bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Access to paediatric emergency departments in Italy: a comparison between immigrant and Italian patients
Authors: Grassino Erica Clara , Guidi Carla , Monzani Alice , Di Pietro Pasquale , Bona Gianni
Published: February 2009

Objective

The aim of the study was to investigate whether access to paediatric emergency departments differed between foreign and Italian patients.

Methods

We performed a cross-sectional study between January-December 2007 to analyse attendance's characteristics in the paediatric emergency departments of ten Italian public hospitals. The study population included each foreign patient and the following Italian patient admitted to the same emergency department. All causes of admission of these subjects were evaluated, together with the child's age, gender, country of birth, parents' nationality, time of admission, severity code and discharge-related circumstances.

Results

We enrolled 4874 patients, 2437 foreign (M:F = 1409:1028) and 2437 Italian ones (M:F = 1368:1069). Most of foreign and Italian patients' admissions were sorted as green (72.5% and 87.8%, respectively) or white codes (25.2% and 9.8%, respectively). The most frequent causes for attendance concerned respiratory tract diseases, followed by gastroenteric ones and injuries in both groups.

Conclusion

In our survey immigrants didn't access to emergency departments more than Italian children. Both of them referred to emergency departments mainly for semi-urgent or non-urgent problems. Foreign and Italian patients suffered from the same pathologies. Infectious diseases traditionally thought to be a potential problem in immigrant populations actually seem to be quite infrequent.
Perioperative Activation of Disseminated Tumor Cells in Bone Marrow of Patients With Prostate Cancer
Authors: Weckermann Dorothea , Polzer Bernhard , Ragg Thomas , Blana Andreas , Schlimok Günter , Arnholdt Hans , Bertz Simone , Harzmann Rolf , Klein Christoph A.
Published: February 2009

Purpose

The outcome of prostate cancer is highly unpredictable. To assess the dynamics of systemic disease and to identify patients at high risk for early relapse we followed the fate of disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow for up to 10 years and genetically analyzed such cells isolated at various stages of disease.

Patients and Methods

Nine hundred bone marrow aspirates from 384 patients were stained using the monoclonal antibody A45-B/B3 directed against cytokeratins 8, 18, and 19. Log-rank statistics and Cox regression analysis were applied to determine the prognostic impact of positive cells detected before surgery (244 patients) and postoperatively (214 patients). Samples from primary tumors (n = 55) and single disseminated tumor cells (n = 100) were analyzed by comparative genomic hybridization.

Results

Detection of cytokeratin-positive cells before surgery was the strongest independent risk factor for metastasis within 48 months (P < .001; relative risk [RR], 5.5; 95% CI, 2.4 to 12.9). In contrast, cytokeratin-positive cells detected 6 months to 10 years after radical prostatectomy were consistently present in bone marrow with a prevalence of approximately 20% but had no influence on disease outcome. Characteristic genotypes of cytokeratin-positive cells were selected at manifestation of metastasis.

Conclusion

Cytokeratin-positive cells in the bone marrow of prostate cancer patients are only prognostically relevant when detected before surgery. Because we could not identify significant genetic differences between pre- and postoperatively isolated tumor cells before manifestation of metastasis, we postulate the existence of perioperative stimuli that activate disseminated tumor cells. Patients with cytokeratin-positive cells in bone marrow before surgery may therefore benefit from adjuvant therapies.
Effectiveness of a Letter Notification Program for Women With Early-Stage Breast Cancer Eligible for Extended Adjuvant Letrozole
Authors: McArthur Heather L. , Gelmon Karen A. , Olivotto Ivo A. , Speers Caroline H. , Ellard Susan L. , O'Reilly Susan E. , Kennecke Hagen F.
Published: February 2009

Purpose

After National Cancer Institute of Canada trial MA.17 demonstrated benefits with letrozole after 5 years of tamoxifen, oncologists needed to identify and offer therapy to patients in community follow-up who were eligible for extended adjuvant hormone therapy. In British Columbia (BC), letters about extended letrozole therapy were sent to eligible BC women, their primary care physicians (PCPs), and their oncologists. We evaluated the effectiveness of this communication strategy.

Patients and Methods

Eight hundred eighty-five women with stage I-III breast cancer who completed 4 to 6 years of tamoxifen in 2004 with no documented recurrence were sent letters describing extended adjuvant letrozole in February 2005. Treatment uptake and characteristics for women who did or did not receive a subsequent letrozole prescription were described.

Results

Among 838 eligible women, 305 (36%) received a letrozole prescription before April 2006. More women in the letrozole cohort had tumors larger than 2.0 cm (44.2% v 30.8%); node-positive disease (52.5% v 22.5%); prior radiotherapy (71.1% v 58.5%); and prior chemotherapy (51.5% v 20.8%; all P ≤ .001). Among women younger than 70 years with node-positive disease, 65% received letrozole (122 of 188). Most prescribing physicians were oncologists (57.0%) or PCPs (30.8%). A significant increase in letrozole prescriptions was observed after the letter mail-out.

Conclusion

In this population-based setting, extended adjuvant letrozole was more common among younger women with higher risk disease and more prior therapy but underutilized overall. The reasons for extended therapy underutilization and the role of the letter mail-out strategy in informing breast cancer survivors of new available treatments in other health systems warrant further study.
PIK3CA Mutation Is Associated With Poor Prognosis Among Patients With Curatively Resected Colon Cancer
Authors: Ogino Shuji , Nosho Katsuhiko , Kirkner Gregory J. , Shima Kaori , Irahara Natsumi , Kure Shoko , Chan Andrew T. , Engelman Jeffrey A. , Kraft Peter , Cantley Lewis C. , Giovannucci Edward L. , Fuchs Charles S.
Published: February 2009

Purpose

PIK3CA mutation and subsequent activation of the AKT pathway play an important role in colorectal carcinogenesis. However, little is known about the prognostic role of PIK3CA mutation in colon cancer.

Patients and Methods

Using 450 resectable colon cancers (stage I to III) in two independent prospective cohorts, we detected PIK3CA mutation in 82 tumors (18%) by pyrosequencing. Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) of colon cancer–specific and overall mortalities, adjusted for patient characteristics and tumoral molecular features, including the CpG island methylation phenotype, microsatellite instability (MSI), LINE-1 hypomethylation, and p53, CIMP, KRAS and BRAF mutation.

Results

Compared with patients with PIK3CA wild-type tumors, those with PIK3CA-mutated tumors experienced an increase in colon cancer–specific mortality according to univariate analysis (HR = 1.64; 95% CI, 0.95 to 2.86), which persisted after adjusting for other known or potential risk factors for cancer recurrence (including MSI; multivariate HR = 2.23; 95% CI, 1.21 to 4.11). The effect of PIK3CA mutation on cancer survival seemed to differ according to KRAS mutational status. Among patients with KRAS wild-type tumors, the presence of PIK3CA mutation was associated with a significant increase in colon cancer–specific mortality (HR = 3.80; 95% CI, 1.56 to 9.27). In contrast, PIK3CA mutation conferred no significant effect on mortality among patients with KRAS-mutated tumors (HR = 1.25; 95% CI, 0.52 to 2.96).

Conclusion

Among patients who undergo a curative resection of colon cancer, PIK3CA mutation is associated with shorter cancer-specific survival. The adverse effect of PIK3CA mutation may be potentially limited to patients with KRAS wild-type tumors.
Stopping or Reporting Early for Positive Results in Randomized Clinical Trials: The National Cancer Institute Cooperative Group Experience From 1990 to 2005
Authors: Korn Edward L. , Freidlin Boris , Mooney Margaret
Published: February 2009

Randomized clinical trials are designed with stopping boundaries to guide data monitoring committees with their decision making concerning ongoing trials. In particular, when extremely positive results are seen and a boundary is crossed, the data monitoring committee may recommend releasing the results earlier to the public than at the definitive final analysis time specified in the protocol. For trials that are still accruing, this also means stopping accrual. Because the information about treatment efficacy is more limited in an early analysis than in a final analysis, questions have been raised about the appropriateness of incorporating early stopping for positive results in trial designs. In particular, there are concerns that treatment effects seen early may not be real or may be overly optimistic. To examine this issue, we collected information about treatment efficacy on National Cancer Institute Cooperative Group trials that were stopped early for positive results (information both at the time the trial was stopped/released and at times of further follow-up). Twenty-seven such trials were located. For 17 of 18 of these trials with sufficient follow-up information, the treatment effect was similar or only slightly smaller at last follow-up compared with the stopping/release time. We critically evaluate reasons why one might be concerned about early stopping for positive results. We conclude that for trials with well-designed interim monitoring plans, the ability to stop early for positive results is an important component of the trial design, allowing the public to benefit as soon as possible from the study conclusions.
Significant Associations of Mismatch Repair Gene Polymorphisms With Clinical Outcome of Pancreatic Cancer
Authors: Dong Xiaoqun , Jiao Li , Li Yanan , Evans Douglas B. , Wang Huamin , Hess Kenneth R. , Abbruzzese James L. , Li Donghui
Published: February 2009

Purpose

DNA mismatch repair (MMR) is critical in maintaining genomic stability and may modulate the cellular response to gemcitabine. We hypothesized that genetic variations in MMR may affect the clinical outcome of patients with pancreatic cancer.

Patients and Methods

We evaluated 15 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of eight MMR genes in 154 patients with potentially resectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma who were enrolled onto phase II clinical trials for preoperative gemcitabine-based chemoradiotherapy from 1999 to 2006. Associations of genotypes with tumor response to therapy (change of tumor size by radiologic evaluation at restaging), margin-negative tumor resection, and overall survival were evaluated using logistic regression and Cox proportional regression models.

Results

Five, six, and 10 genotypes were significantly associated with tumor response to preoperative chemoradiotherapy, tumor resectability, and overall survival, respectively, in univariable analysis. TREX1 EX14-460C>T and TP73 Ex2+4G>A genotypes remained as significant predictors for tumor response, MLH1 IVS12-169C>T and TP73 remained as significant predictors for tumor resectability, and EXO1 R354H, TREX1, and TP73 remained as significant predictors for overall survival in multivariable models that included all clinical factors and genotypes examined. A strong combined genotype effect on each clinical end point was observed. For example, 20 of the 25 patients with zero to one adverse genotypes were alive, those with two, three, four, five, and six to seven adverse genotypes had median survival times of 36.2, 23.9, 16.3, 13.0, and 8.3 months, respectively (P < .001).

Conclusion

SNPs of MMR genes have a potential value as predictors for clinical response to chemoradiotherapy and as prognostic markers for tumor resectability and overall survival of patients with resectable pancreatic cancer.
Renewing the Ado: Blau and Beckett
Authors: Phelan Peggy
Published: February 2009

Proceeding from a reading of Herbert Blau's “Universals of Performance” and his work on Beckett, Phelan offers an appreciation of Blau's dedication to performance, as fact, as theme, and as manifestation of love's everyday ado.
Drama, Primitive Ritual, Ethnographic Spectacle: Genealogies of World Performance (ca. 1890 – 1910)
Authors: Peters Julie Stone
Published: February 2009

This essay attempts to offer a thick history of the turn-of-the-century ritual idea while identifying its relationship to a nexus of formations crucial to ideas about drama and to a variety of performance practices in the twentieth century. In the 1890s works on myth and ritual in comparative religion posed a challenge to the dominant linear and evolutionary historiography of the human, at the same time placing the global primitive at the center of the idea of culture. Advocating a utilitarian theory of art (challenging the Kantian autotelic definition), the period's numerous studies of primitive aesthetics identified drama as the primal art form. The definition of drama, in its newly primitivist guise, expanded to include dance, narration with gesture, and indeed ritual itself. The new attention to ritual coincided with larger shifts in anthropological methodology, captured in the turn to fieldwork (local, presentist, firsthand, thickly descriptive). By reading ritual in these terms, anthropologists could recognize in it a distillation of culture. Early ethnographic film, preoccupied with native dance and ceremony, similarly treated performance as a text for the reading of culture. At the same time, primitive dance and ceremony served in such films as metonymies for the living yet evanescent primitive, whose culture film was to capture before it might disappear forever. Like ethnographic film, the ethnographic exhibit (in the World's Fair and elsewhere) gave primitive performance a central place: in its competing historiographical narratives and in its overarching representation of the performance of culture. For all of these phenomena, primitive performance stood for a set of countermodern and anti-aesthetic attitudes, signifying the modern as the premodern, the global as the local, the mediatized as the live, and the hyperreal as the real. These formations had profound ramifications for modernist aesthetics, for conceptions of world theater and performance in the twentieth-century academy, and for what ultimately became the global mass-culture entertainment industry.
“Unpath'd waters, undream'd shores”: Herbert Blau, Performing Doubles, and the Makeup of Memory in The Winter's Tale
Authors: Roach Joseph
Published: February 2009

Performance and memory share a practice of disguise best described by the word surrogation. Surrogation occurs when more or less plausible substitutes appear in place of the dead, the fugitive, or the banished. Properly disguised, persons can even stand in as surrogates for themselves. Shakespeare's Winter's Tale and Herbert Blau's most Shakespearean essay, “The Makeup of Memory in the Winter of Our Discontent” from The Eye of Prey, elucidate the form and function of surrogation by their reliance on doubles. A venerable tactic of dramatists and producers throughout theatrical history, doubling can mean either standing in for another actor (as in the case of a stunt double) or taking more than one part in the same performance: the first conjoins (two actors on one mask); the second bifurcates (two masks on one actor). Both kinds of doubling figure in the production history of The Winter's Tale and in the makeup of memory as illuminated by Blau. They activate the process of surrogation, which can be seen working in myth and ritual at the supposed origins of theater and in the particular experience of a life devoted to the making of theater and the explication its meanings.
Mexican Theater History and Its Discontents: Politics, Performance, and History in Mexico
Authors: Ybarra Patricia
Published: February 2009

This essay suggests that the erasure of such nineteenth-century works as Alfredo Chavero's Quetzalcóatl from mainstream Mexican theater histories has diminished the importance of theater as a mode of nation-building historiography even as national textbooks and archaeological developments have come to the fore. It also claims that reimagining theater as a form of performance pedagogy is an important step for scholars in the field to take. Ultimately, this essay reveals not merely that Mexican politics are theatrical, or that the theater has served the Mexican state, but that the architects of the Mexican nation thought theatrically from the start.
Brett Bailey and Third World Bunfight
Authors: Larlham Daniel
Published: February 2009

In this profile, Daniel Larlham places controversial South African theater director Brett Bailey's recent works, including Ipi Zombi?, iMumbo Jumbo, and Big Dada, in the context of contemporary South African theater and politics. He describes Bailey's strategies of cultural appropriation and “celebration,” audience responses to them, and his evolving approaches to theater and society.
Nothing to Do with Patience
Authors: Thalheimer Michael
Published: February 2009

In this interview, theater scholar Jonathan Kalb and acclaimed German director Michael Thalheimer discuss Thalheimer's radically stripped-down approach to canonical dramatic texts, with reference to several recent productions, including Liliom, The Oresteia, Emilia Galotti, Faust I, Faust II, and Lulu.
Strange Times
Authors: Washburn Anne , Kauffman Anne
Published: February 2009

Interviewed by Alex Grennan
Oogenesis defects in a mutant mouse model of oculodentodigital dysplasia
Authors: Tong Dan , Colley Deanne , Thoo Renee , Li Tony Y. , Plante Isabelle , Laird Dale W. , Bai Donglin , Kidder Gerald M.
Published: February 2009

The essential role of connexin43 (Cx43) during oogenesis has been demonstrated by the severe germ cell deficiency and arrested folliculogenesis observed in Cx43 knockout mice. Recently, another mutant mouse strain became available (Gja1Jrt/+) that carries the dominant loss-of-function Cx43 mutation, Cx43G60S. Gja1Jrt/+ mice display features of the human disease oculodentodigital dysplasia (ODDD), which is caused by mutations in the GJA1 gene. We used this new mutant strain to study how a disease-linked Cx43 mutant affects oogenesis. We found that female mutant mice are subfertile with significantly reduced mating success and small litters. The phosphorylated species of the Cx43 protein are reduced in the mutant ovaries in association with impaired trafficking and assembly of gap junctions in the membranes of granulosa cells, confirming that the mutant protein acts dominantly on its wild-type counterpart. Correspondingly, although starting with a normal abundance of germ cells, ovaries of the mutant mice contain significantly fewer pre-ovulatory follicles and do not respond to superovulation by gonadotropins, which is at least partially the result of reduced proliferation and increased apoptosis of granulosa cells. We conclude that the Gja1Jrt mutation has a dominant negative effect on Cx43 function in the ovary, rendering the females subfertile. Given these findings, closer examination of reproductive function in ODDD human females is warranted.
Human embryonic stem cell-derived motor neurons expressing SOD1 mutants exhibit typical signs of motor neuron degeneration linked to ALS
Authors: Karumbayaram Saravanan , Kelly Theresa K. , Paucar Andres A. , Roe Anne J. T. , Umbach Joy A. , Charles Andrew , Goldman Steven A. , Kornblum Harley I. , Wiedau-Pazos Martina
Published: February 2009

Human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived neurons have the potential to model neurodegenerative disorders. Here, we demonstrate the expression of a mutant gene, superoxide dismutase 1(SOD1), linked to familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in hESC-derived motor neurons. Green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression under the control of the HB9 enhancer was used to identify SOD1-transfected motor neurons that express human wild-type SOD1 or one of three different mutants (G93A, A4V and I113T) of SOD1. Neurons transfected with mutant SOD1 exhibited reduced cell survival and shortened axonal processes as compared with control-transfected cells, which could survive for 3 weeks or more. The results indicate that hESC-derived cell populations can be directed to express disease-relevant genes and to display characteristics of the disease-specific cell type. These genetically manipulated hESC-derived motor neurons can facilitate and advance the study of disease-specific cellular pathways, and serve as a model system to test new therapeutic approaches.
Esulatin G, a Novel Nor-diterpenoid from Euphorbia esula
Authors: Wang Yu-Bo , Wang Hong-Bing , Ji Ping , Guo Jie , Jin Hui-Zi , Qin Guo-Wei
Published: February 2009

From aerial parts of Euphorbia esula esulatin G (1), a novel norparaliane diterpenoid, together with its biosynthetic precursor 5,8,14-triacetoxy-3-benzoyloxy-15-hydroxy-9-oxoparaliane (2) was isolated. Their structures were determined by extensive spectroscopic analysis (IR, MS, NMR, and X-ray diffraction).
Gel-hydrothermal Preparation of Hollow CoFe2O4 Nanospheres and Their Properties
Authors: Chen Lingyun , Zhao Chenglan , Bai Junfeng
Published: February 2009

Hollow CoFe2O4 nanospheres were successfully prepared through hydrothermal decomposition of a gel of Co–Fe–glycol in solution. The products have average diameters of ca. 80 nm with a Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area of about 76.5 m2·g−1, exhibiting low saturation magnetization and high coercivity.
Rumphellolide I, a Novel Caryophyllane-related Tetrahydropyran Norsesquiterpenoid from Gorgonian Coral Rumphella antipathies
Authors: Sung Ping-Jyun , Su Yin-Di , Hwang Tsong-Long , Chuang Li-Fan , Chung Hsu-Ming , Chen Jih-Jung , Li Jan-Jung , Fang Lee-Shing , Wang Wei-Hsien
Published: February 2009

A novel caryophyllane-related norsesquiterpenoid, rumphellolide I (1), which possessing an unprecedented cyclic ether bridge between C-4 and C-8, was isolated from the gorgonian coral Rumphella antipathies. The structure of 1 was established by spectral data analysis and this compound showed moderate inhibitory effects on elastase release by human neutrophils.
Sensitive Detection of Hydroxyl Radical Production in Ultrasonic Field with an Electrochemiluminescence Optical Sensor
Authors: Jin Jiye , Kumeta Hiroaki , Takahashi Fumiki , Asakura Yoshiyuki
Published: February 2009

A new method of cavitation diagnostics with an electrochemiluminescence (ECL) optical sensor is described for study of the hydroxyl radical production by ultrasonic cavitation. Because of the high sensitivity of this method, it is possible to measure the sonochemical activity in situ, so as to obtain spatial distribution of the cavitation zone in the ultrasound field.
Predicting structures and stabilities for H-type pseudoknots with interhelix loops
Authors: Cao Song , Chen Shi-Jie
Published: February 2009

RNA pseudoknots play a critical role in RNA-related biology from the assembly of ribosome to the regulation of viral gene expression. A predictive model for pseudoknot structure and stability is essential for understanding and designing RNA structure and function. A previous statistical mechanical theory allows us to treat canonical H-type RNA pseudoknots that contain no intervening loop between the helices (see S. Cao and S.J. Chen [2006] in Nucleic Acids Research, Vol. 34; pp. 2634–2652). Biologically significant RNA pseudoknots often contain interhelix loops. Predicting the structure and stability for such more-general pseudoknots remains an unsolved problem. In the present study, we develop a predictive model for pseudoknots with interhelix loops. The model gives conformational entropy, stability, and the free-energy landscape from RNA sequences. The main features of this new model are the computation of the conformational entropy and folding free-energy base on the complete conformational ensemble and rigorous treatment for the excluded volume effects. Extensive tests for the structural predictions show overall good accuracy with average sensitivity and specificity equal to 0.91 and 0.91, respectively. The theory developed here may be a solid starting point for first-principles modeling of more complex, larger RNAs.
Children's reasoning about evaluative feedback
Authors: Heyman Gail D. , Fu Genyue , Sweet Monica A. , Lee Kang
Published: February 2009

Children's reasoning about the willingness of peers to convey accurate positive and negative performance feedback to others was investigated among a total of 179 6‐ to 11‐year‐olds from the USA and China. In Study 1, which was conducted in the USA only, participants responded that peers would be more likely to provide positive feedback than negative feedback, and this tendency was strongest among the younger children. In Study 2, the expectation that peers would preferentially disclose positive feedback was replicated among children from the USA, and was also seen among younger but not older children from China. Participants in all groups took the relationship between communication partners into account when predicting whether peers would express evaluative feedback. Results of open‐ended responses suggested cross‐cultural differences, including a greater emphasis by Chinese children on the implications of evaluative feedback for future performance, and reference by some older Chinese children to the possibility that positive feedback might make the recipient ‘too proud’.
Mature Teenagers and Medical Intervention Revisited: A Right to Consent, a Wrong to Refuse
Authors: Heywood Rob
Published: February 2009

This article revisits the issue of adolescent autonomy. It explores the differences between consent and refusal and analyses the problems which are encountered when age is used as the sole factor in delineating important legal rights. The paper explores why the law has developed in the way it has, highlights the consequences of the gulf which may exist between the law in theory and medicine in practice, and assesses the current status of the policy considerations which underpin the law regarding adolescents' right to consent on one hand, and the parallel right of refusal on the other.
Increasing Legal Certainty in the European SEA Directive: A Much-Needed List Approach to Specifying Types of Plans and Programmes
Authors: Gao Anton Ming-Zhi
Published: February 2009

The European Directive on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) provides three approaches to implementation in Member States, i.e. a case-by-case approach, a list approach, and a mixed approach. However, the European Commission appears unwilling to develop the latter two approaches, which may make the SEA Directive's scope unclear and create legal uncertainty. The aims of this article are to point out the weaknesses of the current case-by-case approach and to advocate a much clearer but underdeveloped approach, i.e. the list approach. To this end, the article will explore the issue of legal certainty in the SEA Directive, identify and resolve the challenges involved in a list approach, and finally present a step-by-step guide to developing such an approach.
Governance Instruments That Protect Children's Environmental Health: Is Enough Being Done?
Authors: Spady Donald , Ries Nola , Ladd Brian D. , Buka Irena , Osornio-Vargas Alvaro Roman , Soskolne Colin L.
Published: February 2009

We describe our efforts to find and assess governance instruments: laws, regulations, guidelines, addressing specifically the issue of children's environmental health in OECD countries in the European Union (EU) and in the United States of America (US). The ultimate purpose is to inform policy that will further Canada's commitment to children's environmental health.

Among governance instruments found, most EU country governance instruments duplicated EU Directives; American governance instruments were found at both the federal and state level. With a few clear exceptions, the effects of environmental agents on the child have not been considered specifically in those OECD governance instruments that address environmental health concerns. We found multiple governance instruments with a clear children's environmental health focus, but little emphasis on the uniqueness of children. We also found laws not specifically addressing children in the text, but which clearly involved concern for child health. Some legislation was impeded because of scientific uncertainty, which, on occasion, appeared to be industry-driven. The precautionary principle appeared to be applied most frequently in European legislation. We conclude that children's environmental health is not well-addressed for the majority of laws relating to the environment.
The Russian Regime for Subsoil Use, Energy and Environmental Policy in the High North
Authors: Svendsen Kristoffer
Published: February 2009

As the demand for energy is increasing rapidly more and more energy companies are exploring and investing in unstable regions and challenging climatic areas to secure supply of oil and gas. Russia is a country with a challenging climate and is rich in natural resources.
Weaknesses of Adjudication in the Face of Secret Evidence
Authors: Van Harten Gus
Published: February 2009

Since 2001, governments in Canada and the United Kingdom appear to have increasingly sought to use secret evidence in proceedings against individuals suspected of posing a security threat, relying on the courts to review and legitimate executive claims in closed proceedings. Yet, in the face of secret evidence, adjudicative decision-making is subject to several extraordinary weaknesses. First, the judge is precluded from hearing additional information that can come to light only if the individual or the public is aware of the executive's claims. Secondly, courts are uniquely reliant on the executive to be fair and forthcoming about confidential information and to characterise accurately the case for secrecy. Thirdly, the dynamic or atmosphere of closed proceedings may condition a judge to favour unduly the security interest over priorities of accuracy and fairness. Even where the use of secret evidence is not deemed to be irreparably unsafe or unfair, therefore, its admissibility must be premised on the acknowledgement and careful consideration of corresponding weaknesses in adjudication.
What Use Insanity?
Authors: Bain Andy , Thomas Megan
Published: February 2009

This short article looks to consider the use of punishment for those offenders suffering with a mental health issue and the particular difficulties inherent in a system that has little in the way of secure social provision (RCP, 2004). Particular attention is paid to the use of imprisonment, where clear guidance exists in the Mental Health Act 1983 for the diversion of such offenders from custody at the earliest opportunity. The article will consider the historic and current debate surrounding the role and use of capital punishment, looking to examples from within the United Kingdom and in the contemporary United States of America. Finally, the discussion will make reference to the argument of a moral panic (Cohen, 2002), which leads to a political and social discourse, and the media contribution to the debate of a return for capital punishment.
Managing Criminal Organisations
Authors: Gottschalk Petter
Published: February 2009

To fight organised crime, there is a need to understand criminal organisations. In this conceptual research paper, terminology from business and management literature is applied to the growing area of organised crime. Rather than thinking of organised crimes as acts of criminals, this paper suggests an understanding of criminal organisations similar to non-criminal organisations. It explores the feasibility of utilising a range of organisational and managerial literature to understand organised crime by formulating research propositions for future empirical study.
The Interaction between a Neighbourhood's Racial Composition and Officer Race in Community Policing: A Case Study from the Residential Area Policing Programme (RAPP), Cleveland, Ohio
Authors: Ammar Nawal , Kessler David , Kratcoski Peter
Published: February 2009

This study explores whether there is a relationship between police officers' race and a neighbourhood's racial composition on the latter's community policing experience. The paper analyses responses from in-depth interviews with police officers from the Residential Area Policing Programme (RAPP), a community policing programme carried out in four neighbourhoods in Cleveland, Ohio. The measurement of the officers' experiences with RAPP is based on four questions focusing on the officers' attitudes, perceptions and observations vis-à-vis the neighbourhood, the residents' reactions to the programme and to the officers, and the impact of the programme on the neighbourhood's crime rates. The results show that for RAPP there was no relationship between the officers' race and the neighbourhood's racial composition on the individual officer's positive or negative experience with RAPP. However, the results illustrated how officers as racial groups experienced RAPP differently. The results also conveyed in a preliminary way that male officers experienced RAPP differently from female officers. Further research on the interaction between a neighbourhood's racial composition and officer race within a community policing context is needed to establish generalisability as well as the effect of gender on the community policing experience.
A Novel Approach to Maximising the Detection of Volume Crime with DNA and Fingerprints
Authors: Bond John W. , Sheridan Lorraine
Published: February 2009

Decisions concerning which volume crime scenes (such as burglary and autocrime) to examine for forensic material continue to have a significant impact on the detection of these crime types by forensic evidence such as DNA or fingerprints. Previous work has indicated that crime scene attendance by a crime scene examiner (CSE) should be influenced by the likely evidential value of any material recovered from the crime scene rather than focusing attendance on specific crime types. In this paper, we challenge that argument by assessing first the forensic detections obtained from volume crime types over a three-year period in a study police force in England. We then show how a realignment of CSE deployment to crime types that offer the highest potential to detect the crime forensically produced statistically significant increases in the percentage of recorded crime detected. We examine this realignment against the national picture for CSE attendance and forensic crime detection in England and Wales and show how other police forces might benefit from a similar realignment of CSE deployment. Finally, we consider the possible effect on the general public's fear of crime that such a realignment of CSE deployment might have.
Field Supervisor Behaviour and Officer on Duty Personal Business
Authors: Johnson Richard R.
Published: February 2009

Police patrol officers generally operate with little direct supervision of their work activities, enabling them to abuse their unassigned patrol time by engaging in personal business actions. The present study sought to measure the influences of supervisor modelling and supervisor contact on the amount of time which patrol officers spent on their own personal business-related activities. The findings suggest that the less time supervisors spent on personal business, the less time officers also spent on these types of activities. The findings also suggest that the more face-to-face contact supervisors had with their subordinate officers in the field, the less time these officers spent on personal business. Finally, the degree of influence face-to-face contacts and supervisor modelling had on patrol officers was limited.
Mandatory Arrest: Loosely Coupled Organisations, Situational Variables, and the Arrest Decision
Authors: Phillips Scott W.
Published: February 2009

Police officer decision-making is thought to be a function of organisation size and situational variables. Large organisations are assumed to have gaps between administrators and street-level workers, allowing officers in large agencies to exercise discretion in their decision-making, whereas officers in small agencies are closely connected to, and more easily monitored by, administrators. Situational variables are the legal and extralegal aspects of an incident that might influence decision-making. Loose-coupling theory provides a framework to examine the impact of organisation size on officer decision-making. This study examined the arrest decisions of officers when handling domestic violence incidents. A factorial research design integrated four situational variables into vignettes describing a domestic violence incident. Police officers in four departments, one large and three small, indicated the likelihood of making an arrest based on cases described in the vignettes. 917 vignettes were analysed, with results showing that most officers would arrest the offender. Victim injury, an order of protection, a victim's preference for an arrest, and an uncooperative offender were significant in the arrest decision. Agency size, however, was not significant in the arrest decision. The impacts of the findings are discussed, as is the utility of loose-coupling theory.
Tourism Oriented Policing: An Examination of a Florida/Caribbean Partnership for Police Training
Authors: Wolf Ross
Published: February 2009

A partnership was created in late 2000 between the University of Central Florida (UCF), the Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association (SLHTA), the government of Saint Lucia, and the private tourism corporations of the island of Saint Lucia. This alliance has provided unprecedented police training in tourism oriented policing. This training focuses on ways governments and police agencies can promote the image of a safe environment to promote a strong tourism economy. The fundamental drive behind the training has been to enhance the skills of police and security personnel in dealing with criminal activity in tourism environments. This paper examines the concept and principles of tourism oriented policing, and creates a template for future programmes and initiatives designed to promote a safe tourism environment to promote economic vitality.
The Gendarmerie Alternative: Is There a Case for the Existence of Police Organisations with Military Status in the Twenty-First Century European Security Apparatus?
Authors: Gobinet Pierre
Published: February 2009

Historical literature traditionally assimilates gendarmerie forces with old-fashioned, centralised, colonial, or totalitarian regimes. Similarly, the media and much of the current academic literature seem to consider the gendarmerie model as antiquated, and unable to meet the demands of public accountability or human rights compliance associated with modern democratic policing. How then can France, Italy or the Netherlands still reasonably promote it as a credible policing alternative? Gendarmeries receive very little attention from the Anglo-American criminal justice community. On closer inspection however, it appears that gendarmeries are tasked to perform public order, riot control and criminal police duties in many European democracies. This unique association of military semantics and civilian police tasks symbolises the modern gendarmerie concept, which can provide a substantial added value with public, specialised and professional police units. This critical analysis of the existing literature examines how gendarmeries are viewed by the English-speaking academic community, and most importantly, why this perception has become flawed. One of the lead arguments is that the terminology habitually used to describe the gendarmerie model, because it wrongly suggests a persistent functional discrepancy between these forces and their civilian counterparts found for instance in common-law countries, actually conceals the fact that gendarmeries have become important actors on the European policing scene. The study singles out arguments which demonstrate that police forces bearing a military status present useful credentials to promote the liberal-democratic policing ideal in twenty-first century Europe.
Policing Young Offenders: What Role Discretion?
Authors: Parker Ann L. , Sarre Rick
Published: February 2009

Although police exercise wide discretionary powers when carrying out their general patrol duties, it is with respect to young people that these powers are the most extensive. The present research examines some of the factors that influence the use of police discretionary powers with young offenders. Over 220 sworn police officers from New South Wales Police responded to written surveys about the way in which they routinely dealt with, or planned to deal with, four offences commonly committed by juvenile offenders. Results show that police behaviour towards the same offending may vary greatly, particularly in relation to minor offences. This is not particularly surprising, given the plethora of discretionary and diversionary options that have been introduced into Australian juvenile justice and policing legislation in the last decade. The purpose of giving these options was to provide police with greater scope to accommodate individual differences in offenders. An unintended consequence of this change, however, has been greater unpredictability of outcome. Given that there is a broad range of police officer typologies as well, a young person's experience with the law, especially in relation to minor offending, is becoming more ‘lottery’-like.
The Best Police Force in the World Will Not Bring down a High Crime Rate in a Materialistic Society
Authors: Teh Yik Koon
Published: February 2009

The increasing crime rate in a rapidly developing country like Malaysia has caused its citizens to feel unsafe. The Malaysian Government has to increase the police force and review its training programmes. This paper argues that even with the best trained police force, the crime rate will remain high. This is due to the highly capitalistic and materialistic culture of the Malaysian society that has led to the occurrence of elements of Robert Merton's (1938) theory of Anomie — excessive emphasis on monetary goals regardless of the moral status of the means used to achieve them. Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld's (2001) Institutional-Anomie theory states that anomic pressure arises when there is an overemphasis on the market ethic that undermines the regulatory power of social norms. This results in individuals feeling an overriding pressure to achieve and at the same time being confronted with weak normative restraints on legitimate means to achieve. The two theories suggest that certain cultural conditions, in combination with certain structural conditions, generate anomie and a high crime rate. At present, Malaysia's capitalistic and materialistic culture has generated cultural and structural conditions that are highly conducive to a high crime rate. Increasing the police force and improving policing will not be enough to reduce the high crime rate.
Policing, Procedural Fairness and Public Behaviour: A Review and Critique
Authors: Tankebe Justice
Published: February 2009

This paper provides a brief review and critique of the procedural fairness conception of police legitimacy. It is argued that the theoretical framework is too limited to constitute the basis for any overall legitimacy-based model of policing. Rather, its potential stands to be greatly enhanced if it incorporates other crucial variables such as the role of police self-legitimating activities in shaping police treatment of the public, and the contexts in which procedural fairness and outcome issues are singularly or collectively influential. It is also argued that, while it is well and good if procedural fairness enhances the quality of public compliance and cooperation with the police, it is unhealthy if procedural fairness is taken seriously only for its utilitarian value. Procedural fairness, and by extension police legitimacy, must be pursued as something of intrinsic value, a good in and of itself; treating people fairly should not be an issue of choice contingent simply on demonstrable evidence of the facilitation of the task of the police in maintaining order.
Perceptions of Police and Policing in a Rural County of England
Authors: Mawby R.I.
Published: February 2009

Crime and disorder audits provide the opportunity to identify and address the concerns local people express about local policing. This paper discusses the findings of the 2001 and 2004 Cornwall Crime Surveys (CCSs) and identifies public perceptions of police and policing in the county. The 2004 survey is used to compare those holding more favourable views with those who are critical of the police. The findings are then used to test the hypothesis that those who are more critical of the public police will be more positive about plural policing alternatives. The findings indicate that rural residents' concerns over public safety are accentuated by their concerns that the police in Cornwall are less accessible than those in urban areas and they are generally supportive of increasing the policing mix. However, they clearly see improvements to the public police as the preferred solution.
Public Satisfaction with Police: The Influence of General Attitudes and Police-Citizen Encounters
Authors: Hinds Lyn
Published: February 2009

This paper explores the influence of people's general attitudes and experiences from contact with police (both citizen-initiated and police-initiated) on public satisfaction with police in Australia. Findings support research from US-based studies about the relationship between dissatisfaction with police encounters and lower public satisfaction with police. Satisfaction from citizen-initiated contact with police was found to explain the largest amount of public satisfaction with police. Three factors were, however, more influential than police contact in shaping public satisfaction with police: people's views of police performance, police legitimacy and police use of procedural justice. Implications for policing policy are discussed.
Validation of the Stalking Assessment and Management Checklist (SAM) in Law Enforcement: A Prospective Study of 153 Cases of Stalking in Two Swedish Police Counties
Authors: Belfrage Henrik , Strand Susanne
Published: February 2009

The overall aim of this study was to test the validity and the practical usefulness of the Stalking Assessment and Management checklist (SAM) within the police. Police officers in two police counties in Sweden were trained in using the Stalking Assessment and Management checklist (Kropp, Hart, & Lyon, 2007) in real-life cases of reported stalking during the period May 2005 to December 2006 (N = 230). Results showed that the SAM was easy to code for the police, since there were very few cases of missing information coded by the police. Most importantly, the validity of the SAM was found to be very strong in terms of a strong correlation between factors included in the SAM and the degree of risk assessed by the police officers. The more SAM risk factors coded by the police officers concerning the alleged perpetrators, the higher the risk assessed for repeated stalking and violence. The same results were found concerning victim vulnerability factors. Those victims that were assessed to be at higher risk than others generally had more of the SAM victim vulnerability factors. We conclude that the SAM seems to be a valid and useful tool for use by law enforcement professionals in cases of alleged stalking.