bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Zeolite Mineralogy and Cappadocian Erionite
Authors: Dogan A. Umran
Published: April 2004

The discovery some 30 years ago that erionite, a fibrous zeolite mineral, induced mesotheliomas in those living in certain villages in Cappadocia engendered a vast amount of both geological/mineralogical and clinical/epidemiological work. Studies initially concentrated on three villages where the incidence of this normally rare tumour correlated with the presence of erionite, and has extended to some new villages also in the Central Anatolian region of Turkey. A consequence of the work is that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has classified erionite as a Group I carcinogen. This classification was based upon the evidence in humans, specific diseases from occupational exposures and health effects noted in animal and cell experiments. A large number of natural zeolites are known although erionite is the only one known to cause human disease. In the current mineralogical classification three types of erionite are described: these are known as erionite-Na, erionite-K and erionite-Ca.
The Effect of Gliotoxin and Patulin on Human T Cell Function
Authors: Wichmann Gunnar , Krumm Beate , Drößler Karl , Herbarth Olf , Lehmann Irina
Published: April 2004

To test the hypothesis that mycotoxins may be the agents responsible for the allergy mediating effect of moulds, the effect of gliotoxin and patulin on T cell functions, especially the Th1/Th2 balance and subsequent IgE production, was investigated using cell models. In the presence of gliotoxin or patulin, anti-CD3/CD28/CD40-stimulated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) showed a suppressed IFN-γ secretion, whereas IL-4 was not affected or even stimulated (strongest between 1 and 10 ng mL1 mycotoxin). The observed T cell polarisation toward the Th2 phenotype was accompanied by upregulated IgE synthesis. In addition, both mycotoxins reduced the allergen-specific (birch pollen) expression of IFN-γ mRNA, while IL-4 mRNA expression was unaltered or enhanced (significant for 10 ng mL1 patulin). These data suggest that the mycotoxins gliotoxin and patulin may enhance allergic responsiveness.
Bronchoalveolar Lavage Findings from Persons Exposed to Moulds in Water-Damaged Houses
Authors: Mussalo-Rauhamaa Helena , Suomalainen Hanna , Helin Timo , Elg Peter , Orpana Arto
Published: April 2004

Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples were taken in 47 patients whose symptoms were attributable to mould exposure and had visited the Clinic for Indoor Air Health Problems at the Helsinki University Central Hospital for a diagnosis of possible interstitial pulmonary disease. Tests showed that the total number of lymphocytes was elevated in 19 of these patients (40%). The percentage of lymphocytes in the cells from the lavage fluid ranged from 2 to 63% with a median of 19%. One patient had slight neutropenia.
Asthmatic Symptoms in School Children in Relation to Building Dampness and Atopy
Authors: Smedje Greta , Norbäck Dan
Published: April 2004

In an epidemiological study of school children, we found that risk factors for asthma related to building dampness differed between children with and without a history of atopy.
Humid Buildings - The Construction Remedy
Authors: Andersson Johnny V.
Published: April 2004

Dampness in buildings is a common reason for a variety of health-related symptoms in the inhabitants. An obvious solution to at least part of this problem would be to take measures in order to keep a building dry in those parts of it that have not been intended to handle water. This article describes a Swedish building research project where more than 4000 apartments were built in Sweden according to a water damage quality control scheme. This has resulted in a total absence of water damage during a twelve-year period.
Humidity as a Control Parameter for Ventilation
Authors: Afshari Alireza , Bergsøe Niels C.
Published: April 2004

The objective of this study was to develop energy efficient ventilation strategies that will provide both a healthy and comfortable indoor climate and reduce energy consumption compared to present ventilation standards. Humidity was used as a control parameter for the ventilation. Four different ventilation strategies were tested in a test apartment. The results of the experiments indicated that humidity can be used as a control parameter for ventilation and that energy can be saved without compromising indoor air quality.
Direct Assessment of Microbial Colonisation in Damp Houses by Chemical Marker Analysis
Authors: Szponar Bogumila , Szponar Anita , Larsson Lennart
Published: April 2004

Ergosterol was used as a marker of fungal biomass and 3-hydroxy fatty acids were used as markers of bacterial endotoxin to determine microbial colonisation of building materials by gas chromatographymass spectrometry. Pieces (0.3-0.5 g) of materials from two water-damaged buildings were hydrolysed to liberate the markers from larger microbial structures; the preparations were then purified, derivatised, and analysed. The marker patterns obtained revealed that the microbial communities differed between the two buildings both qualitatively and quantitatively. The chemical-analytical method described should be useful for detecting and characterising microbial colonisation on surfaces in, for example, damp buildings.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Cancer
Authors: Simopoulos Artemis P.
Published: April 2004

Epidemiological studies and animal experiments indicate that omega-3 fatty acids exert protective effects against some common cancers, especially cancers of the breast, colon and prostate. Many mechanisms are involved, including suppression of neoplastic transformation, cell growth inhibition, and enhanced apoptosis and antiangiogenicity, through the inhibition of eicosanoid production from omega-6 fatty acids; suppression of cycloöxygenase-2 (COX-2), and interleukin-1 (IL-1) and IL-6 gene expression. Recent intervention studies in breast cancer patients indicate that omega-3 fatty acids, and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in particular, increase the response to chemopreventive agents. In patients with colorectal cancer, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and DHA decrease cell proliferation, and modulate favourably the balance between colonic cell proliferation and apoptosis. In general, a balanced omega-6: omega-3 ratio is essential for normal growth and development, and plays an important role in the prevention and treatment of many clinical conditions, including cancer. For both prevention and treatment of cancerpatients, it is essential that the diet is balanced in omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids.
Dust Storms in the Middle East: Sources of Origin and Their Temporal Characteristics
Authors: Furman Haim Kutiel Hadar
Published: April 2004

The spatial and temporal characteristics of dust storms in the Middle East were studied by an analysis of the visibility reduction in that region. Eight ‘three-hours’ mean values for each month for a period of 21 years (1973–1993) were used. Data were subjected to cluster analysis of their temporal behaviour. Four main regions were identified and mapped. Stations within each cluster (region) have a similar temporal behaviour different from the behaviour of stations out of that cluster. Sudan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf, are the regions that reported the greatest occurrence of dust storms. Dust storms in Iran, north-eastern Iraq and Syria, the Persian Gulf and southern Arabian Peninsula are more frequent in summer. In western Iraq and Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, northern Israel, northern Arabian Peninsula and southern Egypt they occur mainly in the spring, while in southern Israel and in the Mediterranean parts of northern Egypt, in winter and spring.
Molecular Mechanisms of Toxic Chemicals
Authors: Criss Wayne E.
Published: April 2004

Most human cancers are caused by toxic organic or inorganic chemicals. Environmental exposure allows these chemicals to enter the body and almost every body cell. Within the body cells, five multi-enzyme systems process these chemicals. The chemicals can be activated to their ultimate carcinogenic molecular structures (usually to free radicals) or they can generate free radicals from water molecules. As electrophilic radicals, they can attack and co-valently bind to guanine in G-C or other DNA base pair units within the chromosomes resulting in genomic alterations, possibly in mutations. As protection against this, the radicals can be inactivated and any altered/mutated genes may be repaired. The five carcinogen-processing systems contain more than 300 enzymes. Each enzyme is coded from inherited genes. Therefore, one inherits high versus low genetic susceptibility to the processing of toxic chemicals and the repair of damaged genes through these intracellular carcinogen-processing enzyme systems. Hence, carcinogenesis is a multifactorial process based on both environmental and genetic factors.
Volatile Organic Compounds in the Air of 25 Greek Homes
Authors: Baya Maria P. , Bakeas Evangelos B. , Siskos Panayotis A.
Published: April 2004

Sixteen volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were identified and quantified in the air of 25 homes in Athens area for a period of one year. Active sampling was performed using a personal air pump and the samples were analysed by Thermal Desorption/Gas Chromatography/Flame Ionisation Detection. The 16 compounds included aliphatic and branched alkanes, aromatic and cyclic compounds as well as a chlorohydrocarbon. The 25 homes could be divided into smokers’ and nonsmokers’ households and also into old and new or renovated residences. Mean, median, maximum and minimum concentrations of the 16 VOCs as well as seasonal, daily and hourly variations were estimated in the total of 324 samples. Additionally, an attempt was made to identify the predominant sources of pollution in the 25 homes. The percentage occurrences of the 16 selected compounds were above 50% of the total number of measurements. The concentrations of the 16 VOCs reached maximum values more often in wintertime, while presence of many of the detected compounds correlated well with specific indoor sources.
Blood Lead Levels in School Children
Authors: Özden T. A. , Kılıç A. , Toparlak D. , Gökçay G. , Saner G.
Published: April 2004

The aim of this study was to determine the risk factors associated with high lead levels in school children. To that end a questionnaire was prepared to gather information about demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the children. Blood lead concentrations were obtained from capillary blood taken from 760 children at 13 schools in Istanbul and determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The blood lead level ranged between 4.0 and 23μg· dL−1. The mean and the median values of the blood lead were 8.4μg·dL−1. Some 91.2% of the children (693) had blood lead levels ≤10μg·dL−1. Only 5 (0.6%) had blood lead levels over 15μg·dL−1. One child had a blood lead level above 20μg·dL−1. Household exposure to smoking, attending school near a main street and middle and upper-middle-class socio-economic status were found to be the most important risk factors for a high blood lead level. Children attending schools that were nearest to a main road exhibited higher blood lead levels than children in schools further from a main road. Our findings support the public health recommendations that children should not have household exposure to smoking, schools should not be located near main streets and unleaded gasoline use should be promoted.
Emergence of a New Policy for Asbestos: A Result of the World Trade Center Tragedy
Authors: Lange John H.
Published: April 2004

Modern day risks from asbestos, especially in environmental settings, have been questioned. The concerns associated with stringent regulation of asbestos are mostly no longer voiced in regulatory communities. As a result of the World Trade Center (WTC) event in 2001, issues relating to the actual risks of asbestos in building materials have re-surfaced. Regulatory agencies, through their policy statements, have downplayed the risks associated with the WTC event of asbestos in debris and dust which covered the surrounding area. These statements now question past practices and requirements associated with asbestos as mandated by these same agencies. It is suggested that such statements by asbestos regulatory agencies will reduce and lower the current regulatory requirements, and change the direction of regulatory policy. This paper discusses risks from asbestos and the possible future direction of regulatory standards for these minerals in the United States. Future risks from ‘‘hazardous’’ materials, it is suggested, should be based on actual scientific facts, with less influence from social and political factors.
Research and Development of Prevention and Control Measures for Mold Contamination
Authors: Menetrez M. Y. , Foarde K. K.
Published: April 2004

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division, Indoor Environment Management Branch has, since 1995, conducted research into controlling biological contamination in the indoor environment. In this paper four areas of research are discussed: (1) research and development of prevention and control measures for mitigation of indoor air pollutants by biocontaminants; (2) duct cleaning effectiveness for prevention and control of microbial growth on duct materials; (3) investigation and evaluation of antimicrobial treatments as control technologies to reduce ambient exposure; and (4) field testing of sealants and encapsulents used in air duct systems. The conclusions resulting from this body of research are listed to summarise the accomplishments and put into perspective the interrelationships of these areas of investigation in reducing human exposure to biological contamination in the indoor environment.
Moisture Generation through Chinese Household Activities
Authors: Yik F. W. H. , Sat P. S. K. , Niu J. L.
Published: April 2004

High indoor humidity not only causes degradation of building materials but also thermal discomfort, increased energy use for air-conditioning and it promotes mould growth. Mitigation of indoor moisture problems requires the ability to predict the humidity levels that may prevail in indoor spaces, which in turn requires knowledge about the moisture generation rates of indoor sources. There was, however, a lack of such data for various moisture generating activities in Chinese households. This paper presents the results of surveys and experiments conducted recently to obtain data on the intensities of moisture generation for various household activities, including cooking, bathing, washing clothes and drying, dishwashing and drying, floor mopping and indoor planting. On the basis of the survey and measurement results, moisture generation profiles for typical kitchens, bathrooms, living and dining rooms, and bedrooms have been established for use in inter-zone moisture movement and indoor humidity level predictions for typical residential units in Hong Kong. The models derived for predicting moisture release rates from drying clothes and bathroom air moisture content during shower baths are presented.
Emission Exposure Model for the Transport of Toxic Mold
Authors: Menetrez M. Y. , Foarde K. K.
Published: April 2004

Biocontaminants such as mold spores are capable of being released into the indoor air from the site of growth and being transported in a viable or non-viable form. Exposure to toxic mold and the mycotoxins contained in the spore and vegetative body have been shown to produce adverse health effects following inhalation, ingestion and dermal contact. This paper presents the results of a study of the release of Stachybotrys chartarum spores from contaminated gypsum wallboard and of tests on the effects of environmental conditions on the release of viable and non-viable spores and fragments. The findings of S. chartarum spore emissions with low air velocity flow conditions were found to be directly proportional to airflow and indirectly proportional to relative humidity. These emission findings corroborate previous observations involving Penicillium and Aspergillus. The viability of S. chartarum spore emissions is also discussed with respect to culturable and commonly used field measurement techniques.
Characterisation of Indoor PM10 in Residential Areas of Delhi
Authors: Khillare P. S. , Pandey Rajni , Balachandran S.
Published: April 2004

The relationship between indoor and outdoor concentrations of fine and coarse fractions of PM10 with respect to their chemical composition was investigated simultaneously at two different localities in Delhi. Indoor and outdoor aerosol samples for the fine fraction (with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.1 μm) and coarse fraction (with an aerodynamic diameter between 2.1–10 μm) were collected simultaneously from inside and outside of two different houses in two different types of localities for the period of January to June 2000. The average contribution of the fine fraction indoors for Sites I and II respectively was 51 and 53% of the total PM10 and outdoors was 43 and 41%. The highest outdoor concentration of PM10 was recorded in the month of May/June at both sites. The reason for the higher values in the months of May/June could be the frequent pre-monsoon dust storm events commonly called ‘‘Andhi’’ in India, which generally carry loads of fine dust from the neighbouring Thar Desert to Northern India before the onset of the monsoon.
The Current Status of Health Informatics Higher Education in China
Authors: Wu M. X. , Yu P , Soar J
Published: April 2004

There are likely to be many opportunities and challenges for health informatics and health informatics higher education in China following her acceptance as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The purpose of the article is to review the current status and consider future directions for health informatics and health informatics higher education in China. Today, China’s educators are viewing education in global terms. China is opening its markets and especially its educational system to the world. Developed countries should take this opportunity to export their advanced health ICT technology, management expertise and existing health information systems to China, and in particular to China’s health informatics educational market.
Data Quality Issues in Electronic Health Records: An Adaptation Framework for the Greek Health System
Authors: Orfanidis Leonidas , Bamidis Panagiotis D. , Eaglestone Barry
Published: April 2004

This article address data quality issues relating to electronic health records (EHRs). It discusses the nature of the problem of supporting EHRs at national and international levels, and examines the data quality issues. In particular, the discussion focuses on the role of intelligent interfaces, structured data entry and mobile computing within this context. The problems are then made tangible by considering the implementation of a Greek national EHR system. The article concludes by recommending an adaptation framework that will enable a stepwise approach in the development of EHRs for the Greek health system which takes into account the data quality issues considered.
A Survey of the Information Needs of People with Multiple Sclerosis
Authors: Hepworth Mark , Harrison Janet
Published: April 2004

Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to study the information needs of people with multiple sclerosis (PWMS) in the UK. Focus groups involving 103 PWMS identified significant experiences. Questionnaires were sent to 4100 PWMS (approximately 5% of the MS population) and 2030 responded. Information provision was found to have improved dramatically over the last seven years. Of those respondents who had been diagnosed in the last five years, 71 per cent thought they had received information. Of the total surveyed population, 43 per cent thought they had not received information. Information provision was found to be inconsistent, although centres noted for their interest in the patient perspective did perform somewhat better. Categories of information need were identified, and their importance and the difficulty in obtaining them were quantified. There is considerable scope for improving provision of information to people with MS.
Can the Internet Be Used to Collect Clinical Data for Research?
Authors: Chow Y. W. , Treasure T. , Gallivan S.
Published: April 2004

The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of using the Internet to collect clinical data by collecting echocardiographic data from people with Marfan Syndrome via an online survey. Measures included the information accuracy of the respondents, and the response rate and response time of the respondents’ doctors. Of 286 responses received over two years, 62 responses generated usable information. The Internet proved to be a valuable tool for researchers to identify individuals with a relatively rare condition. However, it is neither a straightforward nor a speedy means of gathering data. The considerable checking required correspondence with patients’ doctors, and this process proved to be both time-consuming and relatively unproductive. The Internet has yet to be established as an effective method for collecting clinical data.
Rethinking Political Power
Authors: Craiutu Aurelian
Published: April 2004

Although the French Doctrinaires built up one of the most important political theories of the 19th century and had a decisive influence on Tocqueville, Marx, and J. S. Mill, they have remained largely unknown in the English-speaking world. This article examines the Doctrinaires’ theory of political power by concentrating on François Guizot’s Des moyens de gouvernement et d’opposition dans l’état actuel de la France(On the Means of Government and Opposition in the Current State of France) and Prosper de Barante’s Des communes et de l’aristocratie(On the Communes and the Aristocracy), both published in 1821. Special attention is paid to Guizot’s rejection of laissez-faire and his critique of Rousseau. I then present Guizot’s theory of the ‘new means of government’ that stressed the importance of communication between government and society. Guizot predicted that the growth of liberty would be accompanied by a simultaneous extension of state power and understood that the development of representative government would inevitably lead to a considerable extension of state power over society, made possible by a social demand unseen before. In the final section, I seek to nuance the conventional image of the Doctrinaires as rigid defenders of centralization and critically discuss the virtues and limitations of their elitist liberalism. After commenting on the specificity of French political tradition, I point out a few lessons for contemporary political theorists interested in issues such as political power and the mutual empowerment of state and society.
Communicative Action, Strategic Action, and Inter-Group Dialogue
Authors: James Michael Rabinder
Published: April 2004

A consensus has emerged among many normative theorists of cultural pluralism that dialogue is the key to securing just relations among ethnic or cultural groups. However, few normative theorists have explored the conditions or incentives that enable inter-group dialogue versus those that encourage inter-group conflict. To address this problem, I use Habermas’s distinction between communicative and strategic action, since many models of inter-group dialogue implicitly rely upon communicative action, while many accounts of inter-group conflict rest upon strategic action. Drawing on explanatory accounts of inter-group conflict, I outline five strategic logics of group conflict, what I call the resource, political, information, positional, and security logics. I then argue that these strategic logics cannot be overcome by three motivations commonly thought to support communicative action: moral-cognitive consistency, the normative characteristics of modernity, and publicity constraints. At this point, I turn to an empirical case, the reception of African-American concerns within the Jewish public sphere prior to the Second World War, in order to suggest that, although strategic incentives might hinder inter-group dialogue, they may also encourage it. In conclusion, I provide three recommendations for how theorists might utilize strategic incentives in order to recognize which actors, policies, or institutions can encourage inter-group dialogue.
After Critique
Authors: White Stephen K.
Published: April 2004

Is the critique of modern, liberal subjectivity warranted, and, if so, how do we proceed in its aftermath? This article clarifies the ways in which such a critique is valid, as well as the ways in which it both misses its mark and gives us little in the way of resources for thinking further about subjectivity. I argue that thinking in the aftermath must articulate a weak ontological portrait of subjectivity that vivifies the value of both political generosity (emphasized by critics like William Connolly) and equal respect (as emphasized by the defenders of liberalism like Charles Larmore).
Democrats and Republicans in Restoration France
Authors: Whatmore Richard
Published: April 2004

The article suggests that a distinction between ‘republicans’ and ‘democrats’ more usefully describes competing constitutional and economic reformers in Restoration France than the distinction between ‘ancients’ and ‘moderns’ made famous by Benjamin Constant. It shows that Constant’s description of Rousseau as an ‘ancient’, and the blaming of his political theory for the excesses of the 1790s, is historically questionable, and masks Constant’s broader aim of bringing into disrepute contemporary strategies for the moralization of politics and commerce. Such strategies are evident in the writings of Jean-Baptiste Say, and reveal the profound divide between reformers who have traditionally been described as ‘liberals’. Say and Constant disagreed about the extent to which the people could be trusted to act as political agents, about the capacity of the state to make property relations more legitimate, about religion, and the relevance of the example of Britain to French economic and political reform projects.
Desperately Seeking wittgenstein
Authors: Gunnell John
Published: April 2004

It has been notoriously difficult to link Ludwig Wittgenstein’s work to the agendas of academic political theory. While this is in part due to his style of writing and the absence of an explicit discussion of politics, his commitment to the irreducibility of conventions is difficult to reconcile with the search of many political theorists for both criteria of political essentiality and a basis of cognitive privilege that would underwrite a vision of critical and normative inquiry. Although political theory is characteristically drawn toward the literature of philosophy in search of identity and images of epistemic authority, Wittgenstein’s work subverts the search for the universality of both politics and political inquiry. It is, however, possible to perceive in his work a positive valence for both a vision of political inquiry and criteria of democracy.
Max Weber and the Social Sciences in America
Authors: Scaff Lawrence A.
Published: April 2004

Weber and his work functioned in two ways: both as a bridge to the new, to the world of capitalist modernity, as well as a road to an acceptable cosmopolitan ‘liberal’ historical past. It was Weber the cosmopolitan and outsider who could give legitimacy and weight to the intellectual orientations and problems thought to be significant for the community in exile. It was this Weber who could cushion the ‘negative shock’ of what was often perceived as America’s ‘intellectual and cultural provincialism’ and establish for the emigre scholar and intellectual the historical task of assisting in the development of American intellectual and cultural life. At the same time, the presence of a different Weber in America, already an established interest of several scholars emerging into prominence, such as Talcott Parsons and Edward Shils, created difficulties as well as opportunities for the emigre scholars. Because of such variety the field for the transmission, reception, and influence of Weber’s work must be approached as a complicated, multilayered, and contested patchwork of disparate and sometimes partially overlapping social and professional networks.
Reading Max Weber
Authors: Gunnell John
Published: April 2004

Leo Strauss»s Natural Right and History and Eric Voegelin»s New Science of Politics represented both a continuation of the Weimar conversation and a projection into the American context of the issues that defined that conversation. They each chose Max Weber as the pivotal figure in their animadversions regarding historicism, relativism, and the condition of social science, but, as in the case of Weber himself, the underlying issue, which animated the emigres across the ideological spectrum, was the relationship between theory and practice or philosophy and politics.
Alien Nation
Authors: Scott Joanna Vecchiarelli
Published: April 2004

Hannah Arendt’s discovery of America from her chosen vantage point of New York City is compared and contrasted to those of her German émigré cohort on both Coasts. More than any of the other German émigrés, except Thomas Mann, Arendt strategically situated herself at the point of intersection of New York communities of academics, critics, writers, artists and émigré intellectual communities in the middle decades of the 20th century. Indeed, she wrote for them all. Arendt is rediscovered as a radical avant-gardiste of Modernism persuasion, in the company of her close friends among the New York Intellectuals.
Of Politics and Social Science
Authors: Baehr Peter
Published: April 2004

During the late 1940s and early 1950s, David Riesman and Hannah Arendt were engaged in an animated discussion about the meaning and character of totalitarianism. Their disagreement reflected, in part, different experiences and dissonant intellectual backgrounds. Arendt abhorred the social sciences, finding them pretentious and obfuscating. Riesman, in contrast, abandoned a career in law to take up the sociological vocation, which he combined with his own heterodox brand of humanistic psychology. This article delineates the stakes of the Arendt Riesman debate by examining Arendt’s critique of social science and Riesman’s defence of a sociological interpretation of totalitarianism. In addition, the article argues that Arendt’s theory of totalitarianism misdescribed the nature of Nazi and Bolshevik societies in ways that damaged her political account more generally. Riesman intuited that weakness and, as the following article shows, modern historical research has confirmed it.
Tense Conjugations
Authors: Gray Michael Robert
Published: April 2004

The twelve European Schools, the first of which was founded some 50 years ago to cater principally, though not exclusively, for children of employees of (what is now) the European Union, today have a total student population of around 18,000 in the 4-18 age range, with a multilingual curriculum culminating in the European Baccalaureate. This article reviews the development of the European Schools to date, and speculates on some of the challenges facing the schools as the EU itself expands and develops.
A Comparison of Levels of International Understanding among Students of the International Baccalaureate Diploma and Advanced Placement Programs in the USA
Authors: Hinrichs Judy
Published: April 2004

This study examines whether participation in the International Baccalaureate diploma program enhances one of the goals of the program, the development of international understanding. Junior and senior International Baccalaureate students and Advanced Placement students of similar background in the United States were studied using a survey instrument, and by asking them to write their personal definition of `international understanding'. Analysis of student definitions revealed a significant difference between the mean number of categories of international understanding utilized by the two groups of students.
Structural Degradation Monitoring using Covariance-driven Wavelet Packet Signature
Authors: Sun Z. , Chang C. C.
Published: April 2004

A covariance-driven wavelet packet signature extraction method is proposed for monitoring of structural degradation under random ambient excitation. Advantageous features of this method are it only requires measuring response at one location of the structure and no structural mathematical model is needed. Assuming that the excitation forces are stationary Gaussian white noises, the covariance of measured response is calculated and wavelet packet decomposed. A damage indicator is then formulated to extract discriminate information from the constructed wavelet packet component energies. A threshold for a damage alarm is established according to the statistical properties and the one-sided confidence limit of the damage indicator from successive measurement. For demonstration, a numerical study is performed on the health monitoring of the benchmark steel-frame scale structure proposed by the IASC-ASCE Structural Health Monitoring Task Group. Four damage cases, involving different levels of damage severity at various locations, are introduced. The results show that the health condition of the frame model can be accurately monitored by the proposed method. It is also seen that the proposed method is quite insensitive to measurement noise. The monitoring results are virtually unaffected even when the response is contaminated with measurement noise of the same magnitude as that of the signal.
International Research Projects on Structural Health Monitoring: An Overview
Authors: Van der Auweraer Herman , Peeters Bart
Published: April 2004

Significant research efforts are presently spent to the problems of health monitoring and damage detection. This paper approaches the subject from the point of view of the organisation of the research. More specifically, it reviews the main international research programs and activities, which are devoted to this topic. Related to this are the questions of the user needs and the deployment of the research results: assuming valid research results are obtained, in what form should these results be deployed to address the user needs. While the focus is on EU-cooperative research, the main US and Far-East activities are briefly discussed as well.
The Influence of Firms’ and Industries’ Legitimacy on the Flow of Capital into High-Technology Ventures
Authors: Deeds David L. , Mang Paul Y. , Frandsen Michael L.
Published: April 2004

This article examines the influences of firms’ and industries’ legitimacy on the flow of resources into new technology ventures in emerging industries. We first present a model of the determinants of a new technology venture’s legitimacy, which considers its founders, its management team and the media attention it receives. A model of sources of industry legitimacy is developed, with multiple measures of both sociopolitical and cognitive forms of legitimacy.We test our ideas on a sample of 106 initial public offerings from biotechnology ventures during the emergence of the industry between 1981 and 1993. Our results demonstrate the vital role of sociopolitical and cognitive legitimacy at both firm and industry levels in attracting resources for new technology ventures.
Organizing Practices in Services: Capturing Practice-Based Knowledge for Innovation
Authors: Dougherty Deborah
Published: April 2004

Service innovation depends on ambiguous designing and using knowledge. But this knowledge is embedded in ongoing practice, so capturing it requires the practices themselves to be organized somehow. I integrate literatures on work as practice with strategic innovation management to develop empirically grounded theory for this problem.The analysis identifies three work activities through which knowledge for innovation is generated, shows how they constitute a common ground for knowledge creation and redefines practice as a coherent frame for these activities. The analysis explains how conventional organizing destroys this knowledge, and develops organizing principles for the continued generation, capture and use of practice-based knowledge for innovation.The principles are strategically articulating the firm’s practices as actual problems of value creation; embedding the three activities into everyone’s jobs; and transforming R&D into a formal process for reflecting on practice.
The Origins of Strategic Practice: Product Diversification in the American Mutual Fund Industry
Authors: Lounsbury Michael , Leblebici Huseyin
Published: April 2004

Although strategy research has systematically investigated the organizational antecedents and consequences of diversification behavior, little attention has been paid to the role of larger institutional forces. Institutional researchers have aptly demonstrated how broader cognitive, normative and regulative structures affect organizational practices, but have not focused a great deal on how institutional forces shape strategic action. Building on recent efforts to develop more sociological perspectives on strategy, we show how institutional changes driven by the professionalization project of money managers in the mutual fund industry facilitated the widespread use of product diversification as a routinely used organizational strategy. Implications for strategic management research are discussed.
Transferring Collective Knowledge: Teaching and Learning in the Chinese Auto Industry
Authors: Zhao Zheng , Anand Jaideep , Mitchell Will
Published: April 2004

This article studies teaching and learning strategies that firms use to transfer collective knowledge between organizations. The benefits of group teaching and group learning in transferring collective knowledge from a source community to a recipient community are discussed first, followed by an examination of international R&D capability transfer in the Chinese auto industry, based on interviews at multiple ventures in China and the US. Several results emerge from the study. Group teaching is more effective than individual teaching in helping recipients understand multiple dimensions of a source’s collective knowledge and in creating bridge networks, and group learning is more effective than individual learning for helping trainees integrate their learning and then re-embed it with their local context. Among four teaching–learning configurations, group teaching–group learning is the most effective transfer strategy for transferring collective knowledge. Individual teaching–individual learning transfers collective knowledge poorly, but can lay a foundation for more complex teaching–learning combinations. The sequence of group teaching– individual learning followed by individual teaching–group learning is less costly than group–group education but takes longer and is less effective for transferring collective knowledge.
Early Childhood Care and Education in Africa
Authors: Bar-On Arnon
Published: April 2004

Less than 1 percent of children in sub-Sahara Africa currently attend formal care and education programmes, but the number is expected to increase substantially following large investments in the sector. To date, however, little attention has been given to the contents of these programmes. This article seeks to begin addressing this lacuna, drawing on Botswana’s day care experience, and suggests that greater attention should be given to juxtaposing internationally accepted childrearing practices with those that ensue from local beliefs on the nature and potential of children.
Literacy Activities in Half- and Whole-Day Greek Kindergarten Classrooms
Authors: Tafa Eufimia
Published: April 2004

The purpose of the study discussed in this article was: to record the types of literacy activities in whole-day and half-day kindergarten classrooms, initiated either by teachers during the instructional time or by children during the free-choice center time; to examine the amount of time spent on teacher-initiated literacy activities; and to determine the effect of whole-day and half-day kindergarten programs on children’s literacy achievement. To record the types of literacy activities, two whole-day and two half-day kindergarten classrooms were observed for five continuous days (a week). Accordingly, five children from each classroom (a total of20) were selected randomly as subjects for the examination of literacy activities that engaged them during the free-choice center time activities and for the analysis of their literacy achievement. The results showed that:

(a) teachers in both programs initiated literacy activities related to: knowledge about print; phonological awareness; writing and storybook reading; (b) the percentage of instructional time per day on teachers’ initiated literacy activities in half-day kindergarten classrooms was higher than in whole-day classrooms; (c) children in both programs did not engage in several literacy activities during the free-choice center time, and (d) children in half-day kindergarten classrooms made better progress in literacy development than children in whole-day classrooms.
Prajateerpu, Power and Knowledge
Authors: Wakeford Tom , Pimbert Michel
Published: April 2004

We examine the roles of the diverse co-inquirers involved in the power-equalizing action research project known as Prajateerpu. While privileging neither official expertise nor experiential knowledge over the other, we suggest the need to create arenas where expert knowledge is put under public scrutiny as a means of contributing to a redressing of the power imbalance that exists between the poor and elite social groups. We emphasize the important tensions that arose in Prajateerpu between the views of those participants whose analysis had become marginalized from decision-making processes and those who were in positions of power. Having reflected on the role of various actors in the two-year process, we look at the potential contributions processes such as Prajateerpu could make towards processes that aim to democratize knowledge and promote social justice.
Switzerland
Authors: Eisner Manuel , Killias Martin
Published: April 2004

Over many years, crime in Switzerland has been a subject of controversy. For some observers, Switzerland was almost a ‘crime-free’ society, others saw it as a society with the usual crime rates but with better ways of concealing them, and many more saw it as a safe haven for economic and financial crime. Research conducted over the past 20 years has clarified many issues. Switzerland’s crime levels are probably below the European average, although not unusually low, but have seen the usual increase over recent decades. Available indicators of economic crime show a rather low rate of untaxed incomes and corruption. Swiss criminology has been associated with several European innovations, such as the international crime surveys, the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics, and generally violence research, particularly in connection with urban violence, school violence and a large cohort study of 21,000 young men. Of particular interest are several evaluations, including a few randomized experiments and large-scale trials with heroin prescription to drug addicts.
Three Scalarities
Authors: Garcia J. L. A.
Published: April 2004

This article examines the discussions of degrees of racialization, degrees of racism, and degrees of race (or so-called racial authenticity) in Lawrence Blum’s book:‘ I’m Not a Racist, But...’. It identifies some conceptual and moral difficulties with Blum’s analyses, but argues that they nonetheless open promising avenues for further philosophical research into these and related concepts at the foundations of race relations. It concludes that such research into the concepts through which we articulate our understandings of the social realm is best pursued through logical and linguistic analysis that places those concepts in the context of a philosophically developed and defended moral theory.
Faith Schools and Indoctrination
Authors: Short Geoffrey
Published: April 2004

Michael Hand has recently advocated the abolition of faith schools on the grounds that they may indoctrinate their pupils. In this rejoinder, I aim to show that the assumptions underpinning his thesis are seriously flawed. Initially, I question whether faith schools set out to indoctrinate. I then consider whether they are able to do so (particularly in a secular society) and if we can ever know that a faith school, rather than some other agency, has been responsible for indoctrination. Finally, I cast doubt on Hand’s key assumption concerning pupils’ perceptions of their teachers. I contend that it is theoretically problematic and empirically unsupported.
A Critique of Institutional Inequalities in Higher Education
Authors: Leathwood Carole
Published: April 2004

This article seeks to apply Adam Swift’s (2003) critique of private and selective schooling to higher education in the UK. The higher education sector in this country is highly differentiated, with high status, research-led elite institutions at the top of the university hierarchy, and newer universities, with far lower levels of funding and prestige, at the bottom. The extent of this differentiation is illustrated by an analysis of six universities at different ends of this spectrum. It also becomes apparent that the student profiles of these institutions are very different, with privately educated, white, middle class students particularly over-represented in the elite universities, and working-class, minority ethnic, and to some extent, women students concentrated in those institutions with far lower levels of funding and prestige. Considerable benefits accrue to those who have attended the elite institutions, and it is argued that the hierarchy of universities both reflects and perpetuates social inequalities, with the middle-classes retaining their privileges and the elite continuing to reproduce itself. The discourse of meritocracy that is used to justify this institutional differentiation is also discussed, and the paper concludes with a call for a more socially just and equitable future for the higher education sector.
The Alien Hand: Cases, Categorizations, and Anatomical Correlates
Authors: Scepkowski Lisa A. , Cronin-Golomb Alice
Published: April 2004

The clinical characteristics and neuroanatomical damage reported in more than 50 published cases of observed “alien-hand” signs are reviewed. The terms alien-hand sign and alien-hand syndrome describe phenomena experienced by patients in which an upper limb performs complex motor activities outside of volitional control. The categories of frontal and callosal subtypes and their relation to behavior and neuropathology are evaluated with reference to the dual premotor system theory, which emphasizes the role of the supplementary motor areas in alien-hand phenomena. Detailed consideration is given to the more recently described posterior subtype, which is purported to result from damage to the parietal lobe or other posterior brain areas. The lack of uniformity in reported assessment methods (behavioral tests, neuroimaging) in published cases contributes to the difficulty in establishing clear subtypes of alien-hand phenomena. Suggestions are made regarding current categorizations and available assessment methods.
Treating Today's Juvenile Homicide Offenders
Authors: Heide Kathleen M. , Solomon Eldra P.
Published: April 2004

This article discusses 12 components of effective treatment with juvenile homicide offenders (JHOs). Eleven of these were identified by psychologist Vicki Agee after many years of treating serious, chronic, and/or violent youth. The authors, both mental health professionals, add a 12th component to Agee's list and tailor the discussion of intervention strategies to juvenile murderers. The authors' discussion of treatment strategies is based on years of clinical experience evaluating approximately 100 JHOs as well as on knowledge of empirically based programs. In preparation for the discussion, the pertinent literature on treating juvenile offenders, including JHOs, is reviewed.