
Football ‘Fanzines’ and Football Culture: A Case of Successful ‘Cultural Contestation’
Authors: Jary David , Horne John , Bucke Tom
Published: August 2010

‘Fanzines’– magazines produced by fans for fans on photocopiers or small presses and circulated by other means than through mainstream commercial channels – provide an alternative to the products of mass publishing and the mass entertainment industry, although often in ‘dialogue’ with these. In England fanzines – like Sniffin’ Glue or When Saturday Comes– have proliferated over the last fifteen years or so, dealing especially with rock and pop music and also, most recently, with football. Fanzines can be seen as enabling a ‘users’ view’ and -sometimes – a radical reinterpretation (or defence) of popular cultural forms to be expressed by people who would otherwise be excluded from any usual means of written expression about, or control over, mainstream institutions in the production of mass culture. This article focuses on the phenomenon of football fanzines (and the Football Supporters’ Association (FSA) – a movement closely associated with fanzines), suggesting (i) that football fanzines and the FSA can be viewed as a particularly potent example of the existence of continued ‘contestation’ over cultural institutions of the kind suggested in relation to sport by Gruneau (1982 and 1983), Donnelly (1988) and others, including ourselves (Jary and Horne 1987 and Horne, Jary and Tomlinson 1987), (ii) that a consideration of football fanzines and the FSA illustrates the value of moving to a wider substantive and theoretical focus in the sociological analysis of football culture than that which has been uppermost in recent years.
School Attendance and Truancy: A Socio-Historical Account
Authors: Gleeson Denis
Published: August 2010

This paper considers ways in which truancy, as a form of social exclusion, has its origins in the history and politics of compulsory education. Despite widespread concern expressed about declining standards, rising indiscipline, incompetent teachers, outmoded curriculum and mounting truancy in the U.K., it is argued here that such issues are not new. Thus, for the purposes of the paper contemporary research, policy and media hype, premised on ‘discovery’ of declining standards of behaviour and school attendance, is questioned precisely because the level of analysis from which they begin is inadequate. Hence, two interrelated aspects of this phenomenon are considered. The first concerns a socio-historical account of compulsory education as it is mediated by the relations between family, law and economy. Here, questions regarding whose interests state education serves, and the juxtaposing of education vs schooling are considered. The second concerns the relatively recent status of mass schooling and shifting definitions as changing policy, historical, political, economic and legal conditions alter its relationship with parents, pupils and the world of work. In this respect the paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach to an inter-agency phenomenon. What the paper seeks to demonstrate is the way truancy touches on a sensitive and deeply embedded social nerve, which has its root in the very history and ethos of compulsory state education and its worth.
Pleasure, Pressure and Power: Some Contradictions of Gendered Sexuality
Authors: Holland Janet , Ramazonoglu Caroline , Sharpe Sue , Thomson Rachel
Published: August 2010

The AIDS epidemic has encouraged public discussion of safer sex, but heterosexual young women have to negotiate sexual relationships with men in situations in which sex is defined largely in terms of men's needs and which lack notions of a positive female sexuality or female desires. Analysis of data from the Women, Risk and AIDS Project is interpreted to show both the range of pressures on young women to engage in sexual practices which are risky, violent or not pleasurable, but also the possibilities for young women to empower themselves in sexual relationships. Women's control over sexual safety is undermined by the dominance of male sexuality and women's compliance in satisfying men's desires. Empowerment is a contradictory and contested process requiring both critical reflection (intellectual empowerment) and the transforming of sexual experiences (experiential empowerment), but some young women are able to put into practice ways of negotiating safe and pleasurable sexual encounters with men.
Citizenship, Poverty and the Real Will
Authors: Vincent Andrew
Published: August 2010

The paper analyses the concept of citizenship in the work of Bernard and Helen Bosanquet against the backcloth of a broader intellectual and historical framework. The discussion then addresses three issues in relation to citizenship: class, markets and poverty. Each concept is introduced through the medium of T.H. Marshall's ideas on citizenship. Marshall's ideas are taken as broad markers for the discussion of the concept in the post 1945 era. The discussion of each concept is then analysed in relation to the Bosanquets' theories. The basic conclusion is that many of the Bosanquets' analyses and answers are both inappropriate and antique, however they do highlight certain intrinsic difficulties which are still very much part of twentieth century states.
Professionalism, Educated Labour and the State: Hospital Medicine and the New Managerialism
Authors: Dent Mike
Published: August 2010

This article examines the degree to which doctors, as members of an autonomous profession, function as organic intellectuals within capitalist society (Abercrombie and Urry, 1983) and, more generally, the complex and ambivalent relations that sustain their role within a ‘service class’. It is in this context that the organization of medical care and its delivery in Britain will be addressed. In particular, the current and intended changes in the organization and control of hospital medicine within the NHS, notably the issues of medical audit, clinical budgeting and the role of the ‘internal market’.
An Electronic Panopticon? A Sociological Critique of Surveillance Theory
Authors: Lyon David
Published: August 2010

The concept of an electronic Panopticon is making increasingly frequent appearances within analyses of electronic surveillance. This paper traces briefly the history of the Panopticon from Jeremy Bentham to Michel Foucault and through a series of case studies shows how the idea seems relevant in the context of computer databases. It is argued that while the Panopticon has some salience to electronic surveillance, particularly through its enhanced capacity for invisible monitoring of personal details, the notion of a ‘societal Panopticon’ is sociologically mistaken. Nonetheless, where vestiges of the Panopticon are present within electronic surveillance, they present a challenge to social analysis and to political practice.
Control and Responsibility: Moral and Religious Issues in Lay Health Accounts
Authors: Mullen Kenneth
Published: August 2010

In sociological work of an empirical nature the concept of control tends to have a taken-for-granted quality. Similarly in the field of medical sociology when control is mentioned in relation to health and illness it is often presented in a unidimensional manner. This article analyses the relationship between control and responsibility for health in the lay accounts of male Glaswegians. Activist and fatalist dimensions were found in their thinking. However, activist thinking was seen to have three strands: personal activism, social activism, and religious activism. Further, fatalistic thinking was not about passive submission but rather the belief that control lay outwith the person in the realm of the social, natural or supernatural worlds. These findings demonstrate the subtle ways in which people relate to issues of control and responsibility in the health realm – a subtlety which is not fully brought out either in the theoretical or empirical work of social scientists researching in the health field.
The Anglican Clergy and the Early Development of British Sociology
Authors: Taylor Brian
Published: August 2010

The theoretical bias evident in histories of sociological thought and practice has tended to minimise some other important influences on its development. One such is the relationship between ‘Christian Sociology’ as articulated by the writers of such Church of England organisations as the Christian Social Union and the Christendom Group. A reading of the early journal publications of early twentieth century British sociology suggests an inter-relationship between the input of the Anglican clergy and the emergence of a scientific, university-based discipline. With particular reference to the sociological intentions of the 1924 Conference on Politics, Economics and Citizenship (COPEC) and to the writings of the Christian Sociologist, Maurice B. Reckitt, this article suggests that the view that the relationship between Christian and academic sociology can be interpreted simply as a ‘phase’ in sociological history does less than justice to the complexities of a neglected aspect of the professionalisation of the discipline.
Transformative Power: A Study in a Human Service Organization
Authors: May Tim
Published: August 2010

This article focuses upon the relationship between power and organizational change. It specifically considers the question of under what conditions and utilising what tactics can people be induced to see their organizational existence in new ways. At the same time it focuses upon the basis of resistance to the methods employed within the organization and in so doing delineates the limits of such transformative power. For these purposes, it draws upon a three-year study conducted in the probation service and employs Callon's concept of a sociology of translation alongside the ideas of Weber and Foucault. The argument then extends beyond the probation service to note that the form and methods of these tactics are currently being employed throughout the public sector.
Disenchantment and its Discontents: Weberian Perspectives on Science and Technology
Authors: Schroeder Ralph
Published: August 2010

Weber's ideas about science and technology have largely been neglected by comparison with his views of modern politics and economics. Yet his notion of disenchantment is central to his conception of modern society and to his comparative studies of the rise of Western rationalism. This importance is underlined by the use to which Weber's ideas have been put by two contemporary thinkers. Ernest Gellner extends the notion of disenchantment in his account of the cognitive style of industrial society, but argues that it does not necessarily pose the threat which Weber's cultural pessimism suggests. Randall Collins, on the other hand, develops a Weberian account of the social basis for technological change, arguing that geopolitical centres give rise to technological innovation. In view of the urgency of the question of the role of science and technology in modern society, these Weberian perspectives provide an important theoretical tool since they offer a framework in which this question can be addressed.
The Musical Composition of Social Reality? Music, Action and Reflexivity
Authors: DeNora Tia
Published: August 2010

Developments in the sociology of music during the 1980s have brought the sub-field more firmly in to the center of sociological concerns. The worlds' concept, and the concern with music and social status have helped to ground and specify links between music and society. Meanwhile however, questions concerning music's social content have been sidelined. This paper explores music as an active ingredient in the constitution of lived experience. As with other cultural/technical forms, music provides a resource for the articulation of thought and activity. Bodily conduct and movement, the experience of time, and social character within opera are used to illustrate this point. Recent developments in feminist music analysis have been suggestive for the ways in which music metaphorizes social processes and categories of being. These developments can enrich the sociology of music. However, as with all attempts to ‘read’ music's social content, they should be conceived as claims made by analysts who are themselves engaged in social projects. Analytical readings of music have no a priori claim of privilege. A constructivist sociology of music should therefore be devoted to the question of how specific music users forge links between musical significance and social life. A sociology of the construction and deployment of musical realities is capable of avoiding the naive positivism otherwise implicit in attempts to ‘read’ music's social content.
The Deskilling Thesis Revisited: On Peter Armstrong's Defence of Braverman
Authors: Lewis Alan
Published: August 2010

Peter Armstrong's recent defence of Braverman's deskilling theory argues that most critics misinterpret its logical nature. Consequently, the bulk of empirical research indicating short term changes in skill levels cannot be accepted as disconfirming evidence. Armstrong's argument brings out some overlooked elements in the deskilling thesis and points out important limitations of the studies critical of it. At the same time, Armstrong's clarification of the character of Braverman's theory also exposes some of the problems in the deskilling thesis itself. Armstrong correctly points out the long term, tendential character of the theory but fails to confront some central methodological problems in the study of long term shifts in work skills. This paper looks at three issues which Armstrong's argument raises: i) the nature of a ‘law of motion’ which is claimed to be the logical status of the theory; ii) Braverman's very specific notion of skill; iii) the methodological issues associated with analysis of long term changes in skills. Additionally, I explore the issue of technological change which, I argue, constitutes a ‘relatively autonomous’ source of constraints and pressures on capitalism management, not to be treated as a weapon or outcome in management's struggles to control labour.
Achieving Rational Management: Bed Managers and the Crisis in Emergency Admissions
Authors: Green Judith , Armstrong David
Published: August 2010

This paper uses data from a qualitative study to examine the extent to which the perceived problems of dealing with the acute emergency hospital admission can be used to illuminate the interface between professional and managerial authority in hospitals. Clinicians, nurses and managers all described emergency admissions as constituting a ‘constant crisis’ in their hospital. There were practical senses in which this was a realistic depiction of the situation but, as rhetoric, this description had two major implications for the management-professional interface. First, it served to legitimate the authority of managers by creating a problem which needed constant management. Second, in providing the ultimate challenge to general management it provided a scenario in which the superiority of rational management techniques over more localised and apparently self-interested clinical decisions could be demonstrated.
The Internalization of Autonomous Nature into Society
Authors: Murphy Raymond
Published: August 2010

There is presently much theoretical discourse claiming that nature is being socially constructed or even abolished. Some authors celebrate this development and others lament it. Still others bracket nature's dynamics out of the analysis. The present paper critically assesses these theories and methodologies concerning relations between social practices and processes of nature. It then develops an alternative argument. The expansion of society into wilderness areas has brought new disturbances of nature into society. Pristine nature has been replaced by socially encompassed primal nature, which retains its capacity for independent dynamics that affect social constructions. Moreover, nature remains embedded in technology and so does its potential to escape control. These hybrids constructed by humans and nonhumans recombine processes and materials of nature. Now that this recombi-nant nature has been integrated into society and new primal dynamics of nature have been internalised, there is increasing reason to incorporate the forces of nature into sociological analysis.
ETHNOGRAPHY, ANTHROPOLOGY, AND COMPARATIVE RELIGIOUS ETHICS: Or Ethnography and the Comparative Religious Ethics Local
Authors: Lewis Thomas A.
Published: August 2010

Recent ethnographic studies of lived ethics, such as those of Leela Prasad and Saba Mahmood, present valuable opportunities for comparative religious ethics. This essay argues that developments in philosophical and religious ethics over the last three decades have supported a strong interest in thick descriptions of what it means to be human. This anthropological turn has thereby laid important groundwork for the encounter between these scholars and new ethnographic studies. Nonetheless, an encounter it is. Each side brings novel questions to the other. The second part of the essay focuses on one of these questions: How, exactly, are these ethnographic studies to inform normative reflection on ethical questions?
THE AMBIGUITY OF MORAL EXCELLENCE: A Response to Aaron Stalnaker's “Virtue as Mastery”
Authors: Bucar Elizabeth M.
Published: August 2010

This response draws on Saba Mahmood's work on Muslim subjectivities in order to consider how Stalnaker's conceptualization of virtue might be applied to non‐Confucian sources. I argue that when applied cross‐culturally, Stalnaker's revised definition of “skillful virtue” raises normative and metaethical questions about what counts as a skill versus a mere bodily practice, the process by how skill is acquired, and how we can both allow for the ambiguity of skills and continue to make constructive arguments about them.
ETHICS OF BEWILDERMENT
Authors: Yearley Lee H.
Published: August 2010

An ethics of bewilderment, which differs dramatically from the more familiar ethics of ease, is best understood through poetic presentations. Using examples drawn from Chinese and Western sources—notably Du Fu and Dante—this inquiry treats bewilderment as both an emotion and a virtue. Both these forms of bewilderment involve an acknowledgment of how minimal is the ethical confidence we have, given the feelings we have and the judgments we must make, but they also extend in productive ways the implications of that acknowledgment.
BEWILDERMENT AND THEREAFTER: Some Reflections in Response to Lee Yearley
Authors: Clooney Francis X.
Published: August 2010

The following reflections were originally an oral response to issues raised in Lee Yearley's presentation in May 2009 at Harvard Divinity School. As written here, they follow upon his oral and now written comments, highlighting key issues and points for development, drawing on this respondent's expertise in comparative and Hindu studies.
VIOLENCE AND MORALITY: The Concession of Loss in A Ghanaian Fishing Village
Authors: Lucht Hans
Published: August 2010

When African migrants disappear on the Mediterranean going to Europe they often leave no trace—except for the occasional bodies that wash ashore on the beaches of southern Europe. In this essay, the urgent social and existential ramifications of migrant fatalities on the sea are explored. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a small Ghanaian fishing village on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, it is discussed how the bereaved struggle to make sense of these deaths to high‐risk migration—how they struggle to deal with devastating loss while retaining a sense of moral order.
A RESPONSE TO HANS LUCHT'S “VIOLENCE AND MORALITY: THE CONCESSION OF LOSS IN A GHANAIAN FISHING VILLAGE”
Authors: Ilesanmi Simeon O.
Published: August 2010

The violent encounter between Africans and the forces of globalization raises the question of whether Africans should capitulate to these forces or seek to morally transform them, notwithstanding the uncertainty of achieving success. This essay argues that an exclusively existentialist interpretation of the African predicaments is inadequate because it erects a false dichotomy between African religious and moral sensibilities. It proposes instead an ethic of responsibility that affirms the interdependence of not only these two realms of life, but also of communal well‐being and individual's subjectivity.
RESPONSE TO PAPERS FOR “ETHNOGRAPHY, ANTHROPOLOGY, AND COMPARATIVE RELIGIOUS ETHICS” FOCUS
Authors: Kelsay John
Published: August 2010

The Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) project represented here through papers by Thomas Lewis, Aaron Stalnaker, Hans Lucht, and Lee Yearley (with responses) was motivated by the judgment that the trend toward a focus on virtue ethics, with attendant concern for techniques of forming selves, creates an opportunity for a dialogue with ethnographers. I argue that the CSWR essays neglect social and institutional considerations, as well as overdrawing the distinction between “formalist” and virtue approaches to the study of comparative ethics.
Essays: RELIGIOUS MEDICAL ETHICS: A Study of the Rulings of Rabbi Waldenberg
Authors: Brand Yitzhak
Published: August 2010

This article seeks to examine how religious ideas that are not the focus of a particular halakhic question become the crux of the ruling, thereby molding it and dictating its bias. We will attempt to demonstrate this through a study of Jewish medical ethics, based on some of the rulings of one of the greatest halakhic decisors of the previous generation: Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg (1915–2006). Rabbi Waldenberg molds his rulings on the basis of a religious principle asserting that the legitimacy of any medical procedure is qualified and limited. Rabbi Waldenberg rejects certain accepted medical practices, including plastic surgery, in vitro fertilization, and organ transplants. Even if these procedures are regarded by other halakhic decisors as being legitimate, for Rabbi Waldenberg they are ethically and religiously improper, and therefore they are halakhically forbidden.
AGAINST METAETHICAL IMPERIALISM: Several Arguments for Equal Partnerships between the Deontic and Aretaic
Authors: Couenhoven Jesse
Published: August 2010

Virtue and deontological ethics are now commonly contrasted as rival approaches to moral inquiry. However, I argue that neither metaethical party should seek complete, solitary domination of the ethical domain. Reductive treatments of the right or the virtuous, as well as projects that abandon the former or latter, are bound to leave us with a sadly diminished map of the moral territories crucial to our lives. Thus, it is better for the two parties to seek a more cordial and equal relationship, one that permits metaethical pluralism, and acknowledges mutual dependence. I do not seek to prescribe how that relationship should look: this essay offers less a positive metaethical position than a prolegomenon to such a position, one that attempts to head off harmful attempts to reduce the territory of the aretaic to that of the deontic, or that of the deontic to the aretaic.
MULTIDIMENSIONAL THINKING ABOUT FORCE ETHICS: A Matter of Method and Content
Authors: Morgan April L.
Published: August 2010

Analyses of religious and cultural perspectives on the use of force continue to receive criticism for questionable motives, for insufficient holism, and for exaggerating uniqueness. Claims of recurrent problems educe consideration of interdisciplinary proposals designed to resolve related challenges. Thought together, some suggest that a transversal research program into ethical orientations toward war can facilitate fair and rigorous exploration of crosscultural similarities and differences. Tentative findings emphasizing textual precepts indicate some resonance amid diversity across eleven ethical frameworks including Western just war thinking. Maximizing relevance depends upon expanding the range of orientations and practices studied. Future results might be integrated with knowledge about the influence of other variables to more completely capture the phenomenon of making judgments regarding the use of force in all its manifestations.
Book Discussion Section: COMPARATIVE ETHICS, ISLAM, AND HUMAN RIGHTS: Internal Pluralism and the Possible Development of Tradition
Authors: Hollenbach David
Published: August 2010

Dialogue with three major Muslim authors shows that Islam can take a positive stance toward human rights while also presenting differing interpretations of the meaning and scope of rights. Because of their subordination of norms reached through reason to those drawn from faith, as well as negative experiences of the impact of Western colonization of parts of the Muslim world, Abul A‘la Maududi and Sayyid Qutb place significant restrictions on rights of conscience. 'Abdolkarim Soroush's positive support for the role of reason in Islamic faith and his less‐negative assessment of the West lead him to more vigorous support for the human rights agenda. This study raises the question of whether the humility needed in comparative ethics and the respect for others at the root of human rights are necessarily linked.
THE RIGHTS OF MUSLIM WOMEN: A Comment on Irene Oh's The Rights of God
Authors: Hashmi Sohail H.
Published: August 2010

This review of Irene Oh's The Rights of God focuses on women's rights in Islamic theory and practice. Oh suggests that religious establishments, and the texts they disseminate, often press believers to recognize and reject social problems, such as racial and gender discrimination. Islamic scholars and texts have played a more ambiguous role in efforts to recognize women's rights within Muslim states. Modernist intellectuals have used Islamic texts to support the advancement of women's rights, but members of the more conservative religious establishment have typically curbed or rejected these efforts. Muslim women themselves have established various responses to the question of Islam's compatibility with women's rights. While some embrace the value and compatibility of both, others reject the propriety of either Western conceptions of rights, or the Islamic tradition, as harmful for women. Muslim reformers and feminists have much to learn from comparative studies with other faith communities that have undergone similar struggles and transformations.
The utility of Chinese tone processing skill in detecting children with English reading disabilities
Authors: Anderson Alida , Wang Min
Published: August 2010

The utility of Chinese tone processing skill in detecting children with English reading difficulties was examined through differences in a Chinese tone experimental task between a group of native English‐speaking children with reading disabilities (RD) and a comparison group of children with normal reading development (NRD). General auditory processing, English phonemic processing and English reading skills were also tested. We found differences between groups in Chinese tone processing skill, as well as general auditory processing and English phonemic skills. The RD group was significantly poorer than NRD on tasks of Chinese tone, phonemic and frequency modulated (FM) tone processing. Another finding was a different pattern of relationship between RD and NRD groups in Chinese tone, phonemic and FM tone processing as predictors of reading skills. For children with RD, FM tone processing was a significant predictor of pseudoword reading; for NRD, phonemic and Chinese tone processing skills predicted real word reading. These findings contribute to improved understanding of the roles of general auditory processing and phonological processing skills in RD, with implications for assessment and intervention with children who have English reading difficulties.
Phylogeography of the Y‐chromosome haplogroup C in northern Eurasia
Authors: Malyarchuk Boris , Derenko Miroslava , Denisova Galina , Wozniak Marcin , Grzybowski Tomasz , Dambueva Irina , Zakharov Ilia
Published: August 2010

To reconstruct the phylogenetic structure of Y‐chromosome haplogroup (hg) C in populations of northern Eurasia, we have analyzed the diversity of microsatellite (STR) loci in a total sample of 413 males from 18 ethnic groups of Siberia, Eastern Asia and Eastern Europe. Analysis of SNP markers revealed that all Y‐chromosomes studied belong to hg C3 and its subhaplogroups C3c and C3d, although some populations (such as Mongols and Koryaks) demonstrate a relatively high input (more than 30%) of yet unidentified C3* haplotypes. Median joining network analysis of STR haplotypes demonstrates that Y‐chromosome gene pools of populations studied are characterized by the presence of DNA clusters originating from a limited number of frequent founder haplotypes. These are subhaplogroup C3d characteristic for Mongolic‐speaking populations, “star cluster” in C3* paragroup, and a set of DYS19 duplicated C3c Y‐chromosomes. All these DNA clusters show relatively recent coalescent times (less than 3000 years), so it is probable that founder effects, including social selection resulting in high male fertility associated with a limited number of paternal lineages, may explain the observed distribution of hg C3 lineages.
Early Middle Ordovician evidence for land plants in Argentina (eastern Gondwana)
Authors: Rubinstein C. V. , Gerrienne P. , de la Puente G. S. , Astini R. A. , Steemans P.
Published: August 2010

Commentary p306
A model and measure for quality service user involvement in health research
Authors: Morrow Elizabeth , Ross Fiona , Grocott Patricia , Bennett Janette
Published: August 2010

In the UK, researchers across the health professions are increasingly being encouraged by policymakers and research commissioners to ‘involve’ service users in research. A recent review shows there is some evidence that involving patients, carers, relatives, social or community groups directly and actively as part of the research process can improve the conduct of research studies and the impact of the findings. Yet, little is known about how involvement is played out within research studies and there is a need for more critical and consistent assessment of what constitutes quality involvement. The overall purpose of this paper is to support learning about quality service user involvement in health care research. The aim is to provide service users and researchers with a structured and consistent way to reflect and report on their experiences. A range of philosophical and social theories of power and empowerment were reviewed and synthesized to create a model of quality involvement. The analysis encompassed both service user factors (what a person feels able to do, whether they feel their potential is being fulfilled and their sense of being valued) alongside research factors (research relationships, ways of doing research, research structures). A model is presented (Quality Involvement Framework), which contributes theoretically informed perspectives about the meaning and assessment of quality service user involvement in research. The model is developed as a practical measure (a Quality Involvement Questionnaire) for researchers and service users to be more reflective about the constraints and possibilities of involvement. The tools presented here could help research teams to examine personal factors and the research contexts that influence the nature and quality of service user involvement in research. They may also help to identify reoccurring issues about quality which could inform future policy, practice and research.
Consumer involvement in research using oral history: ‘What are people's experiences of health and well‐being in Halton?’
Authors: Reid Gaynor , Kinsella Evelyn , Cooke Paul , Shotton Doreen , Porcellato Lorna
Published: August 2010

The purpose of this paper is to describe a qualitative oral history case study that involved consumers in research and followed a collaborative approach in the north‐west of England. This study had two aims: (1) to increase local voluntary groups research capacity through active involvement in research; and (2) to explore the community's historical perceptions of health and well‐being. The research team included four lay researchers from local voluntary groups supported by an academic researcher. Data collection used semi‐structured interviews based on oral history life stories that focused on health and well‐being. Thematic data analysis and mind maps were used to create a collective narrative. This paper will provide a brief synopsis of the findings from the main themes of health and well‐being, and reflect on the process of consumer involvement in research using oral history. Outputs have included dissemination at a local and national level, increased knowledge and confidence in the research process, and involvement in other related initiatives, such as Local Involvement Networks, partnership working with local libraries and collaboration with the regional archivist.
Reducing non‐attendance at specialist clinics: an evaluation of the effectiveness and cost of patient‐focussed booking and SMS reminders at a Scottish health board
Authors: Milne Robin G.
Published: August 2010

The aim of the paper is to test the effectiveness of patient‐focussed booking and last minute reminders using short message service (SMS) messages to reduce non‐attendance at consultant outpatient clinics, and to estimate their cost to the service provider per non‐attendance [did not attend (DNA)] avoided. Non‐attendance is modelled in terms of patient‐focussed booking, reminders and a variety of control variables on new and return appointments at one health board in Scotland over a 14‐month period. Patient‐focussed booking and last minute reminders reduced non‐attendance. We find patient‐focussed booking demonstrated the importance of booking appointments no more than 6 weeks in advance, and would incur recurrent costs of £6 ($9.15, €6.73) compared with the status quo, assuming the DNA rate with neither initiative were 10%. Requiring patients also to opt in would cost an additional £200 ($305, €224). Coverage in terms of SMS reminders was limited both in respect to contact details and spread of cellphone ownership, but incurs no recurrent costs when the in‐house network, NHSmail, is used. Interactive voice response is an alternative to SMS reminders: it could achieve wide coverage, but at a cost of £5.50 ($8.39, €6.17) per DNA avoided. We conclude that SMS reminders and booking appointments no more than 6 weeks in advance can be effective and low‐cost ways to reduce non‐attendance. It is questionable whether patients should be required to opt in, unless this is by far the best way to obtain cellphone contact details. Otherwise. interactive voice response might be considered as the preferred method to send last minute reminders.