bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Replication of “Economic Development and the Impacts of Natural Disasters” (Economics Letters 2007)
Authors: Mercer Robert , Reed W. Robert
Published: January 2014

This study replicates the empirical findings of Toya and Skidmore (2007), henceforth TS, and performs a variety of robustness checks. Using an extensive data set of international disasters, TS report that a number of economic development variables are significantly related to mitigation of adverse disaster consequences. We are able to exactly replicate their findings. Our robustness checks consist of two parts. First, we update TS’s original data set, with respect to both variable values and years of coverage. We then address a number of estimation and specification issues. With one exception, our robustness checks fail to find strong evidence that economic development variables (income, educational attainment, size of government, economic openness, and financial sector development) are statistically related to either fatalities or economic damages. The exception is that we find that higher national income is associated with reduced economic losses (as a share of gross domestic product) from natural disasters.
Metabolomic profiling in multiple sclerosis: insights into biomarkers and pathogenesis
Authors: Reinke SN , Broadhurst DI , Sykes BD , Baker GB , Catz I , Warren KG , Power C
Published: January 2014

Metabolomics enables the provision of sensitive bio-markers of disease. We performed 800 MHz 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic analyses of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens to identify biomarkers of multiple sclerosis (MS), yielding reproducible detection of 15 metabolites from MS ( n=15) and non-MS ( n=17) patients. Mean levels of choline, myo-inositol and threonate were increased, whereas 3-hydroxybutyrate, citrate, phenylalanine, 2-hydroxyisovalerate and mannose were decreased in MS-derived CSF ( p<0.05), suggesting alterations to energy and phospholipid metabolism. Multivariate hierarchal cluster analysis indicated a high correlation within the metabolite profiles, significantly clustering samples into the two clinical groups, which was corroborated using principal components analysis. CSF metabolomics have the capacity to yield quantitative biomarkers and insights into the pathogenesis of MS.
How to govern physician–hospital exchanges: contractual and relational issues in Belgian hospitals
Authors: Trybou Jeroen , Gemmel Paul , Annemans Lieven
Published: January 2014

Objective

Our aim was to investigate contractual mechanisms in physician–hospital exchanges. The concepts of risk-sharing and the nature of physician–hospital exchanges – transactional versus relational – were studied.

Methods

Two qualitative case studies were performed in Belgium. Hospital executives and physicians were interviewed to develop an in-depth understanding of contractual and relational issues that shape physician–hospital contracting in acute care hospitals. The underlying theoretical concepts of agency theory and social exchange theory were used to analyse the data.

Results

Our study found that physician–hospital contracting is highly complex. The contract is far more than an economic instrument governing financial aspects. The effect of the contract on the nature of exchange – whether transactional or relational – also needs to be considered. While it can be argued that contractual governance methods are increasingly necessary to overcome the difficulties that arise from the fragmented payment framework by aligning incentives and sharing financial risk, they undermine the necessary relational governance. Relational qualities such as mutual trust and an integrative view on physician–hospital exchanges are threatened, and may be difficult to sustain, given the current fragmentary payment framework.

Conclusions

Since health care policy makers are increasing the financial risk borne by health care providers, it can be argued that this also increases the need to share financial risk and to align incentives between physician and hospital. However, our study demonstrates that while economic alignment is important in determining physician–hospital contracts, the corresponding impact on working relationships should also be considered. Moreover, it is important to avoid a relationship between hospital and physician predominantly characterized by transactional exchanges thereby fostering an unhealthy us-and-them divide and mentality. Relational exchange is a valuable alternative to contractual exchange, stimulating an integrated hospital–physician relationship. Unfortunately, the fragmented payment framework characterized by unaligned incentives is perceived as an obstacle to realize effective collaboration.
‘Has Aboriginal art a future?’ Leonhard Adam’s 1944 essay and the development of the Australian Aboriginal art market
Authors: Sloggett Robyn
Published: January 2014

This article examines how foresight, hindsight and perception are enabled, modified and compromised by competing intellectual traditions and by social and professional exigencies. Focusing on the example of one scholar, Dr Leonhard Adam, and his essay ‘Has Aboriginal art a future?’ this article charts the trajectory of this question from obscurity to celebration. It explores why such a significant question was unable to ignite debate, at a time when there was considerable interest in the role of Aboriginal art in the articulation of national identity. It examines the intellectual and social conditions that framed Adam’s contribution and explores what enabled him, as a relative outsider, to develop such a prescient understanding of the future of Australian Aboriginal art.
Digital platforms and narrative exchange: Hidden constraints, emerging agency
Authors: Clark Wilma , Couldry Nick , MacDonald Richard , Stephansen Hilde C
Published: January 2014

It is well known that narrative exchange takes distinctive forms in the digital age. Less understood are the digitally based processes and infrastructures that support or constrain the wider exchange of narrative materials. This article reports on research in a UK sixth form college with ambitions to expand its students’ digital skills. Our approach was to identify the preconditions (sometimes, but often not, involving fully formed narrative agency) that might support sustained narrative exchange. We call these conditions collectively ‘proto-agency’, and explore them as a way of establishing what a ‘digital story circle’ (not just a digital story) might be: that is, how new digital platforms and resources contribute to the infrastructures for narrative exchange and wider empowerment in a complex institutional context. During our fieldwork, interesting insights into the tensions around social media emerged. Only by understanding such forms of proto-agency can we begin to assess the participatory potential of digital platforms for young people in education today.
Race, gender, and self-presentation in teen profile photographs
Authors: Kapidzic Sanja , Herring Susan C
Published: January 2014

This study analyzes how teens represent themselves through their profile photographs on a popular nonymous chat site. Using visual content analysis methods, we analyzed 400 profile photographs, controlling for the self-reported gender and the apparent race of the photographic subject. The analysis finds significant differences in gaze, posture, dress, and distance from the camera according to gender and race, although racial differences are stronger for boys than for girls. To a surprising extent, the findings mirror previous findings of gender and race differences in face-to-face interaction, suggesting that the teens construe their profile images as invitations to interact with others online. At the same time, their photo choices reproduce culturally dominant ideologies of gender and race as reinforced by mass media images.
A review of social networking service (SNS) research in communication journals from 2006 to 2011
Authors: Zhang Yin , Leung Louis
Published: January 2014

This article presents a review of the scholarship on social networking services (SNS) in the period from 2006 to 2011. Through a full scan of the academic output published in six high-ranking communication journals listed in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) within the six-year period, 84 directly relevant articles were identified. The study summarizes the objects of study, methodological preferences, and thematic patterns of recent SNS research. Challenges to the field and several reflections are addressed. The findings provide not only an overview of current ongoing research trends but also insights for future studies.
A modeling framework for second law analysis of low-temperature combustion engines
Authors: Mamalis Sotirios , Babajimopoulos Aristotelis , Assanis Dennis , Borgnakke Claus
Published: January 2014

Low-temperature combustion has shown the potential to provide solutions for future clean and efficient powertrain systems. Traditional approaches using the first law of thermodynamics have been established for describing energy flows within engine systems and comparing losses between low-temperature and traditional combustion modes. An augmented approach, using the second law of thermodynamics, can be utilized to gain insight into the exergy flows within the system and thus identify areas of irreversibilities and inefficiencies. The present article aims at introducing the required framework for the second law analysis of low-temperature combustion concepts and demonstrating its application to boosted homogeneous charge compression ignition engines. The framework consists of a combination of the first law and second law expressions combined with the University of Michigan homogeneous charge compression ignition combustion model and was applied on a modeled light-duty four-cylinder boosted homogeneous charge compression ignition engine. It was found that combustion irreversibilities in homogeneous charge compression ignition were ∼25% more than traditional spark ignition or diesel engines and increased with dilution. On the other hand, exergy transfer to the walls was reduced with low-temperature combustion. It was also found that the combination of negative valve overlap and turbocharging is not beneficial for high-load operation. Exergy analysis of the exhaust system revealed that turbine useful work was lower than 50% of exergy at the exhaust ports and indicated that boosting performance may be improved by manipulating exergy transfer in the exhaust manifold. Results from the present study are focused on boosted homogeneous charge compression ignition, but the conclusions reached are applicable to other low-temperature combustion concepts as well.
Doing ethnography or applying a qualitative technique? Reflections from the ‘waiting field’
Authors: Mannay Dawn , Morgan Melanie
Published: January 2014

Contemporary social science research is often concerned to engage with and promote particular forms of postmodern and innovative data production, such as photo-elicitation, autoethnography or free association interviews. This fascination with the latest and greatest techniques has been accompanied by an ever more fragmented range of research methods training for students where the week-by-week shift between approaches engenders a disjointed view of becoming the researcher. This individualisation of techniques has set up rival camps and critiques where the common ground of being embedded in traditional ethnography is often forgotten. For researchers, who began their academic careers in the ethnographic tradition, there is an appreciation of the holistic base of enquiry from which a family of methods can be effectively employed. However, more recently qualitative researchers have been distracted by ‘the technique’; a distraction that can blind them to the occupation of ethnography. Concurrently, there have been shifts in the social and economic expectations placed on qualitative inquiry that have acted to close down spaces of ethnographic teaching and practice. In response, this article focuses on the importance of the ‘waiting field’; an opportunity to explore the times where real lives carry on before they make room for the intrusion of the data production of ‘the technique’ and remind us that much qualitative research is, in fact, an ethnographic undertaking: one that encompasses the researcher within and beyond the field.
The true gift: Thoughts on L’Année sociologique of 1925
Authors: Guyer Jane I.
Published: January 2014

Mauss’s Essay on the Gift was the only article to be included when the journal L’Année sociologique was relaunched after the Great War. Prepared during 1923/1924, it appeared in 1925. The Essay was preceded by Mauss’s eulogy to colleagues who had died since the last edition (1912), including five killed in action and its founder, Émile Durkheim (1917). Hundreds of pages of reviews followed, many written by Mauss himself. This article places the essay back in its original context by exploring the resonance of the whole issue with the Jewish ritual of chesed shel emet (generally translated into English as ‘the true gift’) which takes care of the body between death and burial. The three parts of the paper cover: the empirical method of The Gift (very briefly); the eulogy and the reviews; and the concept of chesed (‘kindness’) in Jewish thought. This reading follows Mauss’s own method of combining empirical profusion with a hermeneutics of consonance.
Mauss, India, and perspectives from world history
Authors: Allen Nicholas J.
Published: January 2014

Mauss’s wide-ranging education included not only philosophy and sociology with Durkheim in Bordeaux, but also philology and Indology with Sylvain Lévi (his ‘second uncle’) in Paris. What was the effect on his life and work of this early but intense exposure to an ancient civilization? A few publications, notably the essay on sacrifice, are predominantly India-focused, but more typically Mauss used his regional expertise within the world-wide framework of Durkheimian sociologie. Several of his more ambitious works, including The Gift, take a world-historical approach, in which India helps to bridge the gap between tribal societies and the modern world; but the region is present in much of his other writing. Mauss’s deep immersion in early India enriched his oeuvre much as intensive fieldwork enriches that of a more typical twentieth-century anthropologist.
On the moral grounds of economic relations: A Maussian approach
Authors: Graeber David
Published: January 2014

The gift is not a uniform economic category, since gifts are structured by different economic principles or moral rules which co-exist in all societies. Mauss showed that dominant economic forms, like capitalist markets or the heroic gift, often elevate one principle above the others, but ordinary people must combine them in order to get by. There are three moral grounds for economic relations: communism, exchange and hierarchy. Everyday communism is basic to living in society. It is presumptively eternal, a permanent sense of being mutually indebted. Exchange or reciprocity strives to achieve equivalence, so that indebtedness is temporary and should ideally be cancelled. Hierarchy is a permanent relationship between unequal parties. The rhetoric of reciprocity disguises the working principle, which is precedent. Debt here is irrevocable and transfers pass only one way. Ethnography allows us to conceive of making new societies where the balance of economic principles is different from our own.
Human life as drama: A Maussian insight
Authors: James Wendy
Published: January 2014

Recent years have seen the beginning of new conversations between the ‘natural’ and ‘socio-cultural’ sides of the human sciences and the story of our long-term history as a species. Both sociology and the biological sciences, since the mid-twentieth century, have sought to avoid rigid models of individual or collective behaviour and to develop more flexible approaches. A concept finding favour today among very different scholars is ‘sociality’. It is well established in literary English (and French), but has only recently become a technical concept. Mauss was deeply interested in long-term history and in connections with our evolutionary past as it was then understood. He envisaged social life often as a scene in movement, a potentially creative experience of living encounters. He did not use the term ‘sociality’, but he did make frequent reference to the image of ‘drama’, explicitly and implicitly through the way he re-presented ethnographic evidence. This article argues that his insights anticipated our re-thinking of the ‘nature’ of social life today.
Reciprocity in Brazilian songs of love and money
Authors: Oliven Ruben George
Published: January 2014

The relation between love, money and reciprocity was a central theme in Brazilian popular music in the first half of the twentieth century. Samba composers, who were mostly men, saw love as being morally superior to money. Love is generally offered by men who consider themselves to be above material considerations, while women are supposed to be constantly bringing up the subject of money. As love relationships involve reciprocity, a tension exists between what is expected or demanded of the opposite sex and what is obtained from them. Brazilian popular music in the first half of the last century reflects this world of expectations and complaints in a register that is at time humorous and at other times resentful.
‘Adopting an obligation’: Innovative forms of inter-clan democracy in the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea
Authors: Sykes Karen
Published: January 2014

This article explores how aspects of clan equality and fraternity within segments of a state can be basic elements of democratic society. It describes the innovative forms of inter-clan democracy in the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea (PNG) that emerged during times of regional conflict at the site of a multinational-run copper mine in North Solomons Province. Those men who had been sent to reinstate civil services near the mining site adopted children from that war-torn province into the matriclans of their own respective wives. In the role of adoptive father they could provide them with access to health and education facilities in the home province; men in the region thus challenged the PNG state to meet its obligations to protect the rights of the youngest generation to grow to adulthood.
Spirits in the work of Durkheim, Hertz and Mauss: Reflections on post-war Vietnam
Authors: Kwon Heonik
Published: January 2014

Scholars of the early French sociological school shared strong common intellectual interests, but they pursued these interests in both convergent and divergent perspectives. Focusing on the ideas of soul and spirit, this essay examines how Mauss and Hertz approached these ideas differently from Durkheim, leading to their distinct understandings of human solidarity and social inequality. It argues that the powerful legacies of these three formative members of the Année sociologique group become even more powerful and relevant if understood in an integrated perspective and in critical relation to one another. The discussion will be illustrated by an ethnographic study of Vietnamese culture of commemoration concerning the souls of tragic war dead.
The muscular expression of RAS in patients with achalasia
Authors: Casselbrant A , Kostic S , Lönroth H
Published: January 2014

Introduction:

Angiotensin II (AngII) elicits smooth muscle contractions via activation of AngII type 1 receptor (AT1R) in the intestinal wall and in sphincter regions in several species. Achalasia is a rare swallowing disorder and is characterized by a loss of the wave-like contraction that forces food through the oesophagus and a failure of the lower oesophageal sphincter to relax during swallowing.

Aims and methods:

The present study was undertaken to elucidate expression and distribution of a local renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in the muscular layer of distal normal human oesophagus as well as in patients with achalasia using western blot analysis, immunohistochemistry and polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Results:

AT1R, together with enzyme renin and cathepsin D expression were decreased in patients with achalasia. In contrast, the mast cells chymase, cathepsin G, neprilysin and the receptor for angiotensin 1–7 peptides, the MAS receptor, were increased in patients with achalasia.

Conclusion:

The results showed the existence of a local RAS in human oesophageal muscular layer. The enzymes responsible for AngII production are different and there has been a shift in receptor physiology from AT1R to MAS receptor in patients with achalasia. These changes in the RAS might play a significant role in the physiological motor control for patients with achalasia.
Preliminary design and fast prototyping of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle propulsion system
Authors: Allotta Benedetto , Pugi Luca , Bartolini Fabio , Ridolfi Alessandro , Costanzi Riccardo , Monni Niccolò , Gelli Jonathan
Published: January 2014

The Mechatronics and Dynamic Modelling Laboratory of the Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Florence, as a partner of THESAURUS (Italian acronym for ‘TecnicHe per l’Esplorazione Sottomarina Archeologica mediante l’Utilizzo di Robot aUtonomi in Sciami’) project, has developed an innovative low-cost, multirole autonomous underwater vehicle, called Tifone. This article deals with the adopted methodologies for the autonomous underwater vehicle design: in particular, the main focus of this study is related to its propulsion system. According to the expected performances and requirements of THESAURUS project, the vehicle has to maintain good autonomy and efficiency (typical features of an autonomous underwater vehicle), with high manoeuvrability and hovering capabilities, which are more common of remotely operated vehicles. Moreover, cooperative underwater exploration and surveillance involve the use of a swarm of vehicles. In particular, the optimization of costs versus benefits is achieved through the design of a fleet of three multirole vehicles. Each autonomous underwater vehicle has five controlled degrees of freedom, thanks to four thrusters and two propellers: in this article, the preliminary design criteria concerning the vehicle and the design and testing of its actuation system are described.
Numerical analysis of basic base-ventilated supercavitating hydrofoil sections
Authors: Pearce Bryce W , Brandner Paul A
Published: January 2014

A numerical analysis of the inviscid flow over base-ventilated intercepted hydrofoils is presented. The low-order, non-linear boundary element formulation used is described along with the significant issues concerning the modelling of supercavities with this method. The use of transom-mounted interceptors is well established for the manoeuvring and trim control of high-speed vessels. The flow field over a forward-facing step at the trailing edge of a blunt-based hydrofoil section, with consequent cavity detachment from the outer edge of the step, is similar to that of the transom-mounted interceptor operating at high speed with free surface detachment from the outer edge. Due to this similarity, the term ‘intercepted’ hydrofoil is used to describe this arrangement. The results presented show that a number of geometric parameters, in particular thickness, leading-edge radius and trailing-edge slope, have a significant effect on the hydrodynamic performance of base-ventilated intercepted hydrofoils.
A Mixed Methods Approach to Network Data Collection
Authors: Rice Eric , Holloway Ian W. , Barman-Adhikari Anamika , Fuentes Dahlia , Brown C. Hendricks , Palinkas Lawrence A.
Published: January 2014

There is a growing interest in examining network processes with a mix of qualitative and quantitative network data. Research has consistently shown that free recall name generators entail recall bias and result in missing data that affect the quality of social network data. This study describes a mixed methods approach for collecting social network data, combining a free recall name generator in the context of an online survey with network relations data coded from transcripts of semistructured qualitative interviews. The combined network provides substantially more information about the network space, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Although network density was relatively stable across networks generated from different data collection methodologies, there were noticeable differences in centrality and component structure across networks. The approach presented here involved limited participant burden and generated more complete data than either technique alone could provide. We make suggestions for further development of this method.
Consumer Understanding of the Benefits and Risks of Fish Consumption During Pregnancy
Authors: Lando Amy M. , Lo Serena C.
Published: January 2014

Fish consumption during pregnancy is one important area of dietary advice. There are potential benefits for pregnant women and their babies from a diet that contains sufficient amounts of fish. However, methylmercury, which is in most fish in at least trace amounts, can have adverse effects on the cognitive development of fetuses and can have neurological effects on children and adults in high amounts. The Federal government first issued national consumption advice in order to minimize the risk to the developing fetus from methylmercury in fish in the 1990s. This advice was updated in 2001 and again in 2004. Most recently, the US Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 recommends a consumption target for pregnant and nursing women of 8 to 12 oz/wk of a variety of fish lower in methyl-mercury—to take advantage of the potential benefits that fish could provide to children’s development— while avoiding the 4 fish species highest in methylmercury that are named in joint 2004 Food and Drug Administration/Environmental Protection Agency advice (tilefish, shark, swordfish, and king mackerel). The challenge for policy makers, public health officials, and clinicians is to determine how best to communicate with pregnant women about both the benefits and risks associated with fish consumption.
Improving the quality of teaching and learning through leadership for learning
Authors: Malakolunthu Suseela , McBeath John , Swaffield Sue
Published: January 2014

This article emerged as a case study from a fact-finding mission of a joint programme between the Centre for Commonwealth Education (CCE) in Cambridge University and the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA) in University of Cape Coast, Ghana, to embed innovative approaches to teaching and learning in the basic schools of the latter country. The strategy was to enhance the leadership capacity of the headteachers. A leadership for learning (LfL) model with five seminal principles was used to guide and direct the change process. It was organized on the basis of capacity building whereby CCE provided expertise consultation and Ghanaians contextualized learning materials, and their execution. At the close of the second year, the qualitative case study involving four schools revealed that conspicuous changes were indeed taking place at different levels. The case study also provided evidence that LfL tended to be a broad systemic ideology that relied on the collective effort of various stakeholders.
Critical incident effects on principals
Authors: Lenarduzzi Grant P
Published: January 2014

The effect of critical incidents on school principals has been marginally investigated. Principal leadership has many pleasures, but it is often replete with problematic circumstances. The skilled school-based leader requires rationality and diplomacy to manage conflict successfully. This study examined the perceived effects of a critical incident, the closure of their school, on the professional and personal lives of principals. The investigation employed a narrative analysis approach in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. Narratives from two superintendents and six principals generated the evidence used to study the professional and personal complications associated with a principal living through a school closure. The investigation generated understandings of the impact of this critical event. Principals were aware of their precarious position of having dual allegiances to both district and school community. The emotionally-charged environment manifested professional and personal concerns, anxieties and resultant health concerns in the life of the school leader. The study provides publics affected by a school closure with understandings and knowledge regarding communication issues and approaches in closure considerations. Principals benefit from both enhanced discourse and administrative practices. School districts profit from in-depth perspectives and improved preparedness for critical events.
A multilayered transnational broadcasting television industry: The case of Latin America
Authors: Piñón Juan
Published: January 2014

The transformation of the U.S. Hispanic and Latin American television industrial landscape is slowly reshaping the composition of interregional programming flows, with an increasing presence of transnational corporations competing in different modalities in national markets. While long-standing dominant Latin American media corporations still hold a disproportionately hegemonic position in their domestic markets, the production of culturally proximate products is no longer the prerogative of national networks. The transnational invites us to reflect on the new sets of collaborations and transnational industrial structures of production, distribution, exhibition, and consumption resulting from the interrelated institutional relationships among television corporations across the region.
Localised prostate cancer: clinical and cost-effectiveness of new and emerging technologies
Authors: Philippou Yiannis , Hadjipavlou Marios , Khan Shahid , Ahmed Kamran , Rane Abhay
Published: January 2014

In contrast to pharmacological interventions that undergo rigorous clinical testing, recent technological advances in the treatment of prostate cancer (PCa) have particularly been introduced and driven by economic incentives rather than high-quality clinical evidence. In this review we summarise the clinical and cost-effectiveness of new and emerging technologies for localised PCa. We emphasise particularly on robotic prostatectomy, new developments in radiotherapy, novel technologies in focal therapy such as cryosurgery and high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU). Robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALRP) has similar oncologic outcomes to open radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP); however, patients who undergo RALRP are more likely to have improved short-term potency rates. Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and proton-beam therapy (PBT) have similar oncologic outcomes to external-beam radiotherapy (EBRT). IMRT has exhibited an improved gastrointestinal side effect profile compared to EBRT. PBT is not cost-effective compared to other radiotherapy modalities. Early studies of focal therapies in localised PCa have yielded positive results. Treatment decisions should be driven by cancer risk and patient preference rather than by financial incentives or availability of technology.
Health Centers in States With Public Health Agency Support Do Not Have Better Chronic Disease Outcomes
Authors: Wright Brad , Nice Andrew J.
Published: January 2014

Objectives: To examine the quality of chronic disease care at federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) as a function of state health agency support. Methods: We merged data from the 2010 Association of State and Territorial Health Officials Public Health Survey, the 2011 Area Resource File, and the 2010 Uniform Data System. Using ordinary least squares regression, we modeled hypertension and diabetes control among FQHC patients as a function of state public health agency support of FQHCs, including financial support, direct collaboration, and electronic health data exchanges. Results: The rate of hypertension control is 63.4%, while the rate of diabetes control (HbA1c <7%) is 41.3%. Some two thirds of FQHCs (67.1%) are in states whose public health agencies are fully engaged in FQHC-supporting activities, and approximately one third (34.6%) are in states whose public health agencies send and receive electronic health record data with FQHCs. However, none of our measures of public health agency support of FQHCs significantly predicted FQHC-specific chronic disease outcomes. Conclusions: We find no evidence that state public health agency support of FQHCs affects chronic disease outcomes for FQHC patients.
The Association of Free Testosterone Levels in Men and Lifestyle Factors and Chronic Disease Status
Authors: Cardarelli Roberto , Singh Meharvan , Meyer Jason , Balyakina Elizabeth , Perez Oscar , King Michael
Published: January 2014

Purpose: Hypogonadism is highly prevalent in men older than 45 years and is associated with an increased risk of chronic diseases, including obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The objective of this study was to determine whether lifestyle factors such as smoking, diet, and exercise are associated with reduced testosterone levels. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 147 men older than 44 years were recruited from a collaborative network of primary care clinics in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, metropolitan area. Free testosterone levels were measured in plasma samples via an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay–based method, and analyzed by simple and multiple linear regression in relationship to age, race/ethnicity, smoking, diet, exercise, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. Results: The participants had a mean free testosterone level of 3.1 ng/mL (standard deviation [SD] = 1.5) and mean age of 56.8 years (SD = 7.9). In simple regression analysis, free testosterone levels were associated with increased age (β = −0.04; P = .02), diet (β = −0.49; P = .05), diabetes (β = −0.9; P = .003), and hypertension (β = −0.55; P = .03) but not with race/ethnicity, smoking, exercise, obesity, or dyslipidemia. In multiple regression analysis, free testosterone values were significantly associated only with age (β = −0.05; P = .01) and diet (β = −0.72; P = .01). Conclusions: This study implicates diet, in addition to advanced age as a possible risk factor in the development of reduced testosterone levels.
Occupied Cape Judges and Colonial Knowledge of Crime, Criminals, and Punishment
Authors: Pavlich George
Published: January 2014

This article returns to a colonial discourse on crime, criminals, and punishment that the court of justice enunciated and followed during an 8-year British occupation of the Cape of Good Hope in the latter part of 1795. Tapping unusually frank juridical discussions on criminality and punishment in the context of sovereignty politics, it examines three key matters. Commencing with a description of the Cape colony’s inquisitorial criminal procedures, the analysis—following Foucault (2000)—conceives of these as powers (political techniques) through which the British claimed an exclusive capacity to enunciate legal “truths” about specific criminal events. Second, it analyzes a unique correspondence between the British military commander and the court of justice members together with two illustrative criminal cases of the day. These provide a sense of the judge’s knowledge of crime and criminal punishment in a social context that imagined itself through social differentiation and hierarchy. Third, it reads these colonial power-knowledge formations as generating three congruent political logics that in hybrid combinations have nurtured segmented, racially orientated, and group-based criminal justice arenas. This discussion alludes to the pivotal role colonial discourses of criminal law have played in generating a politics that shaped the criminal justice arenas of subsequent social forms. New, and differently combined, political logics of sovereignty, discipline, and biopolitics have left a decided legacy to which post-colonial arenas continue to respond.
Health Barriers to Learning
Authors: Gracy Delaney , Grant Roy , Goldsmith Grifin , Fabian Anupa , Peek Lori , Redlener Irwin E.
Published: January 2014

This article summarizes the results from a 2013 online survey with 408 principals and assistant principals in New York City public elementary and middle schools. The survey assessed three primary areas: health issues in the school, health issues perceived as barriers to learning for affected students, and resources needed to address these barriers. Eighteen of the 22 health conditions listed in the survey were considered a moderate or serious issue within their schools by at least 10% of respondents. All 22 of the health issues were perceived as a barrier to learning by between 12% and 87% of the respondents. Representatives from schools that serve a higher percentage of low-income students reported significantly higher levels of concern about the extent of health issues and their impact on learning. Respondents most often said they need linkages with organizations that can provide additional services and resources at the school, especially for mental health.
Laser shock processing influence on constitutive behaviour of graded structures produced by laser welding of ferritic to austenitic stainless steel
Authors: Iordachescu M. , Valiente A. , Scutelnicu E. , Ocaña J. L. , Ruiz-Hervias J.
Published: January 2014

The main objective of the present investigation was to assess the constitutive behaviour of the graded structures produced by laser shock processing (LSP) on laser welded joints made between thin sheets of ferritic and austenitic stainless steel. First, the evolution of surface strain patterns during uniaxial loading of the as welded and LSP treated joints was experimentally obtained by using a video-image correlation technique. Overall and local constitutive behaviour across the weld, heat affected zone and parent metals resulted by coupling the applied load level with the corresponding strain average of each zone. The differences found in mechanical resistance of the LSP treated zones when comparing with the as welded ones were due to the processing features, namely the generation of compressive stresses and the development of graded surface structures. Special attention was paid on changes occurred in the ferritic steel side of the joint, which acts as a mechanical cut-out fuse in structures working in energy related applications. Then, by extrapolating the fatigue fracture behaviour of macroscopic notches to the surface cavities and irregularities from which surface topography results it was found that LSP improves the ferritic steel side fatigue resistance. Additionally, the growth of eventual surface flaws is delayed by the compressive stress state induced by LSP, as indicated by in-depth X-ray measurements.
Can clay nanoparticles accelerate environmental biodegradation of polyolefins?
Authors: Annamalai P. K. , Martin D. J.
Published: January 2014

Synthetic polyolefins have been used in an enormous array of applications in the modern society, due to a combination of reliable raw materials, low cost processing, tailorable mechanical properties, low density and inertness or stability towards environmental factors. In the last two decades, with the concern of sustainable development, these polyolefins have necessitated further research into: i) finding alternative or renewable raw materials resources, ii) developing polymeric materials from renewable feedstocks that are capable of giving rise to comparable performance to the petrochemical based polymer counterparts and iii) triggering the biological degradation of polyolefins. In order to overcome the issues associated with waste accumulation and disposal, the biological recycling or degradation in the landfill or soil burial, composting and sewage have all been considered as less energy consuming, less toxic and environmentally friendly ways of sustainably managing the life cycle of high volume commodity polymers. It has also been well accepted that an abiotic oxidation (photo-, thermo-oxidation) is a prerequisite for enhancing the biodegradability or biological accessibility of polyolefins. For this purpose, several pro-oxidant approaches have been reported. The present paper reviews how the natural or synthetic clay nanoparticles, which are potential nanoscale fillers recently used for reinforcing polymers, can affect or enhance the biodegradability of polyolefins. They have also been discussed from the perspective of nanocomposite materials with controlled degradability and their associated applications.
Superbainite: Laboratory concept to commercial product
Authors: Rose A. J. , Mohammed F. , Smith A. W. F. , Davies P. A. , Clarke R. D.
Published: January 2014

After the development of superbainite as an academic concept at Cambridge University, Tata Steel has developed this into a commercial product as armour plate, produced at Port Talbot. The present paper describes the metallurgical research work carried out to support this development, and the characteristics of the resulting product.
Anisotropy of creep behaviour in extruded Mg–3Al–1Zn alloy
Authors: Shabani-Mahalli M. , Mahmudi R. , Karami M.
Published: January 2014

Anisotropic creep behaviour of an extruded Mg–3Al–1Zn (AZ31) alloy was investigated by shear punch creep testing in the temperature range 423–498 K. The stress exponents of 6·2 and 6·5, and activation energies of 110 and 106 kJ mol−1 were independent of orientation. These values are indicative of a dislocation climb creep mechanism that is not affected by anisotropy. In contrast, creep resistance in specimens with the stress axis parallel to the extrusion direction was lower than that in the normal direction. The observed orientation dependence is ascribed to the variation in the texture of the material during extrusion.
Lamellar orientation effect on fatigue crack propagation threshold in coarse grained Ti46Al8Nb
Authors: Yang J. , Li H. , Hu D. , Martin N. , Dixon M.
Published: January 2014

Cast Ti46Al8Nb with coarse lamellar microstructures was subject to fatigue crack propagation test at 650°C with R = 0·1. The notch region of each testpiece contains one or one dominant lamellar colony. A strong dependence of fatigue crack propagation threshold on lamellar orientation was found and the lamellar colonies with their interfaces parallel to the stress axis have the highest threshold and those 40–65° off the stress axis have the lowest threshold. It is elucidated that slip or twinning parallel to lamellar interface may interact with cross-lamella slip or twinning to help open up microcracks in front of the main crack.
Inhibition of lymphoma vascularization and dissemination by estrogen receptor β agonists
Authors: Yakimchuk Konstantin , Hasni Mohammad Sharif , Guan Jiyu , Chao Mark P. , Sander Birgitta , Okret Sam
Published: January 2014

Key Points

Estrogen receptor β (ERβ) activation inhibits lymphoma growth, vascularization, and dissemination in vivo. ERβ activation may mechanistically explain differences in gender incidence and prognosis and contribute to new therapies of lymphomas.
Improved targeting of JAK2 leads to increased therapeutic efficacy in myeloproliferative neoplasms
Authors: Bhagwat Neha , Koppikar Priya , Keller Matthew , Marubayashi Sachie , Shank Kaitlyn , Rampal Raajit , Qi Jun , Kleppe Maria , Patel Hardik J. , Shah Smit K. , Taldone Tony , Bradner James E. , Chiosis Gabriela , Levine Ross L.
Published: January 2014

Key Points

Genetic deletion of JAK2 in vivo shows that MPN cells remain fully dependent on JAK2 signaling for survival. Dual JAK2 targeting with JAK and HSP90 inhibitors offers increased efficacy in murine models and primary samples.
The global effect of follicle-stimulating hormone and tumour necrosis factor α on gene expression in cultured bovine ovarian granulosa cells
Authors: Glister Claire , Hatzirodos Nicholas , Hummitzsch Katja , Knight Philip G , Rodgers Raymond J
Published: January 2014

Background

Oocytes mature in ovarian follicles surrounded by granulosa cells. During follicle growth, granulosa cells replicate and secrete hormones, particularly steroids close to ovulation. However, most follicles cease growing and undergo atresia or regression instead of ovulating. To investigate the effects of stimulatory (follicle-stimulating hormone; FSH) and inhibitory (tumour necrosis factor alpha; TNFα) factors on the granulosa cell transcriptome, bovine ovaries were obtained from a local abattoir and pools of granulosa cells were cultured in vitro for six days under defined serum-free conditions with treatments present on days 3–6. Initially dose–response experiments (n = 4) were performed to determine the optimal concentrations of FSH (0.33 ng/ml) and TNFα (10 ng/ml) to be used for the microarray experiments. For array experiments cells were cultured under control conditions, with FSH, with TNFα, or with FSH plus TNFα (n = 4 per group) and RNA was harvested for microarray analyses.

Results

Statistical analysis showed primary clustering of the arrays into two groups, control/FSH and TNFα/TNFα plus FSH. The effect of TNFα on gene expression dominated that of FSH, with substantially more genes differentially regulated, and the pathways and genes regulated by TNFα being similar to those of FSH plus TNFα treatment. TNFα treatment reduced the endocrine activity of granulosa cells with reductions in expression of FST, INHA, INBA and AMH. The top-ranked canonical pathways and GO biological terms for the TNFα treatments included antigen presentation, inflammatory response and other pathways indicative of innate immune function and fibrosis. The two most significant networks also reflect this, containing molecules which are present in the canonical pathways of hepatic fibrosis/hepatic stellate cell activation and transforming growth factor β signalling, and these were up regulated. Upstream regulator analyses also predicted TNF, interferons γ and β1 and interleukin 1β.

Conclusions

In vitro, the transcriptome of granulosa cells responded minimally to FSH compared with the response to TNFα. The response to TNFα indicated an active process akin to tissue remodelling as would occur upon atresia. Additionally there was reduction in endocrine function and induction of an inflammatory response to TNFα that displays features similar to immune cells.