bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Domestic Water Use in the United States: A Life‐Cycle Approach
Authors: Arpke Angela , Hutzler Neil
Published: February 2006

Water and energy are two primary natural resources used by building occupants. A life‐cycle assessment (LCA) is performed for water‐consuming plumbing fixtures and water‐consuming appliances during their operational life for four different building types. Within the cycle studied, water is extracted from the natural environment, subjected to water treatment, pumped to buildings for use, collected for wastewater treatment, and discharged back to the natural environment. Specifically, the impacts of water use, electricity and natural gas generation, energy consumption (for water and wastewater treatment, and for water heating), and the manufacture of water and wastewater treatment chemicals are evaluated both quantitatively and qualitatively on a generalized national level in the United States of America.

It is concluded that water use and consumption within buildings have a much larger impact on resource consumption than the water and wastewater treatment stages of the life cycle. To study this more specifically, the resource consumption of four different building types‐an apartment building, a college dormitory, a motel, and an office building‐is considered. Of these four building types, the apartment has the highest energy consumption (for water and wastewater treatment, and for water heating) per volume of water used, whereas the office building has the lowest. Similarly, the calculated LCA score for the apartment building is typically greater than those of the other three building types.
The Eco‐efficiency of Lead in China's Lead‐Acid Battery System
Authors: Mao Jiansu , LU Zhongwu , Yang Zhifeng
Published: February 2006

Improving eco‐efficiency can contribute to sustainable development. This article defines the societal services and environmental impacts of the lead‐acid battery (LAB) system and offers definitions of eco‐efficiency, resource efficiency, and environmental efficiency in the context of LAB systems. Based on the actual lead‐flow in the LAB system, we develop a model that considers changes in production, the time interval between production and disposal, direct linkages between the final product and the societal service it provides, and the fiscal year as the statistical period. From this model, equations for eco‐efficiency are derived and changes in eco‐efficiency are predicted.

The results show, not surprisingly, that increased lead recycling and reduced lead emissions will both improve ecoefficiency. The resource and environmental efficiencies for LAB in China are 119 and 131 kilowatt‐hour‐years per metric tonne (kWh. yr/t), respectively, versus a value for both of 15, 800 kWh. yr/t in Sweden. The difference results from a lower lead recycling rate (only 0.312 tonne/tonne, which means that nearly 70% of the old lead scrap is not recycled based on official statistics) and higher lead emissions (0.324 tonne/tonne, which means that nearly 33% of the lead inputs used in the LAB system were lost into the environment) in China. Further analysis shows that these problems result from inefficient management of lead scrap, poor quality lead ore, and an abundance of small‐scale lead‐related plants. Ways to improve eco‐efficiency are proposed.
The System of Environmental and Economic Accounts—2003 and the Economic Relevance of Physical Flow Accounting
Authors: Pedersen Ole Gravgård , de Haan Mark
Published: February 2006

The international handbook on integrated environmental and economic accounting (SEEA‐2003) provides a detailed overview of environmental accounting approaches that have been developed in parallel with the system of national (economic) accounts. In addition to natural resource stock accounts and environmental protection expenditure accounts, SEEA‐2003 pays considerable attention to physical flow accounting. Expanding the national economic accounts with physical data sets facilitates the joint analysis of environmental and economic policy issues. This article discusses the main characteristics of national accounts‐oriented physical flow accounting approaches and provides an overview of the kind of indicators they may put forward. Although this article is not an attempt to provide a comprehensive review of macrooriented physical flow accounting approaches, the analytical advantages of national accounts‐oriented physical flow accounts are illustrated.
Explanatory Variables for per Capita Stocks and Flows of Copper and Zinc
Authors: Binder Claudia R. , Graedel T. E. , Reck Barbara
Published: February 2006

A number of potential explanatory variables for the stocks and flows of copper and zinc in contemporary technological societies are co‐analyzed with the tools of exploratory data analysis. A one‐year analysis (circa 1994) is performed for 50 countries that comprise essentially all anthropogenic stocks and flows of the two metals. The results show that (1) The key explanatory variable for metal use is gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (purchasing power parity, PPP). By itself, GDP explains between one‐third and one‐half of the variance of per capita copper and zinc use. Other variables that were significantly correlated with copper and zinc use included stock of passenger cars and television sets (per 1, 000 people); two infrastructure variables, wired telephone connections, urban population, and value added inmanufacturing. The results do not provide evidence supporting the Kuznets curve hypothesis for these metals. (2) Metal use per capita can be estimated using multiple regression equations. For copper, the natural logarithm of use is related to the explanatory variables GDP (PPP), value added in manufacturing, and urban population. This model explains 80% of the variance among the different countries (r2= 0.79). The natural logarithm of zinc use is related to GDP (PPP) and value added in manufacturing with an r2 of 0.75; (3) For both metals, rates of metal fabrication, use, net addition to stock, and discard in low‐and high‐income countries differ significantly from each other. Our statistical analyses thus provide a basis for estimating the potential development of metal use, net addition to stock, and discard, using data on explanatory variables that are available at the international level.
The Gnostic Sethians and Middle Platonism: Interpretations of the Timaeus and Parmenides
Authors: Turner John
Published: February 2006

One may construe the Sethian Gnostic picture of the world and its origins as an interpretation of the biblical protology of the book of Genesis in the light of the Platonic distinction between an ideal, exemplary realm of eternal stable being and its more or less deficient earthly and changeable copy, in which the principal Platonic dialogues of reference are the Timaeus and the Parmenides. Various Sethian treatises offer us accounts of the origin and generation of both these realms; while their portrayal of the origin and deployment of the earthly realm is unmistakably influenced by their readings of Plato's Timaeus, their account of the origin and deployment of the ideal realm is noticeably influenced by readings of Plato's Parmenides. This article attempts to show that the shift from the Timaeus as the primary Platonic dialogue of reference for the Middle Platonic thought of the first two centuries to the Parmenides as the primary dialogue of reference for the emerging Neoplatonism of the third century is also visible in the Sethian treatises. In mid- to later second-century Sethian treatises, the cosmology of the Timaeus serves as an exegetical template to interpret the Genesis protology, but with the turn to the third century, the Sethian trestises that circulated in Plotinus' circle have abandoned all interest in the Genesis protology in favor of a theology of transcendental ascent.
Two- and Three-Dimensional Cloud-Resolving Model Simulations of the Mesoscale Enhancement of Surface Heat Fluxes by Precipitating Deep Convection
Authors: Wu Xiaoqing , Guimond Stephen
Published: February 2006

Two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) cloud-resolving model (CRM) simulations are conducted to quantify the enhancement of surface sensible and latent heat fluxes by tropical precipitating cloud systems for 20 days (10–30 December 1992) during the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE). The mesoscale enhancement appears to be analogous across both 2D and 3D CRMs, with the enhancement for the sensible heat flux accounting for 17% of the total flux for each model and the enhancement for the latent heat flux representing 18% and 16% of the total flux for 2D and 3D CRMs, respectively. The convection-induced gustiness is mainly responsible for the enhancement observed in each model simulation. The parameterization schemes of the mesoscale enhancement by the gustiness in terms of convective updraft, downdraft, and precipitation, respectively, are examined using each version of the CRM. The scheme utilizing the precipitation was found to yield the most desirable estimations of the mean fluxes with the smallest rms error. The results together with previous findings from other studies suggest that the mesoscale enhancement of surface heat fluxes by the precipitating deep convection is a subgrid process apparent across various CRMs and is imperative to incorporate into general circulation models (GCMs) for improved climate simulation.
Overview of the Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive
Authors: Durre Imke , Vose Russell S. , Wuertz David B.
Published: February 2006

This paper provides a general description of the Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA), a new radiosonde dataset from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). IGRA consists of radiosonde and pilot balloon observations at more than 1500 globally distributed stations with varying periods of record, many of which extend from the 1960s to present. Observations include pressure, temperature, geopotential height, dewpoint depression, wind direction, and wind speed at standard, surface, tropopause, and significant levels.

IGRA contains quality-assured data from 11 different sources. Rigorous procedures are employed to ensure proper station identification, eliminate duplicate levels within soundings, and select one sounding for every station, date, and time. The quality assurance algorithms check for format problems, physically implausible values, internal inconsistencies among variables, runs of values across soundings and levels, climatological outliers, and temporal and vertical inconsistencies in temperature. The performance of the various checks was evaluated by careful inspection of selected soundings and time series.

In its final form, IGRA is the largest and most comprehensive dataset of quality-assured radiosonde observations freely available. Its temporal and spatial coverage is most complete over the United States, western Europe, Russia, and Australia. The vertical resolution and extent of soundings improve significantly over time, with nearly three-quarters of all soundings reaching up to at least 100 hPa by 2003. IGRA data are updated on a daily basis and are available online from NCDC as both individual soundings and monthly means.
An Initial Intercomparison of Atmospheric and Oceanic Climatology for the ICE-5G and ICE-4G Models of LGM Paleotopography
Authors: Justino F. , Timmermann A. , Merkel U. , Peltier W. R.
Published: February 2006

This paper investigates the impact of the new ICE-5G paleotopography dataset for Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) conditions on a coupled model simulation of the thermal and dynamical state of the glacial atmosphere and on both land surface and sea surface conditions. The study is based upon coupled climate simulations performed with the ocean–atmosphere–sea ice model of intermediate-complexity Climate de Bilt-coupled large-scale ice–ocean (ECBilt-Clio) model. Four simulations focusing on the Last Glacial Maximum [21 000 calendar years before present (BP)] have been analyzed: a first simulation (LGM-4G) that employed the original ICE-4G ice sheet topography and albedo, and a second simulation (LGM-5G) that employed the newly constructed ice sheet topography, denoted ICE-5G, and its respective albedo. Intercomparison of the results obtained in these experiments demonstrates that the LGM-5G simulation delivers significantly enhanced cooling over Canada compared to the LGM-4G simulation whereas positive temperature anomalies are simulated over southern North America and the northern Atlantic. Moreover, introduction of the ICE-5G topography is shown to lead to a deceleration of the subtropical westerlies and to the development of an intensified ridge over North America, which has a profound effect upon the hydrological cycle. Additionally, two flat ice sheet experiments were carried out to investigate the impact of the ice sheet albedo on global climate. By comparing these experiments with the full LGM simulations, it becomes evident that the climate anomalies between LGM-5G and LGM-4G are mainly driven by changes of the earth’s topography.
A Simulated Climatology of Asian Dust Aerosol and Its Trans-Pacific Transport. Part I: Mean Climate and Validation
Authors: Zhao T. L. , Gong S. L. , Zhang X. Y. , Blanchet J-P. , McKendry I. G. , Zhou Z. J.
Published: February 2006

The Northern Aerosol Regional Climate Model (NARCM) was used to construct a 44-yr climatology of spring Asian dust aerosol emission, column loading, deposition, trans-Pacific transport routes, and budgets during 1960–2003. Comparisons with available ground dust observations and Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) Aerosol Index (AI) measurements verified that NARCM captured most of the climatological characteristics of the spatial and temporal distributions, as well as the interannual and daily variations of Asian dust aerosol during those 44 yr. Results demonstrated again that the deserts in Mongolia and in western and northern China (mainly the Taklimakan and Badain Juran, respectively) were the major sources of Asian dust aerosol in East Asia. The dust storms in spring occurred most frequently from early April to early May with a daily averaged dust emission (diameter d < 41 μm) of 1.58 Mt in April and 1.36 Mt in May. Asian dust aerosol contributed most of the dust aerosol loading in the troposphere over the midlatitude regions from East Asia to western North America during springtime. Climatologically, dry deposition was a dominant dust removal process near the source areas, while the removal of dust particles by precipitation was the major process over the trans-Pacific transport pathway (where wet deposition exceeded dry deposition up to a factor of 20). The regional transport of Asian dust aerosol over the Asian subcontinent was entrained to an elevation of <3 km. The frontal cyclone in Mongolia and northern China uplifted dust aerosol in the free troposphere for trans-Pacific transport. Trans-Pacific dust transport peaked between 3 and 10 km in the troposphere along a zonal transport axis around 40°N. Based on the 44-yr-averaged dust budgets for the modeling domain from East Asia to western North America, it was estimated that of the average spring dust aerosol (diameter d < 41 μm) emission of ∼120 Mt from Asian source regions, about 51% was redeposited onto the source regions, 21% was deposited onto nondesert regions within the Asian subcontinent, and 26% was exported from the Asian subcontinent to the Pacific Ocean. In total, 16% of Asian dust aerosol emission was deposited into the North Pacific, while ∼3% of Asian dust aerosol was carried to the North American continent via trans-Pacific transport.
A Simulated Climatology of Asian Dust Aerosol and Its Trans-Pacific Transport. Part II: Interannual Variability and Climate Connections
Authors: Gong S. L. , Zhang X. Y. , Zhao T. L. , Zhang X. B. , Barrie L. A. , McKendry I. G. , Zhao C. S.
Published: February 2006

A 44-yr climatology of spring Asian dust aerosol emission, column loading, deposition, trans-Pacific transport routes, and budgets during 1960–2003 was simulated with the Northern Aerosol Regional Climate Model (NARCM). Interannual variability in these Asian dust aerosol properties simulated by the model and its climate connections are analyzed with major climatic indices and records in ground observations. For dust production from most of the source regions, the strongest correlations were with the surface wind speed in the source region and the area and intensity indices of the Asian polar vortex (AIAPV and IIAPV, respectively). Dust emission was negatively correlated with precipitation and surface temperatures in spring. The strength of the East Asian monsoon was not found to be directly related to dust production but rather with the transport of dust from the Asian subcontinent. The interannual variability of dust loading and deposition showed similar relations with various climate indices. The correlation of Asian dust loading and deposition with the western Pacific (WP) pattern and Atmospheric Circulation Index (ACI) exhibited contrasting meridional and zonal distributions. AIAPV and IIAPV were strongly correlated with the midlatitude zonal distribution of dust loading and deposition over the Asian subcontinent and the North Pacific. The Pacific–North American (PNA) pattern and Southern Oscillation index (SOI) displayed an opposite correlation pattern of dust loading and deposition in the eastern Pacific, while SOI correlated significantly with dust loading over eastern China and northeast Asia. The Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) was linked to variations of dust aerosol and deposition not only in the area of the eastern North Pacific and North America but also in the Asian dust source regions. The anomalies of transport flux and its divergence as well as dust column loading were also identified for eight typical El Niño and eight La Niña years. A shift of the trans-Pacific transport path to the north was found for El Niño years, which resulted in less dust storms and dust loading in China. In El Niño years the deserts in Mongolia and western north China closer to the polar cold air regions contributed more dust aerosol in the troposphere, while in La Niña years the deserts in central and eastern north China far from polar cold regions provided more dust aerosol in the troposphere. On the basis of the variability of Asian dust aerosol budgets, the ratio of inflow to North America to the outflow from Asia was found to be correlated negatively with the PNA index and positively with the WP index.
An Assessment of Differences in ENSO Mechanisms in a Coupled GCM Simulation
Authors: Alvarez-Garcia Francisco , Narvaez William Cabos , Ortiz Bevia Maria J.
Published: February 2006

This study investigates the physical mechanisms involved in the generation and decay of El Niño–Southern Oscillation episodes in a coupled GCM simulation. Warm and cold events found in a 100-yr-long record are separated into groups by means of a clustering technique that objectively discriminates common features in the evolution of the tropical Pacific heat content anomalies leading to the event’s peak. Through an analysis of the composites obtained from this classification, insight is gained as to the processes responsible for the presence of different behaviors. Three classes of warm events were identified. The first is characterized by the westward propagation of warm heat content anomalies north of the equator before the onset of the episode. This propagation characteristic of the delayed oscillator paradigm appears weakened in the decay of the episode. In the second class, local development of heat content anomalies in the northwest tropical Pacific, associated with overlying wind stress curl anomalies, dominates both the generation and the decay of the warm event. In addition, subsurface cold anomalies form in the equatorial western Pacific in association with the poleward flow considered by the recharge–discharge oscillator model. The third class is characterized by a relatively quick development of the warm episode. Attention is focused on the first two classes. The suitability of different conceptual models to explain them is addressed. Previous analyses of the simulation are reviewed throughout this work. Differences between the classes are related to a regime shift that occurs toward the middle of the record.
Cluster Analysis of the Seasonal Forecast Skill of the NCEP SFM over the Pacific–North America Sector
Authors: Nakaegawa Tosiyuki , Kanamitsu Masao
Published: February 2006

Cluster analysis was used to study seasonal forecast skills of the winter season NCEP seasonal forecast model (SFM) hindcasts over the Pacific–North America (PNA) sector. Two skill scores based on cluster mean and ensemble mean are compared. It was shown that the anomaly correlation coefficients (ACCs) of cluster mean are generally higher than those of the simple ensemble mean. The results indicated that the skill was affected by the existence of multiple atmospheric regimes. Multiple regimes tend to appear more often in near-normal tropical Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) episodes, while a single regime tends to appear during warm/cold episodes. The dissimilarity among the cluster members is small and the number of the dominant cluster members is also small when the tropical SST anomaly is large, suggesting that the external forcing reduces the frequency of occurrence of the multiple regimes. The ACC improvements from the ensemble mean ACCs to the cluster mean ACCs are statistically significant. Thus, the cluster mean can be used as a supplementary tool for seasonal forecasting.
The Climate Sensitivity and Its Components Diagnosed from Earth Radiation Budget Data
Authors: Forster Piers Mde F. , Gregory Jonathan M.
Published: February 2006

One of the major uncertainties in the ability to predict future climate change, and hence its impacts, is the lack of knowledge of the earth’s climate sensitivity. Here, data are combined from the 1985–96 Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) with surface temperature change information and estimates of radiative forcing to diagnose the climate sensitivity. Importantly, the estimate is completely independent of climate model results. A climate feedback parameter of 2.3 ± 1.4 W m−2 K−1 is found. This corresponds to a 1.0–4.1-K range for the equilibrium warming due to a doubling of carbon dioxide (assuming Gaussian errors in observable parameters, which is approximately equivalent to a uniform “prior” in feedback parameter). The uncertainty range is due to a combination of the short time period for the analysis as well as uncertainties in the surface temperature time series and radiative forcing time series, mostly the former. Radiative forcings may not all be fully accounted for; however, an argument is presented that the estimate of climate sensitivity is still likely to be representative of longer-term climate change. The methodology can be used to 1) retrieve shortwave and longwave components of climate feedback and 2) suggest clear-sky and cloud feedback terms. There is preliminary evidence of a neutral or even negative longwave feedback in the observations, suggesting that current climate models may not be representing some processes correctly if they give a net positive longwave feedback.
Mental-health services for refugee women and children in Africa
Authors: Sossou Marie-Antoinette
Published: February 2006

English

This article calls for activism in the provision of mental-health services for refugee women and children in Africa. African social work educators, practitioners and the international community are being asked to advocate for supplying mental-health services for the vulnerable African refugee population.

French

Cet article lance un appel à l'activisme et aux plaidoyers en vue de procurer des services en santémentale pour les femmes et les enfants réfugiés en Afrique. Les éducateurs en travail social, les praticiens et la communauté internationale sont appelés à appuyer la cause des populations réfugiées africaines vulnérables, afin de leur fournir des services en santémentale.

Spanish

Se hace un llamamiento al activismo y a la defensa de provisió n de servicios de salud mental para mujeres y niños africanos refugiados. Se pide a los educadores del trabajo social en África, los profesionales y la comunidad internacional que apoyen la provisió n de servicios de salud mental a los refugiados africanos.
Mechanisms and Structural Parameters Affecting the Interlaminar Stress Field in Laminates with Ply Drop-offs
Authors: Shim Dong-Jin , Lagace Paul A.
Published: February 2006

The mechanisms and structural parameters affecting the interlaminar stress field in laminates with ply drop-offs have been investigated to help better understand the effects of different parameters in such laminates. Based on equilibrium considerations, two fundamental mechanisms that give rise to interlaminar stresses have been identified: the termination effect, caused by the load transfer from the terminated ply group to the continuous ply groups; and the offset effect, caused by the redistribution of the load in the outer continuous ply groups through an offset in the through-thickness direction from the undropped region to the dropped region. The characteristics of the two mechanisms and the factors that affect the inter-laminar stress field caused by these mechanisms are described by considering two specific laminate configurations in which these mechanisms can be isolated. Factors of particular importance are the magnitudes of the far-field loads in the terminated and outer continuous ply groups, the offset distance, and the taper angle. Parametric studies of five factors are conducted via an analytical method for configurations under in-plane and bending loads to obtain general trends of the interlaminar stress field and a better understanding of the contributions of the two fundamental mechanisms. The structural parameters considered are the taper angle, the location of the terminated plies, the overall stiffness and layup sequence of the terminated ply group, and the number of terminated plies. The overall characteristics and trends of the interlaminar stresses can be explained easily in terms of the two fundamental mechanisms. The current study presents a clear view of the mechanisms giving rise to interlaminar stresses. Such a perception can be used to understand and anticipate interlaminar stress field trends in generic laminates with ply drop-offs in a simple and systematic manner. This can be particularly useful in preliminary design where these trends can be anticipated for the many configurations often under consideration, without performing actual analysis of these many potential configurations.
Social Norms and the Likelihood of Raping: Perceived Rape Myth Acceptance of Others Affects Men's Rape Proclivity
Authors: Bohner Gerd , Siebler Frank , Schmelcher Jürgen
Published: February 2006

Research showing that rape myth acceptance (RMA) causally affects rape proclivity (RP) was extended by examining the impact of RMA-related norms on RP. Male students (total N = 264) received feedback about the alleged responses of other students to RMAitems either before (Experiment 1) or after (Experiment 2) they reported their own RMA, and then their RP was assessed using acquaintance-rape scenarios. The level of RMA feedback was varied. Results showed that higher norms led to higher RP. In Experiment 1, this effect was mediated via selfreported RMA. Experiment 2 yielded main effects of both RMA feedback and self-reported RMA and an interaction effect showing that RMA feedback was particularly influential at higher levels of own RMA. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Relative Position Computation for Assembly Planning With Planar Toleranced Parts
Authors: Ostrovsky-Berman Yaron , Joskowicz Leo
Published: February 2006

In this paper we present a new framework for worst-case toleranced assembly planning of planar mechanical systems. Unlike most assembly planners, which produce plans for nominal parts, our framework incorporates the inherent imprecision of the manufacturing process, which introduces uncertainties in the shape and size of the assembly parts. It accounts for the uncertainty of the relative part placements in the assembled state and allows planning for all assembly instances. Our framework is more general than existing approaches in terms of the part model, the tolerance specification model, and the type of motions used in the assembly sequences. We describe efficient algorithms for computing the sensitivity of part positioning to variations in part geometries, and for incorporating these computations into the geometric core of existing assembly planners for nominal parts. We show that the cost of accounting for toleranced parts in planning is a multiplicative factor which is a polynomial of low degree in the number of tolerance parameters. Our implementation and experiments on five assembly models show that tolerancing significantly reduces the volume of the space of valid motions for assembly sequence planning, and that for translational motions this reduction depends linearly on the size of the tolerance intervals. We conclude that geometric computation for assembly planning with tolerance parts is time efficient and practical.
Operative and Nonoperative Treatments of Medial Collateral Ligament Rupture with Early Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction
Authors: Halinen Jyrki , Lindahl Jan , Hirvensalo Eero , Santavirta Seppo
Published: February 2006

Background

The apparent consensus is that solitary medial collateral ligament rupture can be treated nonoperatively, but treatment of severe combined ruptures of the medial collateral ligament and anterior cruciate ligament remains controversial.

Hypotheses

Nonoperative and early operative treatments of grade III medial collateral ligament rupture lead to similar results when the anterior cruciate ligament is reconstructed in the early phase.

Study Design

Randomized controlled clinical trial; Level of evidence, 1.

Methods

Forty-seven consecutive patients with combined anterior cruciate ligament and grade III medial collateral ligament injuries were randomized into 2 groups. The medial collateral ligament injury was treated operatively in group 1 (n = 23) and nonoperatively in group 2 (n = 24). In both groups, the anterior cruciate ligament injury was treated with early reconstruction, using bone-patellar tendon-bone graft and interference screw. Two years postoperatively, knee stability was measured with a KT-1000 arthrometer and Telos valgus radiography and knee extension strength with a Biodex dynamometer and a 1-legged hop test. An International Knee Documentation Committee evaluation form and Lysholm score were completed.

Results

All 47 patients were available for clinical evaluation for a mean of 27 months (range, 20-37 months) after surgery. There were no statistically significant differences between the 2 groups with respect to subjective function of the knee, postoperative stability, range of motion, muscle power, return to activities, Lysholm score, and overall International Knee Documentation Committee evaluation. The subjective outcome and Lysholm score were good and anteroposterior knee stability excellent in both groups.

Conclusion

Nonoperative and operative treatments of medial collateral ligament injuries lead to equally good results. Medial collateral ligament ruptures need not be treated operatively when the anterior cruciate ligament is reconstructed in the early phase.
The Mundialization of Home: Towards an Ethics of the Great Society
Authors: Cha In-Suk
Published: February 2006

As the title of this paper might suggest, I am going to argue that utopic projects are endemic to the essence of humanity. I will first delineate the ways in which human beings collectively and individually are directed toward utopia through their constant interaction with their own changing lifeworlds and the lifeworlds of others. I will be most particularly concerned with the way in which ideas from alien or strange communities become transformed as they intertwine with the schemata of a ‘home’ community or, to state this another way, I will examine a process I have come to call mundialization, by which ideas, customs and even attitudes are transformed as they make connections with other cultures. In this light, I will examine Paul Ricœur's insightful hermeneutical exploration of ideology and utopia and their changing phenomenological landscapes. Lastly, I will identify certain concepts which, though only sporadically developed through the ages, are now, in this age of accelerated globalization and mundialization, making their way into a transformative, utopic realm.
The Life Force and the Utopia of the Post-Human
Authors: Diagne Souleymane Bachir
Published: February 2006

The utopia we are dealing with here could have been called ‘the mother of all utopias’ since it is in fact humanity's greatest, most primal dream, indeed the one that defines us as human. This great utopia, from which are woven our representations of paradise, for example, is immortality, the theme of René Barjavel's novel entitled The Immortals (1973).
Realism and Utopia
Authors: Morin Edgar
Published: February 2006

The problem of the real is that we think we understand it very well, whereas in fact it is not very well understood at all. The past, our past, which seems absolutely clear to us, in fact is not so. If we reflect upon the 20th century which, all things considered, is our past, we come to realize that not only communism but also nazism - the major phenomena which marked it - owed very little to systematic thought. The Soviet version of Marxism, to which the label ‘communist’ was given, was, in the literal sense of the word, a utopia: meaning something whose location is nowhere. The word ‘communism’ served to mask a reality which was radically different from its ideology. A reality so difficult to analyse, comprehend and know that François Furet, an author who had been a communist during the hard-line period, has been able to write about the passions of the Revolution, in for example Le passé d'une illusion [The Passing of an Illusion], without for all that making obvious the fundamentally religious properties of this communism, which saw its mission as bringing about salvation on earth, so constituting a mighty source of hope. As with all great religions, communism created its own martyrs, its heroes, its executioners and its persecutors. It was not just another religion, though, but a veritable phenomenon which ravaged and transformed its century.
The shoulders of our giants: Claude Lévi-Strauss and his legacy in current anthropology
Authors: Doja Albert
Published: February 2006

English

In the course of anti-structuralist criticism, the main thrust of Lévi-Strauss’s epistemological approach seems to have been lost, to the collective detriment of social sciences and anthropology. By its monumental character, Lévi-Strauss’s work evokes that of the founders of anthropology, whereas, by the way in which it puts in relation the cultural and the mental, it anticipates a theoretical anthropology to come, with the ambition of providing a rigorous method that comes close to scientific knowledge. The fundamental point remains the emancipation of the structural approach from the linguistic model and its orientation toward a new context of science and technology, as exemplified in mathematics, information science, cybernetics and game theory, which made it possible for structural anthropology to innovatively account for the social systems and praxis of competitive and strategic practices.

French

Au cours du criticisme anti-structuraliste, l'objectif central de l'approche épistémologique de Lévi-Strauss semble avoir été perdue au détriment collectif de l'anthropologie et des sciences sociales. Par son caractère monumental, l'œuvre de Lévi-Strauss évoque celle des fondateurs de l'anthropologie, alors que par la façon dont elle met en rapport le culturel et le mental, elle anticipe sur une anthropologie théorique à venir, avec l'ambition de fournir une méthode rigoureuse d'investigation anthropologique proche du savoir scientifique. Le point fondamental reste l'émancipation de l'approche structurale hors du modèle linguistique, vers un nouveau contexte scientifique et technologique illustré en mathématiques, sciences de l'information, cybernétique et théorie des jeux, qui permet à l'anthropologie structurale de rendre compte de façon innovatrice des systèmes sociaux comme de la praxis des pratiques compétitives et stratégiques.
Knowledge Production, Publicness, and the Structural Transformation of the University: An Interview with Craig Calhoun
Authors: McQuarrie Michael
Published: February 2006

Calhoun is interviewed regarding the relationship of his work on the university to his other research interests. Calhoun elaborates on his hope for a debate over transformations in the structure of the university that is much more sensitive to the public role universities play and the importance of the collective goods they create. In the process he articulates the possibilities for an institutional analysis of the university that meets scholarly standards of knowledge production while remaining engaged with central issues that arise out of institutional transformation. By situating universities in relationship with the public sphere, Calhoun provides a basis for debates about the transformation of the university to overcome the structured and structuring dispositions of the participants, while remaining grounded in social and historical analysis-an approach that can be considered an alternative public sociology.
Studies on Hydroxyl Terminated Polybutadiene Toughened Phenolic Resin
Authors: Nirmal C. , Maithi S. N. , Padmavathi T. , Vanaja A. , Rao R. M. V. G. K.
Published: February 2006

Phenolic novolac was modified with hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) using resole as compatibilizer. These systems were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry, and IR analysis. Neat resin castings were prepared with varying percentages of HTPB. The fracture toughness of these systems was assessed by evaluating the critical stress intensity factor ( KIc) using single-edge notch, three-point bend specimens. The fracture behavior was characterized by scanning electron microscopy. These studies revealed that the fracture toughness of the phenolic novolac resin was improved by blending it with HTPB due to the formation of a heterogeneous phase with minute particles of elastomer, which arrests the propagation of cracks.
High-Temperature Thermosetting Polyimide Nanocomposites Prepared with Reduced Charge Organoclay
Authors: Campbell Sandi , Liang Margaret I.
Published: February 2006

The naturally occurring sodium and calcium cations found in bentonite clay galleries were exchanged with lithium cations. Following the cation exchange, a series of reduced charge clays were prepared by heat treatment of the lithium bentonite at 130, 150, or 170°C. Inductively coupled plasma analysis showed that heating the lithium clay at elevated temperatures reduced its cation exchange capacity. Ion exchange of heat-treated clays with either a protonated alkyl amine or a protonated aromatic diamine resulted in decreasing amounts of the organic modifier incorporated into the lithium clay. The level of silicate dispersion in a thermosetting polyimide matrix was dependent upon the temperature of Li-clay heat treatment as well as the organic modification. In general, clays treated at 150 or 170°C, and exchanged with protonated octadecylamine or protonated 2,2′-dimethylbenzidine showed a higher degree of dispersion than clays treated at 130°C, or exchanged with protonated dodecylamine. Dynamic mechanical analysis showed little change in the storage modulus or Tg of the nanocomposites compared to the base resin. However, long-term isothermal aging of the samples showed a significant decrease in the resin oxidative weight loss. Nanocomposite samples aged in air for 1000 h at 288° C showed up to a 20% decrease in weight loss in comparison with that of the base resin. This again was dependent on the temperature at which the Li-clay was heated and the choice of organic modification.
Self-Organizing Scheduling on the Organic Grid
Authors: Chakravarti Arjav J. , Baumgartner Gerald , Lauria Mario
Published: February 2006

The Organic Grid is a biologically inspired and fully decentralized approach to the organization of computation that is based on the autonomous scheduling of strongly mobile agents on a peer-to-peer network. Through the careful design of agent behavior, the emerging organization of the computation can be customized for different classes of applications. In this paper, we report on our experience in adapting the general framework to run two representative applications on our Organic Grid prototype: the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) basic local alignment search tool (BLAST) code for sequence alignment, and the Cannon's algorithm for matrix multiplication. The first is an example of independent task application, a type of application commonly used for grid scheduling research because of its easily decomposable nature and absence of intra-node communication. The second is a popular block algorithm for parallel matrix multiplication, and represents a challenging application for grid platforms because of its highly structured and synchronous communication pattern.

Agent behavior completely determines the way computation is organized on the Organic Grid. We intentionally chose two applications at opposite ends of the distributed computing spectrum having very different requirements in terms of communication topology, resource use, and response to faults. We detail the design of the agent behavior and show how the different requirements can be satisfied. By encapsulating application code and scheduling functionality into mobile agents, we decouple both computation and scheduling from the underlying grid infrastructure. In the resulting system, every node can inject a computation onto the grid; the computation naturally organizes itself around available resources.
Experiences with Hierarchical Request Flow Management for Network-Enabled Server Environments
Authors: Dail Holly , Desprez Frédéric
Published: February 2006

The Distributed Interactive Engineering Toolbox (DIET) is a toolbox for the construction of network-enabled server systems. DIET servers provide transparent access to compute resources; resources can be either a single, interactive machine where the DIET server runs each request directly on its host, or batch-managed systems where the DIET server manages request submission and completion notification. A distributed hierarchy of scheduling agents connects the servers and is responsible for selecting servers appropriate to each client request. DIET seeks scalability by distributing the scheduling process and by keeping resource information measurement and performance prediction at the server level.

DIET has traditionally offered an on-line scheduling model whereby all requests are scheduled immediately or refused. This approach can overload interactive servers in high-load conditions and does not allow adaptation of the schedule to task or data dependences. In this paper we consider an alternative model based on active management of the flow of requests throughout the system. We have added support for (1) limiting the number of concurrent requests on interactive servers, (2) server and agentlevel queues, and (3) window-based scheduling algorithms whereby the request release rate to servers can be controlled and some rearrangement of request to host mappings is possible. We present experiments demonstrating that these approaches can improve performance and that the overheads introduced are not significantly different from those of the standard DIET approach.
Development of Multi-agency Referral Pathways for Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Developmental Coordination Disorder and Autistic Spectrum Disorders: Reflections on the Process and Suggestions for New Ways of Working
Authors: Salmon Gill , Cleave Hayley , Samuel Carolyn
Published: February 2006

This article summarizes the rationale for multi-agency working when assessing children and young people with suspected neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, developmental coordination disorder and autistic spectrum disorders. Details of referral pathways that have been drawn up for each separate disorder are given and the process through which multi-agency agreement was reached is described. Key features thought to be common to all three pathways are discussed and factors thought to have contributed to successful multi-agency working highlighted. The work is described in the context of existing national policy documents in the UK.
Substantiating a political public sphere in the Scottish press
Authors: Higgins Michael
Published: February 2006

This article uses content analysis to characterize the performance of the media in a national public sphere, by setting apart those qualities that typify internal press coverage of a political event. The article looks at the coverage of the 1999 devolved Scottish election from the day before the election until the day after. It uses a word count to measure the election material in Scottish newspapers the Herald, the Press and Journal and the Scotsman, and United Kingdom newspapers the Guardian, the Independent and The Times, and categorizes that material according to discourse type, day and page selection. The article finds a number of qualities that typify the Scottish sample in particular, and might be broadly indicative of a political public sphere in action. Firstly, and not unexpectedly, it finds that the Scottish newspapers carry significantly more election coverage. Just as tellingly, though, the article finds that the Scottish papers offer a greater proportion of advice and background information, in the form of opinion columns and feature articles. It also finds that the Scottish papers place a greater concentration of both informative and evaluative material in the period before the vote, consistent with their making a contribution to informed political action. Lastly, the article finds that the Scottish sample situates coverage nearer the front of the paper and places a greater proportion on recto pages. The article therefore argues that the Scottish papers display features that distinguish them from the UK papers, and are broadly consistent with their forming part of a deliberative public sphere, and suggests that these qualities might be explored as a means of judging future media performance.
‘Pueblo chico, infierno grande’
Authors: Castro-Vazquez Genaro , Tarui Masayoshi
Published: February 2006

In this article, we present an aspect of our ethnographic investigation with HIV-positive Latin Americans living in Japan. In order to investigate the relationship between HIV/AIDS and community support among HIV carriers, we interviewed 20 male HIV-positive Latin Americans living in Japan. From April to September 2002 and in August 2003 and 2004, we conducted a set of six 60-minute interviews with 20, 28-37-year-old HIV-positive males. Three of them were illegal aliens and seven of them claimed to be homosexual. Participants were contacted through a hospital, a non-government organization (NGO), and by snowball sampling. The analysis of the interviews indicates that informants did not find any community support. Informants were fully aware that the psychological pressure from the community affected negatively their CD4-count and viral load. Our analysis suggests three main issues concerning the ways our informants relate to their community: non-attachment, invisibility and under-representation. Serostatus, social class, sexual preference, ethnicity and legal status were referred to as barriers to freely associating within the community.