bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Noise Problems in a Call Centre — A Case Study
Authors: Sözen Müjgan Ş. , Akdaǧ Neşe Y. , İlgürel Nuri
Published: January 2010

Call centres, widely used in several sectors as a means of communication today, are places where numerous people can work together. When acoustic measures concerning the space and the staff are not taken in call centres, it is unavoidable to encounter a very disturbing environment in terms of noise, because of speech and telephone signal voices. Operators working in such a noisy environment are known to be badly affected both physically and psychologically, and their working efficiency is observed to decrease. In this study, a call centre belonging to a banking company located in Istanbul, operators of which generally do not prefer to use the headsets provided for them, was examined in respect to noise environment, and potential measures that can be deployed were determined. In this call centre, the average noise level measured was LAeq: 68 dB, which exceeds the maximum acceptable background noise level for such offices by 18 dB. The possible sound attenuation by reorganization of the space has been modeled and this showed that acceptable noise levels can be reached by placing separators with surfaces providing good absorption between table groups and also covering the ceiling with sound absorbing materials. Beside this, it was also shown that by a reduction in the number of the staff and appropriate acoustic treatment of the room, the noise levels in the space can be reduced to acceptable values.
The Importance of Asset Maximisation in Football: Towards the Long-Term Gestation and Maintenance of Sustained High Performance
Authors: Gilmore Sarah
Published: January 2010

Based upon an extended case study of Bolton Wanderers Football Club, this article argues that asset management strategies need to be accompanied by human resource management (HRM) practices capable of identifying, attracting, developing and retaining strategically valuable staff (as well as skilled players) with the requisite knowledge and abilities to enact asset maximization plans. The article concludes with a range of recommendations for consideration by the strategic apex of the football department, focusing on the role of HRM in creating and maintaining these approaches to securing sustained performance.
The Under-Representation of Women in Coaching: A Comparison of Male and Female Canadian Coaches at Low and High Levels of Coaching
Authors: Reade Ian , Rodgers Wendy , Norman Leanne
Published: January 2010

There are disproportionately few women in high level coaching positions. Explanations vary for this under-representation of women as coaches, but the focus of this research is the disproportionate gender ratio within the profession as based upon Kanter's framework of occupational sex segregation. Two studies examining Canadian coaches undertaking introductory coaching certification (Study 1) (n = 809) and high-performance coaches (Study 2) (n = 819) were conducted. Both studies contribute evidence of decreasing proportions of women coaches from early certification and recreational positions to high-performance positions despite little difference between men and women in terms of qualifications including education and competitive experience. The results are discussed in terms of Kanter's proposition of proportion, along with references to power and opportunity within the coaching profession. Potential administrative practical solutions to the problems are suggested.
Exploring Parent-Related Coaching Stressors in British Tennis: A Developmental Investigation
Authors: Knight Camilla. J. , Harwood Chris. G.
Published: January 2010

In order to explore the stressors that tennis coaches' associate with parents and examine how such stressors may differ depending upon a player's developmental stage of participation, seventeen focus group interviews were conducted with a total of 70 coaches; 28 coaches of sampling stage players, 24 coaches of specializing stage players, and 18 coaches of investment stage players. Content analysis of the focus group data revealed three general dimensions of stressors: direct coaching stressors, player-related stressors, and external and system-based stressors. Sampling-stage coaches reported many stressors relating to parents' understanding of tennis and development. Specializing-stage coaches highlighted multiple stressors concerning parental pressure and involvement. Investment-stage coaches replicated many of the specializing stage stressors, but also highlighted various methods to reduce parent-related stressors. Results are discussed in relation to previous research. Practical implications to reduce the stressors British tennis coaches encounter are provided.
A unique, thermostable dimer linkage structure of RD114 retroviral RNA
Authors: Kharytonchyk Sergei , Pedersen Finn Skou
Published: January 2010

Retroviruses package their genome as RNA dimers linked together primarily by base-pairing between palindromic stem–loop (psl) sequences at the 5′ end of genomic RNA. Retroviral RNA dimers usually melt in the range of 55°C–70°C. However, RNA dimers from virions of the feline endogenous gammaretrovirus RD114 were reported to melt only at 87°C. We here report that the high thermal stability of RD114 RNA dimers generated from in vitro synthesized RNA is an effect of multiple dimerization sites located in the 5′ region from the R region to sequences downstream from the splice donor (SD) site. By antisense oligonucleotide probing we were able to map at least five dimerization sites. Computational prediction revealed a possibility to form stems with autocomplementary loops for all of the mapped dimerization sites. Three of them were located upstream of the SD site. Mutant analysis supported a role of all five loop sequences in the formation and thermal stability of RNA dimers. Four of the five psls were also predicted in the RNA of two baboon endogenous retroviruses proposed to be ancestors of RD114. RNA fragments of the 5′ R region or prolonged further downstream could be efficiently dimerized in vitro. However, this was not the case for the 3′ R region linked to upstream U3 sequences, suggesting a specific mechanism of negative regulation of dimerization at the 3′ end of the genome, possibly explained by a long double-stranded RNA region at the U3-R border. Altogether, these data point to determinants of the high thermostability of the dimer linkage structure of the RD114 genome and reveal differences from other retroviruses.
Migrant Clinics and Hookworm Science: Peripheral Origins of International Health, 1840–1920
Authors: Palmer Steven
Published: January 2010

This article proposes a global history of hookworm disease based on the main scientific publications on hookworm disease (ankylostomiasis) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and archival sources from the Rockefeller Foundation's International Health Board. The location of hookworm research is explained by the presence of large concentrations of migrant laborers who suffered from serious hookworm disease in frontier regions during the second industrial revolution. This hookworm disease pandemic was not the result of a linear spread of infection. The extraordinary labor conditions in these regions created ideal ecologies for the reproduction of the parasite, leading to levels of infection that produced ankylostomiasis. The major findings in hookworm science came from research-oriented physicians building new institutions of medical science in peripheral nation-states. In a number of Latin American states their work led to treatment programs conceived in national terms that preceded the interest of Rockefeller philanthropy in the disease. The Rockefeller Foundation incorporated these programs in order to launch its International Health hookworm eradication program in 1914.
An Operation for Evangelization: Friar Francisco González Laguna, the Cesarean Section, and Fetal Baptism in Late Colonial Peru
Authors: Warren Adam
Published: January 2010

By publishing a medical-theological treatise in 1781, Friar Francisco González Laguna of Lima initiated a campaign to train Andean priests to perform postmortem cesarean sections for the purpose of baptizing the fetus. Linking González Laguna's text to European works on cesarean sections and Peruvian decrees ordering priests to train in surgery, this paper argues the friar saw the operation's utility as extending beyond saving unborn souls. Writing in the aftermath of indigenous and peasant uprisings, he argued the procedure constituted a tool for defeating the devil's presence in the Andes and carrying out evangelization, teaching parishioners by pious example.
Rock the Senate! On Progressives' Getting and Using Political Power
Authors: Raskin Jamie
Published: January 2010

The year 2006 pushed me into electoral politics. Not only did right-wing Republicans control the White House, both
houses of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the public agenda, but in my very blue home state of Maryland, too
many establishment Democrats had grown cozy with corporate predators like Enron and collaborationist with the
degraded politics of the Bush era. My own state senator in eastern Montgomery County (Silver Spring and Takoma Park) was the powerful president pro
tem of the Maryland Senate, chair of the Montgomery County Senate delegation in Annapolis, and the widely feared
boss of our local Democratic political machine. After she voted for the death penalty, introduced a pro-Iraq War
resolution, and co-sponsored legislation to deregulate the state’s electric utilities, I decided to run against her.
Alinsky for the Left: The Politics of Community Organizing
Authors: Miller Mike
Published: January 2010

For seventy years the disparate “Left” supported, belittled, glamorized, ignored, or attacked Saul Alinsky and his
tradition of community organizing. Today, it should embrace community organizing, participate in it, and play the role
that non-sectarian left organizers do in the labor movement—supporting greater social and economic equality, a
viable public sector in the economy, significant extension of the social safety net, breakup of concentrated corporate
power, worker ownership, cooperatives, credit unions, full civil liberties and open discussion, greater democratic
participation, and greater political democracy in the country.
New Deal Denialism
Authors: Rauchway Eric
Published: January 2010

From the start of the current economic crisis, commentators have compared the ongoing unpleasantness to the crash
of 1929, with the implication that we might soon begin to suffer a version of the Great Depression if we did not avoid
the errors of our predecessors. Right-wing and libertarian pundits knew to a moral certainty what those mistakes
were: neither Herbert Hoover nor Franklin Roosevelt had the wisdom to leave recovery to the energies of private
enterprise. Few liberal or left commentators disputed the underlying point, conceding that though the New Deal
brought the nation many fine reforms, it did not produce recovery from the slump—thus leaving the Right free to
define the New Deal as a relic of America’s pre-Reagan dalliance with socialism, best forgotten. Yet the data support
neither the Left’s concession nor the Right’s contention.
Cars, Highways, and the Poor
Authors: Freemark Yonah
Published: January 2010

The infusion of money into highways through gasoline taxes and the suburban exodus of the middle class and their
adoption of the automobile as the primary mode of transportation profoundly altered the nation’s landscape over the
past fifty years. The trend seemed inevitable: America would be a nation of drivers residing in unwalkable,
monofunctional neighborhoods far from city centers. When gas hit four dollars a gallon in 2008, however, something exceptional happened: for the first time in history, the
number of miles driven in passenger vehicles dropped. Though fuel prices have declined, the reduction in gas
consumption is a long-term trend. Hybrids and small cars are replacing gas-guzzlers; eventually, electric vehicles that
use no taxable fuel at all may become the norm.
Reconciling Socialism and Confucianism?: Reviving Tradition in China
Authors: Bell Daniel A.
Published: January 2010

Communism has lost its capacity to inspire the Chinese. But what will replace it? And what should replace it? Clearly,
there is a need for a new moral foundation for political rule in China, and the government has moved closer to an
official embrace of Confucianism. The Olympics highlighted Confucian themes, quoting the Analects of Confucius at
the opening ceremony, and downplayed any references to China’s experiment with communism. Cadres at the newly
built Communist Party School in Shanghai proudly tell visitors that the main building is modeled on a Confucian
scholar’s desk. Abroad, the government has been promoting Confucianism via branches of the Confucius Institute, a
Chinese language and culture center similar to France’s Alliance Française and Germany’s Goethe Institute.
Shaper of the New Deal
Authors: Ross Robert J.S.
Published: January 2010

As the nation debates once again proposals to guarantee health insurance for everyone, a new biography of Frances
Perkins reminds us of just how long the argument has been going on. In 1933, when Franklin Roosevelt offered
Perkins the job of secretary of labor, she proposed an agenda that was to become the backbone of the New Deal:
unemployment insurance, hours and wages legislation, abolition of child labor, social security, and national health
insurance. Famously, all but the latter were to be won and even more. Now, even as the American labor movement
leads the uphill battle for some form of public health insurance, it is fighting for its own life. The Magna Carta of
labor—the Wagner Act of 1935 that Perkins did not particularly support—has run its course, and the unions want a
successor law to clear the field for them.
Saving the Lowercase "g"
Authors: Hahn Kate
Published: January 2010

Hello, America. I am the lowercase “g.” After the holidays, I am usually a happy sort. Congress returns from vacation,
and my humble, seventh-place self is thrust back into the spotlight by the reintroduction into the national debate of
words such as “gun” and “gay.” I bask. Or, I used to. Now I wonder if my somewhat self-centered attitude about the
substance of congressional conversation blinded me to what was to come. Something that could destroy me. And
you. It began in the 2008 presidential race, when, in debates and stump speeches, candidates began to assert they were
“thinkin’,” “talkin‘,” and “hopin.‘” At first I could not believe they were dropping me. Me, of “gun” and “gay”! I explained it
away as fatigue due to a contentious battle for votes, but after the ballots were counted, it continued.
Brother, Can You Parse the Times?
Authors: Mattson Kevin
Published: January 2010

Need it be said we live in gloomy times? The most optimistic among our commentariat talk of a jobless recovery: the
banks and Wall Street recuperate while more Americans face unemployment or watch their wages and benefits
stagnate. All this, of course, follows massive mortgage defaults and rising homelessness. Numerous journalists now
speak of a “lost generation” coming of age—young people unable to find jobs and sinking into psychic despair.
Depression 2.0, the Great Recession, or whatever you want to call it, has renewed a sense of what it means to get
the blues . Which brings us to Morris Dickstein’s marvelous new book that explores “the crucial role that culture can play in times
of national trial.”
Daniel A. Bell Replies
Authors: Bell Daniel A.
Published: January 2010

In 1989, I strongly supported the student-led pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. Without knowing
much about China, I
guess I supported the students partly out of a form of self-love; it seemed they wanted to follow my social and political
way of life. It didn’t occur to me that democracy in China might take particular forms rooted in its own traditions. Five
years later, however, I read these words: "I recognized in the arguments of the students [in Tiananmen Square in 1989] a sense of their mission or their special
political role that was clearly incompatible with the American [democratic] ideal (in which a certain hostility to the
claims of the educated classes has always been present) and probably incompatible too with the prevailing abstract
and universal theories..."
Castles in the Air: Christopher Smart and the Concept of System
Authors: Cleary Scott M.
Published: January 2010

System as both concept and genre figures large in eighteenth-century literature. Christopher Smart encountered system as a fact of mid-century authorship and the reality of the madhouse, and each was a contact point for Smart's literary rendering of system in periodicals ( The Student ) and poetry ("Jubilate Agno"). The Student is Smart's self-systemization, as he internalizes system through the voice of The Student 's narrator, Chimaericus Cantabrigiensis. "Jubilate Agno" is a master system, reconciling the meaning of nature in religious, scientific, and poetic terms with a governing method for sublimating to poetic process the closed circuit perfection of a totalizing system.
A Concert of Werthers
Authors: Schiffman Robyn L.
Published: January 2010

British literature of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries is replete with literary characters who read Werther . Just a fifty-year sampling following Werther 's publication demonstrates that characters in some of the most widely read British authors, from Herbert Croft, Maria Edgeworth, Charlotte Smith, William Godwin, Jane Austen, to Sydney Owenson, quote from or allude to Werther. Werther 's most famous contemporary extended citation and analysis may occur in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein . Goethe's novel and title character serve as a source of contemporary artistic material and literary inspiration. To reconsider Werther 's role in these well known and under-read texts is to reexamine the novel's importance within contemporary British fiction.
"The Athens of England": Norwich as a Literary Center in the Late Eighteenth Century
Authors: Chandler David
Published: January 2010

The massive increase in provincial urban culture in Britain in the eighteenth century, long recognized by social historians, has only recently begun to register in literary scholarship. Norwich was then one of the leading provincial cities in England and this essay selects it as an exemplary test case for investigating the ways and means in which a city with only a very limited literary tradition could develop itself as an important literary center in this period. The intellectual culture of the Dissenting Octagon Chapel, the Norwich Theatre Royal, and the local newspapers are seen as central to Norwich's literary flowering.
The Tales of Two Cultures: Ecclesiastical Texts and Nahua and Maya Catholicisms
Authors: Christensen Mark Z.
Published: January 2010

[Priests should use] … an abbreviated catechism, scrupulously extracted from the Roman one so that the faithful receive the pure and sound Doctrine of the Church with uniformity and with the authority accordant to the Provincial Council … therefore, with luck, random works destitute of legitimate authority and revision in matters so grave will not circulate such important material.

When in the late eighteenth century the prelates of the Fourth Mexican Provincial Council ordered all clergy to stricdy employ their newly printed catechism, they provided a valuable description of the colonial Church and its relationship to unofficial ecclesiastical texts. The Fourth Provincial Council's call for the faithful to receive the doctrines of the Church in a sanctioned and uniform manner acknowledged the presence of a variety of Catholic discourses that stemmed from colonial religious works deemed to be “destitute of legitimate authority and revision.” Such unofficial ecclesiastical texts avoided the editing process that both the clergy and Crown established to ensure the orthodoxy of all printed religious material. In so doing, the texts could convey diverse, unorthodox interpretations of Catholicism. These unofficial ecclesiastical texts, and the role they played in producing multiple versions of Catholicism, constitute the focus of this study.
Protein Microarrays for Personalized Medicine
Authors: Yu Xiaobo , Schneiderhan-Marra Nicole , Joos Thomas O
Published: January 2010

Background: Over the last 10 years, DNA microarrays have achieved a robust analytical performance, enabling their use for analyzing the whole transcriptome or for screening thousands of single-nucleotide polymorphisms in a single experiment. DNA microarrays allow scientists to correlate gene expression signatures with disease progression, to screen for disease-specific mutations, and to treat patients according to their individual genetic profiles; however, the real key is proteins and their manifold functions. It is necessary to achieve a greater understanding of not only protein function and abundance but also their role in the development of diseases. Protein concentrations have been shown to reflect the physiological and pathologic state of an organ, tissue, or cells far more directly than DNA, and proteins can be profiled effectively with protein microarrays, which require only a small amount of sample material.

Content: Protein microarrays have become well-established tools in basic and applied research, and the first products have already entered the in vitro diagnostics market. This review focuses on protein microarray applications for biomarker discovery and validation, disease diagnosis, and use within the area of personalized medicine.

Summary: Protein microarrays have proved to be reliable research tools in screening for a multitude of parameters with only a minimal quantity of sample and have enormous potential in applications for diagnostic and personalized medicine.
Garda World
Authors: Rakoto Philémon
Published: January 2010

Corporation de Sécurité Garda World est une des rares grandes entreprises québécoises qui connaissent actuellement une expansion mondiale par acquisitions. Le cas traite de la plus grosse acquisition de garda: l'achat de l'entreprise américaine de transport de valeurs ATI Systems International our 342 millions de dollars US en février 2007.

Le cas traite d'une situation complexe réelle ayant comme cadre l'acquisition d'une grande entreprise étrangère par une entreprise qui a son siège social au Canada et qui tientses livres comptables en dollars canadiens. l'étudiant aura à traiter les différentes facettes des deux notions comptables suivantes:

La conversion en dollars canadiens des états financiers de l'entreprise acquise;

La consolidation des états financiers.

Garda World Security Corporation is one of the few Quebec large companies currently expanding globally by way of acquisitions. the case is about Garda's biggest acquisition — namely, the purchase of american cash logistics company ATI Systems International for US $342 million in February 2007.

The case deals with a real‐life complex situation whereby a Canadian‐based company keeping its accounting books in Canadian dollars acquires a large foreign company. Students will explore different aspects of the following two accounting concepts:

Converting the financial statements of the acquired company to Canadian dollars; and

financial statement consolidation.
Recombinant manganese peroxidase (rMnP) from Pichia pastoris. Part 2: Application in TCF and ECF bleaching
Authors: Xu Haowen , Scott Gary M. , Jiang Fei , Kelly Christine
Published: January 2010

The recombinant manganese peroxidase (rMnP) produced from the yeastPichia pastorishas been investigated in totally chlorine free (TCF) and elemental chlorine free (ECF) bleaching sequences for improving the bleachability of kraft pulps. In TCF bleaching, oxygen delignified hardwood kraft pulp was treated with rMnP, followed by a sequence combining a chelating and alkaline peroxide bleaching stage. The inclusion of the enzymatic treatment significantly improved the pulp brightness to a level that is difficult to obtain by chemical bleaching alone. Furthermore, the treatment with rMnP resulted in energy savings during pulp refining with PFI mill with a slight improvement in pulp strength properties such as tensile index and burst index. In ECF bleaching, a significant reduction in chlorine dioxide consumption was obtained. A three-stage rMnP treatment combined with alkaline extraction, followed by DED bleaching sequence for hardwood kraft pulp (HWKP) or DEDED bleaching sequence for softwood kraft pulp (SWKP), reduced the total effective chlorine by 41% and 32% for HWKP and SWKP, respectively, compared with the conventional bleaching sequences without enzymatic treatment. The strength properties of the enzyme-treated pulp were also slightly better than that of the control pulp. Further reductions in the consumption of total effective chlorine were obtained when a xylanase pretreatment was incorporated into the bleaching sequence before the repeated rMnP treatment.
Synchrotron X-ray fiber diffraction study on the thermal expansion behavior of cellulose crystals in tension wood of Japanese poplar in the low-temperature region
Authors: Hidaka Hitomi , Kim Ung-Jin , Wada Masahisa
Published: January 2010

The thermal expansion behavior of tension wood cellulose obtained from Populus maximowiczii A. Henry was investigated by synchrotron X-ray fiber diffraction at temperatures ranging from 100 to 300 K. Three equatorial and one meridional d-spacings indexed as , 110, 200, and 004 showed a gradual linear increase with increasing temperature. Unit-cell parameters calculated from the changes in these d-spacings showed anisotropic thermal expansion behavior in the three axial directions related to the crystal structure and hydrogen-bonding system of cellulose Iβ. The linear thermal expansion coefficients (TECs) of the a-, b-, and c-axes were: α
a=5.2×10-5 K-1, α
b=2.1×10-5 K-1, and α
c=0.4×10-5 K-1, respectively. The volume TEC was β=7.8×10-5 K-1, which was approximately 70% of previously reported values in the high-temperature region from room temperature to 250°C.
Garveyism and the Eschatology of African Redemption in the Rural South, 1920–1936
Authors: Roll Jarod
Published: January 2010

This article explores the ways rural followers of Marcus Garvey crafted and adapted a theological understanding of African redemption in the South during the 1920s and early 1930s. Members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association rarely spoke in concrete terms about the process of redemption or African state-building. Rather, when rural members talked of African redemption, they did so in eschatological terms, that is, as a theory of the end of the world. Above all else, they understood “redemption” to mean both their own individual salvation and the collective deliverance of black people. Their interpretations ranged from postmillennial visions of a climax of the history of the race bringing earthly peace and prosperity to a premillennial interpretation that plotted sudden, often violent, deliverance of the most race-conscious. These variant and seemingly contradictory readings of African redemption reveal an ontological shift among black Christians in the rural South during these years. African redemption provided rural Garveyites an existential language for reappraising notions of redemption, retribution, and the fate of the race in this world and the next that had profound implications for ongoing efforts to seek political and economic justice. This struggle over meaning and purpose lay at the very heart of rural black politics in this period as both an ideological constraint and a vehicle for innovation.
Can inverted papilloma in urinary bladder be considered as a benign tumor?
Authors: Riesz Péter , Székely Eszter , Törzsök Péter , Majoros Attila , Szendrői Attila , Dombovári Péter , Romics Imre
Published: January 2010

Invertált papilloma előfordulása a húgyhólyagban igen ritka. Irodalmi adatok szerint a betegség nem malignus, kiújulási hajlama alacsony. A szerzők a Semmelweis Egyetem Urológiai Klinikáján és Uroonkológiai Centrumában az elmúlt 11 évben felfedezett, invertált papillomás eseteket vizsgálták. Választ kívántak kapni arra, hogy az invertált papillomák milyen gyakorisággal újulnak ki, és milyen gyakran alakul ki belőlük rosszindulatú hólyagdaganat.
Betegek és módszer:
Harminc beteget prospektív módszerrel követtek, akiknél a húgyhólyagdaganat transurethralis reszekciójának szövettani eredménye invertált papilloma volt. A betegek szoros követését a háromhavonta esedékes vizeletvizsgálat, hasi ultrahangvizsgálat és hólyagtükrözés alkotta. Egy év után a fenti vizsgálatokat félévente végezték el.
Eredmények:
Három betegükben alakult ki a követési idő alatt transitiocellularis carcinoma (17, 60 és 92 hónap múlva). Egy betegnél szinkrón került felismerésre invertált papilloma és pTa G1 átmeneti sejtes daganat. Egy betegben 15 hónappal a nem izominvazív hólyagrák (pT1 G2) miatt végzett műtét és lokális kemoterápia után találtak invertált papillomát a kontroll-cisztoszkópia során.
Következtetések:
A szerzők vizsgálatai alapján az invertált papilloma jóindulatú betegség, de követése javasolt, mert előfordulhat malignizálódása, vagy kísérheti átmeneti sejtes hólyagrák. Eredményeik alapján, bár ebben az irodalom nem foglal teljesen egyformán állást, az invertált papillomával kezelt betegek követését a primer pTa G1 hólyagrákoknak megfelelően ajánlják.
Religious Ethics and International Order
Authors: Keating Tom
Published: January 2010

This essay draws from the literature on religion’s revival as an important political force in international relations and assesses the effect that this revival might have on international order. It defines international order as a modicum of stability and co-operation among sovereign states and notes that some observers see religious communities threatening this order by encouraging fundamentalist communities that might undermine the more secular character of international order. After noting how authors have questioned the supposed “secular” character of international order, the essay suggests that religious communities have or could play a significant role in responding to conditions such as poverty and injustice that also threaten international order. As result the revival of religion and the plurality of religious communities throughout the globe might better be viewed as a source of support for international order.
Lord’s Resistance Army
Authors: Kaplan Jeffrey
Published: January 2010

This essay examines the history, strategy and tactics of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a millenarian terrorist group that originated among the Acholi tribe in Northern Uganda. Today, its operations focus on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but it is active in Uganda, the Sudan and the Central African Republic. The LRA is composed of approximately 90% kidnapped child soldiers and as a result of its depredations, almost 90% of the Acholi and other northern Ugandan tribes live in squalid IDP (Internally Displaced Person) camps in Uganda. Children in villages and even from some of the so called protected camps, the so-called “night commuters,” must trek as many as 20 miles each night into towns in order to avoid abduction. The article focuses in particular on the religious aspects of the LRA and on its metamorphosis from a local to a regional and ultimately into an international security challenge.
Postmenopausal sexual dysfunction
Authors: Cumming Grant P , Mauelshagen Annamarie E , Parrish Mary H
Published: January 2010

Sexuality, sexual interaction and sexual activity do not end when a woman reaches a certain age.

Sexual interaction does not necessarily mean intercourse and absence of orgasm does not necessarily mean dysfunction.

Postmenopausal sexual dysfunction describes a wide range of symptoms which are multifactorial in origin.

Learning objectives:

To raise awareness that postmenopausal sexual activity is important and that a woman's sexual response is not the same as that of a man.

To provide a framework for managing postmenopausal sexual dysfunction.

Ethical issues:

How to explore sensitively sexual interaction in the UK's increasingly culturally and spiritually diverse postmenopausal population.

Please cite this article as: Cumming GP, Mauelshagen AE, Parrish MH. Postmenopausal sexual dysfunction.The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist2010;12:1–6.
The threshold for laparoscopy for pelvic pain
Authors: Laborda Elisenda , Clarke Andrew , Carpenter Tyrone
Published: January 2010

Detailed history and examination are crucial.

Laparoscopy is readily justifiable in acute pain.

In chronic pelvic pain, the possible benefits and risks associated with laparoscopy need to be assessed for each woman individually.

Learning objectives:

To outline gynaecological and non‐gynaecological reasons for pelvic pain.

To evaluate methods of diagnosis.

To determine the likelihood of laparoscopy being effective in diagnosis and treatment, and the associated risks in each individual case.

Ethical issues:

The risks of unnecessary and unhelpful surgery should be balanced against the risks associated with delay and possible misdiagnosis.

Please cite this article as: Laborda E, Clarke A, Carpenter T. The threshold for laparoscopy for pelvic pain. The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist 2010;12:7–12.
Sperm donor recruitment in the UK
Authors: Pacey Allan
Published: January 2010

The use of donor sperm in assisted conception is an important treatment option in cases of male factor infertility.

In the absence of a male partner, single and lesbian women can use donor sperm to achieve a pregnancy.

Assisted conception using donor sperm is highly regulated under UK law and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority keeps a register of donors and donor‐conceived people.

Learning objectives:

To understand the current UK framework of conception assisted by donor sperm.

To understand the complexity of sperm donor recruitment and screening.

To appreciate the current shortfall in the number of donors and the impact this is having on treatment in the UK.

Ethical issues:

How can we increase the number of sperm donors in the UK?

Is it ethical to pay sperm donors?

Is it ethical to import sperm from overseas in cases if not enough donors can be recruited in the UK?

Please cite this article as: Pacey A. Sperm donor recruitment in the UK. The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist 2010;12:43–48.
@ TOG
Authors: Keay Stephen , McAllister Kay
Published: January 2010

In this issue we focus on websites providing information and support for women with psychosexual problems. This is an important and sensitive area in obstetrics and gynaecology which is poorly understood. There are a number of websites available for patients and professionals. The websites listed could be a starting point that you could suggest to women who you identify as having a problem during the course of your consultation.
Moving from Data Poor to Data Rich: A Case Study of Community-Based Data Collection for the San Diego Red Sea Urchin Fishery
Authors: Schroeter Stephen C. , Gutiérrez Nicolás L. , Robinson Michael , Hilborn Ray , Halmay Peter
Published: January 2010

Responding to the need for management of California's nearshore fisheries mandated in state law by the Marine Life Management and Marine Life Protection acts, the San Diego Watermen's Association (SDWA), which includes divers that target local red sea urchins Strongylocentrotus franciscanus, initiated a community-based data collection program in 2001. In collaboration with independent scientists and biologists from the California Department of Fish and Game, the SDWA developed an ongoing program to gather, organize, and analyze both fishery-dependent and fishery-independent data on the local red sea urchin fishery. The goal of the program is to collect data that will support periodical stock assessments needed for sustainable management of existing nearshore fisheries (including red sea urchins) as well as the kelp forest ecosystem on which these fisheries depend. Here, we discuss sampling designs, methods for determining data quality (bias and precision), and methods for detecting change, and we provide some examples of results from the ongoing community-based data collection program. We also report on (1) the design and implementation of scientifically valid sampling protocols; (2) data quality assurance and control collaboratively conducted with scientists and resource agency biologists; (3) calibration studies to determine accuracy and precision and the magnitude of detectable changes in red sea urchin populations; and (4) visualization and dissemination of data and results and incremental changes in protocols that would facilitate the monitoring of associated biological communities. Finally, we discuss keys for success in this cooperative-based data collection program and its implications for stock assessment and management of the red sea urchin fishery in California.
Reconciling Approaches to the Assessment and Management of Data-Poor Species and Fisheries with Australia's Harvest Strategy Policy
Authors: Smith David , Punt Andre , Dowling Natalie , Smith Anthony , Tuck Geoff , Knuckey Ian
Published: January 2010

There is an increasing expectation for decision makers to use robust scientific advice on the status of exploited fish stocks. For example, Australia has recently implemented a harvest strategy policy for federally managed fisheries based on limit and target biomass reference points. In common with most fisheries jurisdictions, however, Australia has many data-poor species and fisheries for which biomass estimates are unavailable. Consequently, the challenge for those tasked with providing management advice for Australian fisheries has been reconciling the need to achieve specific risk-related sustainability objectives with the reality of the available data and assessments for data-poor species and fisheries. Some general recommendations regarding how to achieve this balance are drawn using case studies from two multispecies trawl fisheries. The lack of data on which to base quantitative stock assessments using population dynamics models does not preclude the development of objective harvest control rules. Evaluation of harvest control rules using technical procedures (e.g., the management strategy evaluation approach) is ideal, but implementation before rigorous testing is sometimes a necessary reality. Information from data-rich species and fisheries can be used to inform “assessments” for data-poor species and thereby develop appropriate control rules. This can be done through formal methods, such as the “Robin Hood” approach (in which assessments from data-rich species are used to inform assessments of data-poor species), or less formally by grouping species into “baskets” and basing management decisions on one appropriate member of the group. Stakeholder knowledge and buy-in to the process of developing appropriate harvest strategies are essential when species or fisheries are data poor. Use of this information, however, needs to be constrained by policy decisions, such as prespecified performance standards. There will always be a trade-off between the cost of data collection and the value of a fishery; in this article, we highlight that this trade-off does not have to be a major impediment to the development of realistic and sufficiently precautionary control rules for the management of data-poor species and fisheries.
Collaborative Research: An Effective Way to Collect Data for Stock Assessments and Evaluate Marine Protected Areas in California
Authors: Wendt Dean E. , Starr Richard M.
Published: January 2010

Collaborative fisheries research (in contrast to cooperative research) is based on the intellectual partnership between scientists and fishermen and is an effective way to collect data for stock assessments and to evaluate marine protected areas. Collaborative fisheries research is discussed in the context of co-management of marine resources and how it contributes to a more democratic form of fisheries management. Many benefits result from working together, including (1) the incorporation of fishers' knowledge and expertise into the management process and (2) the development of shared perspectives derived through science-based investigations on the status of marine resources. The California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program was formed in 2006 to participate in the monitoring of marine reserves established through California's Marine Life Protection Act. This program has shown that it can serve as a model for other areas that are trying to implement collaborative research and that collaborative research can greatly contribute to the realization of community-based co-management of marine resources.
Independent Validation of the Accuracy of Yelloweye Rockfish Catch Estimates from the Canadian Groundfish Integration Pilot Project
Authors: Stanley Richard D. , Olsen Norm , Fedoruk Andrew
Published: January 2010

The British Columbia fishing industry and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada introduced 100% monitoring of the commercial groundfish hook-and-line and trap fisheries in April 2006. The monitoring system includes cameras to capture video footage of hauling at the vessel's side, Global Positioning System-linked winch sensors on all boats, 100% dockside monitoring of piece counts and weights, and 100% retention of all rockfishes Sebastes spp. The system provides official estimates of total catch in pieces and weight (retained and discarded) through the fisher logs and dockside monitoring. Using catches of yelloweye rockfish S. ruberrimus as a test case, this study examined the accuracy of catch estimates produced during the third year of the program (April 2008 to March 2009). The analysis indicates that the overall monitoring produces accurate catch estimates of yelloweye rockfish. A key, and possibly unique, component of the catch verification was the derivation of an alternate estimate of total catch. This estimate was derived from the data that result from the video review of randomly selected fishing events. This review process randomly selects 10% of the events from each trip and enumerates the catch of each species during the entire event. Originally designed as a random check on the veracity of the fisher logs, these review data were used in this study to provide an unbiased estimate of mean catch per event and its variance; mean catch per event was then expanded to total catch by the total number of events. Since these data come from video footage collected at the moment of capture, the video estimate cannot be corrupted by misreporting of discards or by dumping fish after being retained. Thus, the video data provide an unbiased and virtually independent catch estimate—rare in fisheries monitoring—that captures the extent to which the official catch accounting systems might be biased.
Early Two-Stage Palatoplasty Using Modified Furlow's Veloplasty
Authors: Juntaro Nishio , Tadashi Yamanishi , Kohara Hiroshi , Hirano Yoshiko , Sako Michiyo , Adachi Tadafumi , Mukai Takao , Miya Shigenori
Published: January 2010

Objective

To achieve sufficient velopharyngeal function and maxillary growth for patients with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP), the authors have designed a new treatment protocol for palate closure involving early two-stage palatoplasty with modified Furlow veloplasty. Details of the surgical protocol and the outcomes of the dental occlusion of patients at 4 years of age are presented.

Design and Setting

This was an institutional retrospective study.

Patients

Seventy-two UCLP patients were divided into two groups based on their treatment protocols: patients treated using the early two-stage palatoplasty protocol (ETS group; n = 30) and patients treated using Wardill-Kilner push-back palatoplasty performed at 1 year of age (PB group; n = 42).

Interventions

The features of the ETS protocol are as follows: The soft palate is repaired at 12 months of age using a modified Furlow technique. The residual cleft in the hard palate is closed at 18 months of age. Lip repair is carried out at 3 months of age with a modified Millard technique for all subjects.

Results

The ETS group showed a significantly better occlusal condition than the PB group. The incidence of normal occlusion at the noncleft side central incisor was 7.1% in the PB group; whereas, it was 66.7% in the ETS group.

Conclusion

The results indicate that the early two-stage protocol is advantageous for UCLP children in attaining better dental occlusion at 4 years of age.
Orthodontie Treatment Results following Grafting Autologous Mandibular Bone to the Alveolar Cleft in Patients with a Complete Unilateral Cleft
Authors: de Ruiter Ad , van der Bilt Andries , Gert Meijer , Ronald Koole
Published: January 2010

Objective

To analyze orthodontic treatment results following mandibular symphysis bone grafting and postoperative orthodontic treatment.

Design

Randomized selection of 75 patients out of 308 with unilateral cleft of lip, alveolus, and palate, operated upon according to protocol between 1990 and 2008 in the Wilhelmina Children's Hospital, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Main Outcome Measure

Goslon Yardstick rating changes of dental arch relationship. Significant agreement ( p < .001) was observed between the two assessments carried out with an interval of 3 months (Cohen's kappa = .963, p < .001).

Results

Following mandibular bone grafting and orthodontic treatment in 65.3% of the patients, the aim of treatment (Goslon Yardstick groups 1 and 2) had been achieved. The applied before/after Goslon allocations showed high improvement significance ( p < .001).

Conclusions

Postoperative orthodontic treatment in patients following grafting with mandibular symphysis bone showed excellent results.
Secondary Alveolar Bone Grafting (CLEFTSiS) 2000–2004
Authors: McIntyre Grant T. , Devlin Mark F.
Published: January 2010

Objective

To determine whether alveolar bone graft outcomes improved with reorganization of Scottish cleft services following the Clinical Services Advisory Group United Kingdom finding of 58% success and to determine the accuracy of results from CLEFTSiS (national managed clinical network for Scottish cleft services) annual audits.

Design

Retrospective random analysis of electronic radiographs by two observers.

Setting

Surgical-orthodontic care provided through National Health Service.

Patients, Participants

Sixty-three of 261 patients eligible for alveolar bone grafting by cleft type did not undergo surgery. Nine surgeons operated on 198 patients (2 regrafts). Radiographs were available for 115 subjects (one was excluded).

Interventions

A standard protocol involved presurgical maxillary expansion (where necessary) and bone harvesting from the iliac crest.

Main Outcome Measure(s)

The Kindelan Bone-Fill Index evaluated radiographic success with weighted kappa statistics for intraobserver and interobserver reproducibility. Two-sample t-tests were used to determine whether outcomes for bilateral and unilateral cleft lip and palate patients differed and to examine the effects of operator volume, presurgical expansion, and age at the time of grafting.

Results

Intraobserver (0.93 to 0.97) and interobserver (0.83 to 0.85) reproducibility were almost perfect. Grafts were successful in 76% of patients, while 23% were partial failures and 1% of cases were total failures. Patients who underwent presurgical expansion (n  =  64) had statistically significantly better results ( p  =  .046). However, there was no statistically significant effect for unilateral versus bilateral patients ( p  =  .77), patients treated by the highest volume operator ( p  =  .78), and patients under 11 years of age ( p  =  .29).

Conclusions

CLEFTSiS alveolar bone graft results between 2000 and 2004 were improved on the Clinical Services Advisory Group study and annual CLEFTSiS audits. Patients who underwent maxillary expansion prior to surgery were more successful.