bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
‘You are the first journalist and you are the last journalist who will ever come here’: Nuclear secrets and media practices of access-trespass
Authors: Mukherjee Rahul
Published: December 2015

In India, information about nuclear technologies is often kept shrouded in secrecy. Science reporters covering such strategic sectors depend for information on cultivating sources and pursuing contacts in the nuclear establishment. Based on in-depth interviews with two science/environmental journalists and analysis of their television reports and magazine articles, I show how journalists are acutely aware of their role as mediators between scientists and their complex technological projects on the one hand and the general public on the other. Reporting on ‘secret’ nuclear sciences makes concerns of objectivity and bias in journalistic practice strategic: if journalists are considered pro-nuclear, they have a better chance of accessing nuclear reactor and space research sites. Journalists and scientists co-design and co-stage experiments to be witnessed by the television audiences, and I argue for a close analysis of these mutual entanglements of scientific processes and media practices to understand the performative mediations of environmental debates. Furthermore, I examine how television studio and split-screen management affords news anchors a strategic advantage in confronting politicians and science experts with questions about the risk and safety of scientific projects – an advantage that is not equally available to journalists while accessing strategic technoscience sites.
Relationship Quality Among Cohabiting Versus Married Couples
Authors: Brown Susan L. , Manning Wendy D. , Payne Krista K.
Published: December 2015

Using data from the nationally representative 2010 Married and Cohabiting Couples Survey of different-sex cohabiting and married couples, we compared the relationship quality of today’s cohabitors and marrieds. Consistent with diffusion theory and recent conceptual work on the deinstitutionalization of marriage, we found that the relationship between union type and relationship quality is now bifurcated with direct marrieds reporting the highest relationship quality and cohabitors without marriage plans reporting the lowest marital quality. In the middle were the two largest groups: marrieds who premaritally cohabited and cohabitors with plans to marry. These two groups did not differ in terms of relationship quality. This study adds to the growing literature indicating that the role of cohabitation in the family life course is changing in the contemporary context.
Effectiveness of a group-based self-management program for people with chronic fatigue syndrome: a randomized controlled trial
Authors: Pinxsterhuis Irma , Sandvik Leiv , Strand Elin Bolle , Bautz-Holter Erik , Sveen Unni
Published: December 2015

Objective:

To evaluate the effectiveness of a group-based self-management program for people with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Design:

A randomized controlled trial.

Setting:

Four mid-sized towns in southern Norway and two suburbs of Oslo.

Subjects:

A total of 137 adults with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Intervention:

A self-management program including eight biweekly meetings of 2.5 hours duration. The control group received usual care.

Main measures:

Primary outcome measure: Medical Outcomes Study-Short Form-36 physical functioning subscale. Secondary outcome measures: Fatigue severity scale, self-efficacy scale, physical and mental component summary of the Short Form-36, and the illness cognition questionnaire (acceptance subscale). Assessments were performed at baseline, and at six-month and one-year follow-ups.

Results:

At the six-month follow-up, a significant difference between the two groups was found concerning fatigue severity ( p = 0.039) in favor of the control group, and concerning self-efficacy in favor of the intervention group ( p = 0.039). These significant differences were not sustained at the one-year follow-up. No significant differences were found between the groups concerning physical functioning, acceptance, and health status at any of the measure points. The drop-out rate was 13.9% and the median number of sessions attended was seven (out of eight).

Conclusions:

The evaluated self-management program did not have any sustained effect, as compared with receiving usual care.
The deradicalisation of education: terror, youth and the assault on learning
Authors: Sukarieh Mayssoun , Tannock Stuart
Published: December 2015

A high profile anti-radicalisation agenda in schools and other educational institutions throughout Europe has risen in response to terrorist attacks on European countries in the first decades of the twenty-first century. This article looks critically at anti-radicalisation in education, arguing that it needs to be placed in the broader context of ongoing neoliberal educational reform and questioned not just in terms of its dubious efficacy in addressing terrorism, or the civil rights harm it inflicts on Muslim and ethnic minority citizens in Europe, but also as a direct attack on the centuries-old radical tradition in European education. In particular, anti-radicalisation diverts attention from the analysis of structural root causes of social problems, opposes the use of education for fundamental social change, and stigmatises transformational educational practices that many would argue are now vitally important in helping us collectively address a range of contemporary global social, economic and environmental crises.
The Effects of an Online Theory-Based Bone Health Program for Older Adults
Authors: Nahm Eun-Shim , Resnick Barbara , Brown Clayton , Zhu Shijun , Magaziner Jay , Bellantoni Michele , Brennan Patricia Flatley , Charters Kathleen , Brown Jeanine , Rietschel Mathew , An Minjeong , Park Bu Kyung
Published: December 2015

An estimated 10 million Americans age 50 and older have osteoporosis, and many experience associated fractures. Although several interventions have been shown to be effective in preventing osteoporosis, their impact on bone health among older adults was limited. The aim of this study was, therefore, to examine the effects of a theory-based online bone health program (Bone Power program) for a large number of older adults. The 8-week program included learning modules, discussion boards, and other resources. Participants ( N = 866; M age = 62.5 years) were recruited online and randomized into a Bone Power or control group. At the end of the intervention, the Bone Power group showed significantly greater improvement over the control group in osteoporosis knowledge, self-efficacy/outcome expectations for calcium intake and exercise, and calcium intake and exercise behaviors. This study’s findings suggest that online health programs can be effective in improving older adults’ knowledge, beliefs, and health behaviors.
Pediatric Suprasellar Tumors
Authors: McCrea Heather J. , George Emilie , Settler Allison , Schwartz Theodore H. , Greenfield Jeffrey P.
Published: December 2015

The various childhood suprasellar tumors, while pathologically distinct, present similar clinical and surgical challenges as a result of their common anatomic location. These lesions are in close proximity to or may invade the optic nerve and chiasm, pituitary gland and infundibulum, hypothalamus, and third ventricle, leading to presenting features including visual field loss, impairment in visual acuity, endocrine dysfunction, and hydrocephalus. Though many suprasellar lesions are relatively benign in pathology, treatment may be complicated by high surgical morbidity resulting from damage to the hypothalamic-pituitary axis. Here we review the most frequent pediatric lesions occurring in the suprasellar region: craniopharyngioma, chiasmatic glioma, germ cell tumor, Rathke cleft and arachnoid cysts, pituitary adenoma, and histiocytosis. This review outlines both common presenting features and differentiating aspects of these lesions. It also includes classic radiographic presentations and treatment considerations for each lesion.
Flow perfusion culture of MC3T3-E1 osteogenic cells on gradient calcium polyphosphate scaffolds with different pore sizes
Authors: Chen Liang , Song Wei , Markel David C , Shi Tong , Muzik Otto , Matthew Howard , Ren Weiping
Published: December 2015

Calcium polyphosphate is a biodegradable bone substitute. It remains a challenge to prepare porous calcium polyphosphate with desired gradient porous structures. In this study, a modified one-step gravity sintering method was used to prepare calcium polyphosphate scaffolds with desired-gradient-pore-size distribution. The differences of porous structure, mechanical strength, and degradation rate between gradient and homogenous calcium polyphosphate scaffolds were evaluated by micro-computed tomography, scanning electron microscopy, and mechanical testing. Preosteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells were seeded onto gradient and homogenous calcium polyphosphate scaffolds and cultured in a flow perfusion bioreactor. The distribution, proliferation, and differentiation of the MC3T3-E1 cells were compared to that of homogenous calcium polyphosphate scaffolds. Though no significant difference of cell proliferation was found between the gradient and the homogenous calcium polyphosphate scaffolds, a much higher cell differentiation and mineralization were observed in the gradient calcium polyphosphate scaffolds than that of the homogenous calcium polyphosphate scaffolds, as manifested by increased alkaline phosphatase activity ( p < 0.05). The improved distribution and differentiation of cultured cells within gradient scaffolds were further supported by both 18F-fluorine micro-positron emission tomography scanning and in vitro tetracycline labeling. We conclude that the calcium polyphosphate scaffold with gradient pore sizes enhances osteogenic cell differentiation as well as mineralization. The in vivo performance of gradient calcium polyphosphate scaffolds warrants further investigation in animal bone defect models.
What Big Data Can Tell Us About Government Awards to the Nonprofit Sector
Authors: Lecy Jesse , Thornton Jeremy
Published: December 2015

This article reviews the Federal Assistance Award Data System (FAADS), a comprehensive online archive of federal grant activity. Relatively few nonprofit scholars have used this extensive data source due to significant structural limitations in the data. This article aims to describe and mitigate those limitations while stimulating new research on government awards to nonprofits. The article profiles the process of federal award flows and reporting. We also identify the primary advantages and shortcomings in the current data structure. Finally, we post an electronic matching algorithm that links individual federal award records to recipient Form 990 financial data. This process allows researchers to analyze the influence of federal awards with greater fidelity than has been previously accomplished in the literature.
Optimum variable input speed for kinematic performance of Geneva mechanisms using teaching-learning-based optimization algorithm
Authors: Lin WY , Tsai YH , Hsiao KM
Published: December 2015

An optimum design of variable input speed for the Geneva mechanism is aimed at improving the kinematic performance of the traditional Geneva mechanism by eliminating infinite angular jerks and reducing the peak angular acceleration of the Geneva wheel during the indexing motion. The normalized angular velocity and acceleration of the Geneva wheel corresponding to the normalized time are introduced. A polynomial function of the normalized time is used to describe the normalized angular position of the crank, and therefore, the corresponding polynomial coefficients are considered as the design variables. The optimum design task is very specialized and difficult to solve with some evolutionary and swarm optimization methods because of the extremely large range for the value of the design variable, arising from the utilization of a higher order polynomial for the normalized time parameter with a value between 0 and 1. A new evolutionary algorithm termed teaching-learning-based optimization comprises a teacher phase and a learner phase. In the teacher phase, the entire population can be gradually shifted to a more promising region, which may be very far from the relatively small initial region. The obtained optimal results are compared with those obtained using the length-adjustable deriving link method discussed in the literature. The findings show that the difference in the effectiveness of the variable input speed method and the length-adjustable driving link method for the reduction of the peak angular acceleration of the Geneva wheel is small.
The Critical Importance of Retrieval—and Spacing—for Learning
Authors: Soderstrom Nicholas C. , Kerr Tyson K. , Bjork Robert A.
Published: December 2015

We examined the impact of repeated testing and repeated studying on long-term learning. In Experiment 1, we replicated Karpicke and Roediger’s (2008) influential results showing that once information can be recalled, repeated testing on that information enhances learning, whereas restudying that information does not. We then examined whether the apparent ineffectiveness of restudying might be attributable to the spacing differences between items that were inherent in the between-subjects design employed by Karpicke and Roediger. When we controlled for these spacing differences by manipulating the various learning conditions within subjects in Experiment 2, we found that both repeated testing and restudying improved learning, and that learners’ awareness of the relative mnemonic benefits of these strategies was enhanced. These findings contribute to understanding how two important factors in learning—test-induced retrieval processes and spacing—can interact, and they illustrate that such interactions can play out differently in between-subjects and within-subjects experimental designs.
Transdisciplinary Research on Cancer-Healing Systems Between Biomedicine and the Maya of Guatemala
Authors: Berger-González Mónica , Stauffacher Michael , Zinsstag Jakob , Edwards Peter , Krütli Pius
Published: December 2015

Transdisciplinarity (TD) is a participatory research approach in which actors from science and society work closely together. It offers means for promoting knowledge integration and finding solutions to complex societal problems, and can be applied within a multiplicity of epistemic systems. We conducted a TD process from 2011 to 2014 between indigenous Mayan medical specialists from Guatemala and Western biomedical physicians and scientists to study cancer. Given the immense cultural gap between the partners, it was necessary to develop new methods to overcome biases induced by ethnocentric behaviors and power differentials. This article describes this intercultural cooperation and presents a method of reciprocal reflexivity (Bidirectional Emic–Etic tool) developed to overcome them. As a result of application, researchers observed successful knowledge integration at the epistemic level, the social-organizational level, and the communicative level throughout the study. This approach may prove beneficial to others engaged in facilitating participatory health research in complex intercultural settings.
Screening for Intensive Intervention Needs in Secondary Schools
Authors: Lane Kathleen Lynne , Oakes Wendy Peia , Lusk Mandy E. , Cantwell Emily Dawn , Schatschneider Christopher
Published: December 2015

In this article, we provided descriptive and methodological illustrations of how to conduct systematic behavior screenings at the middle and high school levels to detect students with intensive intervention needs using one systematic screening tool: the Student Risk Screening Scale. We discussed the importance of systematic screening and presented data from secondary schools conducting systematic screenings to illustrate the proportion of students with these intensive needs. Results suggested 5.49% of the more than 10,000 students placed into the high-risk category, with results varying across states and school levels (middle vs. high school). Then, we offered recommendations for using systematic screening data to address the needs of middle- and high-school students including the use of research-based, intensive supports within tiered systems of support. We discussed challenges of conducting screenings in secondary school settings and addressed limitations and future directions for subsequent inquiry.
The Generalizability of Overreporting Across Self-Report Measures: An Investigation With the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2–Restructured Form and the Personality Assessment Inventory in a Civil Disability Sample
Authors: Crighton Adam H. , Tarescavage Anthony M. , Gervais Roger O. , Ben-Porath Yossef S.
Published: December 2015

Elevated overreporting Validity Scale scores on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2–Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) are associated with higher scores on collateral measures; however, measures used in prior research lacked validity scales. We sought to extend these findings by examining associations between elevated MMPI-2-RF overreporting scale scores and Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) scale scores among 654 non–head injury civil disability claimants. Individuals were classified as overreporting psychopathology (OR-P), overreporting somatic/cognitive complaints (OR-SC), inconclusive reporting psychopathology (IR-P), inconclusive reporting somatic/cognitive complaints (IR-SC), or valid reporting (VR). Both overreporting groups had significantly and meaningfully higher scores than the VR group on the MMPI-2-RF and PAI scales. Both IR groups had significantly and meaningfully higher scores than the VR group, as well as lower scores than their overreporting counterparts. Our findings demonstrate the utility of inventories with validity scales in assessment batteries that include instruments without measures of protocol validity.
Architecture
Authors: Senne Jessica , Coxon Steve V.
Published: December 2015

The United States is dependent on innovations in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields for the growth of its economy and improvements to quality of life, but too few students are prepared for them. To help meet the challenges in filling the STEM pipeline, teachers of gifted elementary students can nurture important talents, including mathematics achievement, creativity, and spatial ability, through problem-based architectural projects. The importance of developing each of these talents for STEM success is described and related to architecture. Four projects are offered in architecture and various architectural sub-disciplines that are sufficiently challenging for gifted elementary students, including example Common Core State Standards in mathematics that can be incorporated. The usefulness of problem-based learning is described, and problem statements are offered that can be easily revised and extended to meet unique classroom needs. A framework is provided for teachers to create their own architectural projects.
A Place of Your Own on Tito’s Adriatic: Club Med and Czechoslovak Trade Union Holiday Resorts in the 1960s
Authors: Tchoukarine Igor
Published: December 2015

This article presents the disparate, yet similar, stories of foreign tourist resorts built on Yugoslavia’s coast in the 1960s: two of them owned privately, by the French Club Méditerranée, in Pakoštane (Croatia) and on Sveti Marko island (Montenegro); one, in Bečići (Montenegro), the property of socialist Czechoslovakia and its Trade Union organization ( Revoluční Odborové Hnutí). Drawing on archival documents, newspapers, and magazine articles as well as interviews, I discuss why these resorts were established, and how they operated within their specific material, financial, and metaphorical contexts, while also examining how tourists and tourism planners assigned meanings to tourism, and envisioned it within its global context. The French-owned Club Med’s resorts were profit-oriented, private initiatives that catered toward individuals and families on vacations that were envisioned as a means of personal growth. Revoluční Odborové Hnutí’s resort, by contrast, was owned by socialist Czechoslovakia’s labor union. It served union members and their families, and was designed according to principles of social and collective tourism. Nevertheless, as this article argues, each of these resorts embodied core features of the modern, time-restricted, spatially managed, and pleasure-oriented experience of vacation abroad. Moreover, a concept of insularity—the comfort of sojourning in a self-contained space that was at once foreign and familiar—defined each resort’s conception and promotion of their seaside vacations, thus bridging the projects’ ideological and institutional differences, and superseding local understandings of place. The projects’ histories, finally, prefigured contemporary tourism’s contradictions and complexities, such as the dwindling of conventional distinctions (between home and abroad, for instance). At the background of this comparative analysis is the broader history of tourism in postwar Yugoslavia, which held high hopes for tourism as a vector for economic development and the promotion of good international relations.
Topographies of the Kasbah Route: Hardening of a heritage trail
Authors: Wagner Lauren , Minca Claudio
Published: December 2015

In 1932, the Tourism Syndicate of the French Protectorate government in Morocco published a guidebook for French tourists to follow the ‘ Route des Kasbas’ through southern Morocco. The trajectory described is still in many ways reproduced by contemporary guiding materials, delineating specific routes where this ‘heritage’ might be found in Morocco and what sorts of mobilities are necessary to seek it. Using these guiding resources from ‘the field’, along with our own ethnographic experiences as travelling researchers, we trace how colonial cartographical rationalities structured in this region along its ‘road’, through promotion by the French Protectorate government as a mobile site for tourism, and how that infrastructural and economic sedimentation persists in contemporary mobilities through it – including our own mobilities as tourism researchers. We question when and how it might be possible to escape this cartographic specificity for other spatialities of this road.
Variability in dynamic daylight simulation in clear sky conditions according to selected weather file: Satellite data and land-based station data
Authors: Monteoliva JM , Villalba A , Pattini AE
Published: December 2015

While the use of satellite weather files is a possibility in regions without terrestrial stations, it is necessary to consider their impact on daylight simulations. This paper aims to verify the variability of dynamic daylight simulation results according to the weather file used. This study compares the results of daylight simulations in learning spaces using different weather files (land-based station data and satellite data). This work is divided into three main stages: comparative analysis of climatic databases; comparative analysis of annual outside horizontal illuminance; analysis of dynamic daylight performance metrics. Annual calculated dynamic daylight metric indicates variations of up to 13% under the different weather files analysed. This is a relevant topic since the accurate prediction of daylight levels for indoor environments guides daylighting design.
Individual empowerment is not enough: Using a social norms lens to understand the limited educational uptake of Vietnam’s Hmong girls
Authors: Jones Nicola , Presler-Marshall Elizabeth , Van Anh Tran Thi
Published: December 2015

While on a national level Vietnam has achieved – and surpassed – gender parity in education, restrictive social norms that value Hmong girls primarily for their future roles as wives, daughters-in-law and mothers have largely precluded their advancement to high school. Drawing on qualitative data collected in the country’s Hmong homeland in Ha Giang province, in the remote mountains bordering China, we found evidence of the non-linear nature of change and the limits of legal reform. On the one hand, strong national and local commitment to primary education has transformed expectations in only one generation. Hmong girls are not only attending school for the first time, but despite their heavy domestic workloads, they are regularly outperforming their male peers. On the other hand, because Hmong tradition sees sons, but not daughters, as vital to the religious and economic continuity of the family, girls continue to suffer from parental under-investment. While most girls are beginning to dream of high school, and some of university or teachers college, the filial piety demanded by their elders leaves them with few opportunities to translate their dreams into action. The paper concludes that improving Hmong girls’ educational uptake will take more than educational policy and girl-power – it will necessitate broader inter-sectoral and tailored attention to the web of gender norms binding them to the past.
Nano silver incorporated electrospun polyacrylonitrile nanofibers and spun bonded polypropylene composite for aerosol filtration
Authors: Karthick S Arun , Gobi N
Published: December 2015

Nowadays, nanofiber for filtration is drawing attention because of its large surface area and smaller pore size. In this study, aerosol filtration is carried out using nanocomposite filter made of polyacrylonitrile nanofibers with incorporated silver nanoparticles at different weight percentages of 5, 10, and 15 (based on the weight of polyacrylonitrile) sandwiched between polypropylene spun bonded nonwoven. Dimethylformamide acts as both solvent and reducing agent for polyacrylonitrile and the formation of silver nanoparticles, and the silver nanoparticles were characterized using ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. Further, Box–Behnken method was used to prepare filter media using areal density of nonwoven substrate, electrospinning time, and silver wt.% as process variables. Later, the developed filters were studied for aerosol filtration efficiency at face velocity of 5 cm/s against NaCl aerosol particles ranging from 0.3 to 10 µm, respectively, as well as studied for anti-bactericidal activity against gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and gram-negative Escherichia coli bacteria. From the study, the developed polyacrylonitrile/silver nanofiber filters possess 99% aerosol filtration efficiency with good anti-bactericidal activity, which potentially improves filter quality.
Containing, contesting, creating spaces: leadership and cultural identity work among Australian Indigenous arts leaders
Authors: Evans Michelle , Sinclair Amanda
Published: December 2015

Drawing on the experiences of 29 Australian Indigenous artists and arts leaders, this article explores the way these individuals provide leadership by expressing and resisting cultural identities of Aboriginality. Scholars have shown how a key activity in leadership is ‘identity work’, or negotiating a sustainable leadership identity, yet much of the scholarship to date neglects context and cultural dimensions of identity work in leadership. Our research draws on the extensive theorising on social identity, but we take a critical perspective, arguing that public discourses of Aboriginality mean that leadership identities in Indigenous communities have a complex, sometimes contested status. We begin the article showing the way in which Aboriginality as an identity is constructed in the public domain. We then explore three categories of identity practice enacted by our sample of arts leaders: contesting essentialisation, containing trauma and creating belonging. The discussion argues that these practices of interrogating and re-shaping stereotypic cultural identities often constitute acts of leadership. We contribute to scholarship by providing new insights on identity work; and to practice, highlighting the potential significance of leadership identity work to the self-determination and flourishing of Aboriginal peoples.
Systematic review: third-line susceptibility-guided treatment for Helicobacter pylori infection
Authors: Puig Ignasi , López-Góngora Sheila , Calvet Xavier , Villoria Albert , Baylina Mireia , Sanchez-Delgado Jordi , Suarez David , García-Hernando Victor , Gisbert Javier P.
Published: December 2015

Background:

Susceptibility-guided therapies (SGTs) have been proposed as preferable to empirical rescue treatments after two treatment failures. The aim of this study was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the effectiveness and efficacy of SGT as third-line therapy.

Methods:

A systematic search was performed in multiple databases. Studies reporting cure rates of Helicobacter pylori with SGT in third-line therapy were selected. A qualitative analysis describing the current evidence and a pooled mean analysis summarizing the cure rates of SGT in third-line therapy was performed.

Results:

No randomized controlled trials or comparative studies were found. Four observational studies reported cure rates with SGT in third-line treatment, and three studies which mixed patients with second- and third-line treatment also reported cure rates with SGT. The majority of the studies included the patients when culture had been already obtained, and so the effectiveness of SGT and empirical therapy has never been compared. A pooled mean analysis including four observational studies (283 patients) showed intention-to-treat and per-protocol eradication rates with SGT of 72% (95% confidence interval 56–87%; I2: 92%) and 80% (95% confidence interval 71–90%; I2: 80%), respectively.

Conclusions:

SGT may be an acceptable option as rescue treatment. However, cure rates are, at best, moderate and this approach has never been compared with a well-devised empirical therapy. The evidence in favor of SGT as rescue therapy is currently insufficient to recommend its use.
Results After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction in Patients Older Than 40 Years
Authors: Mall Nathan A. , Frank Rachel M. , Saltzman Bryan M. , Cole Brian J. , Bach Bernard R.
Published: December 2015

Context:

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction in older patients is a controversial topic among orthopaedic surgeons.

Objective:

To determine the outcomes, failure, and morbidity associated with ACL reconstruction in patients older than 40 years and to compare it with nonoperative treatment as well as results of ACL reconstruction in a younger patient population.

Data Sources:

A systematic review of the literature from 1970 to 2015 was conducted utilizing MEDLINE, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Central Register databases using PRISMA guidelines.

Study Selection:

Inclusion criteria were studies with longer than 2-year follow-up of primary ACL reconstruction and minimum age of patients older than 40 years, inclusive of any graft type or source and of any concomitant meniscal pathology.

Study Design:

Systematic review.

Level of Evidence:

Level 4.

Data Extraction:

Two independent reviewers collected demographic, preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative data.

Results:

Twelve studies with a total of 452 patients were included. The mean patient age was 47.8 years (range, 40-66 years) with a mean follow-up of 53.3 months (minimum, 24 months). Lysholm scores improved from 53.9 to 90.5 in the 11 operative studies. The only nonoperative study reported a mean Lysholm score of 82 after rehabilitation. International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) scores of A or B were found in 81%. Tegner activity scores averaged 4.7 preinjury, fell to 2.9 preoperatively, and returned to 4.7 postoperatively. The reported failure rate was 2.3%. There were few complications, and failure rate was similar in younger patients.

Conclusion:

The data confirm that ACL reconstruction can be recommended to patients older than 40 years who wish to maintain an active lifestyle or have symptomatic instability with daily activities. Patient-based outcomes scores were better in the operative studies compared with the single nonoperative study in this patient population.
Identifying the key performance improvement domains for home health agencies
Authors: Koru Güneş , Alhuwail Dari , Rosati Robert J.
Published: December 2015

Objective:

The objective of this study was to support home health agencies (HHAs) in the United States (US) in their individualized quality assessment and performance improvement (QAPI) initiatives by identifying their key performance improvement domains (KPIDs).

Methods:

Qualitative research was conducted by following the Framework method. Rich contextual data were obtained through focus group meetings participated by domain experts. The analysis results were further refined in an online forum and validated at a final meeting.

Results:

Four focus groups involving a total of 20 participants resulted in useful discussions during which various perspectives were expressed by the expert participants. A well-defined set of 17 KPIDs emerged under four categories, namely, economical value, sociocultural sensitivity, interpersonal relationships, and clinical capabilities.

Conclusions:

The feedback we received from the focus groups indicates that performance improvement in HHAs is a lot more complicated than simply assessing whether certain clinical tasks are performed. The KPIDs identified in this study can help HHAs in their focused and individualized QAPI initiatives. Therefore, the results should be immediately relevant, interesting, and useful to the home care industry and policy makers in the US.
Free kappa light chains in cerebrospinal fluid as a biomarker to assess risk conversion to multiple sclerosis
Authors: Menéndez-Valladares P , García-Sánchez MI , Cuadri Benítez P , Lucas M , Adorna Martínez M , Carranco Galán V , García De Veas Silva JL , Bermudo Guitarte C , Izquierdo Ayuso G
Published: December 2015

Background

Multiple sclerosis (MS) initiates with a first attack or clinically isolated syndrome (CIS). The importance of an early treatment in MS leads to the search, as soon as possible, for novel biomarkers which can predict conversion from CIS to MS.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to assess the predictive value of the kappa index ([Formula: see text] index), using kappa free light light chains ([Formula: see text]FLCs) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), for the conversion of CIS patients to MS, and compare its accuracy with other parameters used in clinical practice.

Methods

FLC levels were analysed in CSF from 176 patients: 70 as control group, 77 CIS, and 29 relapsing–remitting MS. FLC levels were quantified by nephelometry.

Results

[Formula: see text] Index sensitivity and specificity (93.1%; 95.7%) was higher than those from the immunoglobulin G (IgG) index (75.9%; 94.3%), and lower than those from oligoclonal IgG bands (OCGBs) (96.5%; 98.6%). The optimal cut-off for [Formula: see text] index was 10.62. Most of the CIS patients with [Formula: see text] index >10.62 presented OCGBs, IgG index >0.56 and fulfilled magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) criteria.

Conclusion

CIS patients above [Formula: see text] index cut-off of 10.62 present 7.34-fold risk of conversion to MS than CIS below this value. The [Formula: see text] index correlated with positive OCGBs, IgG index above 0.56 and MRI criteria.
The Placental Variant of Human Growth Hormone Reduces Maternal Insulin Sensitivity in a Dose-Dependent Manner in C57BL/6J Mice
Authors: Liao Shutan , Vickers Mark H. , Stanley Joanna L. , Ponnampalam Anna P. , Baker Philip N. , Perry Jo K.
Published: December 2015

The human placental GH variant (GH-V) is secreted continuously from the syncytiotrophoblast layer of the placenta during pregnancy and is thought to play a key role in the maternal adaptation to pregnancy. Maternal GH-V concentrations are closely related to fetal growth in humans. GH-V has also been proposed as a potential candidate to mediate insulin resistance observed later in pregnancy. To determine the effect of maternal GH-V administration on maternal and fetal growth and metabolic outcomes during pregnancy, we examined the dose-response relationship for GH-V administration in a mouse model of normal pregnancy. Pregnant C57BL/6J mice were randomized to receive vehicle or GH-V (0.25, 1, 2, or 5 mg/kg · d) by osmotic pump from gestational days 12.5 to 18.5. Fetal linear growth was slightly reduced in the 5 mg/kg dose compared with vehicle and the 0.25 mg/kg groups, respectively, whereas placental weight was not affected. GH-V treatment did not affect maternal body weights or food intake. However, treatment with 5 mg/kg · d significantly increased maternal fasting plasma insulin concentrations with impaired insulin sensitivity observed at day 18.5 as assessed by homeostasis model assessment. At 5 mg/kg · d, there was also an increase in maternal hepatic GH receptor/binding protein (Ghr/Ghbp) and IGF binding protein 3 (Igfbp3) mRNA levels, but GH-V did not alter maternal plasma IGF-1 concentrations or hepatic Igf-1 mRNA expression. Our findings suggest that at higher doses, GH-V treatment can cause hyperinsulinemia and is a likely mediator of the insulin resistance associated with late pregnancy.
Associations of Body Mass Index With Incident Fractures and Hip Structural Parameters in a Large Canadian Cohort
Authors: Shen Jian , Leslie William D. , Nielson Carrie M. , Majumdar Sumit R. , Morin Suzanne N. , Orwoll Eric S.
Published: December 2015

Context:

Fractures in obese individuals are of public health importance, but the relationship between obesity and fracture is complex and remains poorly understood.

Objective:

The study examined the association of body mass index (BMI) with bone structural and strength parameters and incident fracture.

Design and Setting:

We performed cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses using data from the Manitoba Bone Density Program.

Participants:

We included 51 313 women and 4689 men aged 50 years or older referred for dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scans. For 41 919 women and 4085 men, we were able to derive hip structural parameters.

Main Outcome Measure:

Cross-sectional moment of inertia, cross-sectional area, and femoral strength index were derived from dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Health service records were assessed for incident major osteoporotic fractures (MOFs) (mean follow-up 6.2 y in women and 4.7 y in men).

Results:

Among individuals with a BMI of less than 30 kg/m2, increasing BMI was associated with progressive increases in bone mineral density (BMD), cross-sectional moment of inertia, and cross-sectional area. The relationship reached a plateau around a BMI of 30 kg/m2, with little additional increment with further increases in BMI (all P for interaction < .0001, obese vs nonobese). Increasing BMI was linearly associated with decreases in strength index in both women and men. MOFs were ascertained in 3721 women and 276 men (1027 female and 75 male hip fractures). Higher BMI was associated with a lower risk of MOF in women in multivariable models, but this association was largely explained by their higher BMD. Protective association of higher BMI with hip fracture were stronger and only partially explained by BMD (hazard ratio [95% confidence interval] 0.79 [0.73–0.99] for obese I and 0.67 [0.46–0.98] for obese II). Higher BMI was not significantly associated with a risk of MOF or hip fracture in men.

Conclusions:

Despite structural and biomechanical disadvantages, obese women were at lower risk of fracture.
Economic Power and the Financial Machine: Competing Conceptions of Market Failure in the Great Depression
Authors: Backhouse Roger E.
Published: December 2015

In the early 1930s American economists widely attributed the catastrophe of the Great Depression to concentration of income and wealth and the consequent concentration of market power, which interfered with the proper working of markets. Alongside this, there developed another theory of market failure in which depression stemmed from the failure of the financial machine to translate saving into investment. The article explores how these two views of market failure came together in the proceedings of the Temporary National Economic Committee, arguing that the ideas about markets found there were important for postwar work on both industrial organization and the theory of employment.
Paul Samuelson on Public Goods: The Road to Nihilism
Authors: Hammond J. Daniel
Published: December 2015

This article is an analytical history of Paul Samuelson's writings on the theory of public goods and the role of government. We examine Samuelson's scholarly work from “The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure” (1954) to “Pure Theory of Public Expenditure and Taxation” (1969). We also briefly consider his treatment of public expenditure in Economics: An Introductory Analysis over the same period. We find that from the beginning of his career to the end of the 1960s Samuelson moved from optimism that a new age of scientific progress in economics was imminent to a view so pessimistic that he described it as nihilistic. This suggests that Samuelson's project of mathematizing and formalizing economic theory was a scientific failure.
The British Tariff Reform Controversy and the Genesis of Pigou's Wealth and Welfare, 1903–12
Authors: Aslanbeigui Nahid , Oakes Guy
Published: December 2015

In the acrimonious British controversy over free trade in 1903–6, tariff reformers advocated protective and preferential tariffs to increase the revenue of the exchequer and unify the British Empire. Their arguments—generally informal and labile—were based on several premises: British welfare—not to be confused with material wealth—depended on economic productivity, the prosperity of the working class, and an economic policy that maintained a stable demand for labor, ensuring predictable sources of employment and income. A. C. Pigou, who entered the controversy as a zealous free trader, fashioned the piecemeal ideas of tariff reformers into an analytical framework, translating their polemical arguments into a theoretical discourse. In 1906, he applied this framework to the consequences of tariff reform for the British economy. In 1907, he used it to explore the economic impact of the Poor Laws. And in Wealth and Welfare (1912), he generalized the framework, constructing a systematic analysis of market failures and the conditions under which they might be repaired.
An interview with Nipam Patel
Authors: Vicente Catarina
Published: December 2015

Nipam Patel is a developmental biologist based at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, where he uses a variety of organisms to study the evolution of developmental systems, from arthropod body plans to butterfly colouration. We asked him about his career and scientific interests, his role as an editor at Development, and his growing butterfly collection.
Visualisation of Degree of Acetylation in Beechwood by near Infrared Hyperspectral Imaging
Authors: Inagaki Tetsuya , Mitsui Katsuya , Tsuchikawa Satoru
Published: December 2015

Spatial distributions of the degree of acetylation in cross- and radial-sectional faces of beechwood samples under vapour-phase reaction are observed using near infrared hyperspectral imaging. The near infrared second derivative amplitude at 1727 nm, which is assigned to the first overtone of the CH stretching vibration averaged over the cross section and radial section, has strong linear correlation with the substance concentration of acetyl groups ( CA) held in the cell walls. Tangentially averaged CA is well explained by the modified rate equation. Both the rate constant and hindrance to the diffusion reagent reach constant values at a depth of about 4 mm from the edge of the wood, indicating that the acetylation reaction proceeds close to a depth of 4 mm.
Techno-Economic Assessment of Carbon Capture and Storage Facilities Coupled to Coal-Fired Power Plants
Authors: Zhang Zhihua
Published: December 2015

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities coupled to coal-fired power plants provide a climate change mitigation strategy that potentially permits the continued use of coal whilst reducing the carbon dioxide emissions. However, the still-high cost of CCS is one of the major obstacles, especially for developing countries. In this paper, we will assess techno-economic aspect of various carbon capture and storage technology in coal-fired power plants, including pre-combustion capture, post-combustion capture, oxy-combustion capture, as well as carbon storage. For various coal-fired power plants, integrated gasification combined cycle with pre-combustion capture has the highest potential to capture carbon dioxide with the lowest energy penalties and capital & operational costs, post-combustion capture can be retrofitted at relatively low cost to existing pulverized coal power plants and allows the combustion process to be kept relatively unchanged, and oxy-combustion capture is relatively immature at present. Although CCS has been accepted as clean development mechanism (CDM) project activities under the Kyoto Protocol, current carbon trading mechanism is inadequate to strongly promote investments on CCS facilities coupled to coal-fired power plants.
Output and Employment Effects of the Spread of Clean Coal Technology in China
Authors: Xiao Yao , Niu Yong-Qing
Published: December 2015

This study investigates how clean coal technology affects output and employment based on panel models for the 31 regions in China, the largest coal producer and consumer in the world, during 2000–2012. The results show that the coal consumption structure has positive effects on output and insignificant negative effects on employment, while carbon emission intensity has strong negative effects on both. These results provide evidence that the spread of clean coal technology, which can reduce carbon emissions without diminishing coal consumption, is an effective way in which to stimulate output and employment. Further, both productivity improvement and the upgrading of the industrial structure have strong positive effects on output and employment. Therefore, China should provide preferential policies and encourage the entry of private capital to stimulate enterprise development, further accelerating the spread of clean coal.
Coal Preparation Technology: Status and Development in China
Authors: Gui Xiahui , Liu Jiongtian , Cao Yijun , Miao Zhenyong , Li Shulei , Xing Yaowen , Wang Dapeng
Published: December 2015

The rapid growth of coal production is supporting China's economic development. This paper discusses significant developments of coal preparation industry in China. The development direction of low-quality coal resources is also described, including the comprehensive utilization of resources and green coal preparation. Coal preparation may shift from the simple separation and production of highquality products to a comprehensive utilization of associated resources and lowquality coal. Green coal preparation is a new concept and involves a highly efficient coal preparation method based on the water cycle and comprehensive utilization of resources. This paper also describes a technology that transforms coal (mineral) resources (including natural, secondary, and artificial resources) into useful products (including raw materials and fuel) by separation, extraction, and processing for an eco-friendly approach to using secondary resources.
Use of Energy Saving Technologies in Agricultural Production
Authors: Байнева  , Bayneva I.
Published: December 2015

Issues of energy saving in the organization of lighting in poultry industry.

Researched the features and role of the light on the process of growing poultry,

in particular broilers. Analyzed of the traditional lighting systems in the poultry

industry, and energy-efficient LED lighting, their strengths, weaknesses and

the specific application.
On the Necessity of State Regulation Socially Responsible Business Conduct in Order to Enhance Its Competitiveness
Authors: Игнатова  , Ignatova L.
Published: December 2015

Considered alternative approaches to the vision of the role of the state in

regulating the behavior of socially responsible business. Systematized the

main problems from the standpoint of reconciling the interests of key

stakeholders. Recommendations for improving the institutional controls to

improve business competitiveness.