bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Percutaneous stone surgery in the obese: outcome stratified according to body mass index
Authors: Koo B.C. , Burtt G. , Burgess N.A.
Published: May 2004

OBJECTIVE

To report our experience of percutaneous surgery for treating renal pelvicalyceal stones over 6 years, to show that this approach is feasible and safe in obese and morbidly obese patients, as the prevalence of obesity and stone disease has risen in the last 20 years.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed the results of 223 percutaneous nephrolithotomies (PCNLs) by one urologist between 1995 and 2001. Patients were stratified into four groups according to the World Health Organization classification of body mass index (BMI), i.e. <25, 25–29.9 (overweight), 30–39.9 (obese) and > 40 kg/m2 (morbidly obese). The outcomes of surgery in these four groups were compared.

RESULTS

There were no statistically significant differences in operative duration, decrease in haemoglobin concentration, postoperative analgesic use, hospital stay and stone‐free rates; nor was there a higher complication rate in patients who were obese.

CONCLUSION

The outcome of PCNL is independent of the patients’ BMI and results can be favourable in most patients. We therefore advocate treating obese patients with symptomatic stone disease based on individual status, using percutaneous surgery where appropriate.
Asymptotic Expansions for Two Singularly Perturbed Convection–Diffusion Problems with Discontinuous Data: The Quarter Plane and the Infinite Strip
Authors: López José L. , Sinusía Ester Pérez
Published: May 2004

We consider a singularly perturbed convection–diffusion equation, , defined on two domains: a quarter plane, (x, y) ∈ (0, ∞) × (0, ∞), and an infinite strip, (x, y) ∈ (−∞, ∞) × (0, 1). We consider for both problems discontinuous Dirichlet boundary conditions: u(x, 0) = 0 and u(0, y) = 1 for the first one and u(x, 0) =χ[a,b](x) and u(x, 1) = 0 for the second. For each problem, asymptotic expansions of the solution are obtained from an integral representation in two limits: (a) when the singular parameter ε→ 0+ (with fixed distance r to the discontinuity points of the boundary condition) and (b) when that distance r→ 0+ (with fixed ε). It is shown that in both problems, the first term of the expansion at ε= 0 is an error function or a combination of error functions. This term characterizes the effect of the discontinuities on the ε‐behavior of the solution and its derivatives in the boundary or internal layers. On the other hand, near the discontinuities of the boundary condition, the solution u(x, y) of both problems is approximated by a linear function of the polar angle at the discontinuity points.
Tissue Doppler, a fundamental tool for parametric imaging
Authors: Brodin Lars‐Åke
Published: May 2004

Tissue Doppler has been used for clinical applications since 1989. It has been developed from a pulsed Doppler acquisition tool towards a method where extraction of velocities can be performed from colour‐coded images. This has introduced a further development into different forms of parametric images describing different myocardial functions as colour‐coded information, like deformation imaging, motion imaging and phase imaging. The technical requirements have been established with temporal requirements of frame rates in acquisition exceeding 100 frames s−1. The most powerful application of the tissue Doppler technique today is perhaps to quantify the myocardial functional reserve, during stress echocardiography, making the method applicable to diagnose the presence of coronary disease with an accuracy exceeding that of nuclear and other non‐invasive techniques. The method has also great potential for future developments with introduction of more regional measuring variables.
Changes in Earth's Reflectance over the Past Two Decades
Authors: Pallé E. , Goode P. R. , Montañés-Rodríguez P. , Koonin S. E.
Published: May 2004

We correlate an overlapping period of earthshine measurements of Earth's reflectance (from 1999 through mid-2001) with satellite observations of global cloud properties to construct from the latter a proxy measure of Earth's global shortwave reflectance. This proxy shows a steady decrease in Earth's reflectance from 1984 to 2000, with a strong climatologically significant drop after 1995. From 2001 to 2003, only earthshine data are available, and they indicate a complete reversal of the decline. Understanding how the causes of these decadal changes are apportioned between natural variability, direct forcing, and feedbacks is fundamental to confidently assessing and predicting climate change.
A Microfluidic Device for Conducting Gas-Liquid-Solid Hydrogenation Reactions
Authors: Kobayashi Juta , Mori Yuichiro , Okamoto Kuniaki , Akiyama Ryo , Ueno Masaharu , Kitamori Takehiko , Kobayashi Shū
Published: May 2004

We have developed an efficient system for triphase reactions using a microchannel reactor. Using this system, we conducted hydrogenation reactions that proceeded smoothly to afford the desired products quantitatively within 2 minutes for a variety of substrates. The system could also be applied to deprotection reactions. We could achieve an effective interaction between hydrogen, substrates, and a palladium catalyst using extremely large interfacial areas and the short path required for molecular diffusion in the very narrow channel space. This concept could be extended to other multiphase reactions that use gas-phase reagents such as oxygen and carbon dioxide.
Immunostaining patterns of myoepithelial cells in breast lesions: a comparison of CD10 and smooth muscle myosin heavy chain
Authors: Kalof A N , Tam D , Beatty B , Cooper K
Published: May 2004

Background:Recent studies have reported CD10 expression in myoepithelial cells (MEC) of the breast, supporting its use as a marker to help distinguish invasive breast carcinoma (IC) from ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).

Aim:To compare the effectiveness of CD10 with smooth muscle myosin heavy chain (SMMHC) in the detection of MEC in benign and malignant breast lesions.

Methods:Histological material from 25 patients with DCIS and 21 with IC were immunostained for CD10 and SMMHC. Staining was scored on a scale of 0 to 3+ (0, no staining; 3+, intense) and the staining distribution was documented as focal, partial, or circumferential.

Results:Uniform, 3+ circumferential CD10 and SMMHC staining of MEC was seen in normal breast ducts and lobules, and in ducts and acini involved in sclerosing adenosis and apocrine metaplasia. In an analysis of total ducts involved by DCIS, 3+ circumferential staining was seen in 65 of 366 ducts (17.7%) stained for CD10 versus 190 of 396 ducts (48%) stained for SMMHC. MEC were not detected immunohistochemically in 116 of 366 ducts (31.7%) with anti-CD10 and 50 of 396 (12.7%) with anti-SMMHC. In contrast, all ICs were negative for both CD10 and SMMHC. Focal background staining of stromal myofibroblasts was seen with both CD10 and SMMHC, but CD10 showed a higher rate of non-specific staining of epithelial cells.

Conclusion:Although CD10 can aid in the distinction between IC and DCIS, SMMHC is a more sensitive and specific marker of MEC and shows less heterogeneity of immunostaining patterns.
Prognostic impact of VEGF, CD31, CD34, and CD105 expression and tumour vessel invasion after radical surgery for IB–IIA non-small cell lung cancer
Authors: Mineo T C , Ambrogi V , Baldi A , Rabitti C , Bollero P , Vincenzi B , Tonini G
Published: May 2004

Aims:To evaluate the prognostic impact of tumour angiogenesis assessed by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), microvessel density (MVD), and tumour vessel invasion in patients who had undergone radical resection for stage IB–IIA non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Methods:Fifty one patients (42 men, nine women; mean age, 62.3 years; SD, 6.9) undergoing complete surgical resection (35 lobectomy, 16 pneumonectomy) of pathological stage IB (n  =  43) and IIA (n  =  8) NSCLC were evaluated retrospectively. No patient underwent postoperative chemotherapy or neoadjuvant treatment. Tumour specimens were stained for VEGF and specific MVD markers: CD31, CD34, and CD105.

Results:VEGF expression significantly correlated with high CD105 expression (p < 0.0001) and tumour vessel invasion (p  =  0.04). Univariate analysis showed that those patients with VEGF overexpression (p  =  0.0029), high MVD by CD34 (p  =  0.0081), high MVD by CD105 (p  =  0.0261), and tumour vessel invasion (p  =  0.0245) have a shorter overall survival. Furthermore, multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that MVD by CD34 (p  =  0.007), tumour vessel invasion (p  =  0.024), and VEGF expression (p  =  0.042) were significant predictive factors for overall survival. Finally, the presence of both risk factors, tumour vessel invasion and MVD by CD34, was highly predictive of poor outcome (odds ratio, 3.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.7 to 6.5; p  =  0.0002).

Conclusions:High MVD by CD34 and tumour vessel invasion are more closely related to poor survival than the other neoangiogenetic factors in stage IB–IIA NSCLC. This may be because these factors are more closely related to the metastatic process.
Effect of buffered formalin on amplification of DNA from paraffin wax embedded small biopsies using real-time PCR
Authors: Zsikla V , Baumann M , Cathomas G
Published: May 2004

Background:The isolation of good quality DNA from routinely fixed and processed biopsy samples is crucial for the success of subsequent molecular analysis.

Aims:To compare the amount of β actin DNA extracted from upper gastrointestinal tract biopsies fixed in buffered and unbuffered formalin.

Methods:Amounts of β actin DNA extracted from forceps biopsies of the upper gastrointestinal tract fixed in unbuffered (n  =  22) and buffered formalin (n  =  16) were estimated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction.

Results:The yield of β actin DNA was significantly higher in biopsies fixed in buffered formalin than in those fixed in unbuffered formalin (median 2.8 × 104and 5.3 × 102DNA molecules, respectively; p < 0.005). Furthermore, fixation in buffered formalin led to a more reproducible DNA extraction, as indicated by the coefficient of variation (1.0 and 2.2, respectively).

Conclusions:This study indicates that tissue samples should be fixed in buffered formalin to facilitate the use of molecular pathology analysis in routine biopsy material.
Membrane associated proteases and their inhibitors in tumour angiogenesis
Authors: Noel A , Maillard C , Rocks N , Jost M , Chabottaux V , Sounni N E , Maquoi E , Cataldo D , Foidart J M
Published: May 2004

Cell surface proteolysis is an important mechanism for generating biologically active proteins that mediate a range of cellular functions and contribute to biological processes such as angiogenesis. Although most studies have focused on the plasminogen system and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), recently there has been an increase in the identification of membrane associated proteases, including serine proteases, ADAMs, and membrane-type MMPs (MT-MMPs). Normally, protease activity is tightly controlled by tissue inhibitors of MMPs (TIMPs) and plasminogen activator inhibitors (PAIs). The balance between active proteases and inhibitors is thought to determine the occurrence of proteolysis in vivo. High concentrations of proteolytic system components correlate with poor prognosis in many cancers. Paradoxically, high (not low) PAI-1 or TIMP concentrations predict poor survival in patients with various cancers. Recent observations indicate a much more complex role for protease inhibitors in tumour progression and angiogenesis than initially expected. As knowledge in the field of protease biology has improved, the unforeseen complexities of cell associated enzymes and their interaction with physiological inhibitors have emerged, often revealing unexpected mechanisms of action.
Diagnosis of aspergillus peritonitis in a renal dialysis patient by PCR and galactomannan detection: Table 1
Authors: Scotter J M , Stevens J M , Chambers S T , Lynn K L , Patton W N
Published: May 2004

This report describes the use of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and galactomannan detection to detect aspergillus in the continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) fluid and blood of a patient with multiple myeloma on CAPD and immunosuppressive treatment. Diagnosis of aspergillosis was initially made by conventional culture of CAPD fluid, but the PCR and galactomannan assays also detected aspergillus DNA and antigen in the blood, respectively. This suggests that the PCR and galactomannan assays, previously suggested as useful in the management of invasive fungal infections in neutropenic haematological patients, may be suitable for application to a broad range of clinical situations and sample types.
AN INTEGER L-SHAPED ALGORITHM FOR TIME-CONSTRAINED TRAVELING SALESMAN PROBLEM WITH STOCHASTIC TRAVEL AND SERVICE TIMES
Authors: TENG S. Y. , ONG H. L. , HUANG H. C.
Published: May 2004

The time-constrained traveling salesman problem (TCTSP) is a variant of the classical traveling salesman problem, where only a subset of the customers can be visited due to the time limit constraint. In this paper, we consider the TCTSP with stochastic travel and service times. Given the normal working hours T and a tolerance time ΔT, the total travel and service times of a route can exceed T as long as it is within T+ΔT, though a penalty proportional to the amount in excess of T will be imposed. The problem consists of optimally selecting and sequencing a subset of customers to visit in the presence of random travel and service times to maximize the expected profit while satisfying the time limit constraint. We formulate the problem as a two-stage stochastic program with recourse, and propose an integer L-shaped solution method for solving it. Computational results show that the algorithm can solve problems with moderate size to optimality within reasonable time.
SOFT MATRIX MODELS AND CHERN–SIMONS PARTITION FUNCTIONS
Authors: TIERZ M.
Published: May 2004

We study the properties of matrix models with soft confining potentials. Their precise mathematical characterization is that their weight function is not determined by its moments. We mainly rely on simple considerations based on orthogonal polynomials and the moment problem. In addition, some of these models are equivalent, by a simple mapping, to matrix models that appear in Chern–Simons theory. The models can be solved with q deformed orthogonal polynomials (Stieltjes–Wigert polynomials), and the deformation parameter turns out to be the usual q parameter in Chern–Simons theory. In this way, we give a matrix model computation of the Chern–Simons partition function on S3 and show that there are infinitely many matrix models with this partition function.
BINDING MATRIX: A NOVEL APPROACH FOR BINDING SITE RECOGNITION
Authors: KIM JAN T. , GEWEHR JAN E. , MARTINETZ THOMAS
Published: May 2004

Recognition of protein-DNA binding sites in genomic sequences is a crucial step for discovering biological functions of genomic sequences. Explosive growth in availability of sequence information has resulted in a demand for binding site detection methods with high specificity. The motivation of the work presented here is to address this demand by a systematic approach based on Maximum Likelihood Estimation.

A general framework is developed in which a large class of binding site detection methods can be described in a uniform and consistent way. Protein-DNA binding is determined by binding energy, which is an approximately linear function within the space of sequence words. All matrix based binding word detectors can be regarded as different linear classifiers which attempt to estimate the linear separation implied by the binding energy function. The standard approaches of consensus sequences and profile matrices are described using this framework.

A maximum likelihood approach for determining this linear separation leads to a novel matrix type, called the binding matrix. The binding matrix is the most specific matrix based classifier which is consistent with the input set of known binding words. It achieves significant improvements in specificity compared to other matrices. This is demonstrated using 95 sets of experimentally determined binding words provided by the TRANSFAC database.
Myosin Crossbridge Activation of Cardiac Thin Filaments
Authors: Moss Richard L. , Razumova Maria , Fitzsimons Daniel P.
Published: May 2004

At the level of the myofibrillar proteins, activation of myocardial contraction is thought to involve switch-like regulation of crossbridge binding to the thin filaments. A central feature of this view of regulation is that Ca
2+
binding to the low-affinity (≈3 μmol/L) site on troponin C alters the interactions of proteins in the thin filament regulatory strand, which leads to movement of tropomyosin from its blocking position on the thin filament and binding of crossbridges to actin. Although Ca
2+
binding is a critical step in initiating contraction, this event alone does not account for the activation dependence of contractile properties of myocardium. Instead, activation is a highly cooperative process in which initial crossbridge binding to the thin filaments recruits additional crossbridge binding to actin as well as increased Ca
2+
binding to troponin C. This review addresses possible roles of thin filament cooperativity in myocardium as a process that modulates the activation dependence of force and the rate of force development and also possible mechanisms by which cooperative signals are transmitted along the thick filament. Emerging evidence suggests that such mechanisms could contribute to the regulation of fundamental mechanical properties of myocardium and alterations in regulation that underlie contractile disorders in diseases such as cardiomyopathies.
Introduction
Authors: Fowers Blaine J. , Tjeltveit Alan C.
Published: May 2004

This introduction sets the context for a discussion of the place of virtue ethics in the behavioral sciences. We outline how virtue ethics provide an illuminating account of human action that can expand social science and professional practice in ways that are unavailable in standard accounts. The authors in this issue of the American Behavioral Scientist provide a more systematic and comprehensive account of virtue than is currently available in the social science literature. This account focuses on virtues as character strengths that make it possible for individuals to seek the best kind of life. We present virtue ethics as a framework that makes it possible to break down the standard dichotomies between facts and values, individuals and society, and behavioral tendencies and a complete life. We take Aristotle’s original account of virtue as a point of departure, which reduces our reliance on particular contemporary religious or political doctrines.
Retrieving the Virtues in Psychotherapy
Authors: Dueck Al , Reimer Kevin
Published: May 2004

This article considers the possibility that democratic liberalism is a virtue tradition. Given the centrality of the liberal tradition in American psychotherapy, the clinician risks imposing a particular set of virtues on the ethnic or religious client. A review of the historical and philosophical foundations of liberalism suggests that psychotherapy is a moral encounter based on its handling of virtue language. Liberal psychotherapy may, when it displaces the client’s tradition, contribute to a departicularized self. Drawing on the thought of Alasdair MacIntyre and Michael Walzer, an argument is developed that the meaning and cultivation of virtue is context dependent. Suggestions are offered for a tradition-sensitive psychotherapy that functions emically within the client’s own virtue grammar. A concluding case study illustrates tradition-sensitive, virtue psychotherapy with a conservative Jewish seminary student.
Estimating the Effects of Interventions That are Deployed in Many Places
Authors: Boruch Robert , May Henry , Turner Herbert , Lavenberg Julia , Petrosino Anthony , de Moya Dorothy , Grimshaw Jeremy , Foley Ellen
Published: May 2004

Place-randomized trials have been mounted in a variety of countries to estimate the relative effects of interventions that are intended to ameliorate problems or improve conditions in organizations and geopolitical jurisdictions. This article presents studies in which villages, police hot spots, housing developments, hospital units, schools, and other entities are the units of random allocation. The challenges to such work, approaches to meeting them, and the value added of such trials are outlined. The scientific value added includes better evidence on what works at the macro level. Web-oriented registers of such trials are being developed by the Campbell Collaboration.
The Role of Randomized Field Trials in Social Science Research
Authors: Moffitt Robert A.
Published: May 2004

One of the areas of policy research where randomized field trials have been utilized most intensively is welfare reform. Starting in the late 1960s with experimental tests of a negative income tax and continuingthrough current experimental tests of recent welfare reforms, randomized evaluations have played a strong and increasing role in informing policy. This article reviews the record of these experiments and assesses the implications of that record for the use of randomization. The review demonstrates that the usefulness of randomized field trials in the area of welfare reform has been limited by a number of weaknesses, some of which are inherent in the method and some of which result from constraints imposed by the politicalprocess. The conclusionis that randomizedfield trials have an importantbut limited role to play in future welfare reform evaluations and that it is essential that they be supplemented by nonexperimental research.
Field Experiments in Social Psychology
Authors: Salovey Peter , Williams-Piehota Pamela
Published: May 2004

In this article, the authors present the case for field experimentationin social psychology primarily by describing a program of research concerned with psychological aspects of health communication and persuasion. In particular, the authors are most interested in when and for whom are messages emphasizing the benefits of a health behavior (these are called gain-framed messages) more persuasive and motivating than messages emphasizing the costs of not engagingin a behavior(these are called loss-framed messages), andvice-versa. This line of research is as theoretically driven as most laboratory investigations in social psychology, and it involves experimental approaches with random assignment, control groups, and the like. However, most of this work recruits participants in ecologically interesting contexts such as community clinics and housing developments. These especially vulnerable individuals are followed for sufficient periods of time to allow for the assessment of the influence of these health messages on relevant health behaviors such as obtaining a mammogram or acquiring condoms.
Inefficiency, Subsample Selection Bias, and Nonrobustness
Authors: Krueger Alan B. , Zhu Pei
Published: May 2004

This article responds to Peterson and Howell’s (PH’s) defense of their voucher research. We show that PH’s rationales for excluding some 815 students—more than 40% of their sample—because they lacked baseline data in a randomized experiment are unconvincing. For example, PH’s assertion that students with missing baseline scores had a greater risk of mismatch is based on a misunderstanding of the way the experiment was conducted; the organization that conducted the experiment believes the procedures actually used precluded such a problem. Including students with missing baseline data renders the effect of vouchers insignificant for Black students, even using PH’s nonstandard racial classification scheme. PH also give the misleading impression that our reanalysis shows their results to be robust. In fact, only 7 out of the 27 of our estimates that did not simply reuse PH’s original, incomplete sample of Black students are positive and statistically significant.
Knowledge Nomads
Authors: Pittinsky Todd L. , Shih Margaret J.
Published: May 2004

The authors propose a new Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) perspective on the relationship between organizational commitment and worker mobility. Theories have long presumed that worker mobility and worker commitment are inversely related. Increased mobility, in dominant models of organizational commitment, comes at the expense of commitment to organization and, therefore, at the expense of the positive outcomes of commitment. We examine the potential for fostering organizational commitment amid worker mobility. We use the metaphor “Knowledge Nomads” to highlight that mobile workers are capable of building homes in organizations in the form of meaningful commitments to organization. This replaces a vision of mobile workers as itinerant wanderers, moving frequently with no commitment to organization. To reconceptualize worker commitment, worker mobility, and their relationship in positive perspective, the authors present findings from a theoretical review and from new empirical data. Implications of our findings for theory and practice, and directions for future research, are discussed.
Toward the Construct Definition of Positive Deviance
Authors: Spreitzer Gretchen M. , Sonenshein Scott
Published: May 2004

In this article, the authors develop a definition of positive deviance, a foundational construct in positive organizational scholarship. They offer a normative definition of positive deviance: intentional behaviors that depart from the norms of a referent group in honorable ways. The authors contrast this normative perspective on deviance with statistical, supra conformity, and reactive perspectives on deviance. They also develop research propositions that differentiate positive deviance from related prosocial types of behaviors, including organizational citizenship, whistle-blowing, corporate social responsibility, and creativity/innovation. Finally, the authors offer some initial ideas on how to operationalize positive deviance.
Does Campaign Spending Work?
Authors: Gerber Alan S.
Published: May 2004

This article reports the results of several field experiments designed to measure campaign effects in partisan contests. The findings suggest incumbent campaigns failed to increase incumbent vote share, whereas the challenger campaign was effective. To understand these and other results, the incumbent’s optimal spending strategy was analyzed theoretically. The analysis reveals that if incumbents maximize their probability of victory rather than vote share, campaigns by typical incumbents are expected to produce only minimal improvement in incumbent vote share. The analysis also explains how returns to campaign spending vary with the competitiveness of the election, how incumbent spending can improve the incumbent’s probability of victory yet have only minimal effect on incumbent vote share, and why rational spending plans might decrease the sponsor’s expected vote. This article demonstrates the wide scope of application for field experiments and provides an example of how experimental findings can serve as a catalyst for generating theories.
Conditional Morality?
Authors: Kim Phillip H.
Published: May 2004

Racial profiling has been a contentious topic in recent years. However, little is known about the attitudes of Americans toward this practice. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, profiling on individuals of Arab and Muslim backgrounds has been on the rise. The author examined how religious Americans are responding to this form of racial discrimination. Using data from a national survey taken in October 2001, the author concludes that Protestants, Catholics, and Jewish individuals were more likely to support racial profiling compared to nonreligious individuals. The author proposes that these individuals are faced with competing moral demands and tactically support this law enforcement practice. In addition, race, knowing a Muslim personally, political ideology, age, and education have significant association with attitudes toward racial profiling.
Prejudice in Police Profiling
Authors: Wilson George , Dunham Roger , Alpert Geoffrey
Published: May 2004

Social science analyses of racial profiling in the context of discretionary police stops and subsequent interrogations have tended to rely on a framework dictated by federal case law, namely, they have focused on disparate impact by race as the basis for deeming profiling discriminatory. Significantly, neglected in profiling studies have been considerations of the role of prejudice. Analogizing to profiling about the sources of prejudice, activators of prejudice, and legitimacy gained from acting on prejudice, among key decision makers in other institutional domains—namely, employers in the workplace and brokers/landlords in the housing market—the authors maintain that prejudice is a source of profiling. In addition, the authors discuss how identifying the prejudicial roots of profiling enhances one’s ability to both judge its propriety and understand the scope of racial prejudice in America. The authors offer suggestions for future research that sheds additional light on the link between racial prejudice and profiling.
Profiling Mexican American Identity
Authors: Aguirre Adalberto
Published: May 2004

Racial profiling is a repressive social practice that uses group characteristics to individualize stereotypic behavior for minorities in American society. The practice of racial profiling victimizes minority persons to support a White hegemonic structure that promotes White values and beliefs as superior. The harmful effects of racial profiling on Mexican American social identity are discussed in this article. Several court cases are reviewed to illustrate how “Hispanic identity” is used by law enforcement agencies to profile Mexican Americans as either drug smugglers or undocumented aliens.
Reparations
Authors: Williams David R. , Collins Chiquita
Published: May 2004

Black-White differences in health are large, persistent, and in some cases, worsening over time. Racial segregation is a central determinant of Black-White differences in health. The physical separation of the races in residential areas is an institutional mechanism of racism that remains a primary determinant of racial differences in economic circumstances. These differences in social and economic conditions are largely responsible for racial differences in health status. Reparations are a potentially effective strategy to rebuild the infrastructure of disadvantaged, segregated communities. Such investment would enhance the economic circumstances of African American families and communities and also improve their health.
Monica and Bill All the Time and Everywhere
Authors: Williams Bruce A. , Delli Carpini Michael X.
Published: May 2004

This article argues that by providing virtually unlimited sources of political information, the new media environment undermines the idea that there are discrete gates through which political information passes: If there are no gates, there can be no gatekeepers. The difficulty of elites (political and media both) and academics in understanding the Lewinsky scandal stems from their failure to recognize the increasingly limited ability of journalists to act as gatekeepers. The disjuncture between elite attempts to both control and understand the scandal on one hand and the conclusions the public drew about this political spectacle on other hand speaks to some fundamental changes that have occurred in the role of the press in American society in the late 20th century.
On the Shoulders of Merton
Authors: Bernhard Bo J. , Preston Frederick W.
Published: May 2004

Robert Merton’s theoretical formulations of unintended consequences provide a useful framework for understanding the potential consequences of problem gambling policy. More generally, a sociological perspective on mental illness perspective brings a particular insight to the field of gambling studies. Based on the current understanding of problem gamblers’ careers, one can speculate on a number of instances in which policies intended to help this population can actually exacerbate matters. Because of this potentiality, the field of problem gambling should both (a) engage the concept of unintended consequences in the sociological, Mertonian sense and (b) attempt to incorporate theory and research whenever possible to better understand the potential for such consequences.
Legal Welfare Fraud Among Middle-Class Families
Authors: Wegner Eldon L. , Yuan Sarah C. W.
Published: May 2004

The Medicaid program was enacted in 1965 for the purpose of providing federal cost sharing in the payment for medical services for the indigent. Although there are major differences among the states in eligibility criteria and benefits, the federal law requires that benefits include payment for long-term care services. The article notes that certain provisions of the law enable middle-class individuals to transfer assets and to use other means of qualifying for Medicaid. These practices, especially Medicaid estate planning, enable middle-class persons to retain their assets in their families rather than “spending down” to qualify for Medicaid benefits. This article argues that these practices constitute a form of legal welfare fraud. The reality of the long-term care provisions of the Medicaid program can be seen as backfiring in ways that undermine the intended purpose of the program and that have negative consequences for the general social good.
Airline Security After the Event
Authors: Russell Perry A. , Preston Frederick W.
Published: May 2004

Interviews with airline and security employees and public information are used to examine the real and perceived outcomes of public policy reactions to the terrorist attacks of September 11. The examination uses the classic functionalist perspective of Robert Merton and the more recent insights of Raymond Boudon. Attempts to reduce the threat of terrorist success and to foster confidence in the flying public had mixed results. Clearly governments and airlines were not well prepared for terrorist attacks, a fact that was well known to insiders but not widely known to the public. Many of the illusions of security that preceded the attacks were exposed by discussions and policy reactions following September 11.
Corporate Public Affairs: Commitment, Resources, and Structure
Authors: Griffin Jennifer J. , Dunn Paul
Published: May 2004

Using resource dependency and institutional theories, we create and test a model examining the relationships among senior management commitment, resource allocations, and the structure of public affairs departments. Using a large sample of U.S.-based firms, we find a positive relationship between senior management commitment to the public affairs function and the level of human and monetary resources allocated to the public affairs department. Furthermore, firms structure their public affairs responsibilities into three common activity sets: communications, collaborations, and local activities. These common activities are, in turn, positively associated with senior management commitment and resources allocated to the public affairs department.
Winning Hearts and Minds for Europe
Authors: Bruter Michael
Published: May 2004

This article empirically explores the impact of symbols of European integration and good or bad news about Europe on individuals’ European identity. The analysis is based on a distinction between civic and cultural components of identity, which enables testing of the model in a way that could not be done with existing survey instruments. The model depicts these two components as conceptually and empirically distinct and responding differently to various cues in the environment. The findings showthat many respondents identify with Europe and the EU, mostly in civic terms, and explain how citizens and institutions interact to nurture identities. They show the strong impact of symbols and news on European identity. Other findings include the predominant effect of symbols on cultural identity and news on civic identity. The results have profound implications for our understanding of European integration, political behavior, and minority integration in multicultural societies.
Institutional Change and Firm Creation in East-Central Europe
Authors: McDermott Gerald A.
Published: May 2004

A central debate about the transformation of postcommunist countries is how political approaches to institution building affect firm restructuring and creation. This debate has largely been dominated by theories that emphasize either the depoliticization of institutional designs or the determining impact of preexisting social structures. By examining the relative economic performance of Poland and the Czech Republic in the 1990s, this article offers an alternative, embedded politicsanalysis that views firm and institutional creation as intertwined experiments. Czech attempts to implant a depoliticized model of reform impeded institutional development and the reorganization of sociopolitical networks, in which firms are embedded. Poland facilitated institutional experiments not only in the ways it promoted negotiated solutions to restructuring but also in the ways it empowered subnational governments. The study utilizes data on manufacturing networks, privatization, bankruptcy, and regional government reforms collected between 1993 and 2000.
Why is Stabilization Sometimes Delayed?
Authors: Oatley Thomas
Published: May 2004

Existing work on the politics of stabilization has failed to find compelling evidence of a regime-type effect. This article reformulates and reevaluates the regime-type hypothesis. It is argued that regime type does not have an independent impact on the timing of stabilization. Instead, regime type influences the extent to which societal opposition and distributive conflict will delay stabilization. Societal opposition and distributive conflict are likely to delay stabilization in democratic regimes, because governments must worry about maintaining power. Such societal dynamics are less likely to delay stabilization in authoritarian regimes. Using a sample of 92 high-inflation episodes, precisely these regime-specific dynamics surrounding the politics of stabilization were found. Governments in democratic regimes want to stabilize rapidly but often cannot overcome societal opposition and distributive conflict to do so. Authoritarian regimes are substantially less constrained by societal opposition and distributive conflict but have less incentive to stabilize rapidly.
Interpersonal Trust and the Magnitude of Protest
Authors: Benson Michelle , Rochon Thomas R.
Published: May 2004

The authors demonstrate that interpersonal trust is an important factor in motivating protest participation and raising the intensity of protest. They suggest that high levels of trust make individuals likely to anticipate low expected costs of participation while leading to optimistic estimates of the potential benefits of protest. Using 1990 World Values Survey data for 33 countries, a series of multinomial logistic regressions confirms that interpersonal trust plays an important role in determining both militant and nonmilitant forms of protest. These findings hold at the individual level in both free and nonfree societies. The authors also find some evidence that the same relationships hold at the national level. In addition, trust and postmaterialist values are shown to have complementary roles in fostering protest, whereas education is largely insignificant. Interpersonal trust, therefore, serves as both a personal and a social capital resource that fosters collective action in the form of protest.
Explaining Ethnicity
Authors: Hale Henry E.
Published: May 2004

Although scholars often treat “ethnicity” as one of the most important phenomena in politics, nothing close to a consensus has emerged about not only what its effects are but also what it is. Theorists typically divide this debate into two camps, usually dubbed “primordialism” and “constructivism,” but these categories are unhelpful and actually obscure some of the most important questions. This study recasts the debate by providing a micro-level explanation for why and how people tend to think and act in terms of macro-level identity categories in the first place. Drawing heavily on recent psychological research, this approach reveals why ethnicity is special and why it is ascribed importance by researchers in fields as diverse as sociology, anthropology, and political science. As it turns out, neither constructivism nor primordialism is fully accurate, and theorists are advised to think in terms that are more consistent with psychological research.
Timing is Everything
Authors: Frye Timothy , Mansfield Edward D.
Published: May 2004

In the wake of the Soviet bloc’s collapse, various postcommunist countries rushed to gain greater access to foreign markets. Many of them have made substantial progress in liberalizing commerce, but the movement toward free trade has been by no means universal. One prominent view is that the establishment of democratic institutions has stimulated economic reform in thepostcommunist world. The authors conduct one of the first studies on this topic and find that democracies are indeed more likely to liberalize trade than nondemocracies. They also find that the electoral calendar has a potent influence on the timing of commercial reform in postcommunist democracies: Controlling for a range of factors, politicians are most likely to reduce trade barriers immediately after voters go to the polls. Trade liberalization is much less likely to occur at other points in a democracy’s electoral calendar, and elections have no effect on commercial reform in nondemocracies.
The European Union at the Ballot Box?
Authors: Tillman Erik R.
Published: May 2004

Scholars have developed a large body of knowledge on the domestic underpinnings and effects of European integration. Students of the European Union (EU) have devoted considerable attention to the sources of citizen and party support for EU membership. This attention would suggest the presence of a dynamic process in which parties compete for votes by adopting stances on the EU, and citizens vote on the European issue. Evidence from the three new member states—Austria, Finland, and Sweden—shows that citizen attitudes about the EU affected vote choice in national elections in all three states before and after accession. This finding suggests the existence of an electoral dynamic between voters and parties over European integration, with mass publics having an important role in constraining future efforts at integration. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Rationality and Identity in the Participation Choices of Female Maquila Workers
Authors: Bellman Mary J.
Published: May 2004

Under the significant structural obstacles to labor mobilization in market economies and the male domination of labor federations, what motivates female export-processing zone (EPZ) workers to participate in labor organization? Why do female workers participate in traditional laborunions or alternative women’s organizations that similarly claim to represent them?This article addresses these questions using original survey data from female EPZ workers in the garment industries of Honduras and Nicaragua. The author applies insights fromrational choicetheory and identity approaches and examines howgender and class influence femaleworkers’organizing in Central American EPZs. Logistic and ordinal logistic regression estimates show that this group of workers participates in labor organizations because of not individual selective incentives but rather aspects of identity formation. The survey data illustrate that shared interests cannot be assumed for similarly situated popular subjects who experience the multiple facets of their conditions in different ways.
Power, Satisfaction and Popularity
Authors: Chan Steve
Published: May 2004

Each of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council has the power to veto any proposed resolution, and thus to override the wishes of a majority of the other Council members who support this resolution. Whenever a permanent member casts a veto, it succeeds in its aim to block an unwanted resolution by unilateral action. Satisfaction in achieving this outcome, however, is purchased at a price of unpopularity because, by definition, vetoes frustrate the majority preference. In this article, Poisson probabilities are applied to study the incidence of vetoes cast by the ‘big five’ and, by implication, these states’ relative level of satisfaction and popularity over the past 55 years. The rising resort to this form of assertive unilateralism by the US in recent years presents a serious challenge to the norms of multi-lateral diplomacy in a world dominated by a single superpower.
Governmentality
Authors: Merlingen Michael
Published: May 2004

In this article I draw on the later work of Michel Foucault to elaborate a governmentality framework for the study of international governmental organizations (IGOs). The main ‘value added’ of the proposed framework is that it brings into focus the micro-domain of power relations, thereby highlighting what mainline IGO studies fail to thematize. IGOs exercise a molecular form of power that evades and undermines the material, juridical and diplomatic limitations on their influence. They are important sites in the non-sovereign, microphysical workings of power that shape territorialized populations in unspectacular ways. In short, I argue that our understanding of IGOs remains incomplete if we do not pay attention to the effects of domination generated by their everyday governance tasks and good works. I develop this argument through a brief engagement with an innovative strand of IGO studies: research on international socialization, which is empirically illustrated through a brief exploration of the induction by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe of post-socialist countries into its embryonic security community.
Between Police and Military
Authors: Lutterbeck Derek
Published: May 2004

The differentiation between internal and external security, and between police and military, has been a core principle of the modern nationstate. A distinctive feature of the security landscape of the post-Cold War era, however, is that the dividing line between internal and external security has become increasingly blurred — a consequence of, inter alia, the emergence of a growing number of transnational risks and challenges. This article sheds light on a thus far somewhat neglected aspect of this convergence between the realms of internal and external security, or crime and war: the growing significance of intermediary, i.e. gendarmerie-type, or paramilitary, security forces. The main argument advanced in the following is that the post-Cold War period has witnessed not only the emergence of challenges which defy the distinction between internal and external security, but also the ascendance of agencies which are located between internal and external security forces. This development is exemplified by a discussion of two major areas of the contemporary security agenda, that of border control, where gendarmeries are being mobilized to counter various transnational challenges to security, and that of peace support operations, where they are playing an increasingly important role in post-war reconstruction efforts.