bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Modeling Failure Interaction in Notched Cross-ply Laminates
Authors: Liu C.J. , Nijhof A.H.J. , Ernst L.J. , Marissen R.
Published: September 2008

Notches accelerate the initiation and the growth of the matrix-dominated damage in composites. Different forms of matrix-dominated damage are observed in a notched cross-ply laminate, where transverse cracks (TC), notch-induced splits (NIS), and notch-induced delaminations (NID) occur simultaneously. These matrix-dominated damage systems, particularly NIS and NID, interact with each other and are important mechanisms for the failure process of a notched cross-ply laminate. In this article, a progressive failure approach is proposed and it is used to model the NIS growth in cross-ply laminates under the influence of other forms of matrix failure, transverse cracks (TC), and notch-induced delamination (NID). The numerical results indicate that a strong interaction effect does exist, which is obviously indicated by the NIS growth rates under different combined damage cases. As one of the most important results, the present modeling approach leads to a better understanding of the failure mechanisms of notched composite laminates. The numerical estimation of the NIS growth shows a good agreement with the experimental observations.
Crossroads
Authors: Rue Victoria
Published: September 2008

Since 2002 Catholic women have been ordained and are ministering to communities through the organization Roman Catholic womenpriests (RCWP). In this article, Victoria Rue, PhD, ordained a womanpriest in 2005, reflects on ecclesial structures and the theologies that underpin them. RCWP uses the titles deacon, priest, and bishop. At the same time they do not wish to replicate the hierarchical model those titles suggest. At this crossroads of the old and the new, how do the women of RCWP redefine these models and their attendant theologies and still stay within the Roman Catholic Church?
The Construction of Masculinities and Femininities in the Church of England: The Case of the Male Clergy Spouse
Authors: Page Sarah-Jane
Published: September 2008

The ordination of women to the priesthood in the Church of England in 1994 signified great change. The impact of the new priests was well documented, and their integration became the focus of much research in the following years. One important area of change was the altered dynamics of gender identity. New roles had opened up for women, but new identities had also emerged for men. While women priests were a new historical emergence, so too were clergy husbands. This paper will consider the historical construction of masculinities and femininities within the church and will go on to look at this in the context of clergy spouses, specifically focusing on men occupying this role. Some provisional findings, acting as work in progress, will be considered.
Because They're Worth It! Making Room for Female Students and Thealogy in Higher Education Contexts
Authors: Guest Deryn
Published: September 2008

This paper is the result of teaching a thealogy module to a class of Honours level undergraduates. Critical reflection upon this experience and the students' evaluations of the module, raises intriguing questions concerning the value of women-only space, how one can establish a feminist classroom within a British Higher Education context, writing educational learning outcomes for a thealogy module which might include the hope of personal transformation, and ultimately reflection upon my role as an educator at the University of Birmingham.
Re-telling the Story of Jesus: The Concept of Embodiment and Recent Feminist Reflections on the Maleness of Christ
Authors: Baudzej Julia
Published: September 2008

This paper is an attempt to look at the concept of embodiment in relation to incarnation and the maleness of Christ. It explores how feminist authors continue a critical engagement with Christology trying to carry on the retelling of Jesus' story. It appears that embodiment might play a crucial role as feminist theology tries to theorize the maleness of Christ and to consider it positively. The paper suggests that engagement with the maleness of Christ as prophetic could be beneficial in a further search for symbolization of the divine through male and female bodies.
Infinite Potential
Authors: O'Loughlin Kathy
Published: September 2008

This piece was written for performance and might be best enjoyed read aloud. It was an imaginative exercise based on a kind of intertextuality— combining my own story with the story of the God of the Genesis creation stories. Thus God became a Mother who was experiencing some of the things that mothers of teenage children might experience. It is a sort of poem, following the style of the first creation story (Genesis 1) but also provides an explanation of why things are as they are, like the second creation story (Genesis 2—3). It was first read at a weekend conference on Ethics.
Thinking of the World as a Household: Questioning Myself about a Philosophical Experiment
Authors: Praetorius Ina
Published: September 2008

This article takes the form of an interview, in which the dialogue is internal. It is based on the author's experiment with the idea of the world as a household, which involves restoring household activities as free and independent activities. The author recollects earlier feminism's tendency to despise activities such as cooking and cleaning, because of their patriarchal inclusion in the stereotype of female dependency. She considers the household to be a fundamental human concept, which underlies lives and relationships, and is capable of providing viable alternatives to the independency/dependency structures of patriarchy, embodied in secondary models such as the market place.
Thinking Bioethics
Authors: Dhadda Baljit Kaur
Published: September 2008

This commentary reflects a broadly deconstructive reading of the relation of law, biotechnology and bioethics in shifting global, biotechnological contexts. I suggest that a reorganization of techno-scientific capital has altered forms of representation as well as mechanisms of expropriation and exploitation. I consider the bioethical implications of biotechnological inventions of living form that have redefined classical categories of thought, the sites of political representation and identity as well as the language of modern law, ethics and politics. I proceed to comment on the globalization of intellectual property rights as an expression of the hegemony of modern law.
Self-contained Bioethics and the Politics of Legal Prohibition
Authors: Lezaun Javier
Published: September 2008

Law and bioethics have traditionally expressed an elective affinity. Bioethics has often spoken “in the language of the law,” or at least in a pidgin that the law can easily understand, and bioethicists have conceptualized their principles and arguments in ways that make them amenable to legal translation. However, there has always been a tradition of bioethical reflection, what I describe as “self-contained bioethics,” that is deeply suspicious of its own readability to legal forms of interpretation; a tradition for which proximity to the law and a consideration of the actual circumstances of legal action compromises the purity of ethical inquiry.

The article examines the work of President Bush's Council on Bioethics on human cloning as an example of this type of bioethical inquiry. In its 2002 report “ Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry” the Council professed to keep specific legal and policy options at arm's length to better explore the ethical significance of the issues at stake without being “skewed” by considerations of practical expediency. The article compares the form of bioethical advice produced by the Council with the opinion on human cloning that its predecessor, the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC), issued in 1997. In NBAC's report the discussion of the paths of legal action was thoroughly and explicitly integrated into the moral analysis.

Ultimately, the President's Council resorted to the law, understood as an instrument of absolute prohibition, to translate its purified moral argument into social reality in the form of a ban or a moratorium. Yet, by not using legal considerations to focus and refine its bioethical inquiry, and instead resorting to the law merely as a tool of proscription, the Council guarantees that its advice remains as controversial in the short term as ineffective in the long run.
From Bioethics to Bio-optics: The Case of the Embryonic Stem Cell
Authors: Shai Lavi
Published: September 2008

The following paper calls for a shift of views from bioethics to bio-optics, from asking what we should do, to wondering about how things appear and are. It takes as a case study the stem cell controversy and juxtaposes its regulation in Israel and in the United States. As an ethical debate, the embryonic stem cell controversy is often cast as a dispute between liberals and conservatives, scientists and religious fundamentalists. From a bio-optical point of view, however, one may notice a surprising affinity between science and the most extreme religious groups.
Revitalizing Aristotle's Doctrine of Equity
Authors: Shanske Darien
Published: September 2008

This article argues for the contemporary relevance of Aristotle's doctrine of equity. Too often, similar arguments make this doctrine relevant by abstracting from the details of Aristotle's position or, conversely, fixating on details without due consideration of the epochal gap that separates us from Aristotle. After an initial survey of these limited approaches, the article proceeds to a more adequate account of Aristotle's doctrine of equity with the help of Heidegger. In particular, what Heidegger offers is a nuanced argument as to why Aristotle's manifest absorption in the concrete details of his face-to-face society is not a limitation to his doctrine, but a strength. We, no less than Aristotle, are enmeshed in logos, in a background ordering not at the command of our will, but we have a greater difficulty seeing this. Thus, where equity for Aristotle above all required expert engagement with logos, equity bids us first to acknowledge that the logos is.
Victorian Precedents: Narrative Form, Law Reports and Stare Decisis
Authors: Ben-Yishai Ayelet
Published: September 2008

Victorian-era law reports are often choppy or truncated, miserly in detail, and utterly lacking in character descriptions, creating what I have identified as an “anti-narrative” style. This article shows how the law reports use narrative conventions — often in counter-intuitive ways — to manifest the tension between a concrete case and the abstract rule which is its potential precedent. Incorporating a discussion of nineteenth-century theories of legal precedent and the history of common law reporting with a formal analysis, I contend that the insular “anti-narrative” form of the reports enables the communal nature and goal of precedential reasoning: the creation of a common law, dating from “time immemorial.” It also reveals a legal doctrine — and a narrative genre — in crisis.
“Slender Knowledge”: Sovereignty, Madness, and the Self in Shakespeare's King Lear
Authors: Harmon A.G.
Published: September 2008

In King Lear, the English law of madness, especially the aspects of testamentary devises, royal accession, waste, and plunder, is thematized in such a way that the conflict between civil order and savage nature is brought to the foreground. This dynamic overshadows, and to some extent disguises what truly lies at the heart of ancient Britain's woes: a deficit of ontological self-inquiry on the part of the sovereign and his royal retainer, Gloucester, from which all of the other complications ensue.
Dueling Tragedies: A Critical Read of the Lautenberg Story
Authors: Morgan Phoebe , Adelman Madelaine , Soli Stephen J.
Published: September 2008

Every law tells a story and some of the stories we tell become the law. Conceptualizing law as literature and taking a social science approach, we examine the dynamics of a storytelling contest between the National Network to End Domestic Violence and a coalition of law enforcement professional organizations regarding the most stringent federal gun control legislation in the United States — the 1997 Lautenberg Amendment. Relying upon qualitative content analysis, we discovered that contestants drew upon the same elements of classic tragedy to compose different stories. Our analysis compares the resources and experiences available to each coalition and examines how differences between them affected the stories told. We discuss the role that dueling tragedies play in public policy controversies and evaluate the implications our case study has for understanding the competition for legislation, storytelling research and the conceptualization of law as literature.
Measurement of thermal diffusivity at high pressures and temperatures using synchrotron radiography
Authors: Dobson D. P. , Hunt S. A. , Li L. , Weidner D.
Published: September 2008

A new method to measure thermal diffusivity in samples at simultaneous high pressure and high temperature is presented. The sample is placed inside a cylindrical heater and subjected to a heater power that varies sinusoidally with time. The diffusion of the temperature variations into the sample is monitored using radiographic imaging of marker foils. This provides measurements of the phase lag and amplitude variation of the temperature cycle at a range of radii from the sample axis without the need for multiple thermocouples. The technique is tested using a NaCl sample at 4 GPa; the best-fit thermal diffusivity for NaCl at 4 GPa and 673 K is 2.4±0.5x10-6 m2/s.
Three-dimensional Mesoporous TiKIT-6 with Ia3d Symmetry Synthesized at Low Acid Concentration and Its Catalytic Performances
Authors: Vinu Ajayan , Srinivasu Pavuluri , Balasubramanian Veerappan V , Ariga Katsuhiko , Mori Toshiyuki , Nemoto Yoshihiro
Published: September 2008

Here we report for the first time on the preparation of well-ordered titanium substituted KIT-6 at low acid concentration using polymeric surfactant. The characterization results show that the pore diameter and the unit cell constant of TiKIT-6 increase with increasing Ti incorporation. UV–vis results reveal that most of the Ti are in tetrahedral coordination. In addition, the materials showed higher activity in the epoxidation of styrene than TiSBA-15.
One-pot Synthesis of Indolino[2′,3′:1,2][60]fullerenes from Fullerene Epoxide: Lewis Acid-assisted Nucleophilic Addition Followed by Intramolecular Cyclization
Authors: Numata Youhei , Kawashima Jun-ichi , Hara Takumi , Tajima Yusuke
Published: September 2008

An efficient one-pot method for the synthesis of indolino[2′,3′:1,2][60]fullerene derivatives was developed, in which the formation and cyclization of a β-amino alcohol intermediate by the nucleophilic reaction of fullerene epoxide with aromatic amines was promoted in the presence of aprotic heterogeneous catalysts.
Low Melting and Electrochemically Stable Ionic Liquids Based on Asymmetric Fluorosulfonyl(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide
Authors: Matsumoto Hajime , Terasawa Naohiro , Umecky Tatsuya , Tsuzuki Seiji , Sakaebe Hikari , Asaka Kinji , Tatsumi Kuniaki
Published: September 2008

An asymmetric amide anion, FTA− {[(FSO2)(CF3SO2)N]−}, has a significant ability to reduce the melting points of an aliphatic quaternary ammonium salts even for a symmetric tetraethylammonium. Much more interestingly, the electrochemical stability of this anion was comparable to a typical amide anion, such as bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide.
Importance of the Order of Successive Catalyst-transfer Condensation Polymerization in the Synthesis of Block Copolymers of Polythiophene and Poly(p-phenylene)
Authors: Miyakoshi Ryo , Yokoyama Akihiro , Yokozawa Tsutomu
Published: September 2008

Successive catalyst-transfer condensation polymerization of a Grignard-type phenylene monomer and then a thiophene monomer with a Ni catalyst yields well-defined block copolymers of poly(p-phenylene) and polythiophene, but the reverse order of polymerization results in polymers with broad molecular weight distribution.
Polar and Low Viscosity Ionic Liquid Mixtures from Amino Acids
Authors: Kagimoto Junko , Noguchi Keiichi , Murata Kenichi , Fukumoto Kenta , Nakamura Nobuhumi , Ohno Hiroyuki
Published: September 2008

Amino acid ionic liquids, composed of tetrabutylphosphonium ([P4444]) cation and both asparagic acid ([Asp]) and lysine ([Lys]) anions, are polar and of low viscosity because of perturbation of the ordered Asp anion alignment.
A New Catch-and-release Purification Method Using a Levulinyl Group as a Tag and Its Application to Oligosaccharide Synthesis
Authors: Izumi Minoru , Okamoto Ritsu , Sato Mizuho , Nakajima Shuhei , Baba Naomichi , Fukase Koichi
Published: September 2008

Products possessing a levulinyl group were selectively isolated from reaction mixtures using a new resin-capture method and a polymer-supported aminooxy group. Successive treatment with NaOH in MeOH readily liberated purified products from the resins. Applications of this method to oligosaccharide syntheses are described.
CpCoI-mediated Diels–Alder Reaction Forming Dimeric 1,3-Dithiol-2-one Derivative with Spiro Structure and Successive Formation of Novel Cobalt Dithiolene Complex
Authors: Masui Tatsuya , Nomura Mitsushiro , Kobayashi Yusuke , Terada Kosuke , Fujita-Takayama Chikako , Sugiyama Toru , Kajitani Masatsugu
Published: September 2008

4,5-Bis(bromomethyl)-1,3-dithiol-2-one (1) reacts with CpCo(CO)2 (2) under thermal condition to undergo a debromination of 1 and to form dimeric 1,3-dithiol-2-one derivative having a spiro structure 3 by the [4 + 2] Diels–Alder reaction, and the resulted 3 further reacts with 2 to afford new CpCo(dithiolene) complex 4.
An Environmentally Friendly Electrolytic System Based on the Acid–Base Reaction between Water and Solid-supported Bases
Authors: Tajima Toshiki , Ishino Satomi , Kurihara Hitoshi
Published: September 2008

We have developed an environmentally friendly electrolytic system based on the acid–base reaction between water and solid-supported bases. Furthermore, we have successfully applied the electrolytic system to a flow cell.
Total Synthesis of Cytosaminomycin C
Authors: Sugimura Hideyuki , Watanabe Risa
Published: September 2008

The first synthesis of cytosaminomycin C has been accomplished by employing intramolecular glycosylation for the β-selective formation of the 2′-deoxyhexopyranosyl nucleoside part as a key reaction.
Integrating Excel, Access, and Visual Basic to Deploy Performance Measurement and Evaluation at the American Red Cross
Authors: Pasupathy Kalyan S. , Medina-Borja Alexandra
Published: September 2008

The American Red Cross (ARC) is one of the world's largest nonprofit social service organizations. ARC has a network of approximately 1,000 chapters in the United States and its territories; each is responsible for a specific geographic jurisdiction in which ARC provides an array of social services. ARC is under pressure to demonstrate to the public how it is responsible and accountable for the resources it uses to deliver these services and the outcomes it achieves. Its decision makers are challenged to make accurate decisions to improve resource utilization and service-delivery processes. We designed and developed a system that uses data envelopment analysis to make resource-allocation recommendations that help ARC managers evaluate the performance of chapters at various levels. We used Microsoft Excel for the model formulation and reporting. This paper describes its use, in conjunction with Premium Solver, Visual Basic for Applications, and Microsoft Access, to formulate 4,000 linear-programming models. The system performs the analysis and uses Excel to display the results visually. We also discuss the benefits to ARC, lessons learned, and potential future improvements.
Introduction: The Use of Spreadsheet Software in the Application of Management Science and Operations Research
Authors: LeBlanc Larry J. , Grossman Thomas A.
Published: September 2008

Spreadsheets can play an important role in the MS/OR practitioner's toolkit. This is because they are an effective software development platform, supporting powerful commercial MS/OR add-ins and providing advantages in deploying models to clients. Spreadsheets also provide access to the power of MS/OR for large numbers of unsophisticated end-user modelers. In this special issue, we highlight the benefits of spreadsheet MS/OR across 10 different high-impact applications.
Neural Plasticity as a Basis for Motor Learning and Neurorehabilitation
Authors: Seitz Rüdiger J. , Matyas Thomas A. , Carey Leeanne M.
Published: September 2008

Skilled action is the end-product of learning processes that can improve several aspects of motor control such as strategic movement organisation, perceptual–motor associations, or muscle commands for basic components of sequentially evolving, complex movements. Experimental studies in healthy participants using functional imaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation have identified separable processes that form cortical motor representations and that assist this formation of representations. These processes capitalise on use-dependent plasticity and changes in cortical excitability before and after practice. In terms of neural circuits, motor learning manifests measurably via structures that support transient phenomena, such as attentive error monitoring, or through continued activation of brain structures that support control processes still adapting. Specifically, movement guidance engages the dorsal premotor and parietal cortex along the intraparietal sulcus in addition to the supplementary motor area and the anterior cerebellum. Movement conception based on explicit experience of the movement task involves the inferior premotor cortex. Evidence in patients recovering from brain lesions such as stroke, suggests that similar principles hold for neurorehabilitation as well. The challenging issue is to what degree altered motor strategies afford improvement in function through relearning and neural plasticity.
Impaired Discrimination of Sensory Information About Slip Between Object and Skin is Associated With Handgrip Limitation Poststroke
Authors: Blennerhassett Jannette M. , Carey Leeanne M. , Matyas Thomas A.
Published: September 2008

Impaired somatosensory processing could contribute to handgrip limitation following stroke. The aim of this study was to examine the association between somatosensory function measured by psychophysical tests and clinical measures of handgrip limitation poststroke. Forty-five people with stroke who could perform a pinch grip task were recruited from rehabilitation settings. Ability to discriminate surface friction, and to match object weight were quantified using psychophysical methods. Handgrip limitation was measured using items of the Motor Assessment Scale, Jebsen Taylor Hand Function Test and the Hand Function Survey. Impaired discrimination of surface friction was moderately to weakly associated with handgrip limitation (rs = .36 to .55). In contrast, an association between degree of impairment in matching weight and handgrip limitation poststroke was not observed (rs < .24). The findings suggest that processing of tactile cues arising between the object and skin when training handgrip ability may be beneficial for people with stroke.
Predicting Compliance With Treatment Following Stroke: A New Model of Adherence Following Rehabilitation
Authors: Coetzee Nicolene , Andrewes David , Khan Fary , Hale Tom , Jenkins Lisanne , Lincoln Nadina , Disler Peter
Published: September 2008

Background and purpose: Adherence to medication is fundamental to optimal health recovery yet compliance to medication rates are lower than 50% in most studies. This study aimed to investigate the correlates of adherence in stroke patients. Method: Twenty-six stroke patients and 29 amputee patients who had completed a rehabilitation program at Melbourne Rehabilitation Centre were investigated. Medical adherence was determined from computed adherence metrics based on pill counts and subjective reports of patient knowledge of medication use. Model components that were believed to contribute to poor adherence, included emotional and cognitive dysfunction, beliefs about medication, and social support. These factors were assessed by patient and partner self-rating questionnaires. Results: Stroke patients showed a lower level of adherence compared to amputee patients. Cognitive and emotional dysfunction, beliefs about medication, and the level of care were significantly associated with low adherence to medicine regimes in stroke patients. Level of cognitive impairment and emotional impairment were significantly associated with low adherence to medicines in amputee patients. Emotional dysfunction was the best predictor of poor adherence in both patient groups. Conclusion: The findings are in keeping with past adherence studies with other patient groups and support the position that emotional, cognitive, and social factors are important factors in adherence. The specific nonadherence profile for this brain-damaged group is modeled and the application for outpatients following rehabilitation is discussed.
Effectiveness of Sensory Discrimination Training When Delivered By Family Members: A Pilot Study
Authors: Carey Leeanne M. , Matyas Thomas A.
Published: September 2008

The proportion of disabled stroke survivors is increasing. These people may experience loss of sensation that negatively impacts on performance and participation in daily activities. The value of adopting active approaches to rehabilitation is growing; however, high costs and demand over an extended period of time impose limits on therapist-based application. Informal carers and family members are a potential, low-cost resource for expanding the scope of rehabilitation across environments and over extended time periods. We systematically developed and established the effectiveness of an approach to retraining lost sensation and function in the hand that has positive outcomes in relation to the ability to feel everyday textures and objects and use the hand in daily tasks. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether family members, as surrogate therapists, are able to effectively conduct the sensory training program in home environments. Three single-case quasi-experiments were conducted in which stroke survivors' spouses implemented the training program across touch or limb position sensations. We found positive treatment effects in all cases. These findings indicate that selected surrogate therapists (spouses) can successfully implement a program of sensory retraining when provided 2 to 3 hours of training and supervision by a qualified therapist.
Psychological Distress and Social Support in Informal Caregivers of Stroke Survivors
Authors: Cumming Toby B. , Cadilhac Dominique A. , Rubin Gary , Crafti Naomi , Pearce Dora C.
Published: September 2008

Background:A high degree of burden is often experienced by informal caregivers of stroke survivors. However, little is known about the long-term impact of the caregiving role. This study sought to examine the relationship between social support and the psychological effects experienced by long-term caregivers of stroke survivors.Methods:The design was a prospective, multicentre, hospital-based stroke cohort study with 3 years of follow-up. Caregivers of participating stroke survivors completed questionnaires either through face-to-face interview or over the telephone. Primary outcome measures were the Medical Outcome Study (MOS) Social Support Survey and the Irritability, Depression, and Anxiety (IDA) Scale, and the association between them was investigated using multivariate logistic regression.Results:174/217 (80%) stroke survivors participated at 3 years, involving 116 informal caregivers (mean age 66.9 years, 71% female). Increasing social support was correlated with lower levels of depression, anxiety and inward irritability in caregivers. Social support was independently associated with anxiety (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.35–0.85;p= .007) and inward irritability (OR 0.47, 95% CI 0.29–0.77;p= .002). Furthermore, social support was significantly associated with carer strain, as assessed by the Caregiver Strain Index.Conclusions:The amount of social support available to long-term caregivers of stroke survivors may be an important factor in lowering psychological burden in these caregivers.
Impact of Stroke on Return to Work
Authors: Radford Kathryn A. , Walker Marion F.
Published: September 2008

Stroke has a marked impact on the ability to return to work. However, the stroke and its residual cognitive, physical and language deficits do not fully explain return-to-work success. While those with very severe deficits are less likely to return to work, and presence of disability is important, other extrinsic and intrinsic factors, such as having a job to go back to, beliefs and attitudes about work, job markets and the benefits system all play an important part. Vocational rehabilitation services developed with the stroke service user in mind are scarce in the United Kingdom. However, recent government interest in vocational rehabilitation and a recognition that evidence to support poststroke vocational rehabilitation is lacking have prompted efforts to develop new vocational rehabilitation services. People with stroke need specialist vocational rehabilitation services delivered by those who have an in-depth understanding of stroke and its effects. Service developers need to acknowledge and address factors that enable or impede return to work after stroke in service design. Research is needed to evaluate vocational rehabilitation interventions aimed specifically at the needs of stroke patients.
Communication Outcome 12 Months Following Left-Hemisphere Stroke in the Elderly
Authors: Macrae Margaret , Douglas Jacinta M.
Published: September 2008

With increasing life expectancy and the changing age structure of the population, the health sector is experiencing increased demands on services associated with age-related diseases including stroke and Alzheimer's disease. The communication needs of older Australians in these disease groups need to be understood to enable adequate provision of speech pathology services. In this project we set out to make a preliminary investigation of 12-month communication outcome and discharge destination of aphasic stroke survivors over age 65 at onset of first ever in a lifetime stroke (FELS). The recruitment timeframe was a 6-month period of stroke admissions to a large metropolitan health network. Nearly 70% of stroke admissions were aged 65 years and over and 34% were ascertained retrospectively from medical records as having aphasia. Within this group, there was a 20% mortality rate. Sixteen left-hemisphere stroke survivors with aphasia were followed up at 12 months. More than half were living in residential care. Excluding the impact of recurrent stroke, 12-month reassessment of language demonstrated substantial improvement could occur in the old-very old stroke survivor. These findings highlight the need to develop systematic review and follow-up speech pathology services that operate effectively in residential care environments.
Recent Advances and Future Directions in Aphasia Therapy
Authors: Holland Audrey L.
Published: September 2008

This article reviews literature in aphasia rehabilitation in the English-speaking world. Although attempts have been made to incorporate literature from other continents, the major bias is toward North America. Four themes are emphasised. They are (1) advances in neuroscience that have already realised influences in language rehabilitation and some that have potential influence for the near future; (2) effects on language rehabilitation that have resulted from the worldwide acknowledgment and acceptance of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF); (3) the growing emergence of psychosocial concerns in the management of aphasia; and (4) present and future applications of technology to aphasia rehabilitation. For the sake of manageability, the review is largely limited to the rehabilitation literature of the decade from 1998, and to published or in-press work that is programmatic in the sense that it represents more than a single publication.
The Therapy ‘Pill’: Achieving Treatment Dose Within a Rehabilitation Trial
Authors: Collier Janice M. , Bernhardt Julie
Published: September 2008

Background: Developing high quality clinical trials within rehabilitation research is achievable and should be pursued wherever possible. One of the greatest challenges rehabilitation trialists face is defining experimental and control interventions and ensuring that the intervention dose is delivered as planned. Aim: We describe procedures employed within a pilot randomised controlled trial of a rehabilitation intervention to monitor therapy dose. Method: The trial setting was two acute stroke units in large teaching hospitals in Melbourne, Australia. The design was a randomised controlled trial of very early mobilisation (commenced within 24 hours of stroke onset) plus standard care (VEM) versus standard care alone. Assessors were blinded to group and analysis was intention to treat. All therapy data (both intervention and control) were acquired using personal digital assistants. Monitoring of therapy dose and feedback to trial staff was given 6 months into the trial by a researcher independent of the trial team. Results: Before feedback, therapists were barely meeting intervention protocol minimum targets. Following feedback, compliance with trial protocol was achieved. Conclusion: Monitoring of the therapy dose within a clinical trial is important to achieve trial quality. This article shows how monitoring including feedback leads to improved delivery of the therapy ‘pill’.
Benefits and Challenges in Stroke Research in Developing Countries
Authors: Fitzgerald Sharyn M. , Srikanth Velandai K. , Evans Roger G. , Thrift Amanda G.
Published: September 2008

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Currently more than two thirds of the burden of stroke occurs in developing countries. Development of strategies for prevention and management of stroke in these countries requires data on incidence, risk factors and management practices that are relevant to the specific socioeconomic and cultural factors present in these populations. Yet currently available data come almost exclusively from developed countries. Herein, we aim to discuss some of the issues, impediments and opportunities faced by researchers undertaking population-based studies on the burden of stroke in developing countries. Important criteria to be addressed include the establishment of productive working relationships with both local collaborators and the community; the identification of an appropriate population group; and development of a working protocol which takes into account potential language barriers and the need for cultural sensitivity. When possible the protocol should include similar methods to studies conducted elsewhere so that comparisons can be made between regions. Furthermore, the results of such studies should be disseminated in an appropriate and timely manner to the local community and appropriate government and nongovernment organisations. This will enable the development and implementation of prevention and intervention programs to reduce the impact of stroke in these nations.
Stroke Rehabilitation
Authors: Lindley Richard I.
Published: September 2008

The need for stroke rehabilitation will lessen if stroke incidence declines and acute stroke medical and surgical treatment improves. The burden of stroke will also lessen as effective rehabilitation services (stroke rehabilitation units) and interventions are widely implemented. Despite the considerable amount of evidence available, implementation has been slow. Improvement in stroke rehabilitation will require continued professional advocacy, supported by local and national audit and future focused research.
Cosmopolitanism and Identity: Challenges for Comparative Literature
Authors: Nethersole Reingard
Published: September 2008

Appiah's advocacy of cosmopolitan identity serves as a starting point for a genealogy of the idea of cosmopolitanism (Diogenes Laertius, Kant, Nussbaum, Derrida), and for a critical examination of the notion of identity. As a concept, identity seems to oscillate between three meanings: (I) individuality or personality, (II) “belonging” in the sense of identity as ontologically substantive, and (III) integrity and persistence of self. Under the sway of economic reason and managerial politics, identity seems to mean today belonging to a particular segmented interest group. In spite of the disjuncture between North American and European positions in the topical debate, we are witnessing the emergence of a “new cosmopolitanism” in response to increasing globalisation. Although Comparative Literature has always been open to cultural manifestations beyond the borders of one particular language and literature, it ought to take on board “critical cosmopolitanism” in so far as it posits an ethics in relation to encounters with alterity, the stranger in our midst.
Narrative Identification
Authors: Biti Vladimir
Published: September 2008

Narrative is usually considered as one of the most established forms of mediation between the self and community. The point of departure for a closer examination of this common truth will here be the provocative thesis put forth by the Italian philosopher Adriana Cavarero in her recent book Tu che mi guardi, tu che mi racconti (1997; Relating Narratives according to the English edition of 2000). Pointing out narrative's dyadic ethic instead of its triadic social connection, she represents it as a scene of exposition of myself to the other: inasmuch as I am not the master of my own life-story, and inasmuch as I cannot find out who I am without it, I am constitutively dependent on You, who is the only being able to narrate it to me. Cavarero thus displaces the classical subject in favor of a narratable self that exists in a permanent need of a supplementary other. Without that unique other my ethical uniqueness (who I am) gets reduced to my social substitutability (what I am). The present study compares Cavarero's account, which relies on Hannah Arendt and Emmanuel Levinas, with that of Judith Butler, which is closer to the thought of Michel Foucault. Butler insists on an anonymous linguistic structure that imposes the third-person perspective upon a subject that is willing to give an account of itself.
The Formative Influence of Literature. Analogical Thinking, Statements, and Identification
Authors: Pettersson Anders
Published: September 2008

Readers often relate literature to life, and this may give literature the capacity to influence individuals and communities. The connection between literature and life is usually supposed to come about because literary texts convey explicit or implicit statements, or because readers involve themselves in the events described in the text through identification, empathy, or simulation. A third mechanism is the centre of attention in this paper: readers draw analogies from the literary text to reality. Elaborating on my earlier analyses of analogical thinking and similar processes, I suggest that actual reactions to literature must sometimes be understood as resulting from mental operations, in which the reader sets up an analogy between a textual element and something in the world outside. Such reader-made analogies between literary texts and the world are crucial in understanding how literature can influence people. However, analogical thinking provides merely a general model for understanding how readers of literature form ideas about the real world. One often has to analyze the processes in finer detail, and thus develop more specialized descriptions and concepts.
Grillparzer's “The Poor Musician”: The Artist-Hermit in Search of a Community
Authors: Barbu Carmen
Published: September 2008

A parallel reading of Franz Grillparzer's “The Poor Musician” and Immanuel Kant's Critique of Judgment occasions reflections on the possibility of defining community in aesthetic terms. While aesthetic judgment remains subjective for Kant, even as it formulates a universal claim, Grillparzer shows how a faulty interpretation of universality can disfigure a work of art and deprive unwary readers of their freedom to interpret by charming them with a simulacrum of community. Grillparzer does not merely deplore this, but also sets in the text points of resistance against such invasive interpretations, thus forcing the readers to reflect on both the work and their own judgment. Moreover, the novella's focus on music asks for a reappraisal of Kant's classification of the fine arts, which is based on a quasi-linguistic criterion of communicability and thus restricts their postulated universality.
The Apocatastasis of Community in Late Burroughs
Authors: Vanderheide John
Published: September 2008

The experimental novels of William S. Burroughs approach the idea of community from a functionalist perspective. For Burroughs, any form of organized communal life must be understood as “an artifact designed for a purpose.” Throughout his career, Burroughs opposed “control societies” that exploit the many to empower the few with alternative “partisan” formations that strive to realize the evolutionary potential of the human species. But to appreciate fully Burroughs's vision of both control societies and their revolutionary counterparts, readers need to familiarize themselves with the complex “mythology” that the novels embody. This mythology both diagnoses the reason for humanity's “fall” into control, and suggests the remedy by which it can wrest itself free. Burroughs constructs this remedy – the purpose of the revolutionary community – as a kind of “apocatastasis,” a concept that has had divergent applications in both “pagan” and Christian metaphysics. Burroughs exploits various elements of both applications to produce a unique theological-political notion that contemporary enlightenment thinking would do well to incorporate into its critical arsenal.
(Mis)taken Identities. Myths of Origin in a South African Familienroman
Authors: Kistner Ulrike
Published: September 2008

An enormously media-effective story of a post-apartheid South-African family romance, played out within the positioning of a subject between a putative white birth-family and a putative black foster-home, has raised concern about a post-apartheid resurrection of apartheid-style racial categorisation. A more nuanced analysis of racialization is possible. In the story of this South African family romance, “race” becomes a part of a derivatively self-ascribed identity that is not “given” but effectively problematical in a strenuous search for origins involving the relationship between nature, culture, society, and agency. This historical labor does not yield up the origin, but renders it split between ontogenesis and phylogenesis, whose relationship is analysed here in psychoanalytic terms. These two axes are distinct in the outcomes produced in negotiating their respective trajectories, but become conjoined in racialising discourses. Superimposing the racial epidermal schema on the corporal schema is what constitutes the psycho-sociopathic conundrum enveloping the story of Happy Sindane.
Aufklärerische Metaphysik. Walter Benjamin zu Nikolaj Lesskov und Johann Peter Hebel
Authors: Eggers Michael
Published: September 2008

Walter Benjamin's essay “Der Erzähler” has often been interpreted within literary or media history, but not in terms of the short stories upon which Benjamin draws to illustrate his theoretical remarks on narration as a cultural phenomenon up to the nineteenth century. How do Benjamin's hypotheses hold up against the original short stories of Lesskov and Hebel? Following a discussion of this question, Benjamin's remarks concerning natural history, the figure of the “just,” and the notion of “experience” are related to the terminology of his much earlier philosophical texts, such as “Zur Kritik der Gewalt.” The implicit morality of the short stories finds its most distinct literary expression in acoustical images; it has both a progressive and a metaphysical dimension, just like Benjamin's theoretical thinking.
Krieg und Gartenpartys. Oberflächen des Politischen bei Rainer Maria Rilke
Authors: Mandić Mirko
Published: September 2008

A detailed analysis of Rainer Maria Rilke's prose poem “Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke” raises the question, how literary texts can constitute a meaning in which political and aesthetic significations are undistinguishable and legitimated by the perceptible materiality of their signs. On the one hand, this means that operationable political meaning directly depends on the possibility of social self-description, which suggests that politics cannot get around without rhetoric and aesthetics. On the other hand, one has to ask what the distinguishing feature of a literature is that does not merely reveal a transparency for contingent historical matters but also provides a communication model within which the articulation of political identity (as imagination) becomes principally possible.
Disparagement humor: A theoretical and empirical review of psychoanalytic, superiority, and social identity theories
Authors: Ferguson Mark A. , Ford Thomas E.
Published: September 2008

This research reviews the empirical and theoretical literature on disparagement humor and amusement. In particular, we ask, “Why is disparagement humor funny?” Three theoretical frameworks provide responses to this question: psychoanalytic theory, superiority theories, and social identity theory. Each framework suggests a distinct psychological mechanism that fosters amusement upon exposure to disparagement humor. The review presents the central theoretical propositions from each framework and assesses their empirical support. Based on this review, we suggest that social identity theory offers a promising new avenue for disparagement humor research. The review concludes by offering future research directions.
When a dying language becomes alingua franca
Authors: Koufogiorgou Andromahi
Published: September 2008

This paper investigates the sociolinguistic effects and issues of identity in Metsovo, Greece, that have been the result of the presence of about 100 Albanian families who arrived there as economic migrants in the 1990s. The village of Metsovo is largely bilingual in Greek and Vlach (Aromanian). The migrants from Albania are either Muslims, (originally) monolingual in Albanian, or Christian Orthodox, bilingual in Albanian and Vlach. The presence of Vlach-speaking Albanians influences the use of Vlach by the original population. This case illustrates how the need for communication through a common code with the local population creates conditions which favour the use of a language otherwise being increasingly abandoned, and changes, at least in the short term, the attitudes towards a language that until recently has been considered dying.