bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Multinationals' Policies and Local Responses: findings from cross-national case studies in Germany, France and the USA
Authors: Pamela Meil
Published: December 2015

This paper examines the complex interaction between globalisation practices of multinational corporations and the governing potential of response by local systems of employment regulation in light of rationalisation processes linked to financial market driven strategies. It investigates this issue by looking at optimisation programmes conceived and developed at the central headquarters of two German multinational companies and then traces their implementation at local sites in three different international settings: Germany, the USA and France. A central focus was the role that industrial relations systems play in the transformation process and whether (or how) the response varies according to the strength and coordination of the institutionalised system of industrial relations. The study shows that differences still remain in the form and strength of the industrial relations systems in these three countries. However, in all three cases, a new development in industrial relations is taking place in which areas potentially relevant for bargaining are left ‘unoccupied’. That is, they are missed completely in the traditional negotiating agendas of industrial relations actors.
Risking relegation or staying in the first league? industrial relations and enterprise restructuring in Germany under the impact of globalisation and financialisation
Authors: Jürgen Kädtler
Published: December 2015

The ‘dual system’ of industrial relations has formed a crucial component of the ‘German Model’ of post war capitalism. However it has come under severe pressure since the ending of the ‘Golden Age’ of Fordism and both nations and companies have been forced to engage with the new demands of globalisation. The focus of this article is on one important aspect of this development: the impact of organisational globalisation in large companies on industrial relations and on employees’ bargaining power, drawing on research in the German chemical, pharmaceutical and automotive industries. It is argued that whether employees’ primary power will erode, persist, or even increase depends critically on companies’ product strategies. The article draws attention to ways in which employees’ bargaining positions may be eroded either because the traditional strategies of unions and works councils make it difficult to draw on primary power at a local level or because primary power is shifting to new groups of employees who were traditionally not well organised. However it also points to some ways in which bargaining has been successful under these new circumstances.
Technomadic Work: From Promotional Vision to WashTech's Opposition
Authors: Michelle Rodino-Colocino
Published: December 2015

The purpose of this paper is to examine ‘technomadic’, or ‘technomediated’ mobile work at the levels of labour process and labour market. It investigates the promise of technomadic work at the level of the labour process, analyses the exploitation of technomadic work at the level of the labour market, and presents an instructive case study of the ways in which US workers are collectively struggling against such arrangements through the high-tech workers’ union WashTech, the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers. The following analysis remedies gaps in the literature on technology and work by examining two overlooked phenomena: firstly the way in which the production of mobile labour markets contradicts the liberatory promise of technomadic labour processes; and secondly, workers’ collective action against exploitation in the mobile, global labour market. By combining methods that interpret meanings within texts about labour processes with an empirical overview of trends regarding the labour market, this essay aims to contribute to the productive conversation between research in political economy and in cultural studies and to an understanding of divergence between the representations and experiences of technomadic work.
The reformatting of state control in Vietnam
Authors: Chris Dixon
Published: December 2015

This paper examines changing forms of state control in Vietnam. It argues that while reform and rapid economic growth have been associated with promotion of market activity and decline in directly controlled activity as measured by the number of SOEs (State Owned Enterprises) and the state sector's share of gross industrial output, this conceals a major reformatting of state control. Direct control over equitised SOEs has been maintained by the state holding the majority of the shares. Meanwhile complex, often inconsistently enforced and interpreted regulation ties enterprises to the state, a situation reinforced by the state's ability to facilitate (or not) access to credit, technology, market information and know-how. Perhaps even more significant is the manner in which, in much of the new economy in Vietnam, the former distinction between the public and the private has been blurred, and in many cases new hybrid forms have emerged that defy conventional classification. This reformatting of power has been accompanied by the emergence of some serious contradictions which may come to undermine the developmental effectiveness of the Vietnamese state.
Reorganising the front line: the case of public call centre services
Authors: Annika Schönauer
Published: December 2015

The aim of this article is to examine a specific aspect of restructuring in the public sector: the implementation of call centres in customer service and its effects on job quality. The general trend towards organising customer services through call centres gained worldwide importance in the 1990s, but in the public sector it has emerged relatively recently in connection with strategies of ‘new public management’. This article presents five international case studies from the public sector that exhibit different forms of restructuring. They range from internal reorganisation and the establishment of a public-private partnership to the full outsourcing of telephone-based customer services. The article concludes that, despite national differences, the introduction of call centres into the public sector, especially when combined with outsourcing, has dramatic impact on the quality of employment, especially in relation to three aspects: forms of employment, skills and know-how and interest representation.
The end of the road, no more walking in dead men shoes: IT professionals' experience of being outsourced to the private sector
Authors: Simone Dahlmann
Published: December 2015

This article examines the experiences of IT professional workers in the process of being transferred from local government to private, large multinational IT service providers in the UK. Outsourcing of IT services has become a common practice and often it is the workers' experience of change that is under-captured in research. This article looks at changes in occupational identity, recognition and commitment in the workplace and shows how these factors are perceived by IT professionals in the UK interviewed as part of case study research for a larger, EC-funded research project. The findings point to a clash between the need to adapt to private sector organisational practices and the desire to find meaning in work that has substantially changed.
Attracting customers through practising gender in call-centre work
Authors: Päivi Korvajärvi
Published: December 2015

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate and analyse various ways in which gender is used as a resource when call-centre firms and their employees create customer relationships. Drawing on interviews in a case study call centre it argues that men and women are understood to work differently from the point of view of attracting customers. Men are found important as individuals and through technology-related services, whereas women are conceived as resources through their association with certain products, not as individuals. Thus female gender as a resource is embedded in the commodified products.
Between a rock and a hard place: the shaping of employment in a global economy
Authors: Ursula Huws
Published: December 2015

Introducing this volume, this article discusses how employment practices are shaped in a global economy, asking to what extent national policies and institutions still play a role and the importance of other social, economic, political and cultural factors in determining how work is organised and the pay, conditions and job security of workers. Whilst it is clear that there are general tendencies of erosion of labour standards, fragmentation of labour and intensification of working time, it is also clear that workers in some occupations, industries and countries are better able to resist these tendencies than others. The papers in this issue present a range of theoretical and empirical research from across Europe that seek to explain these differences, with results that are also relevant for audiences in other parts of the world.
Labour makeup: a case study of 800,000 cosmetics resellers in Brazil
Authors: Ludmila Costhek Abilio
Published: December 2015

This article presents a case study a Brazilian company, Natura, which employs over 800,000 women as cosmetics resellers who are responsible for all aspects of product distribution. The article discusses the status of informal workers and examines the definition of informal labour in its modern form. The relationship between informal labour and brand is analysed while taking into account the connection between labour and consumption in the resellers' activities. The analysis centres on the relationship between a typically female workforce, labour exploitation, and capital accumulation.
The feminised service sector: from micro to macro analysis
Authors: Babs Grossman
Published: December 2015

Research concerned with the relationship between gender and service work has typically relied on micro-level analyses, and privileged affective explanations of the feminised service sector. The resulting scholarship, which often uses the ‘emotional labour’ framework first introduced by Arlie Hochschild (1983), has come to dominate gender and service work literature in such a way that other potentially useful analytical frameworks have been left relatively unexplored. Recently, this approach has been critically engaged with by scholars in an attempt to expand and enrich understandings of the relationship between service occupations and gender on a global scale. In particular, new scholarship on gender and service work has called attention to the convergence of local understandings of gender within the new international division of labour. This emergent macro-level and transnational research represents an exciting new body of work that merits review and consideration.
(Im)mobilising transnational labour? patterns of spatial mobility in Indo-German software companies
Authors: Nicole Mayer-Ahuja
Published: December 2015

Do transnational economic activities necessarily coincide with intensified spatial mobility, as debates about ‘job nomads’ or ‘footloose capital’ would suggest? Drawing on the results of a sociological research project on software programming in Indo-German project teams, it will be argued that this picture is far too simplistic. On the one hand, corporate strategies of labour utilisation vary markedly even within the software sector, partly implying a spatial mobilisation, but more often an immobilisation of labour. On the other hand, spatial mobility in its transnational, everyday and biographical dimensions is not determined by corporate strategies unilaterally, but closely interrelated with national standards of economic, social, and political regulation, in this case, in Germany and India respectively.
The emergence of a new medical model: the international division of labour and the formation of an international outsourcing chain in teleradiology
Authors: Selma Venco
Published: December 2015

This article analyses the international division of labour in medicine. The study starts from the premiss that time and space compression imposes itself as a fundamental analytical category in a situation where telematics premits the constitution of international outsourcing chains for a wide range of professional activities — even those with a high degree of specialisation. It focuses on the role of Brazil in the outsourcing of medical functions, specifically those involving imaging, and demonstrates how this enables the client companies to extend their domains by generating images in a global chain, starting in peripheral countries - in this case Africa, passing through Europe, and with the possibility of analysis taking place in South America.
International sourcing and asymmetry: how Western software entrepreneurs tap and decant Ukrainian engineering skills
Authors: Graham Hollinshead  , Jane Hardy
Published: December 2015

The international IT industry has been hailed as the epitome of the new global economy, appearing footloose in its productive and marketing activities across national borders, and drawing on the talents of an apparently homogenous and internationally dispersed cadre of knowledge workers. In this paper we refer to recent international re-engineering of the software development process to suggest that it encompasses a division of labour amenable to spatial separation. By contextualising the delivery of architectural and creative functions in the Western part of Europe, and more routine activities in the post-socialist territory of Ukraine, we are able explore the embedded nature of dispersed inputs into product and service manufacturing in the sector, and the complex managerial issues associated with co-ordinating sourcing over highly diverse and asymmetrical institutional and cultural zones. We identifycontrasting strategies employed by IT companies to mitigate the risks associated with operating over distance and to capitalise on the reserves of engineering knowledge and skills possessed by ‘nearshore’ service providers.
Working online, living offline: labour in the Internet Age
Authors: Ursula Huws
Published: December 2015

This paper begins by tracing changes in employment patterns since the middle of the 20th Century, arguing that the mid 2000s marked the beginning of a fourth distinctive phase, the earlier ones having begun, respectively, after the end of World War II, after the 1973 oil crisis, and after the end of the Cold War, around 1990. In this new phase, dubbed here the ‘Internet Age’, various tendencies with their origins in earlier periods have reached critical mass. These include a developed international division of labour, in both manufacturing and services and an employment landscape dominated by large transnational corporations able to draw on this global labour pool, using ICTs to manage their increasingly elaborate value chains. Many of these corporations have grown on the basis of the commodification of activities which previously lay outside the scope of profit making, including public services. The paper then discusses how and why online workers are at the front line of many of these developments, before going on to introduce the contents of this volume.
Labour relations and globalisation: an analysis of ethical dilemmas from ‘Le Couperet’
Authors: Fábio Francisco de Araujo  , Patricia Amélia Tomei
Published: December 2015

This aim of this paper is to analyse how changes in labour relations in a globalised and fiercely competitive context confront professionals with ethical dilemmas when dealing with the prevailing new organisational arrangements. The movie Le Couperet (‘The Axe’) was chosen for the analysis proposed in this study because it provides a view of the world of work and the effects of the predatory competitiveness imposed by global markets. It concludes that a reflection on corporate ethics and how individuals handle ethical dilemmas may constitute a way of combatting the predatory competitiveness imposed by the logic of the ‘new deal’.
Labour in the circuits of global markets: theories and realities
Authors: Ursula Huws
Published: December 2015

This article introduces the contents of this volume, reflecting on the commonalities and complementaries between articles.
The containment of labour in accelerated global supply chains: the case of Piraeus Port
Authors: Pavlos Hatzopoulos  , Nelli Kambouri  , Ursula Huws
Published: December 2015

This article presents a case study of the sale of two of the three piers at the formerly state-owned container port of Piraeus, in Greece to a Chinese company, COSCO, formng a crucial hub in the transit of goods to European markets, and examines the impacts on labour. It places this study in the context of the global consolidation, restructuring and acceleration of supply chains as well as in the specific context of privatisation of infrastructure and deregulation of labour in Greece in the aftermath of the debt crisis. Anatomising the tangled dynamics of deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation, it illustrates the complexity of the interrelationships between specific local factors and global forces in reshaping work. It also shows how the fragmentation of labour resulting from these impacts makes it easy for global corporations in the logistics sector both to consolidate their power and to evade contemporary forms of labour mobilisation. After chronicling the forms of resistance adopted by workers at the port, the article concludes by reflecting on the implications for organisation along the increasingly tightly integrated supply chains which link the labour of production workers with that of logistics workers.
Chinese Overseas Foreign Direct Investment and the Sino-Serbian Strategic Partnership
Authors: Graham Hollinshead
Published: December 2015

While considerable scholarly attention has been devoted to foreign direct investment into China, the emergent status of the People's Republic as an outward investor of growing international significance has, arguably, been subject to neglect. Yet ‘going overseas’ has been a fundamental element in the reform and modernisation of the Chinese economy, this policy having been formally ratified by the Chinese Communist Party in the late 1990s, with China having now ascended to the position of third most important investor abroad, after the USA and Japan. Scrutiny of the particular nature of Chinese overseas foreign direct investment (OFDI) is instructive because it reveals that, while its determinants may be familiar from a Western perspective, peculiarities are also evident, notably an integral involvement of the state in its inception. As the global spread of Chinese OFDI has now extended to Europe, this paper examines the particular case of the Sino-Serbian strategic partnership, a major element of which relates to Chinese assistance in the reconstruction of the Serbian infrastructure. This paper focuses on a Chinese-sponsored construction project on the edge of Europe. It first considers the flows and specific determinants of Chinese OFDI. The geopolitical connotations of China's economic interventions overseas are then highlighted. Finally, it offers an exposition of the Sino-Serbian strategic partnership and the Chinese-sponsored ‘Bridge of Friendship’ currently being constructed over the River Danube near Belgrade. The paper concludes that aspects of Chinese OFDI are powerfully conditioned by underlying geo-political and foreign policy objectives prevalent in the home country as well as economic considerations.
‘Sorry mate, you're finishing tonight’: a historical perspective on employment flexibility in the UK film industry
Authors: Will Atkinson  , Keith Randle
Published: December 2015

This article considers the nature of employment in the UK Film Industry in the period 1927–1947 against a background of US domination of the global market for film. Drawing on archived interview material from 60 participants in the archive of the History Project of BECTU (the British trade union for Media and Entertainment workers) the article focusses on entry routes, working hours, training and pay grades to assess the degree of stability present in the labour market across a number of selected below-the-line film production occupations. This provides an historical context to debates surrounding the organisation of work in the sector, which is characterised by both continuity and change. The article argues that the UK film industry has never been a stable, ‘job-for-life’ sector, nor have its labour processes ever followed mass production lines. It supports assertions that assumptions of linear development from secure to casualised employment are inadequate for understanding work in this sector.
Parental Perceptions of Physical Activity Benefits for Youth With Developmental Disabilities
Authors: Pitchford E. Andrew , Siebert Erin , Hamm Jessica , Yun Joonkoo
Published: December 2015

Physical activity promotion is of need for youth with developmental disabilities. Parental perceptions of physical activity benefits may influence youth behaviors. This study investigated the relationship between parental beliefs on the importance of physical activity and physical activity levels among youth with disabilities. Parents and caregivers of 113 youth with disabilities reported on the perceived benefits of physical activity, the child's physical activity level, and demographic information. Linear regression analyses to examine the relative association between parental perceived benefits and child physical activity (R2 = 0.19) indicated that physical activity level was predicted by parental beliefs and child gender. Health promotion for youth with disabilities should consider educating parents and caregivers of physical activity benefits, in addition to creating more opportunities.
Performance on the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test-2 by Children With Williams Syndrome
Authors: Pitts C. Holley , Mervis Carolyn B.
Published: December 2015

We describe the performance of 292 4- to 17-year-olds with Williams syndrome (WS) on the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test-2 (KBIT-2; Kaufman & Kaufman, 2004). Mean IQ Composite, Verbal standard score (SS), and Nonverbal SS were in the borderline range relative to the general population, with variability similar to the general population. Correlations between SSs and CA were close to 0, with no significant sex differences. There was a significant effect of maternal education on Verbal SS. The KBIT-2 appropriately captures the full range of performance of 8- to 17-year-olds with WS for the abilities measured and of all but the very lowest-functioning 5- to 7-year-olds. However, the KBIT-2 does not contain easy enough items to adequately assess the abilities of the lowest quartile of 4-year-olds.
Reviews Books
Authors: Wittum Chris , Song Ha Eyn , Belden Stephen , Bell-Games Eoin , Adeli Cyrus
Published: December 2015

The Cinema of Raúl Ruiz: Impossible Cartographies, Michael Goddard, (2013) New York: Columbia University Press, 224pp., ISBN: 9780231167307 (hbk), $75.00

World Cinema through Global Genres, William V. Costanzo, (2014) Boston: Wiley-Blackwell, 456pp., ISBN: 9871118712917 (hbk), $84.95 , ISBN: 9781118712924 (pbk), $39.95

East German Cinema: DEFA and Film History, Sebastian Heiduschke, (2013) New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 196pp., ISBN: 1137322306 (hbk), $79.61, ISBN: 1137322314 (pbk), $25.06

New Tunisian Cinema: Allegories of Resistance, Robert Lang, (2014) New York: Columbia University Press, 448pp., ISBN: 9780231165075 (pbk), $35.00, ISBN: 9780231165068 (hbk), $105.00

Performing Authorshop: Self-Inscription and Corporeality in the Cinema, Cecilia Sayad, (2013) London: I.B. Tauris, 208pp., ISBN: 9781780760063 (pbk), $28.00, ISBN: 9781780760056 (hbk), $88.00
Reviews DVD/Blu-ray
Authors: Wittum Chris , Ross Franz , Bell-Games Eoin
Published: December 2015

La Peau douce (The Soft Skin), (1964) France Director François Truffaut Runtime 117 minutes Blu-ray USA, 2015 Produced and Distributed by The Criterion Collection (region A/1)

Under the Skin (2013) UK Director Jonathan Glazer Runtime 108 minutes Blu-ray USA, 2014 Produced and Distributed by Lionsgate Home Entertainment (region A/1)

La Danza de la realidad (The Dance of Reality), (2013) Chile/France Director Alejandro Jodorowsky Runtime 130 minutes Blu-ray USA, 2014 Produced and Distributed by Abkco (region 1)
Challenges for sustaining local audio-visual ecosystems: Analysis of financing and production of domestic TV fiction in small media markets
Authors: Raats Tim , Evens Tom , Ruelens Sanne
Published: December 2015

Various trends, both technological and economic in nature, have led to a shift in the financing and production of serial television fiction (principally television drama and episodic comedy), resulting in pressure on existing financing of TV fiction. These pressures prove especially difficult for small nations and regions, being characterized by restricted markets, a limited number of active players, and barriers for export and scale. For media policy-makers, these transitions invoke a series of new challenges to sustain existing audio-visual ecosystems. Based on a case study of TV fiction in Flanders, and presenting evidence from a financial analysis of 46 TV fiction productions, this article analyses current financing streams, patterns and dynamics of TV fiction in small media markets. It seeks to reveal the composition of budgets and the relative importance of diverse agents and funders involved in TV fiction production. Critical evaluations are then offered as to whether current financing models and policy support mechanisms are fit to tackle the challenges posed by the increasing number of windows and increased fragmentation of TV fiction financing.
Canadianization revisited: Programme formats and the new cultural economy of the Canadian broadcasting industry
Authors: Druick Zoë
Published: December 2015

The Canadian broadcast sector has been the subject of many policy initiatives and much hand wringing. This article uses a production study of the reality television sector in Toronto, Canada’s centre for English-language production, to consider how the concerted move towards an entrepreneurial, market-driven television economy since the late 1990s has dovetailed with the rise of the global trade in formats. The article considers some of the key policy moves in this period of neo-liberalization, including the de-regulation of ownership, the introduction of group licensing, and shifts in the definition of ‘priority’ Canadian content. The article concludes that the set of related shifts in both technologies and considerations about television’s social and economic role has led to an almost purely market-driven (though state subsidized) system that disadvantages both smaller industry players and the broadcast system’s public mandate. The challenges experienced in Canada during this period are not unique, making it into a case study for small market television nations.
Avaliação das emissões de escapamento veicular em condições específicas do motor: partida e marcha-lenta
Authors: Aguiar Suzana De Oliveira , Araújo Rinaldo Dos Santos , Cavalcante Francisco Sales Ávila , Lima Rita Karolinny Chaves de , Bertoncini Bruno Vieira , Lima Rita Karolinny Chaves de , Oliveira Mona Lisa Moura
Published: December 2015

O crescimento exponencial do quantitativo de veículos automotores no Brasil, sobretudo nos grandes centros urbanos, contribui com a emissão de elevadas taxas de poluentes atmosféricos comprometendo a qualidade do ar e, consequentemente, a saúde da população. Este trabalho possui como objetivo principal avaliar as emissões de poluentes atmosféricos oriundas de veículos automotores equipados com motor ciclo Otto (gasolina e álcool) e/ou ciclo Diesel em condições específicas do motor, nomeadamente, partida (a frio ou a quente) e marcha-lenta. Os resultados ratificam a importância de se considerar o adicional das emissões de poluentes da partida a frio, uma vez que os veículos a álcool e a gasolina atingiram elevadas concentrações de emissão de CO e HC e, no caso do diesel, o NOx. Em geral, o procedimento utilizado neste estudo para análise dos gases de escapamento de forma instantânea, mostrou-se eficiente na demonstração do adicional da partida a frio em relação às condições estabilizadas de operação do motor. Durante a partida a frio, observam-se os maiores níveis de emissões de HC e CO para o veículo movido a E100, o que se deve principalmente às características físico-químicas do etanol, como o alto calor latente de vaporização. Em termos gerais, a metodologia simples e acessível utilizada nesta pesquisa pode ser útil em diagnósticos de emissões veiculares, como também no monitoramento e manutenção veicular regular/preventiva de fontes móveis de emissão de poluentes, além de corroborar para o estudo do adicional de emissões nas condições avaliadas (i.e. inventários de emissões atmosféricas).
Compatibilidade entre funções de atraso e o HCM em rodovias paulistas
Authors: De Andrade Gustavo Riente , Setti José Reynaldo , Ferraz Antônio Clóvis Pinto
Published: December 2015

Neste trabalho foram identificadas na literatura e descritas as funções de atraso mais comumente usadas nos pacotes de modelagem de demanda por transporte, a saber: (1) BPR; (2) Conical; (3) Função de Akçelik; e (4) Logística. Em seguida, foi testada a compatibilidade entre essas quatro VDFs e os modelos atuais do HCM, calibrados para o ambiente rodoviário brasileiro. Como principais conclusões, tem-se que os melhores ajustes foram obtidos com o uso da função do BPR e logística. Por outro lado, as funções Conical e de Akçelik devem ser empregadas com cautela, pois tendem a subestimar o atraso em condições de fluxos de tráfego baixos a médios, comuns em rodovias rurais. Especificamente com relação às rodovias de pista simples, a função logística se mostrou interessante, devido a capacidade de refletir atrasos mais acentuados para baixos fluxos de tráfego, e produzir maiores atrasos em condições congestionadas, característica desejável em modelagem de demanda.
Pushing back the baseline: a novel approach to detect long-term changes in terrestrial faunal abundance using historical qualitative descriptions
Authors: McCollin Duncan , Preece Richard C. , Sparks Tim H.
Published: December 2015

Studies that examine changes in the populations of flora and fauna often do so against a baseline of relatively recent distribution data. It is much rarer to see evaluations of population change over the longer–term in order to extend the baseline back in time. Here, we use two methods (regression analysis and line of equality) to identify long-term differences in abundance derived from qualitative descriptions, and we test the efficacy of this approach by comparison with contemporary data. We take descriptions of bird population abundance in Cambridgeshire, UK, from the first half of the 19th century and compare these with more recent estimates by converting qualitative descriptions to an ordinal scale. We show, first, that the ordinal scale of abundance corresponds well to quantitative estimates of density and range size based on current data, and, second, that the two methods of comparison revealed both increases and declines in species, some of which were consistent using both approaches but others showed differing responses. We also show that the regional rates of extinction (extirpation) for birds are twice as high as equivalent rates for plants. These data extend analyses of avifaunal change back to a baseline 160-190 years before present, thus bringing a novel perspective on long-term change in populations and categories of conservation concern (e.g., Amber- or Red-lists) based on recent data. Changes in status are discussed in relation to various factors, although perhaps the most pervasive were of anthropogenic origin.
A new female-like morph of juvenile male Levant Sparrowhawk (Accipiter brevipes) – sexual mimicry to avoid intra-specific predation?
Authors: Yosef Reuven , Fornasari Lorenzo
Published: December 2015

In migrant Levant Sparrowhawk (Accipiter brevipes) at Eilat, Israel, we noted that juvenile males had two different morphs – the one described to date in literature; and a second, previously undescribed morph, with femalelike barring on the chest and flanks interspersed with tear-shaped elongated spots, giving an overall female-like appearance. Here we forward the hypothesis that explain the evolutionary consequences for the female-like plumage of juvenile males as that of intra-specific sex mimicry developed to avoid intra-specific predation by the larger females.
The Spirit of the Dream Dance
Authors: Sarris Greg
Published: December 2015

The author, who is chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, considers the diversity of beliefs and cultural practices of Native Californians. What all tribes share is a tie to a specific landscape and a brutal European colonization that worked to break that tie. Sarris discusses ways that native Californians have found ways to once again strengthen those ties, such as the Bole Maru, or Dream Dance. The religion contains elements of older beliefs and ceremonies, but increasingly puts more stress on the afterlife.
Take it Outside
Authors: Hughes Jennifer Scheper , Lee James Kyung-Jin , Lucia Amanda , Mukherjee S.Romi
Published: December 2015

California is experiencing a proliferation of public religious celebrations like never before. The authors focus on four public celebrations: the throwing of colors during Holi, an annual pilgrimage to Manzanar, the Peruvian celebration of El Señor de Los Milagros, and Noche de Altares. Even as these and many other similar festivals simultaneously represent the irruption and interruption of the sacred in the public sphere, these festivals reflect the multi-religious character of immigration. These public rituals say something about the pursuit of belonging in California and in the United States within an increasingly diverse and multicultural landscape. Those who participate together as intimate strangers are often seeking only a temporary affiliation, perhaps a place for a moment to engage one another beyond the context of the marketplace. In sharing in these religious and cross-cultural experiences, participants become enmeshed in the complicated and vibrant diversity of California, up close and personal, as physical as the bodies encountered there.
Four Prophets
Authors: Clayton Philip
Published: December 2015

Jesus People, the Esalen Retreat Center, the Free Speech Movement, and Goddess worship are examples of religion California style. Likewise, the leaders of these movements – Lonnie Frisbee, Michael Murphy, Mario Savio, and Starkhawk – provide examples of California prophets. Their stories reveal the religious dimension of some distinctively California values.
How Berkeley Made the Old Testament New
Authors: Alter Robert
Published: December 2015

For author Robert Alter, moving from the Northeast to California meant moving from academic institutions with firmly established hierarchies to a place characterized by openness and flexibility. Comparative Literature at Berkeley made it possible for the author to explore a wide range of literary interests, and this eventually led him to teach and write on the Bible and then to begin to translate it. His impulse to break decisively with prevailing modern models of Bible translation was encouraged by California's atmosphere of innovation.
Metabolic Therapy in Heart Failure
Authors: Lopatin Yury ,   Volgograd State Medical University, Volgograd Regional Cardiology Centre, Volgograd, Russia
Published: December 2015

Metabolic impairments play an important role in the development and progression of heart failure. The use of metabolic modulators, the number of which is steadily increasing, may be particularly effective in the treatment of heart failure. Recent evidence suggests that modulating cardiac energy metabolism by reducing fatty acid oxidation and/or increasing glucose oxidation represents a promising approach to the treatment of patients with heart failure. This review focuses on the role of metabolic modulators, in particular trimetazidine, as a potential additional medication to conventional medical therapy in heart failure.
Cellular Communications in the Heart
Authors: Fountoulaki Katerina ,   Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit, Onassis Cardiac Surgery Centre, Athens, Greece, Dagres Nikolaos ,   Second University Department of Cardiology, Attikon General Hospial, University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Published: December 2015

Heart failure is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Cardiac remodelling is first an adaptive, becoming a maladaptive, compensatory mechanism that finally causes ventricular dysfunction independently of the etiology of the initial insult. In the present article the authors describe the elements of the human heart, examining their basic functions and their inter-communication under both normal and pathological circumstances. Cardiac myocytes carry out mechanical and electrical functions of the heart and cardiac fibroblasts maintain its structural integrity. Several factors can affect fibroblast activation and under pathological stress they transdifferentiate into myofibroblasts. Endothelial cells have complex biological functions, including the control of vascular permeability, vasomotion, regulation of haemostasis, immune responses and angiogenesis. The extracellular matrix is a complex architectural network consisting of a variety of proteins. Various routes using a plethora of products and mediators contribute to the cross-talk of the myocytes with endothelial cells, extracellular matrix and cardiac fibroblasts. A better understanding of the entire mechanism of cellular communication by the established or the more recently discovered agents will certainly emerge promising new perspectives when looking at the prevention of heart failure and leading to more substantial therapeutic interventions.
Takotsubo Syndrome — Stress-induced Heart Failure Syndrome
Authors: Sheppard Mary N ,   St George’s University Medical School, London, United Kingdom
Published: December 2015

Takotsubo syndrome has been established as an entity in the past 30 years, particularly with the introduction of interventional angiography for investigation of chest pain. Typically, it occurs in middle-aged females as a response to a stressful event, such as bad news, death, accident, natural disaster, etc. but there is not always a specific trigger. Takotsubo mimics acute myocardial infarction with electrocardiogram changes and elevated troponins. On interventional angiography the coronary arteries are normal with typical apical ballooning of the left ventricle. This feature led to its descriptive name, given by Japanese cardiologists, as the left ventricle resembles a lobster trap with a narrow neck extending into a round ventricle. This leads to a reduction in cardiac function. Takotsubo is believed to be a response to catecholamine release following a stressful event resulting in temporary myocardial damage. It usually has a benign course with spontaneous return of cardiac function. However it may recur and in a small percentage of patients can result in sudden cardiac death with arrhythmia, acute myocardial infarction and cardiac rupture. It is usually treated symptomatically depending on the severity of presentation.
Explicit and Implicit Religion in Doctor Who and Star Trek
Authors: McGrath James F.
Published: December 2015

It has often been proposed that the original series of Star Trek reflected a modern, enlightenment perspective on religion, and that subsequent spinoffs like Deep Space Nine moved in a more post-modern direction. Doctor Who, the longest running science fiction show, provides an interesting basis for comparison. Both television shows offer similar tropes, and in both instances, the rhetoric that claims to explain away religion in scientific terms ends up treating it as literally true. Both shows depict our universe as populated with “natural gods” which are sometimes explicitly identified with the gods and demons of ancient human religious literature.
Modeling Gilliland Correlation using Genetic Programming
Authors: Olteanu Marius , Paraschiv Nicolae , Cangea Otilia
Published: December 2015

The distillation process is one of the most important processes in industry, especially petroleum refining. Designing a distillation column assesses numerous challenges to the engineer, being a complex process that is approached in various studies. An important component, directly affecting the efficient operation of the column, is the reflux ratio that is correlated with the number of the theoretical stages, a correlation developed and studied by Gililland. The correlation is used in the case of simplified control models of distillation columns and it is a graphical method. However, in many situations, there is the need for an analytical form that adequately approximates the experimental data. There are in the literature different analytical forms which are used taking into account the desired precision. The present article attempts to address this problem by using the technique of Genetic Programming, a branch of Evolutionary Algorithms that belongs to Artificial Intelligence, a recently developed technique that has recorded successful applications especially in process modeling. Using an evolutionary paradigm and by evolving a population of solutions or subprograms composed of carefully chosen functions and operators, the Genetic Programming technique is capable of finding the program or relation that fits best the available data.
A Microcontroller-based Intelligent System for Real-time Flood Alerting
Authors: Oprea Mihaela , Buruiana Vasile , Matei Alexandra
Published: December 2015

The development of efficient flood alerting systems became more demanding in the last years. In this paper it is presented the first version of a prototype intelligent system for flood forecasting and real-time alerting. The system is implemented by using a microcontroller from the ARM family, Marvell 88F6281, and has a user interface realized under the Free UnixBSD operating system. Also, a knowledge base is integrated in the system. The real-time alert is sent to the decision making factors via a communication channel (such as, the internet, a mobile phone, or radio communication). Some experimental results obtained so far are also discussed in the paper.
A Behavioral Perspective of Virtual Heritage Reconstruction
Authors: Popovici Dorin-Mircea , Querrec Ronan , Bodgan Crenguţa-Mădălina , Popovici Norina
Published: December 2015

Our contribution focuses on the behavioral aspects that are currently used in the modeling of the virtual inhabitants of a reconstructed Greek- Roman colony in the framework of the TOMIS project. The project aims at promoting culture by the mean of the reconstruction of historical sites together with their virtual societies based on virtual and/or augmented reality technologies. Our efforts are oriented both on 3D modeling of virtual humans, animation of the virtual humans on every-day human activities and, most important, on the spicing these activities with human emotions. To this end, we iterate the most common agent-based architectures used to produce credible behavior of the virtual agents (humans or animals) in situations inspired from the real world, and emphasize their direct applicability both in humans and animal animations in order to obtain complex behavior based on atomic activities. Finally, the paper presents the technological issues related to the used motion capture technology, as source of high-definition human atomic actions, that participates in complex action plans for virtual agents activities.
FATORES ASSOCIADOS AO PESO AO NASCER: ESTUDO POPULACIONAL COM BASE NAS DECLARAÇÕES DE NASCIDOS VIVOS
Authors: Pedraza Dixis , Cristóvão Fabiane
Published: December 2015

Introdução: O peso ao nascer é um importante indicador de saúde, influenciável pelo nível socioeconômico. Objetivos: Identificar fatores associados ao baixo peso ao nascer, em nascidos vivos de mães residentes nos municípios de Cabedelo e Cacimbas, Paraíba, referente a 2007 e comparar sua ocorrência. Material e Métodos: Foram utilizadas as informações do Sistema de Informações sobre Nascidos Vivos das crianças nascidas vivas em 2007, residentes nos municípios de Cabedelo e Cacimbas, na Paraíba. As diferenças no porte populacional e no Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano foram as bases principais na escolha dos municípios. Resultados: Foram observadas prevalências de baixo peso ao nascer similares, de 5,7% e 5,9%, em Cabedelo e Cacimbas, respectivamente. A duração da gestação de 22 a 36 semanas foi a única condição que atuou como discriminante estatisticamente significante em relação ao risco de ocorrência de baixo peso ao nascer, comparando os dois municípios estudados. Conclusão: Destaca-se a importância de estudos sobre baixo peso ao nascer comparando diferentes contextos socioeconômicos. Nos municípios examinados, caracterizados por diferentes índices de desenvolvimento, não foram encontradas diferenças nas prevalências de baixo peso ao nascer.
BANCO DE LEITE HUMANO: DEMANDA E DISTRIBUIÇÃO PARA UTI-NEONATAL EM CIDADE NO INTERIOR PAULISTA, 2013
Authors: Queiroz Flávia , Cabrera Eliana Márcia Sotello , Perinazzo Tania De Freitas , Alves Silvana Aparecida , Silva Maria Aparecida , Silva Ana Cristina Viana
Published: December 2015

Introdução: O Banco de Leite Humano promove, protege e apoia o aleitamento materno por meio de atendimento multiprofissional às mães com dificuldades na amamentação, realiza coleta e processamento do leite humano com rígido controle de qualidade, regula e distribui conforme demanda. Para que seus objetivos sejam plenamente atingidos, a doação voluntária de leite humano é fundamental, tendo em vista a destinação prioritária para recém-nascidos de risco internados em Unidade de Terapia Neonatal. Objetivos: Caracterizar e quantificar a demanda e a distribuição de leite humano pasteurizado para serviços de saúde com Unidade de Terapia Neonatal de São José do Rio Preto/SP pelo Banco de Leite Humano municipal. Material e Métodos: Estudo observacional descritivo, retrospectivo, quantitativo tipo censo, de registros de entrada de leite humano coletado e saída de leite humano pasteurizado no Banco de Leite Humano de São José do Rio Preto/SP, no período de janeiro a dezembro de 2013. Resultados: No período estudado, o Banco de Leite Humano recebeu solicitação de 1.367,8 litros de leite humano pasteurizado pelos serviços de saúde com Unidade de Terapia Neonatal, distribuiu 1.007,8 litros e recebeu contribuição de 131,46 litros de leite humano coletado. O Hospital de Base/Hospital da Criança e Maternidade e a Santa Casa de Misericórdia, com maior número de leitos de Unidades de Terapia Neonatal, contribuíram com 38,14% do leite humano pasteurizado, sendo atendidos em 72,37% e 65,43% do volume solicitado. A Beneficência Portuguesa e o Austa Hospital, com menor número de leitos, foram atendidas em 88,16% e 102,18% do volume solicitado, proveniente de doadoras vinculadas ao recém-nascido receptor. Conclusão: O Banco de Leite Humano não conseguiu atender a toda solicitação de leite humano pasteurizado. Para atender à demanda integralmente, é necessário recrutamento constante de potenciais doadoras, por meio de ações educativas para gestantes e puérperas e sensibilização da equipe de saúde quanto a importância do leite humano e da doação.