bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Market-Based Supply Chain Coordination by Matching Suppliers' Cost Structures with Buyers' Order Profiles
Authors: Xia Yu , Chen Bintong , Kouvelis Panos
Published: September 2008

We study competitive marketplaces with multiple suppliers and multiple buyers dealing with a single product. A buyer chooses the supplier who offers the best price for his order profile, as described by his order size and delivery frequency. A supplier's offering price reflects her logistic cost structure as captured by relevant economies of scale in a “setup cost” component, and storage- and distribution-related costs in a “holding cost per unit” component. We argue that the matching of buyers' order profiles to suppliers' cost structures is the main source of supply chain coordination benefit in this many-to-many supply chain. Such cost-effective matching can be achieved naturally through price competition among suppliers. We identify the segment of the buyer's order space that each supplier can win, and perform market share sensitivity analysis when a supplier's cost structure changes. The winning supplier, at the equilibrium of price competition, offers the lowest price of her closest competitor instead of the lowest price she can offer.
Maintaining Diagnostic Knowledge-Based Systems: A Control-Theoretic Approach
Authors: Bensoussan Alain , Mookerjee Radha , Mookerjee Vijay , Yue Wei T.
Published: September 2008

Diagnostic knowledge-based systems are used in a variety of application domains to support classification decisions. The effectiveness of such systems often decreases as the application environment or user preferences change over time. Hence, frequent adjustments to the system knowledge by a human expert become necessary. We study the problem of determining the optimal amount of effort that should be exerted to maintain the system over a planning horizon (finite or infinite). Using the receiver operating characteristic curve to derive a measure for system performance, we maximize system value by balancing system benefits with maintenance costs. The problem is cast as an optimal control model in which the goal is to choose the timing and extent of maintenance that must be expended to maximize system value. We find that the optimal solution usually possesses a steady-state component. The maintenance problem is also solved as a discrete, impulse control problem, as well as one where maintenance effort has a nonlinear impact on system performance.
Competing Through Cooperation: The Organization of Standard Setting in Wireless Telecommunications
Authors: Leiponen Aija Elina
Published: September 2008

This study examines cooperative standard setting in wireless telecommunications. Focusing on the competition among firms to influence formal standardization, the roles of standard-setting committees, private alliances, and industry consortia are highlighted. The empirical context is Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), an international standards-development organization in the wireless telecommunication industry. Panel data analyses exploiting natural experiments caused by a consortium merger and entry of Asian firms suggest that participation in industry consortia increases firms' contributions to the development of new technical specifications in 3GPP committees. Moreover, connections to standard-setting peers formed in consortia facilitate change requests to ongoing specifications. These results suggest that if firms in network technology industries want to influence the evolution of their industry, they should identify both formal standard-setting committees and industry consortia in which they can discuss, negotiate, and align positions on technical features with their peers. For policymakers, these results suggest that it is important to ensure that technical consortia remain open for all industry actors and that membership fees do not become prohibitive to small and resource-constrained players.
Asymptotically Optimal Control for an Assemble-to-Order System with Capacitated Component Production and Fixed Transport Costs
Authors: Plambeck Erica L.
Published: September 2008

This paper examines a two-tier assemble-to-order system. Customer orders for various products must be filled within the product-specific target lead time, or become lost sales. A product can be assembled instantaneously if its required components are in stock at the assembly facility. The production facility for each component is geographically distant from the assembly facility, and the transportation lead time is deterministic. Each shipment of components incurs a fixed cost and a variable cost per unit. The system manager must initially commit to the production capacity for each component. Then, in response to customer orders, he must dynamically manage production (expediting and salvaging) and shipping for each component, and the sequence of customer orders for assembly (how scarce components are allocated to outstanding orders). The objective is to minimize expected discounted costs for lost sales, production, and shipping. This discounted formulation accounts for financial inventory holding costs but not physical inventory holding costs. The main result is that as the order arrival rate for each product becomes large and the discount rate becomes small, a simple threshold policy with independent control of each component is asymptotically optimal. The policy is parameterized by five numbers for each component. Expressions for these parameters, the expected discounted cost, and the long-run average rates of salvaging and expediting are obtained by solving an approximating Brownian control problem. In a numerical example from the computer industry, the Brownian approximation is remarkably accurate.
Estimating Quantile Sensitivities
Authors: Hong L. Jeff
Published: September 2008

Quantiles of a random performance serve as important alternatives to the usual expected value. They are used in the financial industry as measures of risk and in the service industry as measures of service quality. To manage the quantile of a performance, we need to know how changes in the input parameters affect the output quantiles, which are called quantile sensitivities. In this paper, we show that the quantile sensitivities can be written in the form of conditional expectations. Based on the conditional-expectation form, we first propose an infinitesimal-perturbation-analysis (IPA) estimator. The IPA estimator is asymptotically unbiased, but it is not consistent. We then obtain a consistent estimator by dividing data into batches and averaging the IPA estimates of all batches. The estimator satisfies a central limit theorem for the i.i.d. data, and the rate of convergence is strictly slower than n−1/3. The numerical results show that the estimator works well for practical problems.
Firm Scope Experience, Historic Multimarket Contact with Partners, Centrality, and the Relationship Between Structural Holes and Performance
Authors: Shipilov Andrew V.
Published: September 2008

This study investigates characteristics that affect the relationship between firms' positions in a network of collaborative ties with other firms and their performance. Firms located in similarly structured networks rich in structural holes may obtain different performance results depending on their (1) capacity to absorb heterogeneous information, (2) ability to protect against partner noncooperation, and (3) bargaining power. In this paper, I argue that firms with a wide scope of experience have superior absorptive capacity for dealing with heterogeneous information; hence, such firms will be able to extract performance improvements from network positions rich in structural holes. Furthermore, firms with a high level of historic multimarket contact (MMC) with their partners are able to reduce the risks of partner noncooperation, hence augmenting their performance compared to firms in open networks that do not enjoy MMC with their own partners. Finally, firms of low centrality in the industry's network of alliances will extract performance benefits from enhancing bargaining power as a result of exploiting brokerage opportunities in open networks. These arguments are corroborated in a study of relationships formed among investment banks' advising on the merger and acquisition transactions in the United Kingdom between 1992 and 2001.
Effect of Resource Variation and Firm Experience on Market Entry Decisions: Evidence from U.S. Telecommunication Firms' International Expansion Decisions
Authors: Dowell Glen , Killaly Brad
Published: September 2008

We consider the role that resource variation plays in affecting a firm's market entry decision. Resource variation, represented by amplitude, frequency, and unpredictability of change in market demand, has been shown to affect organizations' decisions and life chances, but there is little evidence of the effect of variation on entry decisions. We hypothesize that resource variation in a market reduces entry but that not all firms are equally deterred by variation. In particular, firm experience with entry in general and with the target market specifically moderate the overall effect of market variation on entry. Our analysis of foreign market entry by U.S. telecommunications firms from 1985 to 2000 indicates that variation does deter entry and that experience moderates this effect, though not all dimensions of variation have significant effects. These results inform our understanding of the effect of uncertainty on firms' behaviors, as well as factors impacting market entry decisions and how these decisions are affected by experience.
Near-Term Liability of Exploitation: Exploration and Exploitation in Multistage Problems
Authors: Fang Christina , Levinthal Daniel
Published: September 2008

The classic trade-off between exploration and exploitation reflects the tension between gaining new information about alternatives to improve future returns and using the information currently available to improve present returns. By considering these issues in the context of a multistage, as opposed to a repeated, problem environment, we show that exploratory behavior has value quite apart from its role in revising beliefs. We show that even if current beliefs provide an unbiased characterization of the problem environment, maximizing with respect to these beliefs may lead to an inferior expected payoff relative to other mechanisms that make less aggressive use of the organization's beliefs. Search can lead to more robust actions in multistage decision problems than maximization, a benefit quite apart from its role in the updating of beliefs.
Means vs. Ends: Implications of Process and Outcome Focus for Team Adaptation and Performance
Authors: Woolley Anita Williams
Published: September 2008

Knowledge work frequently involves both the redefinition of desired outcomes and the specification of task processes. The relative emphasis that teams place on these issues early in work can lead members to become “outcome focused” or “process focused,” with consequences for performance. This paper develops and explores a theory of how outcome focus and process focus develop in teams and the implications of each for team adaptation and performance. Outcome and process focus were both observed and experimentally manipulated in 90 teams working on an open-ended task. Measures of the teams' performance as well as level of action identification and ability to adapt work processes point to an advantage for outcome-focused teams in dynamic environments. Implications for the design and management of knowledge work teams are discussed.
Electron dynamics of low-pressure deposition plasma
Authors: Yasuda Hirotsugu , Ledernez Loic , Olcaytug Fethi , Urban Gerald
Published: September 2008

When the electric field in the dark gas phase reaches the threshold value, an electron avalanche (breakdown) occurs, which causes dissociation of organic molecules, excitation of chemically reactive molecular gas, and/or ionization of atomic gas, depending on the type of gas involved. The principles that govern these electron-impact reactions are collectively described by the term "electron dynamics". The electron-impact dissociation of organic molecules is the key factor for the deposition plasma. The implications of the interfacial avalanche of the primary electrons on the deposition plasma and also other plasma processes are discussed. The system dependency of low-pressure plasma deposition processes is an extremely important factor that should be reckoned, because the electron dynamic reactions are highly dependent on every aspect of the reaction system. The secondary electron emission from the cathode is a misinterpretation of the interfacial electron avalanche of the primary electrons described in this paper.
Plasma synthesis of group IV quantum dots for luminescence and photovoltaic applications
Authors: Kortshagen Uwe , Anthony Rebeccah , Gresback Ryan , Holman Zachary , Ligman Rebekah , Liu Chin-Yi , Mangolini Lorenzo , Campbell Stephen A.
Published: September 2008

The unique ability of nonthermal plasmas to form high-quality nanocrystals (NCs) of covalently bonded semiconductors, including the group IV elements silicon (Si) and germanium (Ge), has been extensively demonstrated over the past few years. Recently, plasma processing was also extended to the surface functionalization of NCs, imparting further functionalities to plasma-produced NCs such as solution-processability or the passivation of electronic surface states. This paper focuses on the synthesis and surface functionalization of Si- and Ge-NCs, and on their application in luminescent and photovoltaic devices.
Atmospheric-pressure, nonthermal plasma sterilization of microorganisms in liquids and on surfaces
Authors: Akishev Yuri , Grushin Michail , Karalnik Vladimir , Trushkin Nickolay , Kholodenko Vasiliy , Chugunov Vladimir , Kobzev Eugeniy , Zhirkova Nadezhda , Irkhina Irina , Kireev Georgiy
Published: September 2008

Gas discharge plasma inactivation of microorganisms at low (close to ambient) temperature is a promising area of investigation that is attracting widespread interest. This paper describes atmospheric-pressure, nonthermal plasma (NTP) methods for cold sterilization of liquids and thermal sensitive surfaces. These methods are based on the use of direct current (DC) gas discharge plasma sources fed with steady-state high voltage. Parameters characterizing the plasma sources used (plasma-forming gas, gas flow rate, electric power consumed, etc.) are given. The results for plasma sterilization of different microorganisms (vegetative cells, spores, fungi, biofilms) are presented. An empirical mathematical approach is developed for describing NTP inactivation of microorganisms. This approach takes into account not only the destruction of different components of the cells, but their reparation as well.
Modeling time-dependent phenomena in plasma spraying of liquid precursors
Authors: Vardelle Armelle , Chazelas Christophe , Marchand Cecile , Mariaux Gilles
Published: September 2008

The recently developed plasma spray processes using liquid precursors make it possible to produce finely structured coatings with a broad range of microstructures and, thus, properties. However, coating reproducibility and control of the deposition efficiency are critical to industrial acceptance of these processes. Both depend on time-dependent interactions between the plasma jet and liquid material. Transient and realistic modeling of the liquid spray process may help to increase the understanding of the process. A comprehensive model should involve the formation of the plasma jet inside the torch and the transient specific treatment (break-up, droplet collision, coalescence, evaporation, chemistry) of the liquid material in the plasma jet. If much progress has been recently made on the modeling of the interaction of arc and transverse flow in the plasma torch, further theoretical and experimental research is needed, especially in respect of liquid injection and fragmentation under plasma spray conditions.
Solution plasma processing (SPP)
Authors: Takai Osamu
Published: September 2008

Liquid-phase plasma is not well known, although it has been used sparingly in water treatments and electrical discharge machining. We have named the liquid-phase plasma "solution plasma" and developed solution plasma processing (SPP). This paper reports the applications of SPP to syntheses of nanoparticles, surface modification of metals, and sterilization of water.
Recommendations on measurement and analysis of results obtained on biological substances using isothermal titration calorimetry (IUPAC Technical Report)
Authors: Schwarz Frederick P. , Reinisch Timm , Hinz Hans-Jürgen , Surolia Avadhesha
Published: September 2008

Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) is widely used to determine the thermodynamics of biological interactions including protein-protein, small molecule-protein, protein-DNA, small molecule-DNA, and antigen-antibody interactions. An ITC measurement consists of monitoring the transfer of heat between an analyte solution in a sample vessel and a reference solution in a reference vessel upon injection of a small aliquot of titrant solution into the sample vessel at a fixed ITC operating temperature. A binding isotherm is generated from the heat-transferred-per-injection data and values for the binding constants, the apparent binding enthalpies, and the apparent ratio of the amount of titrant to analyte for the binding reaction are then determined from fits of a binding model, whether it is a single site, identical multi-site, or an interacting multi-site binding model, to the binding isotherm. Prior to the fitting procedure, corrections should be made for contributions from extraneous heat of mixing determined separately from injections of the titrant into just the dialysate/buffer solution. Ultra-high binding constants, which cannot be directly determined from an ITC measurement, can be determined by a displacement ITC method where injections of the tight-binding titrant into a solution of a weaker-binding titrant-analyte complex displaces the weaker-binding titrant from the complex. The Michaelis and catalytic constants can be determined for an enzyme reaction from injections of a substrate or enzyme titrant into an enzyme or substrate analyte solution. Several binding reactions are suggested to check the operating performance of the ITC. The reporting of ITC results must be specific with regard to the composition of the titrant and the analyte solutions, the temperature, and the model used in the analysis.
Stage-Gate Controls, Learning Failure, and Adverse Effect on Novel New Products
Authors: Sethi Rajesh , Iqbal Zafar
Published: September 2008

This article argues that Stage-Gate controls have the potential of restricting learning in a new product development project and thus hurting the performance of novel new products. Specifically, the authors examine whether control on new product development exercised through rigorous gate review criteria increases project inflexibility, which in turn leads to increased failure to learn. They also focus on whether the effect of project inflexibility is worsened when there is turbulence in the firm's technological and market environment. Furthermore, the authors study whether failure to learn can have an adverse effect on new product performance when the product is novel. Finally, they examine whether a certain relaxation in gate evaluation (gate conditionality) that has been suggested recently mitigates the adverse effect of rigorously enforced controls. The results, which are based on a survey of 120 projects that used the Stage-Gate process for new product development, show that repeated application of strictly enforced and objective evaluation criteria for improved control makes projects more inflexible. Gate conditionality does not mitigate the adverse effect of gate review criteria. Project inflexibility leads to learning failure, and this effect is worsened when the technological environment of the firm is turbulent. In turn, learning failure adversely affects the market performance of novel new products.
Determination of TSH receptor antibodies and its diagnostic worth1
Authors: Albrecht Christin , Steveling Antje , Wallaschofski Henri
Published: September 2008

Clinical thyrotoxicosis in Graves' disease patients is caused by stimulatory thyrotropin receptor antibodies (TRAbs). New methods of detecting these antibodies and their clinical use are addressed and discussed in detail. These highly sensitive assays are widely available and cost effective, and their routine clinical use allows a clear differentiation between immunogenic hyperthyroidism and other forms. Despite improved sensitivity and specificity, the new TRAb assays cannot lead to an individual prognosis for Graves' disease or endocrine orbitopathy.
Diagnostic features and resistance testing for Pneumocystis jirovecii
1
Authors: Riebold D. , Loebermann M. , Reisinger E.C.
Published: September 2008

Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP), caused by the fungus Pneumocystis jirovecii (P. jirovecii), is known chiefly from its involvement of HIV patients. More recently, however, the number of PCP cases has increased after organ transplants and in other immunosuppressed patients. Laboratory diagnosis of PCP often employs traditional staining methods with low sensitivity. Molecular methods using the polymerase chain reaction can achieve a sensitivity of >95% and can – depending on the detected gene – also be used for resistance testing to trace chains of infection.
De prohibitione carnis. Meat Abstention and the Priscillianists
Authors: Ferreiro Alberto
Published: September 2008

Priscillian von Avila zog in Gallien und Italien im 4. Jh. breite Aufmerksamkeit auf sich, was dazu führte, daß einige Bischöfe ihn aller möglichen Häresien verdächtigten. Unter diesen Häresievorwürfen findet sich auch der Vorwurf, Priscillian und seine Anhänger verträten hinsichtlich des Verzichts auf Fleischgenuß eine manichäische Meinung. Dieser Vorwurf, der sich in verschiedenen Quellen findet, hat bisher nur wenig Aufmerksamkeit bei modernen Forschern gefunden. Der Artikel untersucht diesen Vorwurf und geht der Frage nach, ob der Vorwurf berechtigt war. Dabei geht er den Hinweisen auf den teilweise kaum erkennbaren Manichäismus dieser Zeit in Gallien und Italien nach und berücksichtigt auch die im Westen vergleichsweise junge monastische Bewegung.
Bους, Bαινχωωχ und Septuaginta-Psalm 90? Überlegungen zu den sogenannten ‚Bous‘-Amuletten und dem beliebtesten Bibeltext für apotropäische Zwecke
Authors: Kraus Thomas J.
Published: September 2008

The recent publication of a wood tablet with the words Bους and Bαινχωωχ on it prompted me to reconsider other similar tablets (also some with the very first words of Septuagint-Psalm 90), to categorize them, and to reflect upon the background of their textual and iconographic elements. Moreover, in addition to a sound systematization of the twelve known ‘Bous’ amulets I attempt to utilize the results of my own preoccupation with diverse objects with Septuagint-Psalm 90 in apotropaic use in order to shed light on both the tablets themselves and the people and their ideas behind them.
A metabolikus képalkotás – PET, PET/CT – onkosebészeti vonatkozásair
Authors: Garai Ildikó , Tóth Csaba , Szabados Lajos , Sóvágó Judit , Tóth Lajos , Csiki Zoltán
Published: September 2008

Absztrakt

A PET/CT-vizsgálatok hozzáférhetősége az utóbbi években Magyarországon is jelentősen javult, évente a három hazai PET/CT-központban megközelítően 10 000 finanszírozott vizsgálatra van lehetőség. Az FDG-PET/CT-vizsgálat kiemelkedő érzékenységével és fajlagosságával mára a tumordiagnosztika hatékony módszerévé vált. Hasonlóan más képalkotó technikákhoz a klinikus kezében a PET/CT is akkor igazán használható, költséghatékony vizsgálat, ha ismeri az előnyeit és korlátait. Ebben a tanulmányban a leggyakoribb, elsősorban sebészeti vonatkozású PET/CT-indikációkat tekintettük át, a módszer alkalmazhatóságát is figyelembe véve.
Subcapsularis haematoma és graftruptura májátültetés utánr
Authors: Görög Dénes , Fehérvári Imre , Doros Attila , Nemes Balázs , Máthé Zoltán , Kóbori László , Járay Jenő
Published: September 2008

Absztrakt

Májtranszplantáció után a graft subcapsularis haematomája és/vagy rupturája, mely kialakulhat spontán, sérülés vagy invazív radiológiai beavatkozásokat követően, ritkán előforduló, súlyos szövődmény. Szerzők 350 májátültetés során észlelt négy esetből három ismertetésével illusztrálják a szövődmény súlyosságát. Az első esetben graftbiopszia utáni álaneurysma halálos kimenetelű májrupturát eredményezett. A második esetben a donormáj felszínes sérülésének transzplantáció után mély ruptura lett a következménye, amely miatt májresectiót kellett végezni. A beteg septicus állapotban meghalt. A harmadik beteg műtét során észlelt subcapsularis haematomáját sikeresen kezelték, és a beteg meggyógyult. Eddigi tapasztalataik és az irodalmi ajánlások alapján a szerzők javaslatot fogalmaznak meg a műtét során keletkező májtok alatti vérömlenyek kezelésére, melynek lényegi részét képezi az argon-diathermia és a fibrinogennel és thrombinnal bevont kollagénszivacs alkalmazása.
Language Spoken and Differences in Health Status, Access to Care, and Receipt of Preventive Services Among US Hispanics
Authors: DuBard C. Annette , Gizlice Ziya
Published: September 2008

Objectives. We examined self-reported health status, health behaviors, access to care, and use of preventive services of the US Hispanic adult population to identify language-associated disparities.

Methods. We analyzed 2003 to 2005 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data from 45 076 Hispanic adults in 23 states, who represented 90% of the US Hispanic population, and compared 25 health indicators between Spanish-speaking Hispanics and English-speaking Hispanics.

Results. Physical activity and rates of chronic disease, obesity, and smoking were significantly lower among Spanish-speaking Hispanics than among English-speaking Hispanics. Spanish-speaking Hispanics reported far worse health status and access to care than did English-speaking Hispanics (39% vs 17% in fair or poor health, 55% vs 23% uninsured, and 58% vs 29% without a personal doctor) and received less preventive care. Adjustment for demographic and socioeconomic factors did not mitigate the influence of language on these health indicators.

Conclusions. Spanish-language preference marks a particularly vulnerable subpopulation of US Hispanics who have less access to care and use of preventive services. Priority areas for Spanish-speaking adults include maintenance of healthy behaviors, promotion of physical activity and preventive health care, and increased access to care.
Ability of Ethnic Self-Identification to Partition Modifiable Health Risk Among US Residents of Mexican Ancestry
Authors: Barger Steven D. , Gallo Linda C.
Published: September 2008

Objectives. We examined the relationship between ethnic self-identification and the partitioning of health risk within a Mexican American population.

Methods. We combined data from the 2000 to 2002 National Health Interview Surveys to obtain a large (N = 10 044) sample of US residents of Mexican ancestry. We evaluated health risk, defined as self-reported current smoking, overweight, and obesity, and compared the predictive strength of health risk correlates across self-identified Mexican and Mexican American participants.

Results. Self-identified Mexican participants were less likely to smoke (odds ratio [OR] = 0.70; 95% confidence interval[CI] = 0.60, 0.83; P < .001) and to be obese (OR = 0.66; 95% CI = 0.56, 0.77; P < .001) than were self-identified Mexican American participants. Within-group analyses found that sociodemographic predictors had inconsistent and even contradictory patterns of association with health risk across the 2 subgroups. Health risk was consistently lower among immigrants relative to US-born participants. Ethnic self-identification effects were independent of socioeconomic status.

Conclusions. US residents of Mexican ancestry showed substantial within-group differences in health risk and risk correlates. Ethnic self-identification is a promising strategy to clarify differential risk and may help resolve apparent discrepancies in health risk correlates in this literature.
Insurance Status and Quality of Diabetes Care in Community Health Centers
Authors: Zhang James X. , Huang Elbert S. , Drum Melinda L. , Kirchhoff Anne C. , Schlichting Jennifer A. , Schaefer Cynthia T. , Heuer Loretta J. , Chin Marshall H.
Published: September 2008

Objectives. We sought to compare quality of diabetes care by insurance type in federally funded community health centers.

Method. We categorized 2018 diabetes patients, randomly selected from 27 community health centers in 17 states in 2002, into 6 mutually exclusive insurance groups. We used multivariate logistic regression analyses to compare quality of diabetes care according to 6 National Committee for Quality Assurance Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set diabetes processes of care and outcome measures.

Results. Thirty-three percent of patients had no health insurance, 24% had Medicare only, 15% had Medicaid only, 7% had both Medicare and Medicaid, 14% had private insurance, and 7% had another insurance type. Those without insurance were the least likely to meet the quality-of-care measures; those with Medicaid had a quality of care similar to those with no insurance.

Conclusions. Research is needed to identify the major mediators of differences in quality of care by insurance status among safety-net providers such as community health centers. Such research is needed for policy interventions at Medicaid benefit design and as an incentive to improve quality of care.
Immigrant Children's Reliance on Public Health Insurance in the Wake of Immigration Reform
Authors: Pati Susmita , Danagoulian Shooshan
Published: September 2008

Objectives. We sought to determine whether the reversal of the public charge rule of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which may have required families to pay for benefits previously received at no cost, led to immigrant children becoming increasingly reliant on public health insurance programs.

Methods. We conducted a secondary data analysis focusing on low-income children sampled in the 1997 through 2004 versions of the National Health Interview Survey.

Results. Between 1997 and 2004, public health insurance enrollments and the numbers of uninsured foreign-born children in the United States increased by 3.1% and 2.7%, respectively. Using multinomial logistic regression models to account for the substantial differences in socioeconomic status between foreign-born and US-born children, we found that low-income US-born children were just as likely as foreign-born children to have public health insurance coverage (odds ratio [OR] = 1.16; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.89, 1.52) and that, after 2000, foreign-born children were 1.59 times (95% CI = 1.24, 2.05) more likely than were US-born children to be uninsured (vs publicly insured).

Conclusions. In the wake of the reversal of the public charge rule, immigrant children are increasingly likely to be uninsured as opposed to relying on public health insurance.
Bringing Health Care Advocacy to a Public Defender's Office
Authors: Venters Homer , Lainer-Vos Jesse , Razvi Asiya , Crawford Jennifer , Venable Porsha Shaf'on , Drucker Ernest
Published: September 2008

Recent arrestees often face barriers to health care access as they move through the judicial process, placing them at significant health risk. The immediate postrelease period generally involves numerous court dates, meetings, and other obligations that can fragment the delivery of care. A residency training program collaborated with public defenders to facilitate medical screenings and referrals for recent arrestees in Bronx County, New York. From May 2005 to June 2007, a medical resident met with 104 arrestees at the public defenders’ office to take medical histories, make medical referrals, and make appointments at a primary care clinic. Arrestees’ kept-appointment rate at the clinic (66%) exceeded the clinic's overall 2006–2007 kept-appointment rate for first appointments (50%). Collaboration between public defenders and physicians can facilitate arrestees’ access to health care.
Neighborhoods and Obesity in Later Life
Authors: Grafova Irina B. , Freedman Vicki A. , Kumar Rizie , Rogowski Jeannette
Published: September 2008

Objectives. We examined the influence of neighborhood environment on the weight status of adults 55 years and older.

Methods. We conducted a 2-level logistic regression analysis of data from the 2002 wave of the Health and Retirement Study. We included 8 neighborhood scales: economic advantage, economic disadvantage, air pollution, crime and segregation, street connectivity, density, immigrant concentration, and residential stability.

Results. When we controlled for individual- and family-level confounders, living in a neighborhood with a high level of economic advantage was associated with a lower likelihood of being obese for both men (odds ratio [OR] = 0.86; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.80, 0.94) and women (OR = 0.83; 95% CI = 0.77, 0.89). Men living in areas with a high concentration of immigrants and women living in areas of high residential stability were more likely to be obese. Women living in areas of high street connectivity were less likely to be overweight or obese.

Conclusions. The mechanisms by which neighborhood environment and weight status are linked in later life differ by gender, with economic and social environment aspects being important for men and built environment aspects being salient for women.
Individual and Area-Based Indicators of Acculturation and the Metabolic Syndrome Among Low-Income Mexican American Women Living in a Border Region
Authors: Espinosa de los Monteros Karla , Gallo Linda C. , Elder John P. , Talavera Gregory A.
Published: September 2008

Objectives. We sought to examine the relationships between individual and area-based indicators of acculturation and metabolic syndrome (MetS) risk among a sample of Mexican American women living in the California–Baja California border region.

Methods. We examined data collected between October 2003 and December 2004 from 141 women (mean age = 47.07 years) who completed physical and psychosocial assessments. We reviewed medical records for laboratory values.

Results. Individual-level US acculturation was associated with a greater consumption of fruits, vegetables, and fiber; increased odds of engaging in health-enhancing levels of physical activity; and decreased odds of meeting the clinical criteria for MetS. Moreover, beyond the influence of individual-level factors, US neighborhood acculturation was associated with less fat intake.

Conclusions. These findings provide preliminary evidence for a relationship between acculturation and the development of MetS in this population. Such information may assist efforts aimed at understanding and eliminating ethnic disparities in MetS risk and related health conditions.
Diabetes and Associated Risk Factors in Patients Referred for Physical Therapy in a National Primary Care Electronic Medical Record Database
Authors: Kirkness Carmen S , Marcus Robin L , LaStayo Paul C , Asche Carl V , Fritz Julie M
Published: September 2008

Objective

The prevalence of diabetes (type 2) in the general population has increased dramatically over the last decade, yet patients with diabetes are rarely referred for physical therapy management of their condition. The majority of patients referred for outpatient physical therapy have musculoskeletal-related conditions. Secondary conditions, such as diabetes, may be prevalent in this population, and physical therapists need to be aware of this to adjust interventions and treatment. The purpose of this article is to describe the prevalence of diabetes and the associated risk factors in adults referred for physical therapy in a primary care outpatient setting.

Subjects and Methods

Patients aged 18 years or older referred for physical therapy were identified from the Centricity Electronic Medical Records database during the period of December 13, 1995, to June 30, 2007. Patients were evaluated on the basis of clinical (height, weight, blood pressure, laboratory values), treatment (prescriptions), and diagnostic (ICD-9 codes) criteria to identify the presence of diabetes or associated risk factors (eg, hypertension, elevated triglycerides, low high-density lipoprotein, body mass index, and prediabetes).

Results

There were 52,667 patients referred for physical therapy, the majority of whom were referred for a musculoskeletal-related condition. Approximately 80% of the total study population had diabetes, prediabetes, or risk factors associated with diabetes. The prevalence of diabetes in the study population was 13.2%. Of the diabetes-associated risk factors evaluated, hypertension was the most prevalent (70.4%), and less than half (39.1%) of the study population had an elevated body mass index. Only 20% of the study population had values within normal limits for all clinical, treatment, and diagnostic criteria. Clinical and treatment measurements available to physical therapists identified the majority of associated risk factors.

Conclusions

Although not the primary indications for referral, diabetes and associated risk factors were identified in a high proportion of the study population. The evaluation of associated conditions in the outpatient orthopedic setting needs to be considered for treatment planning adjustments and to optimize care.
A Difficult Birth: Bringing Staging Studies to the Pages ofModern Drama
Authors: Carlson Marvin
Published: September 2008

Within American theatre scholarship there is a long-standing tradition of a distinction between drama, which considers the play primarily as a literary text, and theatre, which focuses upon the play's realization on stage. The very title of the journal Modern Drama seemingly places it on the literary side of this division, and that has indeed been its primary orientation. From the very beginning, however, most notably in the including of regular reports on theatrical activity abroad, the journal showed an interest in performance as well as literary text. A much more distinct interest in performance appeared in the journal from the early 1980s onward, with a series of special issues on contemporary experimental work in the theatre. Oddly enough, however, despite a wide-ranging interest in the staging of such experimental theatre, the journal only very rarely offered essays discussing the staging of such canonical authors as Ibsen, Chekhov, Williams, and Strindberg, whose plays had been from the beginning the center of the journal's concerns. This rather odd disjuncture may in part be due to the fact that the professional theatre in the United States offers far fewer major revivals of such authors for study than do the world's other major theatre-producing countries or it may owe something to the long-standing assumption that “drama” refers only to plays as literature. Nevertheless, a number of recent essays in the journal, most notably one by the leading German theatre scholar, Erika Fischer-Lichte, suggest how the journal might more fully fulfill its mission by presenting more work in this important area, hitherto surprisingly unrepresented in its pages.
The Gas Heart: Disfigurement and the Dada Body
Authors: Garner Stanton B.
Published: September 2008

This article explores the impact of facial injury and reconstructive surgery on Tristan Tzara's Dada play The Gas Heart. The European theatre of World War I saw an unprecedented number of facial injuries and other instances of physical mutilation, and their prevalence inaugurated a social crisis of appearance and representation. With its dramaturgy of fragmentation, Tzara's play provides a theatrical field of face and defacement, figure and disfiguration. The body to which it gives voice is a body deeply embedded in its historical, cultural, and artistic moment. In its giving and taking away of faces, it reflects—and transforms—a cultural anxiety over the destruction of the human form and the claims of identity, normality, and corporeal integrity to which it has been historically subordinated. While the brilliantly re-formed, constantly changing human body that emerges from The Gas Heart stands in opposition to the normalized body posited by reconstructive medicine, Tzara's body-in-pieces reveals the wider field of permutations and possibilities—material, subjective, aesthetic—that the shattered bodies of World War I helped open to view.
Antígonaand the Modernity of the Dead
Authors: Lane Jill
Published: September 2008

This essay analyses the play, Antígona, by Peruvian poet José Watanabe, developed in 2000 in collaboration with the actress Teresa Ralli, long-time member of the Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani. The story of Antigone is retold in the aftermath of the long period of civil violence in Peru from 1980 to 2000, shaped by the armed conflict waged between the Marxist–Maoist group Sendero Luminoso (the Shining Path), led by Abimael Guzmán, and the military, ultimately led by the president-turned-dictator, Alberto Fujimori. Watanabe's Antigone is aligned with contemporary citizens searching for missing family members “disappeared” by the state or assassinated by the Shining Path; Ismene is aligned with those who did not act during the war but are invited to seek justice today.
Waiting for Recognition: An Aristotle for “Non-Aristotelian” Drama
Authors: Fuchs Elinor
Published: September 2008

Aristotle's Poetics is thought to have little practical value for the student of theatre today, but its analysis of plot is a valuable tool for dramaturgical analysis. A search for peripeteia, anagnorisis, and pathos will reveal, with startling clarity, the shape and dynamics of dramatic structures, even those thought to be “non-Aristotelian.” A reading of Waiting for Godot against the Aristotelian plot structure demonstrates the enduring power of Aristotle's plot terms.
TeachingA Doll House, Rachel, andMarisol: Domestic Ideals, Possessive Individuals, and Modern Drama
Authors: Lee Josephine
Published: September 2008

I use C.B. Macpherson's concept of “possessive individualism” to examine the intersecting dimensions of race, gender, ownership, mobility, domesticity, and the self in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House, Angelina Weld Grimké's Rachel, and José Rivera's Marisol.
Jane Harrison and the Savage Dionysus: Archaeological Voyages, Ritual Origins, Anthropology, and the Modern Theatre
Authors: Peters Julie stone
Published: September 2008

In the 1890s, reading turn-of-the-century anthropology, the classicist Jane Ellen Harrison began to develop her theory of the ritual origins of theatre. Embarking on a series of “inconceivably primitive and savage” journeys, she started to leave behind the world of aesthetic antiquarianism and beautiful Greek theatricals, in search of surviving primitive ritual: performances that could efface the boundaries between spectator and spectacle, immerse one in an ecstatic collectivity, and transcend both beauty and theatre itself, which (as she wrote with anti-theatrical gusto) she had come to “loath[e].” This essay explores Harrison's particular version of ritual theory, her creation of an artefact- and performance-based theatre history, and her rejection of theatre (“frivolous mimicry”) for the primal dromenon, or rite, which remained for her the true essence of drama, – suggesting her importance for our understanding of theatrical modernism, the twentieth-century performance avant-garde, and what would eventually become some of the central concerns of performance studies.
From Coward and Rattigan to Osborne: Or the Enduring Importance of Look Back in Anger
Authors: Gilleman Luc
Published: September 2008

Critics such as Dan Rebellato and Dominic Shellard are questioning the seminal influence of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger on the development of post-war British drama. The result is a renewed appreciation for the plays of Noël Coward and Terrence Rattigan. The present article seeks to define the contribution of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger to contemporary British drama by comparing it with Coward's The Vortex and Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea. It argues for Look Back in Anger's enduring importance, claiming that it assumes a more complex and troubling relationship between perception, cognition, and articulation.
“Vinløv i håret”: The Relationship between Women, Language, and Power in Ibsen's Hedda Gabler
Authors: Thresher Tanya
Published: September 2008

This article examines the relationships among language, power, and gender in Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. It shows how the central character in Ibsen's play, while conscious of the manipulative potential of words, nevertheless fails to negotiate that potential and ultimately chooses silence as a means to challenge her position in the patriarchal order. Such an analysis of the power of words represents a continuation of Ibsen's own analysis of the mechanisms of meaning and highlights the playwright's aesthetic self-consciousness, both of which are central elements in Ibsen's modernism.
Medea as Material: Heiner Müller, Myth, and Text
Authors: Campbell Peter A.
Published: September 2008

This essay examines Despoiled Shore Medeamaterial Landscape with Argonauts, Heiner Müller's postmodern remaking of the Medea myth. I argue that Medea is the ideal centre for Müller's critique of the western subject, as she represents the destructive future that the East German Müller sees as both hopeful and inevitable. Müller explodes Medea's potential by using her not as a character but as material, creating various irresolvable juxtapositions and contradictions of character, structure, narrative, and performance. This forces a confrontation with the cultural and theatrical legacy of Greek tragedy and presents to artists and audiences a crisis of culture and interpretation.
Decadal changes in glacier parameters in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru, derived from remote sensing
Authors: Racoviteanu Adina E. , Arnaud Yves , Williams Mark W. , Ordoñez Julio
Published: September 2008

We present spatial patterns of glacier fluctuations from the Cordillera Blanca, Peru, (glacier area, terminus elevations, median elevations and hypsography) at decadal timescales derived from 1970 aerial photography, 2003 SPOT5 satellite data, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and statistical analyses. We derived new glacier outlines from the 2003 SPOT images, and ingested them in the Global Land and Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) glacier database. We examined changes in glacier area on the eastern and western side of the Cordillera in relation to topographic and climate variables (temperature and precipitation). Results include (1) an estimated glacierized area of 569.6 ± 21 km2 in 2003, (2) an overall loss in glacierized area of 22.4% from 1970 to 2003, (3) an average rise in glacier terminus elevations by 113 m and an average rise in the median elevation of glaciers by 66 m, showing a shift of ice to higher elevations, especially on the eastern side of the Cordillera, and (4) an increase in the number of glaciers, which indicates disintegration of ice bodies. Annual air temperature showed a significant upward trend in the last 30 years, with larger temperature increases at lower elevations. There was a slight but not significant decrease in precipitation. Our results are consistent with glacier retreat and warming trends noted in the last three decades in the tropics.