bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Laser-Induced Particle Production and Nuclear Reactions
Authors: Shkolnikov P. L. , Kaplan A. E.
Published: October 2003

We show that electrons accelerated in plasma generated by available, or within reach, terawatt lasers can initiate positron and neutron production and a host of nuclear reactions. We propose and evaluate the environments and processes favorable for this phenomenon, which can be used to develop a practical table-top source of intense short pulses of positrons, gamma-photons, neutrons, and fission fragments.
Orthography Influences the Perception of Speech in Alexic Patients
Authors: Miller Kimberly M. , Swick Diane
Published: October 2003

Interactive models of reading propose that phonological representations directly activate and/or constrain orthographic representations through feedback. These models also predict that spoken words should activate their orthographic forms. The effect of word orthography on auditory lexical access was investigated in two patients with alexia without agraphia. Several theories of alexia suggest that letter-by-letter reading results from impaired access to orthographic representations. Although alexics can often correctly identify orally spelled words and spell to dictation, it is unknown whether they can access the whole orthographic “word-form” as a unit via auditory presentation. The nonobligatory activation of orthography was examined in an auditory lexical decision task, in which the orthographic and phonological similarity between prime and target was manipulated. In controls, the combined effect of phonological and orthographic relatedness (OP) produced greater facilitation than phonological relatedness alone, indicating that orthography can influence auditory lexical decisions. The alexics displayed patterns of facilitation comparable to controls, suggesting they can quickly access whole-word orthographic information via the auditory modality. An alternate account posits that the OP advantage does not require on-line access of orthography, but instead is a developmental by-product of learning to read an orthographically inconsistent language. The results have implications for cognitive theories of alexia and provide support for interactive models of word recognition.
Multiple Neuronal Networks Mediate Sustained Attention
Authors: Lawrence Natalia S. , Ross Thomas J. , Hoffmann Ray , Garavan Hugh , Stein Elliot A.
Published: October 2003

Sustained attention deficits occur in several neuropsychiatric disorders. However, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are still incompletely understood. To that end, functional MRI was used to investigate the neural substrates of sustained attention (vigilance) using the rapid visual information processing (RVIP) task in 25 healthy volunteers. In order to better understand the neural networks underlying attentional abilities, brain regions where task-induced activation correlated with task performance were identified. Performance of the RVIP task activated a network of frontal, parietal, occipital, thalamic, and cerebellar regions. Deactivation during task performance was seen in the anterior and posterior cingulate, insula, and the left temporal and parahippocampal gyrus. Good task performance, as defined by better detection of target stimuli, was correlated with enhanced activation in predominantly right fronto-parietal regions and with decreased activation in predominantly left temporo-limbic and cingulate areas. Factor analysis revealed that these performance-correlated regions were grouped into two separate networks comprised of positively activated and negatively activated intercorrelated regions. Poor performers failed to significantly activate or deactivate these networks, whereas good performers either activated the positive or deactivated the negative network, or did both. The fact that both increased activation of task-specific areas and increased deactivation of task-irrelevant areas mediate cognitive functions underlying good RVIP task performance suggests two independent circuits, presumably reflecting different cognitive strategies, can be recruited to perform this vigilance task.
The Counterintuitive Relationship between Globalization and Climate Change
Authors: Barkin J. Samuel
Published: October 2003

Scholars and activists are concerned, sometimes simultaneously, with mitigation of anthropogenic climate change and the environmental effects of globalization. Many analysts argue that a solution to both problems is localization; increasing the costs of transportation should increase the cost of long-distance transportation, making local and regional exchange economically relatively more efficient. The argument here, however, is that dealing with climate change will have the effect of reinforcing patterns of economic globalization, at the expense of patterns of economic nationalization and continentalization. Transportation by sea has historically been, and continues to be, more fuel-efficient than transportation by land. Limiting anthropogenic carbon emissions in transportation therefore favors sea transport over land transport. Historically, patterns of trade favored global seaborne trade routes over trade within land-based regions. The model to look in understanding the effect of action on climate change on global trade pattens, therefore, is not the future proposed by the localists, it is at historical patterns.
Perspectiva sistémica y multinivel del análisis organizacional: una aproximación conceptual y metodológica
Authors: Aritzeta Aitor , Ayestarán Sabino , Balluerka Nekane
Published: October 2003

El presente trabajo propone una marco teórico para el análisis de las organizaciones, el cual integra los principios de isomorfismo, de jerarquización y de autonomía relativa. Esta aproximación integrada intenta superar el enfoque clásico que considera dichos principios de forma aislada. Para tal fin, relacionamos la Teoría General de Sistemas (von Bertalanffy, 1968) con la Teoría Organizacional Multinivel (Klein y Kozlowski, 2000) proponiendo un marco de análisis multinivel que facilita la operacionalización de los principios de isomorfismo, de jerarquización y de autonomía relativa. Además, el artículo realiza un análisis crítico acerca de las perspectivas de análisis unifocales, subrayando la creciente importancia de los procesos emergentes multinivel. Finalmente, se describe el Análisis de Regresión Multinivel (Bryk y Raudenbush, 1992; De Leeuw y Kreft, 1986; Goldstein, 1995), considerándolo como una de las estrategias metodológicas más apropiadas para el análisis del conjunto de las relaciones existentes entre los múltiples niveles del sistema organizacional.
Interpersonal Distance in Schizophrenic Patients: Relationship to Negative Syndrome
Authors: Nechamkin Yakov , Salganik Igor , Modai Ilan , Ponizovsky Alexander M.
Published: October 2003

Background: Personal space is the area individuals maintain around themselves into which others cannot intrude without arousing discomfort.

Objective: We tested the hypotheses that psychological distancing of patients with schizophrenia would be a characteristic of 1) diagnosis and/or 2) syndrome.

Methods: For this aim, 30 schizophrenic and 30 age matching normal males established comfortable interpersonal distances for 20 word-stimuli representing family members, significant others, self-images, emotionally neutral and threatening surroundings. The distances were assessed by a paper-and-pencil projective measure, the Comfortable Interpersonal Distance scale and the patients' psycho-pathological symptoms were quantified by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. t-tests and correlational analyses were employed to examine the relation-ships between the parameters of interest.

Results: The rank order (hierarchy) of preferable interpersonal distances of patients with schizophrenia was similar to that of normal subjects. At the same time, psychological distance from family members and themselves was substantially larger among the patients. There were no significant correlations between any kind of interpersonal distance and positive syndrome of schizophrenia, while negative syndrome showed significant inverse association with distances from emotionally neutral and threatening figures and positive correlation with family member and self-image distances.

Conclusion: The results suggest that the negative syndrome of schizophrenia attenuates the differences between interpersonal distances from generally close and distant persons.
Psychiatric Disorders in Opioid Dependants
Authors: Ahmadi Jamshid , Toobaee Shahin , Kharras Mohammad , Radmehr Mohammad
Published: October 2003

Aims: Psychiatric disorders are common among substance dependants. The objectives of this study were to assess the rate of neurotic disorders among opioid addicts, and reassess the rate of those neurotic disorders two weeks after complete detoxification of the patients.

Measurements: Data were gathered from 500 (496 men and 4 women) opioid dependants, using DSM-IV criteria. The Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire (MHQ) was used to measure free-floating anxiety, depression, phobia, obsession, hysteria and somatization.

Results: Four hundred and ninety-six (99.2%) of the subjects were men of whom the majority (65.2%) were married, 26.4% single and the others were divorced or separated. Three hundred and thirty-four (66.8%) were in age range of 20to 39 years. Of the subjects 154 (30.8) were self-employed, 116 (23.2%) were factory workers, 100 (20%) unemployed, 64 (12.8%) employees and 32 (6.4%) retailers. The majority, 322 (64.4%), reported elementary and high school as their level of education and only 20(4%) were illiterate. The means for neurotic disorders (using the MHQ) before and two weeks after detoxification were 10.12 and 9.98 for anxiety, 7.54 and 7.41 for phobia, 10.10 and 9.76 for depression, 11.11 and 11.05 for obsession, 8.47 and 8.49 for hysteria and 9.82 and 9.46 for somatization, respectively. The mean difference was significant only for depression.

Conclusions: Present findings indicated that the rate of neurotic disorders in opioid dependants is high and (except for depression) was not significantly different before detoxification and two weeks after detoxification. Opium was found to be the most prevalent form of opioid used. Also it can be concluded that during the last years some demographic characteristics of Iranian opioid addicts in this sample have changed. Cultural attitudes toward substance use quite likely affect the pattern of substance use. These findings can be considered when planning preventive and therapeutic programs.
Drowning Your Sorrows? Attitudes Towards Alcohol in UK Jews and Protestants: A Thematic Analysis
Authors: Loewenthal K. M. , Lee M. , Macleod A. K. , Cook S. , Goldblatt V.
Published: October 2003

Background: Jewish culturally supported beliefs may discourage drinking and drunkenness as ways of socialising and coping with stress. Thus Jewish men under stress may be relatively more likely to become depressed, and less likely to use and abuse alcohol. This study is the first qualitative comparison of Jews and Protestants, men and women. It examines whether alcohol-related beliefs are consistent with the alcohol-depression hypothesis, i.e. that positive beliefs about alcohol use and effects are associated with high alcohol use and low depression.

Material and discussion: A thematic (interpretive phenomenological) analysis on open-ended question responses, from 70 Jews and 91 Protestants, and on semi-structured interviews with five Jews and four Protestants, identified three salient themes: the importance of retaining self-control; the pleasures of losing inhibitions; and the relations of alcohol-related behaviour to identity. Compared to Protestants, Jews described alcohol-related behaviour as threatening to self-control, loss of inhibition as unenjoyable and dangerous and distinguished between the kinds of drinking behaviours appropriate for Jews and others. Sub-themes for Protestant men were denial that drinking threatens self-control, and appropriateness of going to the pub.

Conclusions: The themes identified are not measurable using published research instruments. Alcohol-related behaviour may be a feature of Jewish identity. The beliefs identified are consistent with the alcohol-depression hypothesis.
Women with Schizophrenia and Broken Marriages - Doubly Disadvantaged? Part I: Patient Perspective
Authors: Thara R. , Kamath Shanta , Kumar Shuba
Published: October 2003

This is a qualitative study of 76 women with schizophrenia whose marriages had broken. The sample was drawn from three different centres. Using qualitative methods of exploration, information regarding their illness, the marriage and its separation and the various consequences of this event was gathered. Many of them had not separated legally and were not receiving any maintenance from their husbands. Their concerns centred around their future, the fact they would be a burden to their ageing parents and in some cases about their children. Stigma attached to separation was as poignant as that of being mentally ill, if not more. However, a striking aspect was that even after several years of separation, these women still harboured a lot of hope that they would be able to reunite with their husbands.
The English School on Diplomacy: Scholarly Promise Unfulfilled
Authors: Neumann Iver B.
Published: October 2003

As pointed out by earlier theorists associated with the English School, if one views world politics as an historically emerging and social phenomenon, then diplomacy plays a key role in it. For the last 15 years, however, diplomacy has been at the margin of the School's interests. The article aims to rectify this by: a) introducing English School thought on diplomacy as it evolved through an original series of books; b) reviewing the work of the next generation of scholars with a view to seeing how and why the interest in diplomacy stalled; and c) arguing that the English School has indeed made an impressive contribution, but one which we can only follow up by wedding it to more wide-reaching projects of social theory.
Christian Realism and the Foundations of the English School
Authors: Jones Charles A.
Published: October 2003

The hard edge imparted to mid-twentieth century British International Relations by Christian realism has been neglected in histories of the second great debate. Indeed standard accounts of the development of the discipline have little to say about its secularization. Against a backdrop of renewed interest in political theology, this article sets out to remind a secular readership of the Augustinian element in the British tradition, principally by reviewing some of the writings of Herbert Butterfield. It goes on to pose the question of how far subsequent British thought about international society may have been weakened by a failure to confront its own secularization, drawing particular attention to later ambivalence in the English School about the source of moral obligation between states and the role of agency in overcoming structural dilemmas.
Are the Unions Still Needed? Employees' Views of their Relations to Unions and Employers
Authors: Furåker Bengt , Berglund Tomas
Published: October 2003

Collectivist attitudes among workers are often said to have become replaced by individualistic leanings. Some argue that individualism is also spreading within the traditional manual working class and in particular among the young. On the basis of a survey carried out in Sweden in 1997, aspects of the collectivism-individualism issue are studied empirically: whether employees think that trade unions are necessary for successful negotiation with their employers, and whether they prefer to take care of negotiations individually. Data are cross-sectional and thus cannot tell us much about change among respondents, but the connections between attitudinal patterns and age and social class are analysed. The main conclusions are that the perceived need for the union is clearly more widespread among manual workers than among white-collar employees, especially higher-level white-collar workers Accordingly, it matters which union people belong to, but the non-unionized are the most negative. There are no significant age differences. Second, the view that negotiations are best taken care of by the individual him-/herself is mainly endorsed by white-collar workers, in particular those in higher positions, and by non-unionized employees. Moreover, the young tend to be more individualistically oriented than older employees, but this difference is statistically significant only insofar as union membership is not taken into account. It should be noted that youth have a lower rate of unionization. This may be due to negative attitudes towards collectivism, or that they have found little reason to join the union because they have unstable job situations - which would then in turn explain their individualistic orientation.
Transgender Politics in the UK
Authors: Monro Surya
Published: October 2003

This article develops notions of transgender citizenship in relation to existing approaches to citizenship, including liberalism, neoliberalism and communitarianism. Changes relating to New Labour's Third Way provide some support for transgender citizenship. However, these are limited because New Labour has yet to fully support gender diversity, to embrace different forms of morality, to tackle underlying structural inequalities and to develop sufficiently strong mechanisms for participation. The article argues that a robust participatory democracy is necessary for ensuring transgender political participation and social inclusion. Full transgender citizenship would lead to fundamental changes in the social organization of gender and social policy positions concerning gender.
The Best Days of your Life? Youth, Policy and Blair's New Labour
Authors: Mizen Phil
Published: October 2003

Since the election of New Labour in 1997, young people's relationship to work and to the labour market has been the subject of intense scrutiny and policy activity. By equipping young workers with the qualifications and skills they are held to need in the knowledge economy, the government hopes to reconcile its quest for economic progress with the commitment to social justice for young people. However, as this article argues, the importance invested in this area of 'youth policy' overlays a more fundamental process of disengagement in which New Labour is presiding over the withdrawal of those traditional sources of support it has held out to the young. For this reason, the article concludes by suggesting that the importance that New Labour attaches to policy for young workers tells us more about the needs of government than it does about the needs of young people.
Risk Technology in Australia: The Role of the Job Seeker Classification Instrument in Employment Services
Authors: McDonald Catherine , Marston Greg , Buckley Amma
Published: October 2003

Promoted as the key policy response to unemployment, the Job Network constitutes an array of interlocking processes that position unemployed people as `problems' in need of remediation. Unemployment is presented as a primary risk threatening society, and unemployed people are presented as displaying various degrees of riskiness. The Job Seeker Classification Instrument (JSCI) is a `technology' employed by Centrelink to assess `risk' and to determine the type of interaction that unemployed people have with the Job Network. In the first instance, we critically examine the development of the JSCI and expose issues that erode its credibility and legitimacy. Second, employing the analytical tools of discourse analysis, we show how the JSCI both assumes and imposes particular subject identities on unemployed people. The purpose of this latter analysis is to illustrate the consequences of the sorts of technologies and interventions used within the Job Network.
Material Theory
Authors: Fraser Mariam
Published: October 2003

This article addresses the serotonin hypothesis of depression, as it was formulated in clinical and laboratory experiments during the 1950s. In the first instance I argue that the `challenge' posed by patients' subjectivities in clinical investigations into the potentially anti-depressant drug iproniazid was not solely due to the tensions generated by the subject/object dichotomy, but to an excess that exceeds the properties of the objects of the experiment, as well as its requirements and conditions. I then suggest that the serotonin hypothesis too is possessed of an excess, and that this can be understood in terms of a real (actual and virtual) existence in duration. By exploiting the notions of the event and of duration, I offer an under-standing of the hypothesis that pertains not to reduction, reproducibility and sameness, but to differentiation, innovation and creation.
Narrating the Guillotine
Authors: Smith Philip
Published: October 2003

The work of Michel Foucault sees modern penal technology as an expression of power that operates through and is motivated by a dry instrumental reason. This article draws upon Durkheim and Bakhtin to advance a radically alternative approach. It is suggested that such technology is invested with sacred and profane symbolism and is understood via emotion-ally charged, dramatically compelling narrative frames. Tensions between official and un-authorized discourses can be understood through a center/periphery model of culture. In an extended case study of the guillotine, it is shown that the apparatus was initially legitimated as an expression of a sacred revolutionary code. Such a discourse was subsequently destabilized by popular medical debates that raised the specter of pain after decapitation. While inconclusive, these new motifs mobilized Gothic and grotesque themes that confronted the rationalist aesthetics of the guillotine. A situation of Bakhtinian heteroglossia eventuated. Uncertainty, the uncanny and fable entered a discursive field of increasing complexity.
Optimal Camera Trajectory with Image-Based Control
Authors: Mezouar Youcef , Chaumette François
Published: October 2003

Image-based servo is a local control solution. Thanks to the feedback loop closed in the image space, local convergence and stability in the presence of modeling errors and noise perturbations are ensured when the error is small. The principal deficiency of this approach is that the induced (3D) trajectories are not optimal and sometimes, especially when the displacement to realize is large, these trajectories are not physically valid leading to the failure of the servoing process. In this paper we address the problem of finding realistic image-space trajectories that correspond to optimal 3D trajectories. The camera calibration and the model of the observed scene are assumed unknown. First, a smooth closed-form collineation path between given start and end points is obtained. This path is generated in order to correspond to an optimal camera path. The trajectories of the image features are then derived and efficiently tracked using a purely image-based control. A second path planning scheme, based on the potential field method is briefly presented. It allows us to introduce constraints in the desired trajectory to be realized. Such constraints are, for instance, to ensure that the object of interest remains in the camera field of view and to avoid the robot joints limits. Experimental results obtained on a six-degrees-of-freedom eye-in-hand robotic system are presented and confirm the validity of the proposed approach.
212D Visual Servoing with Respect to Planar Contours having Complex and Unknown Shapes
Authors: Malis E. , Chesi G. , Cipolla R.
Published: October 2003

In this paper we present a complete system for segmenting, matching, tracking, and visual servoing with respect to unknown planar contours. Our system can be used with arbitrary contours of any shape and without any prior knowledge of their models. The system is first shown the target view. A selected contour is automatically extracted and its image shape is stored. The robot and object are then moved and the system automatically identifies the target. The matching step is performed together with the estimation of the homography matrix between the two views of the contour. Then, a 2½ D visual servoing technique is used to reposition the end-effector of a robot at the reference position relative to the planar contour. The system has been successfully tested on several contours with very complex shapes such as leaves, keys, and coastal outlines of islands. Experiments using a ship mock-up without any artificial marker proves that the system can be applied to the ship-building industry.
Predictive Visual Tracking of Lines by Industrial Robots
Authors: Lange Friedrich , Hirzinger Gerd
Published: October 2003

Many tasks for industrial robots can be described by high precision line following at high speed. This can be executed accurately if the lines are sensed by a camera since then not only the desired pose at the current time step is sensable, but also a segment of the desired path can be predicted. We propose polynomials to represent the progression of the elements of the desired pose. This allows us to realize a dynamical sensor control architecture that considers the two main problems: low sampling rate and delays in image processing, and deviations from commanded paths due to the robot dynamics. In contrast to previous publications we now present the complete formulae to control translation and orientation of the robot by tracking (curved) lines that are visible for a single eye-in-hand camera. Experiments using off-the-shelf hardware show that the robot can be precisely controlled at high speed.
Improvement of the Prediction Quality for Visual Servoing with a Switching Kalman Filter
Authors: Chroust Stefan , Vincze Markus
Published: October 2003

The main control problem of visual servoing is to cope with the delay introduced by image acquisition and image processing. This delay is the main reason for limited tracking velocity and acceleration. Predictive algorithms are one solution to handle the delay. The drawback of prediction algorithms is the bad prediction behavior for the discontinuity in the target motion, for example, a velocity step. In this paper, a switching Kalman filter (SKF) is proposed to overcome this problem. The SKF introduces three cooperating components. A prediction monitor supervises the prediction quality of an adaptive Kalman filter (AKF). If a discontinuity is detected, a transition filter switches to an appropriate steady-state Kalman filter (αβ or αβγ), which handles a discontinuity better than the AKF. During this transition, an auxiliary controller ensures that overall control is continuous. This new prediction algorithm is able to achieve a good prediction quality for smooth and for discontinuous motions. It is evaluated using a pan/tilt unit to track a colored object. The SKF and its components are compared to the classical AKF with four different target motions.
Robust Visual Servoing
Authors: Kragic D. , Christensen H. I.
Published: October 2003

For service robots operating in domestic environments, it is not enough to consider only control level robustness; it is equally important to consider how image information that serves as input to the control process can be used so as to achieve robust and efficient control.

In this paper we present an effort towards the development of robust visual techniques used to guide robots in various tasks. Given a task at hand, we argue that different levels of complexity should be considered; this also defines the choice of the visual technique used to provide the necessary feedback information. We concentrate on visual feedback estimation where we investigate both two- and three-dimensional techniques.

In the former case, we are interested in providing coarse information about the object position/velocity in the image plane. In particular, a set of simple visual features (cues) is employed in an integrated framework where voting is used for fusing the responses from individual cues. The experimental evaluation shows the system performance for three different cases of camera-robot configurations most common for robotic systems.

For cases where the robot is supposed to grasp the object, a two- dimensional position estimate is often not enough. Complete pose (position and orientation) of the object may be required. Therefore, we present a model-based system where a wire-frame model of the object is used to estimate its pose. Since a number of similar systems have been proposed in the literature, we concentrate on the particular part of the system usually neglected—automatic pose initialization. Finally, we show how a number of existing approaches can successfully be integrated in a system that is able to recognize and grasp fairly textured, everyday objects. One of the examples presented in the experimental section shows a mobile robot performing tasks in a real-word environment—a living room.
Integrated Vision/Force Robotic Servoing in the Task Frame Formalism
Authors: Baeten Johan , Bruyninckx Herman , De Schutter Joris
Published: October 2003

In this paper we show how to use the task frame to easily model, implement and execute three-dimensional (3D) robotic tasks, which integrate force control and visual servoing, in an uncalibrated workspace.

In contrast to most hybrid vision/force research, this work uses eye-in-hand vision and force control. Mounting both sensors on the same end-effector gives rise to new constraints, control issues and advantages, which are discussed in this paper.

On the one hand, in this paper we emphasize shared control in which both vision and force simultaneously control a given task frame direction. Our work shows the usefulness and feasibility of a range of tasks which use shared control. Moreover, it offers a framework based on the task frame formalism (TFF) to distinguish between different basic forms of shared control. Each basic form is illustrated by a robotic task with shared control in only one direction. In addition, an extension to classify multi-dimensional shared control tasks is presented.

On the other hand, a new classification is presented which distinguishes between four meaningful tool/camera configurations, being parallel or non-parallel endpoint closed-loop and fixed or variable endpoint open-loop. Corresponding control strategies are discussed, resulting in either collocated or non-collocated vision/force control. Several task examples (in 3D space), specified in the TFF, illustrate the use of these four configurations. As shown by the presented experimental results, the tasks at hand benefit from the integrated control approach.
Accounting for Single Status: Heterosexism and Ageism in Heterosexual Women's Talk about Marriage
Authors: Sandfield Anna , Percy Carol
Published: October 2003

Interviews are reported in which heterosexual women construct unmarried status as a temporary stage, preparatory to marriage, or the consequence of failure to maintain heterosexual relationships. Remaining single in later life is constructed as a threat, and older single women are constructed as lonely and isolated. Women construct themselves as responsible for the ending of past relationships, and report having been held to account in this way by significant others. It is argued that these accounts reflect the discourses of heterosexual romantic quest, and the gendered division of emotional labour in marriage. Participants' accounts are characterized by heterosexism and ageism, and the authors discuss issues of collusion with these in the collection of data.
Environmental Issues and the Criminological Imagination
Authors: White Rob
Published: October 2003

This article provides an exploration of how the criminological imagination can provide particular insights into the nature of environmental issues. To illustrate the contribution of criminology to such discussions, the article provides a case study of the social, political and economic dynamics surrounding the provision of drinking water. The article demonstrates the complexities in determining the character, extent and impact of environmental harm. It furthermore identifies diverse and at times competing approaches to environmental regulation and to the prevention of environmental harm.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in Bali: The Cultural Shaping of a Neuropsychiatric Disorder
Authors: Lemelson Robert
Published: October 2003

Many psychiatric researchers believe that the clinical picture of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) shows little variability cross-culturally. This study examined the symptomatology and illness experience of 19 patients suffering from OCD in Bali, Indonesia. Patients were assessed using a semi-structured clinical interview. The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) was utilized for gauging symptomatology and severity of symptoms. A sub-sample of patients was interviewed using person-centered ethnographic techniques. Balinese culture strongly shaped symptomatic expression. The most common obsessional themes emphasized patients' obsessional need to know information about their social network, such as the identity and status of passers-by. Somatic obsessions and religious themes around witchcraft and spirits were also prominent. Psychiatric, indigenous and anthropological perspectives are contrasted to highlight the power and limitations of each to explain OCD.
Psychosocial Factors in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome among Chinese Americans: A Longitudinal Community-Based Study
Authors: Lim Brian R. , Tan Siang-Yang , Zheng Yan-Ping , Lin Keh-Ming , Park Bonnie C. , Turk Anne A.
Published: October 2003

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a relatively new condition of unknown etiology. Research suggests that psychosocial factors such as perceived social support, life stress, and acculturation may significantly influence individuals who are prone to CFS. For 57 Chinese American individuals initially diagnosed with CFS, those who recovered after one year reported lower levels of life stress than those who did not recover. Effects of changes in perceived social support also appeared to be mediated by life stress.
`Where Ignorant Armies Clash by Night'
Authors: Gilroy Paul
Published: October 2003

In explicit opposition to any explanatory discourse that invokes a `clash of civilisations', this article suggests that the history of Europe's colonial adventures provides a number of worthwhile clues as to the legal and military basis of the emergent new world order.
Imagining Communities Through Immigration Policies
Authors: Vukov Tamara
Published: October 2003

Immigration is a central site through which national communities are institutionally imagined and materially constructed. The borders of these imagined communities are generated in part through state policies, particularly immigration policies. Using Canada as a point of departure, this article will question how the cultural politics of immigration are shaped through media and policy discourses of immigration. In settler nations such as Canada, the long tradition of media spectacles around immigration is a key site for the amplification of political affect around national belonging that strongly impinges upon immigration policy formation. Drawing on the Foucauldian governmentality literature and its focus on the population as an object of governance, two particular articulations of immigration as a means of regulating the population are considered: first, the articulation of immigration with questions of fertility and sexuality; and, second, the dramatically heightened media and policy articulations of immigration with security. This article questions how we might begin to account for the political affect elicited in media culture around `desirable' and `undesirable' immigrants/refugees and its impact on the regulation and governance of immigration.
`These Crowded Circumstances'
Authors: Frank Russell
Published: October 2003

Nobody likes pack journalism - not the reporters who are members of the pack, not the objects of the pack's attention and not the readers who deplore the pack's intrusiveness and obtrusiveness even as they stay with the coverage. To distance themselves from the pack, reporters have hit upon the curious rhetorical strategy of writing about it as if they were not a part of it. This article argues that this kind of distanced reflexivity is best understood as a strategic ritual aimed at maintaining the culture of journalism in the face of public disaffection with intrusive reporting and excessive coverage.
Preserving Philip Rieff
Authors: Fine Gary Alan , Manning Philip
Published: October 2003

Philip Rieff, the author of Freud: The Mind of the Moralist, The Triumph of the Therapeutic and Fellow Teachers, is a consequential and important American social theorist whose emphasis on moral structures and cultural limits has become - and to a great degree, always was - out of fashion. This article and the four that follow attempt to demonstrate the significance of the writings of Philip Rieff for contemporary social theory. Our contention is that Rieff's scholarly reputation has unjustly suffered because his distinctive voice has been wrongly thought to be irrelevant for contemporary theoretical and political concerns. By contrast, we argue that Rieff continues to hold an important place in current political and social theory because he diagnosed a chronic moral sickness and proposed a course of treatment based on the virtues of repression and guilt. From Rieff's vantage point, the relativism of his era is both a symptom of and a false solution to moral dilemmas. His `fellow teachers' in the university have often passively resisted his moral condemnations by allowing his energetic texts to drift into obscurity.
What We Owe to Distant Others
Authors: Wenar Leif
Published: October 2003

What morality requires of us in a world of poverty and inequality depends both on what our duties are in the abstract, and on what we can do to help. T.M. Scanlon's contractualism addresses the first question. I suggest that contractualism isolates the moral factors that frame our deliberations about the extent of our obligations in situations of need. To this extent, contractualism clarifies our common-sense understanding of our duties to distant others. The second, empirical question then becomes vital. What we as individuals need to know is how to fulfil our duties to the distant poor. Moral theorists tend to base their prescriptions on simple assumptions about how the rich can help the poor. Yet a survey of the empirical literature shows how urgently we need more information on this topic before we can know what contractualist morality — or any plausible morality — requires of us.
The Axiomatic Approach to Population Ethics
Authors: Blackorby Charles , Bossert Walter , Donaldson David
Published: October 2003

This article examines several families of population principles in the light of a set of axioms. In addition to the critical-level utilitarian, number-sensitive critical-level utilitarian, and number-dampened utilitarian families and their generalized counterparts, we consider the restricted number-dampened family and introduce two new ones: the restricted critical-level and restricted number-dependent critical-level families. Subsets of the restricted families have non-negative critical levels, avoid the `repugnant conclusion' and satisfy the axiom priority for lives worth living, but violate an important independence condition.
Risk and Firms' Costs
Authors: Miller Kent D. , Chen Wei-Ru
Published: October 2003

This study examines the economic rationale for limiting firms' risk. We argue that risk increases the cost of doing business for two reasons. First, risk causes operating inefficiencies and imposes adjustment costs. Second, diverse stakeholders must be compensated for their risk-bearing. We find empirical support for positive risk-cost relations using various model specifications and risk measures, and across different manufacturing industries and time periods. We also examine the direct and moderating effects of bankruptcy risk. The relation of distance from bankruptcy to firms' costs depends on whether relations are contemporaneous or lagged and whether bankruptcy is an immediate threat or not.
Organizational Competence and Firm-Specific Tobin's q: The Moderating Role of Corporate Reputation
Authors: Acquaah Moses
Published: October 2003

Corporate reputation activities have been shown to be a predictor of and a response to strategic organizational activities and outcomes. However, relatively little is known about the moderating role of corporate reputation in the relationship between organizational competencies and firm performance. Using a dynamic panel data model, this study examines how organizational competencies - employee value-added and technological competence - influence firm-specific Tobin's q, and how corporate reputation activities moderate this relationship. The results indicate that organizational competencies enhance firm-specific Tobin's q and that corporate reputation activities play a synergistic role, reinforcing the relationship between organizational competencies and firm performance. These findings contribute to both the resource-based view of the firm and corporate reputation literature by complementing and extending earlier research on the role of corporate reputation activi-ties on firm-specific performance.
Properties of Dilute Aqueous Solutions of Double-Chain Surfactants, Alkyldodecyldimethylammonium Bromides with a Change in the Length of the Alkyl Chains
Authors: Hiramatsu Koichi , Kameyama Keiichi , Ishiguro Ryo , Mori Masaki , Hayase Hisao
Published: October 2003

A series of cationic surfactants, dialkyldimethylammonium bromides with dodecyl as the primary alkyl chain and with methyl, ethyl, propyl, butyl, hexyl, octyl, and decyl as the second alkyl chain, as well as those with symmetric alkyl chains, dioctyl, didecyl and didodecyl ones, were synthesized, and their properties were investigated through measurements of the conductivity and air–liquid surface tension for their aqueous solutions to determine their critical micelle concentrations (cmc) and surface adsorption parameters in the formulation according to a two-dimensional lattice model in the form of the Frumkin equation. The change in cmc revealed that the free energy to transfer from water to the micelle per methylene unit is significantly small for asymmetric double-chain surfactants with a shorter second alkyl chain, and it approaches as elongating the second alkyl to those for the single-chain and symmetric double-chain surfactants. The free energy to transfer to an air–solution interface decreased approximately linearly with the total length of the hydrocarbon chains for all of the species examined. The lattice area for a symmetric double-chain surfactant molecule decreased with the length of its hydrocarbons. In a series of asymmetric ones, it showed a maximum for that with hexyl in its second alkyl.
Synthesis, Structures and Fluxional Behavior of Ruthenium(II) Complexes Bearing a Bidentate 1,8-Naphthyridine Ligand
Authors: Koizumi Take-aki , Tomon Takashi , Tanaka Koji
Published: October 2003

The ruthenium complexes bearing 1,8-naphthyridine (napy) and terpyridine analogous (N,C,N)-tridentate ligands were synthesized and characterized. The reaction of [RuCl2(napy-κ2N,N′)(dmso)2] with 2 equiv of AgPF6 and subsequent addition of LH and CO gave [RuL(napy-κ2N,N′)(CO)](PF6)n (6a: L = N-methyl-3,5-di(2-pyridyl)-4-pyridyl, n = 2; 6b: L = 2,6-di(2-pyridyl)phenyl, n = 1) via [RuL(napy-κ2N,N′)(dmso)](PF6)n (5a: L = N-methyl-3,5-di(2-pyridyl)-4-pyridyl, n = 2; 5b: L = 2,6-di(2-pyridyl)phenyl, n = 1). The crystal structures of 5a and 6a show distorted octahedral coordination with the tridentate (N,C,N)-ligand as mer-fashion, two nitrogens of bidentate napy and the sulfur of DMSO (5a) or the carbon of the CO ligand (6a). Detailed experiments for irradiation and variable-temperature 1H NMR studies reveal a fluxional process of the chelated napy ligand in solution.
A Novel and Efficient Method for the Technetium-99m Labelling of Disulfide Compounds Using a Tetrahydroborate Exchange Resin
Authors: Park Sang Hyun , Gwon Hui Jeong , Kim Young Ho , Park Kyung Bae
Published: October 2003

A novel and efficient method for the technetium-99m labelling of disulfide compound 7 was established with high radiochemical purity in which tetrahydroborate exchange resin (BER) simultaneously carries out the reduction of 7, the reduction of [99mTc]pertechnetate and chelation of 7 with technetium-99m. The labelling occurs in a one-pot three-step procedure that is amenable to the preparation of 99mTc-radiopharmaceuticals.
Synthesis and Properties of α,α-Bis(heteroazulen-3-yl)-1,4-benzoquinonemethides
Authors: Naya Shin-ichi , Watano Tetsuhiro , Nitta Makoto
Published: October 2003

The synthesis and properties of a novel type of α,α-bis(heteroazulen-3-yl)-1,4-benzoquinonemethides 11a–f are studied. The synthetic method was based on a TFA-catalyzed electrophilic aromatic substitution on the heteroazulenes with 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde to afford the corresponding methane derivatives, followed by oxidative hydrogen abstraction with DDQ, and subsequent exchange of the counter-anion by using aq. HBF4 or aq. HPF6 and neutralization. The polarization of 11a–f was evaluated by their 13C NMR and UV–vis spectral data. The thermodynamic stability of the conjugated acid of 11a–f was evaluated to be in the order 11a < 11b < 11c and in the order 11d < 11e < 11f based on their pKa values (<0–5.4) obtained spectrophotometrically. The substituent effect of t-Bu was discussed based on the UV–vis spectra and pKa values. In CV measurements, the reduction waves of quinonemethides 11a–f were reversible, suggesting a stabilizing effect of heteroazulenes toward the radical and anion species. Moreover, quinonemethides 11a–f showed two oxidation waves, and that the first oxidation potentials (E1ox) of 11a–c, which have two t-Bu groups, are reversible.
Reaction Mechanism of 2-Propanol Dehydrogenation with a Carbon-Supported Ru–Pt Composite Catalyst in the Liquid Phase
Authors: Ando Yuji , Yamashita Masaru , Saito Yasukazu
Published: October 2003

The liquid-phase dehydrogenation of (CH3)2CHOH, (CH3)2CHOD, and (CH3)2CDOH to yield acetone and molecular hydrogen was performed selectively under boiling and refluxing conditions by heating a suspended solution of a carbon-supported ruthenium and platinum composite catalyst. The Ru–Pt/carbon composite catalyst gave kinetic isotope effects of 1.54 and 1.96 for dehydrogenation at 82.4 °C from (CH3)2CHOD and (CH3)2CDOH, respectively, which were contrasted to the corresponding magnitudes of 1.69 and 1.57 with a Ru/carbon catalyst and those of 1.13 and 1.81 with a Pt/carbon catalyst. The rate constants of dehydrogenation as a function of the H/D ratio in molecular hydrogen suggest that the step to form molecular hydrogen from surface hydrogen species was slow on the Ru catalyst, whereas the step to split the methine C–H bond was rather difficult for the Pt and Ru–Pt catalysts. Reflecting the facile dissociation at the hydroxy group on the catalyst surface, deuterium transfer from the hydroxy to the methyl groups of both acetone and 2-propanol proceeded tremendously for (CH3)2CHOD.