bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Valuing Business Information Services
Authors: James Sylvia
Published: September 2004

Business information managers need to be able to justify and value their business information services to senior management within their organizations, particularly in these times of change and uncertainty. This applies to both the profit making and non-profit sectors. However, library and information services literature has tended to concentrate on only specific aspects of services that demonstrate value, rather than looking at valuing the complete department. They also tend to focus on the value elements of scientific, medical and academic libraries. This article describes a possible model that could be successfully used to value a business information department, which introduces business information service managers to the possibilities and opportunities of using the concepts, theories, rules of thumb and current methods of business valuation to value their information service as a discrete unit. By understanding and using elements from well-known business methods, business information service managers and librarians can relate their services directly to their reporting line and to the in-house financial management on their terms, and express them numerically and financially. This article will provide a summary of this methodology, which has been used successfully by the writer of this paper in many consulting projects over the last few years and in training sessions and seminars.
Federal Offices of the Inspector General
Authors: Newcomer Kathryn , Grob George
Published: September 2004

Rapid change in responsibilities, requirements, and human resource demands has been the constant for federal Offices of the Inspector General over the past decade. They have been drawn into work on the management challenges facing their agencies, new requirements levied by the Chief Financial Officers Act and the Government Performance and Results Act, and crisis management efforts imposed by recent homeland security threats. This study replicates previous surveys of the Office of the Inspector General community undertaken in 1992 and 1996 to assess how it is meeting current challenges and has changed in its roles and responsibilities over the past decade. The study found the Inspector General community evolving and stretching to meet newdemands while retaining core functions. It is expanding its repertoire of analytical services, working closely with agency management to address management challenges, and confronting new human capital needs, especially in the field of information technology.
Readers’ Perceptions of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Management Journals
Authors: Brudney Jeffrey L. , Herman Robert D.
Published: September 2004

This article describes the results of a survey conducted via e-mail of readers of the three leading generalist, peerreviewed scholarly journals in the field of nonprofit sector studies:Nonprofit Management and Leadership, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly , andVoluntas. The composition of the sample of respondents suggests that the readers of the journals include a substantial number of people relatively new to the field. Most identify themselves as academic researchers, although a significant minority represents practitioners or consultants. Results show that readers are generally pleased with the journals, giving them relatively high ratings on the quality of articles, readability of the research, and accessibility of the methodology. The results also show that consistent with their editorial missions, the three journals serve somewhat distinct niches and that the increased supply of journals has helped the field to grow.
Experiments with Local Federalism
Authors: Box Richard C. , Musso Juliet Ann
Published: September 2004

Federalism involves allocation of powers between units of government at different geographic levels. In local areas, changes in relationships between units of government may be effected through incorporation or disincorporation, annexation, formation of new layers of government, or interjurisdictional agreements. It may be difficult for residents who seek change to achieve it through alteration of jurisdictional boundaries or intergovernmental hierarchical relationships, however, they may gain similar benefits through intrajurisdictional arrangements such as neighborhood organizations. Such strategies of change from within are common, however, in an interesting variation, failed efforts at forming new jurisdictions through secession from the City of Los Angeles have occurred during startup of a neighborhood program intended to give greater voice to subjurisdictional areas. The article examines this situation, suggesting that formation of intrajurisdictional units may operate as an alternative form of local federalism.
Impoundment at the State Level
Authors: Douglas James W. , Hoffman Kim U.
Published: September 2004

Presidential impoundment authority has been given extensive attention in the budgeting literature. Little research, however, has examined impoundment powers at the state level. This research note is an exploratory study of impoundment powers at the state level, focusing primarily on gubernatorial rescission authority. We use a survey of executive budgeting officers to examine the structure, use, and effectiveness of impoundment powers in the states. We find that gubernatorial impoundment authority is generally used to maintain balanced budgets during times of revenue shortfall. We also find that impoundments do not serve as a particularly effective policy mechanism for most governors.
Democracy in Action
Authors: Chuang Ya-Chung
Published: September 2004

This article examines new directions of Taiwanese social movements during the last decade—their promises, struggles, agendas and obstacles. Ranging from loosely knit collective protests to the activities of well-structured organizations, these grassroots actions seek to change society in ways deriving from a variety of socio-cultural imaginings—some utopian, others firmly grounded in either political and economic analyses or cultural criticism. I find that the processes by which people mobilize, organize, and involve themselves engage a wide array of motivations, meanings, opportunities and limitations. This article investigates various perspectives on Taiwanese social movements through an ethnography of democracy as a process of social struggle for survival, citizenship and meaning, rather than as an abstraction of liberalism. I mainly focus on urban social movement organizations, which began to emerge on the public scene in the 1980s and flourished in the 1990s, situating them within a culture of protest in the making.
Historians Take Note: Motivation = Emotion
Authors: MacMullen Ramsay
Published: September 2004

Whether we act as we do at the urging of our thinking mind or of our feelings is something we don't ordinarily see in simple terms. The two alternatives are better thought of as opposing poles on a scale. Action at different moments will be better explained, but not completely explained, by the one or by the other. Overall, or in a given week, it wouldn't be easy to say which had most controlled our behavior. That is how the layman thinks, anyway.
The 18th-Century Body and the Origins of Human Rights
Authors: Hunt Lynn
Published: September 2004

In the last three decades, historians have begun investigating the changing perceptions of the human body. Much of this work has been influenced by Michel Foucault's contention that the self of western individualism was created by new regimes of disciplining the body. These disciplinary regimes emerged in sites as different as the prison and the experience of sexuality. Foucault cannot be ignored, but to understand the body that possessed rights a different approach is taken here, one that focuses on how individual bodies came to be viewed as separate and inviolable, that is, as autonomous. The separateness and inviolability of bodies can be traced in the histories of bodily practices as different as portraiture and legal torture.
Interlude 3 the Real Benefits of Fairness
Authors: Shorris Earl
Published: September 2004

It would be comforting to think of a disjunction between America at home and America in the world, to imagine the arrogance of government a matter of distance rather than character, to think of the billion people in the world who are starving and the epidemic of obesity in the United States as a failure of knowledge rather than of character. But there are so many who live poor in this, the richest country in the history of the world, that I now doubt both the ethics of America and the wisdom of its leadership in the ways of the world. The country seems to be now on a wrong path, having confused the momentary benefits of triumphant force with the real benefits of fairness. The cost in money to provide the poor of the world with potable water is nothing compared to the cost of war.
To Shape the Nation’s Foreign Policy: Struggles for Dominance among American International Relations Scholars
Authors: Farer Tom
Published: September 2004

Whatever its other effects, the Soviet-American Cold War helped launch and sustain an era of feverish intellectual activity in the linked fields of international relations theory and foreign policy analysis. Hot wars sometimes do the same, but only after they are over. For in the heat of bloody conflict, most intellectuals are sucked into public service and resources flow to support the immediate imperatives of war-making. The cold one, by contrast, in part by virtue of being cold and, in part, therefore, long, and being as well full of strategic and intellectual puzzles, encouraged expenditure on theorizing and encouraged theorists by providing them with the incentive of a receptive audience and the prospect of operational consequence for their work. Reinforcing the impelling effects of the war itself was the danger and novelty of the nuclear weapons the antagonists deployed, weapons that constituted an unprecedented existential threat not merely to them but to the entire planet.
Ever Changing America: The Universities
Authors: Frye Richard N.
Published: September 2004

Every spring at colleges and universities in the USA students organized protests against some policy of the government, and frequently the dissent continued as in the case of the Vietnam war. If there was no specific action or project to which students could direct their ire, an international organization, such as the World Bank, could receive the complaints of demonstrators. The lack of specific targets, however, might lead to an attack on general conditions in the world, such as capitalism or globalization. Much debate has been devoted to the latter on university campuses in recent years, and the malaise in regard to globalization has spread beyond students, especially to ethnic groups in the USA, who see a threat to the preservation of their identities.
The Global Role of US Philosophy
Authors: McBride William L.
Published: September 2004

As a philosopher with a special interest in social and political philosophy and with a variety of personal and professional ties to other countries around the world besides my own, I have closely followed and reflected on the phenomenon that almost everyone now calls, without always being very certain as to just what it means, ‘globalization’. I have considered some of the more threatening aspects of an evolving, increasingly hegemonic, consumerist ‘culture’, if that is the appropriate word, that is transmitted, to a great extent, by transnational corporations (one of which, Coca-Cola, has the fortune or misfortune of having given its name to this development) and that is based above all, though not exclusively, in my own country. I have tried to offer some reasons why it should be regarded as threatening, since not everyone considers it to be so. And I have paid special attention, for obvious reasons, to the ‘globalization’ of philosophy itself - to some of the better and some of the worse ways in which such a process may occur and is, indeed, occurring.
Dark and Light: The Strange Case of the Decline of Illustration
Authors: Glaser Milton
Published: September 2004

In the field of illustration, we are beginning to feel we've been struck in the head and have fallen into a coma and are waiting to wake up at a more generous time. I'm not sure that better times are coming within my lifetime, and I have little practical career advice for others in the field.
Examining Public Opinion about Crime and Justice: A Statewide Study
Authors: Sims Barbara , Johnston Eric
Published: September 2004

As noted by Flanagan (1996), public opinion polls about crime and justice can act as a social barometer providing important data to policy makers regarding what the public is willing, or is not willing, to accept when it comes to proposed legislation and/or intervention programming. This paper reports findings from the 2001 Penn State Poll, a random telephone survey of Pennsylvanians, 18 years of age or older, in which citizens were asked about their attitudes toward and perceptions of such issues as fear of crime, capital punishment, the most important goal of prison, and where they would most like to see their tax dollars spent (building more prisons vs. early intervention programs with troubled youth). Significant differences were found within certain demographic groups across these sets of questions, and in a predictive model, gender, race/ethnicity, and education had a greater impact on citizens’ support for capital punishment than did their fear of crime. Overall, findings suggest that the public is not as punitive as it is sometimes believed to be by legislators and policy makers.
The Practical Utility and Ramifications of RICO: Thirty-Two Years after its Implementation
Authors: Urbina Martin G. , Kreitzer Sara
Published: September 2004

In 1970, Congress enacted what some scholars view as the most sweeping criminal statute ever passed at the federal level, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), with the primary objective of prosecuting organized crime. The legislative intent was to destroy criminal organizations by adopting mandatory fines and lengthy sentences. Thirty-two years after its implementation, however, RICO continues to be questionable and polemic. Thus, the primary objective of this study was to obtain a better understanding of RICO by conducting face-to-face interviews with 23 practitioners. The findings suggest that RICO has been extremely successful against traditional organized crime. Although it is not possible to quantify whether the benefits substantially outweigh the negative consequences, both benefits and ramifications appear to be significant and substantial and thus worthy of further analyses.
Realistic Expectations: Constructing a Mission-Based Evaluation Model for Community Corrections Programs
Authors: Garcia Crystal A.
Published: September 2004

Correctional practitioners have long argued that evaluators focus too heavily on recidivism measures and thus understate the value of their programs. The author asserts that the impact of community corrections programs can be more comprehensively evaluated when evaluation plans include measures that assess whether program goals, objectives, and overall mission were met. Therefore, the intent of this article is to offer a model for evaluating community corrections programs based on what they promised to do in their mission statements. Justification for the model, conceptual framework, and an example of how to use the model are discussed below.
The Irrelevant Future Machinations of Human Predators: Response to Cunningham, Sorensen, and Reidy
Authors: DeLisi Matt , Munoz Ed A.
Published: September 2004

This rejoinder responds to criticisms levied by Cunningham, Sorensen, and Reidy on the finding that death row inmates were significantly likely to commit acts of prison violence. We acknowledge two genuine errors in our study that could render the statistical finding spurious; however, Cunningham et al.’s response is ineffective in advancing the substantive issues pertaining to the future dangerousness of capital defendants. Although we respect future dangerousness as a legal doctrine and an area of research, it is ultimately a superfluous and largely academic topic that pales to other justifications for capital punishment.
Museums and Childhood
Authors: Milligan Melinda J. , Brayfield April
Published: September 2004

Contemporary museums define educational programs for children as a central and straightforward component of their stated missions. We problematize these programs in our critical discussion of the role of the museum as a source of non-classroom education and the centrality of these lessons in the maintenance of the museum as an organization. Our exploratory study investigates educational programs for children within two traditionally adult-centered museum settings in the US: (1) an architectural museum in a mid-sized city and (2) an art gallery on a university campus. We compare the organizational goals of the two museums with respect to their programs for children and the attempts of museum educators to accomplish these goals through specific programs. Based on interviews with museum officials and field observations, we argue that museum programs attempt to promote both cultural and content lessons to children and teachers through school tours within museum spaces and that their success is tied to the training and beliefs of tour guides, the suitability of museum spaces for children as a participatory audience, and the techniques used to control children’s social behavior.
The Future World Champions?
Authors: Gram Malene
Published: September 2004

The general European discourse of childhood presents children as innocent and vulnerable, but within this discourse different images of ‘the perfect child’ exist. In this article ideals for upbringing are studied as they are represented in French, German and Dutch printed advertisements for children’s products. The sample consists of 290 advertisements collected in the period 1995-8 from women’s magazines, and the analysis is both quantitative and qualitative. Different interpretations of play, intellectual development and well-being are central in the ads. The differences found in the ads point to the fact that significant differences exist with regard to what ‘good’ childhood is.
Telling it Like it isn’t: Obscuring Perpetrator Responsibility for Violent Crime
Authors: Coates Linda , Wade Allan
Published: September 2004

Part I of this article introduces the interactional and discursive view of violence and resistance, part II illustrates its application to the analysis of sexual assault trial judgments, and part III provides a detailed analysis of an entire judgment. In giving their reasons for verdicts and sentences, the majority of judges accounted for the assaults by drawing on psychological concepts and constructs. These psychological explanations or causal attributions were grouped into one or more of eight categories: alcohol and drug abuse, biological or sexual drive, psychopathology, dysfunctional family upbringing, stress and trauma, character or personality trait, emotional state, and loss of control. The causal attributions in all categories systematically reformulated deliberate acts of violence into non-deliberate and non-violent acts. Psychologizing attributions, that is, causal attributions that functioned to conceal the violence and mitigate the perpetrator’s responsibility, accounted for 97 percent of attributions. Through line-by-line analyses of the full text of one judgment, we show how psychologizing attributions are combined in use with other linguistic devices to (i) conceal violence, (ii) mitigate perpetrators’ responsibility, (iii) conceal victims’ resistance, and (iv) blame or pathologize victims.
The Discursive Construction of a World-Class City
Authors: Flowerdew John
Published: September 2004

With the coming of globalization there has been increased competition among cities internationally to become so-called ‘World Cities’, i.e. centres of high technology, industry, trade, banking, finance, professional activity, higher education and the arts. This article describes and analyses how Hong Kong has attempted to discursively construct itself as such a city. Applying ideas from Critical Discourse Analysis, genre theory and branding, the article considers the governmental consultation process designed to promote Hong Kong as a World City and shows how this is influenced not only by the government’s control of the various genres which make up the consultation, but also by its use of language. Textual analysis, as demonstrated in the analysis of three documents, grounded in the political situation, highlights the manipulative nature of the consultation process.
Putting the Nation in the News: the Role of Location Formulation in a Selection of Scottish Newspapers
Authors: Higgins Michael
Published: September 2004

This article explores the role of location formulation in the expression of nationhood in six Scottish newspapers’ coverage of a domestic political event. The article draws upon a corpus analysis comparing the incidence of ‘location lexical tokens’ in the Scottish papers with a selection from the UK and England. It finds that the Scottish papers stress the national character of the political process, occasionally doing so alongside an inclusive rhetoric. The article also finds that the Scottish papers mobilize an internal political vocabulary around the expression of location, manifest in the widespread adoption of the political metonym ‘Holyrood’ for the Scottish parliament, and in the use of localized political discourses. The article therefore suggests that explicit reference to the home nation is an important component of news discourse, and that the systematic study of location formulation also offers an insight into the generation of an internal and nation-specific political vocabulary.
Acceleration and Monitoring of Data Center-Hosted Distributed Database-Driven Web Applications
Authors: Li Wen-Syan , Candan K. Selcuk , Huang Wei-Kuang
Published: September 2004

For many e-commerce applications, web pages are created dynamically based on the current state of a business, such as product prices and inventory, stored in database systems. This characteristic requires e-commerce websites to deploy and integrate web servers, application servers, and database systems at the backend. Response time is essential to many e-commerce applications. With increasing availability and advancement of content delivery networks (CDN), many database-driven web applications rely on data centers that host applications and database contents. Such IT infrastructure enables the generation of requested pages at locations much closer to the end-users, thus reducing network latency. However, it incurs additional complexity associated with database-data center synchronization and data freshness. In this paper, the deployment of NEC’s CachePortal dynamic content caching technology on a database-driven website in a data center-based distribution infrastructure is described. The new system architecture has been experimentally evaluated and the results show that the deployment of NEC’s CachePortal accelerates the dynamic content delivery up to seven times while attaining a high level of content freshness. The way how the performance and behavior of web applications are monitored and analyzed are also dealt with.
The Five-Factor Personality Inventory as a Measure of the Five-Factor Model
Authors: Fruyt Filip De , McCrae Robert R. , Szirmák Zsófia , Nagy János
Published: September 2004

The lexically based Five-Factor Personality Inventory (FFPI) was correlated with the factors and facets of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) in Belgian (N = 265), American (N = 116), and Hungarian (N = 320) samples. Results were similar across the three cultures. Analysis of orthogonalized FFPI factors showed that three of them— emotional stability, extraversion, and agreeableness—showed a direct correspondence to their NEO-PI-R counterparts. Autonomy, however, was not clearly related to openness, and facet analysis suggested that it might be interpreted as a dominance factor. Better matches to NEO-PI-R conscientiousness and openness could be obtained by using vectors rotated 30° from the FFPI positions. Raw scale scores showed similar results. Researchers should not assume that all measures of the Five-Factor Model are qualitatively similar.
Assessing Stress in Cancer Patients
Authors: Golden-Kreutz Deanna M. , Browne Michael W. , Frierson Georita M. , Andersen Barbara L.
Published: September 2004

Using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), perceptions of global stress were assessed in 111women following breast cancer surgery and at 12 and 24 months later. This is the first study to factor analyze the PSS. The PSS data were factor analyzed each time using exploratory factor analysis with oblique direct quartimin rotation. Goodness-of-fit indices (root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA]), magnitude and pattern of factor loadings, and confidence interval data revealed a two-factor solution of positive versus negative stress items. The findings, replicated across time, also indicate factor stability. Hierarchical factor analyses supported a second-order factor of “perceived stress.” This alternative factor model of the PSS is presented along with observations regarding the measure’s use in cancer research.
Evaluating the Convergence of Muscle Appearance Attitude Measures
Authors: Cafri Guy , Thompson J. Kevin
Published: September 2004

There has been growing interest in the assessment of a muscular appearance. Given the importance of assessing muscle appearance attitudes, the aim of this study was to explore the convergence of the Drive for Muscularity Scale, Somatomorphic Matrix, Contour Drawing Rating Scale,Male Figure Drawings, and the Muscularity Rating Scale. Participants were 76 men and 103 women who each completed four measures of body image that were meant to evaluate two distinct domainsof appearance attitudes: muscularity and body fat. For both genders, data indicated low convergence among muscularity measures, but high convergence among body fat measures. For men, the Drivefor Muscularity Body Image subscale exhibited the greatest concurrent validity with behaviors used to increase muscularity. The results are discussed in light of the selection of methods forthe assessment of muscle appearance attitudes.
Development and Testing of a New Instrument for Measuring Concerns about Dying in Health Care Providers
Authors: Mazor Kathleen M. , Schwartz Carolyn E. , Rogers H. Jane
Published: September 2004

A new measure of concerns about dying was investigated in this psychometric study. The Concerns About Dying instrument (CAD) was administered to medical students, nursing students, hospice nurses, and life sciences graduate students ( N = 207) on two occasions; on one occasion they also completed three related measures. Analyses included descriptive statistics, factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha, test-retest correlations, t tests, and correlations with other measures. Results suggest the CADmeasures three distinct but related areas: general concern about death, spirituality, and patient-related concern about death. Reliabilityestimates were good, and correlations with related measures were strong. Between-group differences suggest scores are related to actual differences in level of concern and beliefs about death and dying. The CAD has the advantage of being very brief, and of explicitly assessing concerns about working with patients who are dying.
Assessment of Mindfulness by Self-Report
Authors: Baer Ruth A. , Smith Gregory T. , Allen Kristin B.
Published: September 2004

A self-report inventory for the assessment of mindfulness skills was developed, and its psychometric characteristics and relationships with other constructs were examined. Participants included three samples of undergraduate students and a sample of outpatients with borderline personality disorder. Based on discussions of mindfulness in the current literature, four mindfulness skills were specified: observing, describing, acting with awareness, and accepting without judgment. Scales designed to measure each skill were developed and evaluated. Results showed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability and a clear factor structure. Most expected relationships with other constructs were significant. Findings suggest that mindfulness skills are differentially related to aspects of personality and mental health, including neuroticism, psychological symptoms, emotional intelligence, alexithymia, experiential avoidance, dissociation, and absorption.
A Comparison of Four Measures of Self-Control Skills
Authors: Mezo Peter G. , Heiby Elaine M.
Published: September 2004

This study compares the psychometric characteristics of four questionnaires designed to assess self-control skills: the Self-Control Questionnaire, the Frequency of Self-Reinforcement Questionnaire, the Cognitive Self-Management Test, and the Lifestyle Approaches Inventory. Content validity was judged to be fairly comparable by three raters in Study 1. In Study 2, convergent and divergent validity support was obtained for all four questionnaires when administered to 369 multiethnic college students, but the relative degree of support varied across constructs. Hence, selection of a self-control instrument may be guided by the target behavior of interest.
Three Versions of the Interpersonal Adjective Scales and their Fit to the Circumplex Model
Authors: Adams Ryan S. , Tracey Terence J. G.
Published: September 2004

The Interpersonal Adjective Scales (IAS) is a well-supported instrument that is designed to map interpersonal traits onto the interpersonal circumplex. However, three versions of the IAS exist and these vary with respect to the degree to which they included item definitions (i.e., glossary added at the end, definitions attached to each item, and no definitions). The focusof this study was on comparing the structural similarity of each version. Each of the versions was given to different samples ( N = 920) of college students. Results of multidimensional scaling (MDS) and randomized tests of order relations demonstrated that all versions were well and equally described by the circular model. There were no structural differences in the different IAS versions and thus each can be used with this population.
Global Partnerships in Business Communication
Authors: Sapp David Alan
Published: September 2004

Many U.S. universities are developing interinstitutional partnerships in global business communication. Benefits include preparing students for the workplace by immersing them in intercultural projects and increasing the complexity of their understanding of the global economy. Challenges can range from technological constraints and scarce resources to geopolitical factors and varying disciplinary norms. However, global partnerships make faculty and students more aware of and engaged in the global business environment as they learn to communicate more effectively across cultures, critique current business practices, and produce new ways of being in global relation to each other. An interinstitutional partnership between a U.S. university and Universidad de la Habana in Cuba forms the centerpiece of discussion. Outcomes of this partnership include coauthoring articles in both countries and languages, the creation of a business communication course for graduate students in Cuba, and the development of classroom activities in which selected U.S. and Cuban undergraduate students exchange business documents.
Negotiating Differences in Learning and Intercultural Communication
Authors: Holmes Prue
Published: September 2004

Research on ethnic Chinese students studying in a Western (New Zealand) learning environment exposed differences in communication and learning between their first culture and the host culture. Thirteen ethnic Chinese students in a New Zealand university business school participated in an 18-month ethnographic study. The findings indicate that these students were not prepared for the dialogic nature of classroom communication, which created difficulties in listening, understanding, and interacting. Written assignments embodied different expectations of writing styles, and understandings of critical analysis and plagiarism. The findings raise challenges for teachers in responding to difference rather than deficit approaches to teaching and learning, for ethnic Chinese students to be better prepared for the new learning environment, and for host institutions and local students to find ways of developing diversity awareness and appreciation.
Obtaining Parotid Saliva Specimens after Major Surgery
Authors: Good Marion , Wotman Stephen , Anderson Gene Cranston , Ahn Sukhee , Cong Xiaomei
Published: September 2004

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a standard method of collecting saliva from postoperative patients. Saliva was collected from patients following major abdominal surgery from both parotid glands in intraoral cups and measured in milliliters. Trained research nurses stimulated saliva production with lemon juice and collected saliva at 4 time points on postoperative day 2. Collection time was measured with a stopwatch, and flow rate was calculated by dividing the amount in milliliters by collection time in minutes. Attrition was 9% due to ineligibility after enrollment and 1 withdrawal. In participating patients (n = 68), there were 272 tests planned and 28% were missing. The reasons were postoperative health problems, hospital discharge, and not wanting to be bothered. When saliva collection attempts were made, three-fourths were successful, but the remainder resulted in “dry mouth.” Milliliters, minutes, and flow rate were calculated with and without those with dry mouth. Mean flow rates were 0.23 to 0.33 ml/min excluding those with dry mouth and 0.17 to 0.24 ml/min including those with dry mouth. Saliva variables were correlated with antihypertension medications, opioids, opioid side effects, and length of surgery, but statistically significant correlations were not found consistently at all 4 time points. The findings suggest that nurse-researchers studying biological markers can successfully collect saliva from postoperative patients if they recognize the difficulties and make efforts to minimize and control for them.
Biopsychological Markers of Distress in Informal Caregivers
Authors: Davis Linda Lindsey , Weaver Michael , Zamrini Edward , Stevens Alan , Kang Duck-Hee , Parker C. Richard
Published: September 2004

Background. Thirty caregiving wives participated in a study of caregiving distress and negative mood (depressive symptoms) by making diary entries on stressful caregiving situations and collecting saliva samples 4 times a day. At the end of the 7-day study period, caregivers’ salivary cortisol production was compared with their diary entries and correlated with pencil and paper self-report scores of caregiver distress and depressive symptoms.

Findings. Despite the inability to control a number of factors thought to confound cortisol production (exercise, smoking, alcohol ingestion, and prescription medications), there was a statistically significant difference between No Caregiving and Caregiving cortisol, F( 1,739) = 7.67, P = 0.006, with cortisol production higher when caregiving events occurred. However, efforts to code specific types of caregiving situations (e.g., 1 = indirect care; 4 = AD problem behavior care) did not further differentiate cortisol production. Although caregivers’ self-reports for the same 7-day period indicated they were depressed, pencil-and-paper measures of distress and negative affect were not significantly correlated with cortisol production.

Conclusions and Recommendations. The finding that this caregiving group was significantly stressed by caregiving, as evidenced by increased cortisol production during caregiving episodes, verifies the importance of further exploration of specific caregiving situations as contributory factors in caregiver health and well-being. In that saliva is a relatively economical and comparatively noninvasive biological data source for community-based stress studies, methodological limitations of the study are identified and 5 recommendations are made for future biological marker studies of caregiver distress in community-based settings.
A Neuroendocrine-Based Regulatory Fatigue Model
Authors: Payne Judith K.
Published: September 2004

Purpose. To provide an overview of select existing fatigue models and propose a neuroendocrine-based regulatory fatigue model that can serve as a foundation for interventions to manage fatigue.

Conceptual Framework. Biobehavioral systems based on a neuroendocrine regulatory framework.

Methods. Empirical data and literature review to develop a fatigue model to serve as a foundation for interventions to manage fatigue.

Conclusions. The proposed model will facilitate testing of interventions based on the premise that common neuroendocrine transmitters provide the mechanisms of fatigue in patients diagnosed with chronic illnesses, such as with cancer treatment-related fatigue. The model may also be used to identify predictors of fatigue in specific patient populations, provide guidance for clinicians in their selection of precise interventions to be implemented, and identify the effects of treatments captured in these populations. By clearly identifying the mechanisms of fatigue, we can discover which interventions are effective for particular types of fatigue.
Physical Theory as a Basis for Successful Rotation of Fetal Malpositions and Conversion of Fetal Malpresentations
Authors: Andrews Claire M. , Andrews Edward C.
Published: September 2004

Maternal posturing, in which a pregnant or laboring woman assumes specific postures with the intention of altering the position and/or presentation of the fetus within the uterus, is a safe alternative to operative procedures recommended in cases of fetal malpositions and malpresentations. Clinicians and researchers are more likely to help pregnant women understand and perform posturing correctly if they comprehend the theoretical underpinnings of the technique. In maternal posturing, the forces of gravity and buoyancy combine to form a couple that overcomes frictional forces and/or obstructions to allow the fetus to rotate within the uterus to an optimal position or presentation. Integrating an understanding of these physical processes into clinical practice and research according to the recommendations provided here should lead to greater success in correcting malpositions and converting malpresentations.
Temperature Measurement in Critical Care Adults: A Comparison of Thermometry and Measurement Routes
Authors: Smith Linda S.
Published: September 2004

Purpose. To describe within- and between-subject mean differences between and among temperature sites (oral, axilla, PA) and instruments.

Methods. A convenience sample (N = 35) of volunteering, adult (18 years), 1st-day postcardiac surgery inpatients was obtained. Temperature-sensing instruments included Geratherm DataTherm and SolarTherm, and Abbott Opticath fiber optic PA catheters. For 21 min, simultaneous temperature readings (°C) at 4 temperature sites with 3 thermometry devices were monitored.

Results. Mean difference at 21 min PA and between DataTherm axilla and PA = 0.72°C (SD 0.30); between PA and SolarTherm oral = 0.62°C (SD 0.34); and between PA and SolarTherm axilla = 0.46°C (SD 0.16). Temperature levels were not a factor relative to difference scores between study and reference devices.

Conclusions. Both test devices, SolarTherm (an intermittent-use device) and DataTherm (a temperature-monitoring device), performed well, and correlated strongly with PA temperature assesments.
The Effect of Early Postoperative Physical Activity on Tissue Oxygen and Wound Healing
Authors: Whitney JoAnne D. , Parkman Sharon
Published: September 2004

Background. Supplemented postoperative activity was compared to standard activity for effects on wound healing, subcutaneous tissue perfusion, and oxygen (PscO2 ) following hip replacement (THR).

Methods. 58 patients were randomized to standard post-THR activity (N = 27) or supplemental activity (N = 31) (arm and leg exercises, walking protocol). PscO2 was measured with a microelectrode/tonometer system and perfusion determined by oxygen response. Healing was evaluated by (1) tissue cellularity, (2) mRNA for pro collagen, (3) hydroxyproline, and (4) DNA content obtained from a subcutaneous implant removed on the 7th postoperative day.

Results. Activity significantly increased DNA levels, but did not increase PscO2 , perfusion, cellularity, or collagen measures.

Conclusions. Healing measures were not improved with increased activity levels. However, activity did not reduce PscO2 or wound healing. The majority of patients adhered to additional activity and tolerated the protocol well. Increased activity was associated with earlier discharge, suggesting other recovery-related benefits.
Weak Central Coherence: A Cross-Domain Phenomenon Specific to Autism?
Authors: Hoy James A. , Hatton Chris , Hare Dougal
Published: September 2004

This study investigated whether evidence for the weak central coherence theory could be specifically associated with a group of children with autism compared with normally developing children ( n = 17 per group). Two tasks were employed, one involving visual illusions and the other verbal homophones. Both were based on tasks used in previous central coherence research. Incorporation of tasks involving the use of different domains (verbal versus visual) also enabled the investigation of claims that weak central coherence is a cross-domain processing style or deficit. The autistic group were found to be no different to the control group in performance on the visual illusions task. The autistic group made more errors than the normally developing group on the rare condition of the homophone task. However, analysis suggests this difference is mediated by verbal ability level and not diagnostic status per se. Theoretical implications and alternative explanations are discussed.
Superior Visual Search in Adults with Autism
Authors: O’riordan Michelle A.
Published: September 2004

Recent studies have suggested that children with autism perform better than matched controls on visual search tasks and that this stems from a superior visual discrimination ability. This study assessed whether these findings generalize from children to adults with autism. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that, like children, adults with autism were superior to controls at searching for targets. Experiment 3 showed that increases in target-distractor similarity slowed the visual search performance of the control group significantly more than that of the autism group, suggesting that the adults with autism have a superior visual discrimination ability. Thus, these experiments replicate in adults previous findings in children with autism. Superior unique item detection in adults with autism, stemming from enhanced discrimination, is discussed in the light of the possible role of stimulus processing disturbances in the disorder in general.
‘I had this Horrible Pain’: The Sources and Causes of Pain Experiences in 4- to 11-Year-Old Hospitalized Children
Authors: Kortesluoma Riitta-Liisa , Nikkonen Merja
Published: September 2004

Researchers have relied, almost without exception, on adults for qualitative information about children’s pain. However, adults may provide only a limited view of children’s pain experience. The purpose of this article is to describe the events considered painful by children. Forty-four children participated in the study. They had been admitted for different reasons into different wards of a university hospital. The data consisted of qualitative child interviews and was analysed using inductive content analysis. The pain experience of children came from four main sources: 1. pain as a symptom of a diagnosed illness, 2. pain caused by medical and diagnostic procedures and basic nursing, 3. pain caused by accidents and 4. inexplicable pain not caused by a particular illness or injury. Children are able to report and describe their pain. Children should be regarded as experts on their pain in order to maximize the options for pain management.
The Social and Discursive Spectrum of Peer Talk
Authors: Blum-Kulka Shoshana , Huck-Taglicht Deborah , Avni Hanna
Published: September 2004

The study aims to lay the groundwork for systematically investigating children’s peer discourse at different age levels with a view to delimiting the role of peer talk for pragmatic development. An interdisciplinary stance to the study of children’s peer talk is argued for, considering it simultaneously as the arena for the co-construction of childhood cultures as well as an arena for development. We propose a four-dimensional model of discursive events, meant to capture both dimensions simultaneously. The model takes into account the dynamic interplay among the type of (imposed, or self-selected) activity children are engaged in, the overall thematic frame of the event, its internal framing by the children themselves (keying) and the genre(s) used. The model is applied to the analysis of natural peer talk at two age levels, preschoolers and fourth graders, focusing mainly on variation along the dimension of keying. The two age groups studied are shown to share a rich repertoire of keyings and genres, but to differ in their relative salience and modes of realization by age. Our analysis suggests that peer talk offers children ample opportunities to listen in, practice and display conversational as well as academic discursive skills, and hence may very well prove a crucial site for pragmatic development.
Do Negative Messages Work?
Authors: Fridkin Kim Leslie , Kenney Patrick J.
Published: September 2004

We examine the effectiveness of negative campaigning. Specifically, we focus on the question, Do negative campaign messages alter citizens’ evaluations of competing candidates? We rely on a research design that replicates the campaign environment for nearly 100 Senate elections involving thousands of voters. Furthermore, we utilize a theoretical framework that sheds light on how negative information influences people’s social judgments. In general, the results suggest that negative messages delivered in a legitimate fashion and focusing on a relevant topic depress evaluations of opponents. In contrast, negative messages containing irrelevant information delivered in an overly strident manner depress evaluations of both candidates involved in the campaign. In addition, the findings indicate that the impact of negative messages varies depending on (a) the status of the candidate delivering the message, (b) the characteristics of the citizens receiving the message, and (c) the style of the candidates’criticisms (e.g., policy vs. personal attacks).
Money Well Spent?
Authors: Cooper Christopher A. , Nownes Anthony J.
Published: September 2004

Organized interests employ a number of tactics to get what they want. One of the least understood of these tactics is running advertorials—issue advocacy advertisements that are designed to influence citizen opinion. Using a pretest-posttest control group experimental design, the authors examine the effects of advertorials on individual opinions. The authors find that advertorials have an effect on individual opinions but that their effects are different than those of traditional advertisements. Specifically, after examining the effects of an actualExxonMobil advertorial that appeared on the pages of The New York Times, the authors find that advertorials substantially affect levels of individual issue salience but do not affect individual perceptions of the organized interests that run them. The authors also find that those with relatively high levels of trust in the media are more likely than those with lower levels of trust to be influenced by advertorials.