bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Mechanisms of Mechanically Induced Spontaneous Arrhythmias in Acute Regional Ischemia
Authors: Jie Xiao , Gurev Viatcheslav , Trayanova Natalia
Published: November 2009

Rationale
:

Although ventricular premature beats (VPBs) during acute regional ischemia have been linked to mechanical stretch of ischemic tissue, whether and how ischemia-induced mechanical dysfunction can induce VPBs and facilitate their degradation into reentrant arrhythmias has not been yet addressed.

Objective
:

This study used a novel multiscale electromechanical model of the rabbit ventricles to investigate the origin of and the substrate for spontaneous arrhythmias arising from ischemia-induced electrophysiological and mechanical changes.

Methods and Results
:

Two stages of ischemia were simulated. Dynamic mechanoelectrical feedback was modeled as spatially and temporally nonuniform membrane currents through mechanosensitive channels, the conductances of which depended on local strain rate. Our results reveal that both strains and strain rates were significantly larger in the central ischemic zone than in the border zone. However, in both ischemia stages, a VPB originated from the ischemic border in the left ventricular apical endocardium because of mechanically induced suprathreshold depolarizations. It then traveled fully intramurally until emerging from the ischemic border on the anterior epicardium. Reentry was formed only in the advanced ischemia stage as the result of a widened temporal excitable gap. Mechanically induced delayed afterdepolarization-like events contributed to the formation of reentry by further decreasing the already reduced-by-hyperkalemia local excitability, causing extended conduction block lines and slowed conduction in the ischemic region.

Conclusions
:

Mechanically induced membrane depolarizations in the ischemic region are the mechanism by which mechanical activity contributes to both the origin of and substrate for spontaneous arrhythmias under the conditions of acute regional ischemia.
Crescendo Transient Aura Attacks
Authors: Izenberg Aaron , Aviv Richard I. , Demaerschalk Bart M. , Dodick David W. , Hopyan Julia , Black Sandra E. , Gladstone David J.
Published: November 2009

Background and Purpose—

Diagnosis of transient ischemic attack can be difficult because many mimics exist. We report the clinical and neuroimaging features of a distinct hemorrhagic transient ischemic attack mimic.

Methods—

Case series.

Results—

We describe 4 elderly patients presenting with a cluster of stereotyped somatosensory migraine auras, initially referred for “crescendo transient ischemic attacks”. Neuroimaging in each patient revealed an unexpected finding of spontaneous focal subarachnoid hemorrhage conforming to a cortical sulcus in the contralateral hemisphere. We postulate that the episodic aura symptoms corresponded to recurrent cortical spreading depression triggered by the presence of subarachnoid blood, and speculate that such episodes could be a presenting feature of cerebral amyloid angiopathy in the absence of typical cerebral microbleeds or history of cognitive impairment.

Conclusions—

Focal subarachnoid hemorrhage can present clinically with transient repetitive migraine auras. Awareness of this entity is important because misdiagnosis as cerebral ischemic events could lead to incorrect treatment. We recommend that elderly patients presenting with a cluster of new unexplained migraine auras should be investigated ideally with MRI to detect focal subarachnoid hemorrhage.
Differences Between Ischemic Stroke Subtypes in Vascular Outcomes Support a Distinct Lacunar Ischemic Stroke Arteriopathy
Authors: Jackson Caroline A. , Hutchison Aidan , Dennis Martin S. , Wardlaw Joanna M. , Lewis Steff C. , Sudlow Cathie L.M.
Published: November 2009

Background and Purpose—

Whether and how the arterial pathology underlying lacunar ischemic stroke differs from the atherothrombotic processes causing most other ischemic strokes is still debated. Different risks of recurrent stroke and MI after lacunar versus nonlacunar ischemic stroke may support a distinct lacunar arteriopathy.

Methods—

We prospectively followed a hospital-based cohort of 809 first-ever ischemic stroke patients for 1 to 4 years. We compared risks of death, recurrent stroke, and MI in patients with lacunar versus nonlacunar stroke, and performed an updated meta-analysis of recurrent stroke subtype patterns.

Results—

During 1725 person-years of follow-up, 109 patients had a recurrent stroke and 31 had MI. All patients at baseline, and 93% with recurrent stroke, had brain imaging and more than half with recurrent stroke had diffusion-weighted MRI. Overall, there was no difference in recurrence risk after lacunar vs nonlacunar stroke, although there was a trend toward a lower recurrence risk in the early weeks after lacunar stroke. Lacunar recurrence was more likely after lacunar than nonlacunar stroke (OR, 6.5; 95% CI, 2.4–17.5; updated meta-analysis OR, 6.8; 95% CI, 4.2–11.2). MI risk was nonsignificantly lower after lacunar than nonlacunar stroke (rate ratio, 0.5; 95% CI, 0.2–1.1; rate ratio after excluding patients with previous ischemic heart disease: 0.3; 95% CI, 0.1–0.9).

Conclusions—

Our finding of a trend toward a lower MI risk after lacunar vs nonlacunar stroke and confirmation of both a lower early recurrence risk after lacunar stroke and a tendency of recurrent stroke subtypes to “breed true” support the notion of a distinct nonatherothrombotic lacunar arteriopathy.
A Systematic Review of Angiotensin Receptor Blockers in Preventing Stroke
Authors: Lu Guo-Cai , Cheng Jin-Wei , Zhu Ke-Ming , Ma Xiu-Juan , Shen Fu-Ming , Su Ding-Feng
Published: November 2009

Background and Purpose—

Angiotensin receptor blockers are widely used in patients at high risk of cardiocerebrovascular events. The aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate the effects of angiotensin receptor blockers on the risk of stroke.

Methods—

Electronic searches of MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane central register of controlled trials were performed. A total of 20 randomized clinical trials with 108 286 patients reporting stroke were available for this clinical outcome analysis.

Results—

Angiotensin receptor blockers were associated with a significant reduction in the risk of stroke than placebo with an OR of 0.91 (0.84 to 0.98). Angiotensin receptor blockers were associated with no significant reduction in the risk of stroke compared with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (OR, 0.93; 0.84 to 1.03) and calcium antagonists (OR, 1.16; 0.91 to 1.48).

Conclusions—

Evidence of the benefit of angiotensin receptor blockers on the risk of stroke is provided when compared with placebo. There was no evidence of the benefit when comparing angiotensin receptor blockers with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and with calcium antagonists.
Systematic Review of the Perioperative Risks of Stroke or Death After Carotid Angioplasty and Stenting
Authors: Touzé Emmanuel , Trinquart Ludovic , Chatellier Gilles , Mas Jean-Louis
Published: November 2009

Background and Purpose—

Carotid angioplasty and stenting (CAS) has not been shown to be as safe as carotid endarterectomy (CEA) with regard to the risks of periprocedural complications, but beyond the perioperative period, the risks are comparable, suggesting that CAS may be an acceptable option in selected patients. However, risk factors for perioperative stroke and death have not been clearly established. We aimed to estimate the 30-day absolute risks of stroke or death after CAS and investigate sources of heterogeneity.

Methods—

We sought articles published between January 1990 and June 2008 by using MEDLINE, EMBASE, the COCHRANE databases, hand-searching, abstract books from conferences, and official websites. Two reviewers independently and in duplicate selected articles on the risks of CAS, irrespective of the type of treatment, study design, setting, or language. The 2 reviewers abstracted data and assessed the quality of the studies.

Results—

Two hundred six independent studies (with 54 713 patients) were included. The overall 30-day risk of stroke or death was 4.7% (95% CI, 4.1 to 5.2) with substantial heterogeneity across studies. Symptomatic patients were about twice as likely as those with asymptomatic stenoses to have complications. The 30-day risk of stroke or death was 7.6% (6.3 to 9.1) in symptomatic and 3.3% (2.6 to 4.1) in asymptomatic patients. Risks increased with age, hypertension, and history of coronary artery disease; were unrelated to sex and the presence of contralateral carotid occlusion; and were lower in patients who had carotid restenosis after CEA and in those treated with the use of a cerebral protection device. Risks have also decreased over time.

Conclusions—

Risks of CAS vary substantially across studies. Risks are overall higher than those of CEA in symptomatic patients. Some factors are likely to help select good candidates for CAS.
Low Pessimism Protects Against Stroke
Authors: Nabi Hermann , Koskenvuo Markku , Singh-Manoux Archana , Korkeila Jyrki , Suominen Sakari , Korkeila Katariina , Vahtera Jussi , Kivimäki Mika
Published: November 2009

Background and Purpose—

The association between optimism and pessimism and health outcomes has attracted increasing research interest. To date, the association between these psychological variables and risk of stroke remains unclear. We examined the relationship between pessimism and the 7-year incidence of stroke.

Methods—

A random sample of 23 216 adults (9480 men, 13 796 women) aged 20 to 54 years completed the pessimism scale in 1998, that is, at study baseline. Fatal and first nonfatal stroke events during a mean follow-up of 7.0 years were documented by linkage to the national hospital discharge and mortality registers leading to 105 events.

Results—

Unadjusted hazard ratio was 0.44 (95% CI, 0.25 to 0.77) for participants in the lowest quartile (a low pessimism level) when compared with those in the highest quartile (a high pessimism level). After serial adjustments for sociodemographic characteristics, cardiovascular biobehavioral risk factors, depression, general feeling of stressfulness, and ischemic heart disease, the fully adjusted hazard ratio was 0.52 (95% CI, 0.29 to 0.93).

Conclusions—

In this population of adult men and women, low level of pessimism had a robust association with reduced incidence of stroke.
Acute Brain Infarcts After Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage
Authors: Prabhakaran Shyam , Gupta Rajesh , Ouyang Bichun , John Sayona , Temes Richard E. , Mohammad Yousef , Lee Vivien H. , Bleck Thomas P.
Published: November 2009

Background and Purpose—

We aimed to determine the prevalence of acute brain infarcts using diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH).

Methods—

We collected data on consecutive patients with spontaneous ICH admitted to our institution between August 1, 2006 and December 31, 2008 and in whom DWI was performed within 28 days of admission. Patients with hemorrhage attributable to trauma, tumor, aneurysm, vascular malformation, and hemorrhagic conversion of arterial or venous infarction were excluded. Restricted diffusion within, contiguous with, or immediately neighboring the hematoma or chronic infarcts was not considered abnormal. Using multivariable logistic regression, we evaluated potential predictors of DWI abnormality including clinical and radiographic characteristics and treatments. A probability value <0.05 was considered significant in the final model.

Results—

Among 118 spontaneous ICH patients (mean 59.6 years, 47.5% male, and 31.4% white) who also underwent MRI, DWI abnormality was observed in 22.9%. The majority of infarcts were small (median volume 0.25 mL), subcortical (70.4%), and subclinical (88.9%). Factors independently associated with DWI abnormality were prior ischemic stroke (
P
=0.002), MAP lowering by ≥40% (
P
=0.004), and craniotomy for ICH evacuation (
P
=0.001).

Conclusion—

We found that acute brain infarction is relatively common after acute spontaneous ICH. Several factors, including aggressive blood pressure lowering, may be associated with acute ischemic infarcts after ICH. These preliminary findings require further prospective study.
Brain Ischemic Preconditioning Does Not Require PARP-1
Authors: Faraco Giuseppe , Blasi Francesco , Min Wookee , Wang Zhao-Qi , Moroni Flavio , Chiarugi Alberto
Published: November 2009

Background and Purpose—

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) is involved in ischemic preconditioning of the heart and cultured neurons, but its role in brain ischemic preconditioning is unknown.

Summary of Report—

We report that 5-minute bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (BCCAO) in the mouse prompted reduction of infarct volumes triggered 24 hours later by 20-minute middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). Pharmacological PARP-1 inhibition between BCCAO and MCAO did not impair preconditioning. The contents of the PARP-1 substrate NAD, those of its product poly(ADP-ribose), caspase-3 activation, and PARP-1 expression did not change after BCCAO within the preconditioned tissue. PARP-1 KO mice were similarly protected by the 5-minute BCCAO.

Conclusion—

Data demonstrate that, at variance with the heart, PARP-1 is dispensable for brain ischemic preconditioning.
The LAIR: Lightweight Affordable Immersion Room
Authors: Denby Barry , Campbell Abraham G , Carr Hamish , O'Hare G. M. P
Published: November 2009

This paper proposes a virtual environment system called a lightweight affordable immersion room (LAIR) that we propose for use in space and financially constrained situations. The LAIR consists of four walls arranged in a square providing a 360° degree view. By using front projection and two projectors per wall, the LAIR provides a compact environment which gives users some freedom of movement. The LAIR may be considered in terms of performance and cost as somewhere between a power wall and a CAVE—more immersive than a power wall, but less than a CAVE—and similarly moderate in terms of use of space and cost.
Psychology and the Soul in Late Medieval Erfurt
Authors: Kärkkäinen Pekka
Published: November 2009

In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries the University of Erfurt was one of the strongholds of the via moderna in Germany. The present article examines how this school's identity was manifested in discussions on the soul and its powers, engaged in by three Erfurtian philosophers: Johannes Carnificis de Lutrea, Jodocus Trutfetter and Bartholomaeus Arnoldi de Usingen. In the various forms of their expositions these authors reveal a rather uniform stance concerning doctrinal issues. Their positions are largely based on the tradition of the via moderna going back to the early fifteenth century, and their argumentation is deeply bound to the problems arising from this school's position. Comparisons with concurrent Thomist and Scotist sources show that the Erfurtians describe the positions of other schools in an appropriate manner, although the arguments for and against these positions are often borrowed from the authorities of their own school rather than from contemporaneous discussion.
Ten Arguments in Search of a Philosopher: Averroes and Aquinas in Ficino's Platonic Theology
Authors: Copenhaver Brian
Published: November 2009

In book 15 of his Platonic Theology on the Immortality of the Soul, Marsilio Ficino names Averroes and the Averroists as his opponents, though he does not say which particular Averroists he has in mind. The key position that Ficino attributes to Averroes—that the Intellect is not the substantial form of the body—is not one that Averroes holds explicitly, though he does claim explicitly that the Intellect is not a body or a power in a body. Ficino's account of what Averroes said about the soul's immortality comes not from texts written by Averroes but from arguments made against Averroes by Thomas Aquinas in the Summa contra gentiles.
Refuting the Yetzer: The Evil Inclination and the Limits of Rabbinic Discourse
Authors: Rosen-Zvi Ishay
Published: November 2009

Rabbinic literature contains several examples of a manner of silencing impious arguments that is usually identified only with later forms of piety, namely, ascribing the arguments to the evil inclination (yetzerhara). Arguments attributed to the yetzer represent serious discursive threats against rabbinic doctrine, marking fundamental problems in both its legal and nonlegal (aggadic) parts. Identifying a question or refutation as belonging to the yetzer automatically invalidates it. By ascribing arguments to the yetzer, the rabbis prevent their audience from actually engaging them, thus marking the limits of rabbinic dialogism.
Midrash, Myth, and Bakhtin's Chronotope: The Itinerant Well and the Foundation Stone in Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer
Authors: Adelman Rachel
Published: November 2009

Throughout the midrash Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer (PRE), motifs are recycled to connect primordial time to the eschaton. In this paper, I read passages on the well “created at twilight of the Sixth Day” in light of Bakhtin's notion of “chronotope” (lit. time-space). The author of PRE disengages the itinerant well from its traditional association with the desert sojourn and links it, instead, to the foundation stone of the world (even shtiyah) at the Temple Mount. The midrash reflects the influence of Islamic legends about the “white stone” around which the Dome of the Rock was built (ca. 690 C.E.). Over the course of the discussion, PRE is understood in terms of the genre “narrative midrash” and compared to classical rabbinic literature in order to illustrate changes in both form and content arising from the author's apocalyptic eschatology.
Reclaiming the Prophets: Cohen, Heschel, and Crossing the Theocentric/Neo-Humanist Divide
Authors: Erlewine Robert
Published: November 2009

In this essay, I examine Hermann Cohen's and Abraham Joshua Heschel's respective accounts of the classical prophets of the Hebrew Bible, which contend with the Protestant biblical criticism of their day. Their accounts of the prophets are of central significance for their philosophies of Judaism, which mirror and oppose each other. This Auseinandersetzung addresses the often neglected topic of Jewish responses to German-Protestant biblical criticism and stresses the cogency of Heschel's thought. Additionally, examining Cohen and Heschel together problematizes the polarization between theocentrism and neo-humanism currently dominating the landscape of modern Jewish thought.
Abraham Joshua Heschel's Theology of Judaism and the Rewriting of Jewish Intellectual History
Authors: Kimelman Reuven
Published: November 2009

Abraham Joshua Heschel's oeuvre deals with the continuum of Jewish religious consciousness from the biblical and rabbinic periods through the kabbalistic and Hasidic ones with regard to God's concern for humanity. The goal of this study is to show how such a “Nachmanidean” reading has partially displaced the discontinuous “Maimonidean” reading promoted by Yehezkel Kaufman, Ephraim Urbach, and Gershom Scholem. The result is that Heschel's understanding of the development of Jewish theologizing is more influential now than it was during his lifetime. This study traces the growth of that development and explores how Heschel became the scholar-theologian who most succeeded in bridging the gap between scholarship and constructive theology.
“They were not humans, but devils in human bodies”: Depictions of Sexual Violence and Spanish Tyranny as a Means of Fostering Identity in the Dutch Republic
Authors: Pipkin Amanda
Published: November 2009

From 1609 to 1648, the inhabitants of the nascent Dutch Republic faced various challenges as they worked to justify and ensure its continued existence. Many authors and artists deployed depictions of sexual violence as a potent tool to patch over political and religious disagreements among the Dutch by encouraging them to focus on the larger threat—their Spanish enemy. They propagated stories that vilified the Spanish in two ways: focusing on the literal raping women of the Low Countries as Phillip II's troops attempted to reassert his control there and the metaphoric violence of a people ruled by a tyrant who violated the traditional rights of the Dutch nation imagined as a vulnerable woman. Through depictions of rape, these authors and artists not only created an enemy against whom the Dutch could unite; they also generated the idea that treating women with proper care and respect was part of a Dutch (male) national character.
When Moral Intuitions Are Immune to the Law: A Case Study of Euthanasia and the Act-Omission Distinction in The Netherlands
Authors: Hauser  , Tonnaer  , Cima
Published: November 2009

Legal scholars and philosophers have long debated the moral standing of the act-omission distinction, with some favoring the view that actions ought to be considered as morally different from omissions, while others disagree. Several empirical studies suggest that people judge actions that cause harm as worse than omissions that cause the same harm with the implication that our folk psychology commonly perceives this distinction as morally significant. Here we explore the robustness of people's moral intuitions, and in particular, whether the omission bias can be eliminated in the face of explicit and familiar laws that take away the moral standing of the distinction between actions and omissions. We show that although Dutch law allows both active and passive euthanasia, and although our Dutch participants were well aware of this law and supported it, they nonetheless showed a robust omission bias across a wide range of moral dilemmas. We conclude by discussing the relationship between our folk moral intuitions and explicit moral rules that are handed down by law and religion.
A Cognitive Approach to Moral Responsibility: The Case of a Failed Attempt to Kill
Authors: Sousa Paulo
Published: November 2009

Many theoretical claims about the folk concept of moral responsibility coming from the current literature are indeterminate because researchers do not clearly specify the folk concept of moral responsibility in question. The article pursues a cognitive approach to folk concepts that pays special attention to this indeterminacy problem. After addressing the problem, the article provides evidence on folk attributions of moral responsibility in the case a failed attempt to kill that goes against a specific claim coming from the current literature – that the dimension of causation is part of the structure of the folk concept of moral responsibility.
Ritual Agency, Substance Transfer and the Making of Supernatural Immediacy in Pilgrim Journeys
Authors: Nordin Andreas
Published: November 2009

Pilgrim journeys are popular religious phenomena that are based on ritual interaction with culturally postulated counterintuitive supernatural agents. This article uses results taken from an anthropological Ph. D. thesis on cognitive aspects of Hindu pilgrimage in Nepal and Tibet. Cognitive theories have been neglected in pilgrimage studies but they offer new perspectives on belief structures and ritual action and call into question some of the current assumptions in this research field. Pilgrim journeys often involve flows of substance of anthropomorphic character. Transferring substance in pilgrimage means leaving material at the pilgrimage site and then receiving other materials to take home. Pilgrim journeys imply ritual interaction, intuitions and ideas regarding the management of sin, impurity and evil. They also imply reception of blessings along with divine agency. This paper investigates how assumptions about agency, psychological essentialism and contagion connected to supernatural agents provides an important selective pressure in formation of beliefs related to pilgrimage. This paper shows that the transfer of substances is an operation on ritual instruments. It creates a supernatural immediacy effect in pilgrims, in the sense suggested by Lawson and McCauley.
Looks and Living Kinds: Varieties of Racial Cognition in Bahia, Brazil
Authors: Jones Doug
Published: November 2009

Psychological research in the USA and elsewhere suggests that race is regarded as an underlying, inherited “essential” trait, like membership in a biological species. Yet Brazil has often been regarded as very different from the USA: as a country in which racial variation is seen as more continuous than categorical, more a matter of appearance than descent. This study tests alternative theories of racial cognition in Bahia, Brazil. Data include racial classification of drawings and photographs, judgments of similarity – dissimilarity between racial categories, ideas about expected and possible race of offspring from inter-racial unions, heritability of racial and non-racial traits, and conservation of race through changes in appearance. The research demonstrates consensus over time in appearance-based classification, yet race is also thought of as an “essential” trait. However, racial essences can be mixed, with a person containing the hereditary potential of multiple races, so that race in Bahia does not define clear-cut groups or discrete “living kinds.” If essentialism is the shared core of folk theories of race, there may be more variability and room for social construction in the categorization of mixed-race individuals.
Epistemology and Counterintuitiveness: Role and Relationship in Epidemiology of Cultural Representations
Authors: Gregory Justin , Barrett Justin
Published: November 2009

Forty-nine members of the Oxford public took part in a controlled free-recall experiment, the first 'minimal counterintuitiveness theory' study to control concept inferential potential and participant selective-attention timing. Recall of counterintuitive ideas (MCI) was compared with recall of ideas expressing necessary epistemic incongruence (i.e., analytically false), analytically true ideas, and ordinary control ideas. The items expressing necessary epistemic incongruence had better recall than other items. MCI items had a mnemonic advantage over intuitive templates for participants twenty-five years and younger after a one-week delay, but MCI items did not have an advantage for older participants. There was no mnemonic advantage for immediate recall of MCI items in any age group. Analyses suggest this general failure to replicate previously found mnemonic advantages may have been due to restricting the items' inferential potential.
Public Opinion and Evolved Heuristics: The Role of Category-Based Inference
Authors: Petersen Michael Bang
Published: November 2009

Extant research argues that public opinion on modern political issues is a by-product of evolved moral intuitions. However, the structure of modern political debates seems to clash with the input conditions of our moral inference systems. Especially, while we evolved to pass moral judgments on specific and well-known individuals, modern politics is about formulating general laws, applying to whole categories of anonymous strangers. Hence, it is argued that in order to produce opinion on political issues, moral heuristics are required to recruit cognitive systems designed for category-based inference. It is predicted and empirically demonstrated, first, that this interplay is conditioned by the extent to which an individual's stored category-level information (i.e., stereotypes) fit the input conditions of evolved heuristics. Second, that the category-oriented inferences are regulated by a scope syntax, which deactivates their role in public opinion formation to the extent the individual is faced with specific and ecologically valid information. Implications for understanding public opinion on modern political issues are discussed.
Weighing Up Physical Causes: Effects of Culture, Linguistic Cues and Content
Authors: Beller Sieghard , Bender Andrea , Song Jie
Published: November 2009

Cross-cultural differences in cognition are often related to one single cultural dimension. Whether this suffices even for simple tasks is examined in the context of causal attribution. Culture-specific attribution biases are well-established for the social domain, but under dispute for the physical domain. In order to identify and assess possible impacts on assigning physical causation, we conducted a cross-cultural experiment with participants from Germany, China and Tonga (n = 377). Participants were required to identify which of two entities is the ultimate cause for a physical interaction that was varied with regard to linguistic cues and content. Our data reveal overall cultural differences in attribution tendencies analogous to those in the social domain, but also an impact of linguistic cues and of the task-specific content.
Cultural Solutions to Religious Conflicts? The Revival of Tradition in the Moluccas, Eastern Indonesia
Authors: Bräuchler Birgit
Published: November 2009

One of the most violent conflicts of the post-Suharto era took place in the Moluccas, Eastern Indonesia, from 1999 until 2003. Due to a strategic mobilisation process, it was mainly fought out between Christians and Muslims. After the conflict, local actors in the Moluccas hoped to build up sustainable peace through the revival of traditions that are supposed to overcome religious differences and enable harmonious living together. Taking up these local voices or voices that claim to be local, this paper wants to discuss the option of a cultural approach to conflict solution and to reflect on the reconciliatory potential of the revival of tradition. The prominent village alliance system in the Central Moluccas called pela serves as an example how 'traditional' mechanisms were used in order to foster reconciliation. This paper also analyses challenges and problems of the revival-reconciliation interplay in order to reveal both the integrative, as well as the exclusivist, character of revived traditions that are supposed to overcome religious differences.
Sexual selection in flies: a comparison of Drosophila simulans and D. melanogaster
Authors: Taylor Michelle , Sharma Manmohan , Hosken David
Published: November 2009

The traditional view of sexual selection via female mate choice is that female preference for certain males either has no net fitness cost or is beneficial to overall female fitness. A more contemporary view is that preferred males can at times reduce female fitness. This view has arisen from the realisation that conflict between the sexes is an inevitable feature of sexual reproduction, as each sex necessarily has a different agenda for maximizing fitness. Despite the hailing of sexual conflict as a paradigm shift and its prevalence in the recent sexual selection literature, compelling evidence that attractive males reduce female fitness remains taxonomically restricted. Here we review the findings of a series of investigations into the fitness consequences of female preference in the fly Drosophila simulans and compare them with its sibling species, D. melanogaster. We show that there are stark differences in the fitness consequences of mating with preferred males in the two species and discuss this contrast with reference to the current debates in the sexual selection literature.
A role for sexual conflict in the evolution of reproductive traits in Nasonia wasps?
Authors: Geuverink Elzemiek , Gerritsma Sylvia , Pannebakker Bart , Beukeboom Leo
Published: November 2009

Sexual conflict theory predicts that female and male reproductive traits coevolve resulting in disruption of reproductive behaviour upon mating of individuals from diverged populations. We used interfertile species of haplodiploid Nasonia wasps to compare re-mating frequency, longevity, oviposition rate and sperm use of conspecifically and heterospecifically mated females. Females that first mated with a heterospecific male re-mated more often a second time, indicating that conspecific males reduce female receptivity more. Mating did not affect female lifespan. Lifetime production of sons and daughters was significantly reduced in heterospecifically mated females. Dissection of females confirmed that heterospecific sperm survives equally well as conspecific sperm during storage in the spermatheca. Differences in daily fecundity and age at which females become sperm depleted could in part be explained by species differences in ovariole numbers. We conclude that sexual conflict may play a role in the evolution of female mating rate, fecundity and sex allocation in Nasonia.
Pharmacological Retention of Oral Mucosa Progenitor/Stem Cells
Authors: Izumi K. , Inoki K. , Fujimori Y. , Marcelo C.L. , Feinberg S.E.
Published: November 2009

Oral mucosa progenitor/stem cells reside as a small-sized cell population that eventually differentiates concurrently with an increase in cell size. Activation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) leads to an increase in cell size. We hypothesized that rapamycin, a specific inhibitor of mTOR, will maintain primary human oral keratinocytes as a small-sized, undifferentiated cell population capable of retaining their proliferative capacity. Primary, rapamycin-treated (2 nM, 20 nM) oral keratinocytes showed a diminished cell size that correlated with a higher clonogenicity, a longer-term proliferative potential, and a slower cycling cell population concurrent with decreased expression of a differentiation marker when compared with untreated cells. Only the 2-nM rapamycin-treated oral keratinocytes maintained their ability to regenerate oral mucosa in vitro after 15 weeks of culture. Rapamycin, a Food and Drug Administration-approved drug, may have applicability for use in creating a highly proliferative cell population for use in regenerative medicine.
A Spatial and Temporal Autocorrelated Growth Model for City Rank—Size Distribution
Authors: Xu Zengwang , Harriss Robert
Published: November 2009

Rank—size distribution has been an important tool in characterising and analysing city size distributions across spatial and temporal scales. Zipf’s law in city rank—size distribution has been observed in many analyses and is considered an important empirical regularity describing the organisation of cities. Based on analyses of the evolution of cities in Texas from 1850 to 2000, this paper documents spatial and temporal autocorrelation in city population growth rates. A modelling strategy has been developed that accounts for the spatial and temporal autocorrelated growth in Texas cities and is effective in reconstructing the empirical rank—size distribution. This study shows that it is necessary to take into account the interdependence among cities in simulating the city size distribution.
The City as a Mirror: Transport, Land Use and Social Change in Jakarta
Authors: Hutabarat Lo Ria
Published: November 2009

This paper examines historical patterns of transport and land use development in Jakarta with a view to understanding the larger meaning of development in this context. The paper uses archival analysis and policy interviews to trace theories and practices of national and urban development from the late colonial period to the mid 1990s. Apparent continuities in the development of major roads, goods movement corridors and spaces of flows are investigated in relation to claims of fundamental policy and social change across this period. Additionally, shifts in the provision of public transport and pedestrian facilities are investigated in terms of wider processes of social contestation and resolution. The analysis highlights the connection between transport and land use policies and wider economic, political and social imaginaries. It also suggests that, despite the appearance of fundamental ideological change and social upheaval, there are continuities in development that suggest the maintenance of social relations within Jakarta.
Homeownership and Economic Performance of Immigrants in Germany
Authors: Sinning Mathias
Published: November 2009

This paper investigates the homeownership gap between native and immigrant households in Germany, paying particular attention to the assimilation process of immigrant households. A double cohort model is derived, which circumvents the identification problem for separating age, period and cohort effects and accounts for differences in the effects. The empirical findings suggest that immigrant households are less likely to own their primary residence than comparable native households. Moreover, the duration of residence in Germany does not affect the homeownership probability of immigrants, indicating that an assimilation process in homeownership between native and immigrant households did not take place. This result is largely consistent with the German immigration policy, which has focused predominantly on short-run economic needs and has neglected long-run economic effects of immigration.
Local Entrepreneurialism and State Rescaling in Turkey
Authors: Bayirbağ Mustafa Kemal
Published: November 2009

The paper examines the links between the rise of local entrepreneurialism and state rescaling in a neo-liberal context. The thrust of the article is that the agency of localities, increasingly manifested in the form of local entrepreneurialism, emerges through the political activism of a local bourgeoisie, in pursuit of a multiscalar local accumulation strategy. The article focuses on the spatial interest representation strategies of the local bourgeoisie introducing the concept of scalar strategies of representation, to examine in what ways the broader state rescaling process contributes to the formation of local agency and how this agency influences state rescaling. The city of Gaziantep, Turkey, constitutes its empirical focus.
Consequences of Being Bullied
Authors: Esbensen Finn-Aage , Carson Dena C.
Published: November 2009

Bullying victimization is part of the adolescent experience in most societies, yet little is known about its consequences. In this article we utilize a multisite, longitudinal data set to examine the effects of being bullied. We also explore definitional and measurement issues that confound this line of research. While some researchers have relied on a single/generic item to measure bullying, others have focused on behaviorally specific items. In addition, most prior research on bullying has relied on cross-sectional data, thereby restricting researchers’ ability to examine the consequences of prior victimization. Using three waves of data, we create a typology of victimization (nonvictims, intermittent victims, and repeat victims) that allows us to establish correct temporal ordering to examining the effects of victimization on subsequent attitudes. Importantly, we assess the consequences of bullying victimization using both a single-item indicator and a composite measure consisting of behaviorally specific questions.
‘New’ Media, ‘Old’ Theories
Authors: Splichal Slavko
Published: November 2009

■ Since its earliest conceptualizations, publicity was believed to contribute significantly to the democratic social order; it normatively legitimized the press and other media as constitutive of the public and public opinion. Yet all the ‘old’ mass media rooted in the property rights of their owners failed to enhance and complement the corporate freedom of the press with technologically-feasible actions towards equalizing citizens’ opportunities to participate in public debates. The most recent technological advances in communication do not seem to resolve this age-old controversy. Rather, an attempt is needed to change the media in the way that would allow of publicity in its original three-dimensional design: personal right to communicate in public, surveillance of the public over government (governance), and mediation between the state and civil society. ■
Does ‘the Media’ Have a Future?
Authors: Couldry Nick
Published: November 2009

■ Media-related practices have so long been configured in a particular one-to-many pattern that the mass communication paradigm has seemed automatic as both frame for research and fact of social life. The paradigm is summed up in the English term ‘ the media’. But what if the very idea of ‘the media’ is also imploding, as the interfaces we call media are transformed? Does the implosion of ‘the media’ generate a crisis of appearances for government and other institutions? Three dynamics are considered here — technological, social and political — that are potentially undermining our idea of ‘the media’ as a privileged site for accessing a common world. The article concludes that, instead of collapsing, the social construction of ‘the media’ will become a site of intensified struggle for competing forces: market-based fragmentation vs continued pressures of centralization that draw on new media-related myths and rituals. ■
‘Freshly Generated for You, and Barack Obama’
Authors: Rettberg Jill Walker
Published: November 2009

■ This article discusses the ways in which social media help us craft the narratives of our lives. Many discussions of social media look at self-presentation and the construction of identity on social network sites in particular and the Internet in general. This article switches the focus from the moment of self-construction and instead looks at ways in which social media represent our lives by filtering the data we feed into them through templates and by displaying simplified patterns, visualizations and narratives back to us. The article argues that social media help users to see themselves by taking their raw data and representing them in structured form, and gives examples of different ways in which this data is presented. ■
Thirty Years of ROPPA: Past Trends and Future Prospects
Authors: West Jonathan P.
Published: November 2009

In the fall of 1980, the inaugural issue of the Review of Public Personnel Administration was published. This symposium celebrates the 30-year anniversary of ROPPA. The articles in the symposium look back and forward to take stock of the current state of the public human resource management (HRM) field. This introduction reviews publishing trends in the journal over the past 30 years, including the contributions of editors and authors, the subject matter of articles published in the journal, the most frequent contributors, and the Review of Public Personnel Administration’s impact. The introduction concludes with highlights from the five articles appearing in this symposium and their focus on critical issues in the field, including a strategic research agenda for HRM, workforce diversity, performance-based pay, labor—management relations, and public HRM education.
Workforce Diversity in the New Millennium: Prospects for Research
Authors: Pitts David W. , Recascino Wise Lois
Published: November 2009

Public organizations in the new millennium are tasked with a myriad of human resource management challenges that stem from workforce diversity, but the field of public administration has not produced a body of research that adequately assists them with these struggles. In 2000, Wise and Tschirhart called for “greater contribution from public administration scholars to the body of research focusing on how human diversity can best be managed to produce positive results.” They found that existing research contributed little usable knowledge for diversity management policies and programs. The authors examine whether their call for more rigorous and more practice-oriented research has been heeded by identifying articles on workforce diversity published in a core set of public administration journals since 2000. A broad overview of the literature on diversity is provided, followed by a more focused discussion of empirical research on employment diversity, diversity management, and organizational outputs and outcomes. It is found that although diversity issues remain salient to public administration scholarship, usable knowledge is in short supply. A substantial share of this research can be categorized as focusing on representative bureaucracy issues. Few empirical studies test diversity effects or hypotheses. Some empirical work explains factors beyond the control of human resource policies or practicing managers, which makes findings less useful to practitioners. The research suffers from inadequate data, little innovation in methodology, and insufficient attention to empirical connections between diversity and organizational results.
The Success of Failure: The Paradox of Performance Pay
Authors: Bowman James S.
Published: November 2009

This normative article examines the contemporary record of pay-for-performance plans in the federal government.These programs, extending back nearly two generations, have consistently malfunctioned. Nonetheless, the state of the field today is one of continued attempts to use the technique despite agency history and research data that document its problematic nature. Based on scholarly literature, news media reports, and interview data, the analysis assesses the practical experience, policy findings, and political realities of this compensation method. The discussion raises questions about rational decision-making models and suggests that belief in performance pay is akin to an urban legend.
Perceived Autonomy and Activity Choices Among Physically Disabled Older People in Nursing Home Settings: A Randomized Trial
Authors: Andresen Mette , Runge Ulla , Hoff Morten , Puggaard Lis
Published: November 2009

Objectives: To evaluate the effect of individually tailored programs on perceived autonomy in institutionalized physically disabled older people and to describe participants’ activity wishes and content of the programs. Method: This blinded randomized trial with follow up included a total of nine nursing homes and 50 nursing home residents who were randomized into either a control group or an intervention group. Perceived autonomy was measured at baseline (T1), after 12 weeks (T2) of intervention and after 24 weeks (T3) Wishes for daily activities was identified at T1. Weekly reports of individual programs were drawn up. Results: Both groups perceived autonomy as average at baseline and increased their mean score at T2 to high or close to high. At T3, both groups scored average but exceeded the level of T1. Activity wishes and the content of the programs indicate incoherence. Discussion: Although the correspondence between the individual wishes for activities and the concrete content of the programs was not obvious, results indicate potential for enabling the perception of autonomy among physically disabled older nursing home residents. The clinical consequences may suggest a focus on existing traditions, methods, and tools in the nursing home practice.
Mapping European healthcare systems: a comparative analysis of financing, service provision and access to healthcare
Authors: Wendt Claus
Published: November 2009

Healthcare systems have been institutionalized to provide healthcare for those in need. Therefore, comparisons should focus in particular on differences in healthcare provision and on how access to healthcare services is regulated. This article presents a typology of healthcare systems which simultaneously takes into account data on expenditures, financing, provision and access to healthcare in 15 European countries. On this basis, three types of healthcare system have been constructed using statistical cluster analysis: a health service provision-oriented type that is characterized by a high number of service providers and free access for patients to medical doctors; a universal coverage — controlled access type where healthcare provision has the status of a social citizenship right and equal access to healthcare is of higher importance than free access and freedom of choice; and a low budget — restricted access type where financial resources for healthcare are limited and patients’ access to healthcare is restricted by high private out-of-pocket payments and the regulation that patients have to sign up on a general practitioner’s list for a longer period of time.