bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cytochrome P450 1B1 Gene Polymorphisms as Predictors of Anticancer Drug Activity: Studies withIn vitroModels
Authors: Laroche-Clary Audrey , Morvan Valérie Le , Yamori Takao , Robert Jacques
Published: October 2010

Cytochrome P450 1B1 (CYP1B1) is found in tumor tissue and is suspected to play a role in oncogenesis and drug resistance. CYP1B1 gene polymorphisms have been associated with the risk of developing lung and other cancers. They may be associated with tumor response to anticancer drugs. We have determined 4 frequent nonsynonymous gene polymorphisms of CYP1B1 in the human tumor cell lines panels of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research (JFCR): rs10012 (R48G), rs1056827 (A119S), rs1056836 (L432V), and rs1800440 (N453S). Numerous anticancer drugs have been tested against these panels that offer the opportunity to detect associations between gene polymorphisms and drug sensitivity. CYP1B1 single nucleotide polymorphisms were in marked linkage disequilibrium. The L432V allelic variants were significantly associated with reduced sensitivity to DNA-interacting anticancer agents, alkylators, camptothecins, topoisomerase II inhibitors, and some antimetabolites. For instance, in the NCI panel, cell lines homozygous for the V432 allele were globally 2-fold resistant to alkylating agents (P = 5 × 10−10) and 4.5-fold to camptothecins (P = 6.6 × 10−9) than cell lines homozygous for the L432 allele. Similar features were exhibited by the JFCR panel. Cell lines homozygous for the V432 allele were globally less sensitive to DNA-interfering drugs than cell lines having at least 1 common allele. There was no significant association between mRNA expression of CYP1B1 and CYP1B1 genotype, and no significant association between CYP1B1 mRNA expression and drug cytotoxicity. These observations open the way to clinical studies exploring the role of CYP1B1 gene polymorphisms for predicting tumor sensitivity to chemotherapy. Mol Cancer Ther; 9(12); 3315–21. ©2010 AACR.
Outcomes After Acute Myocardial Infarction in South Asian, Chinese, and White Patients
Authors: Khan Nadia A. , Grubisic Maja , Hemmelgarn Brenda , Humphries Karen , King Kathryn M. , Quan Hude
Published: October 2010

Background—

Cardiac mortality rates vary substantially between countries and ethnic groups. It is unclear, however, whether South Asian, Chinese, and white populations have a variable prognosis after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). To clarify this association, we compared mortality, use of revascularization procedures, and risk of recurrent AMI and hospitalization for heart failure between these ethnic groups in a universal-access healthcare system.

Methods and Results—

We used a population cohort study design using hospital administrative data linked to cardiac procedure registries from British Columbia and the Calgary Health Region Area in Alberta (1994 to 2003) to identify AMI cases. Patient ethnicity was categorized using validated surname algorithms. There were 2190 South Asian, 946 Chinese, and 38479 white patients with AMI identified. There was no significant difference in use of revascularization procedures between ethnic groups at 30 d and 1 year. Short-term (30-day) mortality was higher among Chinese relative to white patients (odds ratio, 1.23; 95% confidence interval, 1.02 to 1.48). There was no significant difference in 30-day mortality between South Asian and white patients. South Asian patients had a 35% lower relative risk of long-term mortality compared with white patients (hazard ratio, 0.65; 95% confidence interval, 0.57 to 0.72). There was no significant difference in long-term mortality between Chinese and white patients. Among AMI survivors, Chinese patients had a lower risk of recurrent AMI, whereas there was no difference between South Asian and white patients.

Conclusion—

The ethnic groups studied have striking differences in outcomes after AMI, with South Asian patients having significantly lower long-term mortality after AMI.
Searching for the Link between Religion and Violence by Means of the Thomas-Theorem
Authors: Kippenberg Hans G.
Published: October 2010

Current religious violence is a challenge to students of religions. Do we need categories like “cult,” “fundamentalism,” or “terrorism” in order to distinguish it from allegedly “genuine” and peaceful religion? Do monotheistic religions—with their exclusive claims to truth—necessarily generate intolerance? Sociologists have demonstrated conclusively that every action is based on a definition of the situation. Social actors do not put a norm or a model into practice independent of the immediate context of action. I argue that this holds true for religious actors as well. It is not the personal motive of actors, but the religious meanings they attribute to a conflict of their faith community, which is crucial for understanding religious violence.
Talal Asad’s ‘Religion’ Trouble and a Way Out
Authors: Strenski Ivan
Published: October 2010

By this point, almost everyone is familiar with Talal Asad’s assault on the “religion” category. Despite his influence, Asad’s criticisms tend to oscillate between two mutually exclusive positions. I shall argue that Asad’s incoherence is instructive for the field as a whole. The study of religion would be better off constructing useful and revisable definitions of “religion” rather than abandoning the category all together.
No Field Is an Island: Fostering Collaboration between the Academic Study of Religion and the Sciences
Authors: Taves Ann
Published: October 2010

We can foster collaboration between the academic study of religion and the sciences, particularly the biological and psychological sciences, if we (1) construct a common object of study that can be positioned within an evolutionary paradigm, (2) adopt a building block approach to the study of religion that distinguishes between religions and the more elementary phenomena that comprise them, and (3) operationalize abstract concepts as behavioral interactions in order to gain a better understanding of the process whereby people construct religions and other complex things out of more elementary phenomena that they view as special.1
Response Theory, Quasi-theory and Pseudo-theory in the Study of Religion
Authors: Benavides Gustavo
Published: October 2010

This paper offers a series of critical observations on the essays that emerged from the roundtable co-sponsored by the North American Association for the Study of Religion and the Critical Theory and Discourses in Religion Group of the American Academy of Religion. Rather than simply responding to each paper, the essay takes these essays to provide a small but suggestive window into the work of theoretically-minded scholars of religion.
Simmias’ Objection to Socrates in the Phaedo: Harmony, Symphony and Some Later Platonic/ Patristic Responses to the Mind/Soul-Body Question
Authors: Corrigan Kevin
Published: October 2010

Simmias’ famous epiphenomenalist analogy of the soul-body relation to the harmony and strings of a lyre (together with Cebes’ subsequent objection) leads to Socrates’ initial refutation and subsequent prolonged defense of soul’s immortality in the Phaedo. It also yields in late antiquity significant treatments of the harmony relation by Plotinus (Ennead III 6 [26] 4, 30-52) and Porphyry (Sentences 18, 8-18) that present a larger context for viewing the nature of harmony in the soul and the psycho-somatic compound. But perhaps the most detailed treatment of the musical analogy, and certainly the most radical, is to be found in Gregory of Nyssa’s De Hominis Opificio. Gregory’s remarkable development of the musical instrument analogy provides a multi-layered analysis of interrelated causality on the mechanistic, physiological, psycho-somatic and intellectual/spiritual planes. Gregory not only sees mind/soul and body as radically equal and yet multilayered in their mutual development; he also refuses to restrict mind to the brain alone, for all physiological systems, in his view, are holistically and individually expressive of mind’s activity. Gregory’s theory is more innovative than Augustine’s view of the mind/soul-body relation and, in my view, the most important account between Plotinus and Aquinas.
Plotinus and Magic
Authors: Helleman Wendy Elgersma
Published: October 2010

Contemporary scholarship accents incipient theurgical practice for Plotinus; this lends a certain urgency to the question of his acceptance of magic. While use of magic recorded in Porphyry’s Vita Plotini has received considerable attention, far less has been done to analyze actual discussion in the Enneads. Examination of key passages brings to light the context for discussion of magic, particularly issues of sympathy, prayer, astrology and divination. Equally important is Plotinus’ understanding of the cosmos and role of the heavenly bodies. Plotinus’ affirmation of the highest part of the soul as undescended, together with the claim that our soul has a common origin with the World Soul in Soul-Hypostasis, is significant for the relative unimportance he attributes to the role and effect of magic.
Beyond Boston
Authors: Tillyer Marie Skubak , Engel Robin S. , Lovins Brian
Published: October 2010

Focused deterrence initiatives, including the most famous, Boston’s Operation Ceasefire, have been associated with significant reductions in violence in several U.S. cities. Despite early successes, some cities have experienced long-term sustainability issues. Recent work in Cincinnati, Ohio, has focused on institutionalizing focused deterrence in an attempt to achieve sustainability. Despite these efforts, it became apparent that institutionalization was necessary, but insufficient, to achieve long-term success. This study turns to criminological theory to understand why focused deterrence works and how the model can be improved to maximize crime prevention potential. In doing so, the authors draw from the principles of effective intervention from correctional rehabilitation research and describe how these elements have been integrated into the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence.
Reevaluating Interrater Reliability in Offender Risk Assessment
Authors: van der Knaap Leontien M. , Leenarts Laura E.W. , Born Marise Ph. , Oosterveld Paul
Published: October 2010

Offender risk and needs assessment, one of the pillars of the risk–need-responsivity model of offender rehabilitation, usually depends on raters assessing offender risk and needs. The few available studies of interrater reliability in offender risk assessment are, however, limited in the generalizability of their results. The present study examined interrater reliability in Dutch offender risk assessment by 38 raters who independently assessed 75 offenders. The results show substantial reliability (Tinsley and Weiss’s T value ≥ .61) for risk of reconviction and moderate ( T value ≥ .41) to substantial reliability for offender needs, such as accommodation, finances, or education. These results are discussed in light of a recent British study on the interrater reliability of a comparable risk assessment instrument. The results from the present study show similar to better reliability, leading to the conclusion that greater external validity does not negatively influence interrater reliability results.
Who are the Europeans that Europeans prefer? Economic conditions and exclusionary views toward European immigrants
Authors: Gorodzeisky Anastasia
Published: October 2010

This article suggests that the economic standing of foreigners’ country of origin may become grounds for the emergence of an inclination to exclude an out-group population from the country. Moreover, exclusionary attitudes based on the economic standing of the immigrant’s country of origin may vary according to the economic conditions of the destination country. Data obtained from European Social Survey for 21 countries show that exclusionary views directed exclusively at foreigners from ‘poorer countries in Europe’ or at foreigners ‘from richer countries in Europe’ are quite substantial. Multi-level analyses reveal that differential preferences of immigrants from relatively rich and poor European countries indeed interact with the economic conditions of the host societies. Support for the exclusion of European foreigners from ‘poorer countries’ tends to be less pronounced in economically prosperous places while support for exclusion of European foreigners from ‘richer countries’ tends to be less pronounced in economically depressed places. The findings are discussed in the light of sociological literature and the context of modern European society.
Israeli-born emigrants: Size, destinations and selectivity
Authors: Cohen Yinon
Published: October 2010

This article addresses two issues regarding Israeli emigrants. First, it focuses on their number and distribution in various destination countries; second, it deals with patterns of self-selection among emigrants, namely, the skill level of Israelis who select themselves to leave Israel for various destination countries. The findings suggest that Israeli emigration has increased in the past two decades, but that most of the increase was in the 1990s, and was due to the emigration of foreign-born Israelis, rather than the emigration of native-born Israelis. Based on the DIOC (Database on immigrants in OECD countries) about 164,000 Israeli-born emigrants, aged 15 years and over, resided in 25 OECD countries in 2000, suggesting that relative to other countries, the share of Israeli-born residing outside Israel is not high. Two-thirds of Israeli-born emigrants were in the US, and 85 percent in the Anglo-Saxon countries. The selectivity of Israeli emigrants, measured by education and occupation, is most positive in the Anglo-Saxon countries, especially the US, where the returns on skills are the highest. By contrast, the least skilled Israeli emigrants choose Scandinavian countries, where the labor markets are relatively rigid, and returns on skills tend to be the lowest. These findings are consistent with migration selectivity theory, which anticipates that high-skilled immigrants will choose destinations where their skills will be generously compensated. Finally, the results suggests that the educational selectivity of Israeli emigrants to the Anglo-Saxon countries (but not to Scandinavian countries) has improved in the late 1990s compared to the early 1990s.
Creating a Shared Society in Northern Ireland: Why We Need to Focus on Gender Equality
Authors: Gray Ann Marie , Neill Gail
Published: October 2010

International evidence has increasingly highlighted the necessity to understand the impact of conflict on the lives of girls and women and the importance of addressing gender equality as part of peace processes. This article argues that women, and especially young women, have been left out of much of the conflict discourse within Northern Ireland and there is little understanding of how the conflict has affected them. Analysis of in-depth interviews with young women reveals how their opportunities and choices in many areas of their life have been restricted by growing up in a divided society. There is a high level of disillusionment with politics and politicians with many identifying what they see as continuing sectarianism in Northern Ireland politics.Yet the “invisibility” of young women is unlikely to be addressed, or their confidence in politics strengthened, unless they are given the space, freedom, and encouragement to begin to articulate their thoughts and concerns.
Music as emotional self-regulation throughout adulthood
Authors: Saarikallio Suvi
Published: October 2010

Emotional self-regulation is acknowledged as one of the most important reasons for musical engagement at all ages. Yet there is little knowledge on how this self-regulatory use of music develops across the life span. A qualitative study was conducted to initially explore central processes and strategies of the emotional self-regulation during adulthood. The data were collected through group interviews and analyzed through qualitative content analysis. Participants were 21 interviewees with an age range of 21—70 years. The results clarified conceptual features of music-related emotional self-regulation in adulthood and revealed two main trends. First, the basic nature of regulation, including various regulatory goals and strategies, remained highly similar throughout adulthood. Second, however, several changes were also evident, and they could be further categorized into three types: change by age, event-related fluctuations, and retirement transition. The study provided knowledge about the role of music-related emotional experiences as a functional and meaningful part of human behavior and psychosocial development during adulthood.
Descriptive Epidemiology of the Multicenter ACL Revision Study (MARS) Cohort
Authors:   The MARS Group, Wright Rick W. , Huston Laura J. , Spindler Kurt P. , Dunn Warren R. , Haas Amanda K. , Allen Christina R. , Cooper Daniel E. , DeBerardino Thomas M. , Lantz Brett (Brick) A. , Mann Barton J. , Stuart Michael J.
Published: October 2010

Background

Revision anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction has worse outcomes than primary reconstructions. Predictors for these worse outcomes are not known. The Multicenter ACL Revision Study (MARS) Group was developed to perform a multisurgeon, multicenter prospective longitudinal study to obtain sufficient subjects to allow multivariable analysis to determine predictors of clinical outcome.

Purpose

To describe the formation of MARS and provide descriptive analysis of patient demographics and clinical features for the initial 460 enrolled patients to date in this prospective cohort.

Study Design

Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 2.

Methods

After training and institutional review board approval, surgeons began enrolling patients undergoing revision ACL reconstruction, recording patient demographics, previous ACL reconstruction methods, intra-articular injuries, and current revision techniques. Enrolled subjects completed a questionnaire consisting of validated patient-based outcome measures.

Results

As of April 1, 2009, 87 surgeons have enrolled a total of 460 patients (57% men; median age, 26 years). For 89%, the reconstruction was the first revision. Mode of failure as deemed by the revising surgeon was traumatic (32%), technical (24%), biologic (7%), combination (37%), infection (<1%), and no response (<1%). Previous graft present at the time of injury was 70% autograft, 27% allograft, 2% combination, and 1% unknown. Sixty-two percent were more than 2 years removed from their last reconstruction. Graft choice for revision ACL reconstruction was 45% autograft, 54% allograft, and more than 1% both allograft and autograft. Meniscus and/or chondral damage was found in 90% of patients.

Conclusion

The MARS Group has been able to quickly accumulate the largest revision ACL reconstruction cohort reported to date. Traumatic reinjury is deemed by surgeons to be the most common single mode of failure, but a combination of factors represents the most common mode of failure. Allograft graft choice is more common in the revision setting than autograft. Concomitant knee injury is extremely common in this population.
Making Sense of China’s Economic Transformation
Authors: Lo Dic , Zhang Yu
Published: October 2010

China’s sustained rapid economic growth in the post-1978 reform era, which is also the era of capitalist globalization, is of worldwide importance. This growth experience has been based mainly on China’s internal dynamics. In the first half of the era, economic growth was driven by improvement in both allocative efficiency and productive efficiency. From the early 1990s until the present time, however, economic growth has been increasingly based on dynamic increasing returns associated with a growth path that is characterized by capital deepening. In both periods, the growth paths and their associated institutional frameworks appear to contradict principles of the free market economy: the mainstream doctrines of globalization. In the form of an analytical overview, this paper seeks to explain and interpret the dynamics and developmental implications of China’s economic transformation. The analytics draws on a range of relevant economic theories including Marxian theory of capital accumulation, post-Keynesian theory of demand determination, and Schumpeterian theory of innovation. It is posited that these alternative theoretical perspectives offer better insights than mainstream neoclassical economics in explaining and interpreting China’s economic transformation.

JEL classificationO14, O53, P36,
Organic amendment based on vermicompost and compost: differences on soil properties and maize yield
Authors: Tejada Manuel , Benítez Concepción
Published: October 2010

The objective of the present study was to study the effect of two vermicomposts [animal (VCD) and vegetal origin (VGF)] and a cotton gin compost (C) at rates of 1780 and 3560 kg fresh organic matter ha−1 for 3 years on an Typic Xerofluvent located near Seville (Spain) on soil biological properties, nutrition (leaf N, P and K concentration, pigments and soluble carbohydrate concentrations) and yield parameters of maize ( Zea mays cv. Tundra) crop. All organic waste materials had a positive effect on the soil biological properties, plant nutrition and crop yield parameters, although at the end of the experimental period and at the high organic matter rate, the soil microbial biomass and dehydrogenase, urease, β-glucosidase, phosphatase and arylsulfatase activities increased more significantly in the VCD-amended soils (86.4, 85.8, 94.5, 99.3, 70.1 and 63.8%, respectively) respect to the control soil, followed by VGF-amended soils (84.8, 80.6, 92.7, 99.1, 68.3 and 61.6%, respectively) and CC-amended soils (80.5, 75.9, 89.7, 99, 65.7 and 59.9%, respectively). Leaf N, P and K contents and pigments and soluble carbohydrate contents were highest in VCD-amended soils, followed by VGF and CC treatments. Compared with the control soil, the application of VCD in soils at high doses increased the crop yield parameters, followed by VGF and CC treatments. This may have been due to a greater labile fraction of organic matter in the VCD than the VGF and CC, respectively.
Bioaccumulation of heavy metals in mullet (Mugil cephalus) and oyster (Crassostrea madrasensis) from Pulicat lake, south east coast of India
Authors: Laxmi Priya S. , Senthilkumar B. , Hariharan G. , Paneer Selvam A. , Purvaja R. , Ramesh R.
Published: October 2010

The accumulation of six heavy metals (Cr, Cd, Cu, Zn, Pb and Ni) in sediment, water and in tissue parts of Mugil cephalus and Crassostrea madrasensis was studied in two locations of Pulicat lake, Southeast coast of India, which receives considerable quantity of effluents from industries located in North Chennai coastal region. The results reveal that the metal concentration in water is decreasing in the following order of Zn > Ni > Cu > Cr > Pb > Cd both in lake and barmouth and highest concentration was observed for Zn (32.5 μg L-1 in lake and 25.2 μg L-1 in bar mouth). Metals were highly concentrated in sediments when compared to water and biota. Metals abundance in sediments has following sequential order of Cr > Ni > Zn > Cu > Pb > Cd and the accumulation pattern in barmouth showed minor variation indicating the following pattern of Zn > Ni > Cr > Cu > Pb > Cd. The geoaccumulation index (Igeo) for Pulicat lake sediments indicate that the sediments are extremely contaminated with Cd and moderately contaminated with Cu and Ni. Bioaccumulation of heavy metals in Mugil cephalus and Crassostrea madrasensis showed marked differences in the accumulation patterns. It is observed that Zn, Cu and Pb are accumulated in elevated concentrations in various parts of the fish and oyster when compared with other metals.
Clinical Seizures in Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy Have No Independent Impact on Neurodevelopmental Outcome: Secondary Analyses of Data from the Neonatal Research Network Hypothermia Trial
Authors: Kwon Jennifer M. , Guillet Ronnie , Shankaran Seetha , Laptook Abbot R. , McDonald Scott A. , Ehrenkranz Richard A. , Tyson Jon E. , O'Shea T. Michael , Goldberg Ronald N. , Donovan Edward F. , Fanaroff Avroy A. , Poole W.Kenneth , Higgins Rosemary D. , Walsh Michele C. ,   Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network
Published: October 2010

It remains controversial as to whether neonatal seizures have additional direct effects on the developing brain separate from the severity of the underlying encephalopathy. Using data collected from infants diagnosed with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, and who were enrolled in an National Institute of Child Health and Human Development trial of hypothermia, we analyzed associations between neonatal clinical seizures and outcomes at 18 months of age. Of the 208 infants enrolled, 102 received whole body hypothermia and 106 were controls. Clinical seizures were generally noted during the first 4 days of life and rarely afterward. When adjustment was made for study treatment and severity of encephalopathy, seizures were not associated with death, or moderate or severe disability, or lower Bayley Mental Development Index scores at 18 months of life. Among infants diagnosed with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, the mortality and morbidity often attributed to neonatal seizures can be better explained by the underlying severity of encephalopathy.
Goal Content Analysis for Middle and High School Students With Disabilities
Authors: Williams-Diehm Kendra , Palmer Susan , Lee Youngsun , Schroer Heather
Published: October 2010

Goal setting is associated with self-determination and student involvement in learning. Middle and high school students receiving special education services and corresponding special education teachers across six states were asked to name goals on which the students were working. A comparison of the academic, transition, and social goals named by 332 students was conducted to determine differences between groups. Results are reported by school level and the ability levels of students, evaluating both student- and teacher-reported goals from a written evaluation scenario. Relative grade level in school was shown to be a significant factor for content variation but not ability level. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.
Synthesis and Properties of Novel Melt Processable Isomeric Polythioetherimides
Authors: Han Ying , Fang Xing-Zhong , Zuo Xiu-Xia
Published: October 2010

A series of 3,3’,4,4’-diphenylthioethertetracarboxylic dianhydride (s-TDPA), 2,3,3’,4’ -diphenylthioethertetracarboxylic dianhydride (a-TDPA), and 2,2’,3,3’-diphenylthioethertetracarboxylic dianhydride (i-TDPA) isomer mixtures were synthesized from 3- and 4-chlorophthalic anhydrides. Copolythioetherimides derived from TDPAs with different ratios of the isomers and 4,4’-oxydianiline (ODA) were prepared by a two-step polycondensation procedure. Solubility, thermal properties, mechanical properties and melt processability of copolythioetherimides were investigated and compared with corresponding homopolyimides. The dependence of these properties on the composition of TDPA isomers and the effects of molecular structures were discussed in this work in order to obtain an indication for the molecular design of high performance melt-processable polyimides.
High Performance Polyamides based on s-Triazine Ring: Synthesis and Characterization
Authors: Sojitra Prakash N. , Patel Keshav C. , Patel Hemant S.
Published: October 2010

High-performance polymers based on aromatic rings are desirable not only because of the high primary bond strengths, but also because their rigid (stiff) polymer chains offer increased resistance to deformation and thermal softening. The choice of s-triazine nucleus is based on its high thermal stability derived from its molecular symmetry and aromaticity. It is well known that s-triazine is heat resistant. Modification of monomer structures by introduction of aromatic pendent groups or heterocyclic rings into the polymer backbone provides good solubility and thermal stability. A new set of polyamides with —CO—NH— groups were synthesized by the Yamazaki’s phosphorylation reaction 2-(morpholino)-4,6-bis (6-napthoxy-2-carboxy)-s-triazine with various aromatic diamines. The polyamides had inherent viscosities in the range 0.549—0.685 dL g-1 in dimethylformamide at room temperature (30 °C) and density 1.135—1.208 g cm - 3 . All the polyamides showed good thermal stability and most of them were readily soluble at room temperature in polar solvents such as N,N-dimethylacetamide, 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone and dimethylformamide. Polyamides were synthesized successfully with the favourable properties of higher thermal stability along-with good processibility.
Methemoglobinemia in aluminum phosphide poisoning
Authors: Shadnia Shahin , Soltaninejad Kambiz , Hassan ian-Moghadam Hossein , Sadeghi Anahaita , Rahimzadeh Hormat , Zamani Nasim , Ghasemi-Toussi Alireza , Abdollahi Mohammad
Published: October 2010

Introduction. Acute aluminum phosphide (AlP) poisoning is one of the most common causes of acute pesticide poisoning in Iran. Hydrogen phosphide or phosphine gas is produced following reaction of AlP with water even at ambient humidity. Methemoglobinemia is a rare finding following phosphine poisoning. In this paper, two cases of fatal AlP poisoning complicated by methemoglobinemia are reported. Case Report. Two patients presented following suicidal ingestion of AlP tablets. In the Emergency Department (ED), they received gastric lavage with sodium bicarbonate and potassium permanganate. Both of them received supportive care. In each case, hematuria and hemolysis were significant events. The patients also showed a decrease in O2 saturation in spite of high FIO2. Methemoglobin levels of 40% and 30% were detected by co-oximetry. Neither patient responded to treatment (ascorbic acid in one case, methylene blue in the other). Both patients died due to systemic effects of phosphine poisoning. Discussion and conclusion. Hemolysis and methemoglobinemia may complicate the course of phosphine poisoning that seems resistant to methylene blue and ascorbic acid. Therefore, other treatments including hyperbaric oxygen therapy and exchange blood transfusion should be considered.
Independent learning areas and student learning
Authors: Jackson Maureen , Shenton Andrew K.
Published: October 2010

Recent years have seen a shift in educational institutions from the provision of traditional libraries to the creation of independent learning areas offering a greater diversity of facilities and services. This paper explores the essential characteristics of these places, especially in relation to student learning. The authors discuss six particular issues — the provision of space, services and resources; learners’ interaction with information; interaction among learners; learners’ interaction with staff; management decision making; and opportunities for research. The paper notes the value of independent learning areas in fostering open learning and individual and collaborative work, in establishing a unity among students and in helping users to resolve a diversity of life situations. Nevertheless, they also present challenges, and difficult management decisions must be made.
The Use and Management of Mangrove Ecosystems in Pakistan
Authors: Adhikari Bhim , Baig Saima Pervaiz , Iftikhar Usman Ali
Published: October 2010

We undertook an economic valuation of mangrove forests in Balochistan province of Pakistan drawing on primary data from a survey of 80 households depending on mangrove forests. It was found that the direct value of mangroves was USD 1,287 per hectare, while the total value for the village was calculated to be USD 4,419,935. We found that rich households made more absolute use of the mangrove products and services and the poor made more relative use. Any decrease in the quality of this ecosystem would expose the poor to the worst effects of poverty. We argue that investments in mangrove conservation under comanagement regime in this region of Pakistan make ecological and economic sense.
The Usefulness of Sustainability Indicators for Policy Making in Developing Countries: The Case of Madagascar
Authors: Ollivier Timothée , Giraud Pierre-Noël
Published: October 2010

In this article, the authors compare the practical policy implications that can be derived from the calculation, from 1980 to 2004, of three aggregate sustainability indicators for Madagascar. The chosen indicators are the adjusted net saving (ANS), the genuine progress indicator (GPI), and the ecological footprint (EF). The results are twofold. First, these indicators provide very different messages regarding the sustainability of Madagascar’s recent development. The first one indicates a development path that is not sustainable, whereas the latter two do not indicate anything to be alarmed about. Second, they yield a set of widely diverse policy implications. The EF provides policy recommendations that are too general for poor countries rich in natural resources, such as Madagascar. The GPI highlights several social issues, but its interpretation in terms of sustainability remains ambiguous as it is a mix between a present welfare and a sustainability indicator. In the end, the authors consider that the ANS provides the most consistent information about the sustainability of Madagascar’s recent development path.
What Can the Spinal Cord Teach Us about Learning and Memory?
Authors: Wolpaw Jonathan R.
Published: October 2010

The work of recent decades has shown that the nervous system changes continually throughout life. Activity-dependent central nervous system (CNS) plasticity has many different mechanisms and involves essentially every region, from the cortex to the spinal cord. This new knowledge radically changes the challenge of explaining learning and memory and greatly increases the relevance of the spinal cord. The challenge is now to explain how continual and ubiquitous plasticity accounts for the initial acquisition and subsequent stability of many different learned behaviors. The spinal cord has a key role because it is the final common pathway for all behavior and is a site of substantial plasticity. Furthermore, because it is simple, accessible, distant from the rest of the CNS, and directly connected to behavior, the spinal cord is uniquely suited for identifying sites and mechanisms of plasticity and for determining how they account for behavioral change. Experimental models based on spinal cord reflexes facilitate study of the gradual plasticity that makes possible most rapid learning phenomena. These models reveal principles and generate concepts that are likely to apply to learning and memory throughout the CNS. In addition, they offer new approaches to guiding activity-dependent plasticity so as to restore functions lost to injury or disease.
Sex Differences in the Brain, Behavior, and Neuropsychiatric Disorders
Authors: Bao Ai-Min , Swaab Dick F.
Published: October 2010

Sex differences in the brain are reflected in behavior and in the risk for neuropsychiatric disorders. The fetal brain develops in the male direction due to a direct effect of testosterone on the developing neurons, or in the female direction due to the absence of such a testosterone surge. Because sexual differentiation of the genitals takes place earlier in intrauterine life than sexual differentiation of the brain, these two processes can be influenced independently of each other. Gender identity (the conviction of belonging to the male or female gender), sexual orientation (heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality), pedophilia, sex differences in cognition, and the risks for neuropsychiatric disorders are programmed into our brains during early development. There is no proof that postnatal social environment has any crucial effect on gender identity or sexual orientation. Structural and functional sex differences in brain areas, together with changes in sex hormone levels and their receptors in development and adulthood, are closely related to sex differences in behavior and neuropsychiatric disorders. Knowing that such a relationship exists may help bring about sex-specific therapeutic strategies.
Alfred Russell Wallace and the Evolution of the Human Mind
Authors: Gross Charles
Published: October 2010

Today the fame of Alfred Russell Wallace is as the independent codiscoverer with Charles Darwin of the origin of species by natural selection. Although they were on very amiable terms all their lives, 11 years after announcing their discovery, Wallace and Darwin had a major disagreement on the evolution of human cognition. The author considers how this divergence and other disagreements, particularly on the role of instinct, are related to the differences in their class backgrounds, education, experience with non-European cultures, and views on socialism, phrenology, mesmerism, and spiritualism.
Music Making as a Tool for Promoting Brain Plasticity across the Life Span
Authors: Wan Catherine Y. , Schlaug Gottfried
Published: October 2010

Playing a musical instrument is an intense, multisensory, and motor experience that usually commences at an early age and requires the acquisition and maintenance of a range of skills over the course of a musician’s lifetime. Thus, musicians offer an excellent human model for studying the brain effects of acquiring specialized sensorimotor skills. For example, musicians learn and repeatedly practice the association of motor actions with specific sound and visual patterns (musical notation) while receiving continuous multisensory feedback. This association learning can strengthen connections between auditory and motor regions (e.g., arcuate fasciculus) while activating multimodal integration regions (e.g., around the intraparietal sulcus). We argue that training of this neural network may produce cross-modal effects on other behavioral or cognitive operations that draw on this network. Plasticity in this network may explain some of the sensorimotor and cognitive enhancements that have been associated with music training. These enhancements suggest the potential for music making as an interactive treatment or intervention for neurological and developmental disorders, as well as those associated with normal aging.
Analysis of crack formation in T-joint structures under dynamic loading
Authors: Pilipchuk V.N. , Ibrahim R.A.
Published: October 2010

T-joints play a vital role in the hulls of ships and bulkheads made of sandwich materials. Their design aspects and crack detection are important in preserving the safety of ships navigating through violent sea waves. In this work, an overview of the state-of-the-art of design aspects of T-joints used mainly in ship structures is first provided. The design aspects are focused on estimating static and quasi-static failure loads, fracture and fatigue characteristics. This study also develops a reduced order dynamic model for identification of cracks in T-joints. The reduced model constitutes three modal equations with piecewise-linear asymmetric characteristics in which the influence of the crack appears in terms of its length parameter. In particular, it is shown that the presence of a crack essentially affects both the amplitude and frequency content of the dynamic response due to nonlinear coupling between normal modes. Under external dynamic loading with a frequency close to the first mode frequency, the development of a crack is identified by the evolution of attractors on the configuration planes created by different combinations of modal coordinates.
Confessions of Belonging: My Emotional Journey as Medical Translator
Authors: Hurd Ellis
Published: October 2010

Different social situations compel us to attach ourselves to different self-identities. These different selves lead to constructed images dichotomized between what we want to be (the ideal self) and how others see us (the limited self). Many different social contexts concerning my identity roles at the hospital are developed within this self-questioning, autoethnographic study of my life as a part-time medical translator. My perceptual self within those social subgroups changed—and continues to do so—as a result of hidden agendas and other manifested selves interacting with each other. The result was a negotiated identity. Thus this relived journey demonstrates the inseparable duality existing within aspects of fieldwork and self-reflexive qualitative research.
It’s All Come Down to Me: Meaning Making With Family Artifacts
Authors: Hocker Joyce L.
Published: October 2010

The following autoethnography explores the author’s discoveries as she sorts through boxes of family photos, documents, and artifacts. The author confronts her initial resistance to taking on the work of the previous generations. As the process unfolds, the author discovers insights related to her current identity as the stories, full of memories and holes, emerge more clearly. The author’s insights are informed by feminist concerns of lost writing and lost stories, by family secrets and untold stories, and by how her own life emerges with more clarity as she illuminates the family stories. In the process, the author ponders memory and forgetting, discerns what to keep and what to burn, and in so doing, finds a dialogue with her ancestors.
Encountering “Gerald”: Experiments With Meandering Methodologies and Experiences Beyond Our “Selves” in a Collaborative Writing Group
Authors: Speedy Jane , Bainton Dave , Bridges Nell , Brown Tony , Brown Laurinda , Martin Viv , Sakellariadis Artemi , Williams Susan , Wilson Sue
Published: October 2010

This article describes a process of moving in and out of a place of “ordinary, transient and sustainable community” within a collaborative writing group. The group meets together both on- and offline. Over the last 5 years, the authors have developed an every day, meandering, and nomadic practice of being, talking, and writing. This enables frequent encounters with a very precious, precarious, and particular sense of collective energy. The group came to describe this experience of moving beyond, in, out of, and through their individual and collective selves as “Gerald.” This article comprises a narrating text in which quotations from the authors’ writing archives are embedded.
Young people, political participation and online postmaterialism in Greece
Authors: Theocharis Yannis
Published: October 2010

According to Inglehart’s postmaterialist theory, young people brought up in periods of high economic and physical security, surrounded by better opportunities for education, are more likely to prioritise postmaterialist values. Postmaterialists are strongly inclined to support new forms of collective action and extra-institutional activity. Internet researchers have reported that internet users are mainly young, well educated and affluent, thus denoting a similarity to the demographic characteristics of postmaterialists. This article presents some evidence regarding the existence of postmaterialist values in the online realm of Greece, attempting to demonstrate how postmaterialism influences online and offline political activity. The findings indicate a trend on the part of young people to display a postmaterialist orientation, accompanied by a disinterest in traditional forms of political participation. Postmaterialism is positively associated with internet use and is a weak contributing factor to online and offline extra-institutional participation.
Understanding e-book users: Uses and gratification expectancy model
Authors: Shin Dong-Hee
Published: October 2010

Despite the increasing popularity of and interest in e-books, there has been little research that evaluates book consumers’ actual interest in and preferences for digital content, and the factors that influence reading habits. To help fill this void, this study examines users’ experience of e-books in order to identify the areas of development, using Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT), Expectation Confirmation Theory (ECT) and Diffusion Theory (DT). The integration of these theories forms the basis of an extended UGT Expectancy concept. Users’ responses to questions about cognitive perceptions and continuous use were collected and analyzed with various factors derived from the theories. The findings confirm the significant roles played by users’ cognitive perceptions and also suggest the importance of affective factors. In the proposed extended model, the moderating effects of confirmation/gratification and demographics of the relations among the variables are found to be significant. The model integrates current research on e-books and suggests a cluster of antecedents related to technology acceptance.
How effective are the linkages between self-management programmes and primary care providers, especially for disadvantaged patients?
Authors: Williams Anna M. , Dennis Sarah , Harris Mark F.
Published: October 2010

Objectives: To describe the extent and effectiveness of strategies that have been used to improve linkages between primary healthcare (PHC) and chronic disease self-management programmes, especially for disadvantaged patients.

Methods: A systematic review of the published peer-reviewed literature. Studies conducted in an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development country evaluating a group self-management programme of at least 4-week duration with some linkage between PHC and the programme were included. Linkage strategies were qualitatively derived. Studies were descriptively analysed in terms of the type of self-management programme, strategy for linking with PHC, culturally and linguistically diverse and socio-economic status and impact on health service usage.

Results: Sixteen studies were identified that used linkage strategies for a variety of functions—supporting communication, ongoing clinical care, programme development, recruitment or implementation. Of the four studies that evaluated impact on health service use, only one reported a positive change.

Discussion: Few programmes of self-management support included specific strategies to increase linkages with PHC as part of their intervention. There is insufficient evidence to determine which strategies or linkages are more effective and in what context.
Deliberate Practice Spells Success
Authors: Duckworth Angela Lee , Kirby Teri A. , Tsukayama Eli , Berstein Heather , Ericsson K. Anders
Published: October 2010

The expert performance framework distinguishes between deliberate practice and less effective practice activities. The current longitudinal study is the first to use this framework to understand how children improve in an academic skill. Specifically, the authors examined the effectiveness and subjective experience of three preparation activities widely recommended to improve spelling skill. Deliberate practice, operationally defined as studying and memorizing words while alone, better predicted performance in the National Spelling Bee than being quizzed by others or reading for pleasure. Rated as the most effortful and least enjoyable type of preparation activity, deliberate practice was increasingly favored over being quizzed as spellers accumulated competition experience. Deliberate practice mediated the prediction of final performance by the personality trait of grit, suggesting that perseverance and passion for long-term goals enable spellers to persist with practice activities that are less intrinsically rewarding—but more effective—than other types of preparation.