bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
How Far Is Far Enough? A Measure of Information Privacy in Terms of Interpersonal Distance
Authors: Shu Li  , Li Yan-Mei
Published: April 2007

Do average people have a sense of information privacy, and do they require others to understand and respect such privacy concerns? This research attempted to operationalize the measure of information privacy by using interpersonal distance as a unit of measurement. We collected data on the interpersonal distance among the automatic teller machine (ATM), add value machine (AVM; information privacy attached) and ticket vending machine (TVM; little information privacy attached) users. On-site observation revealed that the interpersonal distance between ATM users was larger than that between AVM users, and the interpersonal distance between AVM users was larger than that between TVM users, which suggested that the concept of information privacy (in terms of personal identification numbers, money, etc.) can be thus operationalized and measured. Moreover, on-site observation and interview revealed that desired distance was larger than the actual distance for both ATM and AVM users, which indicated that people's actual information privacy need is higher than that anticipated by others.
Constructing Summary Indices of Quality of Life
Authors: Hagerty Michael R. , Land Kenneth C.
Published: April 2007

The authors consider how to construct summary indices (e.g., quality-of-life [QOL] indices) for a social unit that will be endorsed by a majority of its citizens. They assume that many social indicators are available to describe the social unit, but individuals disagree about the relative weights to be assigned to each social indicator. The summary index that maximizes agreement among citizens can then be derived, along with conditions under which an index will be endorsed by a majority in the social unit. The authors show that intuition greatly underestimates the extent of agreement among individuals, and it is often possible to construct a QOL index that most citizens agree with (at least in direction). In particular, they show that the equal-weighting strategy is privileged in that it minimizes disagreement among all possible individuals' weights. They demonstrate these propositions by calculating real QOL indices for two surveys of citizens' actual importance weights.
The Usefulness and Uselessness of the Decomposition of Tobit Coefficients
Authors: Kang Jeong-han
Published: April 2007

McDonald and Moffitt's (1980) decomposition method for Tobit coefficients disaggregates the total changes in a censored outcome variable into the changes in the probability of attaining noncensored values and the changes in the noncensored values themselves. McDonald and Moffitt, however, did not highlight two limitations of this decomposition, and sociological applications of the Tobit decomposition that do not acknowledge these limitations have been misleading. First, the decomposition ratio of the two effects depends on the choice of an observation point in the sample. Some sociological studies invalidly generalized a decomposition at the mean point of the sample to the whole sample. Second, once the observation point is fixed, the decomposition ratio is the same across all coefficients or across all predictors. That is, the two effects remain proportionally constant, but studies often erroneously assume they differ across predictors. Further implications are discussed in relation to other selection bias models.
Testing for IIA in the Multinomial Logit Model
Authors: Cheng Simon , Long J. Scott
Published: April 2007

The multinomial logit model is perhaps the most commonly used regression model for nominal outcomes in the social sciences. A concern raised by many researchers, however, is the assumption of the independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA) that is implicit in the model. In this article, the authors undertake a series of Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate the three most commonly discussed tests of IIA. Results suggest that the size properties of the most common IIA tests depend on the data structure for the independent variables. These findings are consistent with an earlier impression that, even in well-specified models, IIA tests often reject the assumption when the alternatives seem distinct and often fail to reject IIA when the alternatives can reasonably be viewed as close substitutes. The authors conclude that tests of the IIA assumption that are based on the estimation of a restricted choice set are unsatisfactory for applied work.
Advances in Group-Based Trajectory Modeling and an SAS Procedure for Estimating Them
Authors: Jones Bobby L. , Nagin Daniel S.
Published: April 2007

This article is a follow-up to Jones, Nagin, and Roeder (2001), which described an SAS procedure for estimating group-based trajectory models. Group-based trajectory is a specialized application of finite mixture modeling and is designed to identify clusters of individuals following similar progressions of some behavior or outcome over age or time. This article has two purposes. One is to summarize extensions of the methodology and of the SAS procedure that have been developed since Jones et al. The other is to illustrate how group-based trajectory modeling lends itself to presentation of findings in the form of easily understood graphical and tabular data summaries.
Graphing Age Trajectories
Authors: Mirowsky John , Kim Jinyoung
Published: April 2007

Surveys often sample adults across a broad range of ages, measuring the same outcomes in several interviews spaced during a period of years and comparing the changes observed across segments of the adult life course. Put in sequence, those change vectors provide a composite image of the outcome's life course trajectory. To illustrate, the authors estimate depression vectors in a sample of U.S. adults ages 18 and older at baseline in 1995, with follow-up interviews in 1998 and 2001. They show the vector equations and their graphs and also their synthetic-cohort projection. The authors introduce the trend-function and virtual-cohort projection, showing how they provide tests of ``convergence'' and other hypotheses about trajectories and trends. Results show depression dropping and then rising across adulthood more steeply than suggested by cross-sectional differences among age groups. They also indicate a rise and fall in age-specific levels of depression across cohorts.
Policy Venture Capital
Authors: Knott Jack H. , McCarthy Diane
Published: April 2007

This article seeks to understand how foundations decide to invest their funds in social programs and, in particular, what role government policy plays in that decision. The article develops the concept of foundations as venture capitalists who invest in particular communities and government programs expecting a return on their investment. It analyzes the risks and rewards of the investment decision, given the vagaries of the public policy decision process. The concept of foundations as policy venture capitalists is applied to child care programs to illustrate these policy investment strategies in a concrete way. The findings show that in seeking to achieve their policy agenda for children and families, only a few foundations have acted as policy venture capitalists to lead and innovate in child care. Most foundations have played an important but targeted investment role of partnering with government, filling in gaps and inconsistencies, and evaluating the implementation of government initiatives.
Public Values
Authors: Jørgensen Torben Beck , Bozeman Barry
Published: April 2007

Exploring boundaries and meanings of public value, the authors seek to identify some of the impediments to progress in the study of public values. The study of public values is often hamstrung by more general problems in the study of values. The authors begin by identifying analytical problems in the study of values and public values. Then they take stock of the public values universe. To identify public value concepts, relevant literature is reviewed and interpreted. Finally, the analytical questions posed in the first section are addressed, focusing specifically on issues related to the hierarchy, causality, and proximity of public values.
Nestleaving and Coresidence by Young Adult Children
Authors: Ward Russell A. , Spitze Glenna D.
Published: April 2007

Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households on focal children in 1987-1988 aged 18 years and older and out of high school in 1992-1993, the authors investigated associations between parent-child coresidence in early adulthood and parents' reports of the quality of parent-child and marital relations. The quality of parent-child or marital relations at Wave 1 had little relation to whether children coresided at Wave 2; child situations were the primary predictors. Children who left and returned tended to be negatively selected on prior relationship quality, but parents accommodated them nonetheless. Coresidence between waves did not affect marital quality or general parent-child relations at Wave 2, though it was associated with increased parent-child disagreements, particularly when prior disagreement was greater. Coresidence appeared to be experienced as part of ongoing exchanges between parents and adult children.
The Impact of Health Service Use on Racial Differences in Mortality among the Elderly
Authors: Sherkat Darren E. , Kilbourne Barbara S. , Cain Van A. , Hull Pamela C. , Levine Robert S. , Husaini Baqar A.
Published: April 2007

The authors investigated the impact of socioeconomic conditions, patterns of morbidity, and health service use on Black—White differences in rates of mortality, and mortality associated with specific diagnoses. Longitudinal data from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Physician billing data and Medicare Enrollment Database (EDB) were analyzed to assess physician-diagnosed morbidity, health service use, and mortality among the population of Medicare beneficiaries in Tennessee ( N = 665,887). Proportional hazards models were used to examine the effects of socioeconomic status, morbidity, and service use on race differences in mortality. Racial differences in physician visits explain the largest portion of mortality differentials between Black Americans and Whites. Race disparities in mortality associated with particular forms of morbidity are also partly a function difference in health service use. Our findings suggest that Black—White mortality differentials could be narrowed by increasing Black Americans' access to physician services.
An effective indexing model to manage versioned objects in a digital library
Authors: Arumugam Gurusamy , Thangaraj Muthuraman
Published: April 2007

Digital libraries offer diverse information resources in digital format. These resources may include any digital collection of books, journals, papers, proceedings and so on. The major challenge for the library is to provide access to all these resources in an integrated and user-friendly way. It is essential to provide an effective method for the users to enable them to make concept-based queries on these resources. In order to help the information users, we propose an index-based model, ATVLIB. This model has a search engine that uses data structures such as signature pattern, hash table and B+ trees. Extensive study shows that the proposed model has better performance than the existing method.
Using position, fonts and cited references to retrieve scientific documents
Authors: Chen Yen-Liang , Cheng Li-Chen , Cheng Yun-Ling
Published: April 2007

As more and more documents become available on the internet, finding documents that fit users' needs from databases containing millions of documents is becoming increasingly important. Since a scientific document is a structured text, it has some useful features that can be used to improve retrieval performance. In this work, we investigate three such features: fonts, position and cited references. While past research has used these three features individually to improve document searching, no existing research discusses how to integrate these three together to improve retrieval performance. This work first investigates the relationships among them, and then uses these three features to design a novel retrieval method based on the discovered relationships. Extensive experiments have been carried out with real scientific documents to show its effectiveness. Our empirical results show that using the location factor alone achieves the same performance as considering location and font factors simultaneously. We also observed that citation similarity is useful only when the similarity is high. Based on these two clues, we developed a method to combine the content vector and reference vector conditionally, and as a result, this integrated approach does, indeed, improve search performance.
Combined association rules for dealing with missing values
Authors: Shen Jau-Ji , Chang Chin-Chen , Li Yu-Chiang
Published: April 2007

With the rapid increase in the use of databases, the problem of missing values inevitably arises. The techniques developed to recover these missing values effectively should be highly precise in order to estimate the missing values completely. The mining of association rules can effectively establish the relationship among items in databases. Therefore, discovered association rules are usually applied to recover the missing values in databases. This study presents a Fast Recycle Combined Association Rules (FRCAR) method to fill in the missing values. FRCAR applies a technique to recycle sub-frequent itemsets and bit-arrays to discover more association rules than the Missing Value Completion (MVC) approach. The experimental result demonstrates that FRCAR results in a higher recovery rate and higher recovery accuracy for missing values.
New onset heightened interest or drive for gambling, shopping, eating or sexual activity in patients with Parkinson's disease: the role of dopamine agonist treatment and age at motor symptoms onset
Authors: Giladi Nir , Weitzman Nina , Schreiber Shaul , Shabtai Herzel , Peretz Chava
Published: April 2007

Alterations of impulse control that have recently been associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) are serious behavioural disturbances with significant impact on PD patients and their families.

A total of 193 consecutive PD patients with no history of psychiatric illness and 190 age/gender-matched healthy controls were queried on the presence of new onset heightened interest or drive for gambling, shopping, eating or sexual activity (GSES). Clinical data were retrieved from medical charts and interviews. logistic regressions models assessed risk factors for these specific troublesome behaviours.

New or heightened interests or drives for GSES behaviours were reported by 27 patients (14% vs 0% for controls). Younger age at PD motor symptoms onset (OR = 0.99, p = 0.0172), male gender (OR = 1.10, p = 0.0576) and longer duration of treatment with dopamine agonists (DAs)(OR = 1.18, ≥6 years versus never treated, p = 0.0459) contributed additively to the risk of developing one or more of these behavioural features.

New onset heightened interests or drives for GSES are not rare behavioural disturbances among patients with PD. Age, gender and duration of treatment with DAs have an independent and additive effect on the risk to develop such behavioural changes. Patients should be informed about potential treatment-associated behavioural changes.
Effects of α-lactalbumin on emotional processing in healthy women
Authors: Scrutton Helen , Carbonnier Anne , Cowen Philip J. , Harmer Catherine J.
Published: April 2007

The synthesis of serotonin (5-HT) in the central nervous system is dependent on the avaiLability to the brain of its precursor amino acid, tryptophan (TRP). Recent studies suggest that α-lactalbumin, a whey-derived protein with a relatively high TRP content, increases plasma TRP and produces endocrine and cognitive changes consistent with facilitation of brain 5-HT function. In the present study we assessed the biochemical and cognitive effects of α-lactalbumin (40 g) in 28 healthy female subjects in a parallel group, placebo-controlled design. Relative to a casein-derived control protein, α-lactalbumin increased plasma TRP and the ratio of TRP to neutral amino acids. However, there was no effect on salivary cortisol secretion or tasks of emotional processing shown previously to be sensitive to pharmacological manipulation of 5-HT in healthy volunteers. The results suggest that α-lactalbumin produces a relatively modest increase in TRP availability which may not be sufficient to produce the changes in emotional processing seen with administration of pure TRP in healthy subjects. Further studies in subjects more vulnerable to stress are needed to assess the potential therapeutic effects of α-lactalbumin in clinical populations.
Urticaria and angio-oedema due to ziprasidone
Authors: Akkaya Cengiz , Sarandol Asli , Aydogan Kenan , Kırlı SeLcuk
Published: April 2007

Antipsychotic medications are commonLy associated with adverse cutaneous reactions (ACRs) in approximately 5% of patients. Angio-oedema accompanying urticaria is one of the most serious ACRs. The 36-year-old female patient who was diagnosed with `Paranoid schizophrenia' 6 years ago, was commenced on ziprasidone 120 mg/day. On day 30 of the treatment, the patient presented urticarial papules and plaques all over the body and angio-oedema in the face. The patient was diagnosed as `Urticaria + Angio-oedema'. The development of ACRs after the initation of ziprasidone monotherapy, disappearance of lesions after the discontinuation of this antipsychotic, and positive intradermal skin test all suggests a possible causal relationship between ACRs and ziprasidone. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of urticaria and angio-oedema due to ziprasidone monotherapy. Ziprasidone is a valid and effective choice amongst antipsychotic medications, but this case calls for caution regarding ACRs at the time of prescribing.
Charles Bonnet Syndrome: successful treatment of visual hallucinations due to vision loss with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
Authors: Lang Undine E. , Stogowski Dariusz , Schulze Doreen , Domula Markus , Schmidt Eckart , GaLLinat Jüergen , Tugtekin Sems Malte , FeLber Werner
Published: April 2007

Visual hallucinations are a common and often distressing consequence of vision loss, particularly in age-related macular degeneration. CharLes Bonnet Syndrome (CBS) is defined by the triad of complex visual hallucinations, ocular pathology causing visual deterioration and preserved cognitive status. So far, although this condition is frequent, no established treatment for CBS has been stated. We report here the case of a 78-year-old woman, who came in our hospital because of a 4-week long mild depressive symptomatology. For 1 year she experienced daiLy sudden, unexpected, vivid and elaborate hallucinations. Insight was completely present, so the patient stated that the hallucinations were unreal and that the faces, geometrical figures and animals she saw every day were possibly due to her vision loss. The Mini Mental State Examination, digit span and verbal fluency were administered and no cognitive impairment was reported. The visual acuity was hand motion. After 4 days of treatment with venLafaxine the hallucinations compLetely disappeared. This is the first case to show that selective serotonin (and noradrenalin) reuptake inhibitors may be an effective and well-tolerated treatment for visual hallucinations associated with vision loss, and it adds to evidence implicating serotonergic pathways in the pathogenesis of visual hallucinations.
An investigation of the subjective experiences of sex after alcohol or drug intoxication
Authors: Sumnall H.R. , Beynon C.M. , Conchie S.M. , Riley S.C.E. , Cole J.C.
Published: April 2007

Despite long-standing concern over the sexual health of the population there has been little work undertaken in the UK investigating sexual risk taking and sexual behaviours in the context of substance use. To investigate this further, 270 non-drug treatment seeking members of the public aged between 18 and 66 were administered a questionnaire containing the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), the Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST), the Severity of Dependence Scale (SDS), the Sexual Risks Scale and Attitudes toward condom use (SRSA), the Sexual Sensation Seeking ScaLe (SSSS); the Hospital Anxiety and Depression ScaLe (HADS), and questions pertaining to sexual episodes proximal to substance use. The population reported a varied history of substances and despite there not being self-awareness of problematic drug use, 39.4% reported above the cut-off mark of six on the DAST. An even greater percentage (57.8%) reported a score above eight on the AUDIT indicating hazardous or harmful drinking behaviour. The substance most often associated with sexual episodes was alcohol, followed by cannabis and ecstasy, and all were most frequently consumed in private houses. Sexual activity after drug use was most frequently circumstantial (i.e. the individual hadn't taken the substance for the specific purposes of sex), and was significantly associated with use of cannabis and ecstasy. The second most frequently reported association between drug use and sex was facilitation of a sexual encounter (i.e. to lower sexual inhibitions, increase self esteem and confidence), which was associated with use of alcohol, cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy. Although it was not possibLe to identify differences in subjective sexual changes after use of particular drugs, subjects reported that compared to sex after alcohol, sex on other drugs was more pleasurable and satisfying, with a greater perception of interpersonal contact with the partner and a greater willingness to sexually experiment. However, this latter change was not associated with changes in the type of sexual activity engaged in. Regression analysis revealed that the greatest subjective changes in sexual experiences were reported by younger participants who had ingested either ecstasy or cannabis prior to the sexual episode. These results are discussed in the context of sexual risk taking and suggest areas of intervention focus which may address substance use and sexuaL risk taking together.
Psychotropic drug prescribing in child and adolescent learning disability psychiatry
Authors: Bramble David
Published: April 2007

This postaL questionnaire study investigated the prescribing practices of a group of senior British psychiatrists who have responsibilities for children and adoLescents with learning disabilities (mental retardation). The study revealed that all of the clinicians surveyed ( n = 16) were prescribing psychotropic medication; psychostimulants and major tranquillizers represented the most frequently prescribed classes and, respectively, methylphenidate, risperidone, melatonin, sodium valproate and carbamazepine were the most frequently employed specific agents. Most patients were receiving monotherapy. Many (14/16) clinicians reported difficulties in shared-care prescribing arrangements with General Practitioners. The study concludes that psychopharmacology is an established part of the psychiatric management of learning disabled children but acknowledges the need for the elaboration of clinical governance standards to this area of practice.
The Effectiveness of Dutch Executive Pay Packages
Authors: Swagerman Dirk , Terpstra Erik
Published: April 2007

Executive pay in the Netherlands has risen sharply in recent years as equity-based compensation grows and boards increasingly adopt the pay-for-performance approach.
Roth 401(k) Distribution Confusion
Authors: Constantino Pamela
Published: April 2007

Now that Roth 401(k) contributions are permanent, many employers may revise their plans, resulting in an increase in Roth contributions and distributions.
Structural Health Monitoring of a Long-span Cable-stayed Bridge
Authors: Zhang Guanyong , Zhang Zhijun , Ficher Chad
Published: April 2007

Proper selection of methods and instruments for structural health monitoring (SHM) of bridges will assure reliability, durability, and lower life cycle costs. This article provides a case study for in-service monitoring of a recently built long-span hybrid cable-stayed bridge, Queshi Bridge, in southern China. Three parameters, namely the cable forces, main structure deformations, and their vibrations are monitored with different methods at regular intervals over a time period of about four years. The results to date are very encouraging as the SHM systems installed in the bridge have been able to provide vital information about the state of health of the bridge to the transportation authorities.
Monitoring of Bond in FRP Retrofitted Concrete Structures
Authors: Ming Zhao Ming , Dong Yongtao , Zhao Yang , Tennant Adam , Ansari Farhad
Published: April 2007

Debonding failure of the concrete cover in reinforced concrete beams retrofitted with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites is a brittle phenomenon which in most cases occurs in an abrupt manner. A complete understanding of bond requires information about the relationship between the local bond stress and slip. Bond-slip defines the constitutive relationship of the interface, and it provides means for computation of ultimate strength and distribution of the bond stress. For FRP composites interface slip is very small even at the ultimate stage prior to failure. For this reason, the study of local bond in the earlier studies did not include slip. This article presents a fiber optic based method for measurement of local slip at the interface between concrete and FRP as well as for prediction of bond failure in reinforced concrete members. Since bond failure in FRP retrofitted concrete is a brittle phenomenon, development of effective means to predict the failure prior to occurrence plays an important role in structural health monitoring of such structures. Therefore, the scope of the study includes two types of tests, namely pull out tests and beam flexure tests. In general, the measured interface slip between concrete substrate and FRP at ultimate load stage is <60 μm. The fiber optic based system is capable of measuring the interface slip with a resolution of 1 μm. In flexure, the long gauge distributed sensors are able to predict the debonding and peeling of the FRP fabric from the concrete beam through deformation reversals. A numerical model based on finite element analysis of the beams is developed to verify the capabilities of the fiber optic sensor through computation of principal stresses at the interface.
Studies on Inspection Methods for Damage to Bridge Foundations
Authors: Adachi Yukio , Nanjoh Atsushi
Published: April 2007

The establishment of inspection techniques for seismic damage to civil infrastructure systems, such as expressway viaducts, is needed to diagnose the condition of the structures suffered by earthquakes. Therefore, the research and development of non-destructive techniques is necessary. This study introduces three inspection techniques, conventional direct visual inspection method, advanced indirect bored-hole camera inspection method, and smart non-destructive pile integrity test method, that are employed for investigating the seismic damage to the viaduct piles suffered by the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake. This study also summarizes the evaluation method and inspection result of the damaged piles.
Interaction Model for a Hi-Bi Fiber Optic Ultrasonic Sensor and the Host Material
Authors: Yuan Libo , Zhang Guanyong , Li Qingbin
Published: April 2007

A dynamic model of an optical fiber segment with polymer coating, which is embedded in concrete, is proposed for evaluating the response of the ultrasonic stress wave in the host material (matrix). The photo-elastic response in the optical fiber and the associated birefringence-induced phase changes are analyzed. The relationship between fiber optic sensor phase change and the ultrasonic wave behavior in the matrix is established.
Heating of a High-torque Magnetorheological Fluid Limited Slip Differential Clutch
Authors: Kavlicoglu Barkan M. , Gordaninejad Faramarz , Evrensel Cahit A. , Yanming Liu  , Kavlicoglu Nigar , Fuchs Alan
Published: April 2007

Theoretical and experimental studies on heating of a high-torque, multi-plate magnetorheological (MR) fluid limited slip differential (LSD) clutch are presented. A lumped parameter system approach is assumed for theoretical heating analysis. The experimental study is conducted to examine the temperature rise of the clutch. Electric power input and slippage effects are investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The effect of temperature increase on the torque performance of the clutch is also examined. The results show that the transferred torque is insensitive to clutch temperature increase. For all cases, theoretical and experimental results are in good agreement.
Effect of Cross Section Geometry on the Response of an SMA Column
Authors: Muhammad Ashiqur Rahman  , Sajedur Rahman Akanda  , Muhammad Anowar Hossain
Published: April 2007

This numerical study investigates the effect of cross section geometry on the bending of a beam and also buckling of a column made of shape memory alloy (SMA). It incorporates superelastic SMA's non-linear stress—strain relations, including the non-symmetric behavior in tension and compression. Primarily, an arbitrary rectangular cross section is selected for analysis of the beam and column, loaded beyond the linear stress—strain relations. Then similar analysis is carried out for two different equivalent cross sections, namely, square of same area and square of same inertia, for comparing the effect of cross section geometry on the response of the beam and column. Using the equations of static equilibrium, the variations of effective modulus and bending moment for different equivalent cross sections are presented. The critical stress of the column is calculated by assuming an appropriate deflection curve for both ends hinged condition. It is found that the effective modulus depends only on the stress—strain curve. The bending moment, on the other hand, is a function of the stress—strain curve and cross section geometry. For a given load, the square of same area develops the minimum bending stress, while the square of same inertia develops the maximum bending stresses. Because of the non-symmetric stress—strain curve, the compressive stress is found to be higher than the tensile stress. It is also found that the buckling load for a column is distinctly high if the non-symmetric stress—strain curve is used in the analysis. Moreover, for a very high critical stress, the square of same area has the highest slenderness ratio, while the rectangle has the lowest slenderness ratio.
Hunting and Gathering
Authors: Marlowe Frank W.
Published: April 2007

Among human foragers, males and females target different foods and share them. Some view this division of labor as a cooperative enterprise to maximize household benefits; others question men's foraging goals. Women tend to target reliable foods. Men tend to target energy-dense foods that are difficult to acquire and are shared widely outside the household, perhaps to advertise their phenotypic quality to potential mates and allies via a costly, and thus hard to fake, signal. An analysis of variation in sex-specific foraging was conducted to investigate its causes and origins. There is less division of labor in less seasonal, more productive habitats where males do more gathering. This suggests males respond more as optimal foragers than maximal signalers. The division of labor likely evolved after pair bonds, and after gathering technology became efficient enough to provision others, allowing males to specialize in foods with the greatest trade value with females.
Evolutionary Theory, Kinship, and Childbirth in Cross-Cultural Perspective
Authors: Huber Brad R. , Breedlove William L.
Published: April 2007

The authors combine evolutionary theory with the anthropological study of kinship to account for cross-cultural diversity in birth-related investments by kin. Four hypotheses are formulated using paternal certainty, gender, and kinship laterality as independent variables. They test these hypotheses with data from the 60-culture Probability Sample of the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF). Their hypotheses are generally confirmed. For example, grandmothers and aunts provide more direct birth care than grandfathers and uncles. However, they did have some unanticipated results. Fathers provide as much direct birth care as grandmothers and aunts. In addition, they found paternal certainty to be a better predictor of direct birth care than kinship laterality, and kinship laterality to be a better predictor of indirect care. They explain this difference by arguing that direct birth care is the most important kind of investment kin make to ensure the survival and reproduction of mothers and newborns.
Evolutionary Ecology of Human Pair-Bonds
Authors: Quinlan Robert J. , Quinlan Marsha B.
Published: April 2007

Human pair-bonds may have multiple evolved functions. One long-standing hypothesis suggests that pair-bonds evolved for male provisioning. Alternatively pair-bonds may occur as a response to male mating competition when benefits of staying with a current mate outweigh costs of seeking new mates. A third hypothesis suggests that pair-bonds function to protect against infanticide by aggressive males. Tests of these hypotheses used data from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample on divorce, alloparenting, polygyny, male contribution to subsistence, and male aggression. Results were not consistent with the infanticide and/or male aggression hypothesis; however, parental investment and male mating competition accounted for significant cross-cultural variance in conjugal stability, suggesting that human pairing has multiple functions. Pair-bonds tended to be stable when men and women contributed equally to subsistence, and unstable when either sex contributed the majority to subsistence. The authors use the ethnographic record to explore relations among pair-bonds, mating competition, showing off, and conjugal complementarity.
Task Demands Interact With the Single and Combined Effects of Medication and Contingencies on Children With ADHD
Authors: Tamm Leanne , Carlson Caryn L.
Published: April 2007

Objective: To investigate single and combined effects of stimulant medication and contingencies on the performance of ADHD children with tasks involving different cognitive demands. Method: Children diagnosed with ADHD participated in a within-subjects design. At two separate sessions, children on either medication or placebo (administered in a double-blind fashion) completed two tasks, a match-to-sample task and a stop-signal task, under three conditions (reward, response cost, and no contingency) in a counterbalanced order. Results: Contingencies and medication administered singly improved performance on both tasks. For the match-to-sample task, the combination of medication and contingencies was more efficacious than either alone. For the stop-signal task, the combination of medication and reward was no more effective than either alone; however, medication and response cost combined was more effective than either treatment alone. Conclusion: Results suggest that both medication and contingencies improve task performance. The findings suggest that task demands interact with single and combined treatment effects. (J. of Att. Dis. 2007; 10(4) 372-380)
Perceptions of Academic Skills of Children Diagnosed With ADHD
Authors: Eisenberg Daniel , Schneider Helen
Published: April 2007

Objective: This study investigates how the academic skills of children diagnosed with ADHD are perceived by teachers, parents, and the children themselves. Method: The authors analyze data collected for third graders in spring 2002 in the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey. They use linear regressions to estimate independent associations between perceptions of academic abilities and parent-reported ADHD diagnoses, controlling for scores on standardized reading and math tests, assessments of externalizing behaviors, and other factors. Results: Results show that for ADHD-diagnosed girls compared to other girls, both parents' and teachers' perceptions are substantially more negative. For ADHD-diagnosed boys, the differentials are also negative but less pronounced. Self-perceptions are not significantly different by ADHD status, except for boys' more negative self-perceptions related to math. Conclusion: Given the potentially damaging effects of these negative perceptions and expectations on self-esteem, motivation, and performance, efforts may be needed to bring perceptions of ADHD children more in line with the abilities they demonstrate on objective assessments. (J. of Att. Dis. 2007; 10(4) 390-397)
Trends in Medication Treatment for ADHD
Authors: Castle Lon , Aubert Ronald E. , Verbrugge Robert R. , Khalid Mona , Epstein Robert S.
Published: April 2007

Objective: This study examines demographic trends in the use of medications to treat ADHD in adult and pediatric populations. Method: Using pharmacy claims data for a large population of commercially insured Americans, the study measures ADHD treatment prevalence and drug use from 2000 to 2005. Results: In 2005, 4.4% of children (ages 0 to 19) and 0.8% of adults (ages 20 and older) used ADHD medications. Treatment rates were higher in boys (6.1%) than in girls (2.6%), but the rates for men and women were approximately equal (0.8%). During the period of the study, treatment prevalence increased rapidly (11.8% per year) for the population as a whole. Treatment rates grew more rapidly for adults than for children, more rapidly for women than for men, and more rapidly for girls than for boys. Conclusion: Improved identification of ADHD in adult and female patients has contributed to rapid growth in ADHD medication use. ( J. of Att. Dis. 2007; 10(4) 335-342)
Participation, Perception of Participation, and Citizen Support
Authors: Grisez Kweit Mary , Kweit Robert W.
Published: April 2007

Despite strong support for citizen participation in the abstract, there is less support in practice, in part because of different expectations about the impact of participation. This research examines participation in two communities following a disaster. It tests four hypotheses. The research demonstrates that actual participation had no impact or a slight negative impact on satisfaction and legitimacy, but the beliefs that citizens had had an impact and the city had attempted to involve citizens were strongly positively related to both. The research suggests that the symbolic role of participation may be more important than its instrumental role.
The Swing Voter in American Presidential Elections
Authors: Mayer William G.
Published: April 2007

When journalists, commentators, and political strategists talk about elections, few terms come up more frequently than that of the swing voter, yet this concept has been almost entirely ignored by academic analysts of voting and elections. In an attempt to fill that void, this article first develops a definition of the swing voter and then offers a simple way of locating swing voters in a mass sample survey. Using data from the American National Election Studies, the article then provides an initial look at the swing voters and how they differ from the rest of the electorate.
Crystal Elephants and Committee Chairs
Authors: Kanthak Kristin
Published: April 2007

Researchers know very little about the quest for internal power in the U.S. House of Representatives because the leadership climb takes place largely behind closed doors. The current article attempts to shed some light on the heretofore little-known process by focusing on one aspect of this climb that actually is public: legislators' decisions to make contributions from their so-called leadership political action committees. In contrast with much of the extant literature, the data show that leadership-minded legislators carefully consider the ideological positions of potential recipients of their help when deciding how to distribute their campaign contributions. I also show that parties, when they use the right tools, can harness the ambition of leadership-minded legislators to the benefit of the party as a whole.
Dissonance Persists
Authors: Blinder Scott B.
Published: April 2007

Attitudes toward race and politics continue to show tensions between antiracist norms and racist stereotypes, even among new generations of White Americans raised in an era of consensus on antiracist social norms. I suggest that this “dissonance” stems from a process of “two-tracked socialization” and I demonstrate the persistence of such dissonant attitudes in two ways. First, in the aggregate, the youngest cohorts of White Americans do not greatly differ from older generations in their policy preferences on racial matters and beliefs about race, politics, and inequality. Second, stereotypes still influence policy preferences among younger cohorts. On the second point, I replicate Gilens's work on the racialization of welfare policy attitudes with more recent data and added attention to differences and similarities across birth cohorts.
Mast cells are crucial for early inflammation, migration of Langerhans cells, and CTL responses following topical application of TLR7 ligand in mice
Authors: Heib Valeska , Becker Marc , Warger Tobias , Rechtsteiner Gerd , Tertilt Christine , Klein Matthias , Bopp Tobias , Taube Christian , Schild Hansjörg , Schmitt Edgar , Stassen Michael
Published: April 2007

Until recently, IgE-activated mast cells have been regarded merely as effector cells of adaptive immune responses, involved in allergic reactions and mucosal immunity to parasites. Herein, we report that murine dermal mast cells, activated by local administration of a cream containing the synthetic TLR7 ligand imiquimod, are essential to initiate an early inflammatory reaction. The mast-cell–derived cytokines TNF-α and IL-1β play an important role in this process. Furthermore, TLR7-activated mast cells are also able to promote the emigration of Langerhans cells, which partly depends on the expression of mast-cell–derived IL-1β. We have previously shown that TLR7 ligation enhances transcutaneous immunization evoked by topical application of vaccine antigens to the skin, a procedure that directly targets skin-resident antigen-presenting cells. Consequently, we now demonstrate here that the capacity to mount a peptide-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte response following transcutaneous immunization using imiquimod as adjuvant is severely impaired in mast-cell–deficient mice. Thus, these findings demonstrate the potent versability of alternatively activated mast cells at the interface of innate and adaptive immunity.
Assessment of Teacher Interruptions on Learners during Oral Case Presentations
Authors: Yang Glen , Chin Rachel
Published: April 2007

Background:Studies have only recently begun to investigate the effects of interruptions on physicians in the emergency department (ED).

Objectives:To determine the frequency and nature of interruptions by the training physician that occur when medical trainees do oral case presentations (OCPs) in the ED.

Methods:This was an observational study. Learner OCPs to attending emergency physicians were observed in the ED of an urban Level 1 trauma center at a major teaching hospital. A single investigator followed attending physicians blinded to the study objective in a nonrandomized convenience sampling of all ED shifts, recording information regarding teacher interruptions during new patient presentations. Learners completed a brief questionnaire after each OCP.

Results:A total of 196 OCPs were observed. The mean (±SD) duration of OCPs was 3.30 (±1.85) minutes, and the mean (±SD) number of interruptions was 0.75 (±0.60) per minute and 2.49 (±1.95) per OCP. The number of interruptions (per OCP) and duration of OCP varied by learner level of training, with more experienced learners giving shorter presentations and being interrupted less often. Frequency (per minute) of interruptions did not vary by learner level. In 40.3% of OCPs, attending physicians interrupted to give an assessment and/or a plan before the learner had done so, but 8.3% of interrupted learners believed that teacher interruptions were “disruptive” to their OCP.

Conclusions:Attending emergency physicians frequently interrupt learners during new patient OCPs, with the number of interruptions varying by learner level of training. Teacher interruptions appear to have minimal, if any, detrimental effect on the perceived effectiveness of OCPs as a learning experience.
The Presence of B‐type Natriuretic Peptide in Burns and the Responsiveness of Fibroblasts to BNP: Proof of Principle
Authors: Singer Adam J. , Jurukovski Vladimir , Simon Marcia , Ma Jing Ying , Protter Andrew , Arura Balvantray , Soroff Harry S.
Published: April 2007

Background:B‐type natriuretic peptide (BNP) released from cardiac myocytes plays an important role in cardiac homeostasis through cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) activation. BNP also reduces cardiac remodeling and fibrosis. The antifibrotic effects of BNP are mediated in part by blocking the effects of transforming growth factor β, a profibrotic cytokine that plays a significant role in cutaneous wound healing. It is unclear if BNP plays any role in cutaneous wound healing.ObjectivesTo investigate if BNP levels would be elevated in thermally injured human skin and if human‐derived fibroblasts would respond to BNP exposure by increasing levels of cGMP.MethodsThis was an in vitro analysis of human skin. Skin samples and cells were collected from patients with and without thermal injury. The authors stained three skin samples from normal skin (taken at the time of elective cosmetic surgery) with antibodies to BNP and compared these with three tissue samples obtained from burned human skin taken during tangential excision of deep burns. Normal human‐derived fibroblasts and keratinocytes were exposed in triplicate to BNP in vitro, and cGMP accumulation was evaluated. Levels of cGMP were quantified and compared with analysis of variance.ResultsBNP was present in all specimens of thermally injured skin (especially around collagen, epithelial cells, and endothelial cells) but not in any uninjured skin samples (p = 0.05, single‐tailed Fisher's exact test). In vitro grown fibroblasts showed significant increases of cGMP levels with increasing levels of BNP exposure (mean [±SD]: 0.6 [±0.3], 1.2 [±0.2], 4.6 [±0.1], and 5.0 [±0.9] pmol/mL with BNP concentrations of 0, 10, 500, and 1,000 nmol/L, respectively; p < 0.001). The effect of BNP on keratinocytes was minimal and below the level of quantification.Conclusions:These findings demonstrate proof of principle that human fibroblasts are responsive to the effects of BNP in vitro and that BNP is present in injured skin, suggesting that BNP may play a role in cutaneous wound healing.