bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Polyurethane adhesive system from castor oil modified by a transesterification reaction
Authors: Valero Manuel F , Gonzalez Adriana
Published: March 2012

This study reports the preparation of polyurethane adhesives using polyols obtained from castor oil modified by a transesterification reaction with pentaerythritol. The physical properties of the polyols such as hydroxyl value have been determined and the infrared (IR) spectroscopic analysis of the polyols is reported. The polyols were reacted with aliphatic isocyanate (isophorone diisocyanate) to form polyurethane coatings (NCO/OH ratio = 1). The effect of varied pentaerythritol content in the polyols on the physical properties of polyurethane coatings on wood and steel panels was determined. The characterization of polyurethane coatings carried out by IR spectroscopic analysis and the physicomechanical properties such as hardness, adhesion properties, solvent resistance and chemical resistant determination were reported.
Expansion of output: Organizational misbehaviour in public enterprises
Authors: Kirchhoff Jörg W , Karlsson Jan C
Published: March 2012

The term ‘restriction of output’ is a basic category in research on resistance and organizational misbehaviour and it has many synonyms, but seems to lack antonyms. The term means, of course, that employees do less work than they are expected to by management. The opposite behaviour is in the management literature regarded as organization citizenship behaviour, a term with several synonyms as well as antonyms. This article argues that ‘expansion of output’ can be a form of organizational misbehaviour and an antonym to restriction of output. The study bases its argument on empirical findings from the public sector: workers doing more than they are expected to do in order to resist management control. A typology of different kinds of expansion of output is suggested.
An adaptive approach to dealing with unstable behaviour of users in collaborative filtering systems
Authors: Rafeh Reza , Bahrehmand Arash
Published: March 2012

Recommendation systems manage information overload in order to present personalized content to users based on their interests. One of the most efficient recommendation approaches is collaborative filtering, through which recommendation is based on previously rated data. Collaborative filtering techniques feature impressive solutions for suggesting favourite items to certain users. However, recommendation methods fail to reflect fluctuations in users’ behaviour over time. In this article, we propose an adaptive collaborative filtering algorithm which takes time into account when predicting users’ behaviour. The transitive relationship from one user to another is considered when computing the similarity of two different users. We predict variations of users’ preferences using their profiles. Our experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is more accurate than the classical collaborative filtering technique.
‘Community cohesion’: Reflections on a flawed paradigm
Authors: Ratcliffe Peter
Published: March 2012

This paper interrogates a concept at the core of a social policy agenda that has dominated thinking in the UK over the past decade. It argues that the notion of ‘community cohesion’ is based on a fundamentally flawed interpretation of the sources of tension and conflict in Britain’s towns and cities. It overly ethnicizes societal divisions and essentializes ethnicity. Examining the development of government policy since 2001 the paper shows that the result has been a predominantly culturalist agenda that obscures key sources of division, most notably those related to social class and material inequality. It is argued that the hegemonic status of this policy stream has also undermined the equalities agenda. The paper concludes with a reflection on the implications of the emergence of a Conservative-led coalition government in May 2010.
Against the Big Society: A Durkheimian socialist critique
Authors: Dawson Matt
Published: March 2012

This paper is an attempt to take a critical sociological look at the UK government’s flagship ‘Big Society’ policy. To do this I utilize the political sociology of Émile Durkheim, specifically what I call his ‘socialist theory’. This overlooked aspect of Durkheim’s sociology contains a strong normative critique and alternative project concerning the role of the State, private property, economic regulation and inequality. By applying this to the Big Society it is argued that the latter will result in: increased moral fragmentation, the furthering of economic inequality and the development of a ‘postcode lottery’. Instead, Durkheim’s advocacy of functional representation in the form of the ‘corporations’ seems to hold some contemporary relevance.
Malcolm X at the Oxford Union
Authors: Ambar Saladin M.
Published: March 2012

This article examines Malcolm X’s affirmation at the Oxford Union of the proposition put forward by US Senator Barry Goldwater at the Republican National Convention in 1964: ‘Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.’ At Oxford, black nationalism, American conservatism and liberal conceptualisations of rights were all on display, as Malcolm X explored new potentialities in American and black political thought. The paper seeks to uncover some of the less explored dimensions of this moment of transition in US and UK racial politics, even as Malcolm extended his arguments into the broader context of decolonisation in Africa and the extension of rights to Africans and other marginalised groups throughout the world. With the 1964 elections in the US and UK serving as background, the author seeks to illuminate the ways in which the rhetoric and theories implicit in the debate represented both atavistic and new arguments for reconciling the impulse for both racial and civic recognition in modern society.
Israel: promised land for Jews … as long as they’re not black?
Authors: Chehata Hanan
Published: March 2012

While the subjugation and abuse of Palestinians living within Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are well documented, what is less well known is how ingrained racism is in Israel, in that it not only extends to Palestinian Christians and Muslims, but also to Jews who come from ethnic minority backgrounds. This article documents how the Falasha, Ethiopian Jews who have been brought into Israel in several mass transfer operations, have found themselves relegated to an underclass. They are not only racially discriminated against in housing, employment, education, the army and even in the practice of their religion, but have also been unwittingly used to bolster illegal settlements.
Decolonising the museum: Cité Nationale de l’Histoire de l’Immigration
Authors: Dixon Carol Ann
Published: March 2012

The collections, exhibiting techniques and events offered at France’s national museum of immigration history are explored through this critical review of Cité Nationale de l’Histoire de l’Immigration (CNHI) at the Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris. The case study considers the extent to which one of the capital’s newest museums has successfully and sensitively aligned the colonialist architecture of its building – originally constructed for the 1931 World’s Fair – with twenty-first century, postcolonial perspectives on the decolonisation of cultural spaces, and pluralisation of curatorial narratives, to better reflect the histories and lived experiences of diverse audiences.
The second hand library building: Sustainable thinking through recycling old buildings into new libraries
Authors: Hauke Petra , Werner Klaus Ulrich
Published: March 2012

Old buildings are being recycled into libraries all over the world. The process of rededication of a building with a former different usage into a library is quite obviously a matter of recycling. The transformation of an existing building with a prior non-library function into a library brings the challenge and the opportunity for sustainable thinking in library planning. As non-renewable resources are decreasing, reusing and recycling are going to become increasingly necessary in the future. The recycling of old buildings means reducing the ecological footprint of library buildings in a cost-effective and efficient way. Beside ‘green’ aspects like water conservation, energy conservation, recycled or sustainable building materials, indoor air quality, and solar power from photo-voltaic panels, the planning of an adaptive reuse is a very different task than the planning of a library in a totally new building. Some best practice case studies from Germany, and other countries in Europe are presented.
Compensation Risk Assessments
Authors: Marquardt Eric , Dunlap Nick
Published: March 2012

In response to Securities and Exchange Commission requirements, most companies have eliminated the more obvious types of corporate exposure to imprudent risk taking linked to pay, such as megagrants of stock options, performance incentives based entirely on top-line growth or significant “guaranteed” severance packages. Risk assessments can dive deeper, though, to uncover risks or opportunities from pay plans that are not obvious on the surface. The risks include financial burdens placed on the company from the incentive plan, operational processes that fail to surface and mitigate errors in judgment or calculation of payments, plans that damage the company’s reputation and plans that have the potential to cause a loss of critical talent. In uncovering risks, opportunities to improve plan design and effectiveness are often revealed, as well.
Why conference committees? A theory of conference use in structuring bicameral agreement
Authors: Vander Wielen Ryan J.
Published: March 2012

Little scholarly literature has examined why the chambers of the US Congress use conference committees to reconcile inter-cameral legislative differences. Historically, conference committees handle the most important legislation. Why would the chambers be willing to delegate conciliation authority to a subset of the membership that is then granted wide leverage in shaping the policy choices on legislation with such broad implications for the membership? We theorize that conference committees, by way of an information advantage, offer a means of promoting bicameral agreement and avoiding the risk of failure associated with bargaining between the chambers. We develop a formal model of two-sided incomplete information and find that certain conditions on preferences and information yield the chambers, who must be complicit in the decision to go to conference, higher expected policy returns to delegating this authority to utility maximizing conferees. The results of this model suggest that centrally located conference committees, and a reduction in the chambers’ information, encourage the use of conference. We offer preliminary empirical support for these propositions.
Multi-tooth contact behavior of helical gear applying modified meshing equation
Authors: Wang Jianhong , Lim Teik C , Ding Yi
Published: March 2012

In tooth contact analysis, the numerical process of searching for true contact lines or points is always a daunting task. The true contact lines for ideal helical gear transmission can be easily obtained through the helical gear meshing theory; however, in practice, this approach does not work well due to effect of tooth elasticity that shifts the contact lines from their ideal position. To address this problem, an approximate method to seek the true contact positions is proposed applying a modified meshing equation for a pair of helical gear with error free and no shaft deformation. First, the helical gear tooth deformation is calculated with the combination of contact mechanics and finite element method. Second, the deformed tooth flanks are fitted with Chebyshev polynomials. Third, the modified meshing equation is formulated by accounting for the influence of not only gear rigid body movement but also the gear deformation on the meshing process. Finally, the true contact points are determined by solving the correlated tooth flank equations, meshing equations, and force balance equations. The deformations of the gear and pinion teeth within the meshing plane are analyzed, and the contact load distributions along with the Von Mises stresses over a mesh cycle are examined. The study indicates that the proposed numerical method can yield true contact lines quickly while avoiding costly computational time in the traditional true contact line searching process that searches iteratively in the whole meshed tooth flank.
Numerical study of the solidification process in biological tissue with blood flow and metabolism effects by the dual phase lag model
Authors: Moradi Amir , Ahmadikia Hossein
Published: March 2012

The bioheat transfer with phase change in biological tissues during the freezing process is simulated by the dual phase lag conduction heat transfer model. A numerical algorithm based on the enthalpy method is established to solve the solidification of biological tissues. The linearly temperature-dependent enthalpy (non-isothermal phase change) is considered here. The results of the parabolic heat conduction model for a slice of cucumber are compared with the experimental data. A comparison between dual phase lag and hyperbolic solutions with small values of relaxation times is applied in order to verify the corresponding parabolic solutions accuracy of the dual phase lag and hyperbolic solutions. The heating source effect owing to blood perfusion and metabolic heat on the heat transfer in a biological tissue subject to freezing process is studied. The relaxation time has an important influence on the transient temperature and temperature gradient. A major discrepancy among bioheat transfer models is found for zones closer to the cooling boundary. The heat source term, owing to blood flow and metabolism in a phase change problem in the biological tissue, has a significant influence on thermal effects of the subject tissue.
Associations between the p53 codon 72 polymorphisms and susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis: a meta-analysis
Authors: Lee YH , Bae S-C , Choi SJ , Ji JD , Song GG
Published: March 2012

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether the p53 codon 72 polymorphism confers susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematous (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: A meta-analysis was conducted on the associations between the p53 codon 72 polymorphism and SLE or RA using: 1) allele contrast; 2) the recessive model; 3) the dominant model; and 4) the additive model. Results: A total of 10 studies, that is, 6 SLE and 4 RA studies, involving 1578 patients and 3138 controls were considered in the meta-analysis. Meta-analysis of the p53 codon 72 polymorphism showed no association between patients and the C allele (odds ratio (OR) = 0.834, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.599-1.161, p = 0.282), or between SLE and the p53 C allele (OR = 0.998, 95% CI = 0.765-1.302, p = 0.989). However, stratification by ethnicity showed an association between the p53 C allele and SLE in Asians (OR = 1.410, 95% CI = 1.044-1.906, p = 0.025), but not in Europeans (OR = 0.871, 95% CI = 0.625-1.214, p = 0.415). Furthermore, an association was found between the polymorphism and SLE in Asians using recessive and additive models. However, no association was found between RA and the p53 codon 72 polymorphism in all study subjects or in Europeans. Conclusions: This meta-analysis demonstrates that the p53 codon 72 polymorphism may confer susceptibility to SLE in Asians, but not in Europeans.
Weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth: The legal fiction of water fluoridation
Authors: Shaw David
Published: March 2012

This paper provides an analysis of the jurisprudence and legislation concerning the fluoridation of water in the United Kingdom. Water fluoridation is currently permitted by the Water Act 2003, but this appears to contradict legislation and regulations governing food and healthcare in the UK and the EU. It is concluded that the status quo rests on the legal fiction that fluoridated water does not constitute a medication.
Performance analysis of a harmonica-type aeroelastic micropower generator
Authors: Bibo Amin , Li Gang , Daqaq Mohammed F
Published: March 2012

This article investigates the influence of the design parameters on the performance of an aeroelastic micropower generator with the goal of minimizing its cut-in wind speed and maximizing its output power. The generator, which mimics the basic physics of music-playing harmonicas, transforms wind energy into electricity via the self-excited oscillations of a piezoelectric reed embedded within a cavity. Previously, the authors have presented and validated an analytical aeroelectromechanical model describing the response behavior of the generator. By utilizing the proposed model, this study implements a stability analysis and numerical optimization algorithms to delineate the influence of the design parameters on the device’s response. The effect of the electric load, chamber volume, and aperture size on the cut-in wind speed is investigated. The results illustrate that the cut-in wind speed can be reduced significantly if the device is designed with an optimal chamber volume, which is shown to be inversely proportional to the square of the beam’s first modal frequency. Minimizing the aperture width is also shown to significantly reduce the cut-in speed. However, due to the reduced strain rate in the piezoelectric layer, it is observed that minimizing the wind speed does not always yield an increase in the output power. As such, a numerical investigation of the influence of the design parameters on the output power is utilized to generate design charts that assist in the selection of the optimal parameters for a known average wind speed. Several qualitative verifications of the theoretical trends are also presented through an experimental case study.
A Brief Index of Affective Job Satisfaction
Authors: Thompson Edmund R. , Phua Florence T. T.
Published: March 2012

This article responds to criticisms that affective job satisfaction research suffers serious measurement problems: Noncomparable measures; studies conceptualizing job satisfaction affectively but measuring it cognitively; and ad hoc measures lacking systematic development and validation, especially across populations by nationality, job level, and job type. We address these problems through a series of qualitative (total N = 28) and quantitative (total N = 901) studies to systematically develop and validate a short affective job satisfaction measure ultimately deriving from Brayfield and Rothe’s (1951) job satisfaction index. Unlike any previous job satisfaction measure, the resulting four-item Brief Index of Affective Job Satisfaction is overtly affective, minimally cognitive, and optimally brief. The new measure also differs from any previous job satisfaction measure in being comprehensively validated not just for internal consistency reliability, temporal stability, convergent and criterion-related validities, but also for cross-population invariance by nationality, job level, and job type.
Religious competence as cultural competence
Authors: Whitley Rob
Published: March 2012

Definitions of cultural competence often refer to the need to be aware and attentive to the religious and spiritual needs and orientations of patients. However, the institution of psychiatry maintains an ambivalent attitude to the incorporation of religion and spirituality into psychiatric practice. This is despite the fact that many patients, especially those from underserved and underprivileged minority backgrounds, are devotedly religious and find much solace and support in their religiosity. I use the case of mental health of African Americans as an extended example to support the argument that psychiatric services must become more closely attuned to religious matters. I suggest ways in which this can be achieved. Attention to religion can aid in the development of culturally competent and accessible services, which in turn, may increase engagement and service satisfaction among religious populations.
Remembering (in) the past perfect: Ethical shifts in times
Authors: Bendien Elena
Published: March 2012

The traditional approach towards the research on remembering at a later age has therapeutic connotations. It is usually associated with treatment techniques against depression or dementia. Within the context of social remembering studies, the role of eyewitnesses of the past is routinely assigned to the older generation. Within those research frameworks recollections are often treated as a ready-made means that can help older people to address their current problems. We shall argue that the essential value of remembering at a later age overrides such clinical applications and consists not in reviving the past as it ‘really happened’, but in re-evaluating it. In order to demonstrate this we shall draw on everyday remembering, purposely setting aside any structured form of reminiscing. The analysis will elucidate ethical shifts in attitudes towards the past and contribute to the discussion about the authenticity of memories.
Shigella flexneriutilize the spectrin cytoskeleton during invasion and comet tail generation
Authors: Ruetz Tyson J , Lin Ann E , Guttman Julian A
Published: March 2012

Background

The spectrin cytoskeleton is emerging as an important host cell target of enteric bacterial pathogens. Recent studies have identified a crucial role for spectrin and its associated proteins during key pathogenic processes of Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella Typhimurium infections. Here we investigate the involvement of spectrin cytoskeletal components during the pathogenesis of the invasive pathogen Shigella flexneri.

Results

Immunofluorescent microscopy reveals that protein 4.1 (p4.1), but not adducin or spectrin, is robustly recruited to sites of S. flexneri membrane ruffling during epithelial cell invasion. Through siRNA-mediated knockdowns, we identify an important role for spectrin and the associated proteins adducin and p4.1 during S. flexneri invasion. Following internalization, all three proteins are recruited to the internalized bacteria, however upon generation of actin-rich comet tails, we observed spectrin recruitment to those structures in the absence of adducin or p4.1.

Conclusion

These findings highlight the importance of the spectrin cytoskeletal network during S. flexneri pathogenesis and further demonstrate that pathogenic events that were once thought to exclusively recruit the actin cytoskeletal system require additional cytoskeletal networks.
Detection of air trapping in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by low frequency ultrasound
Authors: Morenz Katrin , Biller Heike , Wolfram Frank , Leonhadt Steffen , Rüter Dirk , Glaab Thomas , Uhlig Stefan , Hohlfeld Jens M
Published: March 2012

Background

Spirometry is regarded as the gold standard for the diagnosis of COPD, yet the condition is widely underdiagnosed. Therefore, additional screening methods that are easy to perform and to interpret are needed. Recently, we demonstrated that low frequency ultrasound (LFU) may be helpful for monitoring lung diseases. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether LFU can be used to detect air trapping in COPD. In addition, we evaluated the ability of LFU to detect the effects of short-acting bronchodilator medication.

Methods

Seventeen patients with COPD and 9 healthy subjects were examined by body plethysmography and LFU. Ultrasound frequencies ranging from 1 to 40 kHz were transmitted to the sternum and received at the back during inspiration and expiration. The high pass frequency was determined from the inspiratory and the expiratory signals and their difference termed ΔF. Measurements were repeated after inhalation of salbutamol.

Results

We found significant differences in ΔF between COPD subjects and healthy subjects. These differences were already significant at GOLD stage 1 and increased with the severity of COPD. Sensitivity for detection of GOLD stage 1 was 83% and for GOLD stages worse than 1 it was 91%. Bronchodilator effects could not be detected reliably.

Conclusions

We conclude that low frequency ultrasound is cost-effective, easy to perform and suitable for detecting air trapping. It might be useful in screening for COPD.

Trial Registration

ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01080924
Inhibition of HIV-1 replication with stable RNAi-mediated knockdown of autophagy factors
Authors: Eekels Julia JM , Sagnier Sophie , Geerts Dirk , Jeeninga Rienk E , Biard-Piechaczyk Martine , Berkhout Ben
Published: March 2012

Autophagy is a cellular process leading to the degradation of cytoplasmic components such as organelles and intracellular pathogens. It has been shown that HIV-1 relies on several components of the autophagy pathway for its replication, but the virus also blocks late steps of autophagy to prevent its degradation. We generated stable knockdown T cell lines for 12 autophagy factors and analyzed the impact on HIV-1 replication. RNAi-mediated knockdown of 5 autophagy factors resulted in inhibition of HIV-1 replication. Autophagy analysis confirmed a specific defect in the autophagy pathway for 4 of these 5 factors. We also scored the impact on cell viability, but no gross effects were observed. Upon simultaneous knockdown of 2 autophagy factors (Atg16 and Atg5), an additive inhibitory effect was scored on HIV-1 replication. Stable knockdown of several autophagy factors inhibit HIV-1 replication without any apparent cytotoxicity. We therefore propose that targeting of the autophagy pathway can be a novel therapeutic approach against HIV-1
Glycyrrhizin and isoliquiritigenin suppress the LPS sensor Toll-like receptor 4/MD-2 complex signaling in a different manner
Authors: Honda Hiroe , Nagai Yoshinori , Matsunaga Takayuki , Saitoh Shin-ichiro , Akashi-Takamura Sachiko , Hayashi Hiroaki , Fujii Isao , Miyake Kensuke , Muraguchi Atsushi , Takatsu Kiyoshi
Published: March 2012

Recent evidences suggest that the extracts of plant products are able to modulate innate immune responses. A saponin GL and a chalcone ILG are representative components of Glycyrrhiza uralensis, which attenuate inflammatory responses mediated by TLRs. Here, we show that GL and ILG suppress different steps of the LPS sensor TLR4/MD-2 complex signaling at the receptor level. Extract of G. uralensis suppressed IL-6 and TNF-α production induced by lipid A moiety of LPS in RAW264.7 cells. Among various G. uralensis-related components of saponins and flavanones/chalcones, GL and ILG could suppress IL-6 production induced by lipid A in dose-dependent manners in RAW264.7 cells. Furthermore, elevation of plasma TNF-α in LPS-injected mice was attenuated by passive administration of GL or ILG. GL and ILG inhibited lipid A-induced NF-κB activation in Ba/F3 cells expressing TLR4/MD-2 and CD14 and BMMs. These components also inhibited activation of MAPKs, including JNK, p38, and ERK in BMMs. In addition, GL and ILG inhibited NF-κB activation and IL-6 production induced by paclitaxel, a nonbacterial TLR4 ligand. Interestingly, GL attenuated the formation of the LPS-TLR4/MD-2 complexes, resulting in inhibition of homodimerization of TLR4. Although ILG did not affect LPS binding to TLR4/MD-2, it could inhibit LPS-induced TLR4 homodimerization. These results imply that GL and ILG modulate the TLR4/MD-2 complex at the receptor level, leading to suppress LPS-induced activation of signaling cascades and cytokine production, but their effects are exerted at different steps of TLR4/MD-2 signaling.
To Friend or Not to Friend: The Use of Social Media in Clinical Oncology
Authors: Wiener Lori , Crum Caroline , Grady Christine , Merchant Melinda
Published: March 2012

Social media is a powerful and potentially useful tool in oncology and other clinical specialties, but it raises ethical challenges and can have harmful consequences if not used wisely.
Improving Work-Up of the Abnormal Mammogram Through Organized Assessment: Results From the Ontario Breast Screening Program
Authors: Quan May Lynn , Shumak Rene S. , Majpruz Vicky , Holloway Claire M.D. , O'Malley Frances P. , Chiarelli Anna M.
Published: March 2012

Findings support future efforts to increase the number of breast assessment affiliate programs within the Ontario Breast Screening Program, resulting in improvements in providing timely and appropriate care for women requiring work-up of an abnormal mammogram.
Quantitative Analysis of Operating Room Inventory Management Practices at a Tertiary Cancer Center
Authors: Quereshy Fayez A. , Milner Joseph
Published: March 2012

Purpose:

In Ontario, health care spending has grown to 45% of total government expenditures. In a public health care system, changes in demographics and the emergence of innovative technologies challenge our ability to adapt to evolving patient needs. To maintain a high standard of clinical effectiveness, there is a need to identify opportunities to improve health care delivery. This study was structured to meet the following objectives: to understand the operating room (OR) inventory practices at a tertiary academic hospital, to mathematically model this process to ascertain service levels based on changes in inventory and demand, and to define the appropriate level of reusable inventory for open and laparoscopic colorectal surgery.

Methods:

We retrospectively reviewed OR throughput for all cases of colorectal cancer from January 1, 2010, to January 31, 2011. The process flow of OR instrumentation was studied to understand delays in the provision of inventory. Combining total surgeries performed with surgeon-specific instrument preferences generated daily instrument demand. We fitted parametric demand distributions for two instrument sets for major colon resections. Markovian models were used to estimate the distribution of available inventory and the likelihood of insufficient instruments on any given day.

Results:

We reviewed 1,458 cases, 39.5% of which involved major open surgery, whereas 26.2% involved laparoscopic surgery. Demand for open and laparoscopic instrument sets was observed to fit binomial (20, 0.15) and Poisson (1.41) distributions, respectively. On the basis of these curves, we estimated the probability distribution of the in-stock inventory and, subsequently, the probability that demand would exceed supply on any given day ( Table 1 ). In particular, with 10 open and six laparoscopic sets currently owned by the institution, the probabilities that there would be insufficient inventory were 3.02% and 2.17%, respectively. [Table: see text]

Conclusion:

This analysis will guide purchasing decisions based on desired service levels and forecasted changes in demand. Furthermore, by ensuring that demand is being serviced, this analysis will help to curb loss of revenue, decrease wait times, and limit potential patient morbidity. Strategic purchasing can also reduce excessive inventory and therefore minimize shrinkage and obsolescence and increase working capital and institutional flexibility.
Achieving Meaningful Use and Operational Efficiency
Authors: Govil Mithi , Wood Carla , Barr Thomas R.
Published: March 2012

Purpose:

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), through the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program, are providing incentive payments to eligible professionals as they demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology. Eligible professionals can receive up to $44,000 over a 5-year period for Medicare participation if they successfully demonstrate the ability to automatically generate, transmit, and meet thresholds for specific reporting elements from the EHR. Meeting the meaningful use requirement involves a reorganization of workflow within the clinical setting so that the data elements necessary to produce the relevant measurements are documented in the electronic medical record (EMR) as they are delivered. A by-product of this is operational efficiency improvement in three areas: coordination of data input throughout the care team to reduce or remove bottlenecks, assignment of responsibility for specific activity, and real-time objective monitoring of the work process.

Methods:

Using the reporting system functionality of a certified EMR deployed in a two-physician medical oncology practice at the New London Cancer Center, the objective measurement of the ability of each of the eligible providers in the clinic to improve their individual MU scores was tracked. Analysis of the progress of each provider revealed gaps. Process issues were identified by work group: secretaries, laboratory preparation and phlebotomy staff, nurses, and clinicians. The designated physician leader met with each group to discuss the sections relevant to that particular group.

Results:

By discovering and addressing work processes that were not utilizing the ability of the EHR to capture and document (ie, meaningful use of the EHR), rapid progress that affected all of the eligible providers and all patients cared for was made. Changes resulted in increased clarity of clinical and administrative responsibilities during patient processing and clinical care provision. Meaningful use attestation was completed in 14 weeks.

Conclusion:

Completion of the documentation necessary to meet the requirements of the EHR Incentive Program led to the discovery of systemic inefficiencies in administrative and clinical workflows. Addressing these bottlenecks, along with using the reporting capability of the EHR to measure the impact of workflow changes, enabled the administrative and care teams to make changes quickly and effectively. The certified EHR provided guidance and status-reporting capabilities that allowed the practice to achieve the meaningful use requirement.
Wise Investment? Modeling Industry Profitability and Risk of Targeted Chemotherapy for Incurable Solid Cancers
Authors: Conter Henry J. , Chu Quincy S.C.
Published: March 2012

Purpose:

Pharmaceutical development involves substantial financial risk. This risk, rising development costs, and the promotion of continued research and development have been cited as major drivers in the progressive increase in drug prices. Currently, cost-effective analyses are being used to determine the value of treatment. However, cost-effective analyses practically function as a threshold for value and do not directly address the rationale for drug prices. We set out to create a functional model for industry price decisions and clarify the minimum acceptable profitability of new drugs.

Methods:

Assuming that industry should only invest in profitable ventures, we employed a linear cost-volume-profit breakeven analysis to equate initial capital investment and risk and post–drug-approval profits, where drug development represents the bulk of investment. A Markov decision analysis model was also used to define the relationships between investment events risk. A systematic literature search was performed to determine event probabilities, clinical trial costs, and total expenses as inputs into the model. Disease-specific inputs, current market size across regions, and lengths of treatment for cancer types were also included.

Results:

With development of single novel chemotherapies costing from $802 to $1,042 million (2002 US dollars), pharmaceutical profits should range from $4.3 to $5.2 billion, with an expected rate of return on investment of 11% annually. However, diversification across cancer types for chemotherapy can reduce the minimum required profit to less than $3 billion. For optimal diversification, industry should study four tumor types per drug; however, nonprofit organizations could tolerate eight parallel development tracks to minimize the risk of development failure. Assuming that pharmaceutical companies hold exclusive rights for drug sales for only 5 years after market approval, the minimum required profit per drug per month per patient ranges from $294 for end-stage lung cancer to $3,231 for end-stage renal cell carcinoma.

Conclusion:

Pharmaceutical development in oncology is costly, with substantial risk, but is also highly profitable. Minimum acceptable profits per drug per month of treatment per patient vary with prevalence of disease, but they should be less than $5,000 per month of treatment in the developed world. Minimum acceptable profits may be lower for treatments with additional efficacy in the earlier stages of a tumor type. However, this type of event could not be statistically modeled.
Update on Direct-to-Consumer Marketing in Oncology
Authors: Gray Stacy W. , Abel Gregory A.
Published: March 2012

Although the frequency of direct-to-consumer health care advertising has dramatically increased since the advent of Internet marketing, its unregulated nature can pose risks to patients with cancer.
Where Does Oncology Fit in the Scheme of Accountable Care?
Authors: Barkley Ronald
Published: March 2012

The Cancer Center Business Summit focused its 2011 annual survey on the topic of oncology's fit within the context of accountable care planning, and discovered that oncology is not considered an attractive candidate for “early win” cost savings in an ACO initiative.
Down-Regulation of Type I Runx2 Mediated by Dexamethasone Is Required for 3T3-L1 Adipogenesis
Authors: Zhang You-you , Li Xi , Qian Shu-wen , Guo Liang , Huang Hai-yan , He Qun , Liu Yuan , Ma Chun-gu , Tang Qi-Qun
Published: March 2012

Runx2, a runt-related transcriptional factor family member, is involved in the regulation of osteoblast differentiation. Interestingly, it is abundant in growth-arrested 3T3-L1 preadipocytes and was dramatically down-regulated during adipocyte differentiation. Knockdown of Runx2 expression promoted 3T3-L1 adipocyte differentiation, whereas overexpression inhibited adipocyte differentiation and promoted the trans-differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes to bone cells. Runx2 was down-regulated specifically by dexamethasone (DEX). Only type I Runx2 was expressed in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. Using luciferase assay and chromatin immunoprecipitation-quantitative PCR analysis, it was found that DEX repressed this type of Runx2 at the transcriptional level through direct binding of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) to a GR-binding element in the Runx2 P2 promoter. Further studies indicated that GR recruited histone deacetylase 1 to the Runx2 P2 promoter which then mediated the deacetylation of histone H4 and down-regulated Runx2 expression. Runx2 might play its repressive role through the induction of p27 expression, which blocked 3T3-L1 adipocyte differentiation by inhibiting mitotic clonal expansion. Taken together, we identified Runx2 as a new downstream target of DEX and explored a new pathway between DEX, Runx2, and p27 which contributed to the mechanism of the 3T3-L1 adipocyte differentiation.
Wrists and Stouts of Corn: Two Neglected Regionalisms
Authors: Goebel George H.
Published: March 2012

This article treats two words—wrist ‘braided string of ears of corn’ and stout ‘shock (of corn or other grain)’—that have gone nearly unnoticed hitherto. Citations from the nineteenth through the later twentieth centuries are presented, which show these terms were once well known in part or all of New York State, and it is further shown that both are probably of Dutch origin.
What Was Tragedy? The World We Have Lost, 1550–1795
Authors: Hoxby Blair
Published: March 2012

We owe our idea of tragedy and our tragic repertoire to a generation of romantic critics who, writing in the shadow of Kant, demanded that tragedies display organic form, express the spirit of a nation, and stage a collision between freedom and necessity. Their formula obscures aspects of Attic tragedy and hinders our ability to interpret most tragedies written from 1550 to 1795. These works were supported by a poetics of tragedy that identifies pathos as the essence of tragedy. In order to read this repertoire anew, we must entertain five propositions: (1) that great drama need not be the drama of a nation; (2) that organic form is not superior to mechanic beauty; (3) that tragedy is a theatrical rather than a poetic art; (4) that not only the naïve but the sophisticated aspects of ancient theater have value; and (5) that the passions are dramatic units of crucial significance to early modern tragedy, a theatrical form that cannot be read only for plot, character, and imagery.
The French Disease
Authors: Newman Karen
Published: March 2012

This essay considers cultural translation and exchange between England and France from the publication of Randle Cotgrave's important Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues (1611) to Madeleine de Scudéry's Artamène, ou le Grand Cyrus (1649–1653) to the Soame/Dryden translation of Boileau's L'art poétique (1683). It considers translations of various genres, including the poetic epistle, verse drama, and the newly fashionable romance in the context of complex shifts in Anglo-French relations. It argues that French and French cultural forms represented powerful cultural capital that was “translated” or “borne across” the channel during an important chapter in the history of cultural translation, a term taken from social anthropology. While useful for literary and cultural studies, its deployment in anthropology and its recent appropriation by postcolonial studies too often eschews linguistic translation — the word for word — in favor of cultural expression and thus risks emptying cultural translation of its linguistic specificity. Much recent criticism of early modern English literature and culture has been so engaged by arguments about the making of the English nation and of the English vernacular that it may have obscured the ongoing pouvoir/savoir of French. The cultural competition between England and France in the seventeenth century is too often read backwards, in the hindsight provided by the later imperial successes of Britain, or through the culturally triumphalist lens of Shakespeare's ensuing reputation, or via the Anglocentrism of today's translation markets in which the global economic power and language skill of the Anglo-American majority — English — have such powerful effects.
Ephemeral Asia: Position without Identity in the Modernist Urdu Poetry of N.m. Rashed
Authors: Pue A. Sean
Published: March 2012

Modernist Urdu poet N.M. Rashed's Iran men ajnabi (A Stranger in Iran, 1957), published ten years after the partition of British India, describes the experiences of an Indian Muslim soldier in the British Indian Army occupying Iran during World War II. Rashed's narrator searches in Iran — the motherland of the Persian language and culture that pervades Urdu — for his cultural past, but what he finds instead is an extension of his colonial present. The Urdu literary establishment at this time was dominated by progressive (taraqqi pasand) critics, who promoted a Hindustani language that bridged the gap between (Muslim/Pakistani) Urdu and (Hindu/Indian) Hindi and deemphasized Persian. These critics opposed modernism (jadidiyat), a movement associated with Rashed and with Indo-Muslim identitarianism, as socially regressive. By setting the poem in Iran and using modern Persian, Rashed confronted a readership for whom those gestures could only be signs of Indo-Persian nostalgia, and the poem was largely misread as a paean to the cultural identity of the East. Yet for Rashed, Asia is not a marker of cultural heritage but closer to what Gayatri Spivak has called a “position without identity” — a geographical category that Iran and India may claim but not fully possess. In Rashed's poem the narrator's ephemeral and contingent experiences of Iran serve as a critique of the two modes of belonging then prevalent in the Urdu literary community, progressivism and Indo-Muslim identitarianism, which he reveals to be ideologies mired in imperial projects. In anecdotes that gleefully lampoon socialist ideology, Rashed's poem represents Soviet internationalism as Russo-centric imperialism. In equally scathing satires of Indo-Persian tradition, the poem exposes the connections between India and Iran made by Western imperialism. Further, it employs rich citations of modern Persian poetry in order to critique an Iranian nationalism based on continuity with a lost imperial past. In place of these ideological structures, Rashed finds in Asia a category too vast and heterogeneous to serve as a collectivity, and he imagines, in vague detail, the emergence of a new man not bound by identity at all. This article seeks to restore this more radically anti-ideological aspect of Rashed's poem while illustrating the potential of Spivak's category for the study of literature.
“The Democratic Initiative”: The Promises and Limitations of Industrial Unionism for New York City's Laundry Workers, 1930 – 1950
Authors: Carson Jenny , Geiser Nell
Published: March 2012

This article examines the historical circumstances surrounding the unionization of New York City's laundry workers in the 1930s, focusing on the different approaches taken by Communist organizers, feminist activists of the Women's Trade Union League, and established union leaders in the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA). The successful drive to organize more than thirty thousand laundry workers in 1937 launched an experiment in industrial unionism within a service industry composed primarily of women and people of color. The article explores the factors that made organization possible and the subsequent evolution of the Laundry Workers Joint Board within the institutional culture of the ACWA, detailing how the ACWA integrated the new affiliate into a bureaucratic union structure that marginalized the leadership of African Americans, women, and Communists, and failed to challenge the longstanding patterns of racial and gender discrimination within the industry. While workers saw significant improvements following unionization, the tensions between rank-and-file members and union leaders underline some of the limitations of mid-twentieth-century US industrial unionism for women and people of color.
Working-Class Themes in the New Environmental History
Authors: Franklin Jonathan S.
Published: March 2012

This article reviews scholarship at the intersection of labor and environmental history in the hope of further bridging the two fields. A taxonomy proposed by J. R. McNeill, which distinguishes among political, material, and cultural environmental history, serves as the organizational framework for the review. After surveying the interaction between labor and environmental history, the author concludes that labor historians have done well to engage with environmental scholarship and may find it rewarding to more directly explore the themes discussed by environmental historians.