bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Constructing the Identities of ‘Responsible Mothers, Invisible Men’ in Child Protection Practice
Authors: D'Cruz Heather
Published: March 2010

Social constructionism offers valuable insights into the study of social problems for example, poverty, homelessness, crime and delinquency, including how social phenomena ‘become’ social problems, through social processes of interaction and interpretation. The social construction of child maltreatment has recently emerged as a site of scholarly inquiry and critique. This paper explores through three case studies how ‘responsibility for child maltreatment’ is constructed in child protection practice, with a specific focus on how ‘responsibility’ may also be gendered. In particular, how is gender associated with responsibility, such that the identity-pair, ‘responsible mothers, invisible men’, is a highly likely outcome as claimed in feminist literature? What other assumptions about ‘identities of risk’ or ‘dangerousness’ articulate with patriarchy and influence how responsibility is constructed? The case studies explore normally invisible processes by which social categories become ‘fact’, ‘knowledge’ and ‘truth’. Furthermore, the social construction of ‘responsibility for child maltreatment’ is extended by a reflexive analysis of my own constructionist practices, as researcher/writer in claims making. The analysis offers an insight into the dynamic and dialectical relationship between professional and organisational knowledge and practice, allowing for a critique of knowledge itself, the basis for the claims made and possible alternative ways of knowing.
The Failure of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) and the Voiding of Privacy
Authors: Stalder Felix
Published: March 2010

Most contemporary conceptions of privacy are based on a notion of aseparation between the individual and the environment. On the oneside of this boundary lies ‘the private’ on the other lies ‘the public’.The struggle over the protection of privacy is about defending thisboundary and the individual's ability to determine who can access theprivate under what conditions. Such a conception of privacy, far from being universal, is in facthistorically specific. Its rise (and decline) is part of a particular culturalcondition connected to the dominance of print media from the 16th to the 20th century. As electronic communications rise in importance, print culture, part of which is the notion of privacy, erodes. Reacting to this development, academics and the general public havebeen concerned with the preservation of privacy for more 35 years, precisely the period when the shift from print to electroniccommunication accelerated. During most of this time, focus of privacyadvocates was on the development of policy frameworks. Despitesuccesses, this strategy has, by and large, failed to stop the erosion ofprivacy. More recently, a new approach to privacy protection which promises torestore personal privacy has been developed in the context of the Internet: Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs). This article analyses some of the key PETs and concludes that they, too, fail to protect privacy in the electronic environment. This supportsthe thesis of the historical situatedness of privacy and raises troublingquestions for privacy advocacy in the long term.
Family Transmission of Social Capital: Differences by Social Class, Education and Public Sector Employment
Authors: Egerton Muriel
Published: March 2010

This paper investigates the role of families in the transmission of tendencies to engage in social and civic activities. The relationship between parents' social class, sector of employment, education and social engagement with their children's civic and social engagement is investigated. It was provisionally hypothesized that graduate parents, particularly those working in the health, education or welfare services, would be more likely to be involved in civic activities, and that they would transmit this pattern to their children. Other forms of social engagement were also examined. Data was drawn from the British Household Panel Study. The survey yielded a sample of approximately 1500 young people and approximately 1200 families. It was found that middle-class parents (particularly professionals) were more likely to be involved in civic activities and that this was also true of their children. A similar effect was found for involvement in religious activities, although the rates of religious activity were low. Little difference by social class was found for Sports and Social activity, although there was a trend towards more involvement for children of managers. The children of managers were involved in a wider range of social organisations. Models exploring the effects of parental class, education and public sector employment were fitted. These seemed to suggest that parental education, particularly mother's education, has an especially strong association with civic activity among children. However, the association was only there for graduate (or sub-degree) mothers who work in the public sector. It seems likely that a particular configuration of professional graduate employment in the state sector has developed in the twentieth century which is associated with civic activity. The results are discussed in the light of the recent university expansion and shift of graduate employment from the public to the private sector.
Neighbourhood Social Capital: Does an Urban Gentry Help? Some Stories of Defining Shared Interests, Collective Action and Mutual Support
Authors: Blokland Talja
Published: March 2010

In European and American cities alike, politicians and policymakers have developed a strong believe in ‘mixture’. They believe that mixed neighbourhoods have the critical mass of an urban middle class whose economic, human and social capital benefits the whole neighbourhood. If middle classes have the social network contacts to access politicians and policymakers in ways that residents without such contact cannot, is it enough for the poor simply to rub shoulders in the same neighbourhood with the better-off? Does such social capital as individual asset become available to all? Or do the social networks within the neighbourhood, across the lines of class and race, need certain characteristics as meant by Putnam and Coleman for Portes’ and Bourdieu's social capital to become transferable? This paper discusses these questions through a case study in a mixed neighbourhood in a New England college town. The case study suggests that the help of an urban gentry in collective action might depend on how inclusively and fluidly such a gentry defines ‘shared interests’, how power relations determine what ‘collective’ in collective action means, and how difficulties to speak with those the gentry might want to speak for can be overcome. For residents with limited resources, the case suggests that whether or not they can use an urban elite in their neighbourhood to access new resources depends on the quality and nature of informal rather than institutional relationships, and on specific characteristics of reciprocity and mutuality of neighbourhood networks across race and class.
Social Science Gets the Ethics Treatment: Research governance and ethical review
Authors: Kent Julie , Williamson Emma , Goodenough Trudy , Ashcroft Richard
Published: March 2010

The paper examines the current provision for ethical review within the social sciences and considers how existent structures could be improved to protect human research subjects in accordance with international guidelines and regulation. This paper examines the current regulation of social science in the form of professional guidelines, peer review, funding application procedures and steering/advisory groups, and compares these processes with the independent ethical review currently required for health research. This paper also addresses the concepts of ‘risk’ and regulation by comparing the provision of review processes for health and non-health based research. The authors question the distinctions made between different types of medical research which represent epidemiological research, for example, as non-intrusive thus creating a hierarchy of research which results in social science researchers slipping through the ethical review net.
On the Logic of ‘New’ Welfare Practice: An Ethnographic Case Study of the ‘New Welfare Intermediaries’
Authors: Allen Chris
Published: March 2010

The joined-up working research literature consistently emphasizes inter-professional barriers to co- operation, and presents joined-up work as a worthwhile though largely unproductive activity. This reflects the extent to which it uses the sociology of professions literature, which construes ‘social closure’ goals and ‘boundary maintenance’ activities as key elements of welfare professional work, as its epistemological reference point. It also reflects the extent to which this literature has hitherto been based on analyses of joined-up working between welfare professionals with professional territory to defend. This paper presents an ethnographic account of how one ‘floating support worker’ worked as a ‘welfare intermediary’ at the interstices between (rather than within) the welfare professions. The paper represents welfare intermediaries as noteworthy for two reasons. First, they are shown to employ working practices that constitute the antithesis of ‘boundary maintaining’ welfare professional work. Second, understanding the nature of these working practices is important because the government is now promoting the logic of their ‘new’ welfare practice as a way to tackle the ‘joined-up causes of social exclusion’.
Survival Ethnic Entrepreneuers in Greece: A Mosaic of Informal and Formal Business Activities
Authors: Lazaridis Gabriella , Koumandraki Maria
Published: March 2010

This paper explores the phenomenon of ethnic entrepreneurship in Greece. Greece has been transformed from an emigration to an immigration country. Since the 1990s the majority of migrant workers occupy low paid, unskilled jobs in the informal economy. However, some set up (in) formal businesses. Ethnic entrepreneurs of our study have been excluded from social and economic opportunities. By running a business they struggle against exclusion, have control over their work situation (work hours, income) and gain emotional satisfaction and self-fulfilment. As we will show, self-employment is viewed as an ‘alternative income-generating activity, a strategy towards inclusion, a feasible ‘survival strategy’ for escaping discrimination and exclusion given the lack of other employment options. In this context, entrepreneurship is not viewed as an economic behaviour structured by the existing economic and socio-political structures only, but also, as having an important subjective meaning for the self-employed migrant. We will demonstrate that ethnic businesses comprise a mosaic of formal and informal activities. Opportunities for participation of migrants in informal activities occur because of the high demand for informal provision of services and goods at competitive prices. The entrance barriers are lower than in the informal sector since one usually does not have to meet costs associated with running of a business. Although the development of ethnic business activities will be viewed as the outcome of interaction on one's legal status, economic resources, access to informal networks of support, individual aspirations and structures of opportunity (e.g. informal economy) available to migrants in the Greek case migrants are faced with structural disadvantages that push them into what is marginal self-employment. It is the peculiarities of the Greek case (large informal economy and high rates of self-employment and the multiple forms of exclusion they experience as they were in Greece) that encourage them to become ‘ survival’ entrepreneurs, to strive to create a business of their own in the ‘twilight zone’ of the Greek economy where they often carry out extra-legal activities in order to ‘survive’.
‘Making Connections: The Relationship between Train Travel and the Processes of Work and Leisure’
Authors: Letherby Gayle , Reynolds Gillian
Published: March 2010

Many volumes have been written cataloguing and detailing the long-term or historical changes in the process of work. Similarly, much attention has been given to ‘doing leisure’. What most, if not all of these works have in common is that both work and leisure are seen as taking place either ‘in’ or ‘away from’ the home. The space between home and the place of work or leisure is seen as a separate entity: the ‘travel’ for which one normally requires a means of transport. Transport then is theorised as simply a way of getting from A to B. Indeed, those who study and theorise about transport are more likely to be in the discipline of engineering than of sociology. In this article we challenge all of this through a consideration of the work and leisure that individuals undertake on the train. We draw on our own experience and on empirical data from a pilot study of train users and also outline our future research and writing plans in this area.
‘Sexuality in the Church: Toward a sociology of the Bible’
Authors: Brewer John
Published: March 2010

Sexuality is an obsession of the Christian Church. It is one of the social behaviours that it has tried most to control amongst its flock and yet the Christian Church has failed to prevent the encroachment of modern attitudes towards sex and sexuality into the Church as an institution. The furore over the proposed appointment of an openly gay bishop in the Church of England is but the latest expression of this tension. However, this paper argues that this debate needs to be placed in a much broader context, namely, the hermeneutical problem of the authority of the Bible, which is itself only one part of a wider sociology of the Bible. The current debate on sexuality in the Church highlights the need for sociology to begin to apply its way of thinking to the Bible.
A Simulation of the Structure of Academic Science
Authors: Gilbert N.
Published: March 2010

The contemporary structure of scientific activity, including the publication of papers in academic journals, citation behaviour, the clustering of research into specialties and so on has been intensively studied over the last fifty years. A number of quantitative relationships between aspects of the system have been observed.

This paper reports on a simulation designed to see whether it is possible to reproduce the form of these observed relationships using a small number of simple assumptions. The simulation succeeds in generating a specialty structure with ‘areas’ of science displaying growth and decline. It also reproduces Lotka's Law concerning the distribution of citations among authors.

The simulation suggests that it is possible to generate many of the quantitative features of the present structure of science and that one way of looking at scientific activity is as a system in which scientific papers generate further papers, with authors (scientists) playing a necessary but incidental role. The theoretical implications of these suggestions are briefly explored.
‘After I've Done the Mum Things’: Women, Care and Transitions’
Authors: Innes Sue , Scott Gill
Published: March 2010

Changes in the relationship of paid work, care and welfare have most impact on women, particularly those who are affected by welfare-to-work policies. A study of care in relation to transitions to the labour market made by women with dependent children in Glasgow suggests that women in low-income households face additional difficulties in achieving a balance of work and care. They may have more care responsibilities than other families but fewer material and social resources with which to carry them out. Neither the male-breadwinner model of family arrangements for the care and costs of children nor the adult-worker model that is replacing it in policy logic, takes into account their social and economic circumstances or the need for both formal and informal care to support successful transitions to further education and employment. Care is neither as straightforward to organise, nor as readily substituted for, as employment and welfare policies, in their limited attention to it, imply. The practices and meanings of care must be considered in depth if it is to be adequately understood and not further marginalised.
‘The ‘Intimate Father’: Defining Paternal Involvement’
Authors: Dermott Esther
Published: March 2010

Fathering is alleged to have undergone dramatic changes in recent decades with proclamations of ‘new fathering’ dominating the literature. However, it is not always obvious what this new and ‘involved’ fathering entails. This paper aims to bring greater clarity to the nebulous concept of the involved father. While acknowledging the recession of traditional fatherhood centred on breadwinning, the argument looks beyond this oft-identified process. Instead the focus is on elucidating the elements viewed as the essential components of the father-child relationship. For the fathers in this study, the concept of intimacy seems to encapsulate ideas about good fathering. The idea of ‘intimate fathering’ encompasses, but goes beyond an emotional connection, and prioritises the quality of the parent-child relationship. This definition has implications for the analysis and understanding of fathering behaviour. In particular, such intimacy may be disassociated from a time commitment.
‘Children, Belonging and Social Capital: The PTA and Middle Class Narratives of Social Involvement in the North-West of England’
Authors: Bagnall Gaynor , Longhurst Brian , Savage Mike
Published: March 2010

This paper uses data gathered from an ESRC funded research project on social networks, social capital and lifestyle to provide an account of narratives of belonging and social involvement. Drawing on data from 88 in-depth interviews carried out in the North-West of England between 1997 and 1999, we identify how parental involvement in voluntary organizations connected to their children, such as Parent Teachers Associations (PTA), figures in middle class narratives as a vehicle through which to perform belonging and social involvement. We argue that social involvement through children is presented as a dimension of feeling located in place socially. By using data from two contrasting areas, Wilmslow and Cheadle, we show how this concern to perform locally based parenthood nonetheless leads to very different patterns of engagement. The mobile, middle class in Wilmslow seek to build social capital through the generation of loose social networks based around children and children's education. We suggest that this serves the dual purpose of connecting them to ‘like-minded’ people and to the educational establishments they value as a means of getting ahead. In Cheadle, the generally less mobile respondents use their more local habitus to generate bonding forms of social capital with tighter social networks based around, kin, residence and leisure that enable them to ‘get by’. We argue that the narratives of participation articulated relate to the respondents’ degree of embeddedness in the locale, the different place-based habitus of each area and the gendering of family practices. At the heart of many of these narratives, particularly but not exclusively in Wilmslow, are tales about being a ‘good’ parent and more particularly of being a ‘good’ mother.
Older Peopleís Perceptions of the Neighbourhood: Evidence from Socially Deprived Urban Areas
Authors: Scharf Thomas , Phillipson Chris , Smith Allison
Published: March 2010

Neighbourhoods contribute significantly to shaping their residents’ identities. For older people, the neighbourhood may be even more important than for younger people. Ageing can be associated with an intensification of feelings about locality and space, and the neighbourhood may contribute significantly to older people's quality of daily life. Within the context of a study that examines the concerns of older people living in areas of England characterised by intense social deprivation, the article explores perceptions of the local environment. Findings are reported from an empirical study conducted in nine socially deprived neighbourhoods across three cities. Data collection consisted of a survey of 600 people aged 60 and over, and in-depth interviews with 130 people of the same age group. The article focuses on older people's views in relation to both positive and negative aspects of their local environment. It concludes with a discussion of three key themes: first, the question of older peopleís attachment to their neighbourhood; second, the issue of variation between areas; and third, the impact of place on the quality of older people's daily life.
‘Negotiation and Navigation - an Exploration of the Spaces/Places of Working-class Lesbians’
Authors: Taylor Yvette
Published: March 2010

This article draws upon my research on working-class lesbians, which explores the relationship between class, sexuality and social exclusion. Research participants were drawn mainly from Scotland (Glasgow, Edinburgh and the Highlands), with smaller samples in Yorkshire and Manchester; in total fifty-three women took part, most being interviewed individually, others as part of three focus groups, and a couple in ‘paired’ interviews. The significance of sexuality and class position is highlighted across various social sites from family background and schooling to work experiences and leisure activities. The women's own identifications, understandings and vivid descriptions point to the continued salience of class as a factor in shaping life experiences. This article focuses primarily on the women's ‘sense of place’ and their relations to the often devalued territories that they inhabit. The relationship between sexual identity and class has received little academic attention - here the ‘gaps’ in the literature pertaining to ‘lesbian and gay’ space, and to (de-sexualised) class space, will be identified. By including empirical data I offer a picture of the ways in which classed spaces is sexualised and sexualised space is classed and suggest that space is constitutive of identity in terms of where it places people, both materially and emotionally.
Theoretical Considerations in Cross-National Employment Research
Authors: Jacqueline O'Reilly
Published: March 2010

This article critically reviews a range of theoretical approaches to cross-national employment research in terms of universal, culturalist and intermediary perspectives. These approaches have difficulty accounting for change and the co- existence of similarity and diversity, as well as being ‘gender blind’. Debates on the welfare state or women's employment have shown more interest in gender although this tends to become an optional variable in the cross-national comparison, or where there have been attempts to make it more central, the meaning of cross-national differences becomes blurred and confused. It is argued that an employment-systems approach, coupled with the gender order perspective, can provide a useful framework of analysis which enables us to identify how comparable pressures for change have generated specific interest coalitions; these coalitions resolve conflicts by agreeing on a particular gender compromise.
‘No Woman's Law Will Rot this State’: The Israeli Racial State and Feminist Resistance
Authors: Lentin Ronit
Published: March 2010

This paper employs social theory and empirical observation, juxtaposing Israel as a ‘racial state’ (Goldberg, 2002) and the concept of femina sacra, a female version of Agamben's homo sacer or ‘bare life’ (Agamben, 1998), to think about some aspects of Israeli feminist peace activism since the onset of the second Intifada. Although Israeli feminist peace activism seems to discursively vacillate between essentialist motherhood narratives and subversive draft resistance practices, reading draft resistance narratives of young Israeli women conscripts, the paper tentatively suggests that where the state positions itself above morality, while evoking morality in its defence, feminist ‘peace activism’ in Israel/Palestine, though providing a potent counter-narrative to the Zionist narration of nation, does not destabilise the racial state, which is apparently gradually destroying itself while wilfully destroying its Others. I conclude by asking whether morally positioning itself in contrast to the racial state, such resistance can be theorised as gendered.
Attitudes, Care and Commitment: Pattern and Process
Authors: Irwin Sarah
Published: March 2010

The paper develops a new analysis of attitudes to aspects of work and caring for children. The paper reports on analysis of data generated through a small scale survey designed and conducted with pilot study funding to follow up aspects of research by the ESRC Research Group for the study of Care, Values and the Future of Welfare. The survey research takes as a focus a specific point in the life course of parents: when they have children in the early years at primary school. The paper develops an analysis of the coherence of people's attitudes and their social location, with particular reference to social inequality. It also reports on new linked analysis of British Social Attitudes Survey data. In contrast to recent arguments of increasingly ‘autonomous’ subjectivities the research contributes to a broader theoretical understanding of the mutuality of subjectivities and extant social relations.
Kalighat, the Home of Goddess Kali: the Place Where Calcutta is Imagined Twice: A Visual Investigation into the Dark Metropolis
Authors: Barbiani Erica
Published: March 2010

The identity of Calcutta has often been associated with the goddess who gave the city its name: Kali, the black divinity of death and destruction. Many examples of this imagery can be found in literature, where the Goddess and her myth are used as a metaphor to describe Calcutta. The deathly and violent connotations of Kali are extended to the city, which is depicted as a ‘metropolitan nightmare’, a place identified with overpopulation, poverty, political riots and sickness. Goddess Kali -the city's symbolic ideal-type - was used as an entry point to investigate certain aspects of Calcutta's negative imagery with visual methods: the abstraction of the metaphorical link between goddess and city was transposed by photographs and video to their concrete, contemporary urban space. Images produced on the icons of Kali around Calcutta, on the temples dedicated to the Goddess and on the rituals made in her honour will show the spatial embodiment of the Kali/Calcutta link and its deep relation with colonial history. The adoption of visual methods enhanced the peculiarity of the Kalighat neighbourhood, the place where Mother Teresa's Hospital of the Dying Ones stands back to back with Goddess's Kali most ancient temple and icon. Kalighat is not only the historical site where the symbolic link between city and goddess was developed, but also the place where the dark narrative is kept alive.
Incidence of nonspecific and radiating low back pain: followup of 24–39‐year‐old adults of the Young Finns Study
Authors: Shiri Rahman , Solovieva Svetlana , Husgafvel‐Pursiainen Kirsti , Viikari Jorma , Raitakari Olli T. , Viikari‐Juntura Eira
Published: March 2010

Objective

The full panorama of the types and severity of low back pain during the life course is poorly known. We studied the incidence and severity of nonspecific and radiating low back pain based on a recent followup on a representative sample of the Finnish general population.

Methods

As part of the ongoing Young Finns Study, participants ages 24–39 years who were free from low back pain at baseline in 2001 were included (n = 1,224). We estimated the incidence of nonspecific and radiating low back pain in 2007.

Results

The incidence of moderate (8–30 days duration in the past 12 months) nonspecific low back pain was 13.2%, and that of radiating low back pain was 8.6%. The rates did not differ between men and women. The incidence of major (>30 days in the past 12 months) nonspecific low back pain was 7.8%, and that of radiating low back pain was 3.4%. The incidence of major nonspecific low back pain was higher in women than in men (P = 0.02). Moderate as well as major nonspecific low back pain declined with age, whereas major radiating low back pain increased with age.

Conclusion

Our findings indicate that low back pain is a common condition in adults already in their 30s. It becomes more severe around the age of 40 years, showing different development of nonspecific and radiating low back pain. We recommend monitoring low back health in health surveillance, starting early and differentiating between nonspecific and radiating pain.
After patients are diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis, what do they do?
Authors: Grindrod Kelly A. , Marra Carlo A. , Colley Lindsey , Cibere Jolanda , Tsuyuki Ross T. , Esdaile John M. , Gastonguay Louise , Kopec Jacek
Published: March 2010

Objective

To learn more about the health services and products that patients use after receiving a diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis (OA), as well as the trajectory of their health‐related quality of life (HRQOL).

Methods

Using a simple screening survey, community pharmacists identified 194 participants with previously undiagnosed knee OA. Of these participants, 190 were confirmed to have OA on further investigation. At baseline and 1, 3, and 6 months after diagnosis, a survey was administered to assess health services, product use, and HRQOL, including the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36 (SF‐36) health survey, the Paper Adaptive Test (PAT‐5D‐QOL), and the Health Utilities Index Mark 3.

Results

With a mean age of 63 years, participants were mostly women, white, and overweight. By 6 months, more than 90% of the participants had visited their family physician to discuss their OA, and more than 50% of participants took either prescription or nonprescription analgesics. In addition, three‐quarters of the participants started exercising, one‐third initiated activity aids, and one‐third had started natural medicine products. At 6 months compared with baseline, significant improvements were seen in the SF‐36 physical component summary (P = 0.001) and bodily pain domain scores (P = 0.02), the PAT‐5D‐QOL overall, pain, and usual daily activities scores (P < 0.001 for all), and the WOMAC total, pain, and function scores (P < 0.001 for all).

Conclusion

Within 6 months of receiving a diagnosis of knee OA, participants made several lifestyle interventions, often without the advice of a health professional, and saw improvements in their pain and function.
Consolidation of Particles by Severe Plastic Deformation: Mechanism and Applications in Processing Bulk Ultrafine and Nanostructured Alloys and Composites
Authors: Xia Kenong
Published: March 2010

Severe plastic deformation (SPD) can be used to consolidate particles into bulk ultrafine and nanostructured materials. SPD consolidation relies on plastic deformation of individual particles, rather than diffusion, to achieve bonding and thus can be carried out at much lower temperatures. Using examples of consolidation of Al particles by back pressure equal channel angular pressing (BP‐ECAP), it is demonstrated that full consolidation is achieved when the particles are sheared to disrupt the surface oxide layer whereas consolidation is impossible or incomplete in the case of particles sliding over each other. The effects of particle characteristics such as size, shape, strength and surface condition, as well as processing parameters including temperature and back pressure, are discussed to shed light on the mechanism of SPD consolidation. Potential applications of SPD in powder consolidation and processing of bulk ultrafine and nanostructured materials are discussed.
Chip‐Based Cell Electrofusion
Authors: Yang Jun , Zhao Li‐Ping , Yin Zheng‐Qin , Hu Ning , Chen Jie , Li Ting‐Yu , Svir Irina , Zheng Xiao‐Lin
Published: March 2010

Cell fusion is a rapid developing cytobiological method utilizing engineering approaches to fuse two or more cells into one hybrid. The hybrid cell can be further cultivated into a new species or a cell‐engineering product. After many years of development, cell fusion is becoming a powerful tool for biological, medical and agricultural research. At present, electrofusion is widely used to achieve cell fusion due to its high efficiency and maneuverability. On‐chip cell electrofusion is receiving more and more attention as a result of its superior performance. This review will discuss the basic theory of chip‐based cell electrofusion, the pairing method, low‐ and high‐throughput cell electrofusion, and the possible ways to overcome the major limitations in existing electrofusion methods.
Detection of WA B cells in hepatitis C virus infection: A potential prognostic marker for cryoglobulinemic vasculitis and B cell malignancies
Authors: Knight Glenn B. , Gao Lei , Gragnani Laura , Elfahal Mutasim M. , De Rosa Francesco G. , Gordon Fredric D. , Agnello Vincent
Published: March 2010

Objective

An uncommon manifestation of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is systemic vasculitis associated with type II cryoglobulinemia (cryoglobulinemic vasculitis), a proliferative B cell disorder that transforms into B cell malignancy in 5–10% of patients. The monoclonal rheumatoid factors (mRF) that bear the WA cross‐idiotype (Xid) are responsible for most cases of cryoglobulinemic vasculitis in patients with HCV infection. The purpose of this study was to determine whether WA B cells can be detected in asymptomatic patients with HCV infection, using sequence analysis of B cell clonal expansions (BCEs) to identify the WA Xid.

Methods

Asymptomatic patients with HCV infection and those without HCV infection as well as respective control patients with cryoglobulinemic vasculitis, whose serum was either negative or positive for WA mRF, were studied. BCEs were isolated in the patients' blood, and WA BCEs were identified by sequencing analysis.

Results

BCEs were detected in all control patients with cryoglobulinemic vasculitis, but only control patients with HCV infection had WA BCEs. None of the 33 asymptomatic patients without HCV infection had a BCE. WA BCEs were detected in 4 (7.4%) of 55 asymptomatic patients with HCV infection, in none of 14 patients with HCV infection and type III cryoglobulinemia, and in 5 (13.5%) of 37 patients with HCV infection and serum RF positivity. One patient with a WA BCE had splenic lymphoma markers and villous lymphocytes, and the villous lymphocytes were found to be WA B cells.

Conclusion

By identification of the WA Xid, WA B cells can be detected in asymptomatic HCV‐infected patients. WA B cells in asymptomatic patients with HCV infection may be a marker for the development of cryoglobulinemic vasculitis and associated B cell malignancies. The results of this study provide a basis for the development of the first practical clinical application of cross‐idiotype analysis.
Impact of pinna compression on the RF absorption in the heads of adult and juvenile cell phone users
Authors: Christ Andreas , Gosselin Marie‐Christine , Kühn Sven , Kuster Niels
Published: March 2010

The electromagnetic exposure of cell phone users depends on several parameters. One of the most dominant of these is the distance between the cell phone and the head tissue. The pinna can be regarded as a spacer between the top of the phone and the head tissue. The size of this spacer has not yet been systematically studied. The objective of this article is to investigate the variations of distance as a function of age of the exposed person, and the mechanical force on the pinna and how it affects the peak spatial specific absorption rate (psSAR). The distances were measured for adults and children (6–8 years of age) while applying a well‐defined force on the pinna using a custom‐developed measurement device. The average distances of the pinnae to the heads and their standard deviations showed no major differences between the two age groups: 10.5 ± 2.0 mm for children (6–8 years) and 9.5 ± 2.0 mm for adults. The pinnae of our anatomical high‐resolution head models of one adult and two children were transformed according to the measurement results. The numerical exposure analysis showed that the reduced distance due to the pinna compression can increase the maximum 10 g psSAR by approximately 2 dB for adults and children, if the exposure maximum is associated with the upper part of the phone. Bioelectromagnetics 31:406–412, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Oscillating chemiluminescence systems: state of the art
Authors: Iranifam Mortaza , Segundo Marcela A. , Santos João L. M. , Lima José L. F. C. , Sorouraddin Mohammad H.
Published: March 2010

Oscillating chemiluminescence (CL) was reported for the first time about 30 years ago. Since then several systems based on addition of a chemiluminescent reagent to a known oscillator system or based on the light emitting features of one component of the oscillating system, have been described. This information, scattered in the scientific literature, is compiled in the present paper. Several oscillating CL systems, including those based on Belousov–Zhabotinskii and Orban oscillators, or horseradish peroxidase‐catalyzed reactions, among others, are critically presented. The application of this type of oscillatory systems is also discussed, in analytical chemistry and for educational purposes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Framing participation with multicriterion evaluations to support the management of complex environmental issues
Authors: Soma Katrine
Published: March 2010

A repeated statement observed in the literature is that stakeholder participation can contribute to improve complex environmental management decisions. However, transparent and legitimate decision‐making processes cannot be ensured without suitable involvement strategies and information treatments throughout the processes. The main goal in this study is to frame participatory processes with multicriterion evaluations to increase transparency of the decision support. The developed approach applies clearly defined roles of interest groups, experts and citizens, as well as alternatives presented on maps, criteria arranged in a hierarchy of decision elements and weights obtained by conducting deliberative processes with citizens. The approach is applied in a case study at municipal level in Norway to support coastal zone management decisions. Relevant interests and social values are systematically represented by the multicriterion evaluation framework utilized in the approach presented. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
A European methodology for sustainable development strategy reviews
Authors: Spangenberg Joachim H.
Published: March 2010

In 2005 the EU Environment Directorate initiated the production of a guidebook for peer reviews of national sustainable development strategies (NSDSs), which was published in 2006. Its objective is to support EU member states planning to evaluate their respective NSDS, supporting and stimulating all potential participants. It describes how to initiate, start, lead and conclude an evaluation process, and suggests, based on European experiences, a spectrum of methods available for this purpose. During a Commission‐sponsored trial period, 2006/2007, the Netherlands was the only country to make use of this offer.

However, the renewed EU Sustainable Development Strategy (EUSDS) calls for regular (peer) reviews of NSDS. Using this specific review instrument is recommended as part of a mutual learning exercise, which might stimulate a self‐organized convergence of NSDSs, and better vertical integration, without establishing new competences and mechanisms on the EU level.

Two new elements are suggested, a simple ‘pressure–policy matrix’ (PPM), supporting comprehensiveness control, and the possibility of patchwork evaluations, based on the systematique of the matrix. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
Structural and Spectroscopic Characterisation of Linearly Coordinated Gold(I) Tribenzylphosphane Complexes
Authors: Ainscough Eric W. , Bowmaker Graham A. , Brodie Andrew M. , Freeman Graham H. , Hanna John V. , Healy Peter C. , Robinson Ward T. , Skelton Brian W. , Smith Mark E. , Sobolev Alexandre N. , White Allan H.
Published: March 2010

The 1:1 tribenzylphosphane (PBn3) complexes of gold(I)[(Bn3P)AuX] (X = Cl and Br) have been synthesised, and their structures were determined by single‐crystal X‐ray crystallography. The compounds are isomorphous, neutral molecules with linearly coordinated P–Au–X arrays. Each structure contains three independent [(Bn3P)AuX] entities lying on the three threefold axes of space group P3c1. The mean bond lengths are Au–Cl 2.302(8), Au–P 2.227(11) Å for the chloride and Au–Br 2.404(10), Au–P 2.229(4) Å for the bromide. These contrast with the 1:1 adducts previously reported for copper(I), which take the form [Cu(PBn3)2][CuX2]. The 1:2 AuX:PBn3 compounds that have been synthesised are formulated as [Au(PBn3)2]X·nH2O (X = Cl, n = 1 or 2; X = I and BF4, n = 0). Single‐crystal X‐ray structures show that linearly two‐coordinate centrosymmetric [Au(PBn3)2]+ arrays are found in [Au(PBn3)2]Cl·H2O and [Au(PBn3)2]BF4 with Au–P bond lengths of 2.2988(7) and 2.3016(7) Å for the chloride and 2.2975(7) Å for the tetrafluoroborate. ν(AuX) bands in the far‐IR spectra of [(Bn3P)AuX] are assigned at 320 and 227 cm–1 for X = Cl and X = Br, respectively. The 31P CP MAS NMR spectra of [(Bn3P)AuX] (X = Cl, Br) and [Au(PBn3)2]X (X = Cl·H2O, Cl·2H2O, I, BF4) are reported, and the observation of 2J(PP) coupling in the spectrum of [Au(PBn3)2]Cl·2H2O is consistent with the presence in this complex of noncentrosymmetric cations in which the two phosphorus atoms are inequivalent.
Highly Diastereoselective Samarium Diiodide Induced Ketyl Cyclisations of Indole and Pyrrole Derivatives – Scope and Limitations
Authors: Beemelmanns Christine , Blot Virginie , Gross Steffen , Lentz Dieter , Reissig Hans‐Ulrich
Published: March 2010

Here we summarise our results for SmI2‐induced 5‐exo‐trig to 8‐exo‐trig reductive cyclisations of suitably substituted indole and pyrrole derivatives. All precursors were easily prepared by simple N‐alkylation or N‐acylation of indole and pyrrole derivatives with the corresponding iodo alkanones, acid chlorides or lactones. The SmI2‐induced cyclisations in most cases provided tri‐ and tetracyclic derivatives, even in the absence of HMPA, in good to very good yields and with excellent diastereoselectivities. Extensive investigations of the reaction conditions revealed that in the presence of different proton sources SmI2‐induced cyclisations afforded mainly one major type of diastereomer (thermodynamic control), so the formation of three or four stereogenic centres is controlled in one step. The mechanism of the SmI2‐induced ketyl coupling is discussed in more detail on the basis of these observations and two possible mechanistic pathways are compared. The assumed intermediate samarium enolates were also trapped with allyl iodide, furnishing interesting polycyclic N‐heterocycles bearing newly formed quaternary centres as single diastereomers.
Synthesis of MnO2/MWNTs Nanocomposites Using a Sonochemical Method and Application for Hydrazine Detection
Authors: Wang Meifang , Wang Cong , Wang Guangfeng , Zhang Wei , Bin Fang
Published: March 2010

A sonochemical method has been successfully used to synthesize MnO2/MWNTs nanocomposites. The structure and nature of the resulting MnO2/MWNTs composite were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy‐dispersive X‐ray diffraction (EDX), X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).The results show that the sonochemically synthesized MnO2 nanoparticles were homogeneously dispersed on the modified MWNT surfaces. The performance of the MnO2/MWNTs nanocomposites modified electrode was characterized using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and Nyquist plots. The electrode exhibits efficient electron transfer ability and high electrochemical response towards hydrazine. This may be attributed to the small particle size, high dispersion of MnO2 particles. The fabricated hydrazine sensor showed a wide linear range of 5.0×10−7–1.0×10−3 M with a response time less than 5 s and a detection limit of 0.2 μM. Taking the advantage of the unique properties of both MWNTs and MnO2, it would greatly broaden the applications of MWNTs and MnO2.
Safety and efficacy of long‐acting injectable risperidone in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders: A 6‐month open‐label trial in Asian patients
Authors: Verma Swapna , Subramaniam Mythily , Abdin Edimansyah , Sim Kang , Su Alex , Lee Nelson , Chong Siow Ann
Published: March 2010

The study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of long‐acting injectable risperidone (LAR) in Asian patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Twenty‐five patients enrolled in this 6‐month open labelled study. They were switched from their current antipsychotic to LAR without a prior oral risperidone run‐in phase. Efficacy was assessed by the positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) and clinical global impression (CGI) scales. Extra‐pyramidal side effects (EPSE) was assessed using the Simpson Angus Scale (SAS), and weight and plasma levels of fasting blood glucose, lipids and prolactin were measured. Baseline and last visits differences were tested by paired t‐test and Wilcoxon signed‐rank test; ratings measured over time were analysed using repeated measures ANOVA.

Participants' mean age was 30.3 (±6.6) years. Principal reason for switching to LAR was non‐compliance (40.0%). Thirteen (52%) patients completed the trial. Over 6 months, there were significant reductions in total PANSS (p = 0.008) and CGI (p = 0.001) scores. There were significant increases in weight (p < 0.001), levels of plasma cholesterol and fasting glucose.

LAR was effective in improving symptom severity within the first month of starting treatment. However, significant increases in weight and plasma levels of fasting glucose and cholesterol raise concern about metabolic side effects. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Association study of polymorphisms in Insulin Induced Gene 2 (INSIG2) with antipsychotic‐induced weight gain in European and African‐American schizophrenia patients
Authors: Tiwari Arun K. , Zai Clement C. , Meltzer Herbert Y. , Lieberman Jeffrey A. , Müller Daniel J. , Kennedy James L.
Published: March 2010

Objective

Atypical antipsychotic drugs, in particular clozapine and olanzapine, influence cellular lipogenesis and are associated with metabolic side effects including weight gain. Insulin induced gene 2 (INSIG2) mediates feedback control of lipid synthesis and polymorphisms in the gene (rs17587100, rs10490624 and rs17047764) have been associated with antipsychotic induced weight gain. In this study we intended to replicate these findings in an independent patient population.

Methods

All three polymorphisms as well as an additional polymorphism (rs7566605) were genotyped in 154 patients who underwent treatment for chronic schizophrenia with one of four antipsychotics (clozapine, olanzapine, haloperidol or risperidone). Patients were evaluated for antipsychotic induced weight gain during treatment for up to 14 weeks.

Results

We did not observe any significant allelic, genotypic or haplotypic association of the polymorphisms with antipsychotic induced weight gain in the patients of European ancestry (p > 0.05). In the patients of African ancestry, no haplotypic association was observed but a trend of allelic association with the C allele of rs7566605 and genotypic association with the ‘GC’ genotype in rs17047764 was observed (p = 0.02; pBonferroni = 0.225).

Conclusion

We were unable to replicate significant associations in patients of European ancestry. However, we observed a marginal effect of the rs17047764 and rs7566605 in the African‐American sample. Since the latter observations were generated in a relatively small sample set, further replication studies are warranted. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.