bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
CBPR as Community Health Intervention: Institutionalizing CBPR Within Community Based Organizations
Authors: May Marlynn , Law Jon
Published: July 2008

Background: A community-academy partnership was created with a commitment to developing a program for institutionalizing community-based participatory research (CBPR) capacity within community-based organizations (CBOs), with the intention to enhance CBOs' existing capabilities to understand and improve community health.
Objectives: This article presents the design and conceptual foundations for a year-long CBPR education and training program in which CBO teams learn research design, discuss the principles of CBPR, design and implement a community health-related research project tailored to their program and community, conduct analyses, and initiate integration of the results into the organization and community. One objective is to integrate a commitment to and the practice of CBPR within CBOs' program and policies.
Methods: An initial partnership was created between the Center for Border Health, El Paso, and Texas A&M University School of Rural Public Health, College Station. Three additional CBOs then joined the partnership and participated in the CBPR education and training program consisting of four stages: (1)3 intensive months devoted to learning about and creating a research design; (2) 6 months for implementation of the design; (3) 2 months for analyses, interpretation, and consolidation of results into one or more final products; and (4) 1 month for development of protocols for integrating research results into community health development.
Results: In the first iteration, an interactive process evaluation was conducted during each program stage, plus a final year-end exit interview with each participating CBO. Evaluation demonstrated strong positive results and specific lessons learned. A proposal incorporating the lessons learned was presented to the funding source. A second iteration has been funded, with monies included to develop a formal outcome evaluation.
Assessing Process and Outcomes: Evaluating Community-Based Participatory Research
Authors: Plumb Marj , Collins Natalie , Cordeiro Janna N. , Kavanaugh-Lynch Mhel
Published: July 2008

Background: The California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) Community Research Collaboration (CRC) Awards fund research projects conducted by partnerships between community members and academically trained research scientists.
Objectives: We sought to determine the relationship, if any, between the collaborative process of conducting the CRC projects and reported outcomes.
Methods: Community and academic researchers from the first seven CRC full award projects were interviewed in one-on-one, standardized, semistructured telephone interviews. Twelve of thirteen eligible community partners and all nine eligible academic partners were interviewed (some teams had multiple community or academic partners). Interview questions covered four major types of outcomes (improved methodology [four items], benefited community [sixitems], benefited researchers [three items], or influenced health services and policy [five items]) and three major aspects of the partnership (collaboration among partners [three items], group dynamics [five items], and community involvement [two items]). Process and outcome scores for each team were compared using a scatter plot graph.
Result: Teams were most effective at improving the quality of research methodology, providing benefits to the participating community agency, and answering questions important to the communities involved. Areas of difficulty for the teams included collaborative data analysis, power sharing, and managing the impact of turnover. Although the projects varied in the measures of the partnership process, the three teams that had the highest outcome scores also had the highest scores for the partnership process.
Conclusions: Although the relationship between process and outcomes is not necessarily causal, these results suggest an association worthy of further investigation.
Challenges and Lessons Learned in Developing a Community-Based Health Survey
Authors: Shirey Lauren A. , Griffith Derek M. , Brady Jan , Kruger Daniel J. , Morrel-Samuels Susan , Greene-Moton Ella
Published: July 2008

Background: Collecting community-level data to inform health interventions and monitor health status is critical to improving community health and eliminating health disparities. Ideally, the process for designing and utilizing these data collection tools will include representation from community, service, and academic institutions. The process for incorporating these entities' diverse needs and perspectives, however, can be challenging.
Objectives: This paper describes how a community-academic partnership designed a survey in 2003 and 2005 to examine factors influencing the health of residents in an urban city and surrounding county area.
Methods: The partnership used community-based public health research principles to guide the development of the telephone surveys.
Lessons Learned: Through these two survey development processes, we learned three key lessons: To regularly examine our partnership and process; to communicate directly with and obtain the support of each individual partner; and to focus on building the capacity of the partners and partnership.
Law of the Intangible: Desegregation, Diversity, and the Individual
Authors: Britt Theron
Published: July 2008

This essay examines two related U.S. Supreme Court cases concerning school desegregation, Brown v. Board of Education 347 U.S. 483 (1954) and Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 , 551 U.S. ____ (2007) and argues that United States law regarding race is based not, as is explicitly claimed by the Court, on precedent but on unexpressed ideas of how an individual achieves his or her identity. By in effect shifting its conception of the individual from one that recognizes identity as formed in relation to others to an older one that figures identity as “intangible” and autonomous, the more recent Supreme Court decision has been able partially to reverse the earlier Brown decision and strike down recent voluntary school desegregation plans and throw into question current law supporting diversity.
Trial Separations: Divorce, Disestablishment, and Home Rule in Phineas Redux
Authors: Frank Cathrine O.
Published: July 2008

Phineas Redux (1874), the fourth of Anthony Trollope’s “political” novels, depicts several unions between parties who remain formally tied to one another although they have no affective bond. Two failing marriages are dissolved (one by death, another through revelation of bigamy), but actual divorce is never mooted. Debate over disestablishment of the Anglican Church opens the novel, but formal interest in the separation of church and state is supplanted by a murder trial and barely resurrected. And in the breach between these parties stands Phineas Finn, the novel’s Catholic, Irish hero. This paper argues that the novel’s early focus on unsuccessful marriages voices parallels albeit unspoken concerns about “Home” Rule and England’s increasingly tenuous union with Ireland. More broadly, it suggests that through Phineas’s trial initially political questions of church versus state authority governing the legitimacy of these unions are transformed into personal ones of conscience and feeling. This internalization of the political becomes an aspect of character formation that raises the questions of how law transforms national politics into personal conviction and how literature uses law to develop its characters.
Grand Juries, Legal Machines, and the Common Man Jury
Authors: Myrsiades Linda S.
Published: July 2008

This paper focuses on the concept of a jury of one’s neighbors, that is, the common man jury. It traces this construction through two eighteenth-century trails (the trials of John Peter Zenger, 1735, and of Eleazer Oswald, 1783) and examines juries as they have been regarded in the literary efforts of two early American judges—a poem by Francis Hopkinson, “Adrian’s Assertion,” and the novel Modern Chivalry and a legal handbook, Law’s Miscellanies of Hugh Henry Brackenridge. The notion of trial by jury is extended to consider the public event of trial by press, engaging the public’s extralegal involvement in performing the jury role. Finally, the paper concludes that the concept of a jury of one’s neighbors acted as a counter-weight to a legal machinery that sometimes shortchanged individual rights and common sense in preference for the sophistry of security and the rights of the state.
Doctors, Detectives, and the Professional Ideal: The Trial of Thomas Neill Cream and the Mastery of Sherlock Holmes
Authors: Reiter Paula J.
Published: July 2008

The 1892 trial of serial killer Dr. Thomas Neill Cream put both Cream and the professionals involved in the case on trial. The judge simultaneously presided over Cream’s conviction and the exoneration of the professionals. Controlling the terms of professionalism and repairing the damage to the professional image that this scandalous case caused became a critical subtext to the trial. The Cream murder trial and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes both grapple with questions of professional conduct, status, and worth becoming influential (if unrecognized) voices in the ongoing discourse surrounding Victorian male professionalism. The remarkable popularity of the Sherlock Holmes series is closely tied to the Holmesian performance of a professional ideal. Each tale encapsulates both a model of expertise and an implicit critique of men not fulfilling this model, thus contributing to the growing cultural power of the nineteenth-century professional male.
A “Complex, Multiform Creature” No More: Governmentality Getting Wilde
Authors: Higgins Lesley J. , Leps Marie-Christine
Published: July 2008

This paper investigates the trials of Oscar Wilde from two converging perspectives: their individualizing effects on Wilde, and their effectiveness in defining, for the population as a whole, the vital role of governmentality in the conduct of everyday life. Strategically, the trials helped to marshal the forces of the state, the law, the media, and “public opinion” in order to secure varied yet integrated social goals—common decency, class stability, national integrity—realized by the vigilant exclusion of a now-visible minority. At the same time, the penal discipline inflicted on Wilde (two years of hard labor; the maximum sentence), rather than “curing” or reforming him, converted him into a martyr for the newly-defined cause of homosexuality.
The Common Law Illusion: Literary Justice in Coleridge’s On the Constitution of the Church and State
Authors: Barr Mark L.
Published: July 2008

This paper traces Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s engagement with issues of legal interpretation late in his career and most particularly in On the Constitution of the Church and State . Having long noted the political and social ramifications of the supposedly systematic interpretation of legal precedent lying at the heart of the common law, Coleridge suggests that a group of cultural trustees, the Clerisy, could perform a quasi-judicial role to guide reading in the public sphere. Only through such leadership, he suggests, could justice be revived from its then-defunct state. However, the paper concludes by suggesting neither Coleridge nor any modern legal scholar who invokes romantic reading strategies can achieve the vaunted interpretive objectivity legal authority seems to require. Precedent is, in fact, a rhetorical illusion, a repression of revolutionary trauma experienced in and before the Romantic Period.
Tragic Lives: On the Incompatibility of Law and Ethics
Authors: Hogan Patrick Colm
Published: July 2008

A common view, shared by legal theorists and ordinary people, is that there is and should be a close, positive relation between ethics and law, that law should, and commonly does, embody ethical principles. There is certainly some validity in this view. But there is at least as much error as validity, for ethics and law are also deeply opposed. I am not referring here to contingent oppositions—particular laws that are immoral, particular judges who are corrupt. I am referring to a fundamental contradiction between the principles that guide ethical adjudication and those that guide legal action. This contradiction is one of the tensions that can make human life tragic. As such, it is also bound up with the development of tragedy in art. The following essay begins by examining the irreconcilability of law and ethics. It then takes up the relation of this to tragedy in both literature and life. It concludes by considering two works— one modern (Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Decalogue V ), one ancient (Aeschylus’ Eumenides )—that treat this tragic irreconcilability and that suggest how ethical considerations might curb the otherwise inevitable cruelties of law.
Population Policy Implementation in Nigeria, 1988-2003
Authors: Adegbola Olukunle
Published: July 2008

The first Nigerian Population Policy was written in 1988 to reduce population growth as a collaboration between the Federal Ministry of Health and the World Bank. Whether this policy was successful is in contention. Some schools of thought argue that it was unsuccessful due to cultural, religious and financial factors in play. However, a positive demographic change was noticed statistically after the policy was implemented. Achievement of policy goals was limited due to flaws in the implementation strategy adopted for the National Population Program as well as due to a cultural aversion to family planning in Northern Nigeria, among other factors. The success of the policy was greatest in Southern Nigeria where social advancement also played an integral role. This paper shows that the attitudes towards population growth differ between these two very important regions of one country. This paper also addresses, in great detail, the obstacles to the implementation of the 1988 policy, and analyzes why the policy was successful in a part of the country, but not in another. With a new Population Policy having been implemented in 2006, identifying the problems of the 1988 program implementation has limited value unless the learned lessons result in a greater determination by the upper echelons of government, the bureaucracy and the political class in the nation to reprogram efforts for the future. While the Federal Government has recently instituted reform agenda that cover economic, social and administrative reforms, the population sector, together with the political governance that will address the role of population size in allocation of resources and power, needs to be included in the reform agenda.
Towards Smaller Family Size in Egypt, Morocco and Turkey: Overall Change over Time or Socio-economic Compositional Effect?
Authors: D'Addato Agata V. , Vignoli Daniele , Yavuz Sutay
Published: July 2008

The whole region of the South and East Mediterranean exhibits a profound fertility transition with marked differences in the pace of fertility declines among the countries. The authors choose three representative countries: Egypt, Morocco and Turkey. Determinants of the propensity towards smaller family size are investigated as scrutinizing the development in the pattern of third births, which represents the critical step in the transitional process for these countries. The authors are particularly interested in verifying whether the decline of higher-order births is significantly driven by an overall societal change over time or by compositional change over different socio-economic segments of the female population. Evidence is found that overall societal changes have mainly driven the decline in large family size, though, to a much lesser extent, compositional changes are important too.
Envisioning Fatherhood: Indian Fathers' Perceptions of an Ideal Father
Authors: Saraff Anjula , Srivastava Harish C.
Published: July 2008

The image one forms in his mind about an ideal father may often affect the way he fathers his children. The present paper therefore aims to study the behavioural and psychological characteristics that define an ideal father. Responses were gathered regarding attributes of an ideal father through both open-ended and closed-ended questions. Urban Indian fathers (N=350) who had at least one child aged 10 years or younger were asked what it means to be an ideal father. Seven dimensions of the fathering role were identified: (a) Caretaker, (b) Surety, (c) Economic Provider, (d) Playmate and friend, (e) Role model, (f) Family head, and (g) Resource. The findings revealed that caretaking was viewed as one of the most important attributes of an ideal father. Nevertheless, a noticeable proportion of men believed ideal fathers to be surety, economic provider, and/or role model. The study further attempted to find out whether these men viewed themselves as an ideal father and the problems faced by them in being an ideal father. The relationship of fathers' characteristics with their perception of themselves as an ideal father has also been examined.
Changes in Earnings Returns to Higher Education in Taiwan since the 1990s
Authors: Tsai Shu-Ling , Xie Yu
Published: July 2008

Taiwan has experienced a rapid expansion in higher education since the 1990s. To gauge changes in earnings returns to higher education caused by this expansion, this paper estimates college effects on earnings using both the conventional Mincer-type regression model and the revised truncated-sample model that adjusts for the selection mechanisms into college. We also apply Xie and Wu's (2005) hierarchical linear model approach to test if the treatment effects of higher education vary as a function of propensity scores strata estimated. Using nationwide data collected in the early 1990s and the early 2000s, we focus on young entrants to the labor market. Our results indicate that average returns to college education remain stable over time. We also find that in both periods, there is a strong negative selection mechanism at work: when workers with a low latent propensity of receiving college education indeed did go to college, they benefit the most from the college attendance.
Southern Pollution Permissiveness: Another Regional Myth?
Authors: Colten Craig E.
Published: July 2008

Scholars of the South have frequently portrayed the region’s residents as guilty of environmental abuse. These accounts rely on the actions of state governments and have largely ignored popular reaction to water pollution. A review of key conflicts over stream pollution across the South reveals variations, but also a decided tendency of Southern sportsmen and recreationalists to object to industrial and urban degradation of their water-ways. State authorities tolerated pollution, but citizen outcries brought federal investigators into the South to protect imperiled waterways.
Using Geoinformatics to Examine Residential Radon Vulnerability
Authors: All John , Wulff Andrew , Iovanna Anthony
Published: July 2008

Indoor radon is a major preventable health problem and determination of risk factors that contribute to gas accumulation in homes would help in remediation efforts. This paper examines four specific radon risk factors using geoinformatics techniques to evaluate contributions to residential radon vulnerability. Statistical analysis of 205 radon samples collected between 2004–2005 in Warren County Kentucky determined that 1) homes with basements and 2) homes built before 1977 have a higher probability for radon levels above the EPA action level of 4 pCi/l than any other type of structure analyzed. Homes above 140 square meters (1500 square feet) in size did not have a significantly higher chance of having a radon level above 4 pCi/l than did homes below 140 square meters in area. Also, the depth to the Chattanooga Shale, a suspected source of radon, did not have a significant impact on the measured levels. It is likely that another source of uranium, soil or limestone, contributes to radon loading in homes.
Comparisons of Three Types of DEMs: A Case Study of the Randleman Reservoir, North Carolina
Authors: Wang Yong , Wade Scott E.
Published: July 2008

Three major developments in the delivery of digital elevation models (DEMs) to the general public include the USGS national elevation dataset (NED), worldwide Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) DEM for land area between latitudes 60°N and 60°S, and light detection and ranging (LIDAR) DEM for the state of North Carolina. These DEMs were created using different acquisition methods and technologies, and they can differ in how they represent the topography of the same area. This paper assesses the differences in these DEMs and illustrates how these differences can produce different analytical outcomes when used to study local problems. The Randleman Reservoir project in Guilford and Randolph counties, North Carolina, is used as a case study for comparing the DEMs. We found that a) the USGS, SRTM, and LIDAR DEMs differed, b) modeled reservoir extents and volumetric capacities differed substantially, with the USGS DEMs producing the smallest capacity and extent measurements and the LIDAR DEM producing the largest, and c) there was noncontiguous “ponding” on the reservoir extents derived from the USGS or SRTM DEM, but almost no “ponding” on the reservoir extents derived from the LIDAR DEM.
Quantitatively Delineating the Black Belt Geographic Region
Authors: Webster Gerald R. , Bowman Jerrod
Published: July 2008

The Southern Black Belt has been variously defined in character and geographic extent. In the nineteenth century settlement focused upon the region’s rich dark soils for which it was originally named. The Black Belt became the site of the South’s Antebellum plantation-cotton-slave complex. Today many of the counties in the region have large African American populations and are more noted for their lack of economic opportunities than the fertility of their soils. As a result, the Black Belt region is now more commonly defined on demographic and economic factors than soil. Using principal components analysis, this study attempts to define quantitatively the county membership of the Alabama and Georgia Black Belts based upon a set of criteria commonly associated with the character of the Black Belt. It finds the Alabama Black Belt has greater uniformity of character than the Georgia Black Belt, and that growing urbanization has brought economic opportunities to some portions of the region.
Segregation of the Free People of Color and the Construction of Race in Antebellum New Orleans
Authors: Sumpter Amy R.
Published: July 2008

Louisiana and the city of New Orleans have a complicated colonial and racial history. A large free population of color living amidst enslaved people of color attests to fluidity in racial constructions present in the colonial period in Louisiana. Throughout the French (1682–1763) and Spanish (1763–1803) colonial periods and the first five decades of U.S. statehood (1803–1850), racial constructions changed remarkably. Cultural conflict, an increasing number of American whites, and fear of insurrection contributed to growing hostility toward the free people of color and remaining colonial racial practices. Historical evidence, state and municipal legislation, and 1850 U.S. Census data show that free people of color tended to reside in specific “Creole" areas within the city, demonstrating that free people in the city were segregated by race.
Testing Reporting Bias in the Florida Sinkhole Database: An Analysis of Sinkhole Occurrences in the Tampa Metropolitan Statistical Area
Authors: Fleury E. Spencer , Carson Steve , Brinkmann Robert
Published: July 2008

The sinkhole database of the Florida Geologic Survey (FGS) is the primary publicly-accessible database of recent sinkhole occurrence and distribution. However, it does not use a consistent and predictable approach to recording sinkhole occurrences. Thus, the possibility exists that the database is largely a reflection of the distribution of people in sinkhole-prone areas of Florida, rather than a true enumeration of all sinkholes that occur. In order to assess the validity of the data contained within the database, a comparison was made of population distribution and sinkhole occurrences. The results indicate that sinkhole reporting is not associated with population distribution, and that reporting bias is not a major problem with the data contained therein.
Employment Sprawl, Race and the Journey to Work in Birmingham, Alabama
Authors: Weber Joe , Sultana Selima
Published: July 2008

Studies of residential sprawl have shown that longer commutes are typical for residents of these areas, but the effect of sprawling workplace locations on journey to work patterns has not yet been closely examined. This paper uses commuting data from the 1990 and 2000 Census Transportation Planning Package to examine the impact of employment sprawl on commuting, and its differing impacts on black and white workers within Birmingham, Alabama. This analysis finds that workers who commute to sprawling areas travel shorter distances, often spend less time commuting, are less likely to drive alone, and are more likely to bike and walk, though they do not earn as much as workers in urban areas. This suggests the possibility that workers may be able to reduce their commutes as more jobs relocate to sprawling areas. However, increased sprawl may result in increased commutes for black workers if they are not able to adjust their residential location, as shown by their longer commutes to jobs in sprawl locations.
Quantitative RT-PCR analysis and immunohistochemical localization of the kallikrein-related peptidases 13 and 14 in lung
Authors: Planque Chris , Bléchet Claire , Ayadi-Kaddour Aida , Heuzé-Vourc'h Nathalie , Dumont Pascal , Guyétant Serge , Diamandis Eleftherios P. , El Mezni Faouzi , Courty Yves
Published: July 2008

Expression of the KLK13 and KLK14 genes was examined at the mRNA and protein levels in a cohort of 57 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The mRNA levels, assessed by real-time RT-PCR, were significantly different in malignant tissues compared to adjacent non-malignant tissues (KLK13, p=0.006; KLK14, p=0.022). KLK13 and KLK14 mRNA overexpression in tumors (1/3 of the patients) was associated with a positive nodal status in multivariate analysis (p=0.018 and p=0.069, respectively). KLK13 and KLK14 were localized in the cytoplasm of epithelial cells of normal bronchus and NSCLC, as determined by immunohistochemistry. Moreover, positive staining was significantly associated with adenocarcinoma histotype (KLK13, p=0.014) and tumor size (KLK14, p=0.048). Although the results are marginally significant, patients with high KLK13 expression at the mRNA or protein level had lower overall survival.
Polychronicity and Information Acquisition in Pilot Decision Making
Authors: Harris Jemma M. , Wiggins Mark W.
Published: July 2008

This study was designed to test an explanation of the individual differences in the preference for heuristic-based information acquisition interfaces that were reported by Wiggins and Bollwerk (2006) in the context of a simulated in-flight decision task. The information acquisition interfaces were developed on the basis of three decision heuristics: elimination by aspects, frequency comparison, and majority of confirming dimensions. Forty-three pilots, with a mean age of 30, interacted with three information acquisition interfaces during familiarization scenarios and were subsequently asked to select their preferred interface to complete a fourth test scenario. The results indicated that the selection of a particular interface in the test scenario was related to factors other than polychronicity. However, polychronicity was associated with perceptions of the information acquisition interfaces and performance during the familiarization scenarios. The outcomes of the study are discussed in terms of their impact on the development of decision support systems.
Immediacy, Trust, and Remote Command and Control
Authors: Smith Kip
Published: July 2008

In this article, I discuss an experiment that tests the prediction of social impact theory that immediacy matters and the claim that trust partially mediates its impact in command and control settings. Active-duty soldiers completed oral commands more quickly when collocated with an unfamiliar leader than when that leader was sheltered at a remote location. A questionnaire on trust in the leader revealed greater levels of trust in the collocated condition. The best-fit linear regression function reveals a significant positive association between self-reported levels of trust and response time. Additional regressions reveal that trust mediates the influence of immediacy on the speed with which soldiers executed direct orders. These findings support arguments against plans proposed by both the U.S. and Swedish armed forces that would extract platoon leaders from the field and replace them with remote command and control of the dismounted infantry.
Staying Up to Speed: Four Design Principles for Maintaining and Recovering Situation Awareness
Authors: John Mark St. , Smallman Harvey S.
Published: July 2008

Dynamic operational tasks, such as airspace monitoring and civil emergency operations, require maintaining awareness of changing situations, in part by detecting and interpreting significant changes. Poor change detection ability makes this maintenance difficult enough while monitoring a situation display uninterrupted, but multitasking and interruptions increase the difficulty because the situation can change during the interruptions. Yet little research has addressed the need for better interface tools to help users detect and interpret changes, either to maintain situation awareness or to recover it following interruptions. The objective of this article is to present a principled, theoretical basis for designing interface tools that help users recover and maintain situation awareness in dynamic operational tasks. First, we present a framework for understanding the processes of interruption recovery during dynamic tasks within the broader context of interruption recovery generally. Then we briefly review a series of experiments, primarily from our own laboratory, from which we derive four design principles. Last, we contrast a number of interface designs in terms of the principles. Consideration of the four principles should facilitate the design of more effective tools to help users get back up to speed for these important and high-risk tasks.
Situation Awareness, Mental Workload, and Trust in Automation: Viable, Empirically Supported Cognitive Engineering Constructs
Authors: Parasuraman Raja , Sheridan Thomas B. , Wickens Christopher D.
Published: July 2008

Cognitive engineering needs viable constructs and principles to promote better understanding and prediction of human performance in complex systems. Three human cognition and performance constructs that have been the subjects of much attention in research and practice over the past three decades are situation awareness (SA), mental workload, and trust in automation. Recently, Dekker and Woods (2002) and Dekker and Hollnagel (2004; henceforth DWH) argued that these constructs represent “folk models” without strong empirical foundations and lacking scientific status. We counter this view by presenting a brief description of the large science base of empirical studies on these constructs. We show that the constructs can be operationalized using behavioral, physiological, and subjective measures, supplemented by computational modeling, but that the constructs are also distinct from human performance. DWH also caricatured as “abracadabra” a framework suggested by us to address the problem of the design of automated systems (Parasuraman, Sheridan, & Wickens, 2000). We point to several factual and conceptual errors in their description of our approach. Finally, we rebut DWH's view that SA, mental workload, and trust represent folk concepts that are not falsifiable. We conclude that SA, mental workload, and trust are viable constructs that are valuable in understanding and predicting human-system performance in complex systems.
Characterization of Lin'an montmorillonite and its application in the removal of Ni2+ from aqueous solutions
Authors: Tan X. L. , Hu J. , Zhou X. , Yu S. M. , Wang X. K.
Published: July 2008

Clay minerals have been studied extensively because of their strong sorption and complexation ability. In this work, Na-montmorillonite was characterized by using acid-base titration, XRD and FTIR in detail. Sorption of Ni(II) on Na-montmorillonite was investigated under ambient conditions as a function of pH, ionic strength, and temperature. The results indicate that sorption of Ni2+ on montmorillonite are strongly dependent on pH and ionic strength. The sorption of Ni2+ is mainly dominated by ion exchange at low pH values and by inner-sphere surface complexation at high pH values. The relationships of pH–C
eq, Q–C
eq and pH–Q are compared and shown clearly in a 3-D plot, and all Q–C
eq data lie in a straight line with slope (−V/m) and intercept (C
0
V/m). The thermodynamic parameters (ΔH°, ΔS°, and ΔG°) are calculated from the temperature dependent sorption isotherms, and the results suggest that the sorption reaction of Ni(II) from solution to montmorillonite is endothermic and spontaneous.
Kinetics and thermodynamics of adsorption of trace amount of uranium on activated carbon
Authors: El-Sayed A. A.
Published: July 2008

Theoretical calculation of both the kinetics and thermodynamic parameters for the adsorption of ultrace amount of uranium ion in uranyl nitrate salt (UO2
2+) on activated carbon showed the applicability of Langmuir isothermal model. Equilibrium isotherm studies gave the maximum calculated sorption capacity as 30.95 μg/g for 100 μg/L at 0.8 g activated carbon (AC), compared to the experimental result 24.9 μg/g, with correlation coefficient of 0.999 compared to 0.985 and 0.901 for Freundlich and/or D–R Dubinin–Raduschkevich, respectively. It was found that the adsorption process is mainly exothermic, where the thermodynamic parameters are as follows: ΔH
ads −90.5 (kJ/mol), ΔS°ads 0.224 (kJ/mol/K) and ΔG
ads −23.75 (kJ/mol) (T=298 K). Kinetically the process was assured the first order rate of reaction with the rate constant equal to 0.304 min−1 (100 μg/L) and 0.387 min−1 (50 μg/L) respectively, compared to 3.3×10−4 and 4.4×10−4 min−1 for the second order kinetics mechanism.
Computer-aided design of new metal binders
Authors: Varnek A. , Fourches D. , Kireeva N. , Klimchuk O. , Marcou G. , Tsivadze A. , Solov'ev V.
Published: July 2008

Chemoinformatics approaches open new opportunities for computer-aided design of new efficient metal binders. Here, we demonstrate performances of ISIDA and COMET software tools to predict stability constants (log K) of the metal ion/organic ligand complexes in solution and to design in silico new molecules possessing desirable properties. The predictive models for log K of lanthanides complexation in water have been developed. Some new uranyl binders based on monoamides and on phosphoryl-containing podands were suggested theoretically, then synthesized and tested experimentally. Reasonable agreement between experimental uranyl distribution coefficients and theoretically predicted values has been observed.
„Ekomobil není ekologický telefon” – Neue tschechische Komposita als Gegenstand von Bewertungen1
Authors: Richter Claudia
Published: July 2008

During the last decades an ever growing number of a certain type of compounds can be distinguished within the Czech word-formation process. Compounds based on international constituents (as bio-, eko-, agro-, video- …) are meanwhile so numerous, that they cannot be considered any more as a secondary way of word-formation. Assuming a relationship between language use and language evaluation, the present paper discusses the evaluation of the above mentioned compounds and how they are valued both by linguists and laymen. Based on texts that reflect certain linguistic values or linguistics schools, can be delineated different value types and evaluating instruments. Linguists typically prefer implicit evaluation based on utility-oriented values whereas laymen favor explicit language items to express absolute (puristic) values.
Zur Alltagskommunikation mit Anderssprachigen in der frühen Neuzeit. Ein polnisch-deutsches Gesprächsbüchlein aus dem frühen 16. Jahrhundert
Authors: Budziak Renata
Published: July 2008

Instructing of German language as foreign has long tradition in Poland. This language was perceived in starts alredy XVI century by not only middle class and also gentry as in trade contacts essential, diplomatic and on royal court. It take attempt of analysis Polish-German conversations in article of language and didactic respects from start of XVI century.
The pathology of the ulnar nerve in acromegaly
Authors: Tagliafico Alberto , Resmini Eugenia , Nizzo Raffaella , Derchi Lorenzo E , Minuto Francesco , Giusti Massimo , Martinoli Carlo , Ferone Diego
Published: July 2008

Context

Acromegalic patients may complain of sensory disturbances in their hands. Cubital tunnel syndrome, the ulnar nerve neuropathy at the cubital tunnel (UCT), in acromegalic patients has never been reported.

Objective

To describe and assess the prevalence of UCT in acromegalic patients and the effects of 1 year of therapy on UCT.

Patients

We examined prospectively 37 acromegalic patients with no history of polyneuropathy, acute trauma at the elbow, no diabetes or hypothyroidism with clinical examination, nerve conduction studies (NCS), and high-resolution ultrasound (US). A control group was made by 50 volunteers. The local ethics committee approved the study and written informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Intervention

Clinical history, physical examination, NCS, and US were used to diagnose UCT at the beginning of the study and after 1 year.

Results

In 8 of 37 patients, a diagnosis of UCT was made at the beginning of the study reflecting a prevalence of 21%. After 1 year, 5 of 8 (62.5%) patients reported clinical and NCS improvements and evident US reduction of nerve cross-sectional area (CSA; 16.7±2.9 mm2 vs 12.2±3.1 mm2; P<0.001). In 3 of 8 (37.5%) patients, the UCT was unchanged. Ulnar nerve CSA was significantly increased in acromegalic patients with UCT (16.7±2.9 mm2 vs 11.1±2.3 mm2; P<0.047).

Conclusion

Ulnar neuropathy could occur in acromegalic patients and can improve in 62% of cases with disease control. Due to the different management and therapeutic approach, it would be important to make differential diagnosis between cubital and carpal tunnel syndrome in acromegaly.
Developing RCOG patient information: group B streptococcus infection in babies
Authors: Cockell Anna , Arnold Lucy , Overton Caroline
Published: July 2008

The RCOG publishes patient information based on its Green‐top Guidelines.

Discussion of the prevention of group B streptococcus infection in newborn babies evokes strong feelings in women and healthcare professionals.

Learning objectives:

To be aware of the importance of patient information and its use in clinical practice.

To show how women's views contribute to the production of patient information.

Ethical issues:

Does the RCOG have a duty to ensure patient information is available in all UK maternity units?

Do clinicians have a duty to inform women, and do women have a right to be informed, about private testing when the National Health Service does not recommend national screening?

Please cite this article as: Cockell A, Arnold L, Overton C. Developing RCOG patient information: group B streptococcus infection in babies. The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist 2008;10:171–176.
Continence care pathways: a motorway for urogynaecology
Authors: Sinha Deepali , Blackwell Alexandra , Adams Elizabeth J , Moran Paul A
Published: July 2008

Urinary incontinence is common in women and results in medical and psychological morbidity.

It is associated with a clinically significant decrease in quality of life, comparable with chronic medical conditions.

Continence is low on the list of priority given to healthcare services.

NICE guidance aims to overcome variation in referral and treatment.

Learning objectives:

To understand the challenges of developing and implementing continence care pathways.

To appreciate the importance of consistent care without geographical variation that adheres to national guidelines.

To learn the value of prompt, appropriate identification of women requiring primary or secondary care.

To identify evidence‐based treatments.

Ethical issues:

Can the future development of continence services be balanced with meeting the needs of an ageing population?

Please cite this article as: Sinha D, Blackwell A, Adams EJ, Moran PA. Continence care pathways: a motorway for urogynaecology. The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist 2008;10:184–193.
Sleep apnea and REM sleep behavior disorder in patients with Chiari malformations
Authors: Henriques-Filho Paulo Sérgio A. , Pratesi Riccardo
Published: July 2008

BACKGROUND: Chiari malformations (CM) may result in the appearance of REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) and sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) that can be considered markers of brain stem dysfunction. PURPOSE: To evaluate the frequency of RBD and SAS in patients with CM type I and II. METHOD: Were evaluated 103 patients with CM by means of full night polysomnography. Were scoring different sleep stages, frequency of abnormal movements (through video monitoring) and abnormal respiratory events. RESULTS: Of the 103 patients, 36 showed CM type I and 67 CM type II. Episodes of RBD were observed in 23 patients. Abnormal apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) was observed in 65 patients. CONCLUSION: The high rate of RBD suggests that this parassomnia and the increased frequency of central sleep apnea episodes, may be considered as a marker of progressive brain stem dysfunction.
Decompressive craniotomy: prognostic factors and complications in 89 patients
Authors: Faleiro Rodrigo Moreira , Faleiro Luiz Carlos Mendes , Caetano Elisa , Gomide Isabella , Pita Cristina , Coelho Gustavo , Brás Ellen , Carvalho Bruna , Gusmão Sebastião Nataniel Silva
Published: July 2008

Decompressive craniotomy (DC) is applied to treat post-traumatic intracranial hypertension (ICH). The purpose of this study is to identify prognostic factors and complications of unilateral DC. Eighty-nine patients submited to unilateral DC were retrospectively analyzed over a period of 30 months. Qui square independent test and Fisher test were used to identify prognostic factors. The majority of patients were male (87%). Traffic accidents had occurred in 47% of the cases. 64% of the patients had suffered severe head injury, while pupillary abnormalities were already present in 34%. Brain swelling plus acute subdural hematoma were the most common tomographic findings (64%). Complications occurred in 34.8% of the patients: subdural effusions in 10 (11.2%), hydrocephalus in 7 (7.9%) and infection in 14 (15.7%). The admittance Glasgow coma scale was a statistically significant predictor of outcome ( p=0.0309).
Promoção de crescimento e controle de tombamento de plântulas de pepino por rizobactérias
Authors: Lucon Cleusa Maria Mantovanello , Akamatsu Milena Apetito , Harakava Ricardo
Published: July 2008

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito de rizobactérias, no crescimento de plântulas de pepino e no controle de tombamento, causado por Pythium aphanidermatum. Foram realizados em laboratório ensaios de: degradação de 1-aminociclopropano-1-carboxilato (ACC); colonização das raízes de plântulas de pepino; e pareamento de culturas. A identificação dos melhores isolados foi feita pela determinação das seqüências do gene 16S rDNA. Trinta e sete isolados, dos 165 testados, aumentaram a massa de matéria seca das plantas de pepino em até 63%. Desses, somente um isolado (N13 - Pseudomonas fluorescens) reduziu o tombamento de plântulas em 25%; 21 isolados inibiram o crescimento micelial de P. aphanidermatum, colonizaram o sistema radicular das plantas de pepino e cresceram em presença de ACC como única fonte de nitrogênio. Dos dez isolados que apresentaram resultados satisfatórios, cinco foram identificados como pertencentes aos gêneros Bacillus, quatro Pseudomonas e um Stenotrophomonas. Dos 165 isolados de rizobactérias testados, sete possuem potencial para promover o crescimento de plantas de pepino e um para controlar o tombamento causado por P. aphanidermatum.
Simulação da dinâmica do carbono do solo numa microbacia rural pelo modelo Century
Authors: Lopes Fabíola , Merten Gustavo Henrique , Mielniczuk João , Tornquist Carlos Gustavo , Oliveira Elisandra Solange
Published: July 2008

O objetivo deste trabalho foi combinar o modelo Century com técnicas de geoprocessamento e sensoriamento remoto, para avaliar a dinâmica espaço-temporal do carbono orgânico total do solo (COT). O estudo foi implementado numa microbacia rural, na encosta superior do Nordeste do Rio Grande do Sul, RS, que apresentava inicialmente uma cobertura florestal que foi convertida para agricultura, ao longo de 80 anos. A calibração adequada do modelo, principalmente dos parâmetros relacionados à decomposição do COT, nos anos iniciais de exploração agrícola, foi fundamental para possibilitar a simulação coerente dos valores de COT. Em relação à distribuição espacial do COT, foi verificado que o maior impacto da agricultura, sobre o estoque original de COT, ocorreu nas áreas sob cultivo desde 1925, nas quais se constatou decréscimo de 58,2% do COT. Verificou-se que a integração do Century com um sistema de informações geográficas torna possível o estudo da dinâmica espaço-temporal do COT e a realização de inventários relativos à distribuição do COT.
Enzimas exógenas no desempenho e na digestibilidade ileal de nutrientes em frangos de corte
Authors: Barbosa Nei André Arruda , Sakomura Nilva Kazue , Fernandes João Batista Kochenborger , Dourado Leilane Rocha Barros
Published: July 2008

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito da combinação de fitase e do complexo amilase, protease e xilanase, em dietas de milho e soja, formuladas com redução e sem redução dos níveis de energia, cálcio e fósforo sobre o desempenho e a digestibilidade ileal de nutrientes, em frangos de corte. Foi utilizado o delineamento inteiramente casualizado, com esquema fatorial 2x2, com duas dietas-controle: com redução e sem redução dos nutrientes, e duas suplementações das enzimas (sem adição e com adição de fitase e complexo enzimático), com dez repetições de 40 aves. A digesta ileal foi coletada aos 43 dias de idade, para determinação da energia digestível e dos coeficientes de digestibilidade da proteína bruta, matéria seca, cálcio e fósforo. O desempenho apresentou interação em todos os parâmetros analisados. As aves do tratamento com redução dos nutrientes mostraram pior desempenho em relação às aves da dieta sem redução dos nutrientes. Não houve efeito da matéria seca na digestibilidade e na retenção de cálcio. A adição da combinação enzimática melhorou a digestibilidade da proteína e a retenção de fósforo. Houve interação quanto à energia digestível, com efeito apenas nas dietas sem redução dos nutrientes, com maiores valores nas dietas suplementadas.