bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Measurement and Interpretation of Electrokinetic Phenomena (IUPAC Technical Report)
Authors: Delgado A. V. , González-Caballero F. , Hunter R. J. , Koopal L. K. , Lyklema J.
Published: October 2005

In this report, the status quo and recent progress in electrokinetics are reviewed. Practical rules are recommended for performing electrokinetic measurements and interpreting their results in terms of well-defined quantities, the most familiar being the z-potential or electrokinetic potential. This potential is a property of charged interfaces, and it should be independent of the technique used for its determination. However, often the z-potential is not the only property electrokinetically characterizing the electrical state of the interfacial region; the excess conductivity of the stagnant layer is an additional parameter. The requirement to obtain the z-potential is that electrokinetic theories be correctly used and applied within their range of validity. Basic theories and their application ranges are discussed. A thorough description of the main electrokinetic methods is given; special attention is paid to their ranges of applicability as well as to the validity of the underlying theoretical models. Electrokinetic consistency tests are proposed in order to assess the validity of the z-potentials obtained. The recommendations given in the report apply mainly to smooth and homogeneous solid particles and plugs in aqueous systems; some attention is paid to nonaqueous media and less ideal surfaces.
Between "Oriental Depravity" and "Natural Degenerates": Spatial Borderlands and the Making of Ordinary Americans
Authors: Shah Nayan
Published: October 2005

This article examines how a series of California court cases in the 1910s and 1920s recast the boundaries of American masculinity by tackling the ambiguities of sexual and social interaction between male adolescents and Asian migrant workers. Specifically, the prosecutors and police characterized South Asian and Chinese men as the importers of "unnatural" sexual practices. Police suspicion of illicit and immoral activity remade the spatial locations of contactÑthe streets, alleys, boardinghouses, labor camps, and ranches where migrant workers congregatedÑinto borderlands spaces. My critical approach tracks the transit of migrant workers and how their presence proliferates borderlands spaces along and beyond national borders. The surveillance of interracial contact and alleged sexual activity remade transient domestic and leisure spaces into sites of public scrutiny. My analysis tracks how prosecutors and judges deployed categories of normality and degeneracy to create racialized and sexualized typologies of masculinity to police the relationships of roaming male youth and foreign migrants in the early twentieth century. I argue that the jurisprudence in these cases reinterpreted and combined three seemingly distinctive strands of case law Ð sodomy, statutory rape, and vagrancy Ð to both explain and punish the contact between Asian migrants, domestic transients, and male adolescents. Yet the sexual and moral ambiguity of male adolescence confounded the jurists, forcing them to consider whether a youth was innocent, criminal, or delinquent. The protection of a specific male victim, however, became secondary to the protection of American society and civilization and the affirmation of normative masculinity. By extending the interpretive methodologies of queer borderlands scholars, this analysis denaturalizes the normalizing project of American nationality, masculinity, and heterosexuality. The policing of internal and external nomadic subjects revealed the ambiguity and insecurity of cross-racial and cross-class intimacy and intensified the fixing of new social boundaries of perversity and normality in the first decades of the twentieth century.
Talking Trees: Philemon and Baucis Revisited
Authors: Gowers Emily
Published: October 2005

Ovid's Philemon and Baucis episode (Metamorphoses 8.618-724) is one of his best-loved narratives, yet little account has been taken of its underlying structure and determining motifs. This paper argues that the old couple's final metamorphosis into trees is foreshadowed in the earlier details of Ovid's scene-setting: every item of food or furniture in the old couple's hut has some connection with either trees or old age. It is further proposed that the transformation of the hut by stages into a golden temple can be read as a history of Roman architecture.
Rhetoric: Art and Pseudo-Art in Plato's Gorgias
Authors: Liebersohn Yosef Z
Published: October 2005

In this article, I shall claim that Plato is one of the first, if not the first, to indentify the problematic nature of the teacher-pupil relationship in everything to do with art and pseudo-art. In Plato's time, there were those who regarded the existence of pupils, and particularly a large group of pupils, as sufficient for regarding the teacher as an artist and the subject taught as an art. The ways in which the pupils were "acquired"-whether through the knowledge and expertise of the teacher in his field or his knowledge and expertise in attracting pupils-do not seem to have been clearly distinguished. Plato understands that this lack of distinction is due to the rise of rhetoric, which turns the incidental characteristics of a real art, such as the teacher-student relationship, into criteria for judging something to be an art. Plato fought against rhetoric and what it represented-the presentation of appearance as reality-in a unique way. A dramatic analysis of the Gorgias reveals that the pupils of Gorgias are presented as unwittingly revealing rhetoric to be a pseudo-art.
Of Pickaninnies and Nymphets: Race in Lolita
Authors: Belletto Steven
Published: October 2005

The author argues that with the moments of subtle racism in Lolita Nabokov is demonstrating how certain racial categories are aesthetic fictions, much like Humbert Humbert's invention of the "nymphet." Although Humbert himself says he is a "salad of racial genes," as he takes Dolores Haze through post-war America, he realizes that the kitschy culture Dolores adores privileges pat aesthetic categories like "pickaninnies" and "Uncle Toms." Humbert appropriates such categorizing tendencies in order to legitimate his abusive treatment of Dolores, an appropriation that explains how the novel is a critique both of Humbert's behavior and of particularly American forms of racism.
Rare and Unfamiliar Things: Vladimir Nabokovis "Monsters"
Authors: Dawson Kellie
Published: October 2005

Since its initial publication, readers have been troubled by the insidious collusion with monstrosity they experience when reading Lolita. Examination of Vladimir Nabokov's progression as he amplifies themes he begins in "The Potato Elf" and develops in The Enchanter and "Scenes From the Life of a Double Monster" makes clear that the uncomfortable sympathy he achieves for Humbert Humbert in Lolita is not a mere side-effect, but the very essence of the novel. With this grand portrait of monstrosity, Nabokov challenges his readers to pay attention to what is outside of themselves (no matter how alien or horrible it may seem) in order to achieve what he calls "aesthetic bliss."
"(I have camouflaged everything, my love)": Lolitai s Pregnant Parentheses
Authors: White Duncan
Published: October 2005

No detail of Nabokov's art must be considered insignificant, including his punctuation; Nabokov not only cared about how his prose was punctuated but also integrated it into the artistic meaning of his novels. In Lolita, Nabokov's use of the bracketed parenthesis plays a crucial role in answering many of the novel's most pertinent questions. There are a plethora of parentheses throughout, and while on first reading they may seem a mere byproduct of Humbert's vicious style, many of them are in fact pregnant with meaning. Parentheses elucidate the theme of imprisonment, reminding the reader of Humbert's incarcerated state. Reading between the brackets can also help the reader perceive Humbert's deceptions, especially regarding the account of his seduction of Lolita. Finally, and crucially, Humbert's parenthetical slippages expose him as an insincere penitent.
Deforestation and Land Degredation in the Ethiopian Highlands: A Strategy for Physical Recovery
Authors: Bishaw Badege
Published: October 2005

Deforestation, accelerated soil erosion, and land degradation are serious problems in Ethiopia. To overcome these problems, efforts have been made to launch afforestation and conservation programs; success to date, however, has been limited. This paper will discuss agriculture and forestry practices in the Ethiopian highlands and try to identify the causes of deforestation and land degradation there. Agroforestry and social forestry practices, plantation forestry, and conservation of the remaining forests are proposed as a strategy for physical recovery. Social and policy issues such as local participation in natural resource management and the existence of clear land and tree tenure policies are critical for the long-term sustainability and expansion of forests in Ethiopia. In general, tree planting through agroforestry and social forestry should be an integral part of rural development programs to provide the community with food, fuel wood, income, and environmental benefits. Increasing public awareness through education about forestry and natural resource conservation is vital for maintaining Ethiopia's remaining natural forests and biodiversity.
Soil and Water Resources and Degradation Factors Affecting Productivity in Ethiopian Highland Agro-Ecosystems
Authors: Dubale Paulos
Published: October 2005

Due to various internal and external pressures, Ethiopia has not been able to maintain its economic, political, and social development for many years. Natural resources are particularly affected by the slow progress in economic development. To relieve the stagnation, the present government has adopted a policy called Agricultural Development Led Industrialization (ADLI), taking agriculture as the steppingstone to industrialization.

The soil and water resources of Ethiopia, although still rich, are degrading quickly. Topography, soil types, and agro-ecological parameters play a significant role in the degradation processes influenced by man.

Ethiopia's fast-growing population is also significantly hastening land degradation. The population has tripled in the last 50 years and has abused the land by deforestation for more cropland and grazing area and by overgrazing. Recurrent droughts have further aggravated the situation, leading to repeated cycles of famine in recent years.

Three major types of land degradation are affecting productivity: biological, chemical, and physical degradation of soils. As a result, soil organic matter has declined, soil nutrients are depleted, and soil depth has decreased, leading to a decline in crop yields and forage. Soil acidity, salinity, and drainage problems as well as the inherently low availability of soil phosphorus also cause yields to decline.
The most serious problem concerning Ethiopia's land resources, however, is soil erosion. Every year the country loses billions of birr in the form of soil, nutrients, water, and agro-biodiversity losses.

Efforts are being made to avert the degradation, but with very little progress. Although further efforts have been made with more policy issues related to agriculture, more is yet to be done in the area of policy issues and economic development.
The Evolution of Gondar's Public Health College and Training Center: Che-Che-la from an Italian Consular Office to a Medical College
Authors: Getahun Solomon Addis
Published: October 2005

Gondar's Public Health College and Training Center (PHC&TC), as it was originally named, has also been known since 1961 as Gondar Medical College, or by the local townsfolk interchangeably as Asbadale or Che-Che-la. PHC&TC was established in 1954, when the city's population was less than 20,000. Today, Gondar has more than 200,000 people, yet PHC&TC continues as the only medical establishment in the city and province despite a complex set of health concerns, including the pandemic HIV-AIDS, that beset the city, the region, and Ethiopia at large.

This paper reviews the founding and development of PHC&TC, and thus the progress of modern higher education in Gondar. It also explores the impact of the medical college on the city; the challenges it faced from both government officials and the townspeople during the reign of Haile Sellassie (1930–1974); the changes it underwent under the Marxist regime of Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam (1974–1991); and its current state as it deals with financial constraints, lack of infrastructural development, and a shortage of trained manpower.
Ethics, Evidence, and Public Policy
Authors: Goodman Kenneth W.
Published: October 2005

The growth of evidence-based medicine (EBM) raises a number of ethical issues that have too often been overlooked. These include issues that arise when clinicians make judgments under uncertainty, new challenges for the clinician-patient relationship, new duties for institutional review boards, issues in physician autonomy and reimbursement, and challenges for disclosure and informed consent. Ethics and EBM must be addressed by policy makers and integrated into medical education.
The National and the Popular in Israeli Cinema
Authors: Avisar Ilan
Published: October 2005

The article examines Israeli cinema as a critical participant in the local drama of national ideology and national identity. Israeli filmmakers have engaged in enunciating the national culture, in the context of the medium's history, political ideologies, and the tension between high art and popular culture. The historical review of Israeli films shows dramatic changes over the years from nationalistic propaganda to radical critique and post-Zionism. Israeli cinema appears now to seek a constructive and fruitful dialogue with viewers. In the recent wave of popular films, the national ideology is more conscious of its past mistakes and inherent deficiencies; its presentation of national identity is less narrow and more open to alternative types, thereby suggesting new vistas of national culture.
The Early Israeli Cinema as Silencer of Memory
Authors: Gertz Nurith
Published: October 2005

Israeli documentary films of the 1940s and 1950s that deal with the Holocaust and Holocaust survivors point to the existence of a personal repressed Holocaust narrative in an era when such a narrative was stifled by the collective narrative of Holocaust and heroism. In these repressed narratives, remembrance of the Holocaust erupts in the present and disrupts the Zionist narrative that leads from the obliteration of the Diaspora past to the formation of the Israeli present and future. This is the narrative of people who remained foreign and "other" in Israeli society, who did not exchange their identities as Zionism expected of them. The films attempt to integrate these people into the Israeli collective, but their individuality, illuminated by the subversive reading, makes this integration difficult to achieve. The article analyzes the early documentary cinema in order to show that the survivors' personal narrative sabotages the national narrative from within.
The Tragic Sense of Zionism: Shadow Cinema and the Holocaust
Authors: Ne'eman Judd
Published: October 2005

Holocaust-related films in Israeli cinema appear in several cycles. The 1980s cycle, which I call Shadow Cinema, expresses ambivalence and guilt and professes a perverse loyalty to a wound that will not heal and to the dead that have never been buried. The analysis of certain junctures in these films brings forth an unexpected analogy between the Sabra new Jew and the Nazi. I argue that these films echo a deeply ingrained recognition that the liquidation of the Diaspora sought by Zionism through immigration of millions of Jews to Palestine, was actually achieved by Nazi Germany through extermination of those same millions. Such inadvertent conflation must have elicited guilt feelings in the Jewish Yishuv in Palestine that had endorsed the "Negation of the Diaspora." The State of Israel, heir to the Yishuv, has inherited these guilt feelings. Israel has unwittingly engulfed itself in guilt for the destruction of the Jews by the Nazis. This tragic sense of Zionism has been in keeping long enough to have sunk in and made Israeli Jews carry indelible guilt vis-à-vis the victims of the Holocaust. Israel lives in a tangled "dead-end future," obsessed with endless bleeding and bloodletting to expiate the six million dead for whose death it innocently and unconsciously puts the blame on itself.
Spectacles of Pain: War, Masculinity and the Masochistic Fantasy in Amos Gitai's Kippur
Authors: Yosef Raz
Published: October 2005

Israeli war films of the 1950s and 60s focused on the typically male fantasy in which a soldier is prepared to sacrifice his body to torture and harm—and sometimes even to death—in order to serve national ideals. Masochistic enjoyment is a substantial component in the construction of the fighting male body as a war machine, but in the 50s war films this component was absent. The materiality of bodily pain appeared as a representation of an abstract national idea.
What was omitted in these films becomes a spectacle of pain in Amos Gitai's film, Kippur (2000). The film constructs a masochistic fantasy whereby the fighting male body is stripped of its metaphoric national meaning, turning now to its bodily corporality, to flesh, blood, and bone. Gitai's film exposes the violence and suffering that are denied by Israel's culture of war, and which are required for the very construction of nationalism.
Theatre/Tourism
Authors: Bennett Susan
Published: October 2005

This essay looks at the relationship between theatre and tourism in the global marketplace. Through case studies of theatre and theatricalization in New York City and Las Vegas, "Theatre/Tourism" explores how cultural practices have been harnessed as a powerful marketing strategy in the branding of cities, and how this has impacted the nature and reach of theatrical production. For this reason, corporate entertainment interests have increasingly understood the value of the tourist spectator and have developed theatre products to underpin a complex tourism "ecology." From a study of theatre and globalization in this context, new questions and emphases emerge not only for the economics of theatrical production and the composition of theatre audiences, but also for how scholars think about the historicization of contemporary theatre practices. One outcome of this work is to insist on the place of commercial theatre in critical/historical accounts of late twentieth and early twenty-first century drama and performance.
Travels with Tony Kushner and David Beckham, 2002-2004
Authors: Dickinson Peter
Published: October 2005

This article examines Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul alongside the recent career of the world's most famous footballer in order to argue that live theatre, like global sporting culture, can function as a site of transnational connection and local transformation. Using Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's concept of nomadology as a way of negotiating between the globally relative and locally absolute claims of history, the article situates Kushner's evolving gloss on the "war machine" that is Afghanistan within the context of one cultural critic's own deterritorialized and itinerant responses to two separate productions of the play (in London and New York) between 2002 and 2004. These productions are further juxtaposed with the contests between discourses of globalism, nationalism, and migrancy that have routinely emerged in the media in connection with David Beckham, especially in the lead-up to the 2002 World Cup, and following his trade to Real Madrid in 2003. Beckham is not paradigmatically a nomad, but the sport he plays, and the fans who follow its theatrics, resist easy conscription by the State, even as powerful a governing body as FIFA. Thus, an analysis of Beckham's travels, both on and off the field, serves to contextualize the confluence of the local and the global, the personal and the political, that simultaneously mobilizes this article's reading of Kushner's play.
"The Greatest Show on Earth": Political Spectacle, Spectacular Politics, and the American Pacific
Authors: Werry Margaret
Published: October 2005

This article examines the elements of theatrical and political spectacle surrounding the tour of the US Fleet to the Pacific and Japan in 1908, its melodramatic afterlife in the 1909 season of the New York Hippodrome, and the performances in the civic spaces of New York City by the production's Māori extras. Arguing that these touristic and theatrical spectacles were constitutive of an emergent globalist and Imperialist regional imaginary, the "American Pacific," it examines the geopolitical underpinnings to this cultural formation, its racial politics, the global and globalizing revolution in the entertainment industry that was a crucial component of it, and its aesthetic economies of virtualization. The article takes issues with the theoretical optic of Orientalism and the postmodern understanding of spectacle, and forwards an alternative model of spectacle as inauguration. This model accounts for spectacle's centrality to the cultures of circulation that produce global systems and recognizes its nature as a multivocal, unstable, porous medium of political and social formation that is responsive to dissenting or local agendas and utopic imaginaries.
A Tramp at Home
Authors: NISSEN AXEL
Published: October 2005

Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) contains the materials for a wide-ranging analysis of the different and competing understandings of American manhood in the nineteenth century and the ways in which men might interact with each other and love each other. In order to understand better the sexual and emotional dynamics of the novel, we must understand the other kinds of writings about men alone and together that Twain was responding to. In this essay I place Twain's classic novel in two nineteenth-century discursive contexts that have been obscured in the existing criticism: the fiction of romantic friendship and the public debate on the homeless man. Huckleberry Finn may be seen as the reverse of the medal of normative, middle-class masculinity in Victorian America and as a counterpoint to the more conventional, idealized accounts of romantic friendship in the works of several of Twain's contemporaries and rivals. I suggest that while Huck and Jim negotiate an uncommon type of romantic friendship across barriers of race and generation, the duke and the dauphin appear as a grotesque parody of high-minded "brotherly love." By co-opting some of the conventions of romantic friendship fiction, Twain decreased the distance between his underclass characters and middle-class readers. Yet by writing and publishing the first novel about tramps during a period of heightened national concern about homeless men, Twain increased the topicality and popular appeal of what was, in its initial American publication in 1885, a subscription book that needed an element of sensationalism in order to sell.
"A Larger Reading of the Human Past"
Authors: Babaian Sharon
Published: October 2005

Science and technology are defining characteristics of our society and, in striving to meet the needs of the public for meaningful narratives about the past, public historians need to pay more attention to their history. Museums, with their educational mandates and historical collections, should be an obvious vehicle for fulfilling this role. The situation, though, has been complicated by the science center movement which emphasizes transcendent scientific principles. The ability of historians and curators to demonstrate the explanatory power of history and make good on the promise of object-based exhibitions and programs will depend on meeting significant institutional and intellectual challenges. It will also depend on support from the wider public history and museum communities.
A Cross‐Sectional Study on the Relationship of Job Stress with Natural Killer Cell Activity and Natural Killer Cell Subsets among Healthy Nurses
Authors: Morikawa Yuko , Kitaoka‐Higashiguchi Kazuyo , Tanimoto Chie , Hayashi Midori , Oketani Reiko , Miura Katsuyuki , Nishijo Muneko , Nakagawa Hideaki
Published: October 2005

A Cross‐Sectional Study on the Relationship of Job Stress with Natural Killer Cell Activity and Natural Killer Cell Subsets among Healthy Nurses: Yuko Morikawa, et al. Department of Public Health, Kanazawa Medical University— The present study investigated the effects of job stress on cellular immune function, such as NK cell activity and NK cell subsets. The participants were 61 female nurses aged 23–59, who worked in a public psychiatric hospital in Ishikawa, Japan. Each subject completed the Nursing Job Stressor Scale (NJSS) and their NK cell activity and lymphocyte surface antigens (CD16+56+) were evaluated as immune system parameters. The NJSS has seven subscales: conflict with other nursing staff, nursing role conflict, conflict with physicians or autonomy, conflict with death or dying, quantitative work load, qualitative work load and conflict with patients. Factors influencing NK cell activity, and the proportion and cell counts of CD16+56+ lymphocytes were evaluated. Increase in quantitative work load significantly decreased NK cell activity. Conversely, no linear relationship was observed between qualitative work load and immunological variables, with the highest percentage of CD16+56+ lymphocytes observed among participants in the medium work load group. The other five NJSS subscales did not relate to immune parameters. In conclusion, the results suggest that perceived job strains, particularly quantitative work load, decreased NK cell function.
Three‐Shift System Increases Job‐Related Stress in Japanese Workers
Authors: Harada Hideto , Suwazono Yasushi , Sakata Kouichi , Okubo Yasushi , Oishi Mitsuhiro , Uetani Mirei , Kobayashi Etsuko , Nogawa Koji
Published: October 2005

Three‐Shift System Increases Job‐Related Stress in Japanese Workers: Hideto Harada, et al. Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University—We assessed the relationship between shift work and job stress. The target subjects were 4,962 male workers (3,078 day workers and 1,884 shift workers) aged 18 to 60 yr who work in a Japanese steel company. We used the “Brief Job Stress Questionnaire”, which was developed by a research group organized by the Japanese Ministry of Labour. We evaluated the effect of shift work on job stress using logistic regression analysis including age, lifestyle factors, work conditions, marital status, and living arrangements in the model. Job schedule type was significantly associated with job control, with an odds ratio of 2.22 for shift workers compared to day workers. The logistic regression analysis revealed that the odd ratios for having one or more stressor items in an unfavorable condition were significantly higher for shift workers compared to day workers. Increase in the amount of overtime and decrease in the number of holidays led to a significant deterioration in job stress. Our study reveals that the 3‐shift system of employment increases work‐related stress, and that job control is low among shift workers. To reduce job stress in this occupational population, a reduction in the amount of overtime and an increase in the number of holidays seem to be useful interventions.
Semen Quality of Industrial Workers Occupationally Exposed to Chromium
Authors: Kumar Sunil , Sathwara NG , Gautam Anil K , Agarwal Kamlesh , Shah Bharti , Kulkarni Pradeep K , Patel Kumud , Patel Arun , Dave Laxman M , Parikh Dinesh J , Saiyed Habibullah N
Published: October 2005

Semen Quality of Industrial Workers Occupationally Exposed to Chromium: Sunil Kumar, et al. Reproductive Toxicology and Histochemistry Division, National Institute of Occupational Health (ICMR), India—A total of sixty‐one subjects occupationally exposed to chromium in an industry which manufactures chromium sulphate and fifteen control subjects from a nearby industry which does not manufacture any chromium related compounds were studied. The history of each subject was recorded on pre‐designed form through interview and a routine medical examination was carried out. Blood samples (5–6 ml) were collected for the estimation of chromium and semen samples were collected for semen analysis and the determination of copper and zinc levels in the seminal plasma. Clinical examination revealed nasal perforation in 10 subjects (out of 61) in the exposed group as compared to none in the control group. A significantly higher level of chromium was observed in the blood of the exposed workers as compared to the control. The concentration of zinc in seminal plasma was lower while the level of copper was higher in the exposed group as compared to the control. However, these changes were not statistically significant. Statistically significant higher numbers of morphologically abnormal sperms were noticed in the exposed group with respect to the control. Further analysis of the data indicated that about 53% of the exposed subjects showed less than 30% normal forms as compared to 10% in control subjects. However, no significant alterations in semen volume, liquefaction time, mean pH value, sperm viability, concentration or motility, were noticed between chromium exposed and unexposed workers. The data also indicates that exposure to chromium has some effect on human sperm as a significant positive correlation (r=0.301) was observed between percentages of abnormal sperm morphology and blood chromium levels (p=0.016) after pooling all the data of the control and exposure groups.
Workrelated Risks and Health Problems of Working Children in Urban Istanbul, Turkey
Authors: Esin Melek Nihal , Bulduk Serap , Ince Haluk
Published: October 2005

Workrelated Risks and Health Problems of Working Children in Urban Istanbul, Turkey: Melek Nihal Esin, et al. Department of Community Health Nursing, Florence Nightingale College of Nursing, Istanbul University, Turkey—The purpose of this cross‐sectional study was to identify the work‐related risks and health problems of working children. The sample included 167 working boys. These boys were chosen from schools giving occupational education in the industrial part of Istanbul. A questionnaire and worksite assessment checklists, developed by the researchers, were used as data gathering tools. Data were collected from the boys’ schools and workplaces. From this data, it was found that 24.6% of the boys were jewelers, 32.3% were car mechanics and 43.1% were hairdressers. Findings revealed that 30.5% of the boys, who were engaged in child labor, were poor and dropped out of school to assist their families. Boys, whose mean age was 17.6 ± 1.2, had been working since they were 13 yr old. The boys were also found to work 66.4 h a week, which was an unexpectedly high result considering the 35 hours limitation set by the laws of Turkey for working children. As for work‐related risks, chemical risks for boys working as hairdressers (p<0.01), and using sharp tools and accidents for boys working as car mechanics were more common than the other groups (p<0.001, p<0.001). Boys working as hairdressers mostly had respiratory system problems, skin problems, and headache (p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001). Those working as car mechanics had nose/throat problems, and musculoskeletal system problems (p<0.001, p<0.01). Among those working as jewelers, eye‐related problems were common (p<0.001). It was concluded from the findings of the present study that child labor creates an unhealthy environment for children.
Subjective Symptoms among Female Workers and Winter Working Conditions in a Consumer Cooperative
Authors: Inaba Ryoichi , Mirbod Seyed Mohammad , Kurokawa Junichi , Inoue Masato , Iwata Hirotoshi
Published: October 2005

Subjective Symptoms among Female Workers and Winter Working Conditions in a Consumer Cooperative: Ryoichi Inaba, et al. Deparatment of Occupational Health, Graduate School of Medicine, Gifu University—Subjective musculoskeletal symptoms are more frequently complained about in cold store work and in related conditions than in normal temperature work. This cross sectional study was undertaken (a) to explore the prevalence of subjective symptoms in winter among a group of female workers engaged in classification of cold storage goods, and in a group of female checkers in several supermarkets of a large consumer cooperative; and (b) to give recommendations for improving the winter working conditions of these workers. The subjects consisted of 46 workers engaged in classification of cold storage goods, 56 checkers operating a laser scanner in supermarkets and 59 office workers (control group). Work loads for the three groups were estimated according to the recommended criteria. A self‐administered questionnaire covering age, occupational career, smoking, alcohol drinking and physical exercise, present or past history of diseases, individual protective measures against cold, and subjective symptoms (54 items) was used. The air temperature of the working site at the opening time for classification workers was 4.8° C which was significantly lower than those measured for the other two work places (12.1°C and 15.8°C). About 70 to 80% of classification workers complained of cold sensation in different body regions, as well as shoulder stiffness, and problems related to the back. The supermarket checkers and office workers had a high prevalence of cold sensation in their feet. The frequencies of using warm clothes and foot heaters, as an individual measure to work comfortably in winter among the classification workers and the checkers were significantly higher than that among the office workers. We concluded that work difficulty due to moderate cold exposure among workers in the consumer cooperative could be reduced by some physical activity as well as proper clothes.
Questionnaire Survey and Environmental Measurements that Led to Smooth Implementation of Smoking Control Measures in Workplaces
Authors: Shimizu Yuko , Maeda Ako , Mizoue Tetsuya , Nakamura Masakazu , Oshima Akira , Ogami Akira , Yamato Hiroshi
Published: October 2005

Questionnaire Survey and Environmental Measurements that Led to Smooth Implementation of Smoking Control Measures in Workplaces: Yuko Shimizu, et al. Komaki‐kita Health Section, Nagoya Guidance & Propulsion Systems Works, Mitsubishi Nagoya Hospital, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.—In order to promote smoking countermeasures in a manufacturing plant, we conducted a questionnaire survey about smoking control measures in workplaces. Twenty nine point five percent of the subjects responded that they were exposed to passive smoking where they worked and that the most common source of passive smoking in the workplace and rest areas was environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) leaking from smoking areas. For smoking control measures, 27.8% of employees preferred a total ban on smoking in the building while 55.2% preferred measures to prevent ETS leakage from smoking areas. Regardless of whether they were smokers or not, 99.2% of respondents believed that passive smoking countermeasures in the workplace were necessary and 88.9% of smokers responded that banning smoking in the building was unavoidable. Based on these results, a total ban on smoking in the building was implemented in those workplaces where it was feasible to do so, smoking areas in the remaining workplaces were upgraded to prevent ETS infiltration, and the effects were evaluated by real‐time monitoring of the concentration of suspended particle matter. The questionnaire survey results showed that 79.9% of smokers were interested in smoking cessation, that awareness of the adverse health effects of smoking on the smoker and surrounding non‐smokers and the nuisance it caused was significantly lower among smokers compared to non‐smokers (p<0.01), and that 65.5% of non‐smokers believed that smoking was beneficial to the mental health of smokers, despite the fact that they had no experience of smoking themselves. Reporting these results to the Safety and Health Committee was found to be useful both in ensuring thorough segregation of smoking areas and in supporting smoking cessation programs in places where no previous action had been taken because smoking was viewed as a matter of personal choice. We also believe that provision of accurate information tailored to actual smoking conditions in the workplace is useful in effectively implementing anti‐smoking campaigns on the adverse effects of smoking and smoking cessation programs. The implementation of a questionnaire survey and environmental measurements that lead to countermeasures was shown to be effective in establishing designated smoking areas and educational programs for smoking cessation.
Early Presentation With Angioedema and Urticaria in Cross-reactive Hypersensitivity to Nonsteroidal Antiinflammatory Drugs Among Young, Asian, Atopic Children
Authors: Kidon Mona Iancovici , Kang Liew Woei , Chin Chiang Wen , Hoon Lim Siok , See Yvonne , Goh Anne , Lin Jenny Tang Poh , Chay Oh Moh
Published: October 2005

Objective. Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), mainly ibuprofen, are used extensively among children as analgesic and antipyretic agents. Our initial survey in the Kendang Kerbau Children's Hospital in Singapore showed NSAIDs to be the second most common adverse drug reaction-causing medications among children of Asian descent. We attempted to characterize the clinical and epidemiologic profile of NSAID reactions in this group of patients.

Methods. A retrospective case series from a hospital-based pediatric drug allergy clinic was studied. A diagnosis of NSAID hypersensitivity was made with a modified oral provocation test. Atopy was evaluated clinically and tested with a standard panel of skin-prick tests. We excluded from analysis patients with any unprovoked episodes of urticaria and/or angioedema, patients <1 year of age, and patients who refused a diagnostic challenge test.

Results. Between March 1, 2003, and February 28, 2004, 24 patients, including 14 male patients (58%) and 18 Chinese patients (75%), with a mean age of 7.4 years (range: 1.4–14.4 years), were diagnosed as having cross-reactive NSAID hypersensitivity. A family history consistent with NSAID hypersensitivity was elicited for 17% of patients. None of the patients reported any episodes of angioedema/urticaria unrelated to NSAIDs. The median cumulative reaction-eliciting dose was 7.1 mg/kg. Facial angioedema developed for all patients (100%) and generalized urticaria for 38% of challenged patients, irrespective of age. There was no circulatory compromise, but respiratory symptoms of tachypnea, wheezing, and/or cough were documented for 42% of patients. A cross-reactive hypersensitivity response to acetaminophen was documented for 46% of our patients through their history and for 25% through diagnostic challenge. Compared with patients with suspected adverse drug reactions to antibiotics, patients in the NSAID group were older (7.4 vs 4.8 years) and more likely to have a diagnosis of asthma (odds ratio: 7.5; 95% confidence interval: 3.1–19).

Conclusions. Early presentations of facial angioedema and urticaria are key features of dose- and potency-dependent, cross-reactive reactions to NSAIDs in a subpopulation of young, Asian, atopic children. Significant overlap with acetaminophen hypersensitivity, especially among very young patients, for whom the use of a cyclooxygenase-2-specific medication may not be feasible, severely limits options for medical antipyretic treatment.
The lodide/lodate Actinometer in UV Disinfection: Determination of the Fluence Rate Distribution in UV Reactors
Authors: Rahn Ronald O. , Bolton James , Stefan Mihaela I.
Published: October 2005

Thirty‐seven Suprasil quartz spheres, each approximately 1 cm in diameter and containing an iodide‐iodate actinometric solution, were attached to a metal rack and inserted into a bench‐scale UV reactor filled with water. The spheres were located at various distances and heights around a 12.4 W low‐pressure Hg lamp housed inside a 3.2 cm‐radius quartz sleeve in the middle of an annular batch reactor. UV light exposure at 254 nm was performed with the percent transmittance of the water present in the reactor at either 13% or 100% defined over a 1 cm path length. The spheres were simultaneously exposed to the UV light for a given period of time, after which the solutions were removed from the spheres and the yield of triiodide determined from the increase in absorbance at 352 nm. The resulting fluence rate at each site was then calculated on basis of the yield of triiodide. These results were compared with the predictions of a mathematical model based on the multiple point source summation approximation, including reflection and refraction at the air‐quartzwater interface. Initially, the agreement was not satisfactory, especially in regions at an oblique angle to the lamp. The model was modified from a multiple point source model to a multiple cylindrical segment model by incorporating a cosine factor. The agreement between the new model and the experimental data was excellent and these experiments provide a strong validation of the model, even under conditions in which the fluence rate varied by >1000‐fold between extreme sites in the reactor.
Reacetylated chitosan/cashew gum gel: Preliminary study for potential utilization as drug release matrix
Authors: Maciel Jeanny S. , Paula Haroldo C. B. , Miranda Marcus A. R. , Sasaki Jose M. , de Paula Regina C. M.
Published: October 2005

The aim of this work was to characterize and investigate the potential of chitosan/cashew gum (CH/CG) gel for the controlled release of pilocarpine hydrochloride. Gels were prepared by reacetylation of CH with acetic anhydride, characterized by infrared spectroscopy, thermal analysis, and X‐ray diffraction. Swellings in water and in phosphate buffers were also investigated. The release of pilocarpine for CH and CH/CG gels was shown to be similar in the first 100 min, where about 60% of the pilocarpine was released. After this time, addition of CG to the gels decreases pilocarpine release rate in the medium. CH gel release was found to be dependent on pH values, a non‐Fickian mechanism was observed for the release at pH 2 and 7.4, while at pH 9.8, a Fickian (diffusion) mechanism took place. On the other hand the release of pilocarpine in CH/CG matrix occurred by Fickian mechanism, independent of the pH value. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 99: 326–334, 2006
Structure–property relationship of polyethylene glycol‐based PU/PAN semi‐interpenetrating polymer networks
Authors: Kumar H. , Siddaramaiah  , Somashekar R. , Mahesh S. S. , Abhishek S. , Row T. N. Guru , Kini Geetha S.
Published: October 2005

Polyethylene glycol‐400 (PEG) based polyurethane (PU) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) semi‐interpenetrating polymer networks (SIPNs) (PU/PAN; 90/10, 70/30, 60/40, and 50/50) have been prepared by sequential polymerization method. The prepared SIPNs have been characterized by physicomechanical properties. The microcrystalline parameters such as crystal size (〈N〉), lattice disorder (g), surface (Ds) and volume (Dv) weighted crystal size of SIPNs have been estimated using wide angle X‐ray scattering studies, and quantification of the polymer network has been carried out on the basis of these parameters. The microstructural parameters have been established using Exponential, Lognormal, and Reinhold asymmetric column length distribution functions and the results are compiled. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 99: 177–187, 2006
Effect of blending sequence on the morphologies of poly(butylene terephthalate)/epoxy/clay nanocomposites by a rheological approach
Authors: Wu Defeng , Zhou Chixing , Yu Wei , Xie Fan
Published: October 2005

Epoxy resin was used as a compatilizer to prepare poly(butylene terephthalate)/clay nanocomposites via melt intercalation. Three different mixing sequences were attempted in the present work: (1) to mix poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT), epoxy, and organoclay in one step; (2) first to mix epoxy and organoclay, and then mix it with PBT; (3) to prepare PBT/organoclay hybrid first, and then mix it with epoxy to get the final nanocomposites. The results from X‐ray diffraction (XRD) reveal that all these hybrids present an intercalated structure. However, it can be observed that there are distinct differences in the amount and average size of clay tactoids dispersed in those hybrids from the transmission electron microscope (TEM) photographs, which are further confirmed successfully by the rheological measurements. On the basis of the strain overshoot intensity and the low‐frequency solid‐like response level in the small amplitude oscillatory shear (SAOS) measurements, it can be concluded that the blending sequence (2) is the best way to obtain a nice dispersion of clay in the matrix, forming a percolated tactoids network with highest density and intensity. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 99: 340–346, 2006
Copolymerization of carbon dioxide and propylene oxide using zinc adipate as catalyst
Authors: Wang J. T. , Shu D. , Xiao M. , Meng Y. Z.
Published: October 2005

Zinc adipate was synthesized from zinc oxide with adipic acid by different methods. Their chemical structure and crystalline morphology were determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction (WXRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. The results showed that the zinc adipate synthesized under magnetic stirring possessed higher degree of crystallinity than that synthesized under mechanical stirring due to the different stirring strength, and therefore exhibited greater catalytic activity for the copolymerization between CO2 and propylene oxide (PO). The optimum condition for the copolymerization of CO2 and PO was also investigated. Very high catalytic activity of 110.4 g polymer/g catalyst was afforded under optimizing copolymerization condition. NMR spectra revealed that the synthesized poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC) had a highly alternating copolymer structure. DSC and TGA examinations showed that the glass transition temperature and decomposition temperature of the PPC with Mn = 41,900 Da were 27.7 and 248°C, respectively. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 99: 200–206, 2006
Long‐chain branching of polypropylene by electron‐beam irradiation in the molten state
Authors: Krause B. , Stephan M. , Volkland S. , Voigt D. , Häußler L. , Dorschner H.
Published: October 2005

The electron‐beam irradiation of polymers generates modification effects in the macromolecular structure and material properties. Therefore, irradiation processing is mostly realized in the polymer solid state. In this way, the modification of linear polypropylene may result in long‐chain branching of polypropylene macromolecules. The objective of this article is to investigate the effect of a polymer in the molten state during electron‐beam irradiation on the macromolecular structure and material properties of polypropylene. For this procedure, a special irradiation vessel (BG3) has been developed in which a rapid transfer of polymer films from the solid state to the molten state and a defined temperature during electron‐beam irradiation are realizable. The irradiated samples have been analyzed by high‐temperature size exclusion chromatography coupled with a multi‐angle laser light scattering detector and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements. With an increasing irradiation dose, a high reduction of the molar mass and an increasing amount of long‐chain branching are found. Compared with irradiation in the solid state, the modification in the molten state leads to a higher degree of branching. The rheological experiments in elongation flow clearly exhibit the existence of long‐chain branching. Furthermore, DSC measurements show that the glass‐transition temperature and peak temperatures of melting and crystallization decrease. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 99: 260–265, 2006