bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
“Like a Dance”: Performing Good Care for Persons with Dementia Living in Institutions
Authors: Helleberg Kristin Mjelde , Hauge Solveig
Published: September 2014

Dementia care is demanding, and health care workers can become emotionally exhausted and frustrated. Particularly, demanding aspects of dementia care include patient agitation and care-resistant behaviour. The aim of this study is to describe skilled staff’s understanding of high-quality praxis in dementia care units in nursing homes. Eight nurses and care workers were individually interviewed, and a qualitative design was used. Participants were recruited from two nursing homes in two towns in eastern Norway. The data were analysed following the hermeneutic tradition inspired by Kvale. The analyses revealed three main findings describing good care: (a) to find: to identify the patient’s personal characteristics, state, and needs, (b) to follow: to choose the right time and the tempo and to adapt to the patient’s sensitivity, and (c) to lead: to be in the forefront and prepared and to change the patient’s state. An overall interpretation of the findings is described by the metaphor of a dance between the patient and the caregiver.
Direct Chemosensitivity Monitoring Ex Vivo on Undissociated Melanoma Tumor Tissue by Impedance Spectroscopy
Authors: Jahnke Heinz-Georg , Poenick Sarah , Maschke Jan , Kendler Michael , Simon Jan C. , Robitzki Andrea A.
Published: September 2014

Stage III/IV melanoma remains incurable in most cases due to chemotherapeutic resistance. Thus, predicting and monitoring chemotherapeutic responses in this setting offer great interest. To overcome limitations of existing assays in evaluating the chemosensitivity of dissociated tumor cells, we developed a label-free monitoring system to directly analyze the chemosensitivity of undissociated tumor tissue. Using a preparation of tumor micro-fragments (TMF) established from melanoma biopsies, we characterized the tissue organization and biomarker expression by immunocytochemistry. Robust generation of TMF was established successfully and demonstrated on a broad range of primary melanoma tumors and tumor metastases. Organization and biomarker expression within the TMF were highly comparable with tumor tissue, in contrast to dissociated, cultivated tumor cells. Using isolated TMF, sensitivity to six clinically relevant chemotherapeutic drugs (dacarbazine, doxorubicin, paclitaxel, cisplatin, gemcitabine, and treosulfan) was determined by impedance spectroscopy in combination with a unique microcavity array technology we developed. In parallel, comparative analyses were performed on monolayer tumor cell cultures. Lastly, we determined the efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents on TMF by impedance spectroscopy to obtain individual chemosensitivity patterns. Our results demonstrated nonpredictable differences in the reaction of tumor cells to chemotherapy in TMF by comparison with dissociated, cultivated tumor cells. Our direct impedimetric analysis of melanoma biopsies offers a direct ex vivo system to more reliably predict patient-specific chemosensitivity patterns and to monitor antitumor efficacy. Cancer Res; 74(22); 6408–18. ©2014 AACR.
STAT1 Drives Tumor Progression in Serous Papillary Endometrial Cancer
Authors: Kharma Budiman , Baba Tsukasa , Matsumura Noriomi , Kang Hyun Sook , Hamanishi Junzo , Murakami Ryusuke , McConechy Melissa M. , Leung Samuel , Yamaguchi Ken , Hosoe Yuko , Yoshioka Yumiko , Murphy Susan K. , Mandai Masaki , Hunstman David G. , Konishi Ikuo
Published: September 2014

Recent studies of the interferon-induced transcription factor STAT1 have associated its dysregulation with poor prognosis in some cancers, but its mechanistic contributions are not well defined. In this study, we report that the STAT1 pathway is constitutively upregulated in type II endometrial cancers. STAT1 pathway alteration was especially prominent in serous papillary endometrial cancers (SPEC) that are refractive to therapy. Our results defined a “SPEC signature” as a molecular definition of its malignant features and poor prognosis. Specifically, we found that STAT1 regulated MYC as well as ICAM1, PD-L1, and SMAD7, as well as the capacity for proliferation, adhesion, migration, invasion, and in vivo tumorigenecity in cells with a high SPEC signature. Together, our results define STAT1 as a driver oncogene in SPEC that modulates disease progression. We propose that STAT1 functions as a prosurvival gene in SPEC, in a manner important to tumor progression, and that STAT1 may be a novel target for molecular therapy in this disease. Cancer Res; 74(22); 6519–30. ©2014 AACR.
Increased Reactive Oxygen Species, Metabolic Maladaptation, and Autophagy Contribute to Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension–Induced Ventricular Hypertrophy and Diastolic Heart Failure
Authors: Rawat Dhawjbahadur K. , Alzoubi Abdallah , Gupte Rakhee , Chettimada Sukrutha , Watanabe Makino , Kahn Andrea G. , Okada Takao , McMurtry Ivan F. , Gupte Sachin A.
Published: September 2014

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a debilitating and deadly disease with no known cure. Heart failure is a major comorbidity and a common cause of the premature death of patients with PAH. Increased asymmetrical right ventricular hypertrophy and septal wall thickening compress the left ventricular cavity and elicit diastolic heart failure. In this study, we used the Sugen5416/hypoxia/normoxia-induced PAH rat to determine whether altered pyridine nucleotide signaling in the failing heart contributes to 1) increased oxidative stress, 2) changes in metabolic phenotype, 3) autophagy, and 4) the PAH-induced failure. We found that increased reactive oxygen species, metabolic maladaptation, and autophagy contributed to the pathogenesis of right ventricular remodeling and hypertrophy that lead to left ventricular diastolic dysfunction. In addition, arterial elastance increased in PAH rats. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase is a major source of pyridine molecule (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate), which is a substrate for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidases in the heart. Dehydroepiandrosterone, a 17-ketosteroid that reduces pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular hypertrophy, inhibited glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, decreased oxidative stress, increased glucose oxidation and acetyl-coA, and reduced autophagy in the hearts of PAH rats. It also decreased arterial stiffness and improved left ventricular diastolic function. These findings demonstrate that pyridine nucleotide signaling, at least partly, mediates PAH-induced diastolic heart failure, and that reduction of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase-derived nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate is beneficial to improve left ventricle diastolic function.
Nebivolol, But Not Metoprolol, Lowers Blood Pressure in Nitric Oxide–Sensitive Human Hypertension
Authors: Okamoto Luis E. , Gamboa Alfredo , Shibao Cyndya A. , Arnold Amy C. , Choi Leena , Black Bonnie K. , Raj Satish R. , Robertson David , Biaggioni Italo
Published: September 2014

Nebivolol, unlike other selective β
1
-receptor blockers, induces vasodilation attributable to increased NO bioavailability. The relative contribution of this mechanism to the blood pressure (BP)–lowering effects of nebivolol is unclear because it is normally masked by baroreflex buffering. Autonomic failure provides a unique model of hypertension devoid of autonomic modulation but sensitive to the hypotensive effects of NO potentiation. We tested the hypothesis that nebivolol would decrease BP in these patients through a mechanism independent of β-blockade. We randomized 20 autonomic failure patients with supine hypertension (14 men; 69±2 years) to receive a single oral dose of placebo, nebivolol 5 mg, metoprolol 50 mg (negative control), and sildenafil 25 mg (positive control) on separate nights in a double-blind, crossover study. Supine BP was monitored every 2 hours from 8:00
pm
to 8:00
am
. Compared with placebo, sildenafil and nebivolol decreased systolic BP during the night (
P
<0.001 and
P
=0.036, by mixed-effects model, maximal systolic BP reduction 8-hour postdrug of −20±6 and −24±9 mm Hg, respectively), whereas metoprolol had no effect. In a subanalysis, we divided patients into sildenafil responders (BP fall >20 mm Hg at 4:00
am
) and nonresponders. Nebivolol significantly lowered systolic BP in sildenafil responders (−44±13 mm Hg) but not in nonresponders (1±11 mm Hg). Despite lowering nighttime BP, nebivolol did not worsen morning orthostatic tolerance compared with placebo. In conclusion, nebivolol effectively lowered supine hypertension in autonomic failure, independent of β
1
-blockade. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that NO potentiation contributes significantly to the antihypertensive effect of nebivolol.
Semantic Advantage for Learning New Phonological Form Representations
Authors: Hawkins Erin , Astle Duncan E. , Rastle Kathleen
Published: September 2014

Learning a new word requires discrimination between a novel sequence of sounds and similar known words. We investigated whether semantic information facilitates the acquisition of new phonological representations in adults and whether this learning enhancement is modulated by overnight consolidation. Participants learned novel spoken words either consistently associated with a visual referent or with no consistent meaning. An auditory oddball task tested discrimination of these newly learned phonological forms from known words. The MMN, an electrophysiological measure of auditory discrimination, was only elicited for words learned with a consistent semantic association. Immediately after training, this semantic benefit on auditory discrimination was linked to explicit learning of the associations, where participants with greater semantic learning exhibited a larger MMN. However, although the semantic-associated words continued to show greater auditory discrimination than nonassociated words after consolidation, the MMN was no longer related to performance in learning the semantic associations. We suggest that the provision of semantic systematicity directly impacts upon the development of new phonological representations and that a period of offline consolidation may promote the abstraction of these representations.
Brain Responses to World Knowledge Violations: A Comparison of Stimulus- and Fixation-triggered Event-related Potentials and Neural Oscillations
Authors: Metzner Paul , von der Malsburg Titus , Vasishth Shravan , Rösler Frank
Published: September 2014

Recent research has shown that brain potentials time-locked to fixations in natural reading can be similar to brain potentials recorded during rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP). We attempted two replications of Hagoort, Hald, Bastiaansen, and Petersson [Hagoort, P., Hald, L., Bastiaansen, M., & Petersson, K. M. Integration of word meaning and world knowledge in language comprehension. Science, 304, 438–441, 2004] to determine whether this correspondence also holds for oscillatory brain responses. Hagoort et al. reported an N400 effect and synchronization in the theta and gamma range following world knowledge violations. Our first experiment (n = 32) used RSVP and replicated both the N400 effect in the ERPs and the power increase in the theta range in the time–frequency domain. In the second experiment (n = 49), participants read the same materials freely while their eye movements and their EEG were monitored. First fixation durations, gaze durations, and regression rates were increased, and the ERP showed an N400 effect. An analysis of time–frequency representations showed synchronization in the delta range (1–3 Hz) and desynchronization in the upper alpha range (11–13 Hz) but no theta or gamma effects. The results suggest that oscillatory EEG changes elicited by world knowledge violations are different in natural reading and RSVP. This may reflect differences in how representations are constructed and retrieved from memory in the two presentation modes.
Effect of aging on behavioural and physiological responses to a stressful stimulus in horses (Equus caballus)
Authors: Baragli Paolo , Vitale Valentina , Banti Lola , Sighieri Claudio
Published: September 2014

In humans the expression of emotions varies with aging, but for domestic animals we have little information on this subject. Our aim was to verify the influence of aging (life experience) on the expression of emotions in horses (Equus caballus) in reaction to a stressful stimulus. A total of 98 horses were subjected to the sudden inflation of a balloon in a familiar environment for a period of 5 min, on the assumption that this would induce a negative state. When the balloon was inflated, heart rate variability as an indicator of stress response was monitored. Behaviour related to emotional expression (latency of onset, frequency and length of looking and exploration, frequency of avoidance) was also monitored. The younger horses showed a significantly higher frequency of avoidance as well as greater exploratory activity, while the older subjects were less behaviourally responsive and showed a shift toward control by the sympathetic nervous system, as indicated by lower heart rate variability. The results suggest that aging influences the behaviour and physiology of emotional expression to stressful stimuli in horses. Knowing the effect of aging on stress response could be a critical factor in understanding equine welfare and the development of behavioural patterns.
Gregariousness as a defence strategy of moderately defended prey: experiments with Pyrrhocoris apterus and avian predators
Authors: Hotová Svádová Kateřina , Exnerová Alice , Štys Pavel
Published: September 2014

Aggregations in insects carry out diverse functions, and gregariousness may also act as an antipredatory strategy, especially when combined with warning signalling. Despite many studies focused on the antipredatory function of gregariousness, there are still aspects needing further investigation: What aspects of predator behaviour are affected by prey gregariousness? Which of the antipredatory effects of aggregations are linked with aposematic coloration, and which will also work for non-aposematic prey? Does gregariousness of an aposematic species affect its mimetic relationships? We have studied these topics in the firebug, Pyrrhocoris apterus (Heteroptera), an aposematic red-and-black true bug with moderate chemical defence. Firebugs alternate between solitary and gregarious lifestyles throughout the year. We used hand-reared great tits (Parus major) as naive predators, and subjected them to avoidance training with either solitarily or gregariously presented firebugs, followed by a memory test with solitary individuals. To test whether effects of gregariousness are specific for the aposematic firebugs, we tested another group of birds with brown-painted firebugs. Our results show that the gregarious lifestyle of the firebug is a part of its antipredatory strategy. Compared to solitary individuals, aggregations benefited in several ways, some exclusive for aposematic firebugs, others working irrespective of coloration. Aggregations induced greater innate wariness, leading to longer attack latencies and more cautious prey handling, including complete attack avoidance in some birds. Despite the fact that the birds mostly attacked only one or two individuals from an aggregation, they needed fewer trials to reach the avoidance-learning criterion than the birds learning to avoid solitary firebugs. Birds’ experience with firebug aggregations reduced the predation risk of subsequently encountered solitary individuals, as the birds hesitated longer before attacking a solitary firebug if their previous aversive experience had been with aggregations rather than with solitary individuals. Predators’ experience with firebug aggregations may compensate for the firebugs’ moderate chemical defence, and as a consequence, gregariousness may change the firebugs’ mimetic relationships with better defended red-and-black true bug species from quasi-Batesian to Müllerian.
Classification of Hurricane Hazards: The Importance of Rainfall
Authors: Rezapour Mehdi , Baldock Tom E.
Published: September 2014

A new hazard index is presented to estimate and rank hurricane severity according to a storm’s damage and death toll after landfall on the continental United States. The index uses three characteristic meteorological aspects of hurricanes: wind, torrential rainfall, and storm surge, each with an individual subindex. Rainfall is identified as an important and frequently dominant hazard in terms of damage and death toll, but is not included in any current hazard scales or indices. The new rainfall subindex adopts rainfall intensity, storm rainfall area, and the forward speed of the system to estimate the rainfall hazard. The new hazard index, applied to recent U.S. hurricanes (2003–12), has better skill than existing scales in terms of ranking the severity of the events by both damage and death toll. Further, the index can provide good quantitative estimates of dollar values for damage and death toll, whereas previous models provide only a scale or ranking. The index provides a basis for improved hazard planning and emergency response, and may also be useful for insurance and risk management processes.
The Political Ecology of Resource-based Inter-ethnic Violence: The Case of the Jarso and the Girhi in Eastern Ethiopia
Authors: Hussein Jeylan Wolyie , Beyene Fekadu , Wentzell Richard J
Published: September 2014

This article discusses factors that shaped the initiation and escalation of the Jarso–Girhi violence that occurred two decades ago. The data required for the study were collected from community leaders, ordinary members of the communities, and administrative and political officers. The data were collected through one-on-one interviews, focus group discussions and field observations. The study shows that the inter-communal violence was the result of convergence and interaction between historical, ethnopolitical, sociocultural and psychosocial factors. The study reveals the impact of ethnically based mobilization in stoking underlying communal cleavages, in breaking trust and cooperation and in escalating communal unrests. The violence featured dynamics of ethnic competition and destruction in which ethnic competitors failed to minimize mutual harms and maximize mutual gains.
Child Nutritional Status in Metropolitan Cities of India: Does Maternal Employment Matter?
Authors: Rastogi Saumya , Dwivedi Laxmi Kant
Published: September 2014

Metropolitan cities in India are commonly faced with poverty, rapid urbanisation and in-migration that take a toll on the standard of living of households, forcing women out of their houses to seek employment. As a result, women do not find adequate time for child feeding and rearing practices making the health and nutritional status of their children precarious. Using 2005–06 National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data on eight metropolitan cities, this study examines the impact of maternal employment on the nutritional status of children born in poorer and richer sections of the cities. Using multiple logistic regression analysis, results show that maternal employment in service sector among the poorer section of cities and employment in agriculture/labour sector among the richer section are associated with higher risk of children being underweight. The research concludes that maternal employment, living in slums, low maternal education significantly affect the nutritional status of children in the richer section of the cities whereas these factors do not affect the nutrition of children in poorer section.
Conservation of Traditional Agricultural Knowledge in Delta State, Nigeria
Authors: Ofuoku Albert Ukaro , Albert Carol O.
Published: September 2014

Many sustainable agricultural practices that emanate from local and traditional farming knowledge and are environment friendly in the face of climate change are steadily being abandoned. These practices include the use of manure, local weather forecast and planting of various local cassava varieties to manage risk. This study examines the characteristics of those who maintain these traditional practices to ascertain if the maintenance of these local agricultural practices can be explained by adoption diffusion literature. The reasons given for maintenance of the traditional farm practices included cost, environmental friendliness and easy access to needed weather information, quality of starch in cassava and risk management. The findings do not support the idea that young, educated and wealthier farmers are more likely to reject traditional farm practices. Instead, use of tractors, off-farm employment and farm size tend to have relationship with the use of traditional farm practices.
Displacement-induced Impoverishment: The Role of a Sustainable Income Restoration and Improvement Strategy in Livelihood Rehabilitation in Sri Lanka
Authors: Perera Jayantha
Published: September 2014

The gradual shift of the ‘state-centric’ land acquisition approach towards a ‘person-centric’ development framework highlights the state’s role in ensuring that the affected non-poor would not become poor and the affected poor would not become poorer as a result of a development intervention. In this regard: (a) paying replacement cost as compensation for acquired land and structures, (b) assisting the physically displaced to relocate and (c) implementing a well-planned and financed programme to restore and improve their incomes and livelihoods are considered as key best international practices. This article focuses on the performance of the income restoration programme of the Southern Transport Development Project (STDP), a mega infrastructure development project in Sri Lanka, in the context of the payment of replacement cost of acquired property and relocation assistance. The analysis demonstrates that a flexible resettlement implementation plan based on a comprehensive database derived from a scientifically conducted social impact assessment is a prerequisite of any development project that triggers land acquisition and resettlement. Adequate budget and committed resettlement personnel are needed to implement it. Affected persons’ aspirations, views and suggestions should be part of resettlement planning and implementation.
Privatisation of Higher Education in India: Hopes and Despairs
Authors: Kumar Satendra
Published: September 2014

Over the last two decades, the expansion of higher education in India has not only increased access to education but also created new employment opportunities. This has generated lots of hopes for a better future among youth. However, universities and colleges have become profit machines. The result is mass production of degree holders without jobs. This study in Meerut shows that the state has badly failed to regulate the commercialisation of higher education and protect youth from harassment and exorbitant fees.
Book Review: Azra Khanam, Muslim Backward Classes: A Sociological Perspective
Authors: Trivedi Prashant K.
Published: September 2014

Azra Khanam, Muslim Backward Classes: A Sociological Perspective, New Delhi, SAGE Publications, 2013, pp. 298, ₹795.
Book Review: Nani Gopal Mahanta, Confronting the State: ULFA’s Quest for Sovereignty
Authors: Dutta Akhil Ranjan
Published: September 2014

Nani Gopal Mahanta, Confronting the State: ULFA’s Quest for Sovereignty, ‘SAGE Studies on India’s Northeast’, New Delhi, SAGE Publications, 2013, pp. 348, ₹750.
Psychosocial rehabilitation and chronic mental illness: international trends and South African issues
Authors: Kramers-Olen Anne L
Published: September 2014

Psychosocial rehabilitation of persons with chronic mental illness has received increasing research attention over the past three decades. It is now widely accepted that pharmacotherapy alone is insufficient to treat persons with chronic mental illness. Additionally, there has been a paradigm shift towards the integration of evidence-based rehabilitation models and recovery models, which focus on collaborative approaches to care. This article reviews research findings relating to psychosocial rehabilitation interventions and models, and considers the implementation of psychosocial rehabilitation policies and practices in the South African healthcare context. Challenges to implementation and recommendations are presented.
Investigating the Development and Effects of Social Capital through Participation in Group-based Microcredit Programme in Peninsular Malaysia
Authors: Al Mamun Abdullah
Published: September 2014

The objective of this study is to investigate the development of social capital through participating in a group-based microcredit programme as well as its economic effects in Peninsular Malaysia. Findings indicate that the length of participation and organizational profile have a positive effect on the development of formal bonding social capital. This study also demonstrates the positive association between social capital with household income and productive assets. Microcredit programmes should therefore emphasize on building social capital through providing a dynamic and supportive environment to advance the level of cooperation among the low-income women.

JEL: C31, D71, Z13
Are Some Bribes More Harmful than Others? Exploring the Ethics Behind Anti-bribery Laws
Authors: David-Barrett Elizabeth
Published: September 2014

The proliferation of anti-bribery laws in recent years, particularly with the passage of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, sends a firm signal to companies that norms concerning corruption in international business have changed. With the increase in legal risk has come an increase in reputational risk. However, these laws and the cultures of enforcement around them, send conflicting messages about bribery being avoidable or indeed unethical. For example, many laws include an exemption or a defence for facilitation payments implying that such bribes are less unethical or that firms have a weaker responsibility to avoid paying them, than is the case for bribes ‘to gain a business advantage’. This article seeks to analyse whether this distinction has a basis in ethics. It suggests that some bribes are less harmful than others in terms of their direct impact. However, all bribes are harmful, because they always undermine the rule of law.

JEL: K2 Regulation and Business Law
Does Reporting Decrease Corruption?
Authors: Bone John , Spengler Dominic
Published: September 2014

We construct two variants of a three-player one-shot corruption game, one in which reporting on bribers is cumbersome and one in which it is rewarded (profitable). Both variants feature a briber who can bribe or not, an official who can reciprocate or not and an inspector who can inspect or not. In the first variant, the official accepts the bribe by reciprocating or simply rejects the bribe by choosing not to reciprocate. In the second variant, the official either accepts and reciprocates or rejects and reports the bribe. Under successful inspection, offending players receive separate penalties, which can be varied asymmetrically. Under plausible assumptions about the values of payoff parameters, we obtain a mixed-strategy Nash equilibrium in both variants, akin to Tsebelis’ inspection game. We obtain two interesting results. First, marginally changing the penalties moves the equilibrium probabilities in both games in the same directions, suggesting robustness of the model. We find that larger penalties on the briber increase the overall probability of reciprocated bribery, that is, corruption, while larger penalties on the official decrease corruption. Second, when comparing the two models, we obtain the surprising result that the probability of reciprocated bribery (corruption) is higher in the variant where the official is rewarded for reporting on the briber.

JEL: K42, H00, C72, O17
Self-Injurious Behavior in Prison
Authors: Smith Hayden
Published: September 2014

The practice of self-injurious behaviors (SIBs) within corrections disproportionately consumes resources and negatively impacts staff. To date, the majority of empirical studies on the topic have relied upon quantitative methodologies that fail to include the perspective of the actual offender who is engaging in self-injury, thus reinforcing mischaracterizations and confusion. In response, this manuscript features a case study of an offender currently housed in a maximum security prison who routinely engages in self-injury. Findings are presented along the tripartite themes of family background, suicidality, and SIB. Policy implications include supporting a systematic reorientation toward therapeutic responses in lieu of the current punitive responses that may in fact be iatrogenic.
Experimental and predicted approaches for biomass gasification with enriched air–steam in a fluidised bed
Authors: Fu Qirang , Huang Yaji , Niu Miaomiao , Yang Gaoqiang , Shao Zhiwei
Published: September 2014

Thermo–chemical gasification of sawdust refuse-derived fuel was performed on a bench-scale fluidised bed gasifier with enriched air and steam as fluidising and oxidising agents. Dolomite as a natural mineral catalyst was used as bed material to reform tars and hydrocarbons. A series of experiments were carried out under typical operating conditions for gasification, as reported in the article. A modified equilibrium model, based on equilibrium constants, was developed to predict the gasification process. The sensitivity analysis of operating parameters, such as the fluidisation velocity, oxygen percentage of the enriched air and steam to biomass ratios on the produced gas composition, lower heating value, carbon conversion and cold gas efficiency was investigated. The results showed that the predicted syngas composition was in better agreement with the experimental data compared with the original equilibrium model. The higher fluidisation velocity enhanced gas–solid mixing, heat and mass transfers, and carbon fines elutriation, simultaneously. With the increase of oxygen percentage from 21% to 45%, the lower heating value of syngas increased from 5.52 MJ m−3 to 7.75 MJ m−3 and cold gas efficiency from 49.09% to 61.39%. The introduction of steam improved gas quality, but a higher steam to biomass ratio could decrease carbon conversion and gasification efficiency owing to a low steam temperature. The optimal value of steam to biomass ratio in this work was 1.0.
Computation of the influence of a phase adjuster on thermo-acoustic Stirling heat engine
Authors: Yang Peng , Liu Ying-Wen
Published: September 2014

In this paper, a phase adjuster (PA) is introduced in the thermo-acoustic Stirling heat engine (TASHE) and a two-dimensional compressible model of a TASHE with PA is developed. To improve the performance of the TASHE, the influences of the PA’s inner diameter on pressure amplitude, volume flow rate, and the phase angle between them, as well as the acoustic power are systematically analyzed, and the results are compared to the case without PA. The results show that the introduction of PA is useful for the phase adjustment, especially in the regenerator. The relative change of the phase angle in the regenerator reaches up to 60% for the PA with the inner diameter of 30 mm. The acoustic power in the resonator increases by 10% and 8% when the inner diameter of PA is 50 mm and 70 mm, respectively. The influence of PA is also discussed through the lumped-element model of the TASHE. In conclusion, PA with a suitable inner diameter can increase the acoustic power and promote the heat-to-sound energy conversion. This study can provide the theoretical guidance for the design and optimization of PA.
On the Track of Road Evolution
Authors: Mouratidis Anastasios , Kehagia Fotini
Published: September 2014

Man’s tendency to move began millennia ago, satisfying a basic need for food, shelter, clothing or social interaction. The uncertain path of road construction through the centuries is set forth by the primitive and everlasting need for mobility, trade and communication. In the era of engineering, and mostly technological boost, highways of the fourth generation ensure safe, fast and easy driving. It is difficult to discern deficiencies or drawbacks in the layout of a motorway of the fourth generation. However, weak points still exist. Vehicles moving on motorways consume energy and produce negative impact to the environment either by emissions or by noise. Despite the performance of the motorway, passengers still get trapped on routes by adverse climatic conditions and, even more, by pile-up accidents. The overall challenge for the fifth generation is to provide convincing ideas to handle effectively all these issues. In this article, the history of road from earliest times to the present, from the first to the fifth generation, is presented. The different factors that have influenced the design, development, construction and operation are examined. Moreover, new challenges to be faced and addressed by the roads of fifth generation are presented.
Use of Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs in Colorectal Surgery
Authors: Blouin Mélissa , Rhainds Marc
Published: September 2014

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use is recognized as a key component of the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery protocols and is systematically recommended in colorectal surgery to optimize perioperative care. However, a red flag about this practice has been raised because clinical studies have recently pointed out an increased risk of anastomotic leak after colorectal surgery following NSAID administration. Therefore, we used the Bradford Hill criteria to examine this potential relationship and concluded that use of perioperative NSAIDs in colorectal surgery should be evaluated carefully and on an individual basis considering the potentially increased risk of anastomotic leak and its consequences.
The Life History Calendar Method and Multilevel Modeling: Application to Research on Intimate Partner Violence
Authors: Yoshihama Mieko , Bybee Deborah
Published: September 2014

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is prevalent and often recurrent in women’s lives. To better understand the changing risk of IPV over the life course, which could guide more effective policies and program responses, methodological innovations are needed. Life History Calendar methods enhance respondents’ recall of the timing of specific types of IPV experienced over the life course. Multilevel modeling provides a way to analyze individual and collective trajectories and examine covariates of IPV risk. We apply these complementary methods to examine IPV trajectories for a sample of women of Filipina descent living in the United States, examining life course timing and cohort effects.
Work, Welfare, and Protection Orders: Modeling Changing Earnings in the Context of Group Differences and Institutional Shifts
Authors: Hughes Melanie M. , Brush Lisa D.
Published: September 2014

Researchers who study violence against women often face problems when trying to understand the causes of individual changes in the context of group differences, targeted interventions, and institutional shifts. The authors explore these problems through research on the connections among women’s earnings, welfare, and protection orders. The authors use multigroup, piecewise, latent growth curve models to explore differences in the initial earnings and earnings changes for two groups: welfare recipients who have and who have not petitioned for a restraining order. The authors further examine these differences in the context of institutional change, specifically the implementation of the Personal Responsibility Act of 1996.
Declines With Age in Childhood Asthma Symptoms and Health Care Use
Authors: Ko Yi-An , Song Peter X. K. , Clark Noreen M.
Published: September 2014

Rationale. Asthma is a variable condition with an apparent tendency for a natural decline in asthma symptoms and health care use occurring as children age. As a result, asthma interventions using a pre–post design may overestimate the intervention effect when no proper control group is available. Objectives. Investigate patterns of natural decline over time with increasing age in asthma symptoms and health care use of children. Develop a statistical procedure that enables adjustment that accounts for expected declines in these outcomes and is useable when intervention evaluations must rely solely on pre–post data. Methods. Mixed-effects models with mixture distributions were used to describe the pattern of symptoms and health care use in 3,021 children aged 2 to 15 years in a combined sample from three controlled trials. An adaptive least squares estimation was used to account for overestimation of intervention effects and make adjustments for pre–post only data. Termed “Adjustment for Natural Declines in Asthma Outcomes (ANDAO),” the adjustment method uses bootstrap sampling to create control cohorts comparable to subjects in the intervention study from existing control subjects. ANDAO accounts for expected declines in outcomes and is beneficial when intervention evaluations must rely solely on pre–post data. Measurements and Main Results. Children under 10 years of age experienced 18% (95% confidence interval, 15-21%) fewer symptom days and 28% (95% confidence interval, 24-32%) fewer symptom nights with each additional year of age. The decline was less than 10% after age 10 years, depending on baseline asthma severity. Emergency department visits declined regardless of baseline symptom frequency ( P = 0.02). The adjustment method corrected estimates to within 2.4% of true effects through simulations using control cohorts. Conclusions. Because of the declines in symptoms and health care use expected with increasing age of children with asthma, pre–post comparisons will greatly overestimate intervention effects. The ANDAO provides means to adequately estimate treatment effects when a control group design is not possible.
A Model of Self-Regulation for Control of Chronic Disease
Authors: Clark Noreen M. , Gong Molly , Kaciroti Niko
Published: September 2014

Chronic disease poses increasing threat to individual and community health. The day-to-day manager of disease is the patient who undertakes actions with the guidance of a clinician. The ability of the patient to control the illness through an effective therapeutic plan is significantly influenced by social and behavioral factors. This article presents a model of patient management of chronic disease that accounts for intrapersonal and external influences on management and emphasizes the central role of self-regulatory processes in disease control. Asthma serves as a case for exploration of the model. Findings from a 5-year study of 637 children with asthma and their care-taking parents supported that the self-regulation elements of the model were reasonably stable over time and baseline values were predictive of important disease management outcomes.
Credible impact evaluation in complex contexts: Confirmatory and exploratory approaches
Authors: Copestake James
Published: September 2014

Debate continues over how best international development agencies can evaluate the impact of actions intended to reduce poverty, insecurity and vulnerability in diverse and complex contexts. There are strong ethical grounds for simply asking those intended to benefit what happened to them, but it is not obvious how to do so in a way that is sufficiently free from bias in favour of confirming what is expected. This article considers scope for addressing this problem by minimizing the prior knowledge participants have of what is being evaluated. The tensions between more confirmatory and exploratory methodological approaches are reviewed in the light of experience of designing and piloting a qualitative impact assessment protocol for evaluating NGO interventions in complex rural livelihood transformations. The article concludes that resolving these tensions entails using mixed methodologies, and that the importance attached to exploratory (nested within confirmatory) approaches depends on contextual complexity, the type of evidence sought and the level of trust between stakeholders.
Understanding gang membership: The significance of group processes
Authors: Wood Jane L.
Published: September 2014

Gang researchers have robustly established that gangs facilitate increased criminal activity in members—even those who were prolifically delinquent before gang membership (Klein, Weerman, & Thornberry, 2006). This suggests that there is something about gang membership, specifically, that influences individuals’ criminality. However, so far it is not clear what this influence is. This paper, taking a social psychological perspective on gang membership considers the potential influence that group processes exert on gang members to identify with a gang, to conform to group norms, become cohesive and to strive to acquire group goals—such as status. It further speculates that adherence to group norms may cultivate gang members’ social cognitions such as moral disengagement, offense supportive cognitions, and rumination. Conclusions note how group processes deserve closer research attention due to their potential for informing more accurate gang interventions to deter potential members and to reduce existing gang membership.
Contemporary insights to the dynamic pre-trip information sourcing behaviour
Authors: Björk Peter , Kauppinen-Räisänen Hannele
Published: September 2014

Prior to their trips, leisure travellers search for information, both in the pre- and the post-decision stages. Previous studies on leisure travel decision making have documented how personal characteristics and perceived risk influence pre-trip information sourcing, but not detailed their effects on information sources used before and after a purchase decision is made. This study explores the role of traveller characteristics and the mediating effects of perceived risk on the choice of pre-trip information sources used by Finnish leisure travellers. The findings disclose a dynamic structure of information sources used before and after purchase decision contingent on risk perception. In particular, risk-averse travellers make increased use of television (commercials, news and TV travel shows), radio and family as information sources in a post-decision stage. For practice, these findings imply that tourism and hospitality marketers benefit from effective destination marketing strategies spanning an optimal mix of information channels.
An Overview of the Interpretive Approaches to James 5.13-18
Authors: Bowden Andrew M.
Published: September 2014

James 5.13-18 is a notoriously difficult passage, evidenced by the wide ranging viewpoints and interpretations related to the nature of the sickness and healing in the paragraph. In this article an attempt is made to summarize these various interpretations and to cite the major scholars who hold to these views. A clear, thorough overview of these positions will greatly facilitate discussions on this topic in future investigations.
Recent Research on Ancient Israelite Education: A Bibliographic Essay
Authors: Quick Laura
Published: September 2014

This article presents a survey of the recent research which has been making significant progress in examining scribal schools and education in ancient Israel. It specifically treats scholarly recourse to the extra-biblical data provided by epigraphic remains, and discusses the comparative potentials of the wider ancient world itself. Several monograph-length treatments have added substantially to the literature. A brief critical examination of all these works is provided, in order to facilitate the reader’s keeping up with the latest views and opinions concerning such studies. The literature will be treated chronologically, and the most substantial recent contribution by Carr (2011) will be subject to an extensive review, testing Carr’s conclusions against the cumulative weight of earlier findings. Finally, ways of moving forward in treating this subject will be suggested.
Diabetes and cancer: Epidemiology and potential mechanisms
Authors: Joost Hans-Georg
Published: September 2014

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is an independent risk factor for cancer such as pancreatic, liver, colorectal and breast cancer. In addition, diabetes decreases the risk of prostate cancer. These associations have been found in numerous epidemiological studies, among them several prospective cohorts. However, such studies do not prove causality of the association and cannot exclude inadequate correction for known confounders (e.g. visceral fat) or the influence of unknown confounders. Thus, it is unclear whether the cancer risk is increased by the causes (e.g. the metabolic syndrome), the metabolic consequences (e.g. hyperglycaemia) or the therapy of diabetes; a question which is of major importance for therapeutic guidelines. Identification of the potential mechanisms by which the diabetes or its therapy accelerates or inhibits the development of cancer will help answering the question by providing biological plausibility. This review will summarize the evidence supporting the association of cancer and type 2 diabetes and discuss its potential causes.
Analysis of Texts in the Field of Education
Authors: Klemenčič Eva , Čepič Vogrinčič Mitja
Published: September 2014

The educational discourse is one of the primary places where numerous dominant ideological premises are established. These discursive constructions are usually not expressed explicitly but are tacit or covered. In other words, ideological premises are not conveyed via ideational (dictionary) meaning of utterances. The analysis therefore has to tackle not the grammatical or logical layer of the text but has to look into the pragmatic aspect of discourse or text in the social communication. In this way, Grice developed his idea of cooperative principle in the analysis of pragmatic rules (maxims) that speakers use in head-to-head interactions to make themselves understood. The violation of those rules usually means that the speaker is making a “conversational” implicature, that is, an implication that cannot be inferred from his spoken contribution but assumes some common knowledge or presupposition. Conversational implicatures are therefore the places where ideological presuppositions can be detected. Grice’s maxims are used in the analysis of two distinct types of texts in the field of education—a regulation on textbook approval and a history textbook. In both texts, Grice’s principles are used to uncover ideological premises.
FOXP1 directly represses transcription of proapoptotic genes and cooperates with NF-κB to promote survival of human B cells
Authors: van Keimpema Martine , Grüneberg Leonie J. , Mokry Michal , van Boxtel Ruben , Koster Jan , Coffer Paul J. , Pals Steven T. , Spaargaren Marcel
Published: September 2014

Key Points

FOXP1 directly represses multiple proapoptotic genes in primary mature human B cells and DLBCL cell lines. FOXP1 cooperates with NF-κB signaling to promote expansion of primary mature human B cells by inhibition of caspase-dependent apoptosis.
OVOL2 is a critical regulator of ER71/ETV2 in generating FLK1+, hematopoietic, and endothelial cells from embryonic stem cells
Authors: Kim Ju Young , Lee Ra Ham , Kim Tae Min , Kim Dong-Wook , Jeon Young-Joo , Huh Sung-Ho , Oh Se-Yeong , Kyba Michael , Kataoka Hiroshi , Choi Kyunghee , Ornitz David M. , Chae Jung-Il , Park Changwon
Published: September 2014

Key Points

OVOL2 is identified as a novel binding protein of ER71. Interaction between ER71 and OVOL2 cooperatively regulates the generation of FLK1+ mesoderm, and endothelial and erythroid cells.