bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Goal Disturbance, Cognitive Coping and Psychological Distress in HIV-infected Persons
Authors: van der Veek Shelley M. C. , Kraaij Vivian , Van Koppen Willemien , Garnefski Nadia , Joekes Katherine
Published: February 2007

This study aims to explore the relationships between cognitive coping, goal disturbance and psychological distress in HIV-infected persons. A sample of 43 HIV positive persons completed questionnaires that assessed cognitive coping, goal frustration, depressive symptoms and quality of life. Goal frustration and, to a lesser extent, the cognitive coping strategy ‘positive reappraisal’ were related to psychological distress. Intervention programmes might usefully implement the topics of goal disturbance and positive reappraisal.
Detrimental Effects of Falling on Health and Well-being in Later Life
Authors: Ruthig Joelle C. , Chipperfield Judith G. , Newall Nancy E. , Perry Raymond P. , Hall Nathan C.
Published: February 2007

Falling is common among older adults, often resulting in decreased functional ability and quality of life. To understand processes underlying the fall/health and well-being relationship, it is important to identify psychosocial mediators. The current study examined the impact of falling on subsequent physical health, negative emotions and physical activity among 231 young-old (<85) and old-old (85+) community-dwelling adults, and the mediating effects of global perceived control (PC) and optimism. Regression results indicated that falling predicted poorer physical health, greater negative emotions and less physical activity among old-old but not young-old adults. Falling negatively predicted PC and optimism, which mediated the effects of falling on health and well-being among the old-old group. Findings have implications for enhancing recovery from falling via bolstering PC and optimism.
Identifying Key Processes of Exercise Behaviour Change Associated with Movement through the Stages of Exercise Behaviour Change
Authors: Lowther Matthew , Mutrie Nanette , Scott E. Marian
Published: February 2007

This longitudinal study identified processes of exercise behaviour change (POC) associated with movement between the stages of exercise behaviour change (SOC). Participants’ ( N = 312) physical activity, SOC and POC were recorded at baseline, one, three, six and 12 months post-test. Following baseline, participants received one of three physical activity interventions. The process of self-liberation was important at each stage movement. The process of stimulus control appeared important when progressing from contemplation to preparation. Progression from action into maintenance was associated with increased use of social liberation and helping relationships. The study indicated the transtheoretical model is applicable to a British population.
Complexity and Team Dynamics in Multiple Intervention Programmes
Authors: Maclean Lynne M. , Diem Elizabeth , Bouchard Christiane , Robertson-Palmer Katharine , Edwards Nancy , O’Hagan Maryan
Published: February 2007

Psychologists engaged in public health research and intervention will become more involved in multiple intervention programming approaches. Managing innovation and complexity is a challenge when the team members come from different disciplines, organizational cultures and research perspectives. This report captures some of those challenges with a participatory, capacity-building, community-based intervention over research stages. We detail successful and less successful attempts to manage the challenges within changing public health contexts and end with concrete suggestions for teams with mixed intervention and research goals. Insights from this project should inform similar programmes with multi-level, participatory, community-based approaches.
The defence of public interest and the intrusion of privacy
Authors: Morrison David E. , Svennevig Michael
Published: February 2007

The article examines the relationship between the public interest and the right to privacy, with the focus on journalistic practice and new values, and the general growth of social surveillance. The article then draws on a series of in-depth interviews with UK media regulators and media interest groups. These were in turn followed by a series of focus groups, leading to the development of a UK national sample survey. The research offers the basis for a more complex analysis of the factors involved in judging the relative rights of the media to intrude and individuals’ rights to be protected from intrusion. Central to this analysis is the development of a new concept - ‘social importance’. Unlike the established concept of ‘public interest’, social importance is readily operationizable, scalable in terms of intensity, in its potential applications.
Mixed Messages
Authors: Gabel Matthew , Scheve Kenneth
Published: February 2007

Mass opposition to Europe may stem from mainstream as well as formally Euroskeptic parties. Large parties in the member states of the European Union (EU) tend to combine support for Europe with a high level of intra-party dissent over the issue. Thus, these parties provide heterogeneous yet potentially influential signals about European integration to their supporters. In this paper, we examine the effect of intra-party dissent on the opinion of party supporters. Our estimation of this relationship explicitly addresses the issues of endogeneity, omitted variables, and measurement problems endemic to the empirical study of elite effects on mass opinion. Specifically, we use variation in the centralization of candidate selection rules as an instrumental variable for intra-party dissent. We find substantial evidence that intra-party dissent does indeed increase variation in support for integration among party supporters. With common levels of intra-party dissent, even pro-EU parties can cause a substantial portion of their supporters to adopt anti-EU opinions.
Is it necessary to use a noseclip in the performance of spirometry using a wedge bellows device?
Authors: Newall C , McCauley T M , Shakespeare J , Cooper B G
Published: February 2007

There is no current consensus among published guidelines on whether noseclips are required during spirometry testing. This study investigated the effect of noseclips on spirometric measurements in patients with a range of disease. Fifty-two patients (30 male; mean age 58.0 years, range 19-78; mean FEV1 82.6% predicted, range 23.8-128.3%) performed measurements of VC, FVC and FEV1 according to ARTP/BTS guidelines (1994) using a wedge bellows spirometer (Vitalograph Model S, Bucks, UK). All patients performed two sets of measurements (with and without noseclips) in random order (Group 1 = noseclips first; n = 30; Group 2 (without noseclips first, n = 22). Tests were conducted by qualified physiologists. Measurements obtained with and without the use of noseclips were similar (mean differences FEV1 -0.030 L SD 0.210 and -0.005 L SD 0.093 for Groups 1 and 2 respectively; FVC -0.007 L SD 0.109 and -0.040 L SD 0.117; VC 0.036 L SD 0.137 and -0.040 L SD 0.150) and were not dependent on patient group or previous test experience. Four patients had differences outside the 95% confidence limits for each parameter. There were no significant correlations between the differences with and without noseclips and severity of lung disease, age, smoking history, BMI or lung volume (all P > 0.100). The within patient coefficient of variation did not depend on the testing method. Use of noseclips during spirometry does not systematically affect the results obtained or the within-subject repeatability. Marked individual differences highlight the importance of maintaining consistency in the method adopted for a particular patient.
Evaluating hospital at home and early discharge schemes for patients with an acute exacerbation of COPD
Authors: Taylor S , Eldridge S , Chang Y-M , Sohanpal R , Clarke A
Published: February 2007

Hospital at home and early discharge schemes for patients experiencing an acute exacerbation of their chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, appear to be an effective and safe option for selected patients and these services have become increasingly common. Here we discuss the evaluation of such schemes including: the rationale for evaluation; aspects of quality which might be considered for evaluation; the role of evaluation frameworks, quantitative and qualitative evaluation and steps in planning an evaluation.
Respiratory health in Brazil
Authors: Jardim José R , Nascimento Oliver
Published: February 2007

According to the Brazilian Constitution each and every Brazilian has the right to free healthcare. Approximately 40% of the population have taken out a private or company funded health care program. Brazil is the world’s largest producer of alcohol derived from sugar cane and the burning of the sugar cane leaves produces a large amount of fine and ultrafine particles what increases the relative risk of hospital admissions by children increases 3.5-fold due to respiratory diseases.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) ranks as the sixth greatest cause of death in Brazil, with a prevalence of 15.8% according to the fixed-ratio FEV1/FVC = 0.70 (PLATINO Study).

The occurrence of wheezing in 13-14-year old children over the last 12 months was 20%, while asthma diagnosed by a doctor was at around 10% (ISAAC Study). Mortality from asthma has decreased from 2.2/100 000 in 1980 to 1.37 in 1996, with currently 2500 deaths/year.

Smoking is decreasing in Brazil; 32.6% of the adult population were smokers in 1989 while in 2002, a randomized survey carried out in over 107 Brazilian cities with a population of 200 thousand or over showed that the smoking population over 35 years of age had decreased to 24% (17% of overall population). Approximately one-third of the Brazilian population has been infected by the tuberculosis bacillus and estimates agree that there are 116 000 new cases per year but that only 90 000 are reported. Furthermore Brazil is ranked 14th in the world in the number of tuberculosis cases and the 22nd in incidence. A Family Health Program was created in 1994 and in 2005 there were 24 600 Family Health Teams functioning in Brazil, covering a total of 4986 cities, corresponding to approximately 45% of the 180 million Brazilian population. In 2005 the total number of health community agents reached 208 000 and the investment in the Health Family Program was US$ 1.4 billion.
into the future
Authors: Mor-Sommerfeld Aura , Azaiza Faisal , Hertz-Lazarowitz Rachel
Published: February 2007

This article presents a manifesto to discuss how bilingual - Hebrew-Arabic - education can work for Israel, challenging its reality and changing it. It presents the new comprehensive programme for bilingual education initiated and operated by the Jewish-Arab Centre at the University of Haifa, discussing it in the light of both theory and practice. This article consists of three parts. The first part outlines the Israeli educational system, describes its curriculum and refers to attempts to set up bilingual schools and projects in Israel. The second part reviews some theoretical aspects of bilingual education and offers new perspectives for analysing it. The last part deals with the new programme for bilingual education in Israel, examines its meaning and goals, and discusses possible models for promoting the programme.
school voices
Authors: Weinstein Harvey M. , Freedman Sarah Warshauer , Hughson Holly
Published: February 2007

We describe our research on the role of education in the social reconstruction of countries after mass conflict. Our studies focus on the voices of those least heard in the discourse - teachers, students, administrators and parents. We examine schools in four societies that experienced profound violence, ethnic cleansing and genocide during the 1990s - Croatia, the UN-administered province of Kosovo in Serbia-Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Rwanda. We question the assumptions that underlie current practice such as a narrow focus on emergency interventions, conflict resolution, peace education and textbook reform. Societal repair must involve a comprehensive set of interventions that recognizes the integrated nature of a society’s institutions. Schools are a unique component of building a long-term future.
Molecular epidemiology of measles viruses in China, 1995–2003
Authors: Zhang Yan , Zhu Zhen , Rota Paul A , Jiang Xiaohong , Hu Jiayu , Wang Jianguo , Tang Wei , Zhang Zhenying , Li Congyong , Wang Changyin , Wang Tongzhan , Zheng Lei , Tian Hong , Ling Hua , Zhao Chunfang , Ma Yan , Lin Chunyan , He Jilan , Tian Jiang , Ma Yan , Li Ping , Guan Ronghui , He Weikuan , Zhou Jianhui , Liu Guiyan , Zhang Hong , Yan Xinge , Yang Xuelei , Zhang Jinlin , Lu Yiyu , Zhou Shunde , Ba Zhuoma , Liu Wei , Yang Xiuhui , Ma Yujie , Liang Yong , Li Yeqiang , Ji Yixin , Featherstone David , Bellini William J , Xu Songtao , Liang Guodong , Xu Wenbo
Published: February 2007

This report describes the genetic characterization of 297 wild-type measles viruses that were isolated in 24 provinces of China between 1995 and 2003. Phylogenetic analysis of the N gene sequences showed that all of the isolates belonged to genotype H1 except 3 isolates, which were genotype A. The nucleotide sequence and predicted amino acid homologies of the 294-genotype H1 strains were 94.7%–100% and 93.3%–100%, respectively. The genotype H1 isolates were divided into 2 clusters, which differed by approximately 2.9% at the nucleotide level. Viruses from both clusters were distributed throughout China with no apparent geographic restriction and multiple co-circulating lineages were present in many provinces. Even though other measles genotypes have been detected in countries that border China, this report shows that genotype H1 is widely distributed throughout the country and that China has a single, endemic genotype. This important baseline data will help to monitor the progress of measles control in China.
Antinociceptive efficacy of lacosamide in the monosodium iodoacetate rat model for osteoarthritis pain
Authors: Beyreuther Bettina , Callizot Noëlle , Stöhr Thomas
Published: February 2007

The etiology of osteoarthritis is multifactorial, with inflammatory, metabolic, and mechanical causes. Pain in osteoarthritis is initiated by mild intra-articular inflammation and degeneration of articular cartilage and subchondral bone. The principle of treatment with acetaminophen or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs is to reduce pain and improve joint function. Recently, animal models for osteoarthritic pain behavior have been established. The most frequently used rat model for analyzing properties of drugs on the pathology of osteoarthritis is the injection of the metabolic inhibitor monosodium iodoacetate into the joint, which inhibits the activity of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase in chondrocytes. Here, we characterize the effect on pain behavior of lacosamide, a member of a family of functionalized amino acids that are analogues of endogenous amino acids and D-serine, in the monosodium iodoacetate rat model for osteoarthritis in comparison to diclofenac and morphine. Lacosamide (3, 10, and 30 mg/kg) was able to reduce secondary mechanical allodynia and hyperalgesia similarly to morphine (3 mg/kg). In contrast, diclofenac (30 mg/kg) was only effective in reducing secondary mechanical hyperalgesia. During the first week, pain is induced mainly by inflammation in the iodoacetate model, but afterwards inflammation plays only a minor role in pain. Lacosamide was able to inhibit pain at days 3, 7 and 14 after induction of arthritis. This shows that lacosamide is able to reduce pain behavior induced by multiple mechanisms in animals.
Toward a Grand Bargain with Iran
Authors: Carpenter Ted Galen
Published: February 2007

Ted Galen Carpenter is vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute.
China and the United States: Different Interests and Priorities
Authors: El-Khawas Mohamed A.
Published: February 2007

Mohamed A. El-Khawas is professor of history and political science at the University of the District of Columbia, Washington, DC.
Noble Orientation Change with Temperature in Nematic Liquid Crystalline Mixtures
Authors: Aoki Yoshio , Watabe Takeyoshi , Hirose Takuji , Ishikawa Ken
Published: February 2007

Unusual alignment phenomena were observed for nematic liquid crystalline mixtures with a dopant having a cyclohexane asymmetric frame. The liquid crystalline molecules changed from being homeogeneously aligned with the glass plates to being homeotropically aligned perpendicular to the glass plates. We report the conditions for the phenomena and discuss the results.
Template Syntheses of Porous Silica Adsorbents with Spherical Particle Morphologies
Authors: Berezovska I.S. , Yanishpolskii V.V. , Tertykh V.A. , Lobunets T.F. , Ragulya A.V.
Published: February 2007

The peculiarities of template syntheses of ordered porous silicas with spherical particle morphologies were investigated in alkaline and acidic media. The silicas obtained were characterized by nitrogen adsorption/desorption measurements, X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopies. Mesoporous silica matrices with high specific surface areas (450–1200 m2/g), an ordered pore structure and a spherical particle granulation of ca. 0.5 μm size were synthesized in alcohol/ammonia media. In acidic media, silica spheres with an average diameter of ca. 10 μm, a slightly ordered pore structure and a lower specific surface area (600 m2/g) were obtained.
What Leads Organizational Members to Collectivize? Injustice and Identification as Precursors of Union Certification
Authors: Blader Steven L.
Published: February 2007

This paper presents the results of two studies that examine the impact of both social psychological and economic concerns on organizational members’ decisions to support or oppose union formation. The studies test the predictions that procedural justice judgments and social identification—two social psychological factors that shape the nature of how people relate to their organizations—have a significant influence on people’s support for union certification and on the votes they cast in a union certification election. Importantly, it was predicted that these effects would emerge even after accounting for the influence of people’s economic concerns, which have been the primary focus of previous efforts to understand whether people support union formation. The results confirm these predictions and demonstrate that respondents’ positions on the unionization issue are shaped by procedural justice (Studies 1 and 2) and social identity (Study 2) even after accounting for economic factors. Furthermore, Study 2 shows that the impact of procedural justice judgments on union certification was partially mediated by social identity. More generally, the results highlight the importance of integrating both social psychological and economic concerns in models designed to explain organizational phenomena such as the formation of unions.
Exposure to and fear of terror as predictors of self‐rated health among apparently healthy employees
Authors: Shirom Arie , Toker Sharon , Shapira Itzhak , Berliner Shlomo , Melamed Samuel
Published: February 2007

The effects of exposure to terror on physical health were investigated by relating objective exposure to terror and fear of terror to self‐rated health (SRH), a proxy measure of health status. Our respondents were apparently healthy (N= 4,877, 38% women) adults who completed self‐report questionnaires. Objective exposure was assessed by the number of terrorist attacks and their casualties in a respondent's urban area prior to her/his completion of the questionnaire. Using several alternative assessments, objective exposure to terror did not predict SRH for both the genders. As hypothesized, fear of terror negatively predicted SRH for both females and males (β = −0.04, −0.05, respectively). The effects of subjective and objective exposure were not found to be more pronounced among women relative to men, thus disconfirming our hypotheses in this regard. Our findings suggest that living under continuous fear of terror may adversely influence physical health irrespective of objective exposure.
Achieving Amnesty: The Role of Events, Institutions, and Ideas
Authors: Quillin James M
Published: February 2007

This paper offers a causal explanation for why
the democratic majority in Athens for the most part did not exploit the
power it held in the People's Courts and dokimasia proceedings
to drive former oligarchic collaborators out of public life in the years
following the fall of the Thirty. A model, based on decision theory, of
the decision-making process under the Athenian democracy is developed. Its
predictions are assessed against the extant speeches of the period. The
author argues that the success of defendants was made possible by common
perceptions of recent events, by features of Athens' legal institutions,
and by the ingenuity of the speechwriters.
Of Gods, Philosophers, and Charioteers: Content and Form in Parmenides' Proem and Plato's Phaedrus
Authors: Slaveva-Griffin Svetla
Published: February 2007

This article examines the ways in which Parmenides and Plato
avail themselves of the literary motif of the charioteer's journey for
philosophical discourse. I argue that the Phaedrus' myth of the soul as a
charioteer exemplifies Plato's literary and philosophic appropriation of
the charioteer allegory in Parmenides' proem and of Parmenides' concept
of being, showing how the literary study of intertexts can be applied
to questions of both content and form in philosophy.
The Reunification Question in Cameroon History: Was the Bride an Enthusiastic or a Reluctant One?
Authors: Awasom Nicodemus Fru
Published: February 2007

Reunification discourse has generated controversy in Cameroon since the 1990s and hinges on the issue of the degree of commitment of Anglophone and Francophone Cameroonians to its realization. This essay provides a chronological, comprehensive, and critical survey of the reunification question. Often only part of the history is presented, either inadvertently or deliberately. It is argued in this essay that reunification was a minority ideology confined largely to the Cameroon people of the Southwestern quadrant. That notwithstanding, its chief proponents were Francophones who conceived it, propagated it, and sustained it until the United Nations recognized it in the 1960s.
Tradition and Innovation in Chen Shi-Zheng's Peony Pavilion
Authors: Rolston David
Published: February 2007

"Complete" and "authentic" were terms frequently used to describe the fifty-five-scene production of Tang Xianzu's a Peony Pavilion directed by Chen Shi-Zheng i for the Lincoln Center Festival. David Rolston attended one of the New York performances and explores how this production relates to the performance tradition and what influence it might have on future productions.
Ice Queens, Rice Queens, and Intercultural Investments in Zhang Yimou's Turandot
Authors: Metzger Sean
Published: February 2007

Stage director Zhang Yimou's production of Turandot
in the Forbidden City in Beijing was a spectacle of excess. Sean Metzger
analyzes the staging of this theatrical event and the investments that
fueled its production.
Sex Research at the Borders of Gender: Transvestites, Transsexuals, and Alfred C. Kinsey
Authors: Meyerowitz Joanne
Published: February 2007

Sex researcher Alfred Kinsey's vision of sexual taxonomy continued to evolve after he published his first landmark volume on human sexuality, and his research into sexual subcultures went beyond his initial studies of homosexuality and prostitution. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he developed a new interest in cross-dressing and cross-gender identification. This article outlines how and why he began to interview transvestites and transsexuals, and places his emerging vision of gendered behavior and gender identity within the scientific theories of his day. Kinsey rejected the prevailing views, preferring instead a behaviorist model of gender. He saw cross-dressing and crossgender identification as male phenomena and used them to speculate about sex differences in the capacity for psychological conditioning. In his usual style, he did not condemn transvestites or transsexuals, but he disapproved of the genital surgery requested by male-to-female transsexuals. It was here that Kinsey hit the limits of his well-known sexual liberalism in which he approved of all sexual variations that did not involve coercion.
The Origins of Informed Consent: The International Scientific Commission on Medical War Crimes, and the Nuremberg Code
Authors: Weindling Paul
Published: February 2007

The Nuremberg Code has generally been seen as arising from the Nuremberg Medical Trial. This paper examines developments prior to the Trial, involving the physiologist Andrew Conway Ivy and an inter-Allied Scientific Commission on Medical War Crimes. The paper traces the formulation of the concept of a medical war crime by the physiologist John West Thompson, as part of the background to Ivy's code on human experiments of 1 August 1946. It evaluates subsequent responses by the American Medical Association, and by other war crimes experts, notably Leo Alexander, who developed Ivy's conceptual framework. Ivy's interaction with the judges at Nuremberg alerted them to the importance of formulating ethical guidelines for clinical research.
How the Field of Thyroid Endocrinology Developed in France after World War II
Authors: Fragu Philippe
Published: February 2007

This microhistory analyzes the transformation of French
medical practice after World War II. Before the 1940s, coordinated
clinical and experimental studies on a patient with thyroid disease
were nonexistent. Starting in 1945, thyroid endocrinology was pushed
forward by the use of radioiodine, which led pediatricians to rethink
the hereditary transmission of thyroid diseases, stimulated by the
school of biochemistry headed by Jean Roche, who participated in the
elucidation of thyroid-hormone metabolism. Roche knew how to listen to
hospital clinicians, who, in return, gave him free access to patients
to conduct investigations on thyroid metabolism. Radioiodine proved to
be sufficiently flexible to respond to the respective information needs
of clinicians and biochemists, and was also responsible for the profound
transformation of scientific reasoning: the chemical framework that had
dominated thyroid studies since the discovery of thyroid iodine (1896)
was replaced by the hormone paradigm.
Divisions and Diversity: The Complexities of Medical Refuge in Britain, 1933-1948
Authors: Decker Karola
Published: February 2007

The experiences of medical refugees who came to the United Kingdom from Nazi Germany and occupied Europe in the 1930s and 1940s reflect the general characteristics of the British response to the refugee crisis. This article analyzes the role of the British medical establishment and its interplay with the government and refugee aid organizations. Processes of decision making and changes of policy are revealed, drawing on the files of the "Aliens Committee" at the archive of the British Medical Association, on the private collection of Yvonne Kapp, former administrative head of the Medical Department of the Central Office for Refugees, and on the medical subseries of the archive of the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning. "Divisions" refer to differing interests and attitudes of the institutions, organizations and individuals involved; "diversity" reflects the response to the various nationalities of medical refugees, mainly German, Austrian, Czech, and Polish.
"White Man's Book No Good": D. W. Griffith and the American Indian
Authors: Jay Gregory S.
Published: February 2007

D. W. Griffith made some thirty short films on Indian subjects during the Biograph years. Yet these mostly melodramatic treatments have received little critical attention. Analyzing films such as The Call of the Wild, A Romance of the Western Hills , and The Massacre , this essay explains how the apparently sympathetic representation of the Native American still adheres to the logic of white supremacy eventually enunciated in The Birth of a Nation .
Under "Western Eyes": The Personal Odyssey of Huang Fei-Hong in Once upon a Time in China
Authors: Williams Tony
Published: February 2007

Rather than being read in exclusively postmodernist terms, Tsui Hark's series Once upon a Time in China may be understood as a new version of a Hong Kong cinematic discourse involving historical "interflow." It deals with dispersion, China's relationship to the outside world, and strategic forms of reintegration designed to strengthen national identity.
"Memoria Dextera Est": Film and Public Memory in Postwar Germany
Authors: Hoerschelmann Olaf
Published: February 2007

This article investigates the struggles over public memory in postwar Germany. The representation of the Red Army Fraction (RAF) terrorist movement indicates the power of official memory. However, examples from the New German Cinema demonstrate that the creation of countermemories remained possible even at the peak of terrorism in the "German Autumn" of 1977.
J. Howard Sobel on the Kalam Cosmological Argument
Authors: Craig William Lane
Published: February 2007

Introduction

J. Howard Sobel devotes seventy pages of his wide-ranging analysis of theistic arguments to a critique of the cosmological argument. The focus of that critique falls on the argument a contingentia mundi; but he also offers in passing some criticisms of the argument ab initio mundi, or the kalam cosmological argument.

Sobel provides the following Statement of the argument:

Everything that begins to exist has a cause of its existence.

The universe began to exist.

Therefore, the universe has a cause of its existence [that did not begin to exist].

Sobel will accept the causal premiss (1) only if ‘begins to exist’ means ‘has a first instant of its existence,’ and he disputes the arguments and evidence for (2).

Traditional proponents of the kalam argument sought to justify (2) by means of philosophical arguments against the infinity of the past, while contemporary interest in the argument arises from the empirical evidence of physical cosmology for the truth of (2).
Transforming the Insider-Outsider Perspective: Postcolonial Fiction from the Pacific
Authors: Tawake Sandra
Published: February 2007

Historically, the perspective assumed in writing about the Pacific until 1970 presented Pacific peoples through European eyes in roles of spectators and objects of European desires. After the beginning of what Paul Sharrad called an "authentic" Pacific literature, the perspective shifted to one that viewed life through the eyes of Pacific peoples. For example, "Parade" by Patricia Grace can be read as a trope of the transforming power of the insider perspective. When the insider perspective is examined in postcolonial terms, it is clear that "there can hardly be such a thing as an essential inside that can be homogeneously represented by all insiders" (Minh-ha 1995, 218). The realities of contemporary writers from the Pacific illustrate the complications in claiming privilege for Pacific voices because they are native. New fiction from the Pacific during the 1990s exhibits its postcolonial identity through the perspectives it adopts, through innovations in language use, and through its ability to transform traditional images of society and culture into images of postcoloniality.
Net Gains? Pacific Studies in Cyberspace
Authors: Wesley-Smith Terence
Published: February 2007

The paper explores how the Internet can be used to enhance the quality
of teaching and learning in Pacific Islands studies. It does so with
reference to an experimental web-based interactive module that linked
classes at University of Hawai'i and Canterbury University in fall 2000 as
part of the Ford-funded project, Moving Cultures: Remaking Asia-Pacific
Studies. The paper argues that such interactive pedagogies can be used
to redress some of the power imbalances apparent in the field of study
and help accelerate an ongoing process of decolonization.
Money Laundering, Global Financial Instability, and Tax Havens in the Pacific Islands
Authors: Van Fossen Anthony B
Published: February 2007

Pacific Islands offshore financial centers (OFCs) are
battling against the danger that international organizations will cut
them off from the global financial system. Since 1999 the image of
the region's tax havens has been most shaped by the "horror story"
of Nauru—the media's account of how Nauru has been involved
with the Bank of New York and other banks in tens of billions of
dollars of Russian money laundering, tax evasion, and illegal capital
flight. In the late 1990s left-of-center governments led international
organizations toward a much more aggressive attack on offshore financial
centers. Soon international organizations began blacklisting offshore
centers and threatening sanctions—with Pacific Islands being
prominent targets. The advent of the conservative Bush administration in
America defused a number of threats to offshore centers from international
organizations, as the United States began to object to Europe's anti-tax
haven agenda. While the attacks of 11 September 2001 led international
organizations to rebuke offshore centers for helping to finance terrorism,
OFC promoters contended that the anti-OFC
campaign had been so weakened and qualified since the Bush presidency that
it might soon collapse. The future of Pacific Islands offshore centers may
rest on the outcome of political struggles in the United States, Europe,
and international organizations. Two things are clear: that the dominant
media image of a number of Pacific Islands states may continue to be
shaped by perceptions of their offshore financial centers (making them
targets of moral indignation), and that their international relations
may at times be held hostage to the issue of their tax havens.
Relationship Between Identity Processing Style and Academic Success in Undergraduate Students
Authors: Boyd Vivian S , Hunt Patricia F , Kandell Jonathan J , Lucas Margaretha S
Published: February 2007

Using a sample of 2818 first-year college students, 51% of whom
were male, and 65% of whom were Caucasian, we related their identity
processing styles as determined by the Identity Styles Inventory (ISI,
Berzonsky, 1992) to self-perceived academic self-efficacy and academic
performance. We conceptualized obstacles to identity development and
academic success and discussed proactive interventions within a context
of gender and cultural diversity.
Diversity Experiences and College Student Learning and Personal Development
Authors: Hu Shouping , Kuh George D
Published: February 2007

Using responses to The College Student Experience Questionnaire
(CSEQ) from 53,756 undergraduates at 124 American four-year colleges
and universities, this study examines the effects of interactional
diversity experiences on a range of desirable outcomes for White
students and students of color in different types of higher education
institutions. Though White students had less contact with students
from different backgrounds, such experiences positively affected the
self-reported gains for both Whites and students of color at all types
of colleges. These effects differed in magnitude, however, for White
students and students of color, depending on the respective outcome
measure and institutional type.
The Effect of Learning and Motivation Strategies Training on College Studentsi Achievement
Authors: Tuckman Bruce W.
Published: February 2007

Cognitive and metacognitive strategies, often referred to as "study
skills," are considered essential to being successful in college. Their
importance is underscored by the fact that academic tasks at the college
level tend to demand far more higher-level thinking and independent
learning than those encountered in secondary school (Carson, Chase,
Gibson, & Hargove, 1992). Instruction in these strategies is
currently the subject of much interest and research in education. An
example of a general approach to teaching learning strategies, labeled
"learning-to-learn," has its basis in informational and generative models
of learning, and its emphasis on self-regulated and strategic learning
(Simpson, Hynd, Nist, & Burrell, 1997).
Race and Gender Differences in the Transfer Student Experience
Authors: Wawrzynski Matthew R , Sedlacek William E
Published: February 2007

The expectations, self-perceptions, past academic behaviors, and attitudes
of transfer students were examined in this study. Participants were 2,492
incoming transfer students (53% female, 14% African American, 14%
Asian American or Pacific Islander, 6% Hispanic/Latino/a, and 65% White,
and had a mean age of 21.8) at a mid-Atlantic doctoral extensive public
university. During their university orientation, students completed the
Transfer Student Survey (Wawrzynski, Kish, Bal�n, & Sedlacek,
1999). Multivariate statistical analysis revealed differences by race and
gender for expectations, academic behaviors, and learning outcomes. The
use of noncognitive variables was discussed in the context of the various
findings and implications.
Only English by the third generation? Loss and preservation of the mother tongue among the grandchildren of contemporary immigrants
Authors: Alba Richard , Logan John , Lutz Amy , Stults Brian
Published: February 2007

We investigate whether a three-generation model of linguistic assimilation, known from previous waves of immigration, can be applied to the descendants of contemporary immigrant groups. Using the 5% Integrated Public Use Microdata Sample 1990 file, we examine the home languages of second- and third-generation children and compare the degree of their language shift against that among the descendants of European immigrants, as evidenced in the 1940 and 1970 censuses. Overall, the rates of speaking only English for a number of contemporary groups suggest that Anglicization is occurring at roughly the same pace for Asians as it did for Europeans, but is slower among the descendants of Spanish speakers. Multivariate models for three critical groups—Chinese, Cubans, and Mexicans—indicate that the home languages of third-generation children are most affected by factors, such as intermarriage, that determine the languages spoken by adults and by the communal context.
Vox Pauli:
Authors: O.S.A. Thomas F. Martin
Published: February 2007

This article explores one aspect of the pervasive presence of Paul in Augustine of Hippo's thought, what might be called his "Pauline voice." From the mid-300s C.E. to the mid-400s, there was a marked turn towards the figure and theology of Paul, indicated by the flurry of commentaries on Pauline letters written during that period. "Who correctly interprets Paul?" emerged as a bitterly contested question, with disparate voices claiming to speak in his name. This article considers how Augustine entered into this debate, analyzing a series of "dialogues" or "conversations" with the Apostle that occur within the course of his preaching. Augustine uses this rhetorical technique to permit Paul's own voice to affirm Augustine's reading of the Apostle. The article concludes with a consideration of the implications of these dialogues, in particular, the authority they conferred upon Augustine's own understanding of Paul.
A New Style of Argument in Christian Polemic: Augustine and the Use of Patristic Citations
Authors: Rebillard Éric
Published: February 2007

By a progressive and careful construction during his controversy with the Pelagians, Augustine provides Christian polemic with a new kind of argument: the citation of patristic authorities who have reached an agreement on a doctrinal question. A careful reading of the different treatises shows that Augustine is struggling to find a way to argue from patristic citation without being bound to the authority of any one of his predecessors. This is why he tries to work within the authority of a consensus of Catholic authors. This creation is more than a response to the attacks of the Pelagians and reflects that Augustine is conscious of the difficulty of claiming scriptural warrant for doctrine and of the necessity of introducing other factors into this search.
Marcion's Love of Creation
Authors: McGowan Andrew
Published: February 2007

Although Marcion is often said to have rejected matter as inherently evil, Marcionite sacramental practice and asceticism suggest a more complex and specific set of attitudes to material things and practices. Later heresiologists analyzed Marcion's rather negative cosmogony and saw inconsistency, but Marcionite Christianity was less concerned with the origins of things than with their significance in light of the new creative work of the loving Stranger god. What Marcion despised was arguably the order ( kosmos ) of creation, rather than the mere fact of it. If the higher god saves human beings, who are part of the Creator's work and without affinity to that "Stranger," then by analogy the use of water in baptism or bread in the eucharist may be understood as the ritual reconfiguration of matter into the new order willed by its "new master and proprietor."
The Ambiguous Laughter of Saint Laurence
Authors: Conybeare Catherine
Published: February 2007

This essay uses contemporary theories of masculinity to read Prudentius' narrative of the martyrdom of St. Laurence ( Peristephanon 2). We find that, far from being the site of a conventional glorification of martyrdom and Rome, this narrative contains many subversive elements which derive from the presentation of Laurence as ambiguously-gendered. The subversion is epitomized in the famous jest of Laurence as he lies roasting on the gridiron; but we see here how Prudentius' poem, and other lesser accounts of the same martyrdom, place this jest in a wider context of shifting masculinities, social critique, and antihegemonic hilarity.
Performing Family: Ritual Kissing and the Construction of Early Christian Kinship
Authors: Penn Michael
Published: February 2007

Early Christians described and performed the ritual kiss in ways that helped them create a cohesive, family-like community. The kiss could include certain people in the church, exclude others, and help distinguish Christian behavior. An investigation of the ritual kiss presents an opportunity to illustrate how performance theory's emphasis on embodied action can help us better appreciate how practice, as well as rhetoric, affected early Christian communities.
Why the Portiana?: Reflections on the Milanese Basilica Crisis of 386
Authors: Colish Marcia L.
Published: February 2007

The standoff between Ambrose of Milan and the anti-Nicene court party over the latter's use of the Portian basilica during the Easter season of 386 has typically been studied in the light of Ambrose's letters, his sermon against the anti-Nicene bishop Auxentius, and the account of his biographer Paulinus. This paper argues that fresh light can be shed on both the importance of the Portiana to the anti-Nicenes and on the radicalism of Ambrose's refusal to cede it to them by bringing liturgical and archeological evidence to bear on the question.
Translating Faith from Greek to Latin: Romanitas and Christianitas in Late Fourth-Century Rome and Milan
Authors: Lafferty Maura K
Published: February 2007

In the late fourth-century churches of Rome and Milan, the prayers of the liturgy of the faithful, the core of what would become the eucharistic canon, were set down in written form, establishing Latin as the liturgical language. In each case, this step was a response to complex local circumstances. The adoption of a Latin liturgy allowed Damasus to identify his church with traditional Roman culture, to appropriate its values and prestige, and to claim a share in the aristocratic life of the city for the rulers of the Roman church. For Ambrose, the Latin liturgy excluded the barbarian Arians and identified Christianity with Roman civilization and culture. Although locally motivated, however, the decisive move to the use of Latin in the fixed portions of the liturgy in Rome and Milan was an important step towards the formation of the concept of Latinitas as a unifying characteristic of western Europe.
"From the Womb of the Church": Monastic Families
Authors: Krawiec Rebecca
Published: February 2007

This article presents a scrutiny of four major monastic texts (Augustine's letters to Laetus and Ecdicia; Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Macrina; and the Egyptian monk Shenoute's sermon, "On Cleaving to Profitable Things") to argue that a "profamilial" attitude existed alongside the widely-recognized "antifamilial" one. Overall I wish to argue that even within an ascetic discourse, "family discourse" could be used to transform the notion of "family" into one cohesive Christian category. Together these texts show that in late antique Christianity the spiritual and fleshly families could be linked, rather than opposed, to attain salvation for all.
Land-Cover/Land-Use Changes in the Derekolli Catchment of the South Welo Zone of Amhara Region, Ethiopia
Authors: Tegene. Belay
Published: February 2007

A land-cover analysis carried out in the catchment of Derekolli stream, using image analysis and GIS technologies, in conjunction with data collected through field surveys, revealed two types of changes, i.e., land-cover modification and conversion. The shrubland, which apparently formed the climax vegetation of the study site, and accounted for 16.4 % of the watershed in 1957, disappeared at the rate of 1.6 and 0.31 per cent per year from 1957 to 1986, and from 1986 to 2000, respectively. This change involved a gradual thinning of the shrub and its modification to shrub grassland, and then grassland, due to the selective cutting of the woody biomass for fuelwood and charcoal production. A significant conversion from natural vegetation cover to cropland was observed only between 1957 and 1986, where the cultivated land expanded by 7 per cent. There was very little change in the cropland area since 1986, as most of the land suitable for cultivation was already in use and the limit for expansion had almost been reached. The other type of conversion, i.e., the change from cultivated land to urban area, was insignificant since the land taken up by the emerging town, together with the roads accounted for less than 1.5 per cent of the total area of the catchment.
Child Morbidity and Mortality in Slum Environments along Nairobi River
Authors: Keraka Margaret Nyanchoka , Wamicha W. N
Published: February 2007

The problem that guided this study was that child mortality and morbidity disparities continue to be observed in the era of improved expansion of the provision of health care services. Some areas have low mortality and morbidity while others such as the slums of Nairobi have high. Various factors may account for this scenario. On the one hand, this would be because of uneven distribution of health facilities. On the other hand, environmental factors may be the major contributors to this high rate of morbidity and mortality. Environmental factors have been analysed in the context of socio-economic, socio-cultural and health environments. The aim of this study was therefore to examine the impact of slum environments on morbidity and mortality profile in slum environments along Nairobi River. The main objectives were: first, to assess the influence of environmental factors on child morbidity and mortality, and second, to analyse the influence of the perception and behaviour patterns of slum dwellers on child mortality and morbidity. The data used in this study was collected using in-depth interviews and extensive literature review. The key findings of the study included the fact that poverty is a major factor in child morbidity and mortality. It is because of low-income levels that the families concerned were not able to improve the sanitation that was in turn going to improve the health status of the children. The study therefore recommended that the government should give small loans to slum dwellers, which they can use to start income- generating activities. This can help generate some money that may improve childcare practices.