bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Lean Production Assessed by Karasek’s Job Demand–Job Control Model
Authors: Schouteten Roel , Benders Jos
Published: July 2004

Comments on the quality of working life (QWL) under lean production have varied from devastating criticism on the one hand, to eulogistic praise on the other. These contrasting positions can be related to researchers’ opposing societal stances and resulting interpretations, which are reinforced by the methodologies used and the absence of an external framework to judge QWL. Using Karasek’s job demand–job control model, the authors investigate a Dutch plant operating under a lean production (LP) regime in an attempt to resolve the controversy. The jobs in this plant can be placed in Karasek’s quadrant of low job demands and low job control, which means that antagonists of LP are right in claiming that the work is monotonous and repetitive, while the advocates’ claim that workers have sufficient job decision latitude also holds.
Dilemmas of Family Support During Cardiac Recovery
Authors: Tapp Dianne M.
Published: July 2004

Family support has rarely been viewed as a relational phenomenon with interactional dynamics that shape individual and family experiences of cardiac recovery. This article describes a hermeneutic inquiry based on a retrospective review of videotapes of 24 clinical outpatient sessions between a family systems clinical nurse specialist and six families presenting with concerns related to living with heart disease. The research question that framed the analysis was “What is the relational character of family support during cardiac recovery?” One of the key patterns that emerged from the interpretations of clinical sessions with four of the six families was a dynamic well known in everyday experience and identified by families as “nagging.” This article reveals nagging as an attempt to offer emotional support and encouragement for health maintenance activities. The helpful and potentially harmful consequences are discussed and possibilities for incorporating these understandings in clinical practice are explored.
Everyday Life for Black American Adults
Authors: Brown Debra J.
Published: July 2004

The purpose of this study was to examine the stress process in Black Americans by exploring chronic stress, emotions, age, body mass index, and blood pressure within the context of gender and socioeconomic position (SEP). The convenience sample of middle-class Black Americans ( N = 211) ranged from ages 25 to 79 years. A sociopsychophysiological model of everyday life for Black American adults was tested using structural equation modeling. The model explained 27% of the variance in systolic and 17% of the variance in diastolic blood pressure. SEP had a significant effect on chronic stress, and chronic stress had a significant effect on negative affect. Although men had lower negative affect scores than women, men’s diastolic blood pressures were on average 4 mm Hg higher than women’s. These findings are useful to the development and implementation of interventions to eliminate health disparities and improve years of healthy life for Black Americans.
Effects of the Atypical Antipsychotic Olanzapine on Reproductive Function and Weight Gain in Female Rats
Authors: Fell M. J. , Marshall K. M. , Williams J. , Neill J. C.
Published: July 2004

Sexual dysfunction is a major, although poorly understood, side-effect of treatment with antipsychotic drugs. We have recently show marked disruption of reproductive function and weight gain in female rats treated subchronically with risperidone and haloperidol. The aim of the present study was to examine further the potential relationship between reproductive dysfunction and weight gain in female rats treated with olanzapine. The effects of olanzapine on weight gain, food and water intake, intra-abdominal fat, the oestrous cycle and uterine weight were assessed in group-housed adult female hooded-Lister rats. Olanzapine (0.5-4.0 mg/kg i.p.) or vehicle was administered once daily for 21 days and body weight, food and water intake measured, with histological examination of vaginal lavage to determine the stage of the oestrous cycle. On day 22, animals were sacrificed and intra-abdominal fat, wet and dry uterine weights measured. Olanzapine induced significant weight gain with concomitant increases in food and water intake and intra-abdominal fat without an effect on the oestrous cycle, wet and dry uterine weights or plasma prolactin levels. These results confirm the ability of olanzapine to induce weight gain in female rats on unrestricted normal diet with a concomitant increase in food and water intake and increased intra-abdominal fat. These effects of olanzapine were produced in the absence of any apparent impairment in reproductive function, in contrast to the substantial disruption of oestrous and uterine atrophy previously shown in rats treated with risperidone and haloperidol.
Effects of Amisulpride, Risperidone and Chlorpromazine on Auditory and Visual Latent Inhibition, Prepulse Inhibition, Executive Function and Eye Movements in Healthy Volunteers
Authors: Barrett S. L. , Bell R. , Watson D. , King D. J.
Published: July 2004

In view of the evidence that cognitive deficits in schizophrenia are critically important for long-term outcome, it is essential to establish the effects that the various antipsychotic compounds have on cognition, particularly second-generation drugs. This parallel group, placebo-controlled study aimed to compare the effects in healthy volunteers ( n = 128) of acute doses of the atypical antipsychotics amisulpride (300 mg) and risperidone (3 mg) to those of chlorpromazine (100 mg) on tests thought relevant to the schizophrenic process: auditory and visual latent inhibition, prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response, executive function and eye movements. The drugs tested were not found to affect auditory latent inhibition, prepulse inhibition or executive functioning as measured by the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Battery and the FAS test of verbal fluency. However, risperidone disrupted and amisulpride showed a trend to disrupt visual latent inhibition. Although amisulpride did not affect eye movements, both risperidone and chlorpromazine decreased peak saccadic velocity and increased antisaccade error rates, which, in the risperidone group, correlated with drug-induced akathisia. It was concluded that single doses of these drugs appear to have little effect on cognition, but may affect eye movement parameters in accordance with the amount of sedation and akathisia they produce. The effect risperidone had on latent inhibition is likely to relate to its serotonergic properties. Furthermore, as the trend for disrupted visual latent inhibition following amisulpride was similar in nature to that which would be expected with amphetamine, it was concluded that its behaviour in this model is consistent with its preferential presynaptic dopamine antagonistic activity in low dose and its efficacy in the negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
Effects of Quetiapine and Haloperidol on Prepulse Inhibition of the Acoustic Startle (Eyeblink) Response and the N1/P2 Auditory Evoked Response in Man
Authors: Graham S. J. , Scaife J. C. , Verduzco A. M. Balboa , Langley R. W. , Bradshaw C. M. , Szabadi E.
Published: July 2004

Contraction of the orbicularis oculi muscle in response to a sudden loud sound (acoustic startle response) and the N1/P2 component of the auditory evoked potential are both attenuated when a brief low-intensity stimulus is presented 30-500 ms before the ‘startle-eliciting’ stimulus (PPI). Here, we report the effects of the ‘atypical’ antipsychotic drug quetiapine and the ‘conventional’ antipsychotic haloperidol on these responses. Sixteen males (aged 19-38 years) participated in four sessions at 7-day intervals, in which they received quetiapine 12.5 mg, quetiapine 25 mg, haloperidol 3 mg and placebo, according to a balanced double-blind design. Electromyographic (EMG) responses of the orbicularis oculi muscle and N1/P2 auditory evoked potentials were recorded in a 20-min session, 2 h after treatment. Subjects received 40 trials in which 1-kHz sounds were presented: (i) 40 ms, 115 dB (‘pulse alone’ trials) and (ii) 40 ms, 85 dB, followed after 120 ms by 40 ms, 115 dB (‘prepulse/pulse’ trials). Mean amplitudes of the EMG response and the N1/P2 potential were derived from the pulse-alone trials and, in each case, percentage PPI was calculated. Serum prolactin was measured after each treatment, and autonomic (heart rate, blood pressure, salivation) and psychological (visual analogue self-ratings of mood and alertness, critical flicker fusion frequency) measures were taken before and after each treatment. Quetiapine 12.5 mg and 25 mg significantly reduced the amplitude of the EMG response without altering its inhibition by prepulses; haloperidol had no effect on EMG response amplitude or PPI. Neither drug affected N1/P2 amplitude or PPI of this response. Quetiapine, but not haloperidol, reduced subjective alertness and critical flicker fusion frequency. Haloperidol, but not quetiapine, elevated serum prolactin level. The ability of quetiapine to attenuate the startle response may reflect its sedative action.
A Double-Blind, Randomized, 26-Week Study Comparing the Cognitive and Psychomotor Effects and Efficacy of 75 mg (37.5 mg b.i.d.) Venlafaxine and 75 mg (25 mg Mane, 50 mg Nocte) Dothiepin in Elderly Patients with Moderate Major Depression Being Treated in General Practice
Authors: Trick Leanne , Stanley Neil , Rigney Una , Hindmarch Ian
Published: July 2004

To investigate the efficacy and cognitive and psychomotor effects of venlafaxine and dothiepin in elderly patients with moderate major depression. A prospective, randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, active comparator controlled study was conducted. Eighty-eight patients (aged ≥ 60 years) were enrolled. Each patient received either venlafaxine (immediate release formulation) 37.5 mg twice per day or dothiepin 25 mg mane followed by 50 mg nocte for 26 weeks. Efficacy was assessed with the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. A psychometric test battery to assess cognitive function, activities of daily living and sleep consisted of Critical Flicker Fusion (CFF), Short-term Memory - Kim’s Game, Cognitive Failures Questionnaire, Milford Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Leeds Sleep Evaluation Questionnaire, and an Accident Scoring Questionnaire. Quality of Life Questionnaires (Short Form 36 and Quality of Life in Depression Scale) were also administered. Venlafaxine significantly ( p < 0.05) raised CFF scores compared to baseline but had no effect on any other measure. Dothiepin significantly ( p < 0.05) lowered CFF threshold, and increased ratings of both sedation and difficulty in waking. The results showed that venlafaxine at doses of 37.5 mg b.i.d. in elderly depressed patients is free from disruptive effects on cognitive function and psychomotor performance.
Noradrenergic Activity is Associated with Response to Pindolol in Aggressive Alzheimer’s Disease Patients
Authors: Herrmann Nathan , Lanctôt Krista L. , Eryavec Goran , Khan Lyla R.
Published: July 2004

Loss of noradrenergic (NE) neurones in the locus ceruleus and compensatory changes in NE activity have been described in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but have never been linked to treatment. The hypothesis of this study was that central NE responsivity would predict aggression response to treatment with a NE medication, pindolol. Fifteen institutionalized AD subjects [Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), mean 3.3 ± 4.6] with significant behavioural disturbances (Neuropsychiatric Inventory Score, mean 30.6 ± 14.6) were studied. Growth hormone (GH) response to clonidine challenge (5 μg/kg) was used as a measure of central NE responsivity. Subjects were then randomized to 7 weeks of treatment with pindolol, maximum dose 20 mg b.i.d., or an identical placebo capsule in a cross-over design. The primary outcome measure was change on the retrospective Overt Aggression Scale (r-OAS). Five of 11 completers (45%) had decreased total r-OAS scores. There was significant improvement noted on the r-OAS verbal aggression subscale (paired t = -2.5, p = 0.03) compared to placebo, but not r-OAS total. Higher baseline aggression, higher MMSE and lower GH response predicted improvement in aggression, accounting for 82% of the variance ( r = 0.91, F = 10.5, p = 0.006). Changes in NE responsivity, as reflected by a blunted GH response to clonidine challenge and more severe aggression, were associated with better response to the NE agent pindolol. Individual patient characteristics, including underlying neurotransmitter changes, may be useful for predicting response to therapy.
Folate for Depressive Disorders: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Authors: Taylor Matthew J. , Carney Stuart M. , Goodwin Guy M. , Geddes John R.
Published: July 2004

The objective of this review was to determine the effectiveness, adverse effects and acceptability of folate in the treatment of depression. Electronic databases (Cochrane Controlled Trials Register and the Cochrane Collaboration Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Controlled Trials Register) and reference lists were searched, and authors, experts and pharmaceutical companies contacted to identify randomized controlled trials that compared treatment with folic acid or 5 ′-methyltetrahydrofolic acid to an alternative treatment, for patients with a diagnosis of depressive disorder. Three randomized trials (247 participants) were included. Two studies assessed the use of folate in addition to other treatment, and found that adding folate reduced Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) scores on average by a further 2.65 points [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.38-4.93]. Fewer patients treated with folate experienced a reduction in their HDRS score of less than 50% at 10 weeks (relative risk 0.47, 95% CI 0.24-0.92). The remaining study found no statistically significant difference when folate alone was compared with trazodone. The identified trials did not find evidence of any problems with the acceptability or safety of folate. The limited available evidence suggests folate may have a potential role as a supplement to other treatment for depression. It is currently unclear if this is the case both for people with normal folate levels, and for those with folate deficiency.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: Applications for Neuropsychopharmacology
Authors: Kähkönen Seppo , Ilmoniemi Risto J.
Published: July 2004

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) provides new possibilities for studying localized changes in the electrical properties of the human cortex. TMS combined with electromyography (EMG) has revealed that drugs blocking Na+ or Ca2+ channels such as phenytoin, lamotrigin or carbamazepine change the motor threshold without affecting intracortical inhibition or facilitation. Gabaergic agents vigabatrin, lorazepam, diazepam, baclofen and ethanol do not affect the motor threshold, but increase intracortical inhibition and decrease facilitation. N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonists riluzole, dextromethorphan and memantine have similar effects. Dopamine receptor antagonists such as haloperidol, but not sulpiride, decrease intracortical inhibition and increase intracortical facilitation. Other monoamines, such as serotonin and noradrenaline, may have some modulating effect on the cortical excitability. However, TMS combined with EMG gives only indirect evidence about the excitability of the motor cortex because spinal mechanisms may contribute to the results. Cortical excitability can be studied directly by combining TMS with brain imaging methods such as electroencephalography (EEG). Motor and non-motor areas can be stimulated and subsequent brain activity can be measured. Ethanol has been shown to modulate EEG responses evoked by motor-cortex TMS, the effects being largest at the right prefrontal cortex, meaning that ethanol would have changed the functional connectivity. Furthermore, alcohol decreases amplitudes of EEG responses after the left prefrontal stimulation mainly in anterior parts of the cortex, which may be associated with the decrease of the prefrontal cortical excitability. Taken together, TMS provides a new insight to the actions of central nervous system drugs at the cortical level.
Pharmacokinetic Interactions of Drugs with St John’s Wort
Authors: Zhou Shufeng , Chan Eli , Pan Shen-Quan , Huang Min , Lee Edmund Jon Deoon
Published: July 2004

There is a worldwide increasing use of herbs which are often administered in combination with therapeutic drugs, raising the potential for herb-drug interactions. St John’s wort ( Hypericum perforatum) is one of the most commonly used herbal antidepressants. A literature search was performed using Medline (via Pubmed), Biological Abstracts, Cochrane Library, AMED, PsycINFO and Embase (all from their inception to September 2003) to identify known drug interaction with St John’s wort. The available data indicate that St John’s wort is a potent inducer of CYP 3A4 and P-glycoprotein (PgP), although it may inhibit or induce other CYPs, depending on the dose, route and duration of administration. Data from human studies and case reports indicate that St John’s wort decreased the blood concentrations of amitriptyline, cyclosporine, digoxin, fexofenadine, indinavir, methadone, midazolam, nevirapine, phenprocoumon, simvastatin, tacrolimus, theophylline and warfarin, whereas it did not alter the pharmacokinetics of carbamazepine, dextromethorphan, mycophenolic acid and pravastatin. St John’s wort decreased the plasma concentration of the active metabolite SN-38 in cancer patients receiving irinotecan treatment. St John’s wort did not alter the pharmacokinetics of tolbutamide, but increased the incidence of hypoglycaemia. Several cases have been reported that St John’s wort decreased cyclosporine blood concentration leading to organ rejection. St John’s wort caused breakthrough bleeding and unplanned pregnancies when used concomitantly with oral contraceptives. It also caused serotonin syndrome when coadministered with selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (e.g. sertaline and paroxetine). Both pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic components may play a role in these interactions. Because the potential interaction of St John’s wort with other drugs is a major safety concern, additional systematic research on herb-drug interactions and appropriate regulation in herbal safety and efficacy is needed.
Oral Transmucosal Abuse of Transdermal Fentanyl
Authors: Liappas I. A. , Dimopoulos N. P. , Mellos E. , Gitsa O. E. , Liappas A. I. , Rabavilas A. D.
Published: July 2004

Transdermal fentanyl is an opioid analgesic that is effective on chronic pain, and which appears to be advantageous due to several factors such as ease of administration, the relatively stable serum concentration and long dose intervals. Nevertheless, the danger of abuse and dependence exists among patients who are prescribed fentanyl patches. We present a case of transdermal fentanyl abuse, where the administration route of the drug was changed. Our patient, who had no history of substance abuse and who suffered from chronic nonmalignant pain, used the fentanyl transdermal patches as oral transmucosal medication, raising the dose by ten-fold. This abuse of the drug was only for analgesic purposes without seeking anxiolysis and/or euphoria. After treatment and progressive reduction of fentanyl, the patient remains in good condition, and is currently taking the initial dose of the drug transdermally, without having experienced any withdrawal symptoms.
Does Quetiapine Have Mood Altering Properties?
Authors: Mishra Achal , Moore P. Brian , Hobbs Rosemary
Published: July 2004

We present a series of three cases who developed manic symptoms on introduction of quetiapine to their medication regime. All were male, with long-standing psychotic illnesses (schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder), relatively well maintained on medication until their deterioration which prompted a review of their medication. The dose range of prescribed quetiapine was 300-800 mg daily. Two patients had previously received antidepressants without displaying manic symptoms. The mania subsided on withdrawal of quetiapine in two patients. The third patient continued on quetiapine but with the addition of zuclopenthixol depot. Sodium valproate was prescribed to the other two patients, and quetiapine was discontinued. These cases indicate that a side-effect of quetiapine may be mood elevation. An ability to elevate mood while controlling psychoses would be helpful in the treatment of post-psychotic and bipolar depression. Its clinical importance in the control of manic episodes, for which atypical antipsychotics are used increasingly, is uncertain.
A Review of Refined Shear Deformation Theories for Isotropic and Anisotropic Laminated Beams
Authors: Ghugal Y. M. , Shimpi R. P.
Published: July 2004

A review of displacement and stress based refined theories for isotropic and anisotropic laminated beams is presented. Various equivalent single layer and layerwise theories for laminated beams are discussed together with their merits and demerits. Exact elasticity solutions for the beam problems are cited, wherever available. Various critical issues, related with beam theories, based on the literature reviewed are presented.
Effect of Sizing and Loading Levels on the Cure Kinetics of Carbon Fiber Vinylester Composites
Authors: Karbhari V. M. , Kabalnova L.
Published: July 2004

The cure behavior of elastomer modified, reactive vinylester resin based carbon fiber reinforced composites is characterized through the use of DSC analysis. It is shown that both fiber loading level and percentage of sizing used on the fiber have a significant effect on factors such as cure rate, degree of cure, time to maximum cure rate, rate constant and exponent of the auto-catalytic equation. Increases in sizing levels are shown to result in changes of cure rates and peak temperatures resulting from possible changes in curing mechanisms in the vinylester system under consideration. The effects have special significance as related to the use of carbon-vinylester composites for the fabrication of large scale primary structural components through processes such as RTM, Resin Infusion and Pultrusion.
Design and Optimisation of an RTM Composite Bicycle Crank
Authors: Quaresimin M. , Meneghetti G. , Verardo F.
Published: July 2004

This paper presents the activities performed for the design and optimisation of a new carbon fibre composite bicycle crank produced by using the RTM technology.

A prototype of the right crank was developed on the basis of a preliminary design supported by a finite element model. Its flexural and torsional stiffness performances were experimentally evaluated and compared with those of top quality commercial cranks showing the need for an improvement of the composite prototype stiffness. The FE model was then calibrated on the basis of the constituent material characterisation and the definition of suitable boundary conditions in order to achieve a reliable simulation of the experimental tests. Finally, an FE optimisation was performed to increase the crank stiffness and to investigate the influence of the elastic properties and lay-up of the composite skin on the stiffness performances.
Pore Nucleation and Growth in Short Glass Fibre Reinforced Polypropylene
Authors: Lapique Fabrice , Gaarder Rune H. , Larsen Åge
Published: July 2004

An experimental technique to study debonding, pore nucleation and pore growth in short glass fibre reinforced transparent polymers has been developed. Samples containing a certain number of fibres with a defined orientation have been tested in 0° tension and transverse tension. Basic mechanisms of pore nucleation and growth in single fibre composites are described as a function of the fibre orientation. The same mechanisms have been found to take place in multiple fibres composites. The pore growth has been simulated with a FEM analysis program (ANSYS) for an idealised composite. The rate of growth function of the macroscopic deformation shows a good agreement with the experimental measurements.
Center Notch Flexure Sandwich Geometry for Characterizing Skin-Core Adhesion in Thin-Skinned Sandwich Structures
Authors: Ratcliffe J. , Cantwell W. J.
Published: July 2004

The fracture properties of a number of sandwich structures have been investigated using a simple three point bend test geometry. The center notch flexure sandwich (CNFS) test involves loading the lower skin of the sandwich structure and propagating a central crack along the lower skin-core interface. A finite element analysis has been used to determine the crack tip loading conditions as a function of crack length and mechanical properties of the sandwich panel. The analysis agrees well with strain energy release rate data obtained via experiment, and shows the CNFS test to be predominantly mode I. The CNFS technique has been used to characterize the interfacial fracture properties of several foam, balsa, and honeycomb-based sandwich structures similar to those currently used in the marine and aerospace industries. Experimentally-determined values for interfacial fracture energy varied between approximately 170 J/m2 for a glass fiber reinforced polyester/linear PVC system and 2750 J/m2 for a glass fiber reinforced sandwich system based on a Nomex honeycomb core. The fracture toughness values obtained through the CNFS test agreed well with those values obtained via two different test methods. The J integral has been proposed as a fracture criterion for CNFS specimens that do not behave in a linear elastic manner; initial findings suggest this fracture criterion is applicable to CNFS specimens.
Effect of Environmental Pre-Conditioning on Bond of FRP Reinforcement to Concrete
Authors: Al-Dulaijan Salah U. , Al-Zahrani Mesfer M. , Nanni Antonio , Bakis Charles E. , Boothby Thomas E.
Published: July 2004

To determine how environment affects the bond behavior of FRP reinforcement for concrete, FRP rods were subjected to accelerated environmental pre-conditioning and several mechanical tests. Specially-made smooth and lugged FRP rods consisting of glass/vinylester, carbon/vinylester, and carbon/epoxy composites were evaluated. The primary means of comparison of the pre-conditioned materials was the direct pull-out test, although pertinent properties of rods such as short-beam apparent shear strength and longitudinal modulus of elasticity were also evaluated. The results reveal that pre-conditioning of FRP rods prior to casting degrades the FRP material itself, but does not necessarily degrade the bond behavior. In particular, the smooth rods, which had low bond strength to begin with, had little change in bond strength. On the other hand, the lugged rods, which were made susceptible to the environment by the machining of lugs, had significantly reduced bond strength due to degradation of the resin or the fiber/resin interface. Of the three types of aqueous environments evaluated, high temperature combined with an alkaline solution is the most aggressive to the FRP materials evaluated. Certain experiments highlighted the importance of the resin rich surface on environmental resistance.
Theorizing a Coalition-Engendered Education: The Case Of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective’s Body Education
Authors: Birden Susan
Published: July 2004

Concurring with Cunningham’s assessment of the need for a counterhegemonic vision of critical pedagogy in adult education thought and practice, this article theorizes a coalition-engendered education as a specific type of emancipatory pedagogy common in North America. Examining the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective’s body education as an exemplar of coalitionengendered education, this article compares and contrasts coalition-engendered education with the more familiar Freirean critical pedagogy, drawing important implications for both the theory and practice of adult education.
The Data Documentation Initiative
Authors: Blank Grant , Rasmussen Karsten Boye
Published: July 2004

Effective secondary analysis of social science data requires good documentation. Especially because Internet access has become standard, the problems of reading and understanding the contents of data files have become acute. Resolving these problems requires standards for documenting data, as well as standard formats for both data and documentation that can be read and displayed by computers and software anywhere in the world. To define a documentation standard, representatives of North American and European survey research and data archive organizations have created a Data Documentation Initiative (DDI). This article discusses the value and significance of that effort for the social sciences.
E-Mail Contacts
Authors: Whitcomb Michael E. , Porter Stephen R.
Published: July 2004

A web survey of high school students was used to understand how the visual design of the e-mail contact affects survey response. Respondents were contacted with one of six e-mail designs that varied by format (text vs. HTML), color of background (white vs. black), and graphical design (simple vs. complex). The results indicate that e-mails with nonwhite backgrounds and complex graphical designs can suppress response rates more than 5 percentage points.
Effects of Immediate Versus Delayed Notification of Prize Draw Results on Response Behavior in Web Surveys
Authors: Tuten Tracy L. , Galesic Mirta , Bosnjak Michael
Published: July 2004

Many online surveys offer the chance to win prizes as a primary incentive for respondents. One researcher found that prepaid monetary incentives were the most effective technique for increasing response rates, however, other researchers showed that a prize incentive outperformed other incentive types in a web-based survey. Using the immediacy effect and supporting theories as a base, this study extends the research on using prize draws as an effective incentive for web surveys by investigating the effects of immediate versus delayed notification for prize draw winners. Results indicate that the immediate notification of prize draw results did significantly increase response rates to the survey over the delayed notification, receipt of results, and control groups.
How You Ask Counts
Authors: Trouteaud Alex R.
Published: July 2004

Previous research on web-based surveys lacks systematic tests of Internet-related factors of unit response rates. Strategies that do not rely on more expensive and time-consuming methods to improve response rates are important for maximizing the utility of this survey mode in social science research. This article presents detailed analyses of response rate data from a two-stage experiment embedded in a web-based survey. These data showthat contrary to some previous assertions, theoretically consistent Internet-related strategies for meaningfully improving response rates to web-based surveys exist and that further attempts to identify these mechanisms should focus on invitation and reminder e-mails. This idea is a departure from previous analyses that examine survey content and presentation for sources of variability around web-based survey response rates.
Regulation of Arm and Leg Movement during Human Locomotion
Authors: Zehr E. Paul , Duysens Jacques
Published: July 2004

Walking can be a very automated process, and it is likely that central pattern generators (CPGs) play a role in the coordination of the limbs. Recent evidence suggests that both the arms and legs are regulated by CPGs and that sensory feedback also regulates the CPG activity and assists in mediating interlimb coordination. Although the strength of coupling between the legs is stronger than that between the arms, arm and leg movements are similarly regulated by CPG activity and sensory feedback (e.g., reflex control) during locomotion.
Pathway-Specific Maturation, Visual Deprivation, and Development of Retinal Pathway
Authors: Xu Hongping , Tian Ning
Published: July 2004

One of the fundamental features of the visual system is the segregation of neural circuits that process increments and decrements of luminance into ON and OFF pathways. In mature retina, the dendrites of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in the inner plexiform layer (IPL) of retina are separated into ON or OFF sublaminaspecific stratification. At an early developmental stage, however, the dendrites of most RGCs are ramified throughout the IPL. The maturation of RGC ON/OFF dendritic stratification requires neural activities mediated by afferent inputs from bipolar and amacrine cells. The synchronized spontaneous burst activities in early postnatal developing retina regulate RGC dendritic filopodial movements and the maintenance or elimination of dendritic processes. After eye opening, visual experience further remodels and consolidates the retinal neural circuit into mature forms. Several neurotransmitter systems, including glutamatergic, acetylcholinergic, GAB Aergic, and glycinergic systems, might act together to modulate the RGC dendritic refinement. In addition, both the bipolar cells and cholinergic amacrine cells may provide laminar cues for the maturation of RGC dendritic stratification.
Adoptive Families: The Effects of Early Relational Deprivation in Children Adopted from Eastern European Orphanages
Authors: Judge Sharon
Published: July 2004

Sources of variation in security of attachment and the effects of early institutionalization on the development of attachment were investigated in 124 adoptive families. Participants included 124 children adopted from Eastern European orphanages and their parents. The quality of their attachment relationships varied significantly, depending, in part, on characteristics of both the child and the parent. Specifically, low-secure children had more atypical behavior problems, more developmental delays, and parents who reported significantly more parenting stress than children classified as midsecure and high secure. Regression analysis revealed that the detached and hypersensitive/active behavior ratings, along with the present number of developmental delays, predicted significant amounts of variance associated with security of attachment. Children’s security of attachment scores were not associated with any aspect of their institutional environment but were related to particular child and family characteristics.
How to Conclude or Terminate with Families
Authors: Wright Lorraine M. , Leahey Maureen
Published: July 2004

This article reviews the process of concluding or terminating with families by examining the decision to terminate when it is initiated by the family, the nurse, or as a result of the context in which the family members find themselves. Often, the nurse’s decision to terminate with a family does not necessarily mean that the family will cease contact with all professionals. Therefore, discussion also includes the process of referring families to other health professionals. Specific suggestions and family interviewing skills for how to phase out and conclude treatment are given, as well as suggestions for evaluating the effects of the treatment process. Just as other aspects of family interviewing are conducted in a collaborative manner, it is also essential that the termination phase conclude with full participation and input from the family whenever possible.
Apocalyptic Violence:
Authors: Hamm Mark S.
Published: July 2004

This article critically examines the concept of apocalyptic violence. Drawing on a wide range of methods, the study examines the social histories of some 40 neo-Nazi males. The network of knowledge that gives meaning to terrorist subcultures is examined in two case studies, showing a great diversity in the human conditions that adapt people to the subcultural products that makes terrorism possible. Yet the outcome is the same: terrorists use their products to reach for the same star that has attracted American terrorists since Jesse James and John Wilkes Booth—celebrity.
‘Reflections with Memories’:
Authors: Morrison Wayne
Published: July 2004

This article uses as data for cultural criminology an album of photographs taken by German soldiers and policemen involved in the Holocaust. The author labels these actions ‘genocidal tourism’. He then asks what impact they have on the exclusionary tactics at work in mainstream criminology that, typically, define genocidal killings as outside the scope of the criminological enterprise. Many of the photographs discussed played an important part in the debate occasioned by the work of Daniel Goldhagen and Christopher Browning. Goldhagen advanced a ‘cultural’ argument for the Holocaust (eliminationist anti-Semitism), pointing out the ‘readiness’ of members of Reserve Police Battalion 101 to participate in the atrocities. In Goldhagen’s hands the Holocaust cannot provide material for criminology, as it is a unique historical event that belongs entirely to an interaction between ‘ordinary Germans’ and Jews. This article argues that this can be partly explained by differences in the rhetoric of Goldhagen and Browning’s texts and their respective use of photography. By comparing photography from the case of the genocidal massacres in the Rape of Nanking, the author counters Goldhagen’s argument and points to the possibility of the development of a situational criminology.
Long Ago and Far Away
Authors: Shah Hemant , Nah Seungahn
Published: July 2004

This article examines how US general-circulation newspapers construct and convey the idea of racial oppression. A Nexis database search found 146 news items published between 1990 and 2001 prominently using the phrase ‘racial oppression’. Content analysis numerically coded the ‘facts’ of racial oppression (that is the ‘who, what, when, where, why, and how’) and a number of other structural features of the articles. Interpretive textual analysis considered the use of words and phrases to characterize the process of and those involved in racial oppression. The study found that the US press constructed racial oppression in fairly narrow ways. In the news stories, forms of racial oppression typically occurred in the past. The stories focused on apartheid, slavery and the confederate flag, depicted the process as involving almost exclusively blacks and whites and emphasized narratives related to Mandela as hero, white guilt and absolution, bounded empathy and race and rationality.
Redefining Foreign Correspondence
Authors: Hamilton John Maxwell , Jenner Eric
Published: July 2004

Scholars have used the traditional elite foreign correspondent as a prime measure of the quality of foreign news coverage. They regularly track the size of the corps of correspondents and focus their analyses of foreign news on coverage in major established news outlets like The New York Times and CBS. While this model has worked well for many years, it does not now. This is a result of the chronic decline of elite foreign correspondents coupled with the proliferation of alternate sources of foreign news. This article outlines trends changing the flow of foreign news and suggests some of the implications for scholars who wish to study the nexus between news and foreign policy.
Risky News, Madness and Public Crisis
Authors: Blood Warwick , Holland Kate
Published: July 2004

This case study investigates the central role of news frames in constructing risk knowledge for newspaper readers. In Brisbane in 2001-02, a psychiatric patient absconded from a city mental health facility and within a month a second patient had absconded from another facility. A mental health tribunal had previously judged each man as medically unfit to stand trial for separate murders they had committed. The media coverage culminated in a complaint to the Australian Press Council, which resolved the concerns by mediation. The study has implications for how Australian and other western news media routinely frame people diagnosed with mental illness.
Signifying Symi
Authors: Damer Se·n
Published: July 2004

This article explores the extent to which three critical concepts in the sociology of tourism–‘authenticity’, ’sincerity’, and the ‘tourist gaze’–can assist in understanding both the tourist setting and tourist experience on the small Greek island of Symi. The article initially provides a content analysis of the ways in which the image of Symi as a tourist destination is signified in a sample of British tourist companies’ literature. Noting that authenticity, sincerity and the tourist gaze appear to be contextual, that is, negotiated in encounters between tourists and locals, it then provides an ethnographic analysis of selected contexts for such encounters, and argues that such analysis is the only way of interpreting them. On this basis, it questions whether the notions of authenticity, sincerity and the tourist gaze are of utility in analysing these encounters. It concludes that the notions of ‘tourist performance’ within a ‘social dialectics’ are more useful.
Paths of Marriage in Istanbul
Authors: Tek,ce Belgin
Published: July 2004

This essay focuses on the complex interplay between choice and arrangement in marriage processes that emerges from the life stories of 15 couples from diverse origins living in Istanbul, Turkey, gathered as part of a wider ethnographic study of family life and reproduction conducted in 1995–6. It questions the dichotomy drawn between arranged, and love or choice marriages, typically associated with different marriage regimes and forms of family life, particularly in accounts of transition to modernity; and, further, the universality of the vision and experience of a particular sense of selfhood that underlies such accounts. Four processes of marriage are delineated, each representing a different emplotment of the ways in which individual and familial desires and actions are interwoven. The discussion traces through personal accounts, located in specific histories and socio-cultural settings, multiple understandings and assessments of what choice means, how desires and actions of selves, spouses, and families are fitted together, and what, if anything, love has to do with marriage.
‘Hormones is not magic wands’
Authors: Eyre Stephen L. , de Guzman Rebecca , Donovan Amy A. , Boissiere Calvin
Published: July 2004

Male-to-female transgenderism is a highly theorized but under-researched topic area which is in need of ethnographic presentation and analysis. This article offers an ethnographic report on a community of African American male-to-female transgender adolescents and young adults living in Oakland, California, seeking to shed light on the culture, language, and behavior of its members. An ethnographer entered into this transgender world, interviewing and observing interactions, including numerous gender performances in a variety of settings. The article situates transgender within various sexual/gender types, using ethnographic and linguistic data to trace the development of the transgender person and to explore issues of performance, sexuality, concealment, disclosure, and stylized ‘reading’ that are used to police femininity and add wit to the transgender repertoire.
Human Capital Development in Singapore: An Analysis of National Policy Perspectives
Authors: Osman-Gani Aahad M.
Published: July 2004

The problem and the solution. Singapore provides an interesting case study of human capital development (HCD) as national strategy. Its human resource strategies have been continuously revised and adjusted in conjunction with other national strategic economic policies. Although some studies have been done on microlevel human resource development (HRD) practices, very little research has been done on the strategic and macrolevel policy perspectives. This article presents an analysis of macrolevel HCD strategies in Singapore from a national policy perspective and describes the elements of the HRD infrastructure.
National Human Resource Development in the People’s Republic of China
Authors: Yang Baiyin , Zhang De , Zhang Mian
Published: July 2004

The problem and the solution. As a developing nation and the most populous nation in the world, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) faces unique challenges and opportunities in developing its tremendous human resources. Since its policy of “reform and open-door” was initiated in the late 1970s, China has moved steadily in establishing a nationwide policy of developing human resources. This article identifies major issues and key themes of developing human resources as a national policy with effective measures.
National Human Resource Development Policy in Kenya
Authors: Lutta-Mukhebi Mary Casina
Published: July 2004

The problem and the solution. Kenya has a long history, beginning with colonial rule and following through independence, of a lack of autonomy within its politics and economy. Add to this the shortage of resources for education, lack of a stable economy, high birth rate, and devastating impact of AIDS/HIV, and Kenya has severe problems with economic development. Its last two national development plans, however, have assigned to human resource development (HRD) a key role in improving the economic well-being of the country and its population.
National Human Resource Development in St. Lucia
Authors: Scotland Miriam
Published: July 2004

The problem and the solution. Economic and social development remains a challenge for many nations, in particular small island states such as St. Lucia and its Caribbean counterparts. Human resource development (HRD) is seen as vital to the development process. The Government of St. Lucia (GOSL) has identified education and HRD as key strategies for its development agenda. The strategy suggests a national approach to HRD. This article examines the concept of national human resource development (NHRD) on the island.
National Governance and Promising Practices in Workplace Learning: a Postindustrial Programmatic Framework in Canada
Authors: Cooper Scott
Published: July 2004

The problem and the solution. Implicitly or explicitly, the work of most human resource development (HRD) professionals contributes in some way to national purpose. Even in the private sector, a sense of national identity is not lacking in HRD products, processes, and programs, even though this phenomenon may not be readily apparent to either practitioners or researchers. Viewed through the practitioner’s lens of typical HRD interventions, national HRD (NHRD) as a construct favors a description of the historical evolution of current practices. In this article, this analysis is reversed so that national purpose and supporting policies are used as the lens to assess a possible future evolution of NHRD practices and programs in Canada that support workplace learning in a changing national context.
Policies for Employment and Higher Education in Mexico: an Approach to Human Resource Development as Policy
Authors: Rangel Ernesto
Published: July 2004

The problem and the solution. General aspects of Mexico’s policies of higher education and employment, and the gaps that occur between them, are explored with specific emphasis on the framework of the National Plans of Development for 1989-1994 and 1995-2000. The insufficiency of congruence between the policies is examined, along with recommendations for future development. Some government programs are reviewed as well to present the actual development of higher education, science and technology, and employment in the country.
What We Discovered about NHRD and What it Means for HRD
Authors: Cho Eunsang , McLean Gary N.
Published: July 2004

The problem and the solution. This issue was initiated to discover how human resource development (HRD) was being used as national policy in various countries throughout the world and what the findings would mean to our understanding of HRD. As suggested in recent exploratory research, the concept of HRD as national policy is a reality throughout the world. As we continue to explore HRD in our coursework and research, the articles in this issue will require us to think more expansively about what HRD is and how we need to partner with many other change agents to be successful in our national human resource development (NHRD) efforts.