bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Right Ventricular Systolic Function in Organic Mitral Regurgitation
Authors: Le Tourneau Thierry , Deswarte Guillaume , Lamblin Nicolas , Foucher-Hossein Claude , Fayad Georges , Richardson Marjorie , Polge Anne-Sophie , Vannesson Claire , Topilsky Yan , Juthier Francis , Trochu Jean-Noel , Enriquez-Sarano Maurice , Bauters Christophe
Published: March 2013

Background—

To assess the prevalence, determinants, and prognosis value of right ventricular (RV) ejection fraction (EF) impairment in organic mitral regurgitation.

Methods and Results—

Two hundred eight patients (62±12 years, 138 males) with chronic organic mitral regurgitation referred to surgery underwent an echocardiography and biventricular radionuclide angiography with regional function assessment. Mean RV EF was 40.4±10.2%, ranging from 10% to 65%. RV EF was severely impaired (≤35%) in 63 patients (30%), and biventricular impairment (left ventricular EF<60% and RV EF≤35%) was found in 34 patients (16%). Pathophysiologic correlates of RV EF were left ventricular septal function (β=0.42,
P
<0.0001), left ventricular end-diastolic diameter index (β=−0.22,
P
=0.002), and pulmonary artery systolic pressure (β=−0.14,
P
=0.047). Mitral effective regurgitant orifice size (n=84) influenced RV EF (β=−0.28,
P
=0.012). In 68 patients examined after surgery, RV EF increased strongly (27.5±4.3–37.9±7.3,
P
<0.0001) in patients with depressed RV EF, whereas it did not change in others (
P
=0.91). RV EF ≤35% impaired 10-year cardiovascular survival (71.6±8.4% versus 89.8±3.7%,
P
=0.037). Biventricular impairment dramatically reduced 10-year cardiovascular survival (51.9±15.3% versus 90.3±3.2%,
P
<0.0001; hazard ratio, 5.2;
P
<0.0001) even after adjustment for known predictors (hazard ratio, 4.6;
P
=0.004). Biventricular impairment reduced also 10-year overall survival (34.8±13.0% versus 72.6±4.5%,
P
=0.003; hazard ratio, 2.5;
P
=0.005) even after adjustment for known predictors (
P
=0.048).

Conclusions—

In patients with organic mitral regurgitation referred to surgery, RV function impairment is frequent (30%) and depends weakly on pulmonary artery systolic pressure but mainly on left ventricular remodeling and septal function. RV function is a predictor of postoperative cardiovascular survival, whereas biventricular impairment is a powerful predictor of both cardiovascular and overall survival.
The Emerging Regional Economic Integration Architecture in East Asia
Authors: Chia Siow Yue
Published: March 2013

This paper examines regional market integration through production networks and free trade agreements in East Asia and their attendant challenges and issues. It examines progress in the ASEAN Economic Community and in various ASEAN+1 free trade and economic integration agreements. It argues that there is a strong case for a region-wide agreement to maximize economic synergy and resolve emerging problems, including market fragmentation and the “noodle bowl” effect. It explores three possible paths to region-wide integration, namely, the East Asia Free Trade Area (encompassing ASEAN+3 [the People's Republic of China, Japan, and Korea]), the Comprehensive Economic Partnership for East Asia (encompassing ASEAN+3 countries and Australia—New Zealand and India) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, currently involving nine negotiating countries in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. The paper explores the economic and political benefits and challenges of forming these three regionwide agreements.
Consumption Recovery and Economic Rebalancing in China
Authors: Huang Yiping , Chang Jian , Yang Lingxiu
Published: March 2013

Boosting consumption has been a policy strategy for rebalancing the Chinese economy. The official statistics, however, show persistently declining consumption as a share of GDP during the past decade. In this paper, we provide a more complete picture of Chinese consumption by piecing together data from official and unofficial sources. Our estimations suggest that the consumption share rebounded from 2008, after a period of decline. This may provide the first piece of evidence that the rebalancing of the Chinese economy is already under way as a result of changes in factor markets, especially rapid increase in labor income, that have resulted in increases in household income as a share of GDP and improvement in income distribution across households.
Electrophysiological Evidence for the Continuous Processing of Linguistic Categories of Regular and Irregular Verb Inflection in German
Authors: Smolka Eva , Khader Patrick H. , Wiese Richard , Zwitserlood Pienie , Rösler Frank
Published: March 2013

A central question concerning word recognition is whether linguistic categories are processed in continuous or categorical ways, in particular, whether regular and irregular inflection is stored and processed by the same or by distinct systems. Here, we contribute to this issue by contrasting regular (regular stem, regular suffix) with semi-irregular (regular stem, irregular suffix) and irregular (irregular stem, irregular suffix) participle formation in a visual priming experiment on German verb inflection. We measured ERPs and RTs and manipulated the inflectional and meaning relatedness between primes and targets. Inflected verb targets (e.g., leite, “head”) were preceded either by themselves, by their participle (geleitet, “headed”), by a semantically related verb in the same inflection as the target (führe, “guide”) or in the participle form (geführt, “guided”), or by an unrelated verb in the same inflection (nenne, “name”). Results showed that behavioral and ERP priming effects were gradually affected by verb regularity. Regular participles produced a widely distributed frontal and parietal effect, irregular participles produced a small left parietal effect, and semi-irregular participles yielded an effect in-between these two in terms of amplitude and topography. The behavioral and ERP effects further showed that the priming because of participles differs from that because of semantic associates for all verb types. These findings argue for a single processing system that generates participle priming effects for regular, semi-irregular, and irregular verb inflection. Together, the findings provide evidence that the linguistic categories of verb inflection are processed continuously. We present a single-system model that can adequately account for such graded effects.
The Good, the Bad, or the Useful? The Examination of the Relationship between the Feedback-related Negativity (FRN) and Long-term Learning Outcomes
Authors: Arbel Yael , Goforth Kristen , Donchin Emanuel
Published: March 2013

According to the reinforcement learning account of the error-related negativity (ERN), the ERN is a manifestation of a signal generated in ACC as a consequence of a phasic decrease in the activity of the mesencephalic dopamine system occurring when the monitoring system evaluates events as worse than expected. This signal is also hypothesized to be used to modify behavior to ascertain that future events will have better outcomes. It is therefore expected that this signal be correlated with learning outcomes. We report a study designed to examine the extent to which the ERN is related to learning outcomes within a paired-associates learning task. The feedback-related negativity (FRN) elicited by stimuli that indicated to the participants whether their response was correct or not was examined both according the degree to which the associates were learned in the session and according to whether participants recalled the associations on the next day. The results of the spatio-temporal PCA indicate that, whereas the process giving rise to the negative feedback elicited a FRN whose amplitude was not correlated with long-term learning outcomes, positive feedback was associated with a FRN-like activity, which was correlated with the learning outcomes. Another ERP component that follows the FRN temporally and shares its spatial distribution was found associated with long-term learning outcomes. Our findings shed light on the functional significance of the feedback-related ERP components and are discussed within the framework of the reinforcement learning ERN hypothesis.
Monitoring Individual and Joint Action Outcomes in Duet Music Performance
Authors: Loehr Janeen D. , Kourtis Dimitrios , Vesper Cordula , Sebanz Natalie , Knoblich Günther
Published: March 2013

We investigated whether people monitor the outcomes of their own and their partners' individual actions as well as the outcome of their combined actions when performing joint actions together. Pairs of pianists memorized both parts of a piano duet. Each pianist then performed one part while their partner performed the other; EEG was recorded from both. Auditory outcomes (pitches) associated with keystrokes produced by the pianists were occasionally altered in a way that either did or did not affect the joint auditory outcome (i.e., the harmony of a chord produced by the two pianists' combined pitches). Altered auditory outcomes elicited a feedback-related negativity whether they occurred in the pianist's own part or the partner's part, and whether they affected individual or joint action outcomes. Altered auditory outcomes also elicited a P300 whose amplitude was larger when the alteration affected the joint outcome compared with individual outcomes and when the alteration affected the pianist's own part compared with the partner's part. Thus, musicians engaged in joint actions monitor their own and their partner's actions as well as their combined action outcomes, while at the same time maintaining a distinction between their own and others' actions and between individual and joint outcomes.
Narrowed Expectancies under Degraded Speech: Revisiting the N400
Authors: Strauß Antje , Kotz Sonja A. , Obleser Jonas
Published: March 2013

Under adverse listening conditions, speech comprehension profits from the expectancies that listeners derive from the semantic context. However, the neurocognitive mechanisms of this semantic benefit are unclear: How are expectancies formed from context and adjusted as a sentence unfolds over time under various degrees of acoustic degradation? In an EEG study, we modified auditory signal degradation by applying noise-vocoding (severely degraded: four-band, moderately degraded: eight-band, and clear speech). Orthogonal to that, we manipulated the extent of expectancy: strong or weak semantic context (±con) and context-based typicality of the sentence-last word (high or low: ±typ). This allowed calculation of two distinct effects of expectancy on the N400 component of the evoked potential. The sentence-final N400 effect was taken as an index of the neural effort of automatic word-into-context integration; it varied in peak amplitude and latency with signal degradation and was not reliably observed in response to severely degraded speech. Under clear speech conditions in a strong context, typical and untypical sentence completions seemed to fulfill the neural prediction, as indicated by N400 reductions. In response to moderately degraded signal quality, however, the formed expectancies appeared more specific: Only typical (+con +typ), but not the less typical (+con −typ) context–word combinations led to a decrease in the N400 amplitude. The results show that adverse listening “narrows,” rather than broadens, the expectancies about the perceived speech signal: limiting the perceptual evidence forces the neural system to rely on signal-driven expectancies, rather than more abstract expectancies, while a sentence unfolds over time.
Legal, Political and Ethical Dimensions of Drone Warfare under International Law: A Preliminary Survey
Authors: Knoops Geert-Jan Alexander
Published: March 2013

This article delves into the advent of drone warfare and the international (criminal) law, political and ethical dimensions thereof. Fundamental questions to be addressed in this article are: who is accountable if decisions leading to lethal force are left up to computers? And under what legal regime may lethal forces by drones been administered? The U.S. policy, advocating that drone attacks are permissible under international and U.S. law, is outlined; as are the pitfalls of this policy. The implications of CIA operatives carrying out drone attacks are assessed. Finally, political and ethical dimensions of drone attacks will conclude this article.
The New Complaints Mechanism for the Convention on the Rights of the Child
Authors: Egan Suzanne
Published: March 2013

The un General Assembly has recently adopted a third Optional Protocol to the crc, providing for an individual complaint mechanism for children. The product of a sustained campaign on the part of ngos and children’s rights advocates, the Protocol achieves a certain parity of esteem for children vis-à-vis complainants under other core un human rights instruments by enabling them to make complaints specifically with respect to rights guaranteed by the Convention and its two substantive protocols. This article examines the terms of this new procedure in the light of its drafting history and explains why the resulting text has in many respects disappointed in terms of delivering a much-hoped for “child-friendly” complaint mechanism for children.
Not merely rights for children but children’s rights: The theory gap and the assumption of the importance of children’s rights
Authors: Ferguson Lucinda
Published: March 2013

This article aims to reinvigorate the debate over the nature and value of the claim that children have children’s rights. Whilst the language of rights and children’s rights continues to be widely employed, and even relied upon, in many situations involving the legal regulation of children we lack strong child-centred evidence that it is better to regulate children through the lens of children’s rights, rather than their ‘best interests’ or in terms of duties owed to them.

My argument proceeds in four stages. First, I distinguish between rights for children and children’s rights. Understood in the sense of fundamental human rights, children are plainly rights-holders. The critical debate relates to children’s rights. Secondly, I argue that the expressive and procedural reasons for affirming that children hold children’s rights are contingent upon improved outcomes. Thirdly, I contend that we do not currently have a child-centred theory of children’s rights that improves, or increases the likelihood of improved outcomes in legal practice. This is not a claim that children do not have children’s rights. My argument critiques the current potential of both individual children’s rights and a rights-based framework of reasoning to improve outcomes for children.

Finally, I argue that without a theory of children’s rights, we currently have no good evidence that it benefits children to think of them in terms of children’s rights in law. This is an optimistic conclusion as it suggests that with greater attention on making decision-making truly child-centred, or explicitly recognizing the inability to do so, the purposes for which we want to believe that children have children’s rights might be better achieved than they are at present.
Dyadic Trade, Exit Costs, and Conflict
Authors: Peterson Timothy M.
Published: March 2013

Most studies of the link between dyadic trade and militarized conflict examine the extent of trade interaction. However, interaction measures do not account for the impact of cutting off trade (i.e., exit costs). In this article, I highlight the link between exit costs, the cost of conflict, and “the spoils of conquest,” arguing that one state’s exit costs are associated with higher incidence of dyadic conflict when its trade partner’s exit costs are low. However, its exit costs become less aggravating—and eventually pacifying—as its trade partner’s exit costs increase. I test this argument by estimating import demand and export supply elasticities, developing yearly exit cost measures for directed dyads, 1984–2000. Statistical tests confirm that unilaterally high exit costs are aggravating, but that jointly high exit costs are pacifying, a pattern most prominent for trade in strategic commodities.
Entanglement: The Negotiation of Urban Development Imperatives in Durban’s Public–Private Partnerships
Authors: Houghton Jennifer
Published: March 2013

Theorisation of urban development in cities, especially in the global South, often entails consideration of how the imperatives of economic growth and an improved quality of life are addressed. In this paper, the cultural studies notion of ‘entanglement’ is used to present an intensive examination of the development imperatives articulated by actors in two public–private partnerships in Durban, South Africa. The discussion focuses on the ways in which actors discursively enmesh the imperative of post-apartheid redress and the pressure for economic growth and improved urban competitiveness to produce an entangled development agenda. The presentation of these imperatives as ‘entangled’ illustrates complexities inherent in processes of urban development. Consequently, the value of a relational approach, such as that offered by the notion of entanglement, for understanding urban development processes is examined.
Bridge employment quality and its impact on retirement adjustment: A structural equation model with SHARE panel data
Authors: Topa Gabriela , Alcover Carlos-María , Moriano Juan A , Depolo Marco
Published: March 2013

Bridge employment refers to the workforce participation pattern displayed by older workers between their partial retirement and their complete withdrawal from the workforce. Based on Shultz’s (2003) model of antecedents and consequences of bridge employment, this article proposes a set of hypotheses, using SHARE panel data ( N = 634) from Wave 1 (2004) and Wave 2 (2006). These data are analyzed via structural equation modeling (SEM), testing both a direct effects model and a partial mediation model. Results show that bridge employment quality partially mediates the influences of T1 antecedents on T2 consequences. The implications of this study are discussed at both the theoretical and practical level.
The end of the normal working day? A study of change in Irish, Norwegian and Swedish banking
Authors: Nicolaisen Heidi
Published: March 2013

Since 1980 debates about the regulation of working time have been characterized by demands for flexibility and deregulation. This article looks at how the regulation of the normal working day has changed during the last 30 years and examines how these regulative changes interplay with new work practices. Based on theories on institutional change the article compares the development in working time regulations in the banking sector in three countries, Norway, Ireland and Sweden. Although the majority of the regulations remain intact, they have become considerably more flexible in all three countries. The normal working day is most weakened in Ireland, but it is also undermined in the two Nordic countries. New rules, practices and ideas result in more unsocial hours working, which increasingly remains uncompensated. These similarities across the countries are uncovered because of a research design that allows for examination of institutional change at a detailed level over a long period of time.
Can Knowledge-Intensive Teamwork Be Managed? Examining the Roles of HRM Systems, Leadership, and Tacit Knowledge
Authors: Chuang Chih-Hsun , Jackson Susan E. , Jiang Yuan
Published: March 2013

Using a sample of 162 R&D teams, we investigated the influence of HRM systems for knowledge-intensive teamwork on external team knowledge acquisition and internal team knowledge sharing. This study also examined the interactive effect of HRM systems and knowledge tacitness and the combined influence of HRM systems and empowering leadership. HRM systems for knowledge-intensive teamwork were positively associated with team knowledge acquisition and team knowledge sharing. Knowledge tacitness moderated the HRM–knowledge acquisition relationship, reducing the influence of HRM systems. Further, empowering leadership appeared to substitute for the effect of HRM systems. Our findings suggest that an integration of strategic HRM and knowledge teamwork literatures will prove useful for advancing our understanding of knowledge-based competition. Furthermore, by investigating HRM systems and leadership behaviors in tandem, we gain new insights about the interplay between these two important aspects of organizational life.
Ultrasonic Characterization of the Upper Trapezius Muscle in Patients with Chronic Neck Pain
Authors: Turo Diego , Otto Paul , Shah Jay P. , Heimur Juliana , Gebreab Tadesse , Zaazhoa Maryam , Armstrong Katherine , Gerber Lynn H. , Sikdar Siddhartha
Published: March 2013

Myofascial trigger points (MTrPs) are palpable, tender nodules in taut bands of skeletal muscle that are painful on compression. MTrPs are characteristic findings in myofascial pain syndrome (MPS). The role of MTrPs in the pathophysiology of MPS is unknown. Localization, diagnosis, and clinical outcome measures of painful MTrPs can be improved by objectively characterizing and quantitatively measuring their properties. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether ultrasound imaging and elastography can differentiate symptomatic (active) MTrPs from normal muscle. Patients with chronic (>3 months) neck pain with spontaneously painful, palpable (i.e., active) MTrPs and healthy volunteers without spontaneous pain (having palpably normal muscle tissue) were recruited for this study. The upper trapezius muscles in all subjects were imaged, and the echotexture was analyzed using entropy filtering of B-mode images. Vibration elastography was performed by vibrating the muscle externally at 100 Hz. Color Doppler variance imaging was used to quantify the regions of color deficit exhibiting low vibration amplitude. The imaging measures were compared against the clinical findings of a standardized physical exam. We found that sites with active MTrPs ( n = 14) have significantly lower entropy ( p < 0.05) and significantly larger nonvibrating regions ( p < 0.05) during vibration elastography compared with normal, uninvolved muscle ( n = 15). A combination of both entropy analysis and vibration elastography yielded 69% sensitivity and 81% specificity in discriminating active MTrPs from normal muscle. These results suggest that active MTrPs have more homogeneous texture and heterogeneous stiffness when compared with normal, unaffected muscle. Our methods enabled us to improve the imaging contrast between suspected MTrPs and surrounding muscle. Our results indicate that in subjects with chronic neck pain and active MTrPs, the abnormalities are not confined to discrete isolated nodules but instead affect the milieu of the muscle surrounding palpable MTrPs. With further refinement, ultrasound imaging can be a promising objective method for characterizing soft tissue abnormalities associated with active MTrPs and elucidating the role of MTrPs in the pathophysiology of MPS.
Single Tracking Location Methods Suppress Speckle Noise in Shear Wave Velocity Estimation
Authors: Elegbe Etana C. , McAleavey Stephen A.
Published: March 2013

In ultrasound-based elastography methods, the estimation of shear wave velocity typically involves the tracking of speckle motion due to an applied force. The errors in the estimates of tissue displacement, and thus shear wave velocity, are generally attributed to electronic noise and decorrelation due to physical processes. We present our preliminary findings on another source of error, namely, speckle-induced bias in phase estimation. We find that methods that involve tracking in a single location, as opposed to multiple locations, are less sensitive to this source of error since the measurement is differential in nature and cancels out speckle-induced phase errors.
An Approach to Unbiased Subsample Interpolation for Motion Tracking
Authors: McCormick Matthew M. , Varghese Tomy
Published: March 2013

Accurate subsample displacement estimation is necessary for ultrasound elastography because of the small deformations that occur and the subsequent application of a derivative operation on local displacements. Many of the commonly used subsample estimation techniques introduce significant bias errors. This article addresses a reduced bias approach to subsample displacement estimations that consists of a two-dimensional windowed-sinc interpolation with numerical optimization. It is shown that a Welch or Lanczos window with a Nelder–Mead simplex or regular-step gradient-descent optimization is well suited for this purpose. Little improvement results from a sinc window radius greater than four data samples. The strain signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) obtained in a uniformly elastic phantom is compared with other parabolic and cosine interpolation methods; it is found that the strain SNR ratio is improved over parabolic interpolation from 11.0 to 13.6 in the axial direction and 0.7 to 1.1 in the lateral direction for an applied 1% axial deformation. The improvement was most significant for small strains and displacement tracking in the lateral direction. This approach does not rely on special properties of the image or similarity function, which is demonstrated by its effectiveness with the application of a previously described regularization technique.
Method for Estimating Total Attenuation from a Spatial Map of Attenuation Slope for Quantitative Ultrasound Imaging
Authors: Pawlicki Alexander D. , O’Brien William D.
Published: March 2013

Estimating total ultrasound attenuation from backscatter data is essential in the field of quantitative ultrasound (QUS) because of the need to compensate for attenuation when estimating the backscatter coefficient and QUS parameters. This work uses a reference phantom method of attenuation estimation to create a spatial map of attenuation slope (AS) from backscatter radio-frequency (RF) data of three phantoms and a rat mammary adenocarcinoma tumor (MAT). The attenuation maps show changes in attenuation between different regions of the phantoms and the MAT tumor. Analyses of the attenuation maps of the phantoms suggest that the AS estimates are in good quantitative agreement with the known values for the phantoms. Furthermore, estimates of total attenuation from the attenuation maps are likewise in good quantitative agreement with known values.
Variance and Covariance of Accumulated Displacement Estimates
Authors: Bayer Matthew , Hall Timothy J.
Published: March 2013

Tracking large deformations in tissue using ultrasound can enable the reconstruction of nonlinear elastic parameters, but poses a challenge to displacement estimation algorithms. Such large deformations have to be broken up into steps, each of which contributes an estimation error to the final accumulated displacement map. The work reported here measured the error variance for single-step and accumulated displacement estimates using one-dimensional numerical simulations of ultrasound echo signals, subjected to tissue strain and electronic noise. The covariance between accumulation steps was also computed. These simulations show that errors due to electronic noise are negatively correlated between steps, and therefore accumulate slowly, whereas errors due to tissue deformation are positively correlated and accumulate quickly. For reasonably low electronic noise levels, the error variance in the accumulated displacement estimates is remarkably constant as a function of step size, but increases with the length of the tracking kernel.
Historical memory and collective identity: West Bank settlers reconstruct the past
Authors: Gabel Ines
Published: March 2013

Collective memory is a product of ideological construction that can be used as a key element in the elaboration of collective identity. This research will use the case study of Nekuda, the principal bulletin of the Jewish settlers in the West Bank, to explore the role played by a community paper in the construction of the community’s historical memory. This study is concerned with two main questions: first, which historical periods are reconstructed in the newspaper? The discourse deals with the continuity of Jewish presence in Israel since biblical times and reinforces the image of the Jewish victim in the Diaspora. The second question is how settlers’ historiography characterizes their collective identity. Settlers’ historical memory portrays a wide-ranging movement that includes unique features as well as a willingness to lead the whole nation together in search of an ordinary middle-class ambience. Collective memory situates the movement at the heart of the Zionist consensus, as a conservative rather than a revolutionary movement.
Gatekeeping Twitter: message diffusion in political hashtags
Authors: Bastos Marco Toledo , Raimundo Rafael Luis Galdini , Travitzki Rodrigo
Published: March 2013

This article explores the structure of gatekeeping in Twitter by means of a statistical analysis of the political hashtags #FreeIran, #FreeVenezuela and #Jan25, each of which reached the top position in Twitter Trending Topics. We performed a statistical correlation analysis on nine variables of the dataset to evaluate if message replication in Twitter political hashtags was correlated with network topology. Our results suggest an alternative scenario to the dominant view regarding gatekeeping in Twitter political hashtags. Instead of depending on hubs that act as gatekeepers, we found that the intense activity of individuals with relatively few connections is capable of generating highly replicated messages that contributed to Trending Topics without relying on the activity of user hubs. The results support the thesis of social consensus through the influence of committed minorities, which states that a prevailing majority opinion in a population can be rapidly reversed by a small fraction of randomly distributed committed agents.
‘You have one identity’: performing the self on Facebook and LinkedIn
Authors: van Dijck José
Published: March 2013

Social media are popular stages for self-expression, communication and self-promotion. Rather than facilitating online identity formation, they are sites of struggle between users, employers and platform owners to control online identities – a struggle played out at the level of the interface. This article offers a comparative interface analysis between Facebook and LinkedIn. While Facebook is particularly focused on facilitating personal self-presentation, LinkedIn’s interface caters towards the need for professional self-promotion. And yet, both platforms deploy similar principles of connectivity and narrative – strategies that can be succinctly revealed in recent interface changes. These changing digital architectures form the necessary backdrop for asking critical questions about online self-presentation: How are public identities shaped through platform interfaces? How do these features enable and constrain the sculpting of personal and professional persona? And what are the consequences of imposed connectivity and narrative uniformity on people’s online identities?
The privatization of development through global communication industries: Living Proof?
Authors: Wilkins Karin Gwinn , Enghel Florencia
Published: March 2013

Development is meant to alleviate problems in the interests of the public good, yet the growing dominance of private donors problematizes this conceptualization. Working through a political-economic analysis of development, we see global communications as an industry that channels wealth from citizens into the hands of few corporate moguls, who then have the resources to assert their agendas in a global development context. We begin by conceptualizing development and social change within communication studies, paying attention to the privatization of aid within global capitalism. Next, we contextualize our case study, describing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and ONE, promoted by Bono, as the funding and management settings of the Living Proof campaign. We analyze the initiative’s construction of development problems, its articulation of how communication is expected to work toward social change, and its conceptualizations of success. The dominant theme of Living Proof program is that “real people” have achieved development success, which can be shared as “proof” with website consumers. We conclude by considering how such a framing serves the agenda of privatized development within a neoliberal project.
The horror at Fort Hood: disseminating American exceptionalism
Authors: Szpunar Piotr M.
Published: March 2013

American exceptionalism – the constitutive myth of American national identity – has been disseminated through literature, film, and foreign policy. This article analyzes another site: online comments in response to the New York Times coverage of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting. It is a site in which citizens participate in myth-making and maintenance. This article makes two broad claims. First, that readers’ comments in response to the Fort Hood shootings constitute messages about American national identity, particularly American exceptionalism vis-a-vis the military – the military-idea, the symbol of a unified, coherent force is central to the myth of American exceptionalism. Second, events considered to be failures of the military threaten the coherence of American exceptionalism (by fracturing the military-idea). The Fort Hood incident was considered such a failure and one readers identified as part of a larger problematic involving the US’s post-9/11 ‘war on terror’. In this mediated activity, readers put various discourses (e.g. Islamophobia, mental illness) into service to account for the military’s failure and thus maintain the myth of American exceptionalism. Ultimately, these communications constitute an attempt to avoid the divisive consequences of ‘another Vietnam’, to which the US’s post-9/11 military operations are increasingly compared.
Episodes of breathlessness: Types and patterns – a qualitative study exploring experiences of patients with advanced diseases
Authors: Simon Steffen T , Higginson Irene J , Benalia Hamid , Gysels Marjolein , Murtagh Fliss EM , Spicer James , Bausewein Claudia
Published: March 2013

Background:

Despite the high prevalence and impact of episodic breathlessness, information about characteristics and patterns is scarce.

Aim:

To explore the experience of patients with advanced disease suffering from episodic breathlessness, in order to describe types and patterns.

Design and participants:

Qualitative design using in-depth interviews with patients suffering from advanced stages of chronic heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer or motor neurone disease. As part of the interviews, patients were asked to draw a graph to illustrate typical patterns of breathlessness episodes. Interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using Framework Analysis. The graphs were grouped according to their patterns.

Results:

Fifty-one participants (15 chronic heart failure, 14 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 13 lung cancer and 9 motor neurone disease) were included (mean age 68.2 years, 30 of 51 men, mean Karnofsky 63.1, mean breathlessness intensity 3.2 of 10). Five different types of episodic breathlessness were described: triggered with normal level of breathlessness, triggered with predictable response (always related to trigger level, e.g. slight exertion causes severe breathlessness), triggered with unpredictable response (not related to trigger level), non-triggered attack-like (quick onset, often severe) and wave-like (triggered or non-triggered, gradual onset). Four patterns of episodic breathlessness could be identified based on the graphs with differences regarding onset and recovery of episodes. These did not correspond with the types of breathlessness described before.

Conclusion:

Patients with advanced disease experience clearly distinguishable types and patterns of episodic breathlessness. The understanding of these will help clinicians to tailor specific management strategies for patients who suffer from episodes of breathlessness.
Embedding active force control within the compliant hybrid zero dynamics to achieve stable, fast running on MABEL
Authors: Sreenath Koushil , Park Hae-Won , Poulakakis Ioannis , Grizzle JW
Published: March 2013

A mathematical formalism for designing running gaits in bipedal robots with compliance is introduced and subsequently validated experimentally on MABEL, a planar biped that contains springs in its drivetrain. The methods of virtual constraints and hybrid zero dynamics are used to design a time-invariant feedback controller that respects the natural compliance of the open-loop system. In addition, it also enables active force control within the compliant hybrid zero dynamics allowing within-stride adjustments of the effective stance leg stiffness. The proposed control strategy was implemented on and resulted in a kneed-biped running record of 3.06 m/s (10.9 kph or 6.8 mph).
Moral Strangers and Moral Acquaintances
Authors: Ward Tony
Published: March 2013

In this article, I examine Bruce Arrigo’s target article and the implications of his thesis that the mental health and criminal justice systems marginalize vulnerable individuals through a variety of symbolic and discursive practices. In particular, I direct my attention to the problem of value pluralism and how it can create problems communicating across different moral communities. I apply the insights of relational ethics and the concept of moral acquaintanceship in an attempt to bridge this gap. I then discuss the implications of this framework for Arrigo’s thesis and a story written by Amy Johnson describing the devastating effects of abuse, racism, and illness on a person of color.
Reducing Juvenile Delinquency With Automated Cell Phone Calls
Authors: Burraston Bert O. , Bahr Stephen J. , Cherrington David J.
Published: March 2013

Using a sample of 70 juvenile probationers (39 treatment and 31 controls), we evaluated the effectiveness of a rehabilitation program that combined cognitive-behavioral training and automated phone calls. The cognitive-behavioral training contained six 90-min sessions, one per week, and the phone calls occurred twice per day for the year following treatment. Recidivism was measured by whether they were rearrested and the total number of rearrests during the 1st year. To test the impact of the phone calls, those who received phone calls were divided into high and low groups depending on whether they answered more or less than half of their phone calls. Those who completed the class and answered at least half of their phone calls were less likely to have been arrested and had fewer total arrests.
The Cyclical Decline of the Profit Rate as the Cause of Crises in the United States (1947-2011)
Authors: Cámara Izquierdo Sergio
Published: March 2013

This work employs the methodology developed by Thomas Weisskopf in the late 1970s to analyze the role of cyclical declines in the profit rate as the cause of crises in the United States during the postwar period, and contrasts the results with Weisskopf’s and other subsequent works he inspired. The generalized idea in the literature that cyclical crises are normally caused by a decline in the profit rate is confronted; the cyclical decline in the profit rate is a plausible cause of six out of ten postwar U.S. cyclical crises, but it is doubtful that this can be postulated as the case in the remaining four. Of these six crises, most of them can be related to the offensive rising strength of the labor variant of crisis. Finally, it is argued that analysis of the profit rate short-term dynamics is insufficient to provide a specific characterization of the neoliberal crises in opposition to the crises of the Keynesian period in the U.S. economy.
The U.S. Economic Crisis
Authors: Moseley Fred
Published: March 2013

This paper argues that the fundamental cause of the current economic crisis in the U.S. economy was a significant long-term decline in the rate of profit from the 1950s to the 1970s. Capitalists responded to this profitability crisis by attempting to restore their rate of profit by a variety of strategies, including: wages and benefit cuts, inflation, “speed-up” on the job, and globalization. These strategies have largely restored the rate of profit, but have resulted in stagnant real wages for workers for decades. As a result, household indebtedness has increased to unprecedented levels and must be substantially reduced in order to make possible a sustainable recovery.
Mature Socialism
Authors: Laibman David
Published: March 2013

Stadial (stage-based) theory clarifies the relation between the evolving conception of mature socialism, on the one hand, and historical experiences of central planning and “market socialism,” on the other. The core of mature socialism is a system of multilevel democratic iterative coordination (MDIC), involving mutually supportive and mutually defining roles for a central authority and enterprises. This conception clarifies the relations between the socialist core and various precursor forms in existing transitional societies.
Specific erosive wear rate of neat polymer films and various polymer composites
Authors: Friedrich K , Pei X-Q , Almajid AA
Published: March 2013

The behavior of unidirectional carbon fiber-reinforced polyetheretherketone composites was studied under solid particle erosion, using different impact conditions and erodents. The data were analyzed on the basis of a newly defined specific erosive wear rate, allowing a better comparison of erosion data achieved under various testing conditions. Characteristic wear mechanisms of the carbon fiber/polyetheretherketone composites consisted of fiber fracture, matrix cutting and plastic matrix deformation, the relative contribution of which depended on the impingement angles and the carbon fiber orientation. The highest wear rates were measured for impingement angles between 45 and 60°. Another type of polymer composites, the so-called microfibrillar composites, which consisted of polyethyleneterephthalate fibrils in a high-density polyethylene matrix, exhibited a maximum erosion rate in the range of 30° to 45°, i.e. closer to that typical for the erosion of ductile polymers. The absolute values for the microfibrillar composites were, however, higher than those measured for the neat high-density polyethylene matrix. Using abrasion-resistant polymer films (in this case polyetheretherketone or thermoplastic polyurethane ones) on the surface of a harder substrate (e.g. a carbon fiber/polyetheretherketone composite plate) resulted in much lower specific erosive wear rates. The use of such polymeric films can be considered as a possible method to protect composite surfaces from damage caused by minor impacts and erosion. In fact, they are nowadays already successfully applied as protections for wind energy rotor blades.
Thermal, electrical and morphological properties of DGEBA/DDM and TGDDM/DDM epoxies modified by a flexible diepoxide and octaphenylamine-POSS
Authors: Chandramohan A , Mandhakini M , Dinakaran K , Alagar M
Published: March 2013

Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) nanocrosslinker namely octaaminophenyl silsesquioxane reinforced with 1,1-bis(3-methyl-4-glycidyloxyphenyl)cyclohexane (diepoxide) modified diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) and tetraglycidyl diamino diphenyl methane (TGDDM) epoxy resins and cured with 4,4′-diaminodiphenylmethane (DDM). The chemical reactions that occurred between epoxy resins and DDM with POSS were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. POSS-reinforced hybrid diepoxide-epoxy resin nanocomposites were characterised for their thermal, electrical and morphological properties. Tg and heat distortion temperature of hybrid epoxy increases with increased incorporation of POSS. The data obtained from thermal studies indicated that the incorporation of nano-POSS into diepoxide-modified hybrid systems possess improved thermal stability. Dielectric properties decreased with increasing percentage of POSS in both systems. The nanolevel dispersion of octaaminophenyl silsesquioxane (POSS) was confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis and transmission electron microscope studies.
A political economy of human rights: Oil, natural gas, and state incentives to repress1
Authors: DeMeritt Jacqueline H.R. , Young Joseph K
Published: March 2013

Oil and other natural resources are linked to many undesirable outcomes, such as civil war, autocracy and lack of economic development. Using a state-centered framework for revenue extraction, we identify why oil should also be linked to another undesirable effect: repression. We argue that repression is less costly where states do not rely on their citizenry for generating revenue, so that these states are more likely than others to use indiscriminate violations of personal integrity rights as a policy tool. We test this argument using a cross-national database with a variety of indicators of oil and fuel rents and personal integrity violations. Across all specifications and different indicators, we find a substantive and significant relationship between a state relying on oil and the violation of personal integrity rights.
What determines US humanitarian intervention?
Authors: Choi Seung-Whan
Published: March 2013

Why does the United States as a third party intervene abroad in responding to humanitarian crises? While liberals argue that the purpose of an intervention is to protect victims of human rights violations, realists contend that interventions have little relation to humanitarian concerns and aim, instead, at certain national interests such as securing an oil supply. Making scientific progress, in explaining the determinants of US humanitarian intervention, requires confronting these theoretical positions with data. Drawing on a cross-national, time-series data analysis of 153 countries for the years 1981–2005, the quantitative research presented in this study is the first of its kind to evaluate the relative importance of these competing theoretical perspectives. After controlling for other variables such as democracy and media coverage, this study finds evidence that the United States is likely to use force in a manner consistent with the theory put forth by liberals. This finding indicates that US humanitarian interventions are utilized for the purpose of preserving liberal norms and moral values rather than for pursuing national interests.
Forward to the future? The democratic peace after the Cold War
Authors: Park Johann
Published: March 2013

This paper helps resolve the ongoing debate concerning whether the democratic peace is limited to the Cold War period. Some critics have attributed the democratic peace to a set of common interests among democracies that uniquely existed during the Cold War. This study is the first direct test of this proposition. I use a new measure of Cold War preferences to test if the effect of joint democracy is rendered statistically insignificant either during or after the Cold War as critics contend. I also test, as some democratic peace proponents have suggested, whether the pacifying effect of democracy is strengthened in the post-Cold War era. Evidence from period-specific logit analyses suggests that joint democracy promotes peace independently of Cold War security interests. Indeed, the democratic peace exists in the post-Cold War era.