bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
NEWBORN INFANTS WITH SEVERE DEFECTS: A SURVEY OF PAEDIATRIC ATTITUDES AND PRACTICES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.
Authors: OUTTERSON CAROLE
Published: October 2007

This article reports the first results of a survey, by mail questionnaire, of the attitudes and practices of paediatricians with respect to the nontreatment of newborn infants with severe defects. Questionnaires were sent to 500 paediatricians in senior positions throughout the United Kingdom. 263 questionnaires, (52.6%) were completed and returned. The survey was an attempt to identify areas of consensus amongst paediatric specialists, and to discover some of the factors which influence their practice. A preliminary analysis of the data has revealed variations in attitudes and practices in some areas, and a broad consensus in others. The following report is not an endorsement of any particular point of view.
TREATMENT LIMITATION DECISIONS UNDER UNCERTAINTY: THE VALUE OF SUBSEQUENT EUTHANASIA
Authors: SAVULESCU JULIAN
Published: October 2007

This paper examines how decisions to limit treatment to critically ill patients under uncertainty can be made rationally. Expected utility theory offers one way of making rational decisions under uncertainty. One problem with using this approach is that we may not know the value of each option. One rational course open is to treat until further information becomes available. However, treatment can limit the range of options open. With treatment, a patient may recover such that he no longer requires life‐supporting treatment. However, his life may be not worth living. If active euthanasia of %on‐terminal’conditions is prohibited, the option of dying will no longer be available. Taking a rational‘wait and see’course may result in being trapped within an unbearable life. On the other hand, sometimes present practice‘lets nature takes its course'. Critically ill patients are allowed to die because it is believed that their lives will be not worth living. It is likely that some patients are allowed to die when there is some objective chance of worthwhile future life. This paper argues that a policy of treating critically ill patients until the nature of future options can be better evaluated, in company with an offer of subsequent euthanasia where appropriate, allows a more rational and humane approach to treatment limitation decisions under uncertainty.
DOES JUSTICE REQUIRE THAT WE BE AGEIST?
Authors: HARRIS JOHN
Published: October 2007

This paper restates some of the principal arguments against an automatic preference for the young as advocated by Kappel and Sandøe, arguments many of which have been extant for over a decade but which Kappel and Sandøe largely ignore. It then goes on to demonstrate that Kappel and Sandøe's “indifference test” fails to do the work required of it because it can be met by unacceptable conceptions of justice. The paper develops a number of new arguments against what I have called “ageist” preferences for the young or for those with long life expectancy. Finally I show that Kappel and Sandøe must believe that murdering older people is less morally wrong than murdering the young and that people relying on arguments such as theirs will have to accept the moral respectability of killing the innocent in order to maximise units of lifetime.
THE IMPACT OF REPORTING CASES OF EUTHANASIA IN HOLLAND: A PATIENT AND FAMILY PERSPECTIVE
Authors: CIESIELSKI‐CARLUCCI CHRIS , KIMSMA GERRIT
Published: October 2007

In 1991 the Dutch government released the results of the first national investigation into the nature and extent of decisions concerning end of life including euthanasia. A significant finding was that most cases of euthanasia were not reported. This prompted us to ask what effect, if any, not reporting caused. More specifically, we asked whether reporting has a positive or negative impact on the experiences of friends or relatives of patients who have received euthanasia. In cases of euthanasia, complications of both process and experience can deter from a minimally complicated death. These difficulties arise when either the family or physician does not perceive the freedom to disclose euthanasia openly. On the basis of interviews with family members and patients, we illustrate that they generally benefit from reporting. Our premise is that reporting fosters open discussion of euthanasia. We further suggest physicians and society benefit from a milieu of openness initiated by reporting cases of euthanasia.
GENETIC THERAPY, IDENTITY AND THE PERSON‐REGARDING REASONS
Authors: PERSSON INGMAR
Published: October 2007

It has been argued that there can be no person‐regarding reasons for practising genetic therapy, since it affects identity and causes to exist an individual who would not otherwise have existed. And there can be no such reasons for causing somebody to exist because existing cannot be better for an individual than never existing. In the present paper, both of these claims are denied. It is contended, first, that in practically all significant cases genetic therapy will not affect the identity of beings of our kind. This is so irrespective of whether, essentially, we are beings with minds or beings of a certain biological species, the human one. Second, it is contended that, even if genetic therapy were to affect our identity, there could be person‐regarding reasons for conducting it, for existence can be better than non‐existence for the individual.
Review Essay
Authors: CROSTHWAITE JAN
Published: October 2007

No Longer Patient: Feminist ethics and health care by Susan Sherwin. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992
REVIEW ESSAY
Authors: Crisp Roger
Published: October 2007

Essays on Bioethics by R.M. Hare. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993
SPERM HARVESTING AND POSTMORTEM FATHERHOOD
Authors: MURPHY TIMOTHY F.
Published: October 2007

The motives and consequences of harvesting sperm from brain dead males for the purpose of effecting post mortem fatherhood are examined. I argue that sperm harvesting and post mortem fatherhood raise no harms of a magnitude that would justify forbidding the practice outright. Dead men are not obviously harmed by the practice; children need not be harmed by this kind of birth; and the practice enlarges rather than diminishes the reproductive choices of surviving partners. Certain ethical and legal issues nevertheless require attention. As a matter of consistency with other harvesting protocols, there ought to be a mechanism for respecting the wishes of men who when alive do not wish to become fathers post mortem. Mechanisms governing entitlement to harvest and use sperm will also be required. I note that the law is unlikely to recognize the paternity of children born from harvested sperm, though there may be reasons to recognize that paternity in some instances.
PRINCIPLISM AND THE ETHICAL APPRAISAL OF CLINICAL TRIALS
Authors: MESLIN ERIC M. , SUTHERLAND HEATHER J. , LAVERY JAMES V. , TILL JAMES E.
Published: October 2007

For nearly two decades, the process of reviewing the ethical merit of research involving human subjects has been based on the application of principles initially described in the U.S. National Commission's Belmont Report, and later articulated more fully by Beauchamp and Childress in their Principles of Biomedical Ethics. Recently, the use of ethical principles for deliberating about moral problems in medicine and research, referred to in the pejorative sense as “principlism”, has come under scrutiny. In this paper we argue that these principles can provide a foundation for the source of ethical appraisal of human research, but are not themselves wholly adequate for this purpose. Therefore, we further propose that (1) principles should be understood as heuristics that can be “specified” as described by DeGrazia (1992), and (2) that the principle‐based approach should be supplemented by formally incorporating “sensitivity to context” into the evaluation of clinical trials
REVIEW ESSAY
Authors: McCaughey Davis
Published: October 2007

The Ethics and Politics of Human Experimentation by Paul M. McNeill. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993
CLINICAL ETHICS AND NURSING: “YES” TO CARING, BUT “NO” TO A FEMALE ETHICS OF CARE
Authors: KUHSE HELGA
Published: October 2007

According to a contemporary school of thought there is a specific female approach to ethics which is based not on abstract “male” ethical principles or rules, but on “care”. Nurses have taken a keen interest in these female approaches to ethics. Drawing on the views expounded by Carol Gilligan and Nel Noddings, nurses claim that a female “ethics of care” better captures their moral experiences than a traditional male “ethics of justice”. This paper argues that “care” is best understood in a dispositional sense, that is, as sensitivity and responsiveness to the particularities of a situation and the needs of “concrete” others. While “care”, in this sense, is necessary for ethics, it is not sufficient. Ethics needs “justice” as well as “care”. If women and nurses excessively devalue principles and norms, they will be left without the theoretical tools to condemn some actions or practices, and to defend others. They will, like generations of nurses before them, be condemned to silence.
PRIVATIZATION AND JUST HEALTHCARE
Authors: BUCHANAN ALLEN
Published: October 2007

When advocates of insurance‐privatization consider whether private insurance‐dominated systems achieve justice at all, they tend to rely on an incomplete set of criteria for a just healthcare system. They also mistakenly assume that it is enough to show that justice is in principle achievable within a private insurance‐dominated system. This essay offers a more complete set of criteria for a just healthcare system. It then argues that the motivational assumptions needed to make insurance‐privatization at all plausible (on grounds of choice, efficiency, and quality of care) are inconsistent with the motivational assumptions needed to show that in practice a private insurance‐dominated system will achieve justice. A private insurance‐dominated system can be expected to satisfy the criteria for just healthcare only if (a) there is extensive and effective regulation to constrain the normal competitive behavior of private insurers or if (b) generous public funds are provided to fill the gaps in access left by the private insurance market. Yet the assumptions about the motivations and abilities of the public, regulators, and public officials needed to satisfy conditions (a) or (b) contradict the privatization advocate's explanations of how privatization will maximize efficiency, choice, and quality of care
EXPLOITATION IN THE USE OF HUMAN SUBJECTS FOR MEDICAL EXPERIMENTATION: A RE‐EXAMINATION OF BASIC ISSUES
Authors: CASTRO LEONARDO D. DE
Published: October 2007

Relatively subtle forms of exploitation of human subjects may arise from the inefficiency or incompetence of a researcher, from the existence of a power imbalance between principal and subject, or from the uneven distribution of research risks among various segments of the population. A powerful and knowledgeable person (or institution) may perpetrate the exploitation of an unempowered and ignorant individual even without intending to. There is an ethical burden on the former to protect the interests of the vulnerable. Excessive or insufficient compensation may be exploitative. However, genuine economic imperatives motivating needy volunteers have to be considered. These forms of exploitation should be appreciated in the context of social and cultural factors suggesting that the relationship between researcher and subject cannot properly be appraised as a contractual undertaking. While compliance with pertinent codes and regulations minimises the exploitative potential, they cannot be enforced in a way that does not recognise a society's peculiar characteristics. The experience with some Filipino cultural traits illustrates this point.
PHYSICIAN ASSISTED SUICIDE: NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE NETHERLANDS
Authors: GEVERS SJEF
Published: October 2007

Until recently, physician assisted suicide was dealt with on the same basis as active voluntary euthanasia in the Netherlands. Over the last years, several cases relating to assistance in suicide of mental patients did raise specific issues, not addressed so far in the debate on euthanasia. One of these cases resulted in a Supreme Court decision. The paper summarizes this decision and comments on it from a legal point of view.
REFELCTIONS ON THE STATE OF CURRENT DEBATE OVER PHYSICIAN‐ASSISTED SUICIDE AND EUTHANASIA
Authors: WINKLER EARL
Published: October 2007

This paper is part of a larger project. My overall aim is to argue that the evolution of familiar forms of termination of life sustaining treatment, constituting so called passive euthanasia,1 has severaly undercut the logic of every form of reasoning that has traditionally been used to oppose active euthanasia and assistance in suicide. Basically, there are two such forms of traditional opposition, each represented in a range of different versions. There is the inevitable argument concerning social utilities — that permitting euthanasia and assisted suicide will have bad social consequences. But more fundamentally, the idea persists that killing is intrinsically worse than letting‐die in some sense that justifies the current practice of prohibiting the first while allowing the latter. In this paper, I first consider this latter claim. My ultimate strategy, as I have said, is to show that the nature of certain things we have all come to approve regarding termination of treatment makes it next to impossible to convincingly explain, in either of these ways, what is wrong with certain forms of assistance in suicide and euthanasia. In the second part of this paper I take another step in this direction by discussing, in a preliminary way, a special case of the argument from social risks.
ASSISTING SUICIDE IN MICHIGAN
Authors: ELLIN JOSEPH
Published: October 2007

Perhaps no American state has seen more legal activity on assisting suicide than Michigan, but despite legislation, a study Commission, several legal cases and a state Supreme Court ruling, the state seems much further from a humane resolution of the question than when the activities of Dr. Jack Kevorkian began in June of 1990. This note summarizes major legal events over a twelve‐month period (ending May, 95), which included jury acquittal of Dr. Kevorkian, the inconclusive report of the Michigan Commission on Death and Dying, the failure of the state legislature to enact legislation to replace the expired absolute but temporary prohibition, and the decision of the Michigan Supreme Court in Mich v. Kevorkian declaring assisting suicide a common law felony and ruling that in certain circumstances a person assisting suicide can be prosecuted for murder. The Commission's model decriminalization proposal and the bills subsequently introduced in the legislature (all of which to varying degrees surrounded assisting suicide with restrictions and safeguards), as well as the decision of the Supreme Court, are discussed. Certain puzzling features of the latter, especially with regard to the kind of causation that can turn helping another commit suicide into murder, are noted.
DISCLOSING MISATTRIBUTED PATERNITY
Authors: ROSS LAINIE FRIEDMAN
Published: October 2007

In 1994, the Committee on Assessing Genetic Risks of the Institute of Medicine published their recommendations regarding the ethical issues raised by advances in genetics. One of the Committee's recommendation was to inform women when test results revealed misattributed paternity, but not to disclose this information to the women's partners. The Committee's reason for withholding such information was that “'genetic testing should not be used in ways that disrupt families”. In this paper, I argue that the Committee's conclusion in favour of nondisclosure to the male partner is unethical. I argue that both parties ought to be informed.
‘BIOETHICS’IS SUBORDINATE TO MORALITY IN JAPAN
Authors: TANIDA NORITOSHI
Published: October 2007

Disputes over brain death and euthanasia are used to illuminate the question whether there really is a Japanese way of thinking in bioethics. In Japanese thought, a person does not exist as an individual but as a member of the family, community or society. I describe these features of Japanese society as‘mutual dependency’. In this society, an act is‘good’and‘right’when it is commonly done, and it is‘bad’and‘wrong’when nobody else does it. Thus, outsiders to this ring of mutual dependency encounter ostracism. One feature of this society is a lack of open discussion which leads to the existence of multiple standards. This Japanese morality even prevails over written laws. In Japan, there is a public stance that euthanasia does not exist. On the other hand, there are certain decisions which have permitted euthanasia. Similarly, organ transplants were performed from brain dead donors, while that procedure was not accepted officially by the medical profession. In this situation, there is a danger that human rights will be neglected. So far bioethical approaches have not helped to work out these problems. This may be because Japanese think that bioethics is subordinate to morality. The current dispute over brain death involves a struggle for the establishment of a rational society in Japan. Overcoming mutual dependency and ostracism is essential to resolve this struggle and to lead Japan into a society of mutual respect where all individuals, families and communities are esteemed.
Alliances, Domestic Politics, and Leader Psychology: Why Did Britain Stay Out of Vietnam and Go into Iraq?
Authors: Dyson Stephen Benedict
Published: October 2007

In the Vietnam and Iraq conflicts, British Prime Ministers were asked to contribute forces to an American‐led war that was deeply unpopular in the United Kingdom. This presented Harold Wilson and Tony Blair with conflicting incentives and constraints: to support their senior ally or to make policy based upon domestic considerations. Why did Harold Wilson decline to commit British forces while Tony Blair agreed to do so? With situational factors generating conflicting predictions, I argue that investigation of individual‐level variables is necessary. In particular, I suggest that leaders vary systematically in their willingness to subordinate the concerns of constituents to strategic imperatives, and that introducing the leadership style categories of “constraint challenger” and “constraint respecter” can make more determinate the linkage between domestic politics and strategic concerns.
Party Identification in Emotional and Political Context: A Replication
Authors: Neely Francis
Published: October 2007

While testing an affective measure of party identification Burden and Klofstad (2005) found that using the phrase, “feel that you are,” in place of, “think of yourself as,” significantly shifted PID in a Republican direction. I adopt the theoretical framework of Affective Intelligence (Marcus, Neuman, & MacKuen, 2000) to specify how the timing of their question‐wording experiment may have influenced the results. I suggest that the outcome was a function of (a) anxiety present during the survey, which ran just after 9/11 of 2001, coupled with (b) a political environment that favored Republicans. In a 2005 survey I replicate the experiment and collect new measures with which to test expectations. I find no significant shift in PID, and provisional support for the Affective Intelligence explanation. The results validate Burden and Klofstad's measure, qualify their findings, and test the application of the theory of Affective Intelligence to party dispositions. Alternative explanations and directions for further research are discussed.
Product Market Integration and Heterogeneity—Rent Sharing and Pricing to Market
Authors: Andersen Torben M. , Sørensen Allan
Published: October 2007

International product market integration makes market penetration easier and therefore creates both export opportunities and import threats. This changes the competitive position of firms and is associated with changes in trade, production, and specialization structures. The gains and losses in this process are unlikely to be equally shared due to heterogeneity across firms/sectors. In a Ricardian trade model with heterogeneity across firms, we find “pricing to market”—effects not only for exports, but also for pricing in the domestic market even for nontradables. Rents to be shared in wage bargaining differ across tradables and nontradables. It is shown that lower trade frictions affect the scope for “pricing to market” and cause wages to become more closely driven by (relative) productivity. Labor market prospects tend not to improve for low wage jobs, and not to deteriorate for high wage jobs.
On Chamberlinian‐Ricardian Trade Patterns
Authors: Kikuchi Toru , Shimomura Koji , Zeng Dao‐Zhi
Published: October 2007

This study provides a simple, many‐industry model of trade which emphasizes the interaction between cross‐country technical heterogeneity (i.e., a Ricardian aspect) and monopolistic competition among producers of differentiated products (i.e., a Chamberlinian aspect) as determinants of trade patterns. It is shown that the emergence of intra‐industry trade is crucially dependent on the shape of the technology index schedule, which is obtained as a step‐function.
Capital Imports and Tariffs
Authors: Oda Masao
Published: October 2007

This paper develops a three‐sector, three‐factor specific factor model with a tariff and presents conditions under which capital imports and tariffs can be welfare enhancing in a developing country. The impact on welfare depends on the tariff revenue effect and the repatriation effect. A capital import is welfare enhancing if it reduces the domestic output of imports. A tariff is welfare enhancing only if it reduces the return to foreign capital.
Import Protection Bias
Authors: Pecorino Paul
Published: October 2007

Rodrik (1995) notes that trade regimes tend to be biased towards import protection, while the standard political economy models either yield no prediction on the bias of the trade regime or predict, counterfactually, a bias towards the export sector. This constitutes an important shortcoming in the political economy of trade literature. In this paper, the Grossman and Helpman (1994) “Protection for Sale” model is extended by adding government expenditure. This expenditure may be financed via a combination of tariff revenue and a distorting wage tax. In addition to the government expenditure, export subsidies need to be financed either via tariff revenue or a distorting wage tax. With this addition, plausible values of the model's parameters yield import protection bias.
Multilevel Models for Longitudinal Data
Authors: Steele Fiona
Published: October 2007

Repeated measures and repeated events data have a hierarchical structure which can be analysed by using multilevel models. A growth curve model is an example of a multilevel random-coefficients model, whereas a discrete time event history model for recurrent events can be fitted as a multilevel logistic regression model. The paper describes extensions to the basic growth curve model to handle auto-correlated residuals, multiple-indicator latent variables and correlated growth processes, and event history models for correlated event processes. The multilevel approach to the analysis of repeated measures data is contrasted with structural equation modelling. The methods are illustrated in analyses of children’s growth, changes in social and political attitudes, and the interrelationship between partnership transitions and childbearing.
Alleviating Linear Ecological Bias and Optimal Design with Subsample Data
Authors: Glynn Adam N. , Wakefield Jon , Handcock Mark S. , Richardson Thomas S.
Published: October 2007

We illustrate that combining ecological data with subsample data in situations in which a linear model is appropriate provides two main benefits. First, by including the individual level subsample data, the biases that are associated with linear ecological inference can be eliminated. Second, available ecological data can be used to design optimal subsampling schemes that maximize information about parameters. We present an application of this methodology to the classic problem of estimating the effect of a college degree on wages, showing that small, optimally chosen subsamples can be combined with ecological data to generate precise estimates relative to a simple random subsample.
Cumulative Sum Schemes for Surgical Performance Monitoring
Authors: Chang Tee-Chin
Published: October 2007

The standard cumulative sum (CUSUM), risk-adjusted CUSUM and Shiryayev–Roberts schemes for monitoring surgical performance are compared. We find that both CUSUM schemes are comparable in run length performance except when there is a high heterogeneity of surgical risks, in which case the risk-adjusted CUSUM scheme is more sensitive in detecting a shift in surgical performance. The Shiryayev–Roberts scheme is found to be less sensitive compared with the CUSUM schemes in detecting a deterioration in surgical performance. Using the Markov chain method, the exact average run length of a standard CUSUM scheme can be computed whereas the average run length of a risk-adjusted CUSUM scheme is approximated. For a risk-adjusted CUSUM scheme, the accuracy of the average run length depends on the fineness of the discretization of CUSUM values, which relies on the chart limit, shift to be detected optimally and in-control surgical risk distribution. A sensitivity analysis shows that the risk-adjusted CUSUM and Shiryayev–Roberts schemes still perform moderately well in detecting a deterioration and an improvement in surgical performances respectively even though there is a misspecification of the in-control surgical risk distribution. In general, the run length performance of the Shiryayev–Roberts scheme is comparatively less sensitive to a misspecification of the in-control surgical risk distribution.
Sortals and the Individuation of Objects
Authors: LOWE E. J.
Published: October 2007

Abstract:  It has long been debated whether objects are ‘sortally’ individuated. This paper begins by clarifying some of the key terms in play—in particular, ‘sortal’, ‘individuation’, and ‘object’. The term ‘individuation’ is taken to have both a cognitive and a metaphysical sense, in the former denoting the singling out of an object in thought and in the latter a determination relation between entities. ‘Sortalism’ is defined as the doctrine that only as falling under some specific sortal concept can an object be successfully singled out in thought. It is argued that such a view is too strong, but that a weaker one, ‘categorialism’, can be defended, this implying that a thinker cannot successfully single out an object in thought without having at least an implicit grasp of the criterion of identity that the object satisfies.
How to Define an Object: Evidence from the Effects of Action on Perception and Attention
Authors: HUMPHREYS GLYN W. , RIDDOCH M. JANE
Published: October 2007

Abstract: We present work demonstrating that the nature of an object for our visual system depends on the actions we are programming and on the presence of action relations between stimuli. For example, patients who show visual extinction are more likely to become aware of two objects if the objects fall in appropriate visual locations for a common action. This effect of the action relations between objects is modulated both by the familiarity of the positioning of the objects for action, and by the mere possibility of action (the ‘affordance’) between the objects. In addition, the programming of an action to a part of an object alters the representation of that object, making the ‘part’ into the object selected by the visual system. These results point to object coding being a rather flexible process, affected not only by the perceptual properties of stimuli but also by the relations between these properties and action. We discuss the implications for theories of perception as well as considering why action information, in particular, may be important for perception.
What’s the Role of Spatial Awareness in Visual Perception of Objects?
Authors: CAMPBELL JOHN
Published: October 2007

Abstract:  I set out two theses. The first is Lynn Robertson’s: (a) spatial awareness is a cause of object perception. A natural counterpoint is: (b) spatial awareness is a cause of your ability to make accurate verbal reports about a perceived object. Zenon Pylyshyn has criticized both. I argue that nonetheless, the burden of the evidence supports both (a) and (b). Finally, I argue conscious visual perception of an object has a different causal role to both: (i) non‐conscious perception of the object, and (ii) experience, e.g. hallucination, that may be subjectively indiscriminable from, but is not, perception of the object.
What Makes Cultural Heredity Unique? On Action‐Types, Intentionality and Cooperation in Imitation
Authors: KANNETZKY FRANK
Published: October 2007

Abstract:  The exploration of the mechanisms of cultural heredity has often been regarded as the key to explicating human uniqueness. Particularly early imitative learning, which is explained as a kind of simulation that rests on the infant’s identification with other persons as intentional agents, has been stressed as the foundation of cumulative cultural transmission. But the question of what are the objects of this mechanism has not been given much attention. Although this is a pivotal point, it still remains obscure. I will characterize the notion of action‐types and show why they are the genuine objects of cultural heredity. However, this answer is in conflict with the concept of imitation, and the problem arises that, if imitation is conceptualized as simulation and explained in terms of the cognition of infants, the objects of cultural transmission seemingly cannot be passed on by imitation. In order to solve this problem, I propose reconsidering the concept of imitation and to conceptualize imitation as a cooperative activity of infants and adults.
A Dragon in Cheap Clothing: What Lessons can be Learned from the EU–China Textile Dispute?
Authors: Comino Anna
Published: October 2007

Abstract:  This article deals with the textile dispute that occurred between the EU and China in summer 2005. The dispute is analysed in the context of the expiry of the Multi‐Fibre Agreement (MFA), China's accession to the World Trade Organisation and the resulting challenge posed by Chinese textiles and clothing to some European countries' industries. The main conclusions of the analysis are as follows. First, the cause of the dispute lies in a lack of preparedness on the part of the EU. Second, more innovative ways than safeguards will have to be found to address growing competition from China. Third, divergent interests among EU Member States made a coherent response to the competitive pressure posed by Chinese exports impossible, which might pose great problems in the future. Fourth, by shielding itself from Chinese exports while pushing China for market opening and liberalisation, the EU can be reproached for pursuing double standards.
Partnership or Rivalry between the EU, China and India in Central Asia: The Normative Power of Regional Actors with Global Aspirations
Authors: Kavalski Emilian
Published: October 2007

Abstract:  This analysis undertakes a preliminary conceptual assessment of the international agency of the EU, India and China in Central Asia. The contention is that the strategies advanced by Brussels, New Delhi and Beijing in the region reflect not only their desire to introduce a framework of predictability allowing them to make feasible calculations about future intentions, but also the increasing complexity of international life. The claim is that the external agency of the EU, India and China attests to the normative power of their foreign policies. However, the values and norms of the international agency of Brussels, New Delhi and Beijing reflect their distinct experiences and suggest their clashing interests. The article concludes with a brief appraisal of the prospective trends in the interactions between the EU, India and China in Central Asia and contends that it is the patterns of rivalry rather than cooperation that are likely to structure their global agency.
The Current Status and Prospects of the ‘Strategic Partnership’ between the EU and China: Towards the Conclusion of a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement
Authors: Sautenet Antoine
Published: October 2007

Abstract:  This article aims to evaluate legal aspects of the content and implementation of the ‘strategic partnership’ between the EU and the People's Republic of China. In the absence of a category of ‘emerging countries’ in international economic law, the Union must adapt its foreign policy with regard to this major economic and commercial power. Relations between the European Community and China are currently governed by a second‐generation agreement from 1985. However, a new dynamic has been set in motion since 2003, by the drawing up of preparatory documents by both parties and joint declarations at annual summits bearing on the ‘strategic partnership’. Seen in a long‐term perspective, this partnership helps provide a measure of predictability in relations between the two partners, through combining elements of ‘soft law’ and ‘hard law’. If the insertion of political dialogue into the strategic partnership seems to alter the coherence of the Union, notably with regard to the difficulties of implementing the dialogue on human rights, the added value of the partnership lies essentially in its economic and commercial aspects, through not only the putting into place of non‐binding ‘economic dialogues’ which cover a large spectrum of the relationship, but also by the multiplication of sector‐based accords in numerous areas (maritime transport, customs cooperation, etc.). This constant development has thus allowed parties, at the last annual summit, to envisage the conclusion of a new framework agreement: this is the origin of the mandate given to the Commission in December 2005 to conclude a partnership and cooperation agreement. This article will sketch out a forecast of the legal framework, measured against the yardsticks of Asiatic regional reconfigurations and the law of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The commercial risks of the relationship could imply the integration of the domains known as ‘WTO plus’ into the future agreement, notably in the field of investments and intellectual property rights, which would introduce a greater variety into the agreement. That being the case, the negotiations risk being equally fragile at the political level, in particular concerning the insertion of a clause of democratic conditionality in the future agreement. Also, any clash between the values and the interests of the EU would be uncomfortably highlighted during negotiations.
Restless legs symptoms without periodic limb movements in sleep and without response to dopaminergic agents: a restless legs‐like syndrome?
Authors: Baumann C. R. , Marti I. , Bassetti C. L.
Published: October 2007

Patients fulfilling the essential criteria for restless legs syndrome (RLS), but in whom the response to conventional dopaminergic treatment and the presence of periodic limb movements in sleep (PLMS) are lacking, are occasionally encountered. The aim of this study was to systematically characterize this population. In a consecutive series of 117 patients fulfilling the essential criteria for RLS, we assessed the presence of the following supportive criteria: PLMS >15/h on polysomnography, and favourable response to dopaminergic treatment. We differentiated patients with ‘classical RLS’ (RLS‐C; fulfilling at least one of the selected supportive criteria) from those with ‘RLS‐like syndrome’ (RLS‐L) in whom supportive criteria were not fulfilled. There were 103 RLS‐C and 14 RLS‐L patients. Compared with RLS‐C patients, RLS‐L patients were significantly younger, more severely affected by RSL symptoms, and were more probably to suffer from psychiatric comorbidities, than RLS‐C patients. This study proves the existence of patients with severe RLS symptoms, but without PLMS and without response to dopaminergic treatment, who are clinically distinct from patients with ‘classical RLS’.
Botulinum toxin type‐A for the treatment of inverse psoriasis
Authors: Zanchi M , Favot F , Bizzarini M , Piai M , Donini M , Sedona P
Published: October 2007

Objective  To evaluate the efficacy of botulinum toxin type‐A (BoNTA) for the treatment of inverse psoriasis.

Background  The use of BoNTA in inverse psoriasis would be a novel approach compared with conventional treatments and may act at the neuroglandular junction level to reduce local sweating with its consequent skin maceration and secondary infection and at the extra‐junction level to inhibit the liberation of neuropeptides and other pro‐algogenic substances responsible for inflammation, hyperkeratosis and pain transmission.

Patients  Fifteen patients with a confirmed diagnosis of inverse psoriasis were enrolled into the study. The psoriasis was located in several areas: armpits (7 patients), submammary sulcus (6 patients), intergluteal folds (7 patients), inguinal folds (5 patients) and umbilicus (1 patient).

Methods  BoNTA treatment comprised individual injections 2.8 cm apart of 2.4 U BoNTA, with a total dosage between 50 and 100 U per patient depending on the extent and severity of the psoriasis. Patient assessments were done pre‐treatment and at 2, 4 and 12 weeks post‐treatment. The erythematous area was defined using objective photographic evidence, and subjective patient assessment of pain and itch was assessed using a 10‐point visual analogue scale scale.

Results  Subjective symptomatology improved in all patients and erythema extension, intensity and infiltration improved in 13 of 15 patients (87%). Treatment was well tolerated with no reported adverse events.

Conclusions  BoNTA therapy resulted in improvements in subjective patient symptomatology and objective reductions in erythema and maceration in the treated areas according to photographic evidence. Further large‐scale methodologically rigorous studies are required to investigate the safety and efficacy of BoNTA in this indication.
The Validity of a Personality Disorder Diagnosis for People with an Intellectual Disability
Authors: Moreland Jessica , Hendy Steve , Brown Freddy
Published: October 2007

Background  It has long been appreciated that people with intellectual disabilities experience mental health problems. Studies into the prevalence of personality disorder in the population of people with an intellectual disability indicate significant variations, which have no clear explanation.

Method  Work on personality disorder and personality is reviewed.

Results  This article will outline some of the reasons for the variations in the reported prevalence figures including the impact of diagnostic overshadowing, problems inherent within the diagnostic classification systems and instruments that have a significant impact upon the reliability of a diagnosis. It will also argue that there are some fundamental issues relating to the validity of the construct of personality disorder and its application to the population of people with intellectual disabilities. The article notes that the model of personality, which in itself is not without critics, is derived from research on the general population and has not been integrated with personality research conducted within the population of people with an intellectual disability.

Conclusion  It is suggested that the current diagnostic systems need to be reviewed in the context of an existing evidence base from within the field of intellectual disabilities. There are grounds to be cautious with the current diagnostic process and to question its clinical utility. Furthermore, diagnosis may only serve as an intermediate step and as part of a more detailed nomothetic approach.
Effect of Service Structure and Organization on Staff Care Practices in Small Community Homes for People with Intellectual Disabilities
Authors: Mansell Jim , Beadle‐Brown Julie , Whelton Beckie , Beckett Celia , Hutchinson Aislinn
Published: October 2007

Background  An important question in community living is what factors influence the extent to which staff provide ‘active support’.

Methods  Engagement, care practices and a range of staff and organizational characteristics were studied in 72 residential homes serving 359 adults with intellectual disabilities. Managers in 36 settings were trained in person‐centred active support (PCAS). A group comparison design and multivariate analysis was used to investigate the relationship between variables.

Results  The PCAS group showed more active support, assistance, other contact from staff and engagement in meaningful activity but no difference in choice‐making or assessment of participation in activities of daily living. The PCAS group had more staff with a professional qualification, were more likely to think that challenging behaviour was caused by lack of stimulation, had attitudes more in line with a policy of community care, rated most care tasks as less difficult, and were more organized to deliver active support. The comparison group were more likely to think that challenging behaviour was learned negative behaviour, showed more teamwork and were more satisfied. Multivariate analysis identified a range of staff and organizational variables associated with engagement and active support.

Conclusions  The results suggest that some variables which have not hitherto been studied in relation with active support are associated with it. Professional qualification, knowledge and experience appear to be important as do some staff attitudes, clear management guidance, more frequent supervision and team meetings, training and support for staff to help residents engage in meaningful activity.
Abdominal massage for the treatment of idiopathic constipation in children with profound learning disabilities: a single case study design
Authors: Moss Lucy , Smith Melanie , Wharton Sarah , Hames Annette
Published: October 2007

Accessible summary

This report describes how abdominal massage was provided to five children, to see if it would help with their constipation.

Children and adults with learning disabilities often have long‐term constipation that is treated with laxatives.

The abdominal massage was not effective for all the children.

However the parents enjoyed doing the massage and all thought that it was a helpful and enjoyable experience for them and their children.

Chronic constipation is a common problem in people with learning disabilities. Treatment often involves dietary changes or long‐term laxative use. The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of abdominal massage. The participants were five children with profound learning disabilities and additional physical difficulties. Their long‐standing idiopathic constipation was managed by laxatives. Intervention lasted up to 35 weeks, during which participants received 20 min of massage at least twice daily. Parents were asked to maintain stable use of laxatives during the intervention phase, although some chose to withdraw laxatives during abdominal massage intervention. Abdominal massage appeared to result in stools of a more ‘normal’ consistency in some cases. However, no significant differences were found in stool frequency. Parents reported that abdominal massage was a positive experience. In addition, they believed that massage was an effective treatment for constipation. As a result, laxative use was reduced in some cases, apparently with no ill‐effects. These subjective beliefs were not, however, generally borne out by the objective results.
Arbuscular mycorrhizal associations in Lycopodiaceae
Authors: Winther Jennifer L. , Friedman William E.
Published: October 2007

Commentary p 572
The N2pc component and its links to attention shifts and spatially selective visual processing
Authors: Kiss Monika , Van Velzen José , Eimer Martin
Published: October 2007

The N2pc component has recently become a popular tool in attention research. To investigate whether this component exclusively reflects attentional target selection or also prior stages in attentional processing (covert orienting, target‐unspecific spatial attention), a spatial cuing procedure was combined with a visual search task. In some blocks, informative cues indicated the side of upcoming singleton targets that were present on most trials among uniform distractors. In other blocks, cues were spatially uninformative, and no preparatory shifts of attention were possible. The N2pc in response to targets was unaffected by this manipulation, showing that this component is not associated with attention shifts. Following informative cues, an attenuated N2pc was elicited by uniform nontarget arrays, suggesting that the N2pc may also reflect spatially specific processing of stimulus features at task‐relevant locations prior to target selection.
Modulation of ongoing cognitive processes by emotionally intense words
Authors: Carretié Luis , Hinojosa José A. , Albert Jacobo , López‐Martín Sara , De La Gándara Belén S. , Igoa José M. , Sotillo María
Published: October 2007

Contrary to what occurs with negative pictures, negative words are, in general, not capable of interfering with performance in ongoing cognitive tasks in normal subjects. A probable explanation is the limited arousing power of linguistic material. Especially intense words (insults and compliments), neutral personal adjectives, and pseudowords were presented to 28 participants while they executed a lexical decision task. Insults were associated with the poorest performance in the task and compliments with the best. Amplitude of the late positive component of the event‐related potentials, originating at parietal areas, was maximal in response to compliments and insults, but latencies were delayed in response to the latter. Results suggest that intense emotional words modulate ongoing cognitive processes through both bottom‐up (attentional capture by insults) and top‐down (facilitation of cognitive processing by arousing words) mechanisms.
Isolation and characterization of the first polymorphic microsatellite markers for Schistosoma haematobium and their application in multiplex reactions of larval stages
Authors: GOLAN R. , GOWER C. M. , EMERY A. M. , ROLLINSON D. , WEBSTER J. P.
Published: October 2007

The ability of microsatellite loci to reveal genetic diversity within the trematode Schistosoma haematobium is demonstrated for the first time. Nine novel polymorphic microsatellite markers were isolated and their viability assessed on 36 S. haematobium adult worm individuals from three geographical populations. Allelic diversity and gene diversity ranged from two to seven and from 0.29 to 0.76, respectively, suggesting high variability between individuals and between unrelated populations. Three primers also amplified Schistosoma mansoni and two Schistosoma japonicum. The results suggest these primers are useful for population genetic analyses of S. haematobium.