bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Epidemiology of lower limb fractures in general practice in the United Kingdom
Authors: Kaye J A , Jick H
Published: December 2004

Study objective:To estimate the incidence of lower limb fractures in the United Kingdom and assess the relative importance of various risk factors for lower limb fractures.

Design:Cohort analysis and matched case-control study.

Setting:General practices contributing information to the General Practice Research Database.

Subjects:Individuals registered with these general practices who were at risk for a first time lower limb fracture from 1 January1990 to 31 December 2001.

Main outcome measures:Age, sex, and fracture site specific incidence rates; relative risks and population attributable risks for various medical risk factors.

Results:Overall, the risk of lower limb fracture was 17% higher in women then in men. Within age groups, men and women had generally similar proportions of fractures at specific sites in the lower limb. Among the risk factors evaluated, road collisions were associated with the highest relative risk for lower limb fracture, but only accounted for 3.1% or less of the population attributable risk for specific fracture types in any age group. The relative risk for lower limb fracture associated with a diagnosis of dementia was 2.3 (95% confidence interval 2.0 to 2.6), while relative risk estimates for other medical diagnoses were less than 2. Fracture risk was increased among current users of corticosteroids, antipsychotics, antidepressants, and hypnotic/sedatives, but the population attributable risks for each of these drug classes within fracture and age specific strata were only 3.0% or less.

Conclusions:Many risk factors for lower limb fracture have been identified, but population attributable risk estimates for various risk factors are small. These findings suggest that multifactorial prevention programs are needed to decrease the incidence of lower limb fractures in the general population.
Power loss and radiated field from microwave microstrip floating lines in resonance
Authors: Siakavara K , Koukouliantas K , Kouraklis P
Published: December 2004

Undesirable radiation from microstrip floating lines and discontinuities in printed circuit boards' circuits when they are under resonance is one of the serious problems that may affect the operation of the circuit and interfere with the operation of adjacent circuits as well. In the present work, an effort is made to calculate the power loss and the radiated field of a signal transmitted into various microstrip structures when it meets discontinuities and floating lines in resonance. The full-wave technique is used for the analysis and the results obtained give useful information about the values of the structure parameters for which the level of power loss becomes less. PACS Nos.: 84.40.Az, 84.40.Dc
Zeros of the wave functions of general polynomial potentials
Authors: Nanayakkara Asiri
Published: December 2004

Analytic formulae for the moments of zeros of the wave function of the general polynomial potential V(x) = α MzM + αM1zM1 + αM2zM2 +...+ α1z are derived. Since the coefficients αM, α M1,...α1 can be either real or complex constants, these formulae are valid for both Hermitian and non-Hermitian PT-symmetric (P  parity operator and T  time reversal operator) systems. These analytic formulae for the moments can be used to obtain polynomials, the roots of which are the zeros of the corresponding wave functions. The formulae derived here contain parameters of the potential αM, αM1, ...α1 explicitly and locations of zeros can be calculated very efficiently with them.PACS Nos.: 3.65.w, 3.65.Ge, 3.65.Sq, 4.25.g
Nonlinear instability of two dielectric viscoelastic fluids
Authors: Moatimid Galal M
Published: December 2004

A weakly nonlinear interfacial wave propagating between two dielectric fluids and influenced by an oblique electric field is studied. The analysis considers the surface tension and viscoelastic effects. Due to the presence of streaming and viscoelasticity, a mathematical simplification is considered. The viscoelastic contribution is demonstrated through the boundary conditions. Therefore, the equations of motion are solved in the absence of the viscoelastic effects. The solutions of the linearized equations of motion under the nonlinear boundary conditions lead to a nonlinear characteristic equation governing the surface evolution. This equation is accomplished by utilizing cubic nonlinearity. Taylor theory is adopted to expand the characteristic nonlinear equation in the light of the multiple-scales technique. The perturbation analysis produces two levels of the solvability conditions, which are used to construct the GinzburgLandau equation. Stability criteria are discussed both theoretically and computationally in which stability diagrams are obtained. Under appropriate data choices, we can recover some reported works as limiting cases. The effects of the orientation of the electric fields on the stability configuration in linear as well as nonlinear approaches are discussed. PACS Nos.: 47.65.+a, 47.20.k, 47.50.+d
Gravitational effects from earthquakes
Authors: Hayes T J , Valluri S R , Mansinha L
Published: December 2004

Two types of propagating gravitational effects, from the mass redistribution within the Earth due to a large earthquake, are investigated: (i) the velocity of the change of the Newtonian potential field; and (ii) the gravitational luminosity of the seismic source. The mass redistribution caused by an earthquake and the resulting change in the gravitational potential field is computed through application of geophysical dislocation theory. The global mass redistribution is postulated to be progressive, starting at the instant (and location) of the nucleation of the earthquake fault rupture, and then spreading globally at the velocities of various seismic waves. Information about the changes of the gravitational potential is postulated to travel at the velocity of light. Superconducting gravimeters (SG) can resolve changes of the order of 10 nGal, i.e., (109 cm/s2) (1 Gal = 0.001 0197g), sufficient to detect the changes in the potential field. The time difference between observation of the change of the potential field and the arrival of the primary seismic wave from the earthquake would allow a crude estimation of the velocity of the gravitational effect. A preliminary search for the preseismic gravitational signal using an SG has given inconclusive results, primarily due to the limitations of the spline curve fitting methods. Despite this, we suggest that the observation of preseismic gravitational potential changes should be feasible, with the existing array of SGs in the Global Geodynamics Project (GGP) network, and by detectors designed to observe gravitational radiation (e.g., the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO)). We have used published values of the changes in the Earth's inertia tensor due to the Alaska earthquake of 1964 to estimate the magnitude of the metric perturbation of the gravitational wave produced by such an earthquake. The gravitational luminosity is estimated at 1.90 × 1010erg/s (1 erg/s = 107 W =  1 J/s). PACS Nos.: 95.55.Ym, 04.80.Nn, 91.30.Px
Magnetoelasticity and the spin rotation transition in cobalt
Authors: Steinitz Michael O , MacLeod G Shane , Pink David A , Quinn Bonnie , Ryan Gillian L
Published: December 2004

We study the spin reorientation process in cobalt using capacitance dilatometric measurements of the strain along the a- and c-axes of a single crystal and then apply a phenomenological theory of magnetostrictive interactions together with a theory of spin reorientation. We find no evidence of singularities in the behaviour at either of the temperatures at the beginning and end of this process. We calculate the temperature dependence of the magnetoelastic fourth-order single-ion anisotropy coefficient K4, and draw attention to the importance of higher order terms in the anisotropy. PACS Nos.: 74.25.Ha, 75.30.Gw, 75.50.Cc, 75.80.+q
Sodium nitrate -- a difficult discontinuous phase transition
Authors: Steinitz Michael O , Pink David A , Clancy J Patrick , MacDonald A Nicole , Swainson Ian
Published: December 2004

Capacitance dilatometry was used to measure the relative thermal expansivity, ΔL/L0, of single crystals of sodium nitrate (NaNO3) as a function of temperature. From these measurements, the phase transition at Tf = 550 K shows characteristics of a discontinuous transition. A theory based on the competition between long-range interactions and the entropy gained by rotating NO3 groups at high temperatures predicts a discontinuous transition at T = Tf with ΔL/L0 ∼ (Tf  T)ζ with ζ = 1. Our measurements yield ζ ≈ 1. PACS Nos.: 23.23.+x, 56.65.Dy
QUANTUM GAUGE BOSON PROPAGATORS IN THE LIGHT FRONT
Authors: SUZUKI A. T. , SALES J. H. O.
Published: December 2004

Gauge fields in the light front are traditionally addressed via the employment of an algebraic condition n·A=0 in the Lagrangian density, where Aμ is the gauge field (Abelian or non-Abelian) and nμ is the external, light-like, constant vector which defines the gauge proper. However, this condition though necessary is not sufficient to fix the gauge completely; there still remains a residual gauge freedom that must be addressed appropriately. To do this, we need to define the condition (n·A)(∂·A)=0 with n·A=0=∂·A. The implementation of this condition in the theory gives rise to a gauge boson propagator (in momentum space) leading to conspicuous nonlocal singularities of the type (k·n)-α where α=1,2. These singularities must be conveniently treated, and by convenient we mean not only mathemathically well-defined but physically sound and meaningful as well. In calculating such a propagator for one and two noncovariant gauge bosons those singularities demand from the outset the use of a prescription such as the Mandelstam–Leibbrandt (ML) one. We show that the implementation of the ML prescription does not remove certain pathologies associated with zero modes. However we present a causal, singularity-softening prescription and show how to keep causality from being broken without the zero mode nuisance and letting only the propagation of physical degrees of freedom.
LOOP VARIABLES AND GAUGE INVARIANCE IN CLOSED BOSONIC STRING THEORY
Authors: SATHIAPALAN B.
Published: December 2004

We extend an earlier proposal for a gauge-invariant description of off-shell open strings (at tree level), using loop variables, to off-shell closed strings (at tree level). The basic idea is to describe the closed string amplitudes as a product of two open string amplitudes (using the technique of Kawai, Lewellen and Tye). The loop variable techniques that were used earlier for open strings can be applied here mutatis mutandis. It is a proposal for a theory whose on-shell amplitudes coincide with those of the closed bosonic string in 26 dimensions. It is also gauge-invariant off-shell. As was the case with the open string, the interacting closed string looks like a free closed string thickened to a band.
LEPTON POLARIZATION IN NEUTRINO–NUCLEON INTERACTIONS
Authors: KUZMIN KONSTANTIN S. , LYUBUSHKIN VLADIMIR V. , NAUMOV VADIM A.
Published: December 2004

We derive generic formulas for the polarization density matrix of leptons produced in νN and [Formula: see text] collisions and briefly consider some important particular cases. Next we employ the general formalism in order to include the final lepton mass and spin into the popular model by Rein and Sehgal for single pion neutrinoproduction.
COMPARISON OF TYPE-2 FUZZY VALUES WITH SATISFACTION FUNCTION
Authors: LEE SEUNGSOO , LEE KWANG H. , LEE DOHEON
Published: December 2004

A comparison method for discrete type-2 fuzzy values is proposed in this paper. The proposed method is based on the concept of the satisfaction function that handles the ambiguity in fuzzy comparisons using the possibility distribution of actual values. Some properties of the proposed comparison method are analyzed as well.
FUZZY LINEAR REGRESSION ANALYSIS FROM THE POINT OF VIEW RISK
Authors: MODARRES MOHAMMAD , NASRABADI EBRAHIM , NASRABADI MOHAMMAD MEHDI
Published: December 2004

In this paper, fuzzy linear regression models with fuzzy/crisp output, fuzzy/crisp input are considered. In this regard, we define risk-neutral, risk-averse and risk-seeking fuzzy linear regression models. In order to do that, two equality indices are applied to express the degree of equality between a pair of fuzzy numbers. We also develop three mathematical models to obtain the parameters of fuzzy linear regression models. Minimizing the difference between the total spread of the observed and estimated values is the objective of these models. The advantage of our proposed models is the simplicity in programming and computation.
Careering alone: Careers and social capital in the financial services and television industries
Authors: Tempest Sue , McKinlay Alan , Starkey Ken
Published: December 2004

The relationship between career and social capital is an important but relatively unexplored research topic. In this article, we draw on the literatures on social capital and careers, and on empirical studies of the shifting nature of careers in financial services and television production firms, to argue that, in labour markets where key skills are in short supply, the concept of social capital constitutes a rich resource for understanding the implications of changing forms of organization. We argue that social capital has a particularly important impact on an organization’s ability to leverage knowledge and is, thus, of strategic significance. The ability to manage social capital might, therefore, prove to be a major management competence. Use of the social capital concept gives us an important insight into the changing nature of careers and organizations.
To Transform the Revolution into an Evolution: Underlying Assumptions of German Foreign Policy toward Soviet Russia, 1919-27
Authors: Cameron J. David
Published: December 2004

During the 1920s, the German Foreign Office looked to Russia as an important diplomatic partner in its efforts to revise the Versailles settlement. The radical nature of the Bolshevik regime, however, complicated Berlin’s efforts to build a close relationship with Moscow. Ultimately, Berlin believed that Soviet Russia would evolve away from Bolshevism and that through a policy of economic engagement Berlin could promote this process. This article analyses this central assumption of German policy and Berlin’s most important effort to pursue this policy, the German-Soviet Trade Treaty of 1925. Ultimately it argues that Berlin’s hopes for an evolution in Soviet Russia proved nothing more than wishful thinking.
The Coercive Impulse: Policing Labour in Interwar Greece
Authors: Seferiades Seraphim
Published: December 2004

This article employs relational analysis to deal with the following question: since the Greek labour movement was organizationally weak throughout the interwar era, why was the state so tenacious in repressing it? Attempting to answer this question involves a brief account of the pertinent legislation, a sketch of the evolution of the security apparatus (paying particular attention to the role of the British Police Mission in reorganizing the Greek gendarmerie), and the presentation of the dynamics of state coercion (coercive frequency and intensity). It draws on British diplomatic records (PRO/FO) and a quantification of the coercion the Greek labour movement endured in the interwar period. It is argued that, contrary to a widespread view, state coerciveness did not signify misguided overreaction by state officials, but was structurally engendered by the convulsive unpredictability of the labour movement. Far from being merely haphazard or senseless, the coercive conduct of the state appears to have been both well-calculated and effective in undermining the labour movement’s dynamic by constricting political opportunities. On the other hand, this coerciveness exacerbated the labour movement’s politicization and its penchant for militant extra-legal action, despite its continuing organizational problems.
‘My Kind of Guy’: George Orwell and Dwight Macdonald, 1941-49
Authors: Costello David R.
Published: December 2004

George Orwell (1903-50) and Dwight Macdonald (1906-82) were two of the most important political and social critics of their era. Although the analytical frameworks within which they operated varied significantly, they were ultimately supportive of and helped shape each other’s work. An examination of their correspondence from 1941 until Orwell’s death in 1950 demonstrates that, in spite of their conceptual differences, they were kindred spirits, as they discussed the second world war, the evils of Stalinism and capitalism, the atomic bomb, political hypocrisy and much more. The 32 extant letters in this correspondence help reveal the evolving political sensibilities of the two men at the peak of their analytical powers.
‘Kicking out the Vietminh’: How Britain Allowed France to Reoccupy South Indochina, 1945-46
Authors: Springhall John
Published: December 2004

Why were British troops accused of supporting French imperialism in southern Indochina (Vietnam) during the months following Japanese surrender in August 1945? This article reassesses the roles of Major-General Douglas D. Gracey, the Commander-in-the-Field, Lord Louis Mountbatten, the head of South-east Asia Command, and the British Labour government, in allowing the French to reoccupy first Saigon then the rest of the south, despite a strong communist-led nationalist movement. In particular, it examines the influences on and the choices available to Allied military and political decision-makers in the crucial period before significant French re-entry into Saigon and its surrounding area. Gracey has been unfairly accused by American and other commentators of violating orders by taking it upon himself to restore the French to power, primarily through a joint military takeover in Saigon on 23 September 1945. Evidence suggests that consent to the recovery of French Indochina was an underlying component of British foreign policy. Gracey’s individual culpability hence becomes of little consequence, since he was evidently acting in accord with the postwar reinstallation of European imperialism in south-east Asia.
Computers and the Cold War: United States Restrictions on the Export of Computers to the Soviet Union and Communist China
Authors: Cain Frank
Published: December 2004

The USA persuaded its European allies under the terms of the Marshall Plan to agree to embargo exports to the Soviet bloc in 1947 and to the PRC when it was established in 1949. This ban took the form of an East/West trade war and literally banned the export of everything from needles to anchors. As the West invented new technology such as coaxial telephone cable or scientific instruments, these were embargoed, although the Soviets were able to develop their own versions of those products. The Americans were early developers of the electronic computer, supported greatly by extensive sales to the military. The British looked to sell their computers in external markets, including the Soviet bloc and China. The Americans objected, but their officials did not wish to alienate the British from continuing to support the East/West trade embargo and allowed a small number to be sold. US support for such sales was important because the British machines contained some essential US equipment. The Wilson government sought to expand the development and export of British high technology, including computers. This article highlights the tension between Britain and the USA, particularly under the Nixon administration, over how the British computer firms struggled to obtain sales in the communist countries.
Political liberalism
Authors: Maffettone Sebastiano
Published: December 2004

This paper aims to explore an important concept in the work of the later Rawls: the idea of the reasonable. While the concept has its roots in both Aristotle and Kant, Rawls develops a unique account of the reasonable in the light of his theory of political liberalism. The paper includes Rawlsian responses to the practical challenges of radical democrats on the one hand, and epistemological challenges to the reasonable on the other. It concludes that Rawls’s account of the reasonable helps to bridge the gap between liberal theory and democratic practice.
What is reasonableness?
Authors: Boettcher James W.
Published: December 2004

The concept of reasonableness is essential to John Rawls’s political liberalism, and especially to its main ideas of public reason and liberal legitimacy. Yet the somewhat ambiguous account of reasonableness in Political Liberalism has led to concerns that the Rawlsian distinction between the reasonable and the unreasonable is arbitrary and ultimately indefensible. This paper attempts to advance a more convincing interpretation of reasonableness. I argue that the reasonable applies first to citizens, who then play an important role in determining which comprehensive doctrines and political conceptions of justice are reasonable. In addition, while Rawls fails to specify explicitly the meaning of the reasonable in his standard of political justification (i.e. the liberal principle of legitimacy based on the criterion of reciprocity), I offer an interpretation of what it means for citizens to present reasonable claims and arguments to one another in public reason.
Liberalism, pluralism, justice
Authors: Salvatore Ingrid
Published: December 2004

Liberal theory seems to be caught in an impasse. On the one hand, since it has social order as its object, it appears to be committed to resolving the problem of disagreement between the various conceptions; on the other, insofar as it is philosophical theory, it seems destined to cause conflict. How, then, can liberalism offer a solution which guarantees the duration in time of a society, without, however, proposing a theory that would merely be one among others? And how can it do this without adopting reductionist strategies, and by trying to remain faithful to the idea that a society should be ordered by a conception of justice? This is the paradox of liberal political philosophy. And this same paradox is the theme that Rawls confronts in Political Liberalism.
Liberalization, modernization, westernization
Authors: Heath Joseph
Published: December 2004

This paper distinguishes three distinct processes of change that a system of values can undergo: modernization, liberalization and westernization. Modernization refers to the changes needed to establish compatibility with science and technology, along with the functional demands of a capitalist economy. Liberalization refers to the changes needed to bring values into alignment with the requirements of a bureaucratic nation-state, along with the specific institutional strategies used to manage cultural pluralism. In a slight regimentation of everyday use, the term ‘westernization’ is then reserved to describe the sort of influences generated through cultural contact with and emulation of the West. The goal of drawing this distinction is to show: first, that westernization, so understood, is a negligible force in the world today, and second, that despite the unimportance of westernization, we can still expect to see enormous convergence among the value-systems of different nations, due to the pressures imposed by modernization and liberalization.
Four levels of self-interpretation
Authors: Rosa Hartmut
Published: December 2004

If we are to find the criteria for critical analyses of social arrangements and processes not in some abstract, universalist framework, but from the guiding ‘self-interpretations’ of the societies in question, as contemporary contextualist and ‘communitarian’ approaches to social philosophy suggest, the vexing question arises as to where these self-interpretations can be found and how they are identified. The paper presents a model according to which there are four interdependent as well as partially autonomous spheres or ‘levels’ of socially relevant self-interpretation that have to be taken into account equally in order to provide a sound basis for social and political criticism. Thus, it is from the tensions and incoherences between (A) social ideas and doctrines, (B) social institutions and practices, (C) individual beliefs and convictions, and (D) body-practices and habits that social pathologies can be identified and possible solutions can be envisaged.
Apathy: the democratic disease
Authors: Green Jeffrey E.
Published: December 2004

This essay turns to ancient sources in order to rethink the relationship between political apathy and democracy. If modern democratic theorists place political apathy entirely outside of democracy – either as a destructive limit upon the full realization of a democratic polity, or, more sanguinely, as a pragmatic necessity which tempers democracy so that it may function in a workable yet watered-down form – the ancients conceived of political apathy as a peculiarly democratic phenomenon that was likely to flourish in tandem with the expansion of egalitarian institutional structures and moral ideas. Evidence for the ancient recognition of political apathy as a uniquely democratic kind of affliction centers on, but is not limited to, three main sources. In literature, the Homeric epic, and specifically the story of Achilles, present apathy for politics and commitment to human equality as synonymous forces. In philosophy, one of the main reasons Plato opposes the democratic regime is precisely that it engenders apathy among the citizenry. And in history, Herodotus’ account of the first debate on constitutions as well as the ancient democratic practice of election by lot reveal an ancient egalitarian interest in using democracy to quell, rather than encourage, political behavior.
Staying for an answer
Authors: Norris Christopher
Published: December 2004

Should the truth-value of statements be thought of as epistemically constrained or as determined by objective factors that stand quite apart from our best knowledge, evidence, or powers of conceptual grasp? The anti-realist/realist debate turns ultimately on this disagreement. My article takes its lead from a famous pronouncement by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield to the effect that there are ‘known knowns’, i.e. ‘things that we know we know’; ‘known unknowns’, or ‘things we know we do not know’; and lastly, ‘unknown unknowns’, ‘things we don’t know we don’t know’. Whether Rumsfeld was talking gobbledegook, making some acute logical points, or just pulling the wool with regard to Iraq’s disputed weapons capability is matter for debate. Still, his remarks may be useful for clarifying certain fundamental issues about knowledge and truth, especially in the context of assertions - by anti-realist philosophers such as Michael Dummett - that truth cannot possibly transcend our best powers of proof or ascertainment. On the other hand such scruples may have just the opposite (obfuscating) effect when we are faced with a complex and case-specific question, such as whether or not Iraq truly possessed weapons of mass destruction. My article contends that a wide range of reliably knowledge-conducive procedures, while indeed they fall short of absolute, indubitable truth, nonetheless offer grounds for arriving at a reasoned assessment of the evidence and for not consigning statements of the Dummettian ‘disputed class’ to a limbo of ultimate undecidability.
Habermas’s epistemic conception of democracy
Authors: Courtois Stéphane
Published: December 2004

The article aims at assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the objections to Habermas’s epistemic conception of democracy raised by Thomas McCarthy in some of his essays. The author defends two ideas. First, he contends that McCarthy is mistaken in believing that democratic debates would not be a matter of consensus. In this regard, two arguments are raised, showing that the search for agreement and consensus by citizens in public forums can hardly be dismissed and that consensus can be invested with many meanings in democratic life. Secondly, however, the author approves McCarthy when challenging Habermas’s epistemic claims regarding his theory of democracy. Not all democratic deliberations can be analysed in epistemic terms, in particular, debates on values. The pitfalls of any epistemic account of this form of deliberation are pointed out in the end of the essay.
An interview with David Tracy
Authors: Sheppard Christian
Published: December 2004

Interviewed by Christian Sheppard about Richard Kearney’s book The God Who May Be (2001), and speaking also of Kearney’s On Stories (2002) and Strangers, Gods and Monsters (2002), David Tracy remarks on Kearney’s development of the possible as a major philosophical and theological category. Showing the importance of the idea of the infinite, he speaks of the need for a hermeneutical moment to follow the initial encounter, and of a call for general criteria of judgment of the Other. He discusses, too, the dangers and the rewards of doing both theology and philosophy at the same time. To him the category of the Impossible enters into the possible and is not only positive but desired. In a conversation that ranges widely - Derrida and Levinas, Jean-Luc Marion, Angelus Silesius, Kierkegaard, Nicholas of Cusa, Heidegger and Ricoeur, and, in the call for plurality, William James - the two speakers discuss both poetic sensibility and the call for justice. Reflecting on fragmentation, Tracy speaks of the need to focus on suffering and the importance of attaining a sense of ‘the entire story, all of the metaphors’.
Narrating otherness
Authors: Costello Stephen J.
Published: December 2004

This article discusses Richard Kearney’s multidisciplinary trilogy on the role of ‘Philosophy at the Limits’: On Stories (2002), Strangers, Gods and Monsters (2002) and The God Who May Be (2001). The three books take a cross-cultural approach on the margins of philosophy, the first issuing an ethics of narrative, the second welcoming the figures of Otherness, and the third affirming that God neither is nor is not but may be. Promoting a middle way between subordinating the Same to the Other and subordinating the Other to the Same, Kearney adopts the hermeneutic method to argue for the importance of faith as well as reason.
Chronic cannabinoid exposure produces lasting memory impairment and increased anxiety in adolescent but not adult rats
Authors: O’Shea Melanie , Singh Malini E. , McGregor Iain S. , Mallet Paul E.
Published: December 2004

Although many studies have examined the acute behavioural effects of cannabinoids in rodents, few have examined the lasting effects of cannabinoids at different developmental ages. This study compared lasting effects of cannabinoid exposure occurring in adolescence to that occurring in early adulthood. Forty, 30-day old (adolescent) and 18, 56-day old (adult) female albino Wistar rats were injected with vehicle or incremental doses of the cannabinoid receptor agonist (-)- cis-3-[2-hydroxy-4-(1,1-dimethylheptyl)phenyl]- trans-4-(3-hydroxypropyl) cyclohexanol (CP 55,940) once per day for 21 consecutive days (150, 200 and 300 μg/kg i.p. for 3, 8 and 10 days, respectively). Following a 21-day drug-free period, working memory was assessed using an object recognition task. Locomotor activity was also measured in the object recognition apparatus via a ceiling-mounted passive infrared sensor. Three days later, anxiety was assessed using a social interaction test. In the object recognition task, significantly poorer working memory was observed in the adolescent but not adult CP 55,940-treated rats. Adolescent, but not adult CP 55,940-treated rats, also exhibited a significant decrease in social interaction with a novel conspecific. These results suggest that chronic exposure to a cannabinoid receptor agonist well after the immediate postnatal period, but before reaching sexual maturity, can lead to increased anxiety and a lasting impairment of working memory.
P-glycoprotein is a factor in the uptake of dextromethorphan, but not of melperone, into the mouse brain: evidence for an overlap in substrate specificity between P-gp and CYP2D6
Authors: Uhr Manfred , Namendorf Christian , Grauer Markus T. , Rosenhagen Markus , Ebinger Martin
Published: December 2004

In this study, the role of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) for the pharmacokinetics of dextromethorphan, a CYP2D6 substrate, and of melperone, a CYP2D6 inhibitor, was investigated. The substances were administered subcutaneously near the nape of the neck of wild-type mice and of abcb1ab (-/-) mice. One hour after injection, concentrations of the two drugs in cerebrum, plasma and in different organs were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. No significant differences between wild-type mice and abcb1ab (-/-) mice were observed for melperone, suggesting that P-gp is not involved in the uptake of melperone into the brain or other organs of mice. The concentration of dextromethorphan in the brain was more than twice as high in abcb1ab (-/-) mice compared to wild-type mice. Therefore, P-gp appears to be a factor in the uptake of dextromethorphan into the mouse brain, and abcb1-polymorphisms need to be considered for CYP2D6 phenotyping experiments with this drug. There is an overlap in substrate specificity between P-gp and CYP2D6. P-gp is a factor in the uptake of dextromethorphan, but not of melperone.
A pictorial Stroop paradigm reveals an alcohol attentional bias in heavier compared to lighter social drinkers
Authors: Bruce Gillian , Jones Barry T.
Published: December 2004

The findings obtained with the textual Stroop paradigm, testing for an attentional bias towards alcohol stimuli in heavier compared to lighter social drinkers, are limited in number and inconsistent in outcome. Using a pictorial rather than textual Stroop paradigm for the first time in alcohol research, a significant alcohol attentional bias is reported in heavier social drinkers compared to lighter social drinking controls. According to Cohen’s scheme, the signifant effect size is classified as ‘large’. The presence of an alcohol attentional bias helps to explain the perpetuation of abusive/dependent consumption and the frequency of post-treatment relapse. In a similar vein, these results add to the evidence that a differential alcohol attentional bias might also be present between two levels of social drinking and, in heavier social drinkers, has the potential to impact on the contents of awareness and the flow of thought towards alcohol. In this respect, it extends the small group of other perceptual-cognitive effects measured in social drinkers (alcohol cue reactions, alcohol associations and alcohol expectancies) that can influence the initiation of consumption in some social drinkers.
Reinforcing, subject-rated, performance and physiological effects of methylphenidate and d-amphetamine in stimulant abusing humans
Authors: Stoops William W. , Glaser Paul E.A. , Fillmore Mark T. , Rush Craig R.
Published: December 2004

Methylphenidate has potential for abuse because it produces behavioural effects similar to those observed with other abused stimulants, such as d-amphetamine and cocaine. The aim of this study was to further characterize the abuse potential of oral methylphenidate relative to oral d-amphetamine. Ten drug-abusing volunteers were recruited to participate in this study, which consisted of seven dose conditions: methylphenidate (16, 32 and 48 mg), d-amphetamine (8, 16 and 24 mg) and placebo. The reinforcing effects of these drugs were assessed during a self-administration session (preceded by a sampling session for each condition) with a modified progressive-ratio procedure. Subject-rated, performance and physiological effects were assessed concurrently during both the sampling and self-administration sessions. The intermediate dose of methylphenidate and d-amphetamine increased responding significantly above placebo levels. Both methylphenidate and d-amphetamine produced dose-dependent increases in stimulant-like subject ratings (e.g. Active, Alert, or Energetic and High), but the effects of these drugs were not isomorphic. These findings are consistent with epidemiological data and previous findings from laboratory studies that suggest methylphenidate has at least some abuse potential.
The MTHFR C677T polymorphism is associated with depressive episodes in patients from Northern Ireland
Authors: Kelly Christopher B. , McDonnell Anne P. , Johnston Timothy G. , Mulholland Ciaran , Cooper Stephen J. , McMaster Dorothy , Evans Alun , Whitehead Alexander S.
Published: December 2004

Low plasma folate and its derivatives have been linked with depressive disorders in studies dating back over 30 years. A thermolabile variant (677C>T) of the enzyme 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) is associated with low serum folate. The present study aimed to explore whether the thermolabile variant of MTHFR is associated with a vulnerability to depressive episodes. MTHFR C677T genotype frequencies in a cohort of patients (mean age 48 years) with depressive disorder ( n = 100) were compared with those in age- and sex-matched controls. Serum levels of folate, homocysteine and vitamin B12 were also compared between groups. The thermolabile variant of MTHFR was significantly more common in the group with a history of depressive disorder ( P= 0.03). Serum levels of folate, homocysteine and vitamin B12 did not differ significantly between groups. A MTHFR C677T genotype is associated with increased risk of depressive episodes in this homogenous patient population.
Spreading the Tools of Theory
Authors: Kaiser David , Ito Kenji , Hall Karl
Published: December 2004

Historians and sociologists have highlighted the importance of skills, local practices and material culture in their studies of experimental sciences. This paper argues that the acquisition and transfer of skills in theoretical sciences should be understood in similar terms. Using the example of Feynman diagrams - first introduced by the US theoretical physicist Richard Feynman in 1948 as an aid for making certain kinds of calculations - we study how physicists in the USA, Japan, and the Soviet Union learned how to use the new tools and put them to work. Something about the diagrammatic tools could be learned from written instructions alone, at a distance from those physicists already ‘in the know’, although this type of transfer proved to be very difficult, slow, and rare. The rate at which new physicists began to use the diagrams in various settings, and the types of uses to which the diagrams were put, reveal the interplay between geopolitics, personal communication, and pedagogical infrastructures in shaping how paper tools spread.
A Therapist’s Different Style of Intervention in Two Group Treatments
Authors: Lo Coco Gianluca , Prestano Claudia , Lo Verso Girolamo
Published: December 2004

In this paper we compare interventions of the same group analyst in two different groups - a traditional slow-open group of six out-patients with Eating Disorders diagnosis (all female; age: 16-26) and a time-limited, group of eight outpatients (different in age and sex) with organic vision disturbances. Our aim was to see if the same group therapist adopts different therapeutic interpretative interventions in the two groups, depending on the aims of each group and the different patients’ diagnosis. The sessions were recorded, transcribed and coded by the Code of Analysis of the Therapeutic Field Style (SCAT). In the traditional group, the therapist’s intervention style is focused more on interpretative individual interventions than the time-limited group. Similarly, the DCA patients used more interpretative interventions in all the therapy stages. The results show that the Organizational Area is of great importance in the conducting of both groups.
Between Constructionism and Neuroscience
Authors: Cromby John
Published: December 2004

Social constructionist psychology has no adequate notion of embodied subjectivity, a situation causing conceptual errors, raising methodological issues, and serving to entrench within constructionism the dualisms that structure mainstream psychology. The outline of a solution to this problem is offered, drawing on contemporary work in neuroscience. A framework from Harré of three ‘grammars’ of causality and influence (P, or persons; O or organisms; and M or molecules) is described and used to structure the integration of Shotter’s notion of subjectivity with two brain systems. Damasio’s ‘somatic marker’ hypothesis enables the feelingful, sensuous aspects of ‘joint action’, whilst Gazzaniga’s ‘interpreter’ enables their discursive aspects. The benefits of theorizing embodied subjectivity in this way are illustrated by a study of the phenomenon of ‘depression’, and it is concluded that such an integration makes constructionism more coherent, credible and critical.
Comparison of a Visual to a Computer Assisted Technique for Detecting Apoptosis
Authors: Goodyear-Bruch Caryl , Simon Kaycee , Hall Sandra , Mayo Matthew S. , Pierce Janet D.
Published: December 2004

In many studies, fluorescent dyes (ethidium bromide [EB] and acridine orange [AO]) are used to stain DNA to determine if nuclei are apoptotic. However, there are numerous visual methods for counting these stained DNA that may lead to inaccuracies Measuring apoptosis by the visual counting method may be imprecise because of the variability of individuals’ perception of color. Therefore, the authors compared a visual method of counting chromatin for apoptosis with a method relying on a computer program. They began counting chromatin using the visual method, in which individuals identify the stained DNA using their own visual perception. For comparison, they used a software-based counting method (analySIS software) to determine the color (hue) of the stained DNA. Using the numeric hue values from the software eliminates the variations in human color perception. Intra and interrater reliability of the visual and computerassisted counting methods were evaluated with Spearman’s. The authors found statistical significance in the intrarater reliability (r = 1.0,P = 0.0001 for all chromatin categories) and interrater reliability (r = 0.975,P = 0.005 for both readings) when using the software program. No statistical significance was found for the visual counting method, indicating inaccuracy between and within raters. Thus, the computerassisted counting method of identifying the damaged DNA is more accurate and precise than the individual’s visual perception of color. Based on these data, apoptosis measurements using color staining with EB and AO should be determined using hue values generated by a computer program and not by a researcher’s visual assessment.
A Review of the Role of Proinflammatory Cytokines in Labor and Noninfectious Preterm Labor
Authors: Farina Lucinda , Winkelman Chris
Published: December 2004

The prevention of preterm labor has the potential to reduce newborn morbidity and mortality by decreasing the incidence of preterm birth. Half of all preterm births occur in women with no known clinical risk factors. Labor onset and progress is multifactorial, and we are just beginning to understand the role of cytokines in uterine activity. The purpose of this article is to review the role of cytokines in labor and preterm labor not associated with infection and to provide implications for research and practice.
Neural-Immune Interactions: Implications for Pain Management in Patients with Low-Back Pain and Sciatica
Authors: Starkweather Angela , Witek-Janusek Linda , Mathews Herbert L.
Published: December 2004

Bidirectional communication between the immune system and the brain and the implications of this communication are emerging concepts in pain research. Although representing a small portion of the disc degeneration syndromes, lumbar herniated discs can cause significant symptoms that may persist even after surgical interventions. Evolving evidence demonstrates that proinflammatory cytokines are a key mediator in the process of disc degeneration as well as in the pain experienced by those afflicted with lumbar herniated discs. Activated immune cells release proinflammatory cytokines, which signal the brain through humoral and neural routes. The brain responds by altering neural activity and promoting further production of proinflammatory cytokines within the brain and spinal cord. Increased local cytokine production by disc tissue irritates spinal nerve roots, resulting in pain and functional changes in neural activity. This review of the current literature explores the importance of cytokine production within the context of lumbar disc degeneration and lumbar spine pain. Furthermore, the significance of the neural-immune interaction will be examined as it relates to pain management and to patient treatment.
Constructing Contributions to Organizational Learning
Authors: Easterby-Smith Mark , Antonacopoulou Elena , Simm David , Lyles Marjorie
Published: December 2004

This special issue of Management Learning provides the opportunity to reflect on the contribution over the past 30 years of Chris Argyris to the field of organizational learning and on some implications for future research. In order to do this we will reconsider his work against the context of other research that has been done over this period. This special issue therefore contains two items generated by Argyris himself: a commentary piece on the papers that are included here and an interview. The interview is part of a celebration event organized by Management Learning to honour Chris Argyris as a ‘Timeless Learner’ and to celebrate his 80th birthday, and Elena Antonacopoulou, who conducted this interview, presents the main insights from Chris Argyris’ scholarship. In this opening paper we focus on the nature of ‘contribution’ in relation to organizational learning, and this leads into an introduction to the six papers that comprise the core of the special issue.
On the Virtues of Practising Scholarship
Authors: Antonacopoulou Elena
Published: December 2004

This essay provides some reflections about the idea and ideal of scholarship in Management and Organization Studies and celebrates the life and works of Chris Argyris as a scholar. Unlike most of the accounts and tributes to his work, this essay seeks to draw attention not only to the practice of his scholarship but also to the ethos with which he practises his scholarship. I argue that it is in the latter one can understand better what practising scholarship entails by tapping into the virtues of scholarship. In Chris Argyris, one can identify virtues like integrity, courage and humility. In these virtues one also discovers that ultimately scholarship is personal and at its core it entails a journey of self-discovery. In acknowledging Argyris’s many contributions particularly in the field of organizational learning (OL) I seek to draw attention to some of the lessons that emerge when we reflect on the standards that his scholarship sets for future research in OL and for OL researchers in particular. Perhaps the most powerful message of his scholarship is to take learning seriously not only as a phenomenon to be studied, but as a way of living.
Power, Politics and State Intervention in Organizational Learning
Authors: Ferdinand Jason
Published: December 2004

Power and politics are two issues that have received great attention in numerous fields of inquiry, but as yet have been virtually ignored in the field of organizational learning. This paper briefly notes the minimal contributions made thus far and demonstrates the limitations of the approaches to the study of power in organizations currently favoured, before suggesting an alternative starting point for empirical investigation. Empirical evidence is used to suggest that learning in contemporary organizations is already influenced by ideological interventions, and that formal qualifications demonstrate the increasing attempts of the UK government to influence organizational learning.