bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Programming for Early Motor Responses within the Classroom
Authors: Johnson Janis L.
Published: January 2017

Initiating programs to develop early motor responses in the profoundly retarded and multiply handicapped is an extremely important skill for teachers of this population. Head control, trunk control, sitting balance, and equilibrium responses constitute a critical part of the curriculum for handicapped students who do not have these skills. This article provides some basic activities, techniques, and considerations that may facilitate the acquisition of these basic motor responses.
A Comparison of a Vote Count and a Meta-Analysis Review of Intervention Research With Adult Cancer Patients
Authors: Cwikel Julie , Behar Lynn , Rabson-Hare June
Published: January 2017

Objective: This study compares the utility of two methods of knowledge utilization in social work intervention: vote count review and meta-analysis. Methods: Using the two methods, the authors reviewed 40 intervention studies with adult cancer patients that used treatment techniques common in social work. The common research question was, which treatments are the most effective with cancer patients, differentiated by disease phase and type of diagnosis? Results: By both methods of review, interventions were shown to be most common and effective at the treatment phase, and cognitive-behavioral methods showed the most consistently positive effects. Correlations between the vote count and meta-analysis results showed that the outcome score given in the vote count was very strongly correlated with the average effect size from the meta-analysis. Conclusions: Vote count is a relatively simple method of knowledge utilization, whereas meta-analysis requires careful explanation of the discretionary steps taken in analysis.
Development and Validation of the Social Work Career Influence Questionnaire
Authors: Biggerstaff Marilyn A.
Published: January 2017

Objective: This research tested the Social Work Career Influence Questionnaire (SWCIQ) as a measurement tool for assessing career influence variables among master's of social work (MSW) students. Method: A nonprobability sample of 589 students from six MSW programs participated in the cross-sectional survey that included the SWCIQ. Four areas of career influence were identified using factor analytic techniques and item analysis: Personal and Family Experiences, Desire To Be a Therapist, Prestige of the Profession, and the Social Change Mission of the Profession. The four subscales each contain eight items with acceptable alpha levels (.76 to .81). Results: Aspirations for private practice were positively associated with higher scores on the Personal and Family Experiences, Desire To Be a Therapist and Prestige subscales. High scores on the Social Change dimension resulted regardless of the students' career aspirations. Conclusions: Career choice is a multidimensional construct matching personal and social change values regardless of MSW students' projected practice setting.
Psychosocial Treatments for Battered Women: A Review of Empirical Research
Authors: Abel Eileen Mazur
Published: January 2017

Despite the high incidence of domestic violence, information about the effectiveness of practice with battered women is scant. The purpose of this article is to critically review the research on practice effectiveness with abused women. Toward this end, the author examines the outcomes of practice research with battered women in terms of its conceptual adequacy, methodology, and findings. Implications for social work research and practice are drawn.
Typologies of Altruistic and Financial Motivations for Research Participation
Authors: Chin Lisa J. , Berenson Jacqueline A. , Klitzman Robert L.
Published: January 2017

Questions arise concerning participants’ motives in risky studies, such as HIV vaccine trials (HVTs). We interviewed in-depth 20 gay/bisexual men. Participants described both altruistic and nonaltruistic motives. Altruistic motivations emerged primarily, with nine typologies: (a) cultural, (b) community related, (c) familial, (d) religious, (e) professional, (f) political (e.g., HIV activism), (g) moral (e.g., making up for past wrongs), (h) existential (e.g., providing sense of meaning), and (i) other psychological (e.g., emotional gratification). Views of compensation varied: not a factor (55%), added incentive (25%), main motivator, but in conjunction with altruism (15%), and primary motivator (5%). HVT participants thus often have both altruistic and financial motives, and related typologies emerged. These findings have critical implications for studies on HIV, other conditions, and research ethics.
Laughing It Off: Uncovering the Everyday Work Experience of Nurses
Authors: Adams Valerie M.
Published: January 2017

During research towards her doctoral dissertation, the author noticed that nurses understated the conditions in which they worked. Seeking to understand how nursing culture shapes how nurses describe their work, she developed a “toolbox” of reflexive methods. She used metaphors of nursing and emotion expressed as laughter to identify aspects of nursing culture in semistructured interviews with nurses working in Australian residential aged care facilities. She also incorporated autoethnography, as she had worked as a registered nurse while studying economics. The inclusion of her voice in the data illustrates the difference between nursing culture and another worldview. These pluralist methods made explicit some of the effects of gendered socialization, such as understatement and self-consciousness, and demonstrate how they are embedded in nursing culture. Awareness of such norms is important for understanding marketized caring labor. This combination of methods has significance for uncovering workplace culture in other forms of marketized caring.
Divining for Water: Considerations for Methodology
Authors: Roger Kerstin , Penner Leslie
Published: January 2017

The authors explore the steps between conceptualizing a qualitative study based on Charmaz's definition of grounded theory and carrying it out in the field. We reflect on how the reality of the vulnerable population to be studied (individuals living with a condition that involves neurological decline) required us to shift our original conceptualization, not only of the research question but of the recruitment and interview process as well. Other factors such as organizational gatekeeping, clinical procedures, university regulations as well as recruitment strategies are discussed. The authors reflect on the study of persons who are living with chronic conditions and end-of-life realities for whom research is not considered a priority. We discuss the sequential steps that had been envisioned for the study and the real -world conditions that required revisions to conduct the study. Recommendations emerge that will assist students and researchers alike when studying a similar vulnerable population.
Behavior recognition for humanoid robots using long short-term memory
Authors: How Dickson Neoh Tze , Loo Chu Kiong , Sahari Khairul Salleh Mohamed
Published: January 2017

Learning from demonstration plays an important role in enabling robot to acquire new behaviors from human teachers. Within learning from demonstration, robots learn new tasks by recognizing a set of preprogrammed behaviors or skills as building blocks for new, potentially more complex tasks. One important aspect in this approach is the recognition of the set of behaviors that comprises the entire task. The ability to recognize a complex task as a sequence of simple behaviors enables the robot to generalize better on more complex tasks. In this article, we propose that primitive behaviors can be taught to a robot via learning from demonstration. In our experiment, we teach the robot new behaviors by demonstrating the behaviors to the robot several times. Following that, a long short-term memory recurrent neural network is trained to recognize the behaviors. In this study, we managed to teach at least six behaviors on a NAO humanoid robot and trained a long short-term memory recurrent neural network to recognize the behaviors using the supervised learning scheme. Our result shows that long short-term memory can recognize all the taught behaviors effectively, and it is able to generalize to recognize similar types of behaviors that have not been demonstrated on the robot before. We also show that the long short-term memory is advantageous compared to other neural network frameworks in recognizing the behaviors in the presence of noise in the behaviors.
Fast plane segmentation with line primitives for RGB-D sensor
Authors: Zhang Lizhi , Chen Diansheng , Liu Weihui
Published: January 2017

This article presents a fast and robust plane segmentation approach for RGB-D type sensor, which detects plane candidates by line segments extracted from 2-D scanline projected from row or column points. It neither requires high computation to calculate local normals for the entire point cloud as most of approaches do nor randomly chooses plane candidates such as RANSAC-like approaches. First, a line extraction algorithm is utilized to extract line segments. Second, the plane candidates are detected by estimating local normal of points lying on line segments. Finally, the plane having most inlier is recursively extracted from the plane candidates as the result plane. Experiments were conducted with different data sets and the segmentation performances were evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively. We demonstrated the efficiency and robustness of our proposed approach, especially in the none plane scenario, the approach needs little computational cost.
A novel shared control algorithm for industrial robots
Authors: Ramacciotti Marco , Milazzo Mario , Leoni Fabio , Roccella Stefano , Stefanini Cesare
Published: January 2017

Human management of robots in many specific industrial activities has long been imperative, due to the elevated levels of complexity involved, which can only be overcome through long and wasteful preprogrammed activities. The shared control approach is one of the most emergent procedures that can compensate and optimally couple human smartness with the high precision and productivity characteristic to mechatronic systems. To explore and to exploit this approach in the industrial field, an innovative shared control algorithm was elaborated, designed and validated in a specific case study.
Meta-analysis: complex relationships between patient satisfaction, age and item-level response rate
Authors: Voutilainen Ari
Published: January 2017

Causality of the relationship between the objective quality outcomes of care and patient satisfaction has been questioned in many studies. Consequently, it is highly important to study potential confounders in order to improve reliability and validity of patient satisfaction surveys and enable comparisons between objective and subjective outcomes. This study aimed to test the effect of item-level response rate on the results of patient satisfaction surveys and its interaction with another potential confounding factor, patient age. The data included 39 surveys with balanced Likert-scale items. The surveys were systematically gathered from PubMed and had been published 2005–2014. The relationship between the item-level patient satisfaction and item-level response rate was almost without exception positive when the overall patient satisfaction was >4.2 on a traditional 1–5 scale and patients were middle-aged or older. The meta-analysis demonstrated that the relationship between item-level patient satisfaction and item-level response rate is situational, and generalisations regarding the size of the correlation should be made with caution. Controlling for item-level response rate and patient age, simultaneously, is necessary to improve validity of patient satisfaction surveys. The present study calls for novel age-specific approaches to deal with missing data.
Oral warning signs of elastic pseudoxanthoma
Authors: Alvim Lara Passos , Pires Thaís Izidoro , Chaves Maria das Graças Afonso Miranda , Savioli Cynthia , Fabri Gisele Maria Campos
Published: January 2017

The pseudoxanthoma elasticum is a multisystemic heritable disease that primarily affects the connective tissue. It has been characterized by fragmentation and calcification of elastic fibers that can lead to complications of skin and cardiovascular system and changes in retina. Involvement of the oral mucosa has been described like white patches striated especially in the mucosa of both upper and lower lips. These oral signs are potentially useful to diagnose the disease, since it is an often undiagnosed disease due to the variability in phenotypic expressions. This study reports a case of pseudoxanthoma elasticum affecting a woman who developed lesions in the oral mucosa during the disease progression. Intraoral clinical assessment revealed the presence of changes mainly in lower labial mucosa and also slightly changes in the mouth floor and the upper labial mucosa. Therefore, the acknowledgment of oral pseudoxanthoma elasticum lesions helps dental practitioners to establish an early and appropriate diagnosis of this disease. This is very important because pseudoxanthoma elasticum is a multisystem disease with morbidity and mortality, and its early diagnosis and also the establishment of a follow-up protocol for these patients could prevent systemic and oral complications.
Self-reported short sleep duration and insomnia symptoms as predictors of post-pregnancy weight change: Results from a cohort study
Authors: Rognmo Kamilla , Sivertsen Børge , Eberhard-Gran Malin
Published: January 2017

This study aims to investigate whether change in sleep duration and insomnia symptoms in the postpartum period is related to change in body mass index from before to 2 years after pregnancy. This study is based on self-report data from a Norwegian cohort, the AHUS Birth Cohort Study. Data were collected at 8 weeks (T1) and 2 years (T2) postpartum. Data from 812 women were analyzed. The results showed that only women with symptoms of insomnia at both T1 and T2 (persistent symptoms) had a greater increase in body mass index compared to women with no insomnia symptoms at T1 or T2.The results indicate that persistent insomnia symptoms are related to a greater increase in body mass index.
Clinical relevance of IgE-mediated sensitization against the mould Alternaria alternata in children with asthma
Authors: Lehmann Sylvia , Sprünken Anja , Wagner Norbert , Tenbrock Klaus , Ott Hagen
Published: January 2017

Background:

Asthma in childhood has a prevalence of 5–10% in Germany and severe asthma accounts for about 5% in this patient group. Positive predictive values for severe asthma are atopy, a positive family history and sensitizations against inhalative allergens. Alternaria is an important inhalative allergen and sensitization is suspected to correlate with severe and lethal asthma. We investigated the prevalence and impact of Alternaria sensitization in paediatric asthma.

Methods:

We reviewed paediatric patients with a diagnosis of low-grade, moderate and severe asthma. Data collection included concomitant atopic diseases, sensitization profiles, family history and prior hospitalization for asthma exacerbation.

Results:

A total of 207 paediatric patients (aged 1–17 years) were included in the study. Overall, 25% had low-grade asthma, 31% moderate and 44% severe asthma and 26% were formerly hospitalized. Alternaria sensitization was the most common in moulds, although without significant correlation with hospitalization and severe asthma. Alternaria sensitization increased with age and was significantly associated with co-sensitization against other moulds, grass pollen and cat epithelia. Allergic rhinitis was significantly correlated with hospitalization, independent of Alternaria sensitization.

Conclusions:

Alternaria sensitization was common and increased with age. No significant correlation was found between asthma degree, hospitalization rates and sensitization profiles. Alternaria sensitization demonstrated no isolated risk factor for severe asthma and hospitalization.
Law as an extrinsic responsivity factor: What’s just is what works!
Authors: Herzog-Evans Martine
Published: January 2017

If criminologists and psychologists have studied practitioners’ ethics, they have not integrated the legal system into offender treatment theory. Offender treatment models have, moreover, not taken stock of the Legitimacy of Justice and the Self-Determination literatures, according to which people comply more substantively, and for longer periods of time, with decisions that are made fairly, and respect individuals’ agency. It is generally assumed that despite modern mass managerial and punitive probation, practitioners and their institutions have retained their original well-meaning ethos. In this article, it is suggested that law as a system ought to be integrated into a new subdivision of the Responsivity principle: ‘Extrinsic- Responsivity’. It is further argued that it is high time for probation staff and institutions to lose their untouchable status and be subjected to legal scrutiny and procedural constraints.
Spillover and work–family conflict in probation practice: Managing the boundary between work and home life
Authors: Westaby Chalen , Phillips Jake , Fowler Andrew
Published: January 2017

Based on the close relationship between social work and probation practice, this article uses and develops Greenhaus and Beutell’s (1985) work–family conflict model to understand the spillover from probation work to practitioners’ family lives. We examine the ways spillover affects practitioners’ family lives and show that these conflicts stem from desensitisation and the work being community based. They also arise in more imagined ways, which we describe as altruistic imaginings and darker imaginings. The article concludes by highlighting the need for organisations to acknowledge spillover and its effects and makes suggestions around the provision of organisational policies. We conclude by considering what probation providers, as employers, might do to improve the situation as well as some reflective tools that practitioners might use to consider their own work–life balance with a view to improving staff wellbeing as well as effective service provision.
Financial Development and Output: A Synthesis of Time Series Cointegration and Causality Tests for Bangladesh
Authors: Das Anupam , Khan Syeed
Published: January 2017

Since the 1980s, financial liberalization in developing countries has been an important policy prescription of many international organizations including the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). It is argued that the liberalization of the financial sector would allocate productive resources in the most efficient way and increase economic growth. However, the relationship between financial liberalization and output is not clear in the existing empirical literature. Applying the cointegration and Granger causality tests within the vector error correction model (VECM) to a data set from 1974 to 2013, our results suggest that output per capita Granger causes financial development, and vice versa. Hence, we find the evidence of bidirectional causality between financial development and GDP in Bangladesh. These results will help policymakers design financial policies in Bangladesh and other developing countries, which face the dilemma of financial liberalization while maintaining a high and stable output growth.

JEL Classification: E44, O40, C22
Structure, Conduct and Performance Analysis of Indian Commercial Banks
Authors: Barua Ratna , Roy Malabika , Raychaudhuri Ajitava
Published: January 2017

The market structure, conducts and performance of the Indian banking sector have changed since the introduction of banking sector reforms. Slower economic growth, coupled with asset quality problems in recent years, has taken a toll on the overall health of the Indian banking sector. Higher statutory capital requirement under Basel III has posed another major challenge to the Indian banks. The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of structural changes and conduct of Indian commercial banks on their profitability in the paradigm of structure–conduct–performance (SCP) framework. Market concentration, bank-specific/macroeconomic variables have been considered as important determinants of the profitability. The regression results find a negative relationship between profitability and market concentration and reject SCP hypotheses. The study found that capitalization, credit risk, leverage and ownership structure are the most important determinants of the profitability of Indian banks. The study also found that financial crisis had no significant impact on the profitability of Indian banks.

JEL Classification: C4, G21, G28, L19
Pareto Improving Redistribution in the Case of Private Provision of Multiple Pure Public Goods
Authors: Sanyal Tilak
Published: January 2017

The article considers the scope of Pareto improvement through an inequality-inducing income transfer in a society where multiple pure public goods are provided by voluntary contribution only from the rich individual. In contrast to the case of single public good, here we show that in presence of only one poor individual in the society such an income transfer can never be Pareto improving.

JEL Classification: H41, D63, D31, H23
Book Review: Louise Tillin, Rajeshwari Deshpande and K.K. Kailash (eds), Politics of Welfare: Comparisons across Indian States
Authors: Phadnis Ajit
Published: January 2017

Louise Tillin, Rajeshwari Deshpande and K.K. Kailash (eds), Politics of Welfare: Comparisons across Indian States. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 2015. 256 pages. ₹850.
Intercountry, transracial adoption and ethnic identity: A Korean example
Authors: Soon Huh Nam , Reid William J.
Published: January 2017

Intercountry, transracial adoptions, such as adoptions of Korean and Chinese children by American families, raise questions about the formation of ethnic identities of the adoptees. Such questions were addressed in a study of 40 Korean adopted children and their American parents. It was found that a high degree of involvement by children in Korean cultural activities was positively associated with scores measuring the strength of the children's Korean identity as well as with ease of communication with their parents about their adoptions. Parental encouragement of cultural activities and co-participation in them seemed to be critical in the development of ethnic identification.
Working with violent men from a feminist social work perspective
Authors: Orme Joan , Dominelli Lena , Mullender Audrey
Published: January 2017

For two decades feminism has addressed the problem of male violence in inter-personal relationships by working with women. However, men continue to violently abuse women. This article argues that work with men is a legitimate focus for feminist social workers, and male social workers who are prepared to work in pro-feminist ways, and discusses pro-feminist groupwork as a model for bringing about change.
Street children's drawings: Windows into their life circumstances and aspirations
Authors: DiCarlo Margaret A. , Gibbons Judith L , Kaminsky Donald , Wright James D. , Stiles Deborah A.
Published: January 2017

Drawings of the 'ideal person' completed by 82 children (aged 5 through 17) attending a programme for working children in Honduras were scored for content, emotional indicators and intellectual maturity. Analysis revealed that the content of street children's drawings could provide insight into their aspirations, resourcefulness and life circumstances.
Internet-based Distributed Collaborative Engineering Analysis
Authors: Sun Qiuli , Gramoll Kurt
Published: January 2017

This paper proposes an engineering analysis environment that allows remote users to conduct three-dimensional finite element analysis collaboratively through the Internet. Java and Java 3D were chosen to develop the working prototype due to their advantages of platform-independence and network supporting. The environment allows remote users to work collaboratively on the same analysis object simultaneously. It reads the geometric data generated by the collaborative geometric modeling environment. The user can interact directly with the geometric model to perform operations, such as applying, editing, and deleting boundary conditions and forces. The operations are propagated among the team members, which creates a distributed shared environment. The commands are transmitted instead of the generated data, and thus the network traffic associated with the collaboration is minimized. Different from classical server/client models,# the environment adopts a strategy in which the client-side application has full analysis capabilities while the server only manages communication. The essential features for distributed collaboration are discussed. The actual design consideration of the working prototype is presented to help illustrate the complexity and development of the collaborative environment. The environment is open to the public at www.vcity.ou.edu.
Part-sourcing in a Global Market
Authors: Rea Heather J , Corney Jonathan R , Clark Douglas E R , Pritchard John , Breaks Micheal L , Macleod Roddy A
Published: January 2017

The collaborative re-use of design and manufacturing data is one way that e-commerce can significantly reduce costs and lead times of new products in a demanding global market. This paper describes the development of a 3D Internet-based search engine, which will allow designers to locate parts already in production that have a similar shape to a desired 'newly designed' part. The project anticipates a time when manufacturers will post 3D computer-generated models of their product range on the Internet as a means of advertising their production capabilities (i.e., tooling). The models will either be uploaded to, or harvested from anywhere in the world by, the search engine, which will then analyse the models and store relevant feature indices in a database. To use the system a designer would upload a model of the desired part. The search engine then analyses the shape characteristics of the target model and performs a similarity match through a sieving technique as described in this paper. As a result, the designer is presented with a number of parts similar to the one uploaded. The designer may then modify the design to incorporate the closest matching part, or contact the company to quote for the original target model, as a variant of their existing product.

The challenge of the research is to identify the key shape characteristics that produce meaningful representations of the 3D models for similarity comparison purposes. After reviewing the current literature on shape matching and describing the system architecture, this paper presents initial results of the matching capabilities of the search engine.
Web-enabled Customer-oriented Product Concept Formation via Laddering Technique and Kohonen Association
Authors: Chen Chun-Hsien , Khoo Li Pheng , Yan Wei
Published: January 2017

Product concept formation is regarded as a key activity in new product development and manufacturing (NPD&M). It may determine whether a NPD&M project will be successful or not. In the early stage of product concept formation, owing to the huge space of possible solutions as well as incomplete and imprecise information, it is difficult for designers to generate functional attributes and subsequently select customer-preferred design solutions. Although much research has been attempted to tackle this problem, few of them are capable of appropriately making a trade-off between initial design requirements of designers and those of customers. This study aims at establishing a prototype web-based customer-oriented product concept formation system. The prototype system involves customers in generating functional attributes and design alternatives as well as selecting preferred design solutions. To realize these, the laddering technique is first employed to set up a so-called functional attribute hierarchy (FAH) comprising different levels ranging from generic to specific abstraction. With the FAH established, diverse design alternatives can then be configured morphologically using a combination of alternative values. Consequently, through customer interaction via the web, the Kohonen association algorithm is utilized to facilitate the selection of preferred design alternatives according to multicultural customer groups. The details of the prototype system as well as a case study on wood golf club design, which is used to illustrate its capability, are presented in this paper.
Devolved Manufacturing
Authors: Bateman Richard J , Cheng Kai
Published: January 2017

Recent changes in the product creation process have shown reductions in design and manufacturing time and costs due to the introduction of new manufacturing philosophies, and computer based methods. Major improvements have also been found in the distribution phase by use of sophisticated logistic scheduling and monitoring systems. However reductions in delivery costs and times look set to be reversed by increasing congestion on road/rail/air routes. The growth of the Internet and World Wide Web has created new opportunities and most organizations are introducing some form of e-commerce.

The term e-manufacturing is now being used to describe attempts to optimize the use of manufacturing facilities by allowing interaction with, and control of, these facilities from geographically distant locations, typically using the Internet/www as the communication medium. This approach uses the conventional 'model' of manufacturing. Although the removal of some problems - e.g. those due to time-zones or language - can lead to performance gains, problems associated with delivery remain due to the increased distances to customers.

In order to overcome the inherent limitations of the conventional approach and create true e-manufacture, a new approach is required which utilizes existing and emergent technologies to devolve the manufacturing process closer to the customer and thus avoid long distance distribution problems. Possible benefits of this approach include the potential for true mass customization ('individualization'), elimination of logistical problems, reduction of waste and requirements for working capital, and the creation of new global markets.
The Authorial Other in Folktale Collections in colonial India: Tracing Narration and its Dis/Continuities
Authors: Prasad Leela
Published: January 2017

Between 1860 and 1920, a staggering number of collections of Indian folklore was published by British administrators, missionaries, wives and daughters of officials, and Indian scholars. Rich in local detail, these collections of folklore contain copious prefaces, notes and explanatory appendixes. I examine the prefatory material of two folktale collections - Mary Frere's Old Deccan Days (1868), and Georgiana A. Kingscote and S.M. Natea Sastri's Tales of the Sun (1890) - for their display of multiple levels of engagement between co-authors, informants, and representatives of colonial authority, calling into question the concept of a stable authorial center. I argue that these collections comment on how collectors of folklore delineated alterity and subjectivity while themselves experiencing shifting subaltern positions.
Residual Stress Development during Relamination of Woven Composite Circuit Boards
Authors: Shrotriya P. , Sottos N. R. , Skipor A. F.
Published: January 2017

The manufacture of multilayer circuit boards involves relamination of alternating B-stage woven glass/epoxy prepregs, which act as bonding sheets, C-stage cores and copper foils. The high relamination temperature and mismatch of thermo-mechanical properties between the copper and woven glass/epoxy composite substrate lead to development of residual stresses in the boards. In the current work, numerical and experimental studies are performed to study residual deformation and warpage in a model multilayer circuit board construction of a common composite substrate (7628 fabric style). A numerical procedure based on classical lamination theory with non-isothermal viscoelastic constitutive relations is developed to predict the deformation and residual stress state due to relamination. Experimental values of the substrate stress relaxation modulus and coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) are used as inputs in the numerical procedure to predict warpage of model circuit boards with a non-symmetric lay-up of 7628 style composite substrate. Boards with exactly the same construction as used in the numerical analysis were fabricated according to the prescribed pressing cycle, and the time dependent warpage measured using an ultrasonic contour scan technique. Comparison of the experimental warpage data with numerical predictions provides insight into the effects of processing cycle and substrate properties on residual stress development.
Caregivers in Crisis: Moving a Relative with Alzheimer's to Assisted Living
Authors: Liken Michelle A.
Published: January 2017

The experience of moving a relative with Alzheimer's disease (AD) to an assisted living facility (ALF) was examined in this secondary data analysis of 20 interviews with family caregivers. Crisis theory was used as guiding framework for the analysis. Findings indicate that all elements of a crisis were evident among caregivers in the process of moving their relatives to ALFs. Dangerous behaviors resulting from the relative' s cognitive decline led to caregiver fear and anxiety, which served as crisis precipitants. Perceived lack of family support in conjunction with physical and psychological exhaustion were crisis mediators. These factors, along with the caregiver's failed attempts to keep their relative at home, caused the crisis process to move toward the outcome of ALF placement. A better understanding of the crises that surround placement issues will assist nurses in planning interventions for the growing number of families faced with this issue.
Assessing Infant Health Promotion: A Cross-Cultural Comparison
Authors: Gaffney Kathleen F. , Kodadek Marie P. , Meuse Maria T. , Jones Graciella B.
Published: January 2017

The purpose of this cross-cultural, correlational study was to evaluate two popular clinical/research assessment tools, the NCAST Teaching Scale and the Home Observation Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Inventory, as measures of infant health promotion behaviors for low-income, foreign-born Hispanic mothers in the United States. Based on the assumption that both measures tap universal attributes of the mother-infant relationship, it was hypothesized that maternal performance for the study group and a comparison group of U.S.-born, low-income mothers would be similar. Comparable performance on the NCAST Teaching Scale included a full range of scores, including the capacity to identify mothers most in need of clinical intervention. Study findings supported the clinical use of this assessment scale with mothers represented by the study sample. Consistently lower scores by the foreign-born Hispanic mothers on the HOME Inventory led to the conclusion that the instrument may not tap cultural universals in the mother-infant relationship.
Quality of Life in Persons Living With HIV
Authors: Eller Lucille Sanzero
Published: January 2017

This study investigated the effects of selected variables on quality of life (QOL) in persons living with HIV. Eighty-one HIV-positive adults completed a demographic questionnaire, the Sickness Impact Profile, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, and a fatigue visual analog scale. Blood samples were collected for CD4+, CD8+, and CD16+ lymphocyte numbers. Based on an expanded psychoneuroimmunology model, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to determine the extent to which four blocks of variables predicted variance in quality of life. These included sociodemographics, depression, immune status, and fatigue. Findings revealed that work status, depression, and fatigue predicted 58% of the variance in QOL in persons with HIV. Findings support the need for routine assessment and management of depression and fatigue in persons living with HIV.
Body Piercing and Tattooing Perspectives
Authors: Millner Vaughn S. , Eichold Bernard H.
Published: January 2017

This descriptive, correlational study surveyed 79 pierced and/or tattooed participants to determine reasons why people pierce and tattoo their bodies and to assess participants' knowledge of health risks involved in body alteration procedures. Participants queried represented a wide age range—between 19 and 55. Results showed that participants perceived few health risks involving piercing and tattooing and desired additional piercings and/or tattoos. Individual expression was an important body alteration motivation for both piercing and tattooing. These findings underscore the importance of health care professionals' maintaining nonjudgmental attitudes about those who alter their bodies, thereby facilitating important health education concerning related health risks. Suggestions for nursing applications are discussed.
Mature CD10+ and immature CD10− neutrophils present in G-CSF–treated donors display opposite effects on T cells
Authors: Marini Olivia , Costa Sara , Bevilacqua Dalila , Calzetti Federica , Tamassia Nicola , Spina Cecilia , De Sabata Donata , Tinazzi Elisa , Lunardi Claudio , Scupoli Maria T. , Cavallini Chiara , Zoratti Elisa , Tinazzi Ilaria , Marchetta Antonio , Vassanelli Aurora , Cantini Maurizio , Gandini Giorgio , Ruzzenente Andrea , Guglielmi Alfredo , Missale Francesco , Vermi William , Tecchio Cristina , Cassatella Marco A. , Scapini Patrizia
Published: January 2017

Key Points

CD10 as a marker discriminating mature from immature neutrophils within heterogeneous neutrophil populations in pathological settings. Immunosuppressive mature CD66b+CD10+ and immunostimulatory immature CD66b+CD10− neutrophils coexist in G-CSF–treated donors.
Recent trends in multiple myeloma incidence and survival by age, race, and ethnicity in the United States
Authors: Costa Luciano J. , Brill Ilene K. , Omel James , Godby Kelly , Kumar Shaji K. , Brown Elizabeth E.
Published: January 2017

Key Points

Incidence of MM has increased in recent years in the United States with a tendency for younger age at diagnosis. Five- and 10-year survival of MM patients is improving among racial/ethnic minorities, but remains limited in patients ≥75 years of age.
Obstructive sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome in adults with Down syndrome
Authors: Hill Elizabeth A.
Published: January 2017

Key points

Adults with Down syndrome are predisposed to obstructive sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome (OSAHS) due to overlap between the Down syndrome phenotype and OSAHS risk factors.

The prevalence of OSAHS in adults with Down syndrome is estimated at 35–42%. This is up to ten-times higher than in the general adult population.

Symptoms of OSAHS, including behavioural and emotional disturbances as well as standard symptoms such as sleepiness, should be monitored as part of regular health surveillance in adults with Down syndrome.

There is evidence that the use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy in adults with Down syndrome and comorbid OSAHS can lead to significant improvements in subjective sleepiness, behaviour and cognitive function, though further large-scale trials are required.

Educational aims

To discuss the relationship between the phenotypic features of Down syndrome and the risk factors for obstructive sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome (OSAHS).

To examine the prevalence of OSAHS in adults with Down syndrome.

To review recent research into the effectiveness of treatment of OSAHS in adults with Down syndrome using continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy.

Obstructive sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome (OSAHS) is characterised by repeated cycles of upper airway obstruction during sleep, leading to diurnal symptoms. Individuals with Down syndrome are predisposed to OSAHS due to overlap between the Down syndrome phenotype and OSAHS risk factors. Recent large studies using subjective and objective measures estimate that OSAHS affects around 40% of adults with Down syndrome, in contrast to 2–4% of the general adult population. The “double-hit” of comorbid Down syndrome and OSAHS may accelerate cognitive decline in adults with Down syndrome. However, with the appropriate care and support, OSAHS can be treated effectively in this group using continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy, improving daytime function and behaviour. Symptoms of OSAHS should be routinely monitored in this population, with testing and treatment available to all adults with Down syndrome; however, this is not currently commonplace, and health inequalities are evident.
Hyperbaric oxygen attenuates neuropathic pain and reverses inflammatory signaling likely via the Kindlin-1/Wnt-10a signaling pathway in the chronic pain injury model in rats
Authors: Zhao Baisong , Pan Yongying , Xu Haiping , Song Xingrong
Published: January 2017

Background

Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy is proven to attenuate neuropathic pain in rodents. The goal of the present study was to determine the potential involvement of the Kindlin-1/Wnt-10a signaling pathway during astrocyte activation and inflammation in a rodent model of neuropathic pain.

Methods

Rats were assigned into sham operation, chronic constriction injury (CCI), and CCI + HBO treatment groups. Neuropathic pain developed in rats following CCI of the sciatic nerve. Rats in the CCI + HBO group received HBO treatment for five consecutive days beginning on postoperative day 1. The mechanical withdrawal threshold (MWT) and the thermal withdrawal latency (TWL) tests were performed to determine mechanical and heat hypersensitivity of animals, respectively. Kindlin-1, Wnt-10a and β-catenin protein expression was examined by immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis. Expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α was also determined by ELISA.

Results

Our findings demonstrated that HBO treatment significantly suppressed mechanical and thermal hypersensitivity in the CCI neuropathic pain model in rats. HBO therapy significantly reversed the up-regulation of Kindlin-1 in dorsal root ganglia (DRG), spinal cord, and hippocampus of CCI rats. CCI-induced astrocyte activation and increased levels of TNF-α were efficiently reversed by HBO (P < 0.05 vs. CCI). HBO also reversed Wnt-10a up-regulation induced by CCI in the DRG, spinal cord, and hippocampus (P < 0.05 vs. CCI).

Conclusions

Our findings demonstrate that HBO attenuated CCI-induced rat neuropathic pain and inflammatory responses, possibly through regulation of the Kindlin-1/Wnt-10a signaling pathway.
México and the TPP: a critical view on diversification and intellectual property
Authors: Aymes Juan Felipe López
Published: January 2017

The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement was signed on February 4, 2016. The published text confirmed some fears but also brought relief as the details of what had been negotiated became publicly known. This paper attempts to contribute to the discussion with a critical view of the Agreement, although not necessarily in equivalence to US President-elect Donald Trump negative stand, but one of a developing country. The main argument holds that joining the TPP, or any other agreement alike, is not advisable unless Mexican industries are in a condition to compete. The line of reasoning is double-faceted: First, gains from the alleged diversification are insignificant, so handing over policy autonomy for development in exchange for access to negligible markets is not beneficial; second, its strong intellectual property rules would further hinder the policy space of the government for designing and implementing domestic science, technology and innovation programs. This would place Mexico at a disadvantage with regard to its prospects for a higher position in global production and value chains, not to mention develop full production chains led by national firms. As it is presently formulated, the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement would consolidate a structure of dependence and income inequality, two problems which Mexico is striving to overcome.
An Early Abolitionist Crusade
Authors: Reséndez Andrés
Published: January 2017

Between the 1660s and the 1680s the Spanish Crown launched a major campaign to end the enslavement of Indians throughout its far-flung empire. Using this momentous crusade as a point of departure, this article identifies the principal slaving grounds of the Spanish empire in the second half of the seventeenth century; examines the participation of royal officials, colonists, and Native Americans during this protracted campaign; and provides an empire-wide view of the phenomenon of Indian slavery as well as the tremendous difficulties of emancipating the Native slaves.
The Proletarianization of Sensibility
Authors: Stiegler Bernard
Published: January 2017

Throughout the twentieth century, the development of technologies—of what Walter Benjamin calls “mechanical reproducibility”—led to a generalized regression of the psychomotive knowledges that were characteristic of art amateurs. This regression was made possible by a machinic turn of sensibility that led to a proletarianization of the amateur so that the latter, having lost his or her knowledges, became a cultural consumer. These questions confront us today in a time in which a second machinic turn of sensibility is taking place. This second turn is made possible by digital technologies, through which just about anyone can access technologies of captivation, postproduction, indexation, diffusion, and promotion—technologies that were, until now, industrial functions that were hegemonically controlled by what I have called the psychopower of marketing and the culture industries. This new machinic turn of sensibility—which is no longer analog but digital—leads to a renaissance of the figure of the amateur, that is to say, to a reconstitution of libidinal energy which, after being systematically canalized and rerouted by consumerist organization, ends up putting in place an economy of drives, that is to say, a libidinal diseconomy.
The neurogenetics of group behavior inDrosophila melanogaster
Authors: Ramdya Pavan , Schneider Jonathan , Levine Joel D.
Published: January 2017

Organisms rarely act in isolation. Their decisions and movements are often heavily influenced by direct and indirect interactions with conspecifics. For example, we each represent a single node within a social network of family and friends, and an even larger network of strangers. This group membership can affect our opinions and actions. Similarly, when in a crowd, we often coordinate our movements with others like fish in a school, or birds in a flock. Contributions of the group to individual behaviors are observed across a wide variety of taxa but their biological mechanisms remain largely unknown. With the advent of powerful computational tools as well as the unparalleled genetic accessibility and surprisingly rich social life of Drosophila melanogaster, researchers now have a unique opportunity to investigate molecular and neuronal determinants of group behavior. Conserved mechanisms and/or selective pressures in D. melanogaster can likely inform a much wider phylogenetic scale. Here, we highlight two examples to illustrate how quantitative and genetic tools can be combined to uncover mechanisms of two group behaviors in D. melanogaster: social network formation and collective behavior. Lastly, we discuss future challenges towards a full understanding how coordinated brain activity across many individuals gives rise to the behavioral patterns of animal societies.