bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Promises and Perils of “Scientifically Based” Research for Urban Schools
Authors: Shealey Monika Williams
Published: December 2005

In this age of high-stakes testing and calls for more stringent measures of accountability, urban schools face a great deal of scrutiny. In fact, the direct benefactors of school reform remain the students most at risk for not reaping the benefits of reform rhetoric. Current legislation that propels the notion of “scientifically based research” to the forefront of debate on what constitutes a high-quality education fails to contextualize the teaching and learning process in urban settings and promises to do more harm than good. This article will examine the challenges and opportunities inherent in scientifically based research and the implications for urban schools.
Improving Equity and Access for Low-Income and Minority Youth Into Institutions of Higher Education
Authors: Ward Nadia L.
Published: December 2005

This article discusses the educational achievement status of racial and ethnic minorities, specifically African Americans and Latinos as compared to their Caucasian peers. In addition, this article describes several long-standing federal educational initiatives designed to improve educational equity and access on the part of low-income and underrepresented minorities into institutions of higher learning. Finally, the promise of a relatively new educational initiative called GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) is illustrated with a detailed description of Connecticut's successful implementation of this approach. Underscored are implications this article has for research, policy, and practice in the educational arena.
African American Parents in the Search Stage of College Choice
Authors: Smith Michael J. , Fleming Michael K.
Published: December 2005

A serious imbalance exists in today's African American undergraduate student population in which the number of women far outnumber the number of men. Although at the macro level, political, sociological, and economic forces frame this gender enrollment gap, scant research has explored microlevel influences such as parents and parenting. This study uses a qualitative methodology and Hossler's model of college choice to examine African American parent involvement during the search stage. The study finds that the parents, who are mostly female and have higher aspirations for daughters, encourage daughters to consider 4-year colleges more often but show equal levels of tangible support for sons. The authors suggest that the boundaries of Hossler's model necessarily shift when considering urban African American parents and that practitioners must have equally high academic aspirations for both African American male and female students.
The Discreet Charm of the Arabist Theory: Juan Andrés, Historicism, and the De-Centering of Montesquieu's Europe
Authors: Dainotto Roberto M.
Published: December 2005

Expelled from Spain in 1779, the Jesuit Juan Andrés moved to Parma in Italy, and published a seven-volume history of nothing less than the literatures of the whole world – ‘Of the Origins and Progress of all Literatures’. Andrés attempted to found literary historiography as a critical method opposed to the Francocentrism of classicist aesthetics. If French classicism had labeled southern literatures (Spanish and Italian) as unreasonable and unworthy of entering modern Europe's republic of letters, historicism was the conviction that every civilization and every period has its own possibilities of aesthetic perfection. In so doing, Andrés was pitting a method of critical historiography against Montesquieu's and the philosophers’ own philosophy of history.
Fictitious Histories: The Dilemma of Fact and Imagination in the Nineteenth-Century Historical Novel
Authors: Hamnett Brian
Published: December 2005

The article takes up the issue of how fiction and history relate to one another. In many respects, the nineteenth century revealed its uncertainties concerning its place in history through the historical novel. This genre, which emerged in modern form at the beginning of the nineteenth century with Walter Scott, was the meeting point of these two distinct disciplines. Although initially a product of the Enlightenment, the historical novel influenced the development of Romanticism and was in turn transformed by it. Alessandro Manzoni's I promessi sposiadmirably illustrates this process. For a time history and the historical novel developed in a parallel fashion, until the complexity of source materials in the former drove the latter into crisis by the 1850s and 1860s, and forced leading novelists to explore new methods of approaching their historical subject matter. Gustave Flaubert and George Eliot moved beyond the realist novel, then at its height, towards symbolism in the search for fresh modes of expression for their perspective on history. Flaubert's Salammbôand Eliot's Romola, both of which received harsh criticism, are discussed as exemplary texts for the understanding of the dilemmas posed by the writing of historical novels. The historical novel still remained vibrant after the 1860s, as the fictional examination of political transformation in Spain by Benito Pérez Galdós demonstrates. Yet in this writer, too, the tension between fact and imagination remained uppermost.
A Provincial Imperialist and a Curious Account of Wallachia:: Ignaz von Born
Authors: Drace-Francis Alex
Published: December 2005

This article presents a hitherto little-known description of Wallachian (Romanian) communities in the Banat of Temesvar in the 1770s, which was reproduced, translated and commented upon in a wide variety of publications across Europe in the years to follow. The author is identified, and the account's genesis and reception placed in its contemporary intellectual and political context, in such a way as to challenge theories of the ‘invention’ of Eastern Europe by Western Europe. Attention is also drawn to the way in which different publishing circumstances and stylistic modifications affected the way in which this proto-ethnography was interpreted, and placed in relation to other colonial encounters, such as those of the British with native populations in India and America.
Blood and Covenant: Interpretive Elaboration on Genesis 9.4-6 in the Book of Jubilees
Authors: Gilders William K.
Published: December 2005

Genesis 9.4-6 is the foundation for all that Jubilees has to say about the proper treatment of blood: all blood is the locus of life, and must be treated accordingly; any wrong treatment of blood violates a fundamental covenantal obligation. The author of Jubilees arrived at this understanding of blood and covenant through a reading of Gen. 9.4-6 in holistic relationship to other biblical texts, and constructed an elaborate interpretive superstructure on that base-text. This article works sequentially through the relevant passages, highlights the manner in which Jubilees’ teachings unfold for a reader, identifies the larger structural contexts within which they appear, and explicates the ways in which biblical materials are recontextualized in Jubilees.
Pseudepigrapha Notes I: 1. Lunationes Danielis; 2. Biblical Figures outside the Bible
Authors: DiTommaso Lorenzo
Published: December 2005

This is the first in a series of articles introducing (1) new texts or new copies of known texts from manuscripts, and (2) thematic updates to the Bibliography of Pseudepigrapha Research, 1850–1999. This article presents some new manuscript copies of the Lunationes Danielis (the lunar prognosticon attributes to the prophet Daniel) and a working bibliography of secondary sources on the apocryphal texts and traditions associated with .gures from the Hebrew Bible.
Comparison of Properties of Silicon-containing Poly(amide-imide)s
Authors: Sava Ion , Bruma Maria , Schulz Burkhard , Köpnick Thomas
Published: December 2005

New silicon-containing poly(amide-imide)s have been synthesized by direct polycondensation of various aromatic diamines with a dicarboxylic acid containing the dimethylsilylene group and preformed imide cycles. These polymers are easily soluble in polar amidic solvents such as N-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP) or dimethylformamide (DMF) and can be cast into thin flexible films or coatings from such solutions. They show high thermal stability, with initial decomposition temperature being above 400°C and glass transition temperature in the range of 220-270°C. Very thin polymer films deposited by spin-coating technique onto silicon wafers showed a smooth, pinhole-free surface in atomic force microscopy investigations.
Processable PMR-Type Polyimides: Process-Property Relationships, Curing Kinetics, and Thermooxidative Stability
Authors: Dean D. , Abdalla M. A. , Vaidya U. , Ganguli R. , Battle C. J. , Abdalla M. , Haque A. , Campbell S.
Published: December 2005

The rheological and structural characteristics of polyimides with enhanced melt flow have been investigated. The polyimides were based on 2,3,3′,4′-biphenyltertracarboxylic dianhydride (PBDA) and a mixture of a diamine, 4,4′ (1,4-phenylene-bismethylene) bisaniline (BAX) and a triamine, 1,3,5-Tris (4-aminophenoxybenzene), TAB, where the amount of TAB was 4 and 8%. Melt viscosities of these polymers suggest that they are processable by resin infusion methods. Although curing occurs through the phenylethynyl endcap, the steric and electronic differences of the three amines results in different cure kinetics and heterogeneous crosslinking. This is manifested in multiple Tg values in the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) scan of the cured samples. Rheological and DSC kinetic studies of the cure behavior indicate that the sample with 4% TAB cures more quickly than the system with 8% TAB and it has a lower activation energy (147 versus 185 kJ mole-1). Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) scans indicate that both TAB based samples are more thermally stable than PMR-15. The lower activation energy for 8% TAB, relative to 4% TAB (147.0 versus 170.2 kJ mole-1) suggests the additional branching present decreases the thermal stability.
Synthesis and Characterization of Poly(pyridinium triflate)s with Alkyl and Aromatic Spacer Groups for Potential Use as Nonlinear Optic Materials
Authors: Tigelaar Dean M. , Klein Daniel J. , Xu Tian-Bing , Su Ji , Bryant Robert G.
Published: December 2005

A series of poly(pyridinium triflate)s with alkyl and aromatic spacer groups were prepared by ring transformation polymerizations between various pyrylium triflates and diamines. The polymers are soluble in polar aprotic solvents and form tough, clear, flexible films. These novel polymers were characterized by IR, NMR, UV, DSC, TMA, and TGA. The polymers were thermally stable to 340 °C under nitrogen, and had softening points that ranged from 151 to 255 °C. Thin films were shown to display electrostrictive behavior in the presence of an applied electric field, with the amount of transverse strain being proportional to the concentration of charge in the polymer.
Influence of Ester and Ether Groups on Solution Properties of Polyurethanes
Authors: Ioan Silvia , Lupu Mihaela , Macocinschi Doina
Published: December 2005

Viscometric data in non-theta solvent were utilized for determination of the poly(ester-urethane)s and poly(ether urethane)s conformational transitions and of the unperturbed dimensions. The influence of soft and hard segments was observed for poly(ester-urethane)s. The samples with 2,4-tolylene diisocyanate in hard segments have smaller unperturbed dimensions compared with the samples containing 4,4′-methylene diphenylene diisocyanate, which are believed to possess significant chain rigidity. The crosslinking tendency in synthesis of polyurethanes with ether groups - by reaction of chain end -NCO in prepolymer with the hydrogen from -NHCOO-groups - and in solutions explains the anomalies observed in solution properties.
Selection and Optimization of Piezoelectric Polyvinylidene Fluoride Polymers for Adaptive Optics in Space Environments
Authors: Celina Mathew , Dargaville Tim R. , Assink Roger A. , Martin Jeffrey W.
Published: December 2005

Various piezoelectric polymers based on polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) are of interest for large aperture space-based telescopes. Dimensional adjustments of adaptive polymer films depend on charge deposition and require a detailed understanding of the piezoelectric material responses which are expected to deteriorate owing to strong vacuum UV, γ -, X-ray, energetic particles and atomic oxygen exposure. We have investigated the degradation of PVDF and its copolymers under various stress environments detrimental to reliable operation in space. Initial radiation aging studies have shown complex material changes with lowered Curie temperatures, complex material changes with lowered melting points, morphological transformations and significant crosslinking, but little influence on piezoelectric d33 constants. Complex aging processes have also been observed in accelerated temperature environments inducing annealing phenomena and cyclic stresses. The results suggest that poling and chain orientation are negatively affected by radiation and temperature exposure. A framework for dealing with these complex material qualification issues and overall system survivability predictions in low earth orbit conditions has been established. It allows for improved material selection, feedback for manufacturing and processing, material optimization/stabilization strategies and provides guidance on any alternative materials.
Properties of a Vinyl Ester Resin Modified with a Liquid Polymer
Authors: De La Caba Koro , Eceiza Arantxa , Marieta Cristina , Corcuera Maria Angeles , Remiro Pedro , Mondragon Iñaki
Published: December 2005

A vinyl ester (VE) resin was modified with different concentrations of a liquid polymer, polyoxypropylenetriamine (POPTA), in order to study the changes produced during curing and in its final properties. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) measurements were made to obtain both the styrene and vinyl ester unsaturations conversions during the cure of the resin. The glass transition region was analysed by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA), which showed the constancy of glass transition temperature with modifier content. The mechanical properties of the mixtures were also analysed and the results have been related to the flexural behaviour of the cured neat resin.
Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: The Challenges of Security, Welfare and Representation
Authors: Schwarz Rolf
Published: December 2005

This article introduces a critical approach to the analysis of post-conflict peacebuilding (PCPB). It acknowledges the latter’s complex nature, questions sophisticated social engineering policies, is grounded in a historical understanding and subscribes to local ownership. The complexities, subtleties and ambiguities of historical processes of state formation across Europe and the world point towards the need for a similar sensitization in the approach to PCPB through externally driven state-building. This sensitization can best be captured through three issue-areas: security, welfare and representation. These themes are commonly seen as the core functions of modern states and are thus central to PCPB. The challenge for the international community hence revolves around rethinking several core concepts, such as state-building, security, development aid, civil society and sovereignty. Overall, such a critical approach to PCPB does not negate the possibility of social engineering, but questions its limits and the usefulness of blueprint solutions.
Civil Society and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: Ambiguities of International Programmes Aimed at Building ‘New’ Societies
Authors: Pouligny Béatrice
Published: December 2005

This article offers a critical analysis of aid programmes aimed at supporting local civil societies in post-conflict peacebuilding (PCPB). Such programmes are often seen to carry the best hopes for a genuine democratic counterweight to existing power-brokers and to hold the key to the building of a ‘new’ society. But, in their interventions, outsiders tend to forget the large diversity of local civil societies, creating many counter-effects in the way international programmes purport to support or empower local people. The resulting consequences affect the ways in which international and local actors interact in post-conflict contexts and, accordingly, the ways in which actual ‘civil society’ may contribute to PCPB. A close analysis of these elements reveals larger political ambiguities present in PCPB strategies and actions. The article ends with a series of recommendations to support a better understanding and acknowledgment of local processes and resources in any aid programme, as well as greater accountability on the part of outsiders.
Peace, Security and Development in Post-Conflict Environments
Authors: Krause Keith , Jütersonke Oliver
Published: December 2005

This article presents a critical overview of the contemporary practice of post-conflict peacebuilding (PCPB), arguing that contemporary post-conflict operations rest upon the assumption that a sophisticated social engineering approach could replace, or accelerate, a process of state formation that occurs rather more organically. Yet, PCPB is subject to the same tensions and dilemmas as the process of state formation. Many recent post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation programmes have been conducted with little critical self-reflection on the underlying assumptions or structural biases of PCPB efforts. One major reason for this is the missing connection, in the minds of policymakers and practitioners, between security and development concerns. The concept of human security can help bridge this gap and is also compatible with a form of Popperian ‘piecemeal’ social engineering that is more consistent with a critical approach to PCPB.
Resourcing the Recurrence of Intrastate Conflict: Parallel Economies and Their Implications for Peacebuilding
Authors: Wennmann Achim
Published: December 2005

Increasing attention to post-conflict peacebuilding (PCPB) has led to the investment of millions of dollars into countries that are emerging from conflict. Despite the enthusiasm when fighting stops, post-conflict situations bear a risk of renewed conflict. This article focuses on the role of parallel economies in the recurrence of conflict and elaborates their implications for PCPB. In a post-conflict setting, parallel economies are a legacy of conflict economies and provide a space for illicit and illegal economic activities that are not captured by the state, thus complicating the creation of welfare entitlements that bind citizens to the state. It will be argued that parallel economies contribute to the undermining of PCPB by diverting resources away from reconstruction and state-building and by empowering actors with little interest in peace. Moreover, it will be argued that the profits from parallel economies tend to be higher than the funds available to donors for PCPB and reconstruction. This affects the power balance between profiteers and donors in a post-conflict setting. Concerning policy, the article explores engaging parallel economies from a sector-specific perspective and questions the usefulness of criminalizing the parallel economy.
Peer Interactions, Language Development and Metacommunication
Authors: Branco Angela Uchoa
Published: December 2005

The role of metacommunication in numerous aspects or dimensions of human development cannot be overestimated. In this paper I discuss theoretical ideas and research evidence concerning play, metacommunication and language development. Concepts and theory, from my perspective, are in need of further elaborations as empirical evidence and theoretical sophistications demand a constant process of knowledge construction concerning the issue. Therefore, I present some recent elaborations regarding concepts related to metacommunication processes, claiming for the existence of, at least, three different sorts of metacommunication. The kind here designated as relational metacommunication is of particular interest when the goal is the study of play, role play, meaning construction, language and child development. The significance of role play for child development is remarkable. Notwithstanding, other kinds of play interactions expressively contribute to it. Possible implications of role playing in the sociogenesis of the dialogical self are considered, even though elaborations of this possibility will require another forum of academic analysis and discussion.
Why Is It So Difficult to Understand the Theory of Social Representations?
Authors: Raudsepp Maaris
Published: December 2005

Voelklein and Howarth's article characterizes social representations theory (SRT) in the light of criticism from British discursive psychology and focuses on a number of critical issues that are consistently misinterpreted in theoretical interpretations of SRT. I argue that on a more general level, difficulties in proper understanding of SRT stem from its underlying dialectical assumptions. Some critical points related to SRT that are most often misinterpreted are discussed: aggregate and systemic concepts of sociality, individual agency, the role of social practice, among others.
The Signs of Interpretation
Authors: Innis Robert E.
Published: December 2005

Designed as a reflection on and extension of Tine K. Jensen's Peirce-based ‘The Interpretation of Signs of Child Sexual Abuse’, this article brings out features of the processes and structures of interpretation that are not foregrounded in her article: abduction as hypothesis formation and pivotal semiosic act; the consequent intimate connection, indeed continuities, between ‘high-level’ interpretation and ‘lower-level’ perception; the nature of ‘problematic situations’ that elicit the work of interpretation; the skill structure of interpretation; the differential placement of interpreters over against one another and over against the ‘cases’ they are trying to decipher; the complex constitution of the interpreter as an already pre-structured and ‘interested’ party; and the general semiotic structure of every perceptual occasion that sets inquiry and interpretation in motion. Not only conceptual tools from Peirce's semiotic theory are utilized, but also those from Dewey's pragmatist theory of inquiry, Polanyi's theory of tacit knowing, Heidegger's analysis of the fore-structures of understanding, and Bühler's organon model of language.
Branding the nation: What is being branded?
Authors: Fan Ying
Published: December 2005

Nation branding and nation brand are two different concepts. A nation has a brand image with or without nation branding. This paper examines the concept of nation branding, focusing on the central question of what is being branded. It differentiates nation branding from product branding, and draws comparisons between nation branding and productcountry image. Paradoxical issues around the concept and the wider context in which nation branding can be applied are also discussed. More research is needed to find out if and how nation branding could help economic development in a country. As many other non-marketing factors also affect a nation's image, the role played by nation branding may turn out to be only a modest one.
Using visit frequency to segment ski resorts customers
Authors: Tsiotsou Rodoula
Published: December 2005

The purpose of the study is to segment ski resorts customers according to their frequency of visits in order to identify homogeneous groups. In particular, the study investigates the degree to which ski experience, overall satisfaction and income discriminate customers who visit ski resorts weekly from those who visit them monthly. A self-administered anonymous questionnaire was given to 200 customers of two different ski resorts in Greece. The questionnaire was answered by 191 individuals (95.5 per cent response rate). Classification with discriminant analysis was used to identify consumers with different visitation frequency. The hypothesis that ski experience, overall satisfaction and income will classify consumers according to their visitation frequency was confirmed. The findings of the study provide theoretical and practical implications in identifying better segments and increasing destination marketing effectiveness.
Catering to the healthy-living vacationer
Authors: Hallab Zaher
Published: December 2005

An essential function that is recommended for destinations and tourism and hospitality organizations to undertake is to learn about developments in the external environment that may have a substantial impact on the competitiveness of their business. The healthy-living lifestyle has been gaining momentum in the USA and in various parts of the world; more than ever, programs, products, and regulations are being developed and implemented to cater to members of the mentioned lifestyle and to support the overall well being of societies. In the field of travel and tourism, health has been approached from the angle of tourism experiences’ effects on an individual's well being. There has been no attempt to explore the characteristics of a healthy-living market segment and its travel motivational characteristics. This article presents the findings of a research project that aimed at unveiling the travel motivational characteristics of the healthy-living market segment along with its socio-demographic characteristics. In today's competitive environment, it has become a must to learn about a specific segment's characteristics. Destinations as well as tourism/hospitality organizations cannot afford to waste their resources on decisions taken based on personal opinions and not hard intelligence on specific markets of interest. Using the findings as guidelines, recommendations are presented on possible public and private sectors’ roles in supporting the development and marketing of hospitality and tourism products and services positioned to cater to vacationers who have a healthy-living oriented lifestyle.
Travel agent vs internet: What influences travel consumer choices?
Authors: Cheyne Jo , Downes Mary , Legg Stephen
Published: December 2005

Until relatively recently, travel agents have been the key intermediary between travel suppliers and consumers, with information as their primary stock in trade. However, changes to information technology and the advent of the internet have the potential to allow travel suppliers and consumers to interact directly, thus threatening the existence of the traditional travel agent. This paper examines the factors that influence travel consumers' choices between using a travel agent and/or the internet when planning and arranging their overseas holidays. Research employing a questionnaire survey and focus groups was conducted in a small New Zealand city. Findings from this exploratory study indicated the importance of a number of service dimensions, in particular: reliability, handling complexity, assurance, good deals and security. Other findings suggested that travel agents could become more competitive through more effective use of information technology and that the perceived value of the services required can influence consumer choices.
Spirituality, Psychiatry and Participation: A Cultural Analysis
Authors: Dein Simon
Published: December 2005

This article begins by asking whether religion and spirituality are useful terms for cross-cultural comparisons. After discussing the increasing distinction between religion and spirituality in Western cultures, it points out how the terms religion and spirituality are used in divergent ways in the literature and the need for conceptual clarification in this area. Broadly, spirituality relates to interconnectedness, ultimate meaning or life force itself. The current use of the term spirituality in Western cultures derives both from Christian spirituality and ‘New Age’ thinking, which often appropriates ideas from Eastern religious traditions. The sociocultural roots of this division are complex, involving both growth of individualism, the pursuit of meaning and discontent with materialism and scientific rationalism. This situation is contrasted with other monotheistic religions where there is no distinction between religion and spirituality. This turn to spirituality has influenced health care professionals' conceptualizations of health and healing. The implications for psychiatry are discussed. I conclude that spirituality is a way of ‘being in the world’ and shares affinities with Tambiah's notion of a participatory mode of thinking.
Religious Stigmata, Magnetic Fluids and Conversion Hysteria: One Survival of ‘Vital Force’ Theories in Scientific Medicine?
Authors: Littlewood Roland , Bartocci Goffredo
Published: December 2005

A study of Natuzza Evolo, a contemporary Roman Catholic stigmatic in southern Italy, raises certain questions of mechanism and evidence. Was this a miracle, hysterical conversion or contrived? The medical interpretation of the phenomenon as conversion disorder raises questions about the popularity of hysteria as a medical diagnosis and the ways in which it functions like ‘vital forc', as a metaphoric mediator between the natural world, human agency, and the ultrahuman.
Schizophrenic Consciousness, Spiritual Experience, and the Borders Between Things, Images and Words
Authors: Stanghellini Giovanni
Published: December 2005

A prototypical feature of schizophrenic consciousness is that it undergoes a solidification of the imaginary space in which mental events take place. The bipartition between images and ‘real' things is jeopardized and imagination is transformed into ‘physical' forms. Parallel to this solidification of imaginary space in schizophrenic consciousness, more generally the rigid tripartite separation of things, images and words upon which the spatial order of consciousness is founded starts to erode. I explore different spiritual and philosophical traditions which shed light on and make more understandable the schizophrenic consciousness that call into question this separatedness. I argue that these traditions indicate that our current commonsensical approach to the separatedness between things, images and words is historically and culturally determined.
Spirituality and Treatment Choices by South and East Asian Women with Serious Mental Illness
Authors: Chiu Lyren , Morrow Marina , Ganesan Soma , Clark Nancy
Published: December 2005

The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate how South and East Asian immigrant women who have diagnoses of serious mental illness make treatment choices in relation to spirituality and to explore how gender, cultural beliefs, and spirituality intersect with the process of choice. The findings reveal that the process of spiritual choice includes three interrelated phases: (1) identifying contributing factors, (2) exploring spiritual resources and strategies, and (3) living with the choices. Variations among health beliefs and health care decisions are explained and services that women see as being helpful are identified.
Religious Practice and Psychological Distress: The Importance of Gender, Ethnicity and Immigrant Status
Authors: Jarvis G. Eric , Kirmayer Laurence J. , Weinfeld Morton , Lasry Jean-Claude
Published: December 2005

The present study examined the relationship between religious practice and psychological distress in a culturally diverse urban population to explore how religious affiliation, gender, ethnicity, and immigrant status affect this relationship. Data were drawn from a study of health care utilization in Montreal. A stratified community sample of 1485 yielded four religious groups: Protestant (n = 205), Catholic (813), Jewish (201), and Buddhist (150), and a group with no declared religion (116). The sample was composed of five ethnocultural groups: Anglophone Canadian-born, Francophone Canadian-born, Afro-Caribbean, Vietnamese, and Filipino immigrants. Psychological distress was assessed with the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Religious involvement was measured with three items: 1) declared religion; 2) frequency of attendance at religious meetings; and 3) frequency of religious rituals performed at home. Multiple regression models examined the relationship of religious practice to distress, controlling for sociodemographic variables including ethnicity. Overall, attendance at religious services was associated with a lower GHQ score. Attendance at religious services also was inversely related to psychological distress for females, Protestants, Catholics, Filipinos, and Afro-Caribbeans; but not for males, Buddhists or Jews. Religious practice at home was not associated with level of distress for any group. The ‘no declared religion’ group had the highest mean GHQ score of all the groups. Results confirm the association between attendance at religious services and lower levels of distress, but reveal ethnospecific and gender effects indicating the need to understand the impact of religious practice on mental health in social and cultural context.
Between Revolution and Reaction
Authors: Haddock Bruce
Published: December 2005

The article focuses on Vincenzo Cuoco’s attempt to learn theoretical and political lessons from the failed Neapolitan Revolution of 1799. His Saggio storico sought to steer a course between revolution and reaction, arguing that practical reforms should be couched in terms that reflected traditional understandings within Neapolitan popular culture. He highlighted the responsibility of political leaders to shape popular culture rather than to impose ‘ideal’ solutions to political questions. The position he espoused (linking normative political theory to historical context) became a dominant motif in later liberal nationalist positions, enabling moderates to champion constitutional reform without embarking on radical economic and social change.
Liberty, Class and Nation-Building
Authors: Biagini Eugenio
Published: December 2005

This article explores the political thought of a leading Italian intellectual after his conversion from Jacobinism to liberalism. It shows the extent to which Foscolo was abreast of the then contemporary debate on constitutional government and nation-building. Moreover, it illustrates how he combined liberal with civic humanist and republican ideas, as well as idealism and Realpolitik in his perception of the problems faced by small nations struggling to be free in an era of international ideological conflict.
From Republican Patriotism to National Sentiment
Authors: Kitromilides Paschalis M.
Published: December 2005

This article attempts to add a corrective to the exclusive focus of the academic historiography of republicanism on the mainstream of the tradition in Italy and north-western Europe by bringing a perspective from the European south-east on the transmission and evolution of republican ideas. An illustration of this broader perspective on the history of republicanism is provided by the treatise Hellenic Nomarchy anonymously published in Italy in 1806. The article examines the origins of Modern Greek republicanism, the meaning of ‘nomarchy’ and the context and sources of the work. It stresses its social and political radicalism and points to its affinities with the ideas of 18th-century Tuscan republicanism and with the work of Vittorio Alfieri and Ugo Foscolo.
Patriotism and Internationalism in the ‘Oath of Allegiance’ to Young Europe
Authors: Nabulsi Karma
Published: December 2005

This article examines the ‘Oath of Allegiance’ of an international semisecret society, Young Europe. The society’s programme defined the struggle to create democratic republics throughout Europe in the first half of the 19th century. Its founding documents and charter in 1834 represented radical shifts in both the ideas and practice of European republicans on the principles of liberty and equality, and in the conceptualization of a trinity that linked republican patriotism to both nationalism and internationalism. The society also offered new understandings of both fraternity and humanity. The doctrine combined the working of international and national organizations as the blueprint with which to construct republics. The emergence of Young Europe signified a change in both the ideological language and in the core values of republicans. It also represented a break in its organizational principles; in its conception of the nation and the nation’s role within the republic; and in the appreciation of the international role of republicans.
Memory, Legend and Politics
Authors: Hazareesingh Sudhir
Published: December 2005

Drawing on archival evidence, this article explores the salience of ‘patriotic’ themes and motifs in the emergence of the Napoleonic legend in France after 1815. Symbolizing France’s defeated and humiliated status, the captive of Saint-Helena became an emblem of French patriotism, a rallying point for all the men and women who refused to accept their nation’s containment by the 1815 treaties. And, contrary to the traditional view that Bonapartist nationalism was merely a celebration of violence, military glory and conquest, it will also become apparent that the image of the Emperor was used in French popular political culture to promote a coherent cluster of ideas and values of ‘nationhood’, which in many respects connected back to the defensive patriotism of the Revolutionary era. Ultimately, through their celebration of the memory of Napoleon, his supporters and allies demonstrated the convergence of republican and Bonapartist values around core notions of the Revolutionary tradition, most notably a resolute defence of French national sovereignty.
‘Patriotism’, ‘Cosmopolitanism’ and ‘Humanity’ in Victorian Political Thought
Authors: Varouxakis Georgios
Published: December 2005

This article analyses the articulation of the relationship between ‘patriotism’ and ‘cosmopolitanism’ or commitment to ‘humanity’ in the writings of some major Victorian political thinkers. It is argued that: (a) there was no neat distinction between ‘patriotism’ and ‘nationalism’ in the thought of the time; (b) ‘patriotism’ was seen as a stepping stone to universalistic commitment to ‘humanity’ rather than as opposed to or incompatible with the latter; (c) most thinkers avoided the term ‘cosmopolitanism’, because of some of its associations, and preferred to use love of ‘humanity’ or similar terms to refer to universalistic commitments; (d) all thinkers discussed here believed that some form of ‘patriotism’ was necessary, while all of them complained that the term was being misused by most of their contemporaries and inveighed against some misconceived and morally reprehensible version of ‘patriotism’; and (e) most discussions of patriotism and universalism were conducted in a religious or quasi-religious language. The main focus of this article is on John Stuart Mill (1806-73), Matthew Arnold (1822-88), Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), Thomas Hill Green (1836-82), Henry Sidgwick (1838-1900), Frederic Harrison (1831-1923) and, to a lesser extent, Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-72), John Robert Seeley (1834-95) and Charles Henry Pearson (1830-94).
Notes from the field
Authors: Sankaran Shankar
Published: December 2005

I had the pleasure of meeting several action researchers across the USA during my sabbatical late last year. The multiple purposes for my visit to the USA were to meet doctoral students doing their research in organizational change and development in Hawaii; interview prominent action researchers in the US about examining action research dissertations; and to have discussions with action researchers on ways to increase conversations among action researchers around the world. I thought it would be good to share some insights from my visit with fellow action researchers as a letter to Action Research.
Community mapping as a research tool with youth
Authors: Amsden Jackie , VanWynsberghe Rob
Published: December 2005

This article provides a detailed description of the in-field experience of using community mapping as a participatory action research tool with youth. It describes a case study, the Youth Friendly Health Services project (YFHS project), in which a team of Vancouver youth carried out a participatory evaluation of health clinics by mapping out criteria for evaluation and then creating an evaluation tool based on the maps that were created. Community mapping proved to be an inclusive and appropriate tool to engage youth perspectives. The major challenges faced in the process were in determining how to represent and act upon the findings of the mapping process. Their experience suggests that while such innovative data collection tools such as community mapping can successfully engage youth, not just as participants, but as facilitators of research, they must be accompanied by equally creative and innovative approaches to formulating research results and outcomes.
‘Beloved Bangladesh’
Authors: Wadsworth Yoland
Published: December 2005

The paper offers a first-person experiential observational study by a newcomer to the use of research initiatives to combat poverty in two geographic regions and Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. Drawing on participatory action research and the tradition of ‘the animateur’ (catalyst-facilitation), the work of the sponsoring local agency, Research Initiatives Bangladesh (RIB) is described as illuminating a range of quite powerful applications. The paper is part of a larger project to bring to a western audience knowledge of the use of these methodologies in the Indo-Asian region, and some comparative reflections on them.
Experimental glomerulonephritis induced by hydrocarbon exposure: A systematic review
Authors: Ravnskov Uffe
Published: December 2005

Background

Much epidemiological evidence suggests that hydrocarbon exposure may induce glomerulonephritis and worsen its course in many patients. The mechanisms are unknown, however, no specific microscopic pattern has been identified, and it has also been argued that hydrocarbon exposure causes tubular damage mainly. Studying experimental animals may best answer these questions, and as no systematic review of glomerulonephritis produced experimentally by hydrocarbon exposure has been performed previously, I found it relevant to search for and analyse such studies.

Methods

Animal experiments having mimicked human glomerulonephritis by hydrocarbon exposure were sought on Medline and Toxnet

Results

Twenty-six experiments using thirteen different hydrocarbons were identified. Several human subtypes were observed including IgA nephritis, mesangial, proliferative and extracapillary glomerulonephritis, focal and focal-segmental sclerosis, minimal change nephropathy, anti-GBM and anti-TBM nephritis, and glomerulonephritis associated with peiarteritis nodosa. Glomerular proteinuria was seen in 10/12 experiments that included urine analyses, and renal failure in 5/8 experiments that included measurements of glomerular function. All experiments resulted in various degrees of tubular damage as well. In most studies, where the animals were examined at different times during or after the exposure, the renal microscopic and functional changes were seen immediately, whereas deposits of complement and immunoglobulins appeared late in the course, if at all.

Conclusion

These experiments are in accord with epidemiological evidence that hydrocarbon exposure may cause glomerulonephritis and worsen renal function. Probable mechanisms include an induction of autologous antibodies and a disturbance of normal immunological functions. Also, tubular damage may increase postglomerular resistance, resulting in a glomerular deposition of macromolecules. In most models a causal role of glomerular immune complex formation was unlikely, but may rather have been a secondary phenomenon. As most glomerulonephritis subgroups were seen and as some of the hydrocarbons produced more than one subgroup, the microscopic findings in a patient cannot be used as a clue to the causation of his disease. By the same reason, the lack of a specific histological pattern in patients with glomerulonephritis assumed to have been caused by hydrocarbon exposure is not contradictive.
The hospital anxiety and depression rating scale: A cross-sectional study of psychometrics and case finding abilities in general practice
Authors: Olssøn Ingrid , Mykletun Arnstein , Dahl Alv A
Published: December 2005

Background

General practitioners' (GPs) diagnostic skills lead to underidentification of generalized anxiety disorders (GAD) and major depressive episodes (MDE). Supplement of brief questionnaires could improve the diagnostic accuracy of GPs for these common mental disorders.

The aims of this study were to examine the usefulness of The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Rating Scale (HADS) for GPs by: 1) Examining its psychometrics in the GPs' setting; 2) Testing its case-finding properties compared to patient-rated GAD and MDE (DSM-IV); and 3) Comparing its case finding abilities to that of the GPs using Clinical Global Impression-Severity (CGI-S) rating.

Methods

In a cross-sectional survey study 1,781 patients in three consecutive days in September 2001 attended 141 GPs geographically spread in Norway. Sensitivity, specificity, optimal cut off score, and Area under the curve (AUC) for the HADS and the CGI-S were calculated with Generalized Anxiety Questionnaire (GAS-Q) as reference standard for GAD, and Depression Screening Questionnaire (DSQ) for MDE.

Results

The HADS-A had optimal cut off ≥8 (sensitivity 0.89, specificity 0.75), AUC 0.88 and 76% of patients were correctly classified in relation to GAD. The HADS-D had by optimal cut off ≥8 (sensitivity 0.80 and specificity 0.88) AUC 0.93 and 87% of the patients were correctly classified in relation to MDE. Proportions of the total correctly classified at the CGI-S optimal cut-off ≥3 were 83% of patients for GAD and 81% for MDE.

Conclusion

The results indicate that addition of the patients' HADS scores to GPs' information could improve their diagnostic accuracy of GAD and MDE.
Promoting physical activity using an activity monitor and a tailored web-based advice: design of a randomized controlled trial [ISRCTN93896459]
Authors: Slootmaker Sander M , Chin A Paw Marijke JM , Schuit Albertine J , Seidell Jacob C , van Mechelen Willem
Published: December 2005

Background

Ageing is associated with a decrease in physical activity. This decrease particularly occurs during specific transitional life stages. Especially during adolescence and young adulthood a steep decrease in physical activity is observed. Inactive people are often not aware of their inactivity. Providing feedback on the actual physical activity level by an activity monitor can increase awareness and may in combination with an individually tailored physical activity advice stimulate a physically active lifestyle.

Methods

In a randomized controlled trial the effectiveness of providing an activity monitor in combination with a personal physical activity advice through the Internet will be examined. Outcome measures are level of physical activity, determinants of physical activity, quality of life, empowerment, aerobic fitness and body composition. Participants are relatively inactive adolescents and young adults who are measured at baseline, after 3 months intervention and 5 months after the end of the intervention. In addition, facilitating and hindering factors for implementation of the intervention will be investigated.

Discussion

The use of a personal activity monitor in combination with web-based assisted individually tailored health promotion offers a good opportunity to work interactively with large groups of adolescents and young adults and provide them with advice based on their actual activity level. It has great potential to motivate people to change their behaviour and to our knowledge has not been evaluated before.