bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Hungarian Nonviolent Resistance against Austria and Its Place in the History of Nonviolence
Authors: Csapody Tamás , Weber Thomas
Published: September 2007

The Hungarian nonviolent resistance campaign against the Austrian absolutist rule in the 1850s and 1860s has been credited with being the “first mass or corporate form of non‐violent resistance,” yet it has received little scholarly attention in the nonviolence literature. In its usual portrayal, the movement is epitomized as a forerunner of Gandhi's later mass satyagraha campaigns, and its leader Ferenc Deák as a prototype Mahatma. In reality, the campaign was far more complex and less organized. However, it did demonstrate that even such campaigns can lead to the achievement of the aimed for goals when outside events and deeper internal economic and social drivers come together to unite the oppressed and weaken the position of the oppressor. As recent major studies of nonviolent struggle have shown, the Hungarian example illustrates what can be achieved when the oppressed withdraw their consent to be ruled and undermine state power by targeting areas of particular vulnerability of their oppressor.
Is Another World Possible When Violence against Women Is Ignored? Some Questions from the Boston Social Forum
Authors: Willis Patricia K. , Roskos Laura H.
Published: September 2007

Since its inauguration in January 2001, the World Social Forum has gained importance as a venue for strengthening alternatives to the neoliberal agenda for globalization. Many feminist organizations are struggling to find ways to plug into this arena. This article describes the efforts of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom to participate in a regional social forum in Boston, Massachusetts, by collaborating with various women's organizations in mounting a tribunal on violence against women. This collaboration of feminist organizations encountered a number of barriers arising from contradictions within the social forum principles themselves as well as significant resistance from the core organizers of the event. The dynamics that played out around the Women's Tribunal at the Boston Social Forum distill some of the dilemmas faced by women's organizations seeking to impact the social forum arena and raise important questions about the usefulness of these forums as sites through which a transnational feminist movement can build momentum.
A Different Model for Solving Political Conflicts: A Comparative Study of Religions
Authors: Cristini Hélène
Published: September 2007

The Machiavellian paradigm in International Relation Theory seems more and more absolete. By examing key concepts in six religion (Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Certain common features appear and could well be some of the components of a new paradigm.
MEASURING POVERTY – WHAT HAPPENED TO COPENHAGEN?
Authors: Sarlo Chris
Published: September 2007

Absolute poverty can be thought of as a condition of ‘insufficiency’, i.e. the inability to acquire the basic necessities of life. Relative poverty can be thought of as a condition of ‘inequality’. At the World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995, all participants made a commitment to produce official measures of both absolute and relative poverty and to strive to eradicate absolute poverty within a reasonable time frame. Despite these commitments, measures of absolute poverty are rare in the developed world. This paper concludes that both kinds of measures are needed for intelligent discussions and good policy‐making.
MATERIAL DEPRIVATION, THE ‘POVERTY RATE’ AND HOUSEHOLD EXPENDITURE IN MODERN AMERICA1
Authors: Eberstadt Nicholas
Published: September 2007

The official US ‘poverty rate’ appears to be a problematic descriptor of poverty trends and levels. Reported results from the ‘poverty rate’ do not track well with other indicators that would ordinarily be expected to bear directly on living conditions. Over the past 30 years, the relationship between the official poverty rate and these other indicators has been perversely discordant. This article outlines the basis of the poverty rate and the problems it now encounters as a reliable measure of material deprivation.
FROM THE WAR ON POVERTY TO WELFARE REFORM: HOW THE AMERICAN UNDERSTANDING OF THE CAUSES OF POVERTY CHANGED
Authors: Schwartz Joel
Published: September 2007

The American understanding of the causes of poverty has changed significantly since the War on Poverty was launched in 1964. It was then commonly believed that jobs were unavailable to the poor and that poverty should be reduced by doles. Today most observers contend that jobs are available for the poor, and that poverty stems from self‐defeating behaviours that doles exacerbate.
CHILDREN, FAMILIES AND THE FAILURE OF UK ANTI‐POVERTY POLICY
Authors: Morgan Patricia
Published: September 2007

Relative child poverty is often associated with single parenthood. In fact, children of single parents have always constituted a minority of relatively poor children in the UK. However, in the last decade the Blair government has pursued an anti‐poverty strategy targeted at single‐parent families with the result that children in couple families have become relatively poorer and powerful disincentives have been created that discourage people from taking the most viable routes out of poverty.
BIG GOVERNMENT: HOW TO CREATE POVERTY
Authors: Munkhammar Johnny
Published: September 2007

Globally, poverty is decreasing dramatically. The more open and globalised poor countries are, the more rapid is the increase in their growth and incomes. But many countries in Western Europe have serious problems. They largely followed a path of government intervention in society. In reality, however, the freer a country's economy the less poverty it has. Government intervention is counter‐productive and has become a fight against wealth. The over‐taxed and heavily regulated labour markets of Western Europe have led to social exclusion for large groups: the new poor.
PLANNING GAIN OR MISSED OPPORTUNITY? THE BARKER REVIEW OF LAND USE PLANNING
Authors: Corkindale John
Published: September 2007

The Barker review of land use planning makes various recommendations, notably the introduction of Planning‐gain Supplement. If implemented, this proposal will have the effect of reinstating formal betterment taxation for the first time since 1985. It is argued below that there may be better ways of siphoning off economic rent associated with land development. In addition, some suggestions are made for the more effective treatment of third‐party interests.
THE ‘INTUITIVE’ LABOUR THEORY OF VALUE IS COUNTER‐INTUITIVE
Authors: Fulda Joseph S.
Published: September 2007

The intuitive appeal of the Labour Theory of Value has infected personal, interpersonal and social discourse. It also underlies much public policy. In this article the history of value is traced, from More, Hobbes, and Locke to Smith, Marx, and George, culminating in the views of the late Milton Friedman. Two counter‐examples to the Labour Theory of Value are then presented, which should demonstrate, even to sceptics, that the subjective theory put forward by the Austrian School is the correct theory of value. The source of the fallacy is identified as a careless understanding of causality as first defined by David Hume.
THE PARADOX OF SLOW‐GROWTH HIGH‐INCOME REGIONS
Authors: Migué Jean‐Luc , Bélanger Gérard
Published: September 2007

We attempt to provide an economic theory and the empirical evidence to explain why slow‐growth regions, like Quebec in Canada, enjoy as high living standards as rapidly growing regions. In the long term quantities not prices adjust (except for the price of land, a resource in fixed supply). Despite variations in regional growth rates, real per capita income adjusted for housing costs converge in all regions. The analysis offers important insights into regional development and has far‐reaching implications for federalism.
ECONOMIC SANCTIONS: FAILED FOREIGN POLICY TOOL AND A COST TO AMERICAN BUSINESS
Authors: Rarick Charles A.
Published: September 2007

In recent years the US government has increased its use of economic sanctions in order to punish countries, organisations and individuals. This form of foreign policy has become an increasing burden on US business and adversely affects US competitiveness and perceived reliability in the global marketplace. In addition, economic sanctions are generally ineffective in producing the desired changes and often harm the people they were intended to help. This paper argues that economic sanctions are an increasing menace to US business, represent an ineffective tool of foreign policy, and do not meet generally accepted ethical standards.
A MODEL OF GROWTH AUGMENTED WITH INSTITUTIONS
Authors: Aixalá José , Fabro Gema
Published: September 2007

This paper shows that the inclusion of institutional indicators in a traditional model of growth substantially improves its explanatory capacity. The results have implications for economic policy, because not all the dimensions of institutional quality influence growth to the same extent. A large sample of 165 countries and estimation methods with instrumental variables are used to solve endogeneity problems.
MAKING TRULY COMPETITIVE CITIES – ON THE APPROPRIATE ROLE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Authors: Collins Alan
Published: September 2007

Much economic and urban research lends increasing support to the view that local government authorities could actually improve their ‘competitiveness’ by not being required to engage in the ‘business’ of local economic development and rather by concentrating on their ‘core’ activities such as maintaining sound, basic infrastructure within their jurisdiction.
CHALLENGING THE CHALLENGERS: A REVIEW OF SERENA OLSARETTI'S LIBERTY, DESERT AND THE MARKET AND DANIEL ATTAS'S LIBERTY, PROPERTY AND MARKETS
Authors: Sternberg Elaine
Published: September 2007

These books attack free markets and libertarianism, alleging that their fundamental assumptions are philosophically indefensible. Olsaretti challenges the thesis that free markets produce distributively just outcomes. At most, however, she shows that limited, desert‐based justifications of free‐market outcomes fail to satisfy her questionable desiderata, and that particular entitlement‐based justifications are inadequately supported when they confound voluntariness and freedom. Attas challenges libertarianism itself, claiming that it is fundamentally wrong, and that libertarian notions of property rights are unsustainable. But he considers only arguments based on defective notions of self‐ownership and confused notions of freedom; other, more robust justifications of liberty and property are ignored. Though both of these books fail to demonstrate the strong conclusions they assert, they highlight the dangers of substituting polemic for philosophy. Free markets, property and liberty need, and deserve, rigorous philosophical defences.
INCENTIVE CONTRACTS FOR POLITICIANS AND BINDING ELECTION PROMISES: REFORM IDEAS FOR DEMOCRACY
Authors: Gersbach Hans
Published: September 2007

Although they would yield social benefits, many political projects are not implemented in democracies. The ongoing debate on reforms around the world provides prominent examples: the reform of European labour markets or the reduction plans for greenhouse gases are cases in point. We suggest a number of improvements which would make liberal democracy more efficient without altering its founding values.
A VISIONARY CRITIC OF SOCIALISM
Authors: Kaza Greg
Published: September 2007

Ludwig von Mises was a visionary twentieth‐century critic of Marxism. Those unaware of his legacy would benefit from three reissues of his work.
BRITISH EUROSCEPTICISM – A VIEW FROM A CLASSICAL LIBERAL IN NEW EUROPE
Authors: Lisiewicz Pawel
Published: September 2007

This article argues that the classical liberal idea of federalism has been hijacked by socialists in Europe. At the same time, it is argued that classical liberals should not become Eurosceptics.
THE SMITH–HAYEK ECONOMIST: FROM CHARACTER TO IDENTITY
Authors: Klein Daniel B.
Published: September 2007

It would be beneficial for economists who follow in the tradition of Smith and Hayek to establish an identity whilst accentuating heterogeneity. Existing labels do not really adequately describe the Smith–Hayek character.
WHEN TO RUN AND WHEN TO HIDE: ELECTORAL COORDINATION AND EXIT
Authors: INDRIDASON INDRIDI H.
Published: September 2007

Elections represent a coordination problem for voters and candidates for office. Electoral coordination is also the causal mechanism behind any explanation of the relationship between electoral systems and the number of parties. I present a dynamic model of electoral coordination with candidate exit. The model extends two important results from the literature to a dynamic setting. The extension of Duverger's Law and the median‐voter theorem also offers a simultaneous prediction of the number of parties and their ideological positions. Coordination failure is shown to be possible in a mixed‐strategy equilibrium.
THE USEFULNESS OF IMPERFECT ELECTIONS: THE CASE OF VILLAGE ELECTIONS IN RURAL CHINA
Authors: BRANDT LOREN , TURNER MATTHEW A.
Published: September 2007

Using a sample of rural Chinese villages, which have recently been the subject of democratic reforms, we look for relationships between marginal changes in the democratic process and marginal changes in economic outcomes. We find that even very poorly conducted elections can have large incentive effects. That is, even corruptible elections provide leaders with strong incentives to act in the interests of their constituents. Our findings also allow us to rank the importance of four possible election reforms, which have attracted the attention of international observers and academic researchers.
THE POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF FOREIGN FIRMS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Authors: DESBORDES RODOLPHE , VAUDAY JULIEN
Published: September 2007

Foreign firms are likely to attempt to shape host government policies in their favour, as the profitability of MNE foreign affiliates largely depends on the business environment in which they operate. Based on data from the World Business Environment Survey, this paper investigates the political influence of foreign firms in 48 developing countries. It is found that foreign firms derive substantial fiscal and regulatory advantages from their political influence and from their ability to negotiate superior entry conditions.
THE QUALITY OF INSTITUTIONS AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
Authors: DAUDE CHRISTIAN , STEIN ERNESTO
Published: September 2007

Using bilateral foreign direct investment (FDI) stocks around the world, we explore the importance of a wide range of institutional variables as determinants of the location of FDI. While we find that better institutions have overall a positive and economically significant effect on FDI, some institutional aspects matter more than others do. Especially, the unpredictability of laws, regulations and policies, excessive regulatory burden, government instability and lack of commitment play a major role in deterring FDI. For example, the effect of a one standard deviation improvement in the regulatory quality of the host country increases FDI by a factor of around 2. These results are robust to different specifications, estimation methods, and institutional variables. We also present evidence on the significance of institutions as a determinant of FDI over time.
POLITICAL AND JUDICIAL CHECKS ON CORRUPTION: EVIDENCE FROM AMERICAN STATE GOVERNMENTS
Authors: ALT JAMES E. , LASSEN DAVID D.
Published: September 2007

This paper investigates the effects of checks and balances on corruption. Within a presidential system, effective separation of powers is achieved under a divided government, with the executive and legislative branches being controlled by different political parties. When government is unified, no effective separation exists even within a presidential system, but, we argue, can be partially restored by having an accountable judiciary. Our empirical findings show that a divided government and elected, rather than appointed, state supreme court judges are associated with lower corruption and, furthermore, that the effect of an accountable judiciary is stronger under a unified government, where the government cannot control itself.
Timing and Wealth Effects of German Dual Class Stock Unifications
Authors: Dittmann Ingolf , Ulbricht Niels
Published: September 2007

This paper studies the reasons and the costs of separating ownership from control by analysing the decision of German dual class firms to consolidate their share structure from dual to single class equity between 1990 and 2001. We find that the firm value increases significantly by an average 4% on the announcement day. A significant part of the variation in abnormal returns can be explained by the ownership structure and by changes in liquidity. A logit analysis of the unification decision yields that firms are more likely to unify if their controlling shareholder loses only little voting power in a stock unification. Also, firms that are financially constrained are more likely to abolish dual class shares; these firms often issue additional shares after the stock unification.
Economic Sentiment and Yield Spreads in Europe
Authors: Ferreira Eva , Martínez Serna M. Isabel , Navarro Eliseo , Rubio Gonzalo
Published: September 2007

According to

Harvey (1988)

, the forecasting ability of the term spread on economic growth is due to the fact that interest rates reflect investors' expectations about the future economic situation when deciding their plans for consumption and investment. Past literature has used ex post data on output or consumption growth as proxies for their expected value. In this paper, we employ a direct measure of economic agents' expectations, the Economic Sentiment Indicator elaborated by the European Commission, to test this hypothesis. Our results indicate that a linear combination of European yield spreads explains a surprising 93.7\% of the variability of the Economic Sentiment Indicator. This ability of yield spreads to capture economic agent expectations may be the actual reason for the predictive power of yield spreads about future business cycle.
Corporate Sell‐offs in the UK: Use of Proceeds, Financial Distress and Long‐run Impact on Shareholder Wealth
Authors: Lee Edward , Lin Stephen
Published: September 2007

This study examines the long‐run return performance following UK corporate sell‐off announcements. We observe significant negative abnormal returns up to five years subsequent to sell‐off announcements. Our finding is robust to various specifications, irrespective of the intended use of proceeds. We also find a significantly positive association between long‐run abnormal returns and the magnitude of cash proceeds for sellers reducing corporate debt as well as for sellers with deeper financial distress or higher growth prospects. Overall, we find that UK corporate sell‐offs are associated with declines in subsequent shareholder wealth.
On the Equivalence between the APV and the wacc Approach in a Growing Leveraged Firm
Authors: Massari Mario , Roncaglio Francesco , Zanetti Laura
Published: September 2007

While in a steady state framework the choice between the wacc approach (

Modigliani‐Miller, 1963

) and the adjusted present value (APV) approach (

Myers, 1974

) is irrelevant since the two approaches provide the same result, however, in a growing firm context the wacc equation seems to be inconsistent with the APV result. In this paper we propose a simple model to evaluate the tax savings in a growing firm in order to show under which assumptions the two approaches lead to the same results. We demonstrate that the use of the wacc model in a steady‐growth scenario gives rise to some unusual assumptions with regard to the discount rates to be used in calculating tax shields. We show that the widely used wacc formula, if used, as it is in most cases, in a growth context, implies that a) debt tax shield related to already existing debt are discounted using kd; b) debt tax shield related to new debt, due to company's growth, are discounted, according to a mixed procedure, using both ku and kd. We discuss the inconsistency of such a discounting procedure and the preferred features of the APV approach.
Migraine With Isolated Facial Pain: A Diagnostic Challenge
Authors: Obermann M , Mueller D , Yoon M-S , Pageler L , Diener HC , Katsarava Z
Published: September 2007

We present a series of seven migraine patients with typical features of a migraine attack without aura, but atypical pain localization in the face in one or both of the lower two distributions of the trigeminal nerve (V2 and V3). All of them responded well to triptans. Three patients responded to preventive treatment for migraine with β-blockers ( n = 2) or valproic acid ( n = 1). These cases underline the heterogenic clinical presentation of migraine, which is sometimes difficult to diagnose even for headache specialists, and broaden the pathophysiological understanding of trigeminal nociceptive processing in migraine in the light of neuronal plasticity.
Migraine Pain Location at Onset and During Established Headaches in Children and Adolescents: A Clinic-Based Study from Eastern India
Authors: Chakravarty A , Mukherjee A , Roy D
Published: September 2007

Literature documenting the location of pain at onset of migraine attacks and during established headaches in children and adolescents is sparse. Through a prospective study (2003–2005) of 200 children with migraine (ICHD-2: 1.1 and 1.2.1), we set out to document (i) the site of onset of pain and (ii) the location of pain during established attacks (on >50% of occasions) through semistructured interviews of patients and parents. Of the 200 children, the male:female ratio was 118 : 82 (1 : 0.69), the age range was 7–15 years (mean 11.8 years) and the duration of migraine 6 months to 4 years (mean 1.6 years). Ninety-three percent of subjects were ethnic Bengalis from the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, capital city Calcutta. Migraine types were: 1.1, 197 (98.5%); 1.2.1, three (1.5%). Location of pain at onset: 20.5% of subjects had unilateral onset; of these, 26.8% had eye pain, 65.9% frontal and 12.3% temporal pain. Thirty-three percent had bilateral location of pain, mostly bifrontal or ocular. None had vertex onset pain. However, in 35% of subjects, pain was holocranial at onset. Only 11.5% experienced pain in the occipito-cervical region at onset. Location of established headaches: in 53.7% of subjects with unilateral onset, headaches subsequently became holocranial. Hemicranial headaches occurred in only 19.5%. Of bilateral onset pains, 57.8% also became holocranial subsequently. In all, 73.5% of children ultimately experienced holocranial headaches. This study documents pain location at onset and during established headaches in children with migraine largely from a specific ethnic group.
Occipital Nerve Blockade in Chronic Cluster Headache Patients and Functional Connectivity Between Trigeminal and Occipital Nerves
Authors: Busch V , Jakob W , Juergens T , Schulte-Mattler W , Kaube H , May A
Published: September 2007

Headache syndromes often involve occipital and neck symptoms, suggesting a functional connectivity between nociceptive trigeminal and cervical afferents. Although reports regarding effective occipital nerve blockades in cluster headache exist, the reason for the improvement of the clinical symptoms is not known. Using occipital nerve blockade and nociceptive blink reflexes, we were able to demonstrate functional connectivity between trigeminal and occipital nerves in healthy volunteers. The R2 components of the nociceptive blink reflex and the clinical outcome in 15 chronic cluster headache patients were examined before and after unilateral nerve blockade of the greater occipital nerve with 5 ml prilocain (1%) on the headache side. In contrast to recent placebo-controlled studies, only nine of the 15 cluster patients reported some minor improvement in their headache. Six patients did not report any clinical change. Exclusively on the injection side, the R2 response areas decreased and R2 latencies increased significantly after the nerve blockade. These neurophysiological and clinical data provide further evidence for functional connectivity between cervical and trigeminal nerves in humans. The trigeminocervical complex does not seem to be primarily facilitated in cluster headache, suggesting a more centrally located pathology of the disease. However, the significant changes of trigeminal function as a consequence of inhibition of the greater occipital nerve were not mirrored by a significant clinical effect, suggesting that the clinical improvement of occipital nerve blockades is not due to a direct inhibitory effect on trigeminal transmission.
Anne Frank's Headache
Authors: Almeida RF de , Kowacs PA
Published: September 2007

There are a significant number of famous people who suffered from frequent headaches during their lifetime while also exerting an influence of some kind on politics or the course of history. One such person was Anneliese Marie Frank, the German-born Jewish teenager better known as Anne Frank, who was forced into hiding during World War II. When she turned 13, she received a diary as a present, named it ‘Kitty’ and started to record her experiences and feelings. She kept the diary during her period in hiding, describing her daily life, including the feeling of isolation, her fear of being discovered, her admiration for her father and her opinion about women's role in society, as well as the discovery of her own sexuality. She sometimes reported a headache that disturbed her tremendously. The ‘bad’ to ‘terrifying’ and ‘pounding’ headache attacks, which were accompanied by vomiting and during which she felt like screaming to be left alone, matched the International Headache Society criteria for probable migraine, whereas the ‘more frequent headaches’ described by Anne's father are more likely to have been tension-type headaches than headaches secondary to ocular or other disorders.
Nerve Growth Factor and ATP Excite Different Neck Muscle Nociceptors in Anaesthetized Mice
Authors: Ellrich J , Makowska A
Published: September 2007

Neck muscle nociception probably plays a major role in the pathophysiology of tension-type headache. Recent studies have demonstrated sustained facilitation of brainstem nociception due to noxious neck muscle input evoked by nerve growth factor (NGF) or α,β-methylene ATP (ATP) in mice. Hypothesized different afferent pathways in NGF and ATP models were addressed by local application of tetrodotoxin (TTX) in neck muscles. Brainstem nociception was monitored in 55 anaesthetized mice by the jaw-opening reflex elicited by electrical tongue stimulation. Sole administration of 100nmol/l ATP or 0.8 μmol/l NGF evoked sustained reflex facilitation for at least 95 min. Preceding TTX administration prevented ATP-induced facilitation, but was without effect on NGF. Subsequent administration of 100 nmol/l TTX reversed ATP-evoked facilitation, but was ineffective on NGF. Divergent effects of TTX suggest preferential excitation of group III muscle afferents by ATP and group IV by NGF. Thus, both models address different pathways in pericranial pain.
Tension-Type Headache and Physical Activity: An Actigraphic Study
Authors: Kikuchi H , Yoshiuchi K , Ohashi K , Yamamoto Y , Akabayashi A
Published: September 2007

There have been some studies on the relationship between tension-type headache (TTH) and physical activity. However, most previous studies were not prospective and assessed physical activity by questionnaire. Therefore, this study was aimed to investigate the relationship between TTH intensity and physical activity prospectively utilizing computerized ecological momentary assessment and actigraphy Thirty-one TTH patients wore watch-type computers equipped with actigraphy inside for 1 week to record momentary headache intensity and physical activity. Multilevel modelling was used to investigate the effect of headache intensity on the simultaneous and subsequent activity level. There were significant negative associations between headache intensity and the simultaneous and subsequent activity level, and activity level was significantly reduced at headache exacerbations. These results provide objective and quantitative evidence suggesting that TTH negatively affects physical activity.
Autism symptoms in toddlers with Down syndrome: a descriptive study
Authors: Hepburn Susan , Philofsky Amy , Fidler Deborah J. , Rogers Sally
Published: September 2007

Background  Research suggests that children with Down syndrome may be at increased risk of having an autism spectrum disorder; however, previous studies have not utilized comprehensive, state‐of‐the‐art diagnostic tools to address the question of comorbid autism and Down syndrome.

Method  Comprehensive evaluations for autism were conducted in 20 2‐year‐old children with Down syndrome. The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule‐Generic (ADOS‐G) and the Autism Diagnostic Interview–Revised (ADI‐R) were administered by experienced clinicians, who then determined if the child presented with significant symptoms of autism. Eighteen children participated in a follow‐up evaluation at age 4 years.

Results  Three children (15%) met criteria for an autism spectrum disorder at both time points, and two (10%) for autistic disorder. Case descriptions are provided. Several children presented with difficulties in communication and play, but did not show problems in core social relatedness. The ADOS‐G, if used alone, over‐identifies autism in toddlers with Down syndrome.

Conclusions  Clinical judgement is critical in diagnosing autism in Down syndrome. Young children may show some signs of autism (particularly in the area of communication) and not have the disorder. Children who have comorbid Down syndrome and autism are particularly challenged, relative to their peers without autism.
Factors Affecting the Involvement of Day Centre Care Staff in the Delivery of Physiotherapy to Adults with Intellectual Disabilities: An Exploratory Study in One London Borough
Authors: Middleton M.‐J. , Kitchen S. S.
Published: September 2007

Background  Physiotherapists for adults with intellectual disabilities often work in day centres, relying on care staff to support programmes. This study investigates factors affecting physiotherapy delivery in 4 day centres in one London borough.

Materials and Method  Semi‐structured interviews were carried out with day centre care staff, managers and physiotherapists.

Results  Service users’ needs were reported not to be met at three of the four centres. Barriers included low staffing levels, high absences and use of agency staff. Relevant variables included level of physiotherapist attendance, management priorities for care staff time, care staff confidence and whether a consistent team support delivery. Discrepancies emerged between staff and physiotherapists’ views on training needs.

Conclusions  Physiotherapy delivered in day centres is an important part of a complex care package. It requires effective multiagency working to meet the known – and potentially unidentified – needs of individuals and to ensure that care staff are adequately supported.
Use of Outpatient Endometrial Biopsy in a Population with Intellectual Disability
Authors: Jaffe Joshua S.
Published: September 2007

Background  To demonstrate the feasibility of outpatient endometrial sampling to evaluate abnormal uterine bleeding in a population of women with intellectual disability.

Method  Retrospective chart review was completed of all endometrial biopsies performed on women attending a dedicated gynaecology clinic for women with intellectual disability over an 8‐year period. A fine calibre disposable suction curette was utilized.

Results  Of the 64 women sampled, adequate tissue for pathological diagnosis was obtained in 84%. Of the 35 with post‐menopausal bleeding, a pathological diagnosis was reported in 86% including one endometrial adenocarcinoma. Intravenous sedation was necessary in 12 cases.

Conclusions  Endometrial sampling can be successfully performed on an outpatient basis in women with intellectual disability. Most were performed without sedation in a clinic setting suggesting that this technique is generally applicable in this population.
Family Structure in Norwegian Families of Children with Disabilities
Authors: Lundeby Hege , Tøssebro Jan
Published: September 2007

Background  The idea that raising a child with disabilities has a negative impact on the parents’ relationship is still widely accepted despite contradictory research findings. This article addresses the impact of raising a child with disabilities on family structure in the present Norwegian context.

Method  Family demographics were collected at two stages during the childhood of children with physical, intellectual or multiple disabilities born 1993–1995 (1999, n = 603 and 2003, n = 489). These figures were compared with the corresponding data for all children (Statistics Norway, Children Statistics).

Results  The family structures of children with disabilities were fairly similar to those of the typical family. Slightly fewer children with disabilities had siblings and a higher proportion of the parents of children with disabilities were married or cohabiting. The type or degree of impairment was not found to have any impact on family structure.

Conclusions  The results suggest that family structure in families raising a child with a disability is similar to other families. Whether this should only be seen as positive is discussed, as is whether the disability may produce a stronger feeling of obligation to stay together.
On Spiritual Edgework: The Logic of Extreme Ritual Performances
Authors: BROMLEY DAVID G.
Published: September 2007

Religion as a social form is constructed to provide adherents with a sense of empowerment and control. Rituals that involve a risk of physical or psychological injury or even death therefore would appear anomalous and indeed are frequently the objects of social scientific and journalistic denigration. Firewalking and serpent handling exemplify such rituals. I argue that these two radical ritual practices, which I term spiritual edgework, provide a valuable sociological window on how radical ritual practices are socially constructed. The social construction process involves the identification of a mythically relevant edge that offers: both contingency and certainty; individual and collective preparation for the impending edgework during which tensions are elevated for later ritual resolution; a ritualized process for successfully navigating the edge; and postedgework accounts that neutralize potential disconfirming injuries or deaths.
The Spiritual Turn and the Decline of Tradition: The Spread of Post‐Christian Spirituality in 14 Western Countries, 1981–2000
Authors: HOUTMAN DICK , AUPERS STEF
Published: September 2007

This article uses data from the World Values Survey to study the spread of post‐Christian spirituality (“New Age”) in 14 Western countries (1981–2000, N = 61,352). It demonstrates that this type of spirituality, characterized by a sacralization of the self, has become more widespread during the period 1981–2000 in most of these countries. It has advanced farthest in France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden. This spiritual turn proves a byproduct of the decline of traditional moral values and hence driven by cohort replacement. Spirituality's popularity among the well educated also emerges from the latter's low levels of traditionalism. These findings confirm the theory of detraditionalization, according to which a weakening of the grip of tradition on individual selves stimulates a spiritual turn to the deeper layers of the self.
Religiousness, Spiritual Seeking, and Authoritarianism: Findings from a Longitudinal Study
Authors: WINK PAUL , DILLON MICHELE , PRETTYMAN ADRIENNE
Published: September 2007

We use long‐term longitudinal data from a sample (N = 155) of older age mainline Protestants, Catholics, and a small number of conservative Protestants to investigate the relations among church‐centered religiousness, spiritual seeking, and authoritarianism. In late adulthood, religiousness was related positively, and spiritual seeking was related negatively, to authoritarianism; these relations held even after excluding conservative Protestants and controlling for education, gender, age cohort, and personal flexibility. We find a similar pattern using measures of religiousness, spiritual seeking, and control variables scored in early adulthood, a time interval of close to 40 years.
Reassessing Conventional Approaches to Conversion: Toward a New Synthesis
Authors: GOOREN HENRI
Published: September 2007

What are the crucial factors that may cause people to become religiously active at a certain point of their lives? I give an overview of key analytic elements of the conventional approaches to conversion:Lofland and Stark's (1965)social networks model; (spoiled) identity and religious seekership; socialization; religious markets; recruitment; cultural factors; and convert role monitoring and mastering. Subsequent sections present a critique of the conventional approaches, with their biases and emphasis on the crisis factor, and a synthesis of their best elements in the conversion career approach (currently in development). The latter distinguishes five levels of religious participation: preaffiliation, affiliation, conversion, confession, and disaffiliation. These levels are, in turn, influenced by personality factors, social factors, institutional factors, cultural factors, and contingency factors. The conversion careers approach offers directions for future research by distinguishing five levels of religious participation, systematically listing the factors in religious participation, avoiding “crisis determinism,” developing a conceptualization of the individual with active and passive elements, being gender sensitive, and including a life‐cycle approach to avoid the “adolescent bias” of earlier literature.
Religion and Substance Abuse Treatment: Individual and Program Effects
Authors: SHIELDS JOSEPH J. , BROOME KIRK M. , DELANY PETER J. , FLETCHER BENNETT W. , FLYNN PATRICK M.
Published: September 2007

The relationship between personal religiousness and substance abuse treatment outcomes has emerged as an important issue in the public health arena. Using the “moral community” perspective, a conceptual framework developed byStark, Kent, and Doyle (1982)to analyze the contextual effects of religion, we explore the degree to which religion influences two drug treatment outcome measures—critical retention and commitment to treatment. The data are derived from the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Studies (DATOS), a national study of 10,010 clients enrolled in 70 drug treatment programs. Three research questions were addressed: (1) What is the relationship between an individual's level of religiosity and retention in treatment and commitment to treatment? (2) How does the ecological context of treatment programs shape the individual‐level relationships? (3) To what extent are program practices and characteristics directly linked to outcome level? The findings are supportive of the literature that shows a weak to moderate relationship between religiosity and treatment outcomes. However, the findings did not show strong support for the “moral community” hypothesis. Although there was a wide variation in the size of the individual‐level religiosity–treatment correlations, the variation could not be conclusively attributed to the overall religious emphasis of the programs. The findings suggest that further research is needed in order to understand fully the role of religion in substance abuse treatment.
Parents' Religious Heterogamy and Children's Well‐Being
Authors: PETTS RICHARD J. , KNOESTER CHRIS
Published: September 2007

This study considers the impact of having parents of dissimilar faiths on children's well‐being. Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households, we examine the hypothesis that parents' religious heterogamy has both direct and indirect negative effects on children's well‐being. First, we find evidence that religious heterogamy is positively associated with marital conflict and negatively associated with religious participation. Second, our results suggest that children with religiously heterogamous parents are more likely to engage in marijuana use and underage drinking than children with religiously homogamous parents. However, these associations occur only in families where parents' religious heterogamy is a product of greater religious distance (e.g., one parent is not religious or both parents identify with different religions). Religiously heterogamous parents who affiliate with different Protestant groups report similar levels of marital conflict and religious participation as same‐faith parents. In addition, the children of these parents report similar levels of delinquency as children of same‐faith parents. We find no evidence that religious heterogamy is associated with children's self‐esteem, life satisfaction, or grades in school.
Immoral Bodies: The Implicit Association Between Moral Discourse and the Body
Authors: HOVERD WILLIAM JAMES , SIBLEY CHRIS G.
Published: September 2007

Three studies examined the ways in which cognitive appraisals of health and the condition of the body use moral discourse derived from Christianity. Study 1 indicated that people explicitly rated health‐related behaviors such as exercising and dieting as more pious and less sinful than their negative counterparts. Studies 2 and 3 elaborated upon these results using the Implicit Association Test, a cognitive procedure for examining automatic (or implicit) associations that may exist outside of conscious awareness. Results indicated that people have a strong implicit association between morality and the condition of the body. Furthermore, this implicit association remained significant once potential overlap with standard evaluative terminology was statistically controlled. These results suggest that people implicitly evaluate the condition of the body using moral discourse, and that the use of such rhetoric reflects the cognitive appraisal of obesity as immoral, rather than as simply negative in a standard sense.
Protestantism and Child Mortality in Northeast Brazil, 2000
Authors: WOOD CHARLES H. , WILLIAMS PHILIP , CHIJIWA KUNIKO
Published: September 2007

The recent growth of Pentecostal Protestantism in Latin America has called attention to the social consequences of religious conversion. Ethnographic studies find that affiliation with Pentecostal churches is associated with attitudinal and behavioral transformations that modify gender relations, enhance the economic viability of the household, and endow families with social capital that can be mobilized during periods of economic stress, sickness, and emergency. The nature of the changes suggests that they may improve the welfare of infants and young children within the family. To explore this proposition, we use sample data from the 2000 demographic census in the Brazilian northeast to estimate the probability of death among children born to women 20 to 34 years of age. The findings show that, other things being equal, the death rate among children born to Protestant women is around 10 percent lower compared to the death rate among children born to Catholic women. We further disaggregate Protestants into “traditional” (e.g., Baptist, Presbyterian) and “Pentecostal” (e.g., Assembly of God) subgroups, and show that the mortality‐reducing effect is greater among historical compared to Pentecostal Protestants. No mortality effects were associated with membership in neo‐Pentecostal churches.
Is Religious Service Attendance Declining?
Authors: PRESSER STANLEY , CHAVES MARK
Published: September 2007

Weekend attendance at conventional religious services remains the most common form of social religious action in American society. Debates about secularization, discussions of congregations as sites of political skill‐building and mobilization, and research on religion's contributions to stocks of social capital often rely partly on claims about trends in religious service attendance. Yet, existing evidence does not definitively establish whether attendance at religious services declined in American society from the 1950s to the present. We examine the trend in religious service attendance between 1990 and 2006. Evidence from several sources converges on the same answer: weekly attendance at religious services has been stable since 1990. However one reads the evidence about trends between World War II and 1990, the recent past has been a time of stability. This has important implications for theories of religious change.
Adaxial/abaxial specification in the regulation of photosynthesis and stomatal opening with respect to light orientation and growth with CO2 enrichment in the C4 species Paspalum dilatatum
Authors: Soares Ana Sofia , Driscoll Simon P. , Olmos Enrique , Harbinson Jeremy , Arrabaça Maria Celeste , Foyer Christine H.
Published: September 2007

DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2007.02284.xCommentary p 5
Effects of arterial and cardiopulmonary baroreceptor activation on simple and choice reaction times
Authors: McIntyre David , Ring Christopher , Hamer Mercedes , Carroll Douglas
Published: September 2007

Variations in simple reaction time over the cardiac cycle could be due to cortical inhibition associated with activation of the arterial baroreceptors. It has been proposed that higher order cognitive processing may also be modulated and, moreover, that cardiopulmonary baroreceptors may have similar inhibitory effects. This study examined arterial and cardiopulmonary baroreceptor effects on simple and choice reaction times by presenting visual stimuli at one of six intervals after the R‐wave of the electrocardiogram (0, 150, 300, 450, 600, 750 ms) while participants lay supine with their legs raised or lowered. Reaction times were slower early in the cardiac cycle compared to later whereas reaction time slopes were not different. No cardiopulmonary baroreceptor effects were found. Cardiac cycle effects on reaction time are consistent with the arterial baroreceptor hypothesis and appear to be confined to lower order sensory‐motor processing.
Do ERP components triggered during attentional orienting represent supramodal attentional control?
Authors: Seiss Ellen , Gherri Elena , Eardley Alison F. , Eimer Martin
Published: September 2007

Lateralized ERP components triggered during cued shifts of spatial attention (anterior directing attention negativity [ADAN], late directing attention positivity [LDAP]) have been observed during visual, auditory, and tactile attention tasks, suggesting that these components reflect supramodal attentional control processes. This interpretation has recently been called into question by the finding that the ADAN is absent in response to auditory attention cues. Here we demonstrate that ADAN and LDAP components are reliably elicited in a purely unimodal auditory attention task where auditory cues are followed by auditory imperative stimuli. The fact that the ADAN is not restricted to task contexts where visual or tactile stimuli are relevant is consistent with the hypothesis that this component is linked to supramodal attentional control.