bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Ibuprofen Overdose: The First Two Years of Over-the-Counter Sales
Authors: Perry S.J. , Streete P.J. , Volans G.N.
Published: April 2009

Experience during 14 years of prescription only use indicates that the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) ibuprofen is of low toxicity in acute overdose. In August 1983 ibuprofen was licensed for over-the-counter (OTC) use in the UK and it was recognised that this change could have an impact upon the epidemiology of analgesic overdose in this country. The London centre of the National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) began a new prospective survey of ibuprofen overdose at the time of OTC release. The first 2 years of this survey detected a marked increase in enquiries concerning ibuprofen overdose but there was no evidence to contradict the former claims of low toxicity. The importance of continued monitoring is stressed.
Time and Space Reunited
Authors: Bauman Zygmunt
Published: April 2009

Separation of time from space - through making the speed of movement dependent on technological artifice and movement of information independent of the transport of bodies - has led eventually to the passage from heavy (hardware) to light (software) modernity. The result is devaluation of space and duration and profound transformation in the structure of domination and life-politics.
The Chronopolitan Ideal: Time, Belonging and Globalization
Authors: Cwerner Saulo B.
Published: April 2009

Cosmopolitanism has reappeared strongly in contemporary social, cultural and political theory, usually referring to a realignment of cultural or political forms of attachment and belonging, or to the urgent need to reform the political foundations of international society. There is, however, a strong spatial bias in ongoing reconstructions of cosmopolitanism. One result of this is that the critical edge of cosmopolitan ideas is dissolved in the multiplication of superficial global identities and, especially, in a reified and ahistorical global present. As an alternative, this research note suggests the concept of chronopolitanism, which is developed as a theoretical as well as an ethical opening that reconfigures the search for a world political community in time and history. It is a move that has the explicit aim of extending social and political responsibilities to past, present, and future generations, as well as to the diversity of histories and rhythms of life that coexist in the global present.
In Search of Lost Time
Authors: Reith Gerda
Published: April 2009

This article presents data from research carried out among a sample of ex-opiate addicts. It argues that notions of temporality are important and hitherto unexamined features of the experience of addiction. For the individuals in this sample the state of addiction itself was described as a period of `lost time' characterized by an inability to envisage the future. In it, individuals described amnesiac episodes in which they fell into a kind of `narcotic slumber' which often lasted for the duration of their addiction career. The recovery from addiction was expressed as a regaining of a sense of temporality; a re-animation of the future and an `awakening' from the previous state.
Temporalities, History and Routines of Rule in Colonial India
Authors: Kalpagam U.
Published: April 2009

British colonial rule in India, as elsewhere in the world, reconstituted categories of time and space through its administrative practices. This paper explores how a state temporality was introduced which in turn enabled a discourse of progress and history. Drawing upon the works of Foucault and recent postcolonial studies, it argues that the requirement of `normalized' colonial subjects as objects of colonial regulatory practices rendered history as a site of colonial mimicry.
Contested Identities: The Adoption of American Indian Children and the Liberal State
Authors: Slaughter M. M.
Published: April 2009

The Indian Child Welfare Act gives the tribes the power to determine the placement of Indian children. American Indian tribes are semi-sovereign entities which retain the power to control their internal affairs and are not constrained by the Constitution. In making child welfare determinations tribes engage in practices which in other cases would be unconstitutional: they apply group rights to trump parental interests and they determine tribal membership on the basis of criteria which are arguably racial. The Act reveals the irresolvable conflict between tribal norms and concepts of identity and those found in American liberalism.
Policing as Forestry? Re-Imagining Policing in Belgium
Authors: Lippens Ronnie , Van Calster Patrick
Published: April 2009

This article has two aims. First, it argues that social and political change, to a large extent, occurs and develops within the boundaries of the imaginary - the realm of ‘visibilities’, of affect, of the senses and of emotion. ‘Visibilities’, images and imageries often offer the bounding backdrop on, or within, which discursive or symbolic formations of social and political change occur and develop. This article also situates the ongoing debates on police reform in Belgium within social and political changes that are taking place in that country. Reading recent legislation on police reform as an expression, as well as a becoming of ‘policing as forestry’, we try to unearth the imaginary boundaries - the visibilities, the images and imageries - that structure at least part of the affective and emotional space within which discursive or symbolic expressions and becomings materialize in policies and legislation. As such, this article hopes to contribute to the study of (the emotionalities of) police reform, while it also hopes to show how policing - the symbolic and material practice of ordering and of organization - takes place against the backdrop of an often diffuse, though bounded, space of the imaginary. This article presents itself, simultaneously, as (1) an analysis of recent Belgian police reform and police reform legislation; (2) an archaeological evocation of Belgium’s recent social and political imaginary; (3) an elaboration of a new image of policing - policing as forestry - which may be able to subsume previous (allegedly incommensurable) models of policing.
The Effect of Technological Innovation on Organizational Structure
Authors: Kahn Russell L.
Published: April 2009

This article looks at how two offices changed their informal work relationships and patterns in response to a major technological innovation in their field. This inductive study involves a cross-case analysis with field studies covering a two-year period. The research applies the models suggested by social action theory to help explain outcomes. By the end of this study, one office had lost its funding and was eliminated, while the other has survived and grown. The article examines whether the differing organizational responses to new core technology were related to each office's ability to survive.
“Just the Boys Playing on Computers”
Authors: Artemeva Natasha , Freedman Aviva
Published: April 2009

Using activity theory as a supplement to genre studies, this article explores a case of the disintegration of a traditional engineering firm. It focuses on the causes of such disintegration and the role of different types of communication in serving as sites where contradictions can be brought to visibility and resolution. The authors’ goal is both to show the power of activity theory in illuminating issues of tension, contradiction, and dissonance that lead to the breakup of the original organization into two separate firms and point to fundamental differences in the cultures of traditional engineering firms and software design enterprises.
Issues of Validity in Intercultural Professional Communication Research
Authors: Thatcher Barry
Published: April 2009

This article explores three ways to design US empirical methods to be more valid and ethical in cross-cultural studies. First, intercultural researchers need to distinguish broad rhetorical and cultural patterns from regional, organizational, and personal patterns, a process that requires balancing the fact of difference with the need for generalization. Second, US researchers need to distinguish not only the differences in rhetorical patterns in a form of communication but also in the ways that form is used rhetorically. Third, researchers need to construct researcher-participant relationships that are sensitive to the values of organizational relationships in both cultures.
Designing Written Business Communication along the Shifting Cultural Continuum
Authors: Tebeaux Elizabeth
Published: April 2009

The increasing importance of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) to the US economy makes understanding Mexico important. Because the histories and cultures of the United States and Mexico differ significantly, written communications also differ. Rhetorical strategies for written business communication in Mexico reflect the country's bloody, cyclical history and its resulting culture characterized by collectivism, high power distances, fatalism, and emphasis on building trust and relationships. Despite Mexico's economic problems, it is a country in transition. Because of the increasing presence of US business entities in Mexico, communication protocols are changing as US technology and ways of doing business infuse the traditional Mexican culture. Understanding how to communicate effectively in Mexico requires understanding its history and culture as well as changes occurring there. US writers must know where any Mexican company is situated along this changing cultural continuum and how the continuum shapes the design of written business communication.
Writing Globally
Authors: Koltay Tibor
Published: April 2009

Not only do students of technical writing courses need to learn how to prepare documents for translation properly, but students of translation need to learn technical and academic writing. This article gives the example of such a course taught at the Technical University of Budapest, Hungary. The course covers writing instructions and manuals, documents for scholarly and professional societies and scientific conferences, scientific papers, reports, and abstracts.
Characteristics of Nausea Reported by HIV-Infected Patients Initiating Combination Antiretroviral Regimens
Authors: Reynolds Nancy R. , Neidig Judith L.
Published: April 2009

Reliable data on the incidence and severity of nausea accompanying combination antiretroviral therapies is lacking. Aprospective time series design was used to assess the rate, severity, and distress of nausea in a cohort of 75 HIV-positive patients who were beginning or changing a combination of two or more antiretroviral medications. Data were collected via telephone at weekly intervals for 12 weeks. The rate of nausea across regimens was greatest at Week 1 (39%) and declined progressively over time. By Week 12, the rate of nausea was only 5%. Severity of nausea was ranked as moderate or severe by a substantial proportion of patients through Week 10; however, nausea severity and distress were also found to diminish over time. The nausea associated with combination antiretroviral therapy is quite common and may adversely affect medication adherence. Findings indicate that clinicians should consider initiating interventions for management of antiretroviral-related nausea at baseline.
City Systems and World Systems: Four Millennia of City Growth and Decline
Authors: Chase-Dunn Christopher , Manning E. Susan
Published: April 2009

This is a study of the growth of cities in four regions over the past 4,000 years. The authors discuss changes in the relationship between political/military power, economic power, and city systems with special attention to the rise of European hegemony and the subsequent rise of East Asian world cities. They compare East Asian urban growth with the original heartland of cities in West Asia and North Africa, as well as Europe and the subcontinent of South Asia. This reveals the trajectories of city growth and decline and the relative importance of the different regions over time. And they re-examine the hypothesis of synchronicities of city growth and decline across distant regions as the Afro-Eurasian world system became more and more integrated.
Femme Fatale and Status Fatale: A Cross-Cultural Perspective
Authors: Jankowiak William , Ramsey Angela
Published: April 2009

This article presents the results of a cross-cultural survey of 78 cultures that documented (through the use of folklore, ethnographic accounts, and interviews with ethnographers) the presence or absence of a femme fatale (a dangerous woman), and a “status fatale” (a dangerous man). We found that 94% of the cultures had images of a femme fatale, whereas only 42% of the sampled cultures had images of a status fatale. Our sample revealed that emotional involvement, rather than sexual gratification, was the primary motivation for becoming involved with a stranger who possessed qualities deemed culturally most desirable in the opposite sex. The significance of the findings is related to contemporary debates in evolutionary psychology and cultural anthropology.
Children's Play in Cross-Cultural Perspective: A New Look at the Six Cultures Study
Authors: Edwards Carolyn Pope
Published: April 2009

A qualitative and quantitative reanalysis of the Six Cultures data on children's play, collected in the 1950s, was performed to revisit worlds of childhood during a time when sample communities were more isolated from mass markets and media than they are today. A count was performed of children aged 3 to 10 in each community sample scored as engaging in creative-constructive play, fantasy play, role play, and games with rules. Children from Nyansongo and Khalapur scored lowest overall, those from Tarong and Juxtlahuaca scored intermediate, and those from Taira and Orchard Town scored highest. Cultural norms and opportunities determined how the kinds of play were stimulated by the physical and social environments (e.g., whether adults encouraged work versus play, whether children had freedom for exploration and motivation to practice adult roles through play, and whether the environment provided easy access to models and materials for creative and constructive play).
Cross-Cultural Studies in Child Development in Asian Contexts
Authors: Keats Daphne M.
Published: April 2009

Over a number of years, the author has been involved in crosscultural research with Asian and Australian children and adolescents. This article will review some of the work done with and by some of the author's colleagues in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and China. These countries are all multicultural, yet the contributions of these Asian researchers to the role of cultural factors in development are not as well known as they should be. Some reasons for this situation will be discussed. In each of these countries, far-reaching changes now challenge traditional cultural values in family relations and child-rearing practices. The author highlights some of the most significant differences in Asian and Western approaches to child-rearing practices and discusses these in the context of some dominant religious, social, philosophical, and ideological positions.
History, Culture, Learning, and Development
Authors: Greenfield Patricia M. , Maynard Ashley E. , Childs Carla P.
Published: April 2009

The authors report a diachronic investigation of cultural apprenticeship, creativity, and cognitive representation in a Zinacantec Maya community of Chiapas, Mexico. Focusing on the culturally central domain of weaving, they explore the implications of an ecocultural transition from agriculture to commerce for learning and development. Their studies cover 24 years and explore the implications of historical change in two generations of Zinacantec Maya children. The first wave was studied in 1969 and 1970. The next generation was studied in 1991 and 1993; it comprised mainly daughters and sons, nieces and nephews, and godchildren of the first generation. The results show that in the space of a single generation, weaving apprenticeship moved from a more interdependent to a more independent style of learning, woven textiles changed from a small stock of defined patterns to widely varied and innovative patterns, and cognitive representation of woven patterns became less detailed and more abstract.
Systemic Culture Patterns as Basic Units of Cultural Transmission and Evolution
Authors: Romney A. Kimball , Moore Carmella C.
Published: April 2009

The authors suggest that with slight modifications, the concept of systemic culture pattern as originally defined by Kroeber provides one ideal basic unit of study for culture. Prototypic examples of systemic culture patterns include phonemic structure and kinship terminological structure, both of which are paradigms. The significant elements in each may be partitioned in terms of a limited number of universal features. Kroeber’s original list provided an important guide for kinship studies; Jakobson, Fant, and Halle provided such a universal list for phonemic studies. Some coherent substructures characterized by a subset of features may themselves be treated as basic units, such as vocalic or consonantal phonemes, or subunits of kinship terminology, such as sibling terminology. Paradigms may be mapped perfectly into Euclidean spatial models. Elements of cultural patterns with large or uncountable numbers of features may be mapped directly into Euclidean spatial models on the basis of judged similarity data.
Exploring Cross-Cultural Differences in Self-Concept: A Meta-Analysis of the Self-Description Questionnaire-1
Authors: Wästlund Erik , Norlander Torsten , Archer Trevor
Published: April 2009

This meta-analytic approach, designed to explore the cross-cultural differences in levels of self-concept as measured by the Self-Description Questionnaire, yielded two main results. (a) There seems to be a general pattern in self-concept amongst schoolchildren from the three cultural groups included in this investigation (i.e., Asia, Africa, and Australia/United States). Girls have higher or equal means in most academic areas and boys are higher in nonacademic and total self-concept. Furthermore, (b) in the comparison between these cultural groups a pattern emerged whereby the children from Africa, generally, had the most positive self-concept, the children from Asia had the least positive self-concept in the nonacademic subareas, and the children from Australia/United States had the least positive self-concept in the academic subareas. Because these differences are difficult to explain solely with the concepts of individualism and collectivism, a tentative explanation incorporating the concept of optimism is suggested.
Climate and the Consonant-Vowel (CV) Syllable: A Replication Within Language Families
Authors: Munroe Robert L. , Silander Megan
Published: April 2009

Universality of the simple consonant-vowel (CV) syllable probably reflects its status as a prototype syllable facilitative of oral communication. Previous research has shown that in a world sample of 53 (relatively) independent languages, CV syllables were more frequent in warm than cold climate regions. The rationale proposed for this was that people in warm climates, as inhabitants of outdoor cultures, would on average engage in more distal communication than would people in cold (indoor) climates and that such distal communication would create a need for optimal transmittal of messages—that is, frequent usage of the CV syllable. The present study replicated the previous result within four language families, finding the same trend of higher CV frequency in warm climate areas. A secondary finding in the original investigation, that CV scores for languages with writing systems were lower than those for languages of nonliterate societies, also was upheld in the current study.
Baja California and California's Merging Tourist Corridors: The Influence of Mexican Government Policies
Authors: Bringas-Rábago Nora L.
Published: April 2009

This article aims to show how the Mexican government's development policies have contributed to promoting coastal regions whose economic base rests on tourist activity. In this context, it describes the pattern of development taken by urbanization within a tourism development zone in northern Mexico: the Tijuana-Ensenada Coastal Corridor (Corredor Costero Tijuana-Ensenada), in Baja California. The article is concerned with the events that have influenced the zone's current configuration, that is, how and under what conditions tourism's process of implantation in space has occurred and what mechanisms have facilitated it.
The Use of Economic Incentives in Developing Countries: Lessons from International Experience with Industrial Air Pollution
Authors: Blackman Allen , Harrington Winston
Published: April 2009

To what extent should developing countries eschew conventional command and control regulation that is increasingly seen as inefficient and rely instead on economic incentives to control industrial air pollution? The article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of various economic incentive instruments; presents in-depth case studies of their application in Sweden, the United States, China, and Poland; and proposes policy guidelines. The authors argue that both design deficiencies and pervasive constraints on monitoring and enforcement impede the effectiveness of economic instruments in developing countries. The latter are difficult to rectify, at least in the medium term. Therefore, tradable permits are generally not practical. Suitably modified, however, emissions fee policies probably are appropriate. They can provide a foundation for a transition to an effective economic incentive system and can raise revenue for environmental projects and programs. If political opposition can be overcome, taxes on goods associated with pollution constitute a second-best regulatory instrument.
Damming the Child of the Ocean: The Three Gorges Project
Authors: Salazar Joanna Gail
Published: April 2009

The Three Gorges Dam in China, when complete, will be the largest dam in the world. International criticism regarding the economic and environmental viability of the project has also made it one of the world's most controversial development projects. Critics cite human rights violations, ecological disaster, cultural erosion, and economic and financial risks as some of the problems with the project. Yet, despite international and domestic criticism, the Chinese government has pledged its determination to complete the project, claiming increased energy production capacity, improved navigational capabilities and greatly needed flood control as impetus. Although many of the traditional funding mechanisms for international development have refrained from providing financial support for the project, foreign direct investment has continued to flow in. This raises questions regarding the influence of private capital verses that of traditional funding mechanisms in controversial development schemes such as the Three Gorges Dam.
Coastal Area Governance System in the Philippines
Authors: Fernandez Pepito R. , Matsuda Yoshiaki , Subade Rodelio F.
Published: April 2009

This article provides information on current trends in coastal resource management in the Philippines through two case studies on common property resource comanagement in Panay Island, Western Visayas, the Philippines. The article reveals that the management and development of large marine ecosystems requires key conditions to succeed, such as the delineation and congruence of politically defined space with ecological realities; enhancement of stake-holder management capabilities (i.e., information, resources, and skills); supplementary livelihood opportunities; enabling institutions and increased grassroots participation; and effective oversight and coordination between and among concerned state, civil society, and market (profit-oriented) organizations. In the process, achievements and difficulties surrounding the creation of a coastal area governance system (CAGS) are examined.
The Long-Term Requirement for Clean Development Mechanism Forestry and Economic Liability
Authors: Schwarze Reimund , Niles John O.
Published: April 2009

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol allows developed countries to gain greenhouse gas emission reduction credits by sponsoring projects in developing countries. The CDM requires such credits to be granted only to projects that produce long-term benefits to climate change. However, countries that host CDM projects may be reluctant to engage in long-term projects for fear of sacrificing national sovereignty, a concern particularly acute in land-use efforts such as forest conservation. One solution is to use economic liability in CDM contracts, delaying payments to parties to encourage long-term contracting. We evaluate CDM-sponsored forest conservation using several types of economic liability schemes. We find that seller liability has intrinsic advantages over other types of liability contracts. We then propose a modified seller liability contract for CDM forestry that is more profitable to host countries than is pure seller liability, while still providing sufficient long-term incentives.
Trade and Environment After Seattle: A Negotiation Agenda for the South
Authors: Najam Adil
Published: April 2009

Developing countries have legitimate and significant apprehensions about the imposition of Northern environmental concerns on the international trade agenda. However, it is also becoming clear that even if it is possible to delay the induction of a stronger environmental focus within the global trade regime, it cannot be postponed indefinitely. The events at the Third Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization suggest that the issue will have to be dealt with sooner rather than later. The relevant question for the South is no longer whether environmental concerns should influence trade rules, or even when, but how. This article argues that the developing countries cannot afford to dis-engage themselves from the discussion. It proposes a proactive and positive strategy for the South for future international negotiations: one that seeks the achievement of sustainable development through an active engagement of the developing countries in the trade and environment discourse.
Openness, Sustainability, and Public Participation: New Designs for Transboundary River Basin Institutions
Authors: Milich Lenard , Varady Robert G.
Published: April 2009

The world's transboundary environmental institutions typically are driven from the top, function behind closed doors, disregard sustainability, and rely on technical fixes or regulatory mechanisms. This article compares those approaches, as manifested in various river basin commissions, to a new, more democratic model being tested in the U.S.-Mexico border region. Water factors into many transboundary environmental problems. More than 300 river basins are shared by two or more countries. The authors examine seven international river basin compacts, sketch four common conceptual paradigms, and argue that these models mostly ignore local needs and public inputs and sometimes also fail in their explicit objectives. The border between the United States and Mexico offers a more promising design. There, as a result of the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, a new, innovative authority, the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission (BECC), has emerged. This institution has been fashioned to protect local interests and to sustain its activities environmentally and financially. We examine how well the BECC has fulfilled its promise of openness, transparency, and binationality, and conclude that properly adapted, the model's roots—openness, transparency, capacity building, bottom-up design, and sustainability—could take hold in other transboundary areas.
Illegal Whaling for Humpbacks by the Soviet Union in the Antarctic, 1947-1972
Authors: Walsh Virginia M.
Published: April 2009

This article presents an analysis of the Soviet Union's whaling for humpbacks in the Antarctic in the 1950s and 1960s, which violated regulations set by the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Recently compiled archival records from the Soviet Union indicate that Soviet whalers took a greater number of humpback whales in the Antarctic from 1949 to 1972 than all other whaling fleets combined. The number of humpback whales the Soviet fleet took from the Antarctic in 1961 and 1962 was several times higher than that which IWC biologists then believed to be sustainable. The USSR submitted false reports to the IWC and stalled the creation and implementation of a system of international observation for years. This article suggests that the history of the IWC, the first environmental organization to be global in scope, points to weaknesses in contemporary environmental treaty regimes. Like the Whaling Convention in the 1950s and 1960s, many environmental treaties today are not well monitored. By the time its international observer scheme began operating in 1972-1973, the damage inflicted on whale populations, including humpbacks, was severe.
Dynamic Stability of Fluttered Systems Subjected to Parametric Random Excitations
Authors: Young T. H. , Tseng T. C. , Song L. S.
Published: April 2009

A general solution for dynamic stability of the fluttered mode of damped, fluttered systems subjected to parametric random excitations is presented in this paper. First, the system equations are pairwisely uncoupled by a modal analysis based on normal modes of the system at the onset of fluttering. The stochastic averaging method is then applied to obtain Ito's equation governing the amplitude of the fluttered mode. Finally, the Lyapunov exponent of the fluttered mode is derived, from which the criterion for asymptotic sample stability of the mode is determined. A cantilevered beam acted upon by a static follower force and a white noise parametric excitation at the free end, and a skew panel subjected to an aerodynamic force in the chordwise direction and a white noise excitation in the spanwise direction are demonstrated as examples. Numerical results show that, although the static follower force or the aerodynamic force exceeds the flutter load, the fluttered mode of the beam or the panel may remain stable in the sense of asymptotic sample stability due to the presence of the white noise excitation.
Load Transfer Control for a Gantry Crane with Arbitrary Delay Constraints
Authors: Dadone Paolo , Vanlandingham Hugh F.
Published: April 2009

This paper describes a method to move the load of a gantry crane to a desired position in the presence of known, but arbitrary, motion-inversion delays as well as cart acceleration constraints. The method idea is based on a phase-plane analysis of the linearized model. In order to limit residual pendulation at the goal position, the method is extended to account for quadratic and cubic nonlinearities. The method of multiple scales is used to determine an approximate solution to the nonlinear equations of motion, thus providing a more accurate measure of the frequency of the oscillations. The nonlinear approach is very successful in limiting residual oscillations to very small values (less than 1 degree of amplitude), offering a reduction, with respect to the linear case, of as much as two orders of magnitude. Finally, this method offers a rationale for the future development of a controller for suppression of load oscillations in ship-mounted cranes in the presence of arbitrary delays.
Control Strategies For Supercavitating Vehicles
Authors: Kirschner Ivan N. , Kring David C. , Stokes Ann W. , Fine Neal E. , Uhlman James S.
Published: April 2009

Supercavitating bodies can achieve very high speeds under water by virtue of reduced drag: with proper design, a cavitation bubble is generated at the nose and skin friction drag is drastically reduced. Depending on the type of supercavitating vehicle under consideration, the overall drag coefficient can be an order of magnitude less than that of a fully-wetted vehicle. However, as discussed in this article, control and maneuvering present special challenges. Strategies for meeting those challenges are also presented. The first section describes example vehicle configurations, and discusses the nonlinear forces acting on the cavitator, the fins (if present), and any portions of the hull that penetrate the cavity boundary during excursions from the fully-enveloped condition. The need for a bank-to-turn maneuvering strategy is also discussed. The second section describes simulation of vehicle flight, including system stability and system performance during execution of a banked turn. Without control, some vehicle configurations can be unstable, whereas a feedforward-feedback strategy can control some configurations over a range of turn rates.
Optimum Placement and Control of Active Constrained Layer Damping using Modal Strain Energy Approach
Authors: Ro J. , Baz A.
Published: April 2009

The Active Constrained Layer Damping (ACLD) treatment has been used successfully for controlling the vibration of various flexible structures. It provides an effective means for augmenting the simplicity and reliability of passive damping with the low weight and high efficiency of active controls to attain high damping characteristics over broad frequency bands. In this paper, optimal placement strategies of ACLD patches are devised using the modal strain energy (MSE) method. These strategies aim at minimizing the total weight of the damping treatments while satisfying constraints imposed on the modal damping ratios. A finite element model is developed to determine the modal strain energies of plates treated with ACLD. The treatment is then applied to the elements that have highest MSE in order to target specific modes of vibrations. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the utility of the devised optimization technique as an effective tool for selecting the optimal locations of the ACLD treatment to achieve desired damping characteristics over a broad frequency band.
Dynamical Behaviour of Orthotropic Micropolar Elastic Medium
Authors: Kumar Rajneesh , Choudhary Suman
Published: April 2009

The present paper is concerned with the plane strain problem in homogeneous micropolar orthotropic elastic solids. The disturbance due to continuous normal and tangential sources are investigated by employing eigenvalue approach. The integral transforms have been inverted by using a numerical technique to obtain the normal displacement, normal force stress and tangential couple stress in the physical domain. The expressions of these quantities are given and illustrated graphically.
Vibration Control of Plates Using Self-Sensing Active Constrained Layer Damping Networks
Authors: Ro J. , Baz A.
Published: April 2009

The Active Constrained Layer Damping (ACLD) treatment has been used successfully for controlling the vibration of various flexible structures. The treatment provides an effective means of augmenting the simplicity and reliability of passive damping with the low weight and high efficiency of active controls to attain high damping characteristics over broad frequency bands. In this study, a self-sensing configuration of the ACLD treatment is utilized to suppress the bending and torsional vibrations of cantilevered plates simultaneously. The treatment considered ensures collocation of the sensors/actuators pairs in order to guarantee stable operation. The theoretical characteristics of the multi-layer treatment are presented in this paper and compared with the experimental performance.

Attenuation of the amplitude of vibration of the first bending and torsional modes of more than 96% and 35% are obtained using proportional controller with voltages less than 93 volts. The corresponding attenuation becomes and 90% and 84% when a derivative controller is used with voltage of 82 volt.
Nonlinear Dynamics and Modeling of Various Wooden Toys with Impact and Friction
Authors: Leine R. I. , Van Campen D. H. , Glocker C H.
Published: April 2009

In this paper, we study bifurcations in systems with impact and friction, modeled with a rigid multibody approach. Knowledge from the field of nonlinear dynamics is therefore combined with theory from the field of non-smooth mechanics. We study the nonlinear dynamics of three commercial wooden toys. The toys show complex dynamical behavior but can be studied with one-dimensional maps, which allows for a thorough analysis of the bifurcations.
Experimental and Numerical Analysis of a Nonlinear Vibration Absorber for the Control of Plate Vibrations
Authors: Ashour Osama N. , Nayfeh Ali H.
Published: April 2009

We investigate a nonlinear active vibration absorber to control the vibrations of plates. The absorber is based on the saturation phenomenon associated with dynamical systems with quadratic nonlinearities and a two-to-one internal resonance. The technique is implemented by coupling a second-order controller with the plate's response through a sensor and an actuator. Energy is exchanged between the primary structure and the controller and, near resonance, the plate's response saturates to a small value. Numerical as well as experimental results are presented for a cantilever rectangular plate. For the numerical studies, finite-element methods as well as modal analysis are implemented. The commercially available software ABAQUS is used in the finite-element analysis together with a user-provided subroutine to model the controller. For the experimental studies, the plate is excited using a dynamic shaker. Strain gages are used as sensors, while piezoelectric ceramic patches are used as actuators. The control technique is implemented using a digital signal processing board and a modeling software. Both numerical and experimental results show that the control strategy is very effective.
Experiments in Control and Anti-Control of Chaos in a Dry Friction Oscillator
Authors: Moon Francis C. , Reddy Anil J. , Holmes William T.
Published: April 2009

We describe a mechanical oscillator with a dry friction nonlinearity and feedback control. It is shown to exhibit both control of chaos, i.e., the stabilization of unstable periodic orbits in a strange attractor, as well as anti-control of chaos. Anti-control of chaos is the use of feedback to drive a nonlinear system into a chaotic state near a periodic motion. The addition of noise or dither onto periodic oscillations can often be useful in engineering devices. The control and anti-control method is based on “ occasionally proportional feedback” developed by Hunt as an extension of the well-known OGY theory of the control of chaos. In this work, the control is effected by changing the normal force of the dry friction element using a magnetic actuator.
Use of Frequency Change for Damage Identification in Reinforced Concrete Beams
Authors: Cerri Maria Nilde , Vestroni Fabrizio
Published: April 2009

The detection of damage will become one of the most frequent applications of identification techniques. In this paper we deal with a particular use of these techniques to identify damage in reinforced concrete beams due to cracking, based on frequencies only as measured quantities. Damage is obtained by comparing the identified model in the undamaged and damaged conditions. A simple interpretative model is adopted: the damaged zone is represented by a beam element with a lower value of bending stiffness. Three parameters are necessary to define damage: the position and the extension of the damaged element and the reduction of its flexural stiffness. The optimal values of damage parameters are determined by means of a minimization procedure based on an output error equation. The characteristics of the inverse problem are first investigated using pseudo-experimental data. Static and dynamic tests are performed on reinforced concrete beams; the static load is increased in different steps up to a value close to failure. Frequencies are measured at each load step. These experimental data and others taken from the literature are used to examine the efficiency of the illustrated procedure to identify the damage pattern.
Suppressing Resonant Vibrations Using Nonlinear Springs and Dampers
Authors: Zhang Bin , Billings Stephen A. , Lang Zi-Qiang , Tomlinson Geoffrey R.
Published: April 2009

The transmitted force around the resonant region of a system can be significantly reduced by introducing designed nonlinearities into the system. The basic choice of the nonlinearity can be either a nonlinear spring element or a nonlinear damping element. A numerical algorithm to compute and compare the transmitted force reduction produced by these two types of designed elements is proposed in this study. Analytical results are used to demonstrate the procedure. The numerical results indicate that the designed nonlinear damping element produces low levels of higher-order harmonics and no bifurcations in the system output response. In contrast, the nonlinear spring-based designs induce significant levels of harmonics in the transmitted force and can produce bifurcation behaviour. The conclusions provide an important basis for the design of nonlinear materials and nonlinear engineering systems.
Limited English Proficiency and Latinos’ Use of Physician Services
Authors: Derose Kathryn Pitkin , Baker David W.
Published: April 2009

Many Latinos have limited English proficiency and this may negatively affect their use of health care services. To examine this, the authors interviewed 465 Spanish-speaking Latinos and 259 English speakers of various ethnicities who presented to a public hospital emergency department with nonurgent medical problems to assess previous physician visits, sociodemographic characteristics, and level of English proficiency. The proportion of patients who reported no physician visit during the 3 months before study enrollment was not related to English proficiency. However, among the 414 patients who saw a physician at least once, Latinos with fair and poor English proficiency reported approximately 22 percent fewer physician visits (p = 0.020 and p = 0.015, respectively) than non-Latinos whose native language was English, even after adjusting for other determinants of physician visits. The magnitude of the association between limited English proficiency and number of physician visits was similar to that for having poor health, no health insurance, or no regular source of care.
Evaluating the Effect of Usual Source of Dental Care on Access to Dental Services: Comparisons among Diverse Populations
Authors: Davidson Pamela L. , Cunningham William E. , Nakazono Terry T. , Andersen Ronald M.
Published: April 2009

Data collected from the International Collaborative Study of Oral Health Outcomes USA (ICS-II) research locations were used to evaluate the relationship between having a usual source of dental care (USDC) and access to dental services. The robustness of the USDC effect after reducing simultaneity bias was tested in the population-based samples using sensitivity analysis. Logistic regression results provided evidence that USDC was the strongest and most consistent predictor of a dental visit in the past 12 months regardless of geographic location, dental care delivery system, or cultural diversity of the population. Even after removing cases that had a USDC for less than 1 or 2 years, the effect remained. From a policy perspective, USDC remains critical to understanding and explaining dental care utilization patterns. The findings suggest the need for designing interventions to increase the availability of a regular provider among vulnerable populations.
(Re)Constituting Ethnographic Identities
Authors: Warren John T. , Fassett Deanna L.
Published: April 2009

In this essay, the authors sketch out a dialogic consideration of how identity is constituted in qualitative research. They call into question the role of the researcher, asking how he or she not only helps construct his or her own identity in and through the research project but also how the researcher works to maintain the very identities and phenomena he or she thinks he or she is working to deconstruct. The authors put these issues into play with a dialogue, weaving their voices and their independent research projects together to illuminate how different scholars in different sites work to performatively (re)constitute the “subjects” in and of their research. Ultimately, the form of this essay makes possible the immediacy of the authors’ struggle within their scholarly practice, ending with a vision for new ways of hearing identity in production.
Tracking the Imaginary, Postcolonial Subject in West Africa
Authors: Slobin Kathleen
Published: April 2009

Beginning with the author’s subjective and imaginative dream experience, the article explores an unfolding itinerary through historical accounts, colonial literary texts, and postcolonial and sociological theory to examine the dream’s putative central object—a malnourished child living in Mali, West Africa. The layered contexts of the focal ethnography provide a reflective compass enabling writer and audience to examine subjective and objective significations that crowd, then expand to illuminate the experience. Oral and written narratives, as they absorb and elaborate human imagination, are envisioned as pivotal to the demarcation and disruption of categorical boundaries that shape and liberate sociological inquiry and social lives.
Creating Criteria: An Ethnographic Short Story
Authors: Ellis Carolyn
Published: April 2009

In this work, the author introspects about the steps she takes when evaluating narrative ethnographies. Her story shows how she thinks about and reacts to alternative genres of writing. Optimally, she tries to feel and think with the story, moving back and forth as the two processes merge. She tries to immerse herself in the flow of the story, until she is unable to stop thinking about or feeling the experience. Along the way, she asks questions about what she has learned from the story, and she evaluates the writer’s literary strategies, ethical concerns, and the degree to which the goals of the work have been achieved. When she reviews, she attempts to offer helpful feedback yet protect the writer’s sense of self.
Anonymity and Place in Qualitative Inquiry
Authors: Nespor Jan
Published: April 2009

This article examines assumptions embedded in the routine practice of trying to make the places represented in qualitative accounts anonymous. Anonymity is usually seen as an ethical issue, but like any representational strategy, it conceals assumptions about the nature of entities in the world and our relations with them. Focusing on place anonymization, the author argues that the use of pseudonyms and the omission of identifying historical and geographical information align research accounts with certain ontological assumptions, modes of theorizing, and corporate constructions of the public sphere. The author concludes by suggesting ways that place and identification can be rethought in qualitative inquiry.
People Like Us: Memories of Marginality in High School and University
Authors: Stoddart Kenneth
Published: April 2009

Written from the site of memory, this autobiographical tale represents some of the author’s experiences with racism, classism, homophobia, and death in Canada during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Also discussed are his later and ongoing use of the language of sociology to interpret these experiences and his re-reinvention of self using elements of the popular culture of the era. It is not intended as a sad tale or a survival tale, although it could be read as either. Instead, it is to be regarded as a tale told by a member of a population of unknown but possibly large size.