bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Financial Liberalization and Demand for Money: A Case of Pakistan
Authors: Khan Rana Ejaz Ali , Hye Qazi Muhammad Adnan
Published: April 2013

Literature in economics has identified many channels through which the financial liberalization may affect demand for money. There are evidences of stability as well as instability of demand for money due to financial development for developing economies. The objective of the current study is to examine the effect of financial liberalization on demand for money in Pakistan, i.e. whether financial liberalization has affected the demand for money or not. The issue is important as stable demand for money function is a prerequisite for formulating and operating monetary policy. To achieve the objective JJ cointegration and auto regressive distributed lag (ARDL) to the cointegration is employed to estimate the long-run equilibrium relationship between broad money M 2 and composite financial liberalization index along with other determinants of demand for money like gross domestic product, real deposit rate and exchange rate. In order to assess the stability of the model, the parameter constancy tests, i.e. recursive residuals, CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests have been applied. The empirical results indicated that for broad money, there exists long-run money demand function. The financial liberalization, gross domestic product and real deposit rate positively affect the demand for money in the long as well as short-run.
Does Financial Development Hold the Key to Economic Growth?: The Case Of Sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: Kagochi John M. , Al Nasser Omar M. , Kebede Ellene
Published: April 2013

The paper investigates the relationship between financial development and economic growth in seven Sub-Saharan Africa countries. Using the panel Granger causality test, the study finds one-way causality running from economic growth to bank developing indicators and a two-way causality between stock market development indicators and economic growth. The fixed-effects estimation shows stock market development has positive and significant effect on economic growth while banking development indicators impact on economic growth is uncertain. Control variables including capital formation, schooling, and life expectancy have positive effect on economic growth. Based on these findings, the study suggests for adoption of policies that create favorable environment for financial market development including efforts to integrate the small capital markets.
Sub-Contracting and Efficiency of The Informal Sector In India
Authors: Bairagya Indrajit
Published: April 2013

Firms operating on production linkages through vertical integration with other firms are generally expected to possess a secured market for their output and better accessibility to inputs. We test the hypothesis whether or not the informal firms operating on contracts with formal firms/agencies/contractors are more efficient in terms of technical efficiency vis-à-vis other firms. To test the hypothesis, the paper analyzes the efficiency performance of the informal enterprises in India across enterprises of two states (selected on the basis of level of development) using two stage Data Envelopment Analysis technique. The paper uses the large sample enterprise level data of National Sample Survey Organisation. It is observed that in the developed state (Delhi) firms on contracts are less efficient, while they are more efficient in the less developed state (Orissa). The results further reveal that enforcement of regulations makes the firms more inefficient.
Do African Immigrants Enhance Their Home Nations’ Trade With Their Hosts?
Authors: Tadesse Bedassa , White Roger
Published: April 2013

Employing data on the immigrant stocks of 43 African home countries who reside in 110 host countries and on trade flows between these countries during the year 2005, we examine whether African immigrants exert positive effects on their home countries’ trade with the typical host country. Estimates from Tobit regression models indicate a one percent increase in the number of African immigrants in a given host country increases that country’s exports to and imports from the typical home country by 0.132 percent and 0.259 percent, respectively. Further evaluation of these effects from the perspective of each African home country reveals that, in several instances, immigrants do not exert positive and significant influences on trade flows. The considerable variation in the presence of pro-trade influences and the dissimilarity of estimated significant effects suggests that highly divergent immigration and trade structures among African countries may affect whether African immigrants exert pro-trade influences.
Empirical Link Between Economic Growth, Energy Consumption and CO 2 Emission in Australia
Authors: Salahuddin Mohammad , Khan Shahjahan
Published: April 2013

This study investigates the causal relationship between economic growth, energy consumption and CO 2 emission in Australia using time series data for the period of 1965–2007. Johansen cointegration technique is employed to examine the long run relationship between economic growth, energy consumption and CO 2 emission. Results suggest that there is no cointegrating relationship among the variables; economic growth, energy consumption and CO 2 emission in Australia. VAR in first differences is conducted. Generalized impulse response shows that energy consumption has a quite persistent positive impact on CO 2 emission but GDP doesn’t have any impact on it. The study also shows bi-directional causal link between energy consumption and economic growth. However there is no causal link between CO 2 emission and economic growth. Findings indicate that Australia is still in a comfortable position to pursue pro-growth policies without being over-concerned about CO 2 emission.
Monetary Policy Shocks, Output and Prices in South Africa: A Test of Policy Irrelevance Proposition
Authors: Ajilore Taiwo , Ikhide Sylvanus
Published: April 2013

The study tests the policy irrelevance proposition in the inflation targeting monetary policy environment in South Africa, as well as in the context of a dichotomy between anticipated and unanticipated policy shocks. Findings from estimates of monetary policy reaction function confirmed that an open economy implicit Taylor rule characterised the monetary policy instrument in South Africa, providing evidence that suggests that the monetary policy has, indeed, been conducted systematically on the basis of information from past inflation and the output gap. While aggregates of evidence invalidates rational expectations’ PIP proposition in South Africa, doubts exists about the capacity of inflation targeting monetary policy in curbing inflationary pressures in the economy. For policy, this study supports calls for supplementing the inflation targeting framework with targets for other real variables, such as output and employment.
Joyce’s Exile: The Prodigal Son
Authors: Kelly Joseph
Published: April 2013

The more-or-less settled version of James Joyce’s life paints him as a bohemian iconoclast who refused to conform to the conventions of responsibility demanded by middle-class society. A reconsideration of the published biographical evidence and a number of unpublished letters (now at Cornell University) exchanged with his siblings suggest that we should regard Joyce as much more conventional. The crucial years of his growth into maturity were 1903–1906, and, by the time of the infancy of his son, Giorgio, Joyce was settled into a life reflecting him as a steady, reliable, middle-class family man. Whatever rebellion he staged was more dramatic than substantive, and he surrendered it fairly quickly. Even Joyce’s abuse of alcohol has been over-emphasized, deflecting our attention from the immense familial responsibilities he undertook responsibly and with self-sacrifice. This biographical portrait supports a political interpretation of Ulysses such as that proposed recently by Declan Kiberd, who argues that Joyce promoted the principles of a well-ordered, public-minded social democracy
The Facts and Fiction Behind “the Free, the Flow, the Frothy Freshener”: The Guinness Company and the Story of Joyce’s Lost Ad
Authors: Dannen Catherine Gubernatis
Published: April 2013

In this essay, the origins of a Guinness advertisement released in 1982 claiming that James Joyce wrote an advertising slogan for Guinness stout are explored. The search for this supposed ad is recounted here, and an explanation about why Guinness would make such an assertion is examined. A thorough investigation of materials in the Guinness archives leads to the conclusion that there is no evidence to prove Joyce penned his own slogan about Guinness stout. The conclusion is that the company put the story into the public domain to create a strong relationship with Joyce in 1982. That year was one of stagnant sales and bad public relations for Guinness, so the company took advantage of the publicity generated by the centenary of Joyce’s birth to advertise its flagship product to foreign customers and to repair its relationship with the public. This marketing strategy furthered Guinness’s profitable connections between itself and the “Joyce Industry,” helped to restore the company’s image, and created a new relationship between Joyce and commodity culture, which continues to thrive today.
Joyce’s Progress Through London: Conquering the English Publishing Market
Authors: Loukopoulou Eleni
Published: April 2013

Drawing on archival research and on recent scholarship that has explored issues of modernist reputation and reception, this essay examines Joyce’s collaborations in London’s literary marketplace in materialist and economic lines. Special focus is on the key roles that T. S. Eliot, C. K. Ogden, and Herbert Hughes played in the promotion of Joyce’s work in London’s public sphere from 1929 to 1931. The essay sheds light on the publication and dissemination of extracts from Work in Progress in the form of a pamphlet and a gramophone disc, as well as on the contract for Finnegans Wake with Faber and Faber.
Joyce in England
Authors: Bowker Gordon
Published: April 2013

James Joyce’s love-hate relationship with England needs to examined more fully. The country was the oppressor of Ireland and, at the same time, through its language, an avenue of escape for the young Joyce from the claustrophobia of provincial Ireland and the narrow constraints of the Catholic religion. His love of English literature, especially that by Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and William Blake, and of the English music hall and its seaside resorts, was deeply embedded in Joyce, and his work is shot through with traces of these youthful passions. All of these aspects of Joyce’s life are worth some degree of scholarly examination.
Defending Democracy within the EU
Authors: Müller Jan-Werner
Published: April 2013

Recent illiberal turns in Hungary and Romania have prompted the question what, if anything, the EU could and should do to protect liberal democracy within Member States. The article discusses four principled concerns about democracy-saving EU interventions in Member States: that an institution which is itself largely undemocratic cannot credibly protect democracy; that there are in fact no common European standards which could be used to determine whether a Member State is departing from a shared European understanding of democracy; that interventions are per se illiberal; and, finally, that only small States will be subject to intervention, a form of EU hypocrisy which delegitimizes Brussels both in the States concerned and possibly across the EU as a whole. The article counters all these concerns and argues that the problem with intervention is not to be found at a theoretical level, but on a practical plane: as of now, the EU lacks a tool kit to intervene effectively in Member States; whatever it has recently used by way of sticks and carrots seems arbitrary or opportunistic. The article concludes by proposing a number of remedies for this situation.
Armies and Revolutions
Authors: Barany Zoltan
Published: April 2013

We know that a revolution’s success largely depends on the regular army’s response to it. But how will the military react to an uprising? Zoltan Barany argues that it is quite possible to make a highly educated guess, if not an outright prediction, about the generals’ response to a revolution if one knows enough about their army, the state it is supposed to serve, the society in which it exists, and the external environment that affects its actions. Barany’s essay gives analysts the tools—in the form of questions that they must ask and answer—that will enable them to provide the most informed assessment possible regarding the army’s likely response to a revolution and thus, ultimately, the probable fate of the revolution itself.
Southeast Asia: Sources of Regime Support
Authors: Chang Alex , Chu Yun-han , Welsh Bridget
Published: April 2013

The authors’ empirical analysis shows both commonalities and variations in the sources of regime support in Southeast Asian countries. Most regimes in the region draw political legitimacy from perceptions that their governance is effective and marked by integrity. These findings lend support to the argument that regime legitimacy—when it is won and when it is lost—is rooted in the output side of the political system. Yet delivering economic prosperity alone will not suffice. In order for political regimes in Southeast Asia to win over their people, they must control corruption, respect the rule of law, treat all citizens fairly and equally, expand public services, and be responsive to what the people need. The region’s young democracies are not exempt from these requirements.
Defunding Dissent: Restrictions on Aid to NGOs
Authors: Christensen Darin , Weinstein Jeremy M.
Published: April 2013

Recent assaults on foreign-funded civil society groups in Egypt and Russia reflect a worrisome trend: Since 2002, twenty countries have updated their laws to restrict foreign funding to NGOs. Under what conditions do governments set these restrictions in place? Using original data from nearly 100 countries and case studies of regime behavior in East Africa and the former Soviet Union, we find that vulnerable governments restrict foreign support to civil society when they feel vulnerable to domestic challenges. Yet, worries about international retaliation can restrain such behavior if governments believe that clamping down will cost them more than it is worth.
Islamists and Democracy: Cautions from Pakistan
Authors: Haqqani Husain
Published: April 2013

Success in free elections held after the “Arab Spring” protests in Tunisia and Egypt has brought Islamists to power through democratic means, and Islamist influence is on the rise throughout the Arab world. Much of the debate about liberal democracy’s future in Arab countries focuses on the extent to which the Islamists might be moderated by their inclusion in the democratic process. There is no doubt that the prospect of gaining a share of power through elections is a strong incentive that favors the tempering of extremist positions. But until the major Islamist movements give up their core ideology, their pursuit of an Islamic state is likely to impede their ability to be full and permanent participants in democratization. The real test of the Islamists’ commitment to democracy will come not while they are in power for the first time, but when they lose subsequent elections.
Lessons from Latin America: Building Institutions on Weak Foundations
Authors: Levitsky Steven , Murillo María Victoria
Published: April 2013

Abstract:
This article examines patterns of institutional change in Latin America. It argues that unlike advanced industrialized democracies, where institutions evolve gradually and wholesale change is rare, many new democracies in Latin America are characterized by serial displacement, in which constitutions, electoral rules, and other institutions change both radically and frequently. Serial displacement is a product of extreme uncertainty and frequent incongruence between formal rule-makers and real power holders, which, in turn, are a product of regime instability, electoral volatility, frequent institutional borrowing, social inequality, and rapid institutional design. The article also examines how variation in enforcement affects institutional change. It argues that limited enforcement is often a source of institutional stability, and that varying levels of enforcement can be a substantively important source of institutional change. Because the activation of formal rules via enforcement is often easier than legal change, it may provide a useful focal point for civil society activism.
Democratization Theory and the “Arab Spring”
Authors: Stepan Alfred , Linz Juan J.
Published: April 2013

More than twenty-five years have passed since the publication of Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Prospects for Democracy, the four pioneering volumes edited by Guillermo O’Donnell, Philippe C. Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead that inaugurated third-wave democratization theory. More than fifteen years have passed since the 1996 publication of our own Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe. Looking back, what do we find useable or applicable from works on democratization from this earlier period, and what concepts need to be modified? In particular, what new perspectives are needed in light of the recent upheavals in the Arab world? Here we focus on three topics that have been illuminated by the events of the Arab Spring: 1) the relationship between democracy and religion, especially in the world’s Muslim-majority countries; 2) the character of hybrid regimes that mix authoritarian and democratic elements; and 3) the nature of “sultanism” and its implications for transitions to democracy.
Lessons from Latin America: The Rise of Rentier Populism
Authors: Mazzuca Sebastián L.
Published: April 2013

Abstract:
The price boom of natural resources in the first decade of the twenty-first century has been a blessing for all South American economies. For some political regimes, however, it was an institutional curse. In Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and to a lesser extent Argentina, the commodity boom made possible the emergence of “rentier populism,” a new type of political coalition, based on the economic incorporation of the informal sector and funded by windfall gains from exports of natural resources. Based on a new fiscal structure, rentier populism in turn fostered the intensification of plebiscitarian mechanisms of vertical accountability and neutralized constraints of horizontal accountability. The chapter explores the conditions under which a common exogenous shock, the commodity boom, spread across the region with differential coalitional effects. It also delineates the mechanisms that link the rentier populism coalition to the emergence of plebiscitarian and hegemonic forms of accountability. In order to highlight old and new in rentier populism, the chapter places the coalition in historical perspective, using Guillermo O’Donnell’s earlier work on political economy as a source of contrasts and similarities. Likewise, “plebiscitarian hegemonies” are compared with delegative democracies, the key concept in O’Donnell’s later work on institutions.
Why Greece Failed
Authors: Pappas Takis S.
Published: April 2013

Seeking to offer a unified theory about Greece’s current political and economic crisis, this article unravels the particular mechanisms through which this country developed as a populist democracy, that is, a pluralist system in which both the government and the opposition parties turn populist. It furthermore shows how this democracy facilitated the political class and the vast majority in Greek society to achieve and maintain for several decades an admirably high coordination of aims enabling them to exploit the state and its resources. Seen within the theoretical framework proposed, Greece offers policy-oriented scholars crucial insights into what may go badly wrong in developed Western democracies.
Lessons from Latin America: Democratic Breakdown and Survival
Authors: Mainwaring Scott , Pérez-Liñán Aníbal
Published: April 2013

Abstract:
Why do democracies survive or break down? In this paper, we return to this classic question with an empirical focus on Latin America from 1945 to 2005. Our argument deviates from the quantitative literature and a good part of the qualitative literature on democratic survival and breakdown. We argue that structural variables such as the level of development and inequalities have not shaped prospects for democratic survival in Latin America. Nor, contrary to findings in some of the literature, has economic performance affected the survival of competitive regimes. Instead, we focus on the regional political environment and on actors’ normative preferences about democracy and dictatorship and their policy radicalism or moderation. We argue that 1) a higher level of development did not increase the likelihood of democratic survival in Latin America over this long time; 2) if actors have a normative preference for democracy, it is more likely to survive; and 3) policy moderation facilitates democratic survival.
Air War, Propaganda, and Woolf’s Anti-Tyranny Aesthetic
Authors: Evans Elizabeth F.
Published: April 2013

This essay examines Virginia Woolf’s negotiation of political and aesthetic commitments in the 1930s, reassessing her revisions of The Years away from explicit political critique in the context of the Woolfs’ trip to Germany, the release of Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will , and the bombing of Madrid during the Spanish Civil War. Tracing a homology between a literal aerial perspective, a totalizing narrative voice, political propaganda, and despotism, this essay argues that Woolf embedded her critique of tyranny within the novel’s form. With two narrative perspectives, the novel undercuts the allure of totalizing knowledge without itself propagandizing.
“I just took it straight from Vogue ”: Fashion, Femininity, and Literary Modernity in Rosamond Lehmann’s Invitation to the Waltz
Authors: Plock Vike Martina
Published: April 2013

This article analyzes fashion as a discursive force in Rosamond Lehmann’s novel Invitation to the Waltz . Through a reading of Lehmann’s novel alongside fashion magazines, it demonstrates that 1920s fashion, in spite of its carefully stylized public image as harbinger of modernity, was complicit in propagating patriarchal norms. However, if Invitation opposes the cultural machinery that regulates gender roles in post-war Britain, its formal appearance is nonetheless dependent on the very same tenets it criticizes since the novel reveals resemblances to Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse . If the tension between imitation and originality determines choices in sartorial fashions, female authorship in the inter-war period, this essay argues, was subjected to the same market forces that controlled and sustained the organization of the fashion industry.
“They ain’t human”: John Steinbeck, Proletarian Fiction, and the Racial Politics of “The People”
Authors: Godfrey Mollie
Published: April 2013

This essay argues that the humanism professed by many Popular Front writers was part of a tactical attempt to make Marxist propaganda both more effective and more responsive to the unique challenges of American racial and cultural politics. Thus, if John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1939) seems calculated to resonate with a white, middle-class audience, this is not because Steinbeck’s humanism was covertly racist and bourgeois, but because he deliberately used humanism to correct readers’ previously-held sympathies with racist and bourgeois ideologies.
Alien Enemies in Julie Otsuka’s When the Emperor Was Divine
Authors: Park Josephine
Published: April 2013

This essay explores a recent reimagination of Japanese internment in order to suggest a way of understanding Asian American subjects as something more than immigrants: they are enemies. Julie Otsuka’s 2002 novel When the Emperor Was Divine subjects an unnamed, typical American family to military detention, evacuation, and forced incarceration. Compelled to identify with Enemy Japan, the members of the family transform into alien, treacherous beings. My reading focuses on small expressions of allegiance to Emperor Hirohito, who becomes a dangerous and tantalizing figure of desire in the novel.
“Who worked this evil, brought distance between us?”: The Politics of Sexual Interaction in Sylvia Wynter’s The Hills of Hebron
Authors: Harrison Sheri-Marie
Published: April 2013

This essay argues that the depiction of sexual relationships across racial and heteronormative lines in Sylvia Wynter’s The Hills of Hebron challenges the raced and gendered priorities of existing postcolonial critical discourse and presents a more useful way of exploring the problems of sovereignty and the processes of creating sovereign selves and communities in postemancipation contexts.
“After us, not out of us”: Wrestling with the Future in D. H. Lawrence’s Women in Love
Authors: Rosinberg Erwin
Published: April 2013

I argue that Women in Love , despite its air of apocalyptic defeatism, offers D. H. Lawrence’s most intense engagement with the problem of how to imagine the future. Lawrence’s tenuous hope for a world that does not repeat the oppressive patterns of normativity is communicated, surprisingly, through the figure of the couple—often a site of stinging critique for Lawrence—and ultimately hinges upon an unresolved tension between heterosexual and same-sex coupling. Far from being extinguished in the novel’s pages, the project of creating a new future for the couple is passed along to the reader to pursue.
Library Use and Undergraduate Student Outcomes: New Evidence for Students’ Retention and Academic Success
Authors: Soria Krista M. , Fransen Jan , Nackerud Shane
Published: April 2013

Academic libraries, like other university departments, are being asked to demonstrate their value to the institution. This study discusses the impact library usage has on the retention and academic success of first-time, first-year undergraduate students at a large, public research university. Usage statistics were gathered at the University of Minnesota during the Fall 2011 semester for thirteen library access points. Analysis of the data suggests first-time, first-year undergraduate students who use the library have a higher GPA for their first semester and higher retention from fall to spring than non-library users.
Google vs. the Library: Student Preferences and Perceptions When Doing Research Using Google and a Federated Search Tool
Authors: Georgas Helen
Published: April 2013

Federated searching was once touted as the library world’s answer to Google, but ten years since federated searching technology’s inception, how does it actually compare? This study focuses on undergraduate student preferences and perceptions when doing research using both Google and a federated search tool. Students were asked about their preferences using each search tool and the perceived relevance of the sources they found using each search tool. Students were also asked to self-assess their online searching skills. The findings show that students believe they possess strong searching skills, are able to find relevant sources using both search tools, but actually prefer the federated search tool to Google for doing research. Thus, despite federated searching’s limitations, students see the need for it, libraries should continue to offer federated search (especially if a discovery search tool is not available), and librarians should focus on teaching students how to use federated search and Google more effectively.
E-books in Academic Libraries: Challenges for Acquisition and Collection Management
Authors: Walters William H.
Published: April 2013

This bibliographic essay examines the difficulties associated with the selection, licensing, acquisition, and management of e-books in academic libraries. The potential advantages of e-book technology are likely to be realized only to the extent that they advance the economic goals of e-book suppliers and are consistent with the legal framework that has been negotiated by publishers, vendors, libraries, and readers. Many difficulties can be traced to a lack of uniformity in license terms, access restrictions, and librarians’ expectations. Likewise, sustainable access to e-books is hindered by impermanent physical media, proprietary file formats and software, and restrictive license provisions. Although the goals of e-book providers are sometimes inconsistent with those of universities, librarians are well-positioned to guide vendors in the development of e-book licenses and platforms.
Analyzing Demographics: Assessing Library Use Across the Institution
Authors: Nackerud Shane , Fransen Jan , Peterson Kate , Mastel Kristen
Published: April 2013

In Fall 2011, staff at the University of Minnesota Libraries-Twin Cities undertook a project to measure how often, and in what ways, students used the Libraries’ services. Partnering with the University’s Office of Institutional Research, the team investigated ways to match library service usage to individual accounts while retaining patron privacy to determine who was – and was not – using the library. With complete data sets, the group was able to determine overall usage rates for undergraduate and graduate students and compare how students in different colleges used library services. This article discusses data gathering techniques, analysis, and initial findings.
A Stronger Reason for the Right to Sign Languages
Authors: Trovato Sara
Published: April 2013

Is the right to sign language only the right to a minority language? Holding a capability (not a disability) approach, and building on the psycholinguistic literature on sign language acquisition, I make the point that this right is of a stronger nature, since only sign languages can guarantee that each deaf child will properly develop the linguistic and cognitive potentialities with whom (s)he is endowed at birth. So, the right to sign language is also the right to the integrity of the person.
Coordinating the Chain of Utterances: An Analysis of Communicative Flow and Turn Taking in an Interpreted Group Dialogue for Deaf-Blind Persons
Authors: Berge Sigrid Slettebakk , Raanes Eli
Published: April 2013

This article explains how interpreters for deaf-blind people co ordinate and express turn-taking signals in an interpreted dialogue. Empirical materials are derived from a video-ethnographic study of an interpreted-mediated board meeting with five deaf-blind participants. The results show that the interpreters provide access to visual and auditory signals for orientation and attention, exchange miniresponse signals, and actively take part in the negotiation of turns. As a result of these action patterns, a sequential order of interaction is established in the dialogue, and despite their inability to see or hear one another, the board members participate actively, and communication flows.
Eye Gaze in Creative Sign Language
Authors: Kaneko Michiko , Mesch Johanna
Published: April 2013

This article discusses the role of eye gaze in creative sign language. Because eye gaze conveys various types of linguistic and poetic information, it is an intrinsic part of sign language linguistics in general and of creative signing in particular. We discuss various functions of eyegaze in poetic signing and propose a classification of gaze behaviors based on the observation of a number of poems in British Sign Language and Swedish Sign Language.
The Sign INSTITUTE and Its Derivatives: A Family of Culturally Important ASL Signs
Authors: Kowalsky Jilly , Meier Richard P.
Published: April 2013

The sign INSTITUTE is the source of a family of ASL signs that are used to refer to residential schools for deaf children and to other institutions. The members of the INSTITUTE sign family—although initialized—are well-established within the Deaf community and, importantly, are used to refer to highly-valued aspects of Deaf culture. This is true despite the fact that initialized signs are sometimes rejected within the Deaf community. We examine the etymology of the sign INSTITUTE and suggest two plausible hypotheses for its origin. In analyzing the etymology of the sign INSTITUTE and its derivatives, we consider historical changes in how state residential schools for deaf children were named in the United States.
Identifying Recurring Depiction in ASL Presentations
Authors: Thumann Mary
Published: April 2013

By using depiction, language users are able to provide information about what an entity or event is like, what it looks like, or even what it acts like. When giving a presentation, signers may use and reuse instances of depiction and may switch from one instance to another. In an examination of 160 minutes of video of American Sign Language (ASL) presentations, the presenters averaged twenty instances of depiction (of varying lengths) per minute. The high occurrence of depiction in these ASL presentations suggests that it is necessary to be able to recognize depiction in ASL discourse. In this article I introduce the term depiction as it relates to ASL, provide examples, and report on changes that aid in identifying depiction, particularly recurring depiction, in ASL presentations. I describe my analysis of the nonmanual changes (e.g., change in direction of eye gaze) that occur just prior to and at the onset of depiction and also discuss manual changes.
Individual Optimal Frequency in Whole-Body Vibration: Effect of Protocol, Joint Angle, and Fatiguing Exercise
Authors: Carlucci Flaminia , Felici Francesco , Piccinini Alberto , Haxhi Jonida , Sacchetti Massimo
Published: April 2013

Carlucci, F, Felici, F, Piccinini, A, Haxhi, J, and Sacchetti, M. Individual optimal frequency in whole-body vibration: effect of protocol, joint angle, and fatiguing exercise.J Strength Cond Res30(12): 3503–3511, 2016—Recent studies have shown the importance of individualizing the vibration intervention to produce greater effects on the neuromuscular system in less time. The purpose of this study was to assess the individual optimal vibration frequency (OVF) corresponding to the highest muscle activation (RMSmax) during vibration at different frequencies, comparing different protocols. Twenty-nine university students underwent 3 continuous (C) and 2 random (R) different vibrating protocols, maintaining a squat position on a vibration platform. The C protocol lasted 50 seconds and involved the succession of ascending frequencies from 20 to 55 Hz, every 5 seconds. The same protocol was performed twice, having the knee angle at 120° (C) and 90° (C90), to assess the effect of joint angle and after a fatiguing squatting exercise (CF) to evaluate the influence of fatigue on OVF assessment. In the random protocols, vibration time was 20 seconds with a 2-minute (R2) and a 4-minute (R4) pauses between tested frequencies. Muscle activation and OVF values did not differ significantly in the C, R2, and R4 protocols. RMSmaxwas higher in C90 (p< 0.001) and in CF (p= 0.04) compared with the C protocol. Joint angle and fatiguing exercise had no effect on OVF. In conclusion, the shorter C protocol produced similar myoelectrical activity in the R2 and the R4 protocols, and therefore, it could be equally valid in identifying the OVF with considerable time efficiency. Knee joint angle and fatiguing exercise had an effect on surface electromyography response during vibration but did not affect OVF identification significantly.
Mutational analyses of epidermal growth factor receptor and downstream pathways in adrenocortical carcinoma
Authors: Hermsen Ilse G C , Haak Harm R , de Krijger Ronald R , Kerkhofs Thomas M A , Feelders Richard A , de Herder Wouter W , Wilmink Hanneke , Smit Jan W A , Gelderblom Hans , de Miranda Noel F C C , van Eijk Ronald , van Wezel Tom , Morreau Hans
Published: April 2013

Background

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare disease with a poor prognosis and limited therapeutic options. Mitotane is considered the standard first-line therapy with only 30% of the patients showing objective tumour response. Defining predictive factors for response is therefore of clinical importance.

 The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has been implicated in the development of one-third of all malignancies. EGFR pathway members in ACC have been investigated, however, without available clinical data and relation to survival.

Methods

In this study, mutation status of EGFR and downstream signalling pathways was evaluated in 47 ACC patients on mitotane using direct sequencing, a TaqMan allele-specific assay and immunohistochemistry. Archival formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumour tissue was used for all analyses. Patient data were obtained anonymously, after coupling with the collected tumour tissue.

Results

One BRAF, two EGFR TK domain (c.2590G>A, p.864A>T) and 11 TP53, but no PIK3CA or KRAS, mutations were found. No relationship was found between mutation status, immunostaining and mitotane response or survival.

Conclusion

In conclusion, our data suggest that the role of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors in ACC is limited. Treatment with EGFR monoclonal antibodies on the other hand might be beneficial for a larger group of patients. The possible efficacy of this therapy in ACC should be evaluated in future trials.
Condutividade elétrica da solução nutritiva e acúmulo de macro e micronutrientes no cultivo de crisântemo
Authors: Mota Poliana Rocha D'Almeida , Fiorim Aline Cristina Rossi , Bôas Roberto Lyra Villas , Folegatti Marcos Vinícius , Ludwig Fernanda , Silva Marcos Emanuel Araujo da
Published: April 2013

A análise de crescimento com base no acúmulo de fitomassa e na marcha de absorção de nutrientes são importantes para determinar as épocas da maior demanda nutricional, de modo a programar a fertirrigação. Assim, esta pesquisa tem como objetivo determinar o crescimento e o acúmulo de nutrientes em plantas de crisântemo desenvolvidas em diferentes níveis de condutividade elétrica (CE) da solução nutritiva. Realizou-se experimento em casa de vegetação, utilizando o delineamento de blocos casualizados com cinco tratamentos e quatro repetições. Os tratamentos corresponderam aos níveis de CE da solução aplicada, com valores de 1,42; 1,65; 1,89; 2,13 e 2,36 dS m¹(fase vegetativa) e 1,71; 1,97; 2,28; 2,57 e 2,85 dS m¹(fase de botão). Após o enraizamento das estacas, determinou-se a fitomassa seca da parte aérea e realizou-se a análise química dos macronutrientes e micronutrientes a cada quatorze dias. Os nutrientes tiveram a seguinte ordem de absorção: K>N>Ca>P>Mg>S (1425, 892, 184, 150, 110 e 59 mg planta¹ )e Fe>Zn>B>Mn>Cu (2254, 2219, 1725, 1287,210 µg planta¹). Grande parte dos nutrientes tem seu teor aumentado com a elevação do nível da CE da solução, sem que haja efeito salino até a CE de 2,85 dS m¹
Sensibilidade e especificidade do diagnóstico clínico, sorológico e tomográfico da encefalite por Toxoplasma gondii na Síndrome da Imunodeficiência Adquirida (SIDA)
Authors: Wainstein Marco V. , Wolffenbuttel Luciano , Lopes Demetrius K. , González Helena E. , Golbspan Liane , Ferreira Lisiane , Sprinz Eduardo , Kronfeld Matias , Edelweiss Maria I.
Published: April 2013

A encefalite por Toxoplasma gondii (ET) é a principal causa de massa no sistema nervoso central (SNC) em pacientes com a síndrome da imunodeficiência adquirida (SIDA). Com o objetivo de determinar a prevalência dessa afecção e da presença de anticorpos específicos no soro e no líquor, bem como a sensibilidade (S) e a especificidade (E) da tomografia computadorizada (TC), dos achados clínicos e dos testes específicos foram revisados todos os prontuários de 516 pacientes com SIDA, internados no HCPA entre maio/85 e dezembro/91. A prevalência através de TC foi de 13% (diagnóstico presuntivo). A pesquisa de anticorpos específicos para toxoplasmose por imunofluorescência indireta no sangue (SS) foi positiva em 65% e no líquor (SL) em 49% dos pacientes em que foi realizada. Necrópsias de 125 pacientes foram revisadas encontrando-se uma prevalência de ET em 27 (22%) casos, em que o diagnóstico foi considerado definitivo. A sensibilidade da TC foi de 65% e a especificidade de 82%. A SS apresentou S de 95% e E de 30%, enquanto a SL apresentou uma S de 77% e E de 56%. Os seguintes achados clínicos foram pesquisados: febre (S=92%; E=56%); sinais neurológicos focais (S=59%; E=82%) e cefaléia (S=41 %; E=69%). Concluímos que é alta a prevalência da ET na SIDA e que a TC e a pesquisa de anticorpos específicos no soro e no líquor, devido à alta especificidade da primeira e a alta sensibilidade da segunda, constituem-se em métodos adequados para o diagnóstico da ET, sendo discutível a necessidade de realizar biópsia cerebral nesses casos.
Antimeasles antibodies in children submitted to different vaccination schedules
Authors: Oliveira Solange Artimos de , Homma Akira , Camillo-Coura Léa , Loureiro Maria Lucília P. , Almeida Maria Teresa G. N. de
Published: April 2013

ln order to study the measles antibody behavior of three vaccination schedules, 684 children were divided into 4 Groups: Group A (341 vaccinated children under the age of one); Group B (101 children at the age of one); Group C (74 children under the age of one and one at the age of one); Group D (163 unvaccinated children with a history of measles in the past - Group control). Children of Group A presented lower rates and 25.9% of the age group under two did not show any measles antibodies. In Group B, all the children presented antibodies. In Group C onby 4.0% did not. In all age groups, the geometric mean HI antibody titers of Group A were lower than the valuesfound in the other groups. The age at vaccination was the factor of greater influence on the results of this study.
Aspectos clínicos, sociais e trabalhistas da doença de Chagas em área endêmica sob controle do Estado de Minas Gerais, Brasil
Authors: Dias João Carlos Pinto
Published: April 2013

Candidatos a emprego em construção civil na região de Bambuí, MG, submeteram-se a sorologia para doença de Chagas, eletrocardiograma e Rx de tórax e esôfago. De 301 candidatos recentes uma prevalência de 11,6% de infecção chagásica foi detectada, sendo 5,0% no grupo etário de 18-29 anos, 13,8% no de 30-39 e 39,4% no de 40 anos e acima. A ocorrência de ECGs alterados foi de 31,3% no grupo soropositivo contra 7,1% nos soronegativos (p < 0,05) enquanto o aumento de área cardíaca foi de 8,6% e de 1,5% (p < 0,05) e alteração no trânsito esofágico de 8,6% e 0,8% (p < 0,05) respectivamente. Chagásicos e não-chagásicos provinham das mesmas regiões, sendo os grupos comparáveis quanto a origem rural, morte súbita na família, doação e recepção de sangue. O grupo chagásico apresentou significativamente maior proporção de indivíduos com antecedentes de trabalho na lavoura (48,6% contra 19,5%) e de indivíduos analfabetos ou com primário incompleto (43,8% contra 19,5%), frente aos não-chagásicos. Os detalhamentos da pesquisa indicam que o contínuo controle do vetor na região tem sido extremamente eficaz, com impacto sobre a prevalência e a morbidade da esquizotripanose. Por outro lado, indicam que os mecanismos transfusional e congênito de transmissão do Trypanosoma cruzi ao homem continuam a apresentar importância mínima na área pesquisada.
Leishmaniose cutânea disseminada produzida por Leishmania viannia braziliensis no Estado do Maranhão - Brasil
Authors: Galvão Cloves Eduardo S. , Silva Ana Carla M. , Saldanha Ana Cristina R. , Silva Conceição Maria P. , Costa Maria do Rosário da S. R. , Costa Jackson Maurício L.
Published: April 2013

Os autores relatam o caso de um paciente procedente do Município de Barreirinhas, MA, portador de leishmaniose cutânea disseminada, que apresentava 58 lesões distribuídas pelo corpo, sob os mais variados aspectos com predominância da lesão ulcerada. Discutem a dificuldade do diagnóstico laboratorial na fase inicial da investigação e suas implicações com a terapêutica. O parasita isolado e caracterizado pela técnica de anticorpos monoclonais foi a Leishmania viannia braziliensis. Esta forma da doença é diferente da leishmaniose cutânea difusa, encontrada no Maranhão, cujo agente etiológico é a Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis, responsável pela grande maioria dos casos de leishmaniose tegumentar naquele Estado. Os possíveis mecanismos de disseminação das lesões são também discutidos neste trabalho.
Avaliaçao do efeito do extrato de casca de cajueiro-branco (Anacardium occidentale L.) Sobre A infecção por Leishmania (Viannia) brasiliensis
Authors: França Flávio , Cuba César A.C. , Moreira Eduardo A. , Miguel Obdúlio , Almeida Marcos , Virgens Maria de L. das , Marsden Philip D.
Published: April 2013

Este trabalho apresenta uma avaliação do efeito terapêutico do extrato hidroalcólico da casca de Anacardium occidentale L sobre a Leishmania (Viannia) brasiliensis. No modelo in vitro o extrato vegetal mostrou-se ativo contra promastigotas do parasita, contrastando com o modelo in vivo, onde não se observou qualquer atividade curativa.
Linfadenopatias na leishmaniose tegumentar americana: considerações sobre dois casos
Authors: Moraes Mário A. P. , Correia Filho Dalmo , Santos João Barberino
Published: April 2013

Em dois pacientes, com suspeita clínica de linfoma ou escrofuloderma - por apresentarem linfadenopatias cervicais importantes o estudo dos linfonodos removidos para exame histológico revelou um processo necrótico-granulomatoso e a presença de leishmanias (amastigotas) no interior de macrófagos. Lesões cutâneas ou em membranas mucosas, características da leishmaniose tegumentar americana, não foram percebidas, embora um dos pacientes viesse posteriormente a desenvolvê-las, como provável efeito de tratamento para toxoplasmose. O achado fundamenta a suspeita de que os agentes da doença, após penetrarem no organismo do hospedeiro, podem alojar-se em órgãos do sistema monocítico-fagocitário, aí permanecendo durante muito tempo, talvez mesmo por toda a vida do indivíduo infectado. Eventualmente, sob a ação de fatores diversos, capazes de afetar a resistência do hospedeiro, migrariam os parasitos para a pele ou as mucosas, determinando lesões secundárias ou de reativação.
O vírus da hepatite B na doença hepática alcoólica: avaliação clínica e bioquímica
Authors: Lacet Celina M.C. , Strauss Edna
Published: April 2013

Foram estudados prospectiva e seqüencialmente 107 pacientes com doença hepática alcoólica (DHA) crônica, sendo 83 casos de cirrose e 24de hepatite alcoólica. Além do etilismo, ingestão mínima de 70 gramas de etanol puro ao dia por período superior a sete anos, todos apresentaram disfunção hepatocelular. De acordo com o perfil sorológico para o VHB os pacientes foram alocados em quatro grupos a saber: grupo I infectados: AgHBs e anti-HBc positivos; grupo II imunes: anti-HBs e anti-HBc positivos; grupo III sem marcadores do VHB: AgHBs, anti-HBc e anti-HBs negativos; grupo IV anti-HBc positivo isoladamente. A prevalência de infecção pelo VHB na DHA foi alta: 42,06% apesar dos índices pouco elevados de imunidade: 26,17% sugerindo que na DHA ocorre maior exposição ao VHB com resposta imunológica deficiente. A análise dos parâmetros clínico-bioquímicos, quando considerados isoladamente, não mostrou diferenças estatisticamente significantes entre os grupos I, II, e III, entretanto a classificação de Child/Campbell, discriminou o grupo infectado, onde houve predomínio da classe C, de pior prognóstico.
Evolução da resistencia in vitro do Plasmodium falciparum a antimaláricos em área de prospecção de ouro no Estado do Amapá, entre 1983 e 1990
Authors: Couto A.A. , Calvosa V.S. , Lima J.E. , Souza J.M.
Published: April 2013

Este estudo avalia a evolução da sensibilidade in vitro do Plasmodium falciparum em uma área de prospecção de ouro no Estado do Amapá no período de 1983 a 1990. Foram efetuados 75 testes para cloroquina e quinino, 74 para amodiaquina e 76 para mefloquina. Os resultados revelaram 81% de resistência à cloroquina e 27% para a amodiaquina, enquanto que para quinino e mefloquina não foram evidenciadas cepas resistentes. Contudo, para estas duas últimas drogas identificou-se uma crescente perda da sensibilidade ao longo do tempo. Aparentemente observa-se uma associação entre resistência à cloroquina e a diminuição da sensibilidade ao quinino.