bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Note: Antioxidant Properties of Lees Produced during Sake Making Using Fugu Muscle and Fin
Authors: Nagai T.
Published: July 2003

Enzymatic hydrolysates were prepared from lees produced during sake making using fugu muscle and fin. The antioxidant properties of these hydrolysates were measured using four different methods: autoxidation test, superoxide anion radical, DPPH radical and hydroxyl radical scavenging test. The yields of enzymatic hydrolysates were around 8.0% and their protein average content 0.66 mg/mg. The lees had remarkable antioxidant properties and high superoxide anion radical and hydroxyl radical scavenging abilities in comparison with those of ascorbic acid and α-tocopherol. According to the former results, lees produced during sake making could be used as a protein source with antioxidant properties for different applications in food processing, and its use could contribute to reduce industrial wastes.
Interstitial Condensation Due to Air Leakage: A Sensitivity Analysis
Authors: Janssens A. , Hens H.
Published: July 2003

This paper presents an approach to evaluate the sensitivity of a roof design to condensation problems, given the uncertainty to achieve continuity of airtightness in practice. The approach consists of a repeated number of simulations with a 2D heat, air and vapour transfer model to predict the variation in roof moisture performance due to various discontinuities in roof geometry. The set of discontinuities is calibrated by comparing measuring data of roof airtightness to simulation results. On the basis of the methodology, the paper explores the effectiveness of different measures to reduce the sensitivity of cavity insulated roofs to condensation problems. The results show that even when a roof design complies with condensation control standards, a lightweight system remains sensitive to condensation problems as a result of air leakage through the discontinuities, joints and perforations, common to most existing construction methods. The sensitivity of a roof to interstitial condensation due to air leakage essentially depends on the heat and vapour transfer properties and design of the layers outside of the thermal insulation (roofing and underlay)
Thermal Diffusion of Water Vapour Through Glass Fiber Insulation
Authors: Stephenson D. G.
Published: July 2003

The flux of water vapour through glass fiber insulation depends on the gradients of the concentration of the water vapour and the temperature in accordance with a generalized form of Fick's Law, viz.

JV/ρν=-α(1/ρν dρν/ dx) - β(1/ T dT/dx)

The diffusion coefficient for the density gradient is related to the permeability obtained from an isothermal permeance test. The coefficient associated with the temperature gradient is derived from measured values of the heat flux through a specimen of fibrous insulation in both a wet and dry condition.
Verification of Density Predicted for Prevention of Settling of Loose-fill Cellulose Insulation in Walls
Authors: Rasmussen Torben Valdbjørn
Published: July 2003

This paper discusses the verification of the density predicted for prevention of settling of loose-fill cellulose insulation in walls when criteria for creep in granular materials are applied. The practical use of an earlier presented theoretical framework and an experimental verification are described.

The empirical framework allows a quantitative approach to the problem of achieving non-settling of a loose-fill insulation material in a given wall.

The prediction involves the use of three experimentally determined parameters that govern the density of a loose-fill insulation material required to ensure volume stability in a wall exposed to climates. One parameter is determined from tests on a wall exposed to constant humidity conditions and two parameters are determined from tests on walls exposed to time variable humidity conditions.

A theoretical description of creep is used that describes the parameter for walls exposed to constant environmental conditions. The parameters for an extended empirical model for predicting creep of material exposed to alternating humidity are determined from the corresponding tests.

The uses of the parameters are shown together with associated characteristics for one loose-fill cellulose insulation material under one set of exposures. Full-scale wall tests in one wall cavity configuration under the same set of exposures showed that the method did predict results that are in the right magnitude. In addition it is shown that for many cycles with in-time variable humidity conditions, creep of the loose-fill cellulose insulation material almost reached equilibrium.
Thermal Conductivity of Fibre Reinforced Porous Calcium Silicate Hydrate-based Composites
Authors: Koronthalyova Olga , Matiasovsky Peter
Published: July 2003

Steady-state thermal conductivity measurements of the cellulose fibre reinforced calcium silicate insulation boards were carried out. After exclusion of the effects caused by the enthalpy flow and the possible non-linear moisture content distribution the effective thermal conductivity-moisture content relations were determined from the measured apparent thermal conductivity values. The achieved moisture dependences of the thermal conductivity have had in the first approximation the character of a bilinear function for all measured types of calcium silicates. The material structure-based model capturing the essential features of the capillary pressure - strain and the stress - crack width relationships and coupling the water sorption and mechanical behaviour was applied for an explanation of determined courses of the moisture dependent thermal conductivities.
Finite Element Analysis of Composite and Sandwich Plates Using a Continuous Inter-laminar Shear Stress Model
Authors: Topdar P. , Sheikh A. H. , Dhang N.
Published: July 2003

A four noded plate element based on a refined higher order shear deformation theory is developed for the analysis of composite and sandwich plates. This plate theory satisfies the conditions of inter-laminar shear stress continuity and stress free top and bottom surfaces of the plate. Moreover, the number of independent unknowns is the same as that in the first order shear deformation theory. The inter-elemental continuity, as desired by the plate theory, is fully satisfied in the present element. Numerical examples of composite and sandwich plates are solved to validate the element. Some new results are also presented.
Theory for Midplane Asymmetric Sandwich Cylindrical Shells
Authors: Preissner Eric C. , Vinson Jack R.
Published: July 2003

In shells, bending stresses in addition to the membrane stresses exist near each structural discontinuity (such as at edge supports, rings, stringers, holes, etc.) and each load discontinuity. This region is the “bending boundary layer”. In sandwich shells, mid-plane asymmetry can be employed to minimize these bending stresses. Governing equations for mid-plane asymmetric sandwich cylindrical shell subjected to axially symmetric loads are derived herein and solved. The solution involves a mid-plane asymmetry factor ϕ, defined herein such that for any asymmetric sandwich construction, -1 < ϕ < 1. Therefore, perturbation solutions are easily obtained using the solutions for the midplane symmetric cylindrical shell.
Weight Optimization of Large Scale Sandwich Structures with Acoustic and Mechanical Constraints
Authors: Wennhage Per
Published: July 2003

A generic model of a railway car body in sandwich design was weight optimized subject to various constraints. These constraints were global natural frequency constraints, buckling and wrinkling constraints, and sound reduction constraints. A finite element model was used for global analysis, while sandwich plate theory was used for local structural analyses. The acoustic model for sound reduction was a sandwich plate model. The optimization procedure started with an infeasible initial design and produced a final design which fulfilled all requirements, yet had a reduced weight. The optimization was performed with and without acoustic constraints and the results imply that the acoustic requirements will produce a heavier design than when the optimization is performed with mechanical constraints only.
The Static Mechanical Performance of Repaired Composite Sandwich Beams: Part II - Finite Element Modelling
Authors: Mahdi S. , Kinloch A. J. , Matthews F. L. , Crisfield M. A.
Published: July 2003

In the present paper undamaged and repaired honeycomb sandwich beams are modelled using finite elements analysis. Under static loading, the stiffness of the beams was predicted successfully, but the failure load was more difficult to obtain accurately. A quasi-three-dimensional model was best suited to representing the overall deformation pattern of the repaired beams, whereas a two-dimensional plane strain model allowed evaluation of the details of different repair designs.
Parental Identification of Early Behavioural Abnormalities in Children with Autistic Disorder
Authors: Young Robyn L. , Brewer Neil , Pattison Clare
Published: July 2003

The aim of the study was to identify early behavioural abnormalities in children later diagnosed with autistic disorder. Accurate identification of such deficits has implications for early diagnosis, intervention and prognosis. The parents of 153 children with autistic disorder completed a questionnaire asking them to describe early childhood behaviours of concern and to recall the age of onset. Core deficit-linked behaviours were then identified and the ontogeny of their development was noted. Behaviour categories were: (1) gross motor difficulties, (2) social awareness and play deficits, (3) language and communication difficulties, and (4) unusual preoccupations. The findings supported the notion that the nature and prevalence of these deficits depend on age. Consistent with past research, there was a significant interval between parents first noticing abnormalities and the making of a definitive diagnosis. The implications for this delay are discussed.
Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Obsessive- Compulsive Disorder in a Child with Asperger Syndrome
Authors: Reaven Judy , Hepburn Susan
Published: July 2003

This case report outlines the cognitive-behavioral treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder in a 7-year-old female with Asperger syndrome. Interventions were based upon the work of March and Mulle and were adapted in light of the patient’s cognitive, social, and linguistic characteristics. Obsessive-compulsive symptoms improved markedly after approximately 6 months of treatment. Issues regarding symptom presentation, assessment, and treatment of a dually diagnosed patient are discussed.
Prevalence of Chronic Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Children with Autism and Autistic Spectrum Disorders
Authors: Molloy Cynthia A. , Manning-Courtney Patricia
Published: July 2003

The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of chronic gastrointestinal symptoms in a general population of children with autism or autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). The study site was a clinic specializing in ASD in a large pediatric medical center serving a 10 county area in the midwestern USA. In a sample of 137 children, age 24-96 months, classified as having autism or ASD by the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Generic, 24 percent had a history of at least one chronic gastrointestinal symptom. The most common symptom was diarrhea, which occurred in 17 percent. There was no association between chronic gastrointestinal symptoms and a history of developmental regression. The potential phenotypic association between autism and gastrointestinal symptoms is discussed.
Intuitive Psychology and Physics among Children with Autism and Typically Developing Children
Authors: Binnie Lynne , Williams Joanne
Published: July 2003

Many studies have documented poor understanding of intuitive psychology among children with autism; however, few have investigated claims of superior understanding of intuitive physics said to be evident in this group. This study aimed to investigate the reported differential preference of intuitive psychology and intuitive physics among children with autism by employing three tasks each with a psychological and a physical condition. In order to gain a detailed developmental picture the study compared children with autism, an age matched comparison group, and typically developing preschoolers, 7-year-olds and 10-year-olds. Results demonstrated that children with autism preferred to employ physical causality when reasoning about novel physical and psychological events. Furthermore, their performance on a multiple- choice task confirmed their impairment in intuitive psychology whilst highlighting a superior ability to reason about physical phenomena in relation to all other comparison groups. The theoretical implications of this potential cognitive strength are discussed.
Pattern of Semantic Errors in Autism
Authors: Vogindroukas I. , Papageorgiou V. , Vostanis P.
Published: July 2003

Semantic or vocabulary errors were measured among children with autism and mild learning disability and children with mild learning disability only (six children of 7.9-8.7 years in each group), testing the hypothesis that these were common in both groups. Different variables were investigated such as breadth of vocabulary and number of vocabulary errors, type of paraphasias, and mechanisms used to name the meanings that children were not aware of or could not recall, and the particular meanings that were difficult for each group. Preliminary findings showed that vocabulary errors were similar in both groups, except under-extension, which was not used by the autism group. Children with autism tended to use all mechanisms in order to name something they did not know and to focus on parts of the object in order to name it, while unknown words were similar in both groups.
Social and Cardiac Responses of Young Children with Autism
Authors: Sigman Marian , Dissanayake Cheryl , Corona Rosalie , Espinosa Michael
Published: July 2003

The behavioral and heart rate responses of 22 children with autism and 22 children with other developmental disabilities were compared whilst they were watching videotapes of a baby either playing or crying. We expected both groups to show arousal as increased heart rate when watching the video of the crying baby, and the children with autism to attend less than the other children to both videos. However, the children with autism were as attentive to the videos as the other children, and both groups showed heart rate slowing compared with a baseline condition. There was no change in heart rate during interactions with a stranger or separation from mothers. The findings suggest that the lack of social attention often demonstrated by children with autism does not stem from increased arousal in social situations. An alternative explanation is considered.
Resisting Evidence: The Study of Evidence-Based Medicine as a Contemporary Social Movement
Authors: Pope Catherine
Published: July 2003

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) emerged relatively recently to describe the explicit process of applying research evidence to medical practice. The movement was high profile, yet not overly successful: many clinicians do not use up-to-date evidence in their everyday work. This article shows how a social movement perspective can be used to analyse the emergence of EBM and shed light on power struggles between segments of the medical profession. It draws on Blumer's (1951) essay on social movements to demonstrate the continued salience of this approach. The article also presents empirical data from a qualitative study of English and American surgeons to illustrate how EBM provides a focus for segmental conflict within medical practice between `art' and `science', `practice' and `evidence'. Together these data and the social movements perspective provide insight into the dynamics of this struggle and help to explain why clinicians continue to resist EBM.
A Case Study of Knowledge Management in Multiagency Consumer-Informed `Communities of Practice': Implications for Evidence-Based Policy Development in Health and Social Services
Authors: Gabbay John , le May Andrée , Jefferson Harriet , Webb Dale , Lovelock Robin , Powell Jackie , Lathlean Judith
Published: July 2003

We report a study that facilitated and evaluated two multiagency Communities of Practice (CoPs) working on improving specific aspects of health and social services for older people, and analysed how they processed and applied knowledge in formulating their views. Data collection included observing and tape-recording the CoPs, interviewing participants and reviewing documents they generated and used. All these sources were analysed to identify knowledge-related behaviours. Four themes emerged from these data: (1) the way that certain kinds of knowledge became privileged and accepted; (2) the ways in which the CoP members transformed and internalized new knowledge; (3) how the haphazard processing of the available knowledge was contingent upon the organizational features of the groups; and (4) the ways in which the changing agendas, roles and power-relations had differential effects on collective sense making. We conclude by recommending ways in which the process of evidence-based policy development in such groups may be enhanced.
Evidence-Based Medicine and the Implementation Gap
Authors: Dopson Sue , Locock Louise , Gabbay John , Ferlie Ewan , Fitzgerald Louise
Published: July 2003

Evidence-based medicine was one of the earliest manifestations of evidence-based policy and practice, and has exercised substantial influence on other policy areas. Based on data from seven empirical studies carried out between 1993 and 1999, this article examines the origins and impact of EBM, and the complexities of implementation which have emerged. Policy makers and EBM enthusiasts alike have frequently taken a somewhat simplistic view of the implementation gap they seek to address. Understanding clinicians' mixed reactions to the rhetoric of EBM helps explain both why EBM has had as much impact as it has, and why it has sometimes been resisted and rejected. Although other areas of public policy can learn from the experience of EBM, there are distinctive features of health care which set it apart, notably the continued autonomy and dominance of the medical profession and the strong influence of the biomedical science model on what is considered legitimate evidence.
Evidence-Based Medicine: Ambivalent Reading and the Clinical Recontextualization of Science
Authors: Mykhalovskiy Eric
Published: July 2003

This article contributes to the investigation of evidence-based medicine (EBM) as text-mediated relations of governance. Social critiques of EBM typically rely on a negative conception of power, such that EBM is considered to contain or limit the scope of medical practice. This article, by contrast, explores EBM as a productive relation, one that governs through medicine's `freedom' and opens up spaces of intervention. The article draws on an institutional ethnographic study of a research transfer initiative called informed - an evidence-based newsletter for family physicians. My investigation of the work practices of making informed underscores how texts are fundamental to the social organization of EBM. Through the example of informed, I locate reading as a central object of governance within EBM. I emphasize how the problematization of physicians as indifferent readers is linked with an effort to intervene in medical work through a new kind of text that clinically recontextualizes biomedical science.
Evidence-Based Medicine: Toward a New Definition of `Rational' Medicine
Authors: Cronje Ruth , Fullan Amanda
Published: July 2003

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) promises to make the practice of medicine more fully `rational', thereby increasing medicine's reliability and improving patient health outcomes. However, intractable ethical and epistemic problems with applying a model of rationality that privileges quantifiable `evidence' in medical practice - evidence often at odds with nonquantifiable patient experiences, values and preferences - have prompted some within the medical community to condemn EBM. This article analyzes textual evidence from the medical literature as the medical community's effort to rhetorically renegotiate a new model of rationality, one which both preserves rationality's promise to protect medical decision making from the dogmatic, subjective and arbitrary and permits nonquantifiable patient experiences, values and preferences to play a legitimate role in rational diagnostic and therapeutic decision making.
CITATION: Smart Administrations in the Healthcare Sector
Authors: Anagnostakis A. , Sakellaris G. , Tzima M. , Fotiadis D. I. , Likas A.
Published: July 2003

CITATION (Citizen Information Tool in smart administrATIONs) provides an innovative information platform for improving and promoting the provision of electronic information in the health sector, ensuring that citizens have easy and direct access to essential public data (administrative procedures, legislation and available services). The system delivers mechanisms for the effective management, customization and flexible delivery of administrative information. CITATION embraces the initiative and effort to provide and promote health-related administrative information, in the framework of local or national government services. It facilitates the creation of `smart' governmental structures, capable of providing citizens with customized, added-value services. CITATION emphasizes its efforts in the advancement and integration of current state-of-the-art information technologies, with emphasis on knowledge engineering and semantics analysis. CITATION introduces models that allow for adequate representation of the semantics of the existing healthcare administrative information content.
Implementing Authentication (LAP) and Monitoring in Healthcare Information Systems
Authors: Chousiadis C. , Pangalos G.
Published: July 2003

Throughout the healthcare domain, paper records and forms are being supplanted by electronic records, which are now routinely transmitted over intranets (within organizations), extranets (between organizations) and the Internet (to multiple organizations, worldwide). The potential for greater efficiency, lower costs and enhanced quality of care afforded by electronic versus paper-based records and communication in healthcare is vast. Electronic messaging is quickly becoming the standard for transmitting information in the healthcare industry. The security of transmitted information is a very critical issue.

In this article, we report on the development of a Lightweight Authentication Protocol (LAP), which makes a mobile and distributed system more secure and flexible, and we implement it in a healthcare environment where the clinicians use mobile and wireless devices like PDAs. The implementation scenario and the special characteristics of healthcare information systems are described in detail. We also propose a monitoring system that involves patient credentials in order to monitor doctor access to the medical records. Our work shows that it is possible for a PDA to have access to a system like a healthcare Web database system with reasonable performance according to the theoretical analysis.
Analysis and Design of the eSAP: An Integrated Health and Social Care Information System
Authors: Mouratidis H. , Manson G. , Philp I.
Published: July 2003

Health care information systems are becoming more and more computerized. A huge amount of health related information needs to be stored and analysed, and with the aid of computer systems this can be done faster and more efficiently. The Agent Oriented paradigm provides an alternative way of developing medical based systems.

This article presents an initial exploration of the analysis and design of a multi-agent system to deliver the Single Assessment Process, an integrated health and social care information system for older people. The article concludes by making the following observations: Agent technology has the potential to support the development of medical and health and social care systems for older people. Nevertheless there are not many real-life agent based applications successfully applied in the health care sector. One of the main reasons is the limitation of the existing analysis and design methodologies. Thus, in order for the agent-technology to be widely accepted in the development of computer based medical information systems for older people (and in extent any medical system) it is necessary to develop a complete and mature analysis and design methodology to support the development of agent based medical systems.
Who Uses the Web as a Health Information Source?
Authors: Eriksson-Backa Kristina
Published: July 2003

This article presents some preliminary results from a larger ongoing study on health information in media. An attempt is made to profile typical users of Web resources concerning health. Three groups of people in different health situations were interviewed on their use of different information sources in their search for health information. In this paper the focus is on health information sources found on the Internet. The aim was to examine whether there are any differences in the use due to gender, age, education and occupation as well as current health status. The use of a point-giving system, which gave higher points to sources used more frequently or considered more reliable by the respondents, revealed differences between pregnant women, persons with diabetes and a control group consisting of healthy people. The groups of pregnant women and diabetics were generally more active Web-users than the control group and used discussion forums and health portals more while members of the control group read online newspapers more actively than the others did. Some differences in gender and age were also found: men were more likely to read newspapers than women, but women were more active users of discussion forums. The younger respondents were also often more active than the older ones were. The findings were generally similar to those of previous studies.
Episodes of Care: To Include Primary Care is the Challenge
Authors: Elonheimo O. , Linna M. , Brommels M.
Published: July 2003

Population-based analysis and planning of health services should ideally cover all service utilization, with seamless care processes (across provider boundaries) as the observational units. The basic tool needed is an episode of care classification. Although hospital care has routinely been registered in computerized databases for decades, primary care has only recently been able to provide comparable patient data in an easily accessible form. We have designed a simple disease category system, which is easy to apply in routine registration in primary care, and which can be used in order to classify episodes of care. We have tested the feasibility of the approach by analysing one year of data in a data warehouse covering all health service utilization by citizens in the city of Helsinki, a total of over 4 million encounters. Results displayed, representing a small number of reports produced, include the treatment costs and volumes of the care episodes as classified in disease categories across health districts, and detailed analysis of `gross consumers' (patients with an annual treatment cost in excess of EUR 20,000), and patients treated in hospitals or long-term institutions.
Information Needs in a Clinical Trials Unit
Authors: Bailey Hazel , Urquhart Christine
Published: July 2003

The aim of the study was to analyse the information needs of the Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) at Velindre Hospital, a specialist cancer centre, and the Wales Cancer Trials Network (WCTN). The purpose was to determine the trial information needs that may be collected via the Velindre hospital information system, and the data structure required to store that information. A case study approach was adopted with semi-structured interviews (17 face-to-face interviews with staff based at Velindre Hospital and three telephone interviews with staff at other trial centres in Wales) complemented by document analysis, and an analysis of trial activity databases either in use or under development. A core information set, common to all trials, was identified and this can be collected in ISCO. The document-based trial-specific information is best made available in HTML format. Entity-relationship model diagrams were developed to show the data structure. The study concluded that trial activity information needs can be satisfied as a byproduct of collecting patient trial information in a hospital information system. Patient care should be improved by the greater availability of trials information, and accrual may be increased through identification of potential trial candidates.
Children's Use of the Internet: Reflections on the Emerging Research Agenda
Authors: Livingstone Sonia
Published: July 2003

As domestic access to the internet reaches the mass market in industrialized countries, this article identifies and evaluates the emerging research agenda, focusing particularly on children and young people. The nature of children's internet use generates public anxieties which both guide and undermine research, complicating the already challenging study of children within the privacy of the home. The body of empirical work reviewed is still small, but already key questions of academic and policy significance are being addressed regarding the opportunities and dangers of internet use. Such opportunities include communication, identity and participation, and education, learning and literacy; dangers arising from exclusion and the digital divide, and from certain kinds of use relating to inappropriate or undesirable contact, content and commercialism. In each of these domains, research strengths and gaps for future research are identified. The article concludes by noting areas of theoretical consensus and uncertainty framing the research agenda in this field.
Real Time and Recall Measures of Mobile Phone Use: Some Methodological Concerns and Empirical Applications
Authors: Cohen Akiba A. , Lemish Dafna
Published: July 2003

This article discusses the development, reliability, and validity of real-time measures of mobile phone use by means of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology, in comparison with traditional questionnaire-generated recall measures. The sample consisted of 211 Israeli adult mobile phone subscribers subdivided by gender and by the amount of airtime that they normally use. The measurements were applied to three questions to which the participants responded via IVR following their incoming and outgoing mobile phone calls during a five-day period: the identity of the person with whom they spoke; their location during the call; and the urgency of the call. These data were compared with recall measures obtained earlier from questionnaires. The article discusses the merits of the IVR real-time data versus those obtained from traditional recall questions asking for past or habitual behaviors.
New Media, Counter Publicity and the Public Sphere
Authors: Downey John , Fenton Natalie
Published: July 2003

New media have been widely used by radical groups of both Left and Right to advance their political projects. The aim of this article to provide a theoretical framework, through developing the concepts of public sphere and counter-public sphere, which allows us to understand the growing importance of alternative media in society and to indicate how this framework might generate questions for empirical research.
The Web and its Journalisms: Considering the Consequences of Different Types of Newsmedia Online
Authors: Deuze MArk
Published: July 2003

The internet - specifically its graphic interface, the world wide web - has had a major impact on all levels of (information) societies throughout the world. Specifically for journalism as it is practiced online, we can now identify the effect that this has had on the profession and its culture(s). This article defines four particular types of online journalism and discusses them in terms of key characteristics of online publishing - hypertextuality, interactivity, multimediality - and considers the current and potential impacts that these online journalisms can have on the ways in which one can define journalism as it functions in elective democracies worldwide. It is argued that the application of particular online characteristics not only has consequences for the type of journalism produced on the web, but that these characteristics and online journalisms indeed connect to broader and more profound changes and redefinitions of professional journalism and its (news) culture as a whole.
A Diagram of Panoptic Surveillance
Authors: Elmer Greg
Published: July 2003

This article critiques a number of recent attempts to outline a contemporary theory of panoptic surveillance. It argues that an updated Foucaultian thesis must take into consideration the decentered and networked aspects of information technologies in an attempt to explain how consumer `choice' is shaped by both rewards and punishments. Drawing upon the work of Foucault, Varela, Deleuze and Guattari, a diagrammatic theory of surveillance is developed, one that questions the interconnection between consumer, sales, distribution, and production data.
Encountering Distressing Information in Online Research: A Consideration of Legal and Ethical Responsibilities
Authors: Stern Susannah R.
Published: July 2003

This article explores the reasons why internet researchers should contemplate their responsibility for encountering distressing disclosure in the course of their online research. `Distressing' disclosure refers specifically to information that indicates an online communicant is considering harming him/herself or another/others (e.g. online users' announcements of suicide intentions, threats to kill another person, etc). Given both the nature of online communication and research, those who study internet users and communities may find themselves particularly likely to come across distressing information in their research. Using personal homepages as a case in point, this article inquires: are researchers legally accountable for reacting in some way to the distressing online self-disclosure of those they study? Absent a legal responsibility, do researchers have any ethical or moral obligation to intervene? If an ethical responsibility does suggest itself, what are the barriers to intervention? Finally, how might online researchers prepare themselves for their encounters with distressing self-disclosure?
Ethnographic Research on the Experience of Japanese Elderly People Online
Authors: Kanayama Tomoko
Published: July 2003

Elderly people in Japan are becoming part of virtual communities. This article explores the online experience of such people, how they interact with others and how they construct social support relationships via computer-mediated communication (CMC). This ethnographic research, through participant observation and in-depth interviews, reveals that these elderly people enjoy interaction in a variety of language forms, ranging from haiku to emoticons, by combining traditional text-based Japanese culture with a new virtual culture, despite the limitations of text-based communication. Also, both the immediacy and asynchrony of CMC helps them to construct real human relationships in the virtual community, including social connectedness to others as well as supportive and companionship relationships. The elderly people could create a sense of greater propinquity by sharing their old stories and memories.
Christianity and Criminal Punishment
Authors: Murphy Jeffrie G.
Published: July 2003

Christianity organizes thinking about punishment around the value of love. Love requires a focus on the common good and on benefit to the soul or character. Punishments harmful to the soul are to be avoided, and punishments beneficial to the soul are to be favored. This has important implications for the death penalty.
Two Kinds of Criminal Wrongs
Authors: Garvey Stephen P.
Published: July 2003

I distinguish two kinds of criminal wrongs. A wrongdoer who acts in defiance of his conscience is guilty of what I call a wicked wrong. A wrongdoer who does not act in defiance of his conscience is guilty of what I call a vicious wrong. The distinction derives from a conception of immorality often associated with the Christian tradition. The distinction is important because it determines the moral message a wrongdoer should try to send through the punishment or penance he must endure in order to atone for his wrongdoing.
Penance, Punishment and the Limits of Community
Authors: Duff R. A.
Published: July 2003

The thought that religious ideas could have any place in a normative theory of criminal punishment will be anathema to many liberals. I argue, however, that we can understand criminal punishment as a species of secular penance, as part of a communicative enterprise in which the polity seeks to involve its citizens. After explaining what a penance amounts to in this context, I meet the liberal objection that punishment as thus conceived would be an oppressive and illegitimate intrusion into the realm of moral character and conscience which is not the state's, or the law's, business. Finally, I raise (without offering any confident answer to) the question of whether there are any kinds of crime that are so destructive of the very possibility of political community that punishment as communicative penance is no longer morally possible, and focus in particular on the version of this question that is raised by terrorist crimes.
Corporate Crime and the Religious Sensibility
Authors: Vining Joseph
Published: July 2003

Prosecution of corporations, for common law offenses such as homicide as well as for specially tailored statutory offenses, is now an established part of the administration of criminal law in the United States. Conviction is explicitly guided and justified by the retributive purposes of criminal law as much as the deterrent. Evidence of corporate mens rea generally focuses on calculated indifference to value in itself - of the kind contemplated in the theory of profit maximization - and corporate culpability and remorse are operative terms in sentencing. The ontology of a responsible person here, irreducible to human individuals or to a system, may connect this area of criminal law to religious thought in a special way. This area may also be where the retributive, with its recognition of responsibility and its opening to remorse, atonement and forgiveness, is most clearly articulated and justified. Positive duties are implied and creativity looked for in analysis. These developments are more congenial to a religious sensibility than to one that is purely secular. Their broad acceptance may be made possible by the breadth of religious practice in the United States, and be evidence of contemporary influence of religious thought on legal thought, evidence indeed of basic connections between the two.
Ishmael's Bane
Authors: Witte John
Published: July 2003

This essay offers a critical rereading of the western theological and legal doctrine of illegitimacy or bastardy. The author traces the western stigma against bastards to the Bible, particularly to the story of Ishamel, the illegitimate son of Abraham and Hagar. He then shows the systematic discrimination against bastards in classic canon law and in early modern Anglo-American common law, and the slow amelioration of their plight in legal reforms in the United States in the past century. The author concludes that the western doctrine of illegitimacy is theologically illegitimate and suggests a few historically-informed legal remedies, notably adoption, that would help mitigate the plight of illegitimates today.
On What Sin (and Grace) Can Teach Crime
Authors: Brennan Patrick McKinley
Published: July 2003

In the Catholic moral tradition, what is expected of the person is that he inform and follow conscience; the person becomes morally perfected by responding to his God-given desire for the real and the good. A criminal law shaped by Catholic principles, therefore, would sanction the criminalization not only of (some) intentional wrongs but also of (some) negligent wrongs; it would understand negligence, however, as the person's failure to do his personal best to seek the real and the good. A Catholic criminal law would not purport to demand virtue; it would both call for and respect an individual's conscientious, diligent quest for the good.
The Regional Dynamics of European Electoral Politics
Authors: Jesuit David
Published: July 2003

This paper examines the relationship between regional economic conditions and individual political participation in the mid-1990s for Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. In exploring this connection, I construct regional poverty rates, unemployment rates, and inequality scores using data made available through the efforts of the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) and Eurostat (2000). I also identify regional economic distress employing the European Commission's designation of regions as `Objective One.' I predict individual political participation in national elections and in the 1994 European Parliamentary election using data from the Eurobarometer 1994 Post-European Election Study and find evidence that persons living in economically disadvantaged regions, namely those that are recipients of Objective One Structural Funds, were more likely to vote in elections for the European Parliament than were Europeans residing in other regions.
Insider and Outsider Lobbying of the European Commission
Authors: Broscheid Andreas , Coen David
Published: July 2003

We propose an informational model of lobbying to understand macro-characteristics of lobbying systems. We are particularly interested in the number of lobbyists in a system, and the distinction between insider and outsider lobbyists. Empirically, we seek to explain the post-Maastricht lobbying boom in the European Union and the concomitant establishment of European Commission forums for interest representation. Using a simple model of informational lobbying with many lobbyists, we show that there is a relationship between lobbying costs, the number of lobbyists, and the informational content of lobbying messages. In conclusion, we propose three different categories of lobbying systems.
Moving Into the European Orbit
Authors: Lahusen Christian
Published: July 2003

European integration has attracted numerous interest groups to the European Union, but also many commercial consultancies that work in the realm of public affairs and interest representation. The article offers empirical evidence on this business and aims to answer two questions: which sectoral and national interests are being serviced and how is the business organized in terms of working areas and levels of action? The findings illustrate that the consulting business has a centre of gravity in Brussels and champions economic interests from Anglo-Saxon countries. Beyond that, it has established itself as an accepted European player operating on several levels of action, working for a broader range of sectoral and national clients and maintaining strong working relations with other European actors. I contend that this development is due to the particular goods delivered and to the complex and disjointed structure of European policy-making.
The Influence of the Nation-State on Individual Support for the European Union
Authors: Kritzinger Sylvia
Published: July 2003

The paper seeks to explain variations in EU support, arguing that several factors might influence public opinion about the European Union. National factors are believed to be more important than European ones because of a lack of knowledge about the EU and the more direct influence of the nation-state on citizens. It is argued that the evaluation of the EU depends on the performance of the nation-state. The citizens' perception of the nation-state is used as a proxy for the formulation of attitudes towards the EU. The results of diverse exogeneity tests and a three-stage least-square regression confirm that support for the EU reflects national attitudes, and shows that the EU represents the hope of surmounting national problems.
Ethics in Qualitative Research and Evaluation
Authors: Shaw Ian F.
Published: July 2003

• Summary: The article approaches questions of research ethics with three emphases: first, the process of research; second, ethical questions raised by qualitative research; and third, precedent and stimulation from the work of writers outside the usual boundaries of social work. • Findings: The ethics of qualitative research design pose distinctive demands on principles of informed consent, confidentiality and privacy, social justice, and practitioner research. Fieldwork ethics raise special considerations regarding power, reciprocity and contextual relevance. Ethical issues raised by the analysis and dissemination of qualitative enquiry emphasize questions concerning narrative research, outcomes and justice, and the utilization of research. • Applications: Social work needs a culture of ethical awareness, a review of ethical approval, an awareness of the ethical issues posed by practitioners' involvement in evaluative research, and an understanding of the ethical dimensions of different parts of the research process.
Native American Family Continuity as Resistance
Authors: Gross Emma R.
Published: July 2003

• Summary: The author argues that the history of Native-non-Native relations enables us to understand how the enactment and implementation of the Indian Child Welfare Act, passed in 1978 by the United States Congress, is an example of how Indian families have succeeded in persevering despite 350 years of political maltreatment. • Findings: The realities of past wrongs and the pain associated with remembering them are as vivid a memory now as they were then: memory is a key source of self-destructive behavior, as well as of cultural resilience. This explains why, despite Indian poverty and powerlessness, the persistence of anger against non-Indian governments enabled Indian families to cling to their ancestry, and finally, to be vindicated in their resistance by the enactment of the Indian Child Welfare Act. • Applications: The arguments presented reinforce the conclusion that by manipulating culture American society almost succeeded in destroying the Native American. That American society has not succeeded in this venture is at once a condemnation of ethnocentric bias, an acknowledgement of the essential role played by culture in political development, and a tribute to democratic process as an antidote to laisser-faire capitalist development.
Men as Minority
Authors: McLean John
Published: July 2003

• Summary: Although social care employees are predominantly women, there have always been men involved in the work, particularly as managers or where there is a control element. The academic writing on men's involvement in social care lacks an empirical base and this article presents an examination of the characteristics, distribution and routes into social care of 585 men who took part in a UK study of 2031 statutory social services employees. • Findings: The respondents were a heterogeneous group of men, employed throughout social care, mostly but not exclusively in jobs associated with traditional male roles. Men constitute 14 percent of the UK social services workforce and predictably are disproportionately represented in management. However, the majority (three-fifths) are employed in basic grade field, residential and home care jobs. • Applications: This is an important issue for social care employers: men face particular sets of difficulties in social care employment. With the decline in traditional employment opportunities, men may increasingly diversify into less traditional areas of work, including health and social care.