bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Contribution of the MexXY Multidrug Transporter to Aminoglycoside Resistance in
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Clinical Isolates
Authors: Sobel Mara L. , McKay Geoffrey A. , Poole Keith
Published: September 2003

MexXY is an aminoglycoside-inducible multidrug transporter shown to contribute to intrinsic and acquired aminoglycoside resistance in laboratory isolates of
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
. To assess its contribution to aminoglycoside resistance in 14 clinical isolates demonstrating a panaminoglycoside resistance phenotype unlikely to be explained solely by aminoglycoside modification, expression of
mexXY
by these isolates was examined by reverse transcription-PCR. Elevated levels of
mexXY
expression were evident for most strains compared with those detected for an aminoglycoside-susceptible control strain, although there was no correlation between
mexXY
levels and the aminoglycoside MICs for the resistant strains, indicating that if MexXY was playing a role, other factors were also contributing. Deletion of
mexXY
from 9 of the 14 isolates resulted in enhanced susceptibilities to multiple aminoglycosides, confirming the contribution of this efflux system to the aminoglycoside resistance of these clinical isolates. Still, the impact of MexXY loss varied, with some strains clearly more or less dependent on MexXY for aminoglycoside resistance. Expression of
mexXY
also varied in these strains, with some showing high-level expression of the efflux genes independent of aminoglycoside exposure (aminoglycoside-independent hyperexpression) and others showing hyperexpression of the efflux genes that was to a greater or lesser degree aminoglycoside dependent. None of these strains carried mutations in
mexZ
, which encodes a negative regulator of
mexXY
expression, or in the
mexZ-mexXY
intergenic region. Thus,
mexXY
hyperexpression in aminoglycoside-resistant clinical isolates occurs via mutation in one or more as yet unidentified genes.
Mortality of employees of a perfluorooctanesulphonyl fluoride manufacturing facility
Authors: Alexander B H , Olsen G W , Burris J M , Mandel J H , Mandel J S
Published: September 2003

Aim:To evaluate the mortality experience of a cohort of employees of a perfluorooctanesulphonyl fluoride (POSF) based fluorochemical production facility.

Methods:A retrospective cohort mortality study followed all workers with at least one year of cumulative employment at the facility. The jobs held by cohort members were assigned to one of three exposure subgroups; high exposed, low exposed, and non-exposed, based on biological monitoring data for perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS).

Results:A total of 145 deaths were identified in the 2083 cohort members. Sixty five deaths occurred among workers ever employed in high exposed jobs. The overall mortality rates for the cohort and the exposure subcohorts were lower than expected in the general population. Two deaths from liver cancer were observed in the workers with at least one year of high or low exposure (standardised mortality ratio (SMR) 3.08, 95% CI 0.37 to 11.10). The risk of death from bladder cancer was increased for the entire cohort (three observed, SMR 4.81, 95% CI 0.99 to 14.06). All three bladder cancers occurred among workers who held a high exposure job (SMR 12.77, 95% CI 2.63 to 37.35). The bladder cancer cases primarily worked in non-production jobs, including maintenance and incinerator and wastewater treatment plant operations.

Conclusion:Workers employed in high exposure jobs had an increased number of deaths from bladder cancer; however it is not clear whether these three cases can be attributed to fluorochemical exposure, an unknown bladder carcinogen encountered during the course of maintenance work, and/or non-occupational exposures. With only three observed cases the possibility of a chance finding cannot be ruled out.
Biological monitoring of occupational exposure to N,N-dimethylacetamide with identification of a new metabolite
Authors: Perbellini L , Princivalle A , Caivano M , Montagnani R
Published: September 2003

Aims:To study the concentration of N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMA) and its metabolite, N-methylacetamide (NMA), in urine of workers occupationally exposed to DMA in a factory producing synthetic acrylic fibres.

Methods:During the first phase, 223 workers exposed to low environmental concentrations of DMA provided urine samples at the end of a work shift. High concentrations of the unmodified solvent and its metabolite were found in a group of workers whose job was to start up machinery. The second and third phases focused on conditions favouring high uptake of DMA.

Results:The highest concentrations of unmodified solvent and NMA were found in the urine of workers recently engaged in starting up machinery. NMA in urine was 1.5–173.6 mg/g creatinine (median 20.5). In spite of the low environmental concentration, about 20% of the urine concentration of NMA was higher than 30 mg/g creatinine. Dermal absorption of DMA was high. A shower and a change of clothing at the end of the work shift, and washing away any solvent left on the skin, ensured that dermal absorption of DMA did not continue. This significantly reduced the NMA urinary concentration at values lower than 30 mg/g creatinine. In some urine samples, S-acetamidomethyl-mercapturic acid was identified by NMR analysis; this is probably a metabolite of N,N-dimethylacetamide—it has never before been identified in humans or animals.

Conclusions:Even at low environmental concentrations of DMA, dermal absorption can be considerable. Unmodified DMA and NMA concentrations in urine are good biomarkers for monitoring occupational exposure to the solvent.
Platelets in Inflammation and Thrombosis
Authors: Wagner Denisa D. , Burger Peter C.
Published: September 2003

For many years it has been known that platelets play an important role in thrombosis and hemostasis. In recent times, however, it has become evident that platelets also have relevant functions in inflammation. It was shown that thrombosis and inflammation share several key molecular mechanisms and in fact are 2 intrinsically linked processes. In this review, we intend to give a short overview with emphasis on work stemming from our laboratory.
Neointimal Formation After Endovascular Arterial Injury Is Markedly Attenuated in db/db Mice
Authors: Stephenson Kent , Tunstead James , Tsai Aileen , Gordon Ronald , Henderson Scott , Dansky Hayes M.
Published: September 2003

Objective—

A diabetic mouse model of accelerated neointimal formation would be a useful tool to understand the increased incidence of restenosis in patients with diabetes.

Methods and Results—

Femoral artery endoluminal wire injury was performed in diabetic insulin 2 Akita (
ins2
Akita
) and leptin receptor db/db (
lepr
db/db
) mutant mice. Neointima size in
ins2
Akita
mouse arteries was unchanged compared with nondiabetic wild-type littermates. Although Ki67 labeling demonstrated similar rates of replication in the neointima of
lepr
db/db
mouse arteries, neointimal formation in
lepr
db/db
mice was surprisingly reduced by ≈90% compared with nondiabetic
lepr
+/+
mice. Four hours after arterial injury, medial smooth muscle cell death was diminished in
lepr
db/db
arteries, suggesting that the initial response to arterial injury was altered in
lepr
db/db
mice.

Conclusions—

These studies highlight a differential response to arterial injury in
lepr
db/db
mice and suggest a potential role for leptin in the regulation of neointimal formation in response to arterial injury.
Kv1.5 Is an Important Component of Repolarizing K
+
Current in Canine Atrial Myocytes
Authors: Fedida David , Eldstrom Jodene , Hesketh J. Christian , Lamorgese Michelle , Castel Laurie , Steele David F. , Van Wagoner David R.
Published: September 2003

Although the canine atrium has proven useful in several experimental models of atrial fibrillation and for studying the effects of rapid atrial pacing on atrial electrical remodeling, it may not fully represent the human condition because of reported differences in functional ionic currents and ion channel subunit expression. In this study, we reassessed the molecular components underlying one current, the ultrarapid delayed rectifier current in canine atrium [
I
Kur(d)
], by evaluating the mRNA, protein, immunofluorescence, and currents of the candidate channels. Using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, we found that Kv1.5 mRNA was expressed in canine atrium whereas message for Kv3.1 was not detected. Western analysis on cytosolic and membrane fractions of canine tissues, using selective antibodies, showed that Kv3.1 was only detectable in the brain preparations, whereas Kv1.5 was expressed at high levels in both atrial and ventricular membrane fractions. Confocal imaging performed on isolated canine atrial myocytes clearly demonstrated the presence of Kv1.5 immunostaining, whereas that of Kv3.1 was equivocal. Voltage- and current-clamp studies showed that 0.5 mmol/L tetraethylammonium had variable effects on sustained K
+
currents, whereas a compound with demonstrated selectivity for hKv1.5 versus Kv3.1, hERG or the sodium channel, fully suppressed canine atrial
I
Kur
tail currents and depressed sustained outward K
+
current. This agent also increased action potential plateau potentials and action potential duration at 20% and 50% repolarization. These results suggest that in canine atria, as in other species including human, Kv1.5 protein is highly expressed and contributes to
I
Kur
.
Loaded Shortening, Power Output, and Rate of Force Redevelopment Are Increased With Knockout of Cardiac Myosin Binding Protein-C
Authors: Korte F. Steven , McDonald Kerry S. , Harris Samantha P. , Moss Richard L.
Published: September 2003

Myosin binding protein-C (MyBP-C) is localized to the thick filaments of striated muscle where it appears to have both structural and regulatory functions. Importantly, mutations in the cardiac MyBP-C gene are associated with familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The purpose of this study was to examine the role that MyBP-C plays in regulating force, power output, and force development rates in cardiac myocytes. Skinned cardiac myocytes from wild-type (WT) and MyBP-C knockout (MyBP-C
−/−
) mice were attached between a force transducer and position motor. Force, loaded shortening velocities, and rates of force redevelopment were measured during both maximal and half-maximal Ca
2+
activations. Isometric force was not different between the two groups with force being 17.0±7.2 and 20.5±3.1 kN/m
2
in wild-type and MyBP-C
−/−
myocytes, respectively. Peak normalized power output was significantly increased by 26% in MyBP-C
−/−
myocytes (0.15±0.01 versus 0.19±0.03 P/P
o
· ML/sec) during maximal Ca
2+
activations. Interestingly, peak power output in MyBP-C
−/−
myocytes was increased to an even greater extent (46%, 0.09±0.03 versus 0.14±0.02 P/P
o
· ML/sec) during half-maximal Ca
2+
activations. There was also an effect on the rate constant of force redevelopment (k
tr
) during half-maximal Ca
2+
activations, with k
tr
being significantly greater in MyBP-C
−/−
myocytes (WT=5.8±0.9 s
−1
versus MyBP-C
−/−
=7.7±1.7 s
−1
). These results suggest that cMyBP-C is an important regulator of myocardial work capacity whereby MyBP-C acts to limit power output.
Effect of Blood Pressure During the Acute Period of Ischemic Stroke on Stroke Outcome
Authors: Aslanyan Stella , Fazekas Franz , Weir Christopher J. , Horner Susanna , Lees Kennedy R.
Published: September 2003

Background and Purpose—

The effects of blood pressure (BP) and its fluctuations during the acute phase on the clinical course of ischemic stroke are incompletely understood. We tested the hypotheses that baseline mean arterial BP [MAP=(2×diastolic BP+systolic BP)/3], weighted average MAP, and an increase or decrease of >30% from baseline MAP are independently associated with stroke outcome.

Methods—

We studied the 1455 patients with ischemic stroke in the Glycine Antagonist (Gavestinel) in Neuroprotection (GAIN) International Trial. BP management was at the discretion of investigators and was measured at 0, 0.5, 4, 12, 12.25, 60, and 60.25 hours. Outcome was assessed by mortality, Barthel Index (dead or 0 to 55 versus 60 to 90 versus ≥95), National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score (dead or ≥2), and Rankin Scale (dead or ≥2). Cox proportional-hazards and stepwise logistic regression modeling corrected for demography, medical history, stroke severity, and clinical subtype.

Results—

Elevated weighted average MAP was associated with poor outcome assessed by mortality at 3 months (hazard ratio, 1.16; 1.06 to 1.27 per 10 mm Hg), NIHSS score (odds ratio [OR] 1.14; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01 to 1.28), and Barthel Index at 1 month (OR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.03 to 1.23). A 30% increase from baseline MAP was associated with poor outcome assessed by NIHSS score and Barthel Index at 1 and 3 months and by Rankin score at 1 month (OR, 2.01; 95% CI, 1.16 to 3.49 to OR, 3.03; 95% CI, 1.30 to 7.02).

Conclusions—

Baseline MAP was not associated with poor ischemic stroke outcome. However, variables describing the course of BP over the first 2.5 days have a marked and independent relationship with 1- and 3-month outcome.
Ten-Year Prognosis of Stroke and Risk Factors for Death in a Japanese Community
Authors: Kiyohara Yutaka , Kubo Michiaki , Kato Isao , Tanizaki Yimihiro , Tanaka Keiichi , Okubo Ken , Nakamura Hidetoshi , Iida Mitsuo
Published: September 2003

Background and Purpose—

There have been very few population-based cohort studies of long-term prognosis and risk factors for death after stroke. We examined the 10-year prognosis, causes, and risk factors of death after stroke in a Japanese cohort.

Methods—

During a 26-year follow-up of a cohort of 1621 subjects ≥40 years of age, 333 subjects developed first-ever stroke and were prospectively followed up for 10 years after onset. During these 10-year follow-up periods, 268 of the 333 stroke patients died. Of those, 239 (89.2%) underwent autopsy.

Results—

The risk of death was greatest in the first year after first-stroke onset in both sexes (men, 40.3%; women, 43.7%). Thereafter, the survival curves decreased gradually, and risk of death reached 80.7% for men and 80.2% for women by the end of the 10-year follow-up. The 30-day case fatality rate was substantially greater in patients with cerebral hemorrhage (63.3%) or subarachnoid hemorrhage (58.6%) than in patients with cerebral infarction (9.0%). The risk of dying after the first stroke was twice the risk for stroke-free subjects. The most common cause of death was the index stroke in the first year. Thereafter, the impact of the first stroke gradually decreased, while that of recurrent stroke increased. Multivariate analysis revealed that age, lower body mass index, and hemorrhagic stroke were significant risk factors for death after stroke.

Conclusions—

Our findings suggest that the risk of death after first-ever stroke is high, in part because of the larger proportion of hemorrhagic stroke in Japanese relative to stroke victims in Western countries.
Sharing Hegemony
Authors: Schweiss Christina M.
Published: September 2003

The world today is so focused on Iraq that we have lost focus on the larger picture of global security requirements. The US and Europe must not allow our `cultural' differences to push us into opposite corners, but should rather recognize that these differences — preference for soft versus hard power — lend themselves perfectly to a division of labor that addresses every aspect of the war against terrorism, from `winning the hearts and minds', to cutting off recruits and retreating forces, to fighting and defeating the enemy in combat. This article presents a proposal for rethinking US and European responsibilities for global security and lays out a path to reach the end state: the burden of hegemonic responsibility shared by the United States and the European Union. This work is an attempt to improve transatlantic relations by changing attitudes within the United States and spurring concrete action in the European Union.
The Promise of Random-Assignment Social Experiments for Understanding Well-Being and Behavior
Authors: Duncan Greg J. , Magnuson Katherine A.
Published: September 2003

This article explains how large-scale random-assignment social experiments such as the Canadian Self-Sufficiency Project can address important sociological and developmental issues. The authors begin with an explanation of how random assignment solves the bias problem that plagues most research based on sample surveys. They then review methods and results from two recent sets of random-assignment experiments, one manipulating family economic conditions and the other manipulating neighborhood conditions. The authors conclude with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the experimental approach.
When Methods Make a Difference
Authors: Wheaton Blair
Published: September 2003

The fundamental point of this article is that methods change what we are able to see. Using a series of examples, the article suggests that substantive literatures are regularly set off course by the limitations built into widely used methodological frameworks to analyse data. In each example, simpler and/or better known methods are compared to methods which either incorporate a broader range of possible influences or clarify the issue at hand, and consequently essential findings change. These findings suggest either that the inertial state of findings in research literatures could be redefined or redirected by the application of methods which take into account more clearly the effects of time and place, or that given theories may be transformed by methods which resolve conflicting or limiting features of theoretical debate. Examples cover a wide range of issues, from longitudinal vs cross-sectional data, to the specification of models to replace equations, to the influence of social context on individual behaviour, to the importance of time in the modelling of events, to the nuances of capturing the complexity behind interdependent processes over the life course.
From Paternalism to Cynicism: Narratives of a Newspaper Company
Authors: O'Leary Majella
Published: September 2003

This article examines the stories told by employees in a 160-year-old newspaper production and publishing company, the Courier. Over 100 interviews with employees of the newspaper company (past and present) were carried out over a six-year period during which the Courier was undergoing major change, including the move from a local to a national newspaper. In this article, I organize these stories into four narrative constructions ('paternalism', `profit', `career' and `cynicism') which represent different ways of thinking about organizations, variously emphasizing family and community, competition and prohibition, publicity and success, and injustice and deception.
Change Management in MNCs: How Global Convergence Intertwines with National Diversities
Authors: Geppert Mike , Matten Dirk , Williams Karen
Published: September 2003

This article presents case studies of three of the four global players in the lifts and escalator industry (controlling three-quarters of the respective world market). It is based on chiefly qualitative data from headquarters level (based in the US, Finland and Germany) and comparative data from their British and German subsidiaries. The object of the research is change management processes in the work systems at subsidiary level. The central research question of the study is to analyse how these processes are shaped by globalization on the one hand and national institutional contexts on the other hand. In doing so, the authors position their research between the two dominant families of approaches in international business research, recently characterized by Child as `low-context' and `high-context' approaches. The study is process- (rather than structure-) oriented and shows how global and national effects shape the design of the work systems at the subsidiary level and reveals that there is no one best way of globalizing in MNCs. The analysis in this article focuses on the cross-national comparison of the subsidiaries, but at the same time highlights the relevance of the societal institutions of MNCs' home countries as well.
L'individualisation Constitue-t-elle Encore Le Paradigme De La Religion En Modernité Tardive?
Authors: Campiche Roland J.
Published: September 2003

Research on beliefs has generally substantiated the theory of individualization of religion. By reducing, nolens volens, religion to a belief, it has contributed to that interpretation advocated by the media. Without totally denying that view, let us herewith explore the hypothesis of the dualization of religion in late modernity. It seems better to be aware of a complex process of change that sets out traditional religion and popular religion without forcibly opposing them. With the help of data taken from our research in 1989 and 1999, we will try to show how culture works in the field of religion in the sense described above.
Religiousness Inside and Outside the Church in Selected Post-Communist Countries of Central and Eastern Europe
Authors: Pollack Detlef
Published: September 2003

In Western Europe more and more sociologists of religion are talking about religious individualization instead of secularization to describe the religious change in modern societies. Institutional forms of religion, especially traditional Christian Churches, are increasingly losing their social significance; new forms of religion, which are not so highly institutionalized and more syncretistic, are, however, emerging. The author raises the question whether this theoretical model conceptualized for Western Europe can be applied to the analysis of religious developments in Eastern Europe. The result of the analysis carried out on the basis of a representative survey in 11 Eastern and Central European countries is that new forms of religiousness outside the Church are emerging in Eastern and Central Europe. In predominantly Catholic countries, these forms stand in contrast to the traditional forms of religion, in more secularized countries, they are not an alternative to institutionalized forms of religion.
La “Religion Invisible” En Belgique: Questions De Visibilité
Authors: Hiernaux Jean-Pierre , Servais Olivier
Published: September 2003

“Visible religion” in Belgium takes the form it takes in many other Western European countries: classic forms of practices, beliefs, and identifications can be distinguished, but the gap between these and traditional religious forms is increasing. However, this gap does not keep the “visible religion” from seeking fundamental meaning, or producing and celebrating the same. Quite the contrary, as concerns practices and beliefs relative to death, for example, older forms do not simply disappear, but are replaced by new arrangements. These new arrangements are self-produced and self-maintained, but they do not give rise to an increase in individualization in a context of dissolution of forms. It may be that still newer forms will rise upon the ashes of these forms. Should they not be described as “religious”? And in order to transcend their relative “invisibility”, must the sociology of religion not also break with its history of colonization by prior forms?
Audiences and Readers of Alternative Media: The Absent Lure of the Virtually Unknown
Authors: Downing John D. H.
Published: September 2003

Reasons for the virtual absence of research in this area are proposed, and contrasts between users of conventional media and alternative media audiences suggested, along with a political ethics of listening. Connections between social movements and alternative media uses are discussed, the interplay between political consciousness and alternative media use is examined, and social conditions in which the latter are responded to are explored. Finally, the variety of alternative media formats, genres and technologies is noted.
Laclau or Mouffe? Splitting the Difference
Authors: Wenman Mark Anthony
Published: September 2003

The majority of those who comment upon the theories of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe - both supporters and critics - treat the work of the two authors as a coherent unity. I see acute differences that demarcate the ideas of Laclau and Mouffe: differences that impede any straightforward delimitation of the authorial identity `Laclau and Mouffe'. The purpose of this paper is to bring to the fore the incommensurate political differences that separate the work of the two authors, and to establish the superiority of Mouffe's position. At its most basic both authors view politics as described in their co-authored Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: i.e. `as a practice of creation, reproduction and transformation of social relations' (Laclau and Mouffe, 1985: 153). This agreement, however, conceals the fact that the authors describe the political articulation of social relations in distinct ways, and that those descriptions are implicated in, and reinforce, contrasting ethico-political commitments and prescriptions. These differences reflect the differences between the politics of the Marxist tradition retained by Laclau - albeit understood as a negative apparition of its former (ultimately) fully positive self - and Mouffe's radical democratic pluralism. This latter perspective - in its more recent formulations - represents a political compound of civic-republicanism with a defense of liberalism; this is a political imaginary that retains little if anything from the Marxist tradition.
Globalization, Women and (In)Equity in the South
Authors: Denis Ann B.
Published: September 2003

Contemporary globalization is conceptualized as a gendered phenomenon and its impact on the (in)equity women experience is examined for Barbados, a small island nation, which has been experiencing shifts in economic and social policies which are informed by the neoliberal orthodoxy of globalization. After considering how recent globalization has affected the Barbados political economy, the article examines how these changes affect the productive and reproductive activities of women in different social locations. The resulting benefits and disadvantages for women are considered, together with the latter's strategies of resistance.
Labor Export in the Context of Globalization
Authors: Lindio-McGovern Ligaya
Published: September 2003

Despite the fact that neoliberal globalization has a detrimental impact on Third World women, mainstream discourse on globalization pays little attention to their experience. This article contributes to filling this gap. It examines the export of labor in the Philippines, as a consequence of globalization and debt crisis, through the experience of Filipino migrant domestic workers in Rome, one of the Filipino communities in economic diaspora worldwide. The feminization of export labor, where the majority of Filipino migrant women are segregated into domestic service work, offers insights into the impact of globalization on the widening gap between the richer and poorer countries, the intersection of gender/race/nationality/ethnicity in the stratification of the labor market, and the creation of a cheap, docile, mobile reproductive labor force linked to capital accumulation. Based on data gathered from fieldwork that was guided by principles of feminist research, this article brings in empirical ethnographic/qualitative analysis that informs conceptualizations about globalization.
`Nature Strip': Australian Suburbia and the Enculturation of Nature
Authors: Hogan Trevor
Published: September 2003

Australia is a suburban nation, with 85 percent of the 20 million people clinging to the coastal fringes of the world's largest island and oldest continent. This article explores Australian suburbia as the `third space' that mediates urbanism to `nature'. It draws on the thought of George Seddon, an important initiator of ecological history, regional geography and sub/urban politics in Australia. Seddon's insights on Australian ecosystems and Australian interpretations, namings, perceptions and shapings of their natural environment since the beginning of European colonization in 1788 are used to think about the `nature of suburbia', `nature in suburbia' and suburbia in Australian `nature'. Its central argument is that nature is always culturally mediated and that the dominant ecological imaginary in Australia is suburban. The suburbs are the sites of economic, ecological and cultural trafficking about nature. It is argued here that the `bush', at least since the Second World War in Australia, has been more determinative of the suburban social imaginary than the `city'. In recent years, the meaning of the `bush' has transmuted from the `country' into the `wilderness', and from a valorization of the historic settlement process to myths of pure, aboriginal nature unadulterated by human imaginings and interventions. Though the meanings of the `bush' have changed in each case, its interpreter and maker is the socialized gardener of suburbia. The future of Australian nature is to be played out in the suburbs.
Language, Culture and Science: Reflections on the Work of George Seddon
Authors: Trigger David S.
Published: September 2003

This article discusses the work of George Seddon as a significant Australian intellectual whose writing on postcolonial settler-descendant relations with land and nature is a major contribution to academic and public life. Seddon's originality lies partly in his bridging knowledge and expertise in both the humanities and sciences. However, while there is a reliance upon factual data drawn from geology, botany and zoology, Seddon's analyses of language and culture can appear idiosyncratic and unsystematic in terms of social science methods. Based on introspection, the work might be considered `autoethnography', though Seddon seeks to do more than tell stories about himself. In acknowledging both the brilliance and shortcomings of Seddon's work, I present some examples of how it has stimulated my own research on the cultural implications of naming species and places in Australia.
Men are much Harder
Authors: Eck Beth A.
Published: September 2003

Drawing on 45 interviews, this article addresses how heterosexual men and women respond to and discuss opposite and same-sex nude images in distinctive ways. Viewing both female and male nudes provides an opportunity to observe the sexual and gender identity work men and women perform when confronted with this cultural object. Both men and women have access to shared, readily available cultural scripts for interpreting and responding to female nude images. Neither men nor women are culturally adept at the interpretation and use of nude male images, particularly the man in the soft porn frame. Men respond to this male nude with overt rejection and stated disinterest. Women are more likely to reject the seductive advance or welcome it with attached feelings of guilt.
“We Don't have Time for Social Change”
Authors: Rothenberg Bess
Published: September 2003

This article explores how the acceptance of the battered woman syndrome as the explanation for why abusive relationships continue can be understood as a cultural compromise. The syndrome's portrayal of battered women as passive victims resulted in an exclusive definition of who “counts” as a victim. It further emphasized many abused women's weaknesses rather than their resourcefulness and overlooked the plights of a great variety of women in need of help. More important, it placed emphasis on individualized solutions for domestic violence rather than addressing structural inequalities in American society. These issues ultimately led to a critique by other advocates of the battered woman syndrome as an inadequate and flawed explanation for domestic violence. Yet despite its weaknesses, the syndrome allowed advocates the chance to appeal to the larger public and, ultimately, begin the process of alleviating structural inequalities.
International Migration, Domestic Work, and Care Work
Authors: Raijman Rebeca , Schammah-Gesser Silvina , Kemp Adriana
Published: September 2003

This article discusses three major dilemmas embedded in women's labor migration by focusing on undocumented Latina migrants in Israel. The first is that to break the cycle of blocked mobility in their homelands, migrant women must take jobs that they would have never taken in their countries of origin, despite uncertainty about possible economic outcomes. The second dilemma is that the search for economic betterment leads Latina migrants to risk living and working illegally in the host country, forcing them to remain on the margins of society. The third dilemma relates to the role of mothers who, to secure a better future for their children, are forced to leave them behind, thus subverting the traditional definition of motherhood. The absence of an egalitarian notion and the practice of citizenship for non-Jews leave undocumented labor migrants in Israel without prospects for incorporation into the society.
Hands Off the BBC
Authors: Liddle Rod
Published: September 2003

The shops are full and there is no Stasi and, indeed, we have no Wall. But this Government is becoming more and more authoritarian as the years drift by, similar to that which pertained in the German Democratic Republic in the years leading up to 1989. The view that it is prepared to stoop to almost any lengths to destroy those which it sees as in any way oppositional now seems a little more credible, does it not? Or, indeed, blindingly bloody obvious.
Why the British Press is Brilliant
Authors: Ringen Stein
Published: September 2003

The British press still stands out in its freedom, pluralism and aggressiveness - but is it a good press? Its job is to enlighten the public and to educate and entertain it. It is to inform the political process. It is to serve as an arena of deliberation. It is to hold to answer those who exercise power. The British press is not always a pretty sight, but it does its job. It comes from competition, from the absence of privacy legislation, from cautious self-regulation, and from a tradition and culture of critical independence. Any threat to the quality of the British print press does not come primarily from the nastiness of the tabloids, but if anything from a decline in the broadsheets.
The Myth in the Mirror
Authors: Wright Jeff
Published: September 2003

The Daily Mirror is about to celebrate its centenary, no mean feat in a century that saw many other new titles launching and crashing, presses stopping in the night never to restart, and mastheads absorbed by rivals. The Mirror deserves its hundredth birthday and, no doubt, a telegram from the Queen. But one of the great stories of Fleet Street - that the paper pioneered newspaper illustration with real photographs and in doing so created press photography as we know it today - may be a myth, or at best a considerable exaggeration.
White Culture, Black Mark
Authors: Francis Joy
Published: September 2003

In May 2000, an American I'd met only twice offered me $10,000 for internships on British newspapers for three ethnic minority journalism students. Prospective interns wouldn't be American, but British. Newspapers had to make a financial contribution to the bursaries. Fast-forward to summer 2003 and I am in the middle of the second Creative Collective national internship programme. The Times, Financial Times, The Big Issue, Bradford Telegraph and Argus, Nottingham Evening Post, Manchester Evening News, and the Scunthorpe Telegraph have been sympthetic. Last year three interns were offered contracts, and interest from aspiring ethnic minority journalists has increased year on year. The Commission for Racial Equality and the National Union of Journalists have generously conceded that we have achieved what they have never quite managed. So why are my colleagues and I unwilling to shout from the precarious rooftops of Canary Wharf? Quite frankly, the wider print media landscape isn't all that pretty to look at.
Why View all Time from the Perspective of Time’s End?
Authors: Johnson David
Published: September 2003

This work sets out to attack Bataille’s assumption that life is essentially transient. Using Bergson’s anti-teleological thought experiments, I hope to reveal the ludicrous paradoxes involved in seeing the essence of time in time’s end. With Bergson, I demand that we consider time to be the whole of its flow. I insist that Bataille overestimates the importance that death has for living beings, and I affirm instead the intensity of lived time and ongoing experiences.
Gender, Work and Organization in the Time/Space Economy of ‘Just-in-Time’ Labour
Authors: Odih Pamela
Published: September 2003

Formidable changes are occurring in the organization of work, production and the labour process. The emerging world of flexibility, part-time contracts and ‘just-in-time labour’ has invoked systemic disruptions in the sequential ordering of time/space. Feminists have been less than sanguine in their resistance to the placeless, timeless logic of ‘just-in-time labour’. The flexible fragmented present of post-fordist production is variously argued to be in contradiction to the embodied social relations through which women ‘weave’ their own autobiographies. While sympathetic to the concept of ‘feminine time’, its application to the present labour market context requires intense inquisition and critical reflection. The modern episteme consisted of a constellation of discourses linked to narrative realism. This is to appreciate that basic to all forms of gendered subjectivity is a conscious subject living in time and capable of uniting the literal with the virtual, or linking one temporal order (the present) with others (the past and future). The ‘timeless times’ and dislocated ‘spatial flows’ of our current era threaten the ability of gendered subjects to form their identities into sustained narratives. Focusing on post-fordist flexible specialization, this article challenges the fixed, unitary, relational subject of feminist critique and begins to deconstruct the problematics of gender and work in the time/space economy of ‘just-in-time’ labour.
Greece's Elusive Quest for Security Providers: The `Expectations-Reality Gap'
Authors: Tsakonas Panayotis , Tournikiotis Antonis
Published: September 2003

The article analyses Greece's traditional quest for providers of security against the Turkish threat by highlighting the gap between Greece's misguided expectations of turning both the Atlantic Alliance and the developing European defense project into providers of security and real-life cases indicating the inability of those security institutions to meet Greece's expectations. For Greek security analysts and decisionmakers, a series of events has provided ample proof that neither NATO nor the EU can provide Greece with security guarantees. More recently, another series of developments, mostly related to the evolving European security and defense project, was enough to draw Greece into a state of continuous vacillation between widening and bridging the `expectations-reality gap' described above. Following the 1999 EU summit in Helsinki, Greece initiated a long-term policy of removing the Turkish threat altogether. In the long run, this policy appears as the only sound alternative to Greece's longstanding search for security bulwarks, but in the short run Greece should realize the limits of the EU's involvement in its defense policies.
Professional Careers of the German Olympic Athletes
Authors: Conzelmann Achim , Nagel Siegfried
Published: September 2003

Successful careers in top-performance sports demand large amounts of time and personal resources and normally they take a course parallel to the period of educational and professional qualification. Regarding careers of former top-performance athletes, the question arises as to how far the engagement in top-performance sports has an influence on the professional career path. This article aims to categorize the professional careers of top-performance athletes and to connect them with the subjective ratings of the respondents. This will be carried out by means of objective life-course data of former Olympic athletes. The theoretical approach is based on recent conceptions of life-course research and of professional socialization research. In a postal inquiry of 616 successful German Olympic athletes (male and female) the sports and professional careers were recorded retrospectively. The results show that former top-performance athletes generally have higher educational qualifications and professional positions than the German population. But as there are big differences with regard to the individual career patterns, a typology of professional careers seems to be practical. For that purpose, a classification typology of professional careers was developed using cluster analysis. The engagement in sports rather favours the professional career in its course.
Sport and the Repudiation of the Global
Authors: Rowe David
Published: September 2003

Sport, especially its most spectacular manifestation during mega-media sports festivals like the summer Olympic Games and the football World Cup, is often viewed as a key exemplar of globalization. Sociologists of sport have increasingly questioned this assessment, citing various empirical instances of resistance to, or amelioration of, globalizing forces in sport. This article explores a more radical theoretical possibility: that sport may be constitutively unsuited to carriage of the project of globalization in its fullest sense. It asks whether the social institution of sport is so deeply dependent on the production of national cultural difference (however the `nation' might be constructed and conceived) that it repudiates the possibility of comprehensive — that is, cultural — globalization.
A Transcultural Ethos Underpinning Curriculum Development: A Master's Programme in Disaster Relief Nursing
Authors: Davies Kevin , DEENY Patrick , Raikkonen Marja
Published: September 2003

This article discusses the development and implementation of a masters' degree programme in disaster relief nursing by cooperating partners in European countries. It aims to enhance the provision of aid by endorsing the role of nurses at the forefront of health care in disaster-stricken areas around the world. As an attempt to address the implications of globalisation in health care, the programme was established as a recognition of the rapidly developing specialty of transcultural/transnational nursing. Innovative teaching and learning strategies used include e-learning, simulation exercises, and competency portfolio development. A rigorous evaluation of programme outcomes is ongoing.
What Do Producers Want? On the Origins of Societal Policy Preferences
Authors: Crystal Jonathan
Published: September 2003

In most studies of foreign economic policy, scholars derive the policy preferences of societal actors by using economic theories to determine the returns from various government actions. These policy preferences are then used as independent variables in explaining political outcomes. However, often a number of different policies serve the actor's underlying preference (such as maximizing profit) and, therefore, in order to determine the actor's policy preferences, additional information must be brought in. By examining producer policy preferences for trade, exchange rate and foreign direct investment policies, the article shows the inadequacy of focusing only on economic returns. Producers make a cost-benefit calculation when deciding what policies to support. Some recent literature has examined how actors perceive the benefits from various policies while others have investigated the costs of seeking these policies (namely, collective action obstacles). Estimating expected utility requires analyzing the perceived likelihood of obtaining various policies and these expectations are a function of domestic political variables. Political structures, then, affect not only how much influence groups have, but also what policies they seek in the first place.
The Syringe as a Prosthetic
Authors: VITELLONE NICOLE
Published: September 2003

In this article I examine the significance of the syringe in relation to everyday drug-taking practices, especially in regard to the constitution of gender identity and heterosexuality. Such an exploration of the syringe will be conducted via a review of empirical literature on drug-injecting practices. This investigation of the syringe is informed by contemporary social and cultural theory on objects. By considering the performativity of the syringe and the syringe-in-use I argue that the object of the syringe is key for understanding risk and identity formation. Moreover, I also suggest while current analyses of IV drug use point to the dangerous practice of sharing as concerning individual behavior and social relations, such understandings overlook the significance of the syringe as constitutive of the self, sociality and power.
Trauma and Testimony
Authors: Das Veena
Published: September 2003

This article examines questions of trauma and testimony from the perspective of political community. It argues that terms such as riots, pogroms, and genocide reflect the points at which the body of language becomes one with the body of the world. Hence the performative force of these terms comes from their capacity to relocate narratives of violence and to anchor them to juridical-political discourses. The article asks for double vision in which life and its forms are subjects of the political but then are remade at the level of the personal. Critiquing grand projects for building identity and/or self, the article asks for mindfulness towards experience and forms of making the experience of violence knowable when saying gives way to showing.
Information Needs of Parents about Learning Disabilities
Authors: McConkey Roy
Published: September 2003

A survey of over 400 parents and carers of children and adults with severe learning disabilities was undertaken in N. Ireland. The aim was to identify the persons approached by the parents, the information required and the means used. The data are relevant to the setting up of national information centres as proposed by the government. The most common informants were social workers, staff in schools and centres, and GPs, but little use was made of voluntary services. A similar pattern was found regarding future informants. The most common topics were available services, leisure and holidays, and benefits. Parents of children under 10 were more likely to want information on education and therapies. The preferred means of getting information was through face-to-face contacts in the home.
Personal Spirituality of Persons with Early-Stage Dementia
Authors: Katsuno Towako
Published: September 2003

During times of stress and uncertainty, research has documented that individuals may turn to religion and spirituality as coping resources. But what about those with dementia who have a decreased cognitive capacity? Do they also turn to religion and spirituality and are these coping resources related to overall quality of life? The objective of this study was to describe the spiritual experiences of persons with early-stage dementia and to explore the relationship between personal spirituality and perceived quality of life. Twenty-three participants were interviewed using: a semi-structured interview guide; the System of Belief Inventory (SBI); and the Quality of Life Index (QLI). Qualitative data analysis illuminated an overall theme of `faith in God' and six related categories: beliefs; support from God; sense of meaning/purpose in life; private practice; public practice; and changes due to dementing illness. There were significant relationships between the SBI scores and the QLI scores. Findings suggest that those with early-stage dementia often find personal spirituality and its internal meanings important in coping with their life situations, that is, spirituality is associated with their perceived quality of life.