bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Israeli Labor's Sad Decline and Uncertain Future
Authors: Taub Gadi
Published: September 2009

The sorry state of Israel's Labor Party is all the more striking against the background of its unique role in the country's past. Mapai, as it was once called (a Hebrew acronym for The Party of the Workers of the Land of Israel), combined socialism with nation-building. It took upon itself breathtaking and unprecedented challenges, and met them with astonishing success. Labor was the central force in creating first, a functioning socialist (and deeply democratic) civil society, then a state with a social democratic regime. It called its platform "constructive socialism" to distinguish it from revolutionary socialism: there was no capitalism to rebel against, nor a proletariat to rebel against it. Labor Zionism would bring people to the Land of Israel, make diaspora Jews into working people, and then, having created a proletariat, would enable that "nation of workers" to form a state that would be socialist from birth.
Epidemiological Perspectives on Maltreatment Prevention
Authors: Wulczyn Fred
Published: September 2009

Fred Wulczyn explores how data on the incidence and distribution of child maltreatment shed light on planning and implementing maltreatment prevention programs. He begins by describing and differentiating among the three primary sources of national data on maltreatment.

Wulczyn then points out several important patterns in the data. The first involves child development. Based on official reports, maltreatment rates are highest during certain periods of children’s lives, especially infancy and adolescence. Bringing a new baby into the home, in particular, heightens stress and increases the risk of maltreatment by parents, who tend to be younger and less experienced as parents. These data patterns should help shape strategies that target these families.

A second pattern in the data involves social context and the contribution of race and poverty to maltreatment. Children of color, for example, are much more likely than white children to be reported. Research, however, suggests that when the whites and minorities who are being compared live in a similar social context, disparities in maltreatment rates narrow to some extent. What scholars must examine more closely is the means by which community processes contribute to maltreatment. Thus, the question for researchers is not whether investments in communities are an important part of the prevention strategy, but rather what type of investment is most likely to replace what is missing in a given community.

Wulczyn also explores substance abuse and maltreatment recurrence. He points out that substance abuse not only increases the risk that a parent will neglect a child but also appears to affect that child’s experience in the child welfare system: when substance abuse is part of an allegation history, decisions affecting the child tilt in favor of deeper involvement with the system. Patterns of recurrence mirror those already described. Base rates of recurrence are about 9 percent but are higher for infants when allegations involve substance abuse and when children received services following the initial report.

Wulczyn stresses that much more research remains before analysts understand the mechanisms that underpin these persistent patterns—knowledge that is essential to designing sound interventions.
Creating Community Responsibility for Child Protection: Possibilities and Challenges
Authors: Daro Deborah , Dodge Kenneth A.
Published: September 2009

Deborah Daro and Kenneth Dodge observe that efforts to prevent child abuse have historically focused on directly improving the skills of parents who are at risk for or engaged in maltreatment. But, as experts increasingly recognize that negative forces within a community can overwhelm even well-intentioned parents, attention is shifting toward creating environments that facilitate a parent’s ability to do the right thing. The most sophisticated and widely used community prevention programs, say Daro and Dodge, emphasize the reciprocal interplay between individual-family behavior and broader neighborhood, community, and cultural contexts.

The authors examine five different community prevention efforts, summarizing for each both the theory of change and the empirical evidence concerning its efficacy. Each program aims to enhance community capacity by expanding formal and informal resources and establishing a normative cultural context capable of fostering collective responsibility for positive child development.

Over the past ten years, researchers have explored how neighborhoods influence child development and support parenting. Scholars are still searching for agreement on the most salient contextual factors and on how to manipulate these factors to increase the likelihood parents will seek out, find, and effectively use necessary and appropriate support.

The current evidence base for community child abuse prevention, observe Daro and Dodge, offers both encouragement and reason for caution. Although theory and empirical research suggest that intervention at the neighborhood level is likely to prevent child maltreatment, designing and implementing a high-quality, multifaceted community prevention initiative is expensive. Policy makers must consider the trade-offs in investing in strategies to alter community context and those that expand services for known high-risk individuals. The authors conclude that if the concept of community prevention is to move beyond the isolated examples examined in their article, additional conceptual and empirical work is needed to garner support from public institutions, community-based stakeholders, and local residents.
Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect with Parent Training: Evidence and Opportunities
Authors: Barth Richard P.
Published: September 2009

Researchers have identified four common co-occurring parental risk factors—substance abuse, mental illness, domestic violence, and child conduct problems—that lead to child maltreatment. The extent to which maltreatment prevention programs must directly address these risk factors to improve responsiveness to parenting programs or can directly focus on improving parenting skills, says Richard Barth, remains uncertain.

Barth begins by describing how each of the four parental issues is related to child maltreatment. He then examines a variety of parent education interventions aimed at preventing child abuse. He cautions that many of the interventions have not been carefully evaluated and those that have been have shown little effect on child maltreatment or its risk factors.

Although some argue that parent education cannot succeed unless family problems are also addressed, much evidence suggests that first helping parents to be more effective with their children can address mental health needs and improve the chances of substance abuse recovery. Barth recommends increased public support for research trials to compare the effectiveness of programs focused on parenting education and those aiming to reduce related risk factors.

Child welfare services and evidence-based parent training, says Barth, are in a period of transformation. Evidence-based methods are rapidly emerging from a development phase that has primarily involved local and highly controlled studies into more national implementation and greater engagement with the child welfare system. The next step is effectiveness trials.

Citing the importance and success of multifaceted campaigns in public health policy, Barth discusses a multifaceted parenting campaign that has demonstrated substantial promise in several large trials. The goal of the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program is to help parents deal with the full gamut of children’s health and behavioral issues. The campaign includes five levels of intervention, each featuring a different means of delivery and intensity of service. More broadly, Barth suggests that the evidence-based Triple P approach offers a general framework that could be used to guide the future evolution of parenting programs.
The Role of Home-Visiting Programs in Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect
Authors: Howard Kimberly S. , Brooks-Gunn Jeanne
Published: September 2009

Kimberly Howard and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn examine home visiting, an increasingly popular method for delivering services for families, as a strategy for preventing child abuse and neglect. They focus on early interventions because infants are at greater risk for child abuse and neglect than are older children.

In their article, Howard and Brooks-Gunn take a close look at evaluations of nine home-visiting programs: the Nurse-Family Partnership, Hawaii Healthy Start, Healthy Families America, the Comprehensive Child Development Program, Early Head Start, the Infant Health and Development Program, the Early Start Program in New Zealand, a demonstration program in Queensland, Australia, and a program for depressed mothers of infants in the Netherlands. They examine outcomes related to parenting and child well-being, including abuse and neglect.

Howard and Brooks-Gunn conclude that, overall, researchers have found little evidence that home-visiting programs directly prevent child abuse and neglect. But home visits can impart positive benefits to families by way of influencing maternal parenting practices, the quality of the child’s home environment, and children’s development. And improved parenting skills, say the authors, would likely be associated with improved child well-being and corresponding decreases in maltreatment over time. Howard and Brooks-Gunn also report that the programs have their greatest benefits for low-income, first-time adolescent mothers.

Theorists and policy makers alike believe strongly that home visiting can be a beneficial and cost-effective strategy for providing services to families and children. If home-visiting programs are to have their maximum impact, service providers must follow carefully the guidelines mandated by the respective programs, use professional staff whose credentials are consistent with program goals, intervene prenatally with at-risk populations, and carry out the programs with fidelity to their theoretical models.
Prevention and Drug Treatment
Authors: Testa Mark F. , Smith Brenda
Published: September 2009

Evidence linking alcohol and other drug abuse with child maltreatment, particularly neglect, is strong. But does substance abuse cause maltreatment? According to Mark Testa and Brenda Smith, such co-occurring risk factors as parental depression, social isolation, homelessness, or domestic violence may be more directly responsible than substance abuse itself for maltreatment. Interventions to prevent substance abuse–related maltreatment, say the authors, must attend to the underlying direct causes of both.

Research on whether prevention programs reduce drug abuse or help parents control substance use and improve their parenting has had mixed results, at best. The evidence raises questions generally about the effectiveness of substance abuse services in preventing child maltreatment. Such services, for example, raise only marginally the rates at which parents are reunified with children who have been placed in foster care. The primary reason for the mixed findings, say Testa and Smith, is that almost all the parents face not only substance abuse problems but the co-occurring issues as well. To prevent recurring maltreatment and promote reunification, programs must ensure client progress in all problem areas.

At some point in the intervention process, say Testa and Smith, attention must turn to the child’s permanency needs and well-being. The best evidence to date suggests that substance-abusing parents pose no greater risk to their children than do parents of other children taken into child protective custody. It may be sensible, say the authors, to set a six-month timetable for parents to engage in treatment and allow twelve to eighteen months for them to show sufficient progress in all identified problem areas. After that, permanency plans should be expedited to place the child with a relative caregiver or in an adoptive home.

Investing in parental recovery from substance abuse and dependence, the authors conclude, should not substitute for a comprehensive approach that addresses the multiple social and economic risks to child well-being beyond the harms associated with parental substance abuse.
The Prevention of Childhood Sexual Abuse
Authors: Finkelhor David
Published: September 2009

David Finkelhor examines initiatives to prevent child sexual abuse, which have focused on two primary strategies—offender management and school-based educational programs. Recent major offender managment initiatives have included registering sex offenders, notifying communities about their presence, conducting background employment checks, controlling where offenders can live, and imposing longer prison sentences. Although these initiatives win approval from both the public and policy makers, little evidence exists that they are effective in preventing sexual abuse. Moreover, these initiatives, cautions Finkelhor, are based on an overly stereotyped characterization of sexual abusers as pedophiles, guileful strangers who prey on children in public and other easy-access environments and who are at high risk to re-offend once caught. In reality the population is much more diverse. Most sexual abusers are not strangers or pedophiles; many (about a third) are themselves juveniles. Many have relatively low risks for re-offending once caught. Perhaps the most serious shortcoming to offender management as a prevention strategy, Finkelhor argues, is that only a small percentage of new offenders have a prior sex offense record that would have involved them in the management system. He recommends using law enforcement resources to catch more undetected offenders and concentrating intensive management efforts on those at highest risk to re-offend.

Finkelhor explains that school-based educational programs teach children such skills as how to identify dangerous situations, refuse an abuser’s approach, break off an interaction, and summon help. The programs also aim to promote disclosure, reduce self-blame, and mobilize bystanders. Considerable evaluation research exists about these programs, suggesting that they achieve certain of their goals. Research shows, for example, that young people can and do acquire the concepts. The programs may promote disclosure and help children not to blame themselves. But studies are inconclusive about whether education programs reduce victimization. Finkelhor urges further research and development of this approach, in particular efforts to integrate it into comprehensive health and safety promotion curricula.

Finkelhor also points to evidence that supports counseling strategies both for offenders, particularly juveniles, to reduce re-offending, and for victims, to prevent negative mental health and life course outcomes associated with abuse.
Progress toward a Prevention Perspective
Authors: Stagner Matthew W. , Lansing Jiffy
Published: September 2009

Matthew Stagner and Jiffy Lansing chart developments in the field of child maltreatment and propose a new framework for preventing child abuse and neglect. They begin by describing the concept of investment-prevention as it has been applied recently in fields such as health care and welfare. They then explain how the new framework applies to maltreatment prevention, noting in particular how it differs from the traditional child protective services response to maltreatment.

Whereas the traditional response aims to prevent a recurrence of maltreatment once it has already taken place, the new framework focuses on preventing maltreatment from occurring at all. Rather than identifying risk factors for maltreatment and addressing the problems and deficiencies of the primary caretaker, the new framework focuses on strengthening protective factors and building family and social networks to reinforce the ability of parents to care for their children. Whereas the orientation of the traditional child welfare service approach is legal and medical, the new framework has a more developmental and ecological orientation. It aims to build on the strengths children have at particular points of the life stage and enhance the social context of the child. Rather than putting families into the hands of unknown professionals who shuffle them from one program to another, including foster care, the investment-prevention model seeks to integrate professionals and paraprofessionals from the family’s community into their everyday life, as well as to ensure an interconnected system of services. Finally, rather than seeking to minimize harm to the child, it aims to maximize potential—to strengthen the capacity of parents and communities to care for their children in ways that promote well-being.

Researchers have struggled to define maltreatment, identify its causes, and assess its consequences and costs. In recent years, however, researchers have clarified the severe consequences of child maltreatment and highlighted several risk factors. They have also developed new prevention interventions based on a variety of theories explaining why maltreatment takes place. Stagner and Lansing conclude with a brief survey of these new prevention interventions. The task for researchers now, they say, is to conduct rigorous evaluations of the interventions to demonstrate the benefits of prevention.
Prevention and the Child Protection System
Authors: Waldfogel Jane
Published: September 2009

The nation’s child protection system (CPS) has historically focused on preventing maltreatment in high-risk families, whose children have already been maltreated. But, as Jane Waldfogel explains, it has also begun developing prevention procedures for children at lower risk—those who are referred to CPS but whose cases do not meet the criteria for ongoing services.

Preventive services delivered by CPS to high-risk families, says Waldfogel, typically include case management and supervision. The families may also receive one or more other preventive services, including individual and family counseling, respite care, parenting education, housing assistance, substance abuse treatment, child care, and home visits. Researchers generally find little evidence, however, that these services reduce the risk of subsequent maltreatment, although there is some promising evidence on the role of child care. Many families receive few services beyond periodic visits by usually overburdened caseworkers, and the services they do receive are often poor in quality.

Preventive services for lower-risk families often focus on increasing parents’ understanding of the developmental stages of childhood and on improving their child-rearing competencies. The evidence base on the effectiveness of these services remains thin. Most research focuses on home-visiting and parent education programs. Studies of home visiting have provided some promising evidence. Little is as yet known about the effects of parent education.

Waldfogel concludes that researchers have much more to learn about what services CPS agencies should expand to do a better job of preventing maltreatment. Some families, especially those with mental health, substance abuse, and domestic violence problems, are at especially high risk, which suggests that more effective treatment services for such parents could help. Very young children, too, are at high risk, suggesting a potentially important role for child care—one area where the evidence base is reasonably strong in pointing to a potential preventive role. Although preventive services for the lower-risk cases not open for services with CPS are much more widespread today than in the past, analysts must explore what CPS agencies can do in this area too to ensure that they are delivering effective services.
“Ce père nourricier”: Revisiting Baudelaire’s Family Romance
Authors: Godfrey Sima
Published: September 2009

Setting aside the Œdipal psychodrama played out between Charles Baudelaire and his mother, Madame Aupick, this article revisits Baudelaire’s family romance, emphasising the fantasmatic presence of his natural father, François Baudelaire, who died when the poet was six years old. In particular, the article explores the mythography that Baudelaire constructs around his father – intimately linked in the poet’s imagination to the eighteenth century, to apostasy and to painting – and more particularly, his inscription in Baudelaire’s poetry and art criticism. ( sg )
Refonder la philosophie en 1860: Ernest Renan critique de Vacherot
Authors: Gaulin Morgan
Published: September 2009

The publication in 1858 of Étienne Vacherot’s (1809–97) La Métaphysique et la science, ou principes de métaphysique positive was the occasion for Ernest Renan to take a stand on the question of philosophy. Whereas Vacherot, influenced by Hegel’s belief in the progress of knowledge, defines philosophy as a science which will be able in a near future to replace all other sciences, Renan insists on giving philosophy a more modest role. For Renan, philosophy, if it is to have a future, has to ground itself on the new sciences: history and philology. However, according to Renan, since philosophy is a set of fixed archetypes its role is not to progress to the point of replacing these sciences but to clarify and to give a general meaning to their discoveries. ( mg ) (In French)
Figures du père dans les romans de la comtesse de Ségur
Authors: Giacchetti Claudine A.
Published: September 2009

The importance of mothers as leading characters in the novels of the Comtesse de Ségur is well-documented. However, especially in her later works, parental authority is shifted to fathers and their substitutes, who not only exhibit nurturing qualities, thus redefining the role of the “maternal,” but are more adaptable than women to changes in family dynamics. Convinced that love is the prerequisite for good parenting, Ségur dismisses conventional gender bias and challenges the legal notion of “paternal power.” In defiance of the French Civil Code in which full adoptions were not allowed, Ségur has redefined the meaning of filiation, given children the right to enter into marriage-like contracts with their male surrogate parent, and made the non-biological father one of the most benevolent and empowering parental figures in nineteenth-century children’s literature. ( cg ) (In French)
A French Lazarillo : Translation and Popular Literature in Nineteenth-Century France
Authors: Lerner Bettina R.
Published: September 2009

The first installment of Louis Viardot’s translation of the sixteenth-century Spanish novel El Lazarillo de Tormes appeared in Le Siècle in the summer of 1836, weeks before the publication of Balzac’s Une Vieille Fille inaugurated the age of the serial novel in France. Viardot’s reading of the picaresque novel, inscribed both in his introductory comments as well as in the fabric of the translation itself, reinserts the text within the outlines of a new, socially and politically engaged literature for a broader readership. At the same time, the translation’s incongruities reveal the contradictions inherent to debates over the question sociale . This article situates Viardot’s translation among the changing socio-cultural discourses and practices that both informed and were informed by the emergence of a modern popular press and literature. ( bl )
Les Sœurs Vatard de Huysmans, ou Paris sous les bruits
Authors: Solal Jérôme
Published: September 2009

Regarded as a painter of nineteenth-century Paris, J.-K. Huysmans writes repeated impressionist scenes in his novel Les Sœurs Vatard . His eyes are visiting working-class districts in detail. Nevertheless, on several occasions, the ear relieves the eye and meaning comes with sound. The novel shows a town that is threatened with darkness and still more with omnipresent noise invading together public, professional and private places. The noise is the expression of forces of nature (raging stormy weather on Paris) and, above all, of machines (locomotives, presses of a workshop). Through this noise, modern times come out as they are, busy and restless, and the author gazes at their aggressive racket with terror. ( js ) (In French)
The Goncourts, Gustave Planche, and Antoine-Louis Barye’s Un Jaguar dévorant un lièvre
Authors: Simms Matthew T.
Published: September 2009

In their review of the Salon of 1852, the Goncourt brothers celebrate Barye’s Jaguar dévorant un lièvre . Their enthusiasm, however, is in striking contrast to the skepticism voiced by many critics concerning the place of la sculpture animalière in the annual Salons. In an important article published just a year before the Goncourts’ review, the critic Gustave Planche sought to rescue Barye by describing his career as a progressive move away from naturalistic animal themes and toward idealized subjects drawn from classical tradition. The Goncourts reverse the terms of Planche’s logic, arguing that the zoological naturalism of Barye’s Jaguar dévorant un lièvre represents not a liability to be overcome, but rather participates in what they term “l’evolution de l’art moderne.” ( ms )
Le Cosmopolitisme antisémite de Georges Eekhoud dans La Nouvelle Carthage
Authors: Chavasse Philippe
Published: September 2009

Published in 1888, La Nouvelle Carthage by Georges Eekhoud is considered one of the founding texts of Belgian naturalism. This semi-autobiographical novel focuses on rural exodus, the development of an urban proletariat, and the inevitable cosmopolitanism resulting from the advent of modernity. Eekhoud articulates in La Nouvelle Carthage a diffuse form of anti-Semitism resulting from unsettling changes and movements of population. Nevertheless, the homosexual tendencies of the main protagonist of the novel, evident alter ego of Eekhoud himself, ultimately challenge such an attachment to rootedness and tradition, and what was originally viewed as unsettling and alienating becomes the promise of a new world order transgressing the common law. ( pc ) (In French)
Títulos científicos en lengua española: Estudio exploratorio
Authors: Soler Viviana
Published: September 2009

Este trabajo, continuación de un estudio exploratorio anterior (Soler, English for Specific Purposes 26: 90–102, 2007), tiene como objetivo: i) registrar las configuraciones estructurales más recurrentes de títulos de artículos de investigación y de artículos de revisión redactados en lengua española en dos grandes áreas disciplinares: las ciencias biológicas y las ciencias sociales; e ii) intentar determinar si las construcciones estructurales encontradas pueden considerarse como variables genéricas y/o disciplinares. Para tal fin, se construyó una base de datos con 570 títulos de los cuales 480 son títulos de artículos de investigación y los restantes 90 son títulos de artículos de revisión. Se hizo un recuento de palabra por palabra en cada título para establecer su extensión y se registraron separadamente todas las construcciones estructurales encontradas, a saber: grupos nominales, títulos compuestos, títulos con estructura de oración completa y títulos con estructura de pregunta. Los resultados corroboran el predominio de la construcción de grupo nominal como estrategia para anunciar el objeto de estudio y también permiten interpretar las restantes construcciones detectadas como variables principalmente disciplinares. Las tendencias registradas en el presente estudio contribuyen a fijar lineamientos sobre cómo guiar a los científicos noveles para redactar títulos apropiadamente en estrecha relación con el género seleccionado y la disciplina de su campo de estudio.
Field Performance and Accelerated Weathering of High Performance Acrylic and Polyurethane Sealants for Tilt-Up Applications
Authors: Demarest V. , Liss A. , Queenan R. , Gorman P.
Published: September 2009

To demonstrate the suitability of high performance acrylic sealants to low rise industrial construction applications, a laboratory prepared high performance acrylic sealant was compared to a commonly used, commercially available two part polyurethane sealant. The centerpiece of this comparison is an exterior exposure in El Paso, TX, in which the two sealants were professionally installed in alternating joints around the perimeter of a tilt-up warehouse. The sealants were also subjected to a battery of laboratory tests, including tensile testing, sealant specification testing, paintability, and accelerated weathering in both xenon arc and fluorescent UV devices. The 3 year El Paso exposure results, in combination with the laboratory, weathering, and application test results, demonstrate the performance advantages of the high performance acrylic sealant and highlight its inherent suitability for use in low rise industrial applications such as tilt-up warehouses.
Characterization of Serpentinites for Potential Use as Dimension Stone
Authors: Ismael I. S. , Hassan M. S.
Published: September 2009

Serpentinites are widely distributed in Egypt, particularly in central and southern parts of the Eastern Desert. There are several inter-related factors that affect the use of serpentinites as dimension stone. These factors involve mineralogical characteristics (including mineral compositions and microstructural parameters), physical properties, and mechanical properties. The main factor identified in this study is orientation of foliation planes in serpentinites. Samples that are selected parallel to foliation planes have higher mechanical properties than those perpendicular to it. Antigorite is the essential serpentinite mineral with minor amounts of chrysotile. Talc, carbonates (magnesite and dolomite), and tremolite are the main associated minerals. Quality and quantity of associated minerals such as talc and carbonates greatly influence the proper use of serpentinites as dimension stone. Studied serpentinites are characterized by relatively small grain size and foliated texture, low water absorption, low porosity, and high abrasion resistance. Physico-mechanical properties of studied serpentinites as well as mineralogical characteristics lead us to conclude that these serpentinites are suitable for specific applications as dimension stone.
Promoted Ignition-Combustion Behavior of Cobalt and Nickel Alloys in Oxygen-Enriched Atmospheres
Authors: Million Joseph F. , Samant Anand V. , Zawierucha Robert
Published: September 2009

Promoted ignition-combustion behavior has been used to describe a situation in which a substance with low oxygen compatibility ignites and supports the combustion of a more combustion-resistant material. Previous work has been reported on the investigation of this phenomenon as it relates to carbon steel, stainless steels, and a number of significant engineering alloys in the nickel, cobalt, and copper families. Reported in this paper are the results of promoted ignition-combustion tests of three cobalt based alloys in oxygen-enriched atmospheres at pressures ranging from 2.86 to 34.5 MPa. Included in the test program were Stellite 6, a commonly used hard facing alloy and two high strength cobalt alloys—MP35N and Elgiloy. Also reported in this paper are the results of promoted ignition-combustion tests of four nickel based alloys in oxygen-enriched atmospheres at pressures up to 34.5 MPa. Nickel alloys evaluated in the program included Hastelloys B-3 and W, RA 330, and a cast variant of the Hastelloy C type, CW6M. Hastelloy B-3 and CW6M are used in chemical process industry applications where corrosion is of concern. RA 330 is a significant elevated temperature alloy. Hastelloy W is a filler metal used for dissimilar metal welds.
Definition of the Influence of Pore Size on the Fatigue Limit Using Short Crack Propagation Experiments
Authors: Oberwinkler C. , Leitner H. , Eichlseder W.
Published: September 2009

Aluminium high pressure die casting is used to reduce costs and weight of various components in the automotive industry. The main problem of components made by pressure die casting is connected with inherent flaws (porosity, oxide skins, etc.), which can hardly be avoided. Today the fatigue calculation of aluminium high pressure die cast parts is usually performed using two S/N curves—one account for the flawed basic material and one for the pore-free surface layer. This does not provide an accurate estimate for the computation of the lifetime or safety against failure of the component. In a cast component the number and size of pores increases towards the center. As a consequence the fatigue strength decreases. This inhomogeneous distribution throughout the component has to be taken into account for a realistic estimation of the fatigue strength. To do so, two models are required—one to compute the pore size distribution in the component [Oberwinkler, C., Leitner, H., and Eichlseder, W. “Improvement of an Existing Model to Estimate the Pore Distribution for A Fatigue Proof Design of Al HPDC Components,” TMS 2009, Shape Casting: 3rd Int. Symposium, 2009] and a material model [Oberwinkler, C., Leitner, H., and Eichlseder, W. “Computation of Fatigue Safety Factors for High-Pressure Die Cast (HPDC) Aluminium Components Taking into Account the Pore Size Distribution,” SAE World Congress 2009], which describes the influence of the defect size on the fatigue strength. This paper focuses on the definition of the correlation between the fatigue strength and the pore size. The lifetime of a component is defined by the crack growth if the crack initiation period can be neglected. Casting defects usually show high stress concentration factors due to their irregular shapes where cracks initiate. In this case the defect size is a part of the total crack length. Pores can be considered as physically short cracks because of their size of approximately 10–500 μm. The El-Haddad equation [El Haddad, M. H., Smith, K. N., and Topper, T. H., “Fatigue Crack Propagation of Short Cracks,” ASME Transactions, Vol. 101, 1979, pp. 42–46] has been used to describe the influence of the defect size on the fatigue strength. Short crack experiments have been performed to show that due to the shorter cracks the threshold stress intensity factor decreases below the threshold stress intensity factor of long cracks.
Laboratory Performance Evaluation of Subgrade Soils Stabilized with Sulfate-Bearing Cementitious Additives
Authors: Solanki Pranshoo , Zaman Musharraf M.
Published: September 2009

A laboratory study was conducted on both raw and stabilized soil specimens to evaluate the performance of two subgrade soils stabilized with three different additives, namely, hydrated lime (or lime), class C fly ash (CFA), and cement kiln dust (CKD). Lime, CFA, and CKD have low sulfate (<40 ppm), moderate sulfate (≈3,280 ppm), and high sulfate content (≈28,133 ppm), respectively. Cylindrical specimens were prepared with different percentages of additives and cured for 28 days. Following the curing period, specimens were tested for resilient modulus (Mr), and unconfined compressive strength tests (UCS), representing short-term performance. Long-term laboratory performance (or durability) was evaluated in terms of moisture susceptibility (tube suction test) and three-dimensional (3D) swell during 60-day capillary soaking of cured specimens. At the end of 60 days, the specimens were also tested for Mr and UCS, as additional indicators to long-term subgrade performance. Short-term performance evaluation projected 15 % CKD with the highest improvement after 28 days of curing, while long-term performance evaluation showed 9 % lime providing maximum enhancements in Mr and UCS values after 60 days of capillary soaking. The study further indicated decrease in durability of specimens stabilized with CKD; however, lime and CFA helped by reducing 3D swell and moisture susceptibility. This difference in behavior was attributed to the presence of elevated levels of sulfate in CKD resulting in sulfate-induced heaving of stabilized soil specimens. Mineralogical studies such as scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy were also used to verify the research findings observed from the macro test results.
Influence of prenatal nutrition and obesity on tissue specific fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) gene expression
Authors: Sébert S P , Hyatt M A , Chan L L Y , Yiallourides M , Fainberg H P , Patel N , Sharkey D , Stephenson T , Rhind S M , Bell R C , Budge H , Gardner D S , Symonds M E
Published: September 2009

The recent discovery of an association between body composition, energy intake and the fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) gene represents a promising new therapeutic target in obesity prevention. In a well, pre-established large animal model, we investigated the regulation ofFTOgene expression under conditions either leading to obesity or increased risk of obesity related disorders: i) a sedentary ‘Western’ lifestyle and ii) prenatal exposure to nutrient restriction. Pregnant sheep were either fed to fully meet their nutritional requirements throughout gestation or 50% of this amount from early-to-mid gestation. Following weaning, offspring were either made obese through exposure to a sedentary obesogenic environment or remained lean. A significant positive relationship between placentalFTOgene expression and fetal weight was found at 110 days gestation. In both the newborn and adult offspring, the hypothalamus was the major site ofFTOgene expression. HypothalamicFTOgene expression was upregulated by obesity and was further increased by prenatal nutrient restriction. Importantly, we found a strong negative relationship between the hypothalamicFTOgene expression and food intake in lean animals only that may imply FTO as a novel controller of energy intake. In contrast,FTOgene expression in the heart was downregulated in obese offspring born to nutrient restricted mothers. In addition,FTOgene expression was unaffected by obesity or prenatal diet in insulin-dependent tissues, where it changed with age possibly reflecting adaptations in cellular energetic activity. These findings extend information gained from human epidemiology and provide new insights into the regulation ofin vivoenergy metabolism to prevent obesity.
Morphological classification of bovine ovarian follicles
Authors: Rodgers R J , Irving-Rodgers H F
Published: September 2009

Follicle classification is an important aid to the understanding of follicular development and atresia. Some bovine primordial follicles have the classical primordial shape, but ellipsoidal shaped follicles with some cuboidal granulosa cells at the poles are far more common. Preantral follicles have one of two basal lamina phenotypes, either a single aligned layer or one with additional layers. In antral follicles <5 mm diameter, half of the healthy follicles have columnar shaped basal granulosa cells and additional layers of basal lamina, which appear as loops in cross section (‘loopy’). The remainder have aligned single-layered follicular basal laminas with rounded basal cells, and contain better quality oocytes than the loopy/columnar follicles. In sizes >5 mm, only aligned/rounded phenotypes are present. Dominant and subordinate follicles can be identified by ultrasound and/or histological examination of pairs of ovaries. Atretic follicles <5 mm are either basal atretic or antral atretic, named on the basis of the location in the membrana granulosa where cells die first. Basal atretic follicles have considerable biological differences to antral atretic follicles. In follicles >5 mm, only antral atresia is observed. The concentrations of follicular fluid steroid hormones can be used to classify atresia and distinguish some of the different types of atresia; however, this method is unlikely to identify follicles early in atresia, and hence misclassify them as healthy. Other biochemical and histological methods can be used, but since cell death is a part of normal homoeostatis, deciding when a follicle has entered atresia remains somewhat subjective.
Higher Cumulative Doses of Erythropoietin and Developmental Outcomes in Preterm Infants
Authors: Brown Mark S. , Eichorst Delphine , LaLa-Black Brenda , Gonzalez Robin
Published: September 2009

OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that higher cumulative doses of recombinant erythropoietin (rEPO) for extremely preterm infants during the first 6 postnatal weeks would improve developmental outcomes, as evidenced in evaluations with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II Revised.

METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study with a data set for a group (N = 366) of infants of <1500 g and ≤30 weeks of gestation that was created initially to examine the association between rEPO treatment and retinopathy of prematurity. Infants who underwent developmental follow-up evaluations at corrected age of >12 months were included. The associations between rEPO doses and higher Bayley Scales of Infant Development Psychomotor Developmental Index and Mental Developmental Index (MDI) scores were estimated in multivariate linear regression analyses.

RESULTS: Eighty-two infants underwent developmental evaluations after 12 months. The median age of evaluation was 25 months. The median 6-week cumulative rEPO dose was 3750 U/kg. In multivariate analyses, Psychomotor Developmental Index (PDI) scores were associated with transfusions, female gender, birth weight, and 5-minute Apgar scores (R2 = 0.39). MDI scores were associated with 6-week rEPO dose, female gender, prenatal steroid treatment for ≥48 hours, and breast milk feedings (R2 = 0.40).

CONCLUSIONS: These findings identify a dose-response relationship between rEPO treatment and improved MDI scores. They are consistent with findings of adult studies and animal brain injury models and await confirmation.
Associations Between Parenting Styles and Teen Driving, Safety-Related Behaviors and Attitudes
Authors: Ginsburg Kenneth R. , Durbin Dennis R. , García-España J. Felipe , Kalicka Ewa A. , Winston Flaura K.
Published: September 2009

OBJECTIVE: The goal was to explore the association between parenting style and driving behaviors.

METHODS: The 2006 National Young Driver Survey gathered data on driving safety behaviors from a nationally representative sample of 5665 ninth-, 10th-, and 11th-graders. A parenting style variable was based on adolescent reports and separated parents into 4 groups, (1) authoritative (high support and high rules/monitoring), (2) authoritarian (low support and high rules/monitoring), (3) permissive (high support and low rules/monitoring), and (4) uninvolved (low support and low rules/monitoring). Associations between parenting style and driving behaviors and attitudes were assessed.

RESULTS: One half of parents were described as authoritative, 23% as permissive, 8% as authoritarian, and 19% as uninvolved. Compared with teens with uninvolved parents, those with authoritative parents reported one half the crash risk in the past year (odds ratio [OR]: 0.47 [95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.26–0.87]), were 71% less likely to drive when intoxicated (OR: 0.29 [95% CI: 0.19–0.44]), and were less likely to use a cellular telephone while driving (OR: 0.71 [95% CI: 0.50–0.99]). Teens with authoritative or authoritarian parents reported using seat belts nearly twice as often (authoritative: OR: 1.94 [95% CI: 1.49–2.54]; authoritarian: OR: 1.85 [95% CI: 1.08–3.18]) and speeding one half as often (authoritative: OR: 0.47 [95% CI: 0.36–0.61]; authoritarian: OR: 0.63 [95% CI: 0.40–0.99]) as teens with uninvolved parents. No significant differences in crash risk or seat belt use were found between permissive and uninvolved parents.

CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians should encourage parents to set rules and to monitor teens' driving behaviors, in a supportive context.
Implementing Electronic Health Record-Based Quality Measures for Developmental Screening
Authors: Jensen Roxanne E. , Chan Kitty S. , Weiner Jonathan P. , Fowles Jinnet B. , Neale Shannon M.
Published: September 2009

OBJECTIVE: The goal was to examine the current abilities and future potential of electronic health record (EHR) systems to measure childhood developmental screening and follow-up rates in primary care settings.

METHODS: A group of pediatric clinicians and health informatics experts was convened to develop quality indicators reflecting different aspects of the developmental screening process. These indicators included the administration of a standardized, validated instrument to screen children for developmental delays, the documentation of abnormal screening results, and the provision of follow-up care. Six integrated provider systems across the United States, with fully implemented EHR systems, were evaluated to determine the feasibility of implementing these measures within each system. Barriers related to measure implementation were identified.

RESULTS: The EHR systems of all 6 health care organizations could implement measures examining developmental screening rates and could identify and track children with abnormal screening results. However, most of the systems did not have the ability to capture data for more-complex EHR-based measures. In particular, data elements based on workflow actions could not be captured with current EHR system designs.

CONCLUSIONS: This study identified 2 main barriers to the implementation of developmental quality measures: concerns about data reliability and the tracking of care coordination within patient records. Potential solutions to these problems, including terminology standardization, patient portal use, and use of a single developmental screening instrument, are discussed.
Beliefs and Barriers to Follow-up After an Emergency Department Asthma Visit: A Randomized Trial
Authors: Zorc Joseph J. , Chew Amber , Allen Julian L. , Shaw Kathy
Published: September 2009

BACKGROUND: Studies in urban emergency departments (EDs) have found poor quality of chronic asthma care and identified beliefs and barriers associated with low rates of follow-up with a primary care provider (PCP).

OBJECTIVES: To develop an ED-based intervention including asthma symptom screening, a video addressing beliefs and a mailed reminder; and measure the effect on PCP follow-up and asthma-related outcomes.

METHODS: This randomized, controlled trial enrolled children aged 1 to 18 years who were discharged after asthma treatment in an urban pediatric ED. Control subjects received instructions to follow-up with a PCP within 3 to 5 days. In addition, intervention subjects (1) received a letter to take to their PCP if they screened positive for persistent asthma symptoms, (2) viewed a video featuring families and providers discussing the importance of asthma control, and (3) received a mailed reminder to follow-up with a PCP. All subjects were contacted by telephone 1, 3, and 6 months after the ED visit, and follow-up was confirmed by PCP record review. Asthma-related quality of life (AQoL), symptoms, and beliefs about asthma care were assessed by using validated surveys.

RESULTS: A total of 433 subjects were randomly assigned, and baseline measures were similar between study groups. After the intervention and before ED discharge, intervention subjects were more likely to endorse beliefs about the benefits of follow-up than controls. However, rates of PCP follow-up during the month after the ED visit (44.5%) were similar to control subjects (43.8%) as were AQoL, medication use, and ED visits.

CONCLUSIONS: An ED-based intervention influenced beliefs but did not increase PCP follow-up or asthma-related outcomes.