bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Identifying Beliefs and Cognitions Underpinning Commuters' Travel Mode Choices
Authors: Mann Eleanor , Abraham Charles
Published: October 2012

Interventions to reduce car use have shown limited success, in part due to limitations in models of transport choices. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) has provided a useful predictive model of car use but the specific beliefs that underpin TPB‐specified cognitions are less well understood. In this study, 229 university employees responded to a questionnaire and then reported their commuting choices 1 week later. Intention and perceived behavioral control (PBC) predicted car use (R2 = .79). Intention was predicted by attitude, subjective norm, PBC, and moral norm (R2 = .56). Beliefs could not be differentiated into attitudinal and PBC constructs, but seven beliefs predicted TPB cognitions. A similar model was tested for public transport use. The results identify key targets for future interventions.
Comparative Study Between the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Value–Belief–Norm Model Regarding the Environment, on Spanish Housewives' Recycling Behavior
Authors: Aguilar‐Luzón María del Carmen , García‐Martínez José Miguel Ángel , Calvo‐Salguero Antonia , Salinas José María
Published: October 2012

Environmental behaviors have been analyzed from different theoretical models. The theory of planned behavior emphasizes the attitudinal aspects associated with behavior, while the value–belief–norm model regarding the environment focuses on the importance of moral components when setting environmental behaviors in motion. The objective of this study was to analyze both models, comparing both their degree of fit and their predictive power regarding recycling behavior. To do so, we used a sample made up of 154 Spanish housewives. The results indicated that despite the fact that the theory of planned behavior is a general model for predicting and explaining behavior, it has a greater degree of fit and greater capacity to predict recycling behavior than the value–belief–norm model regarding the environment.
Gender‐Based Preferential Selection: Influences of Perceptions of Procedurally Unfair Advantage on Performance and Self‐Evaluations
Authors: Gillespie Jennifer Z. , Ryan Ann Marie
Published: October 2012

Gender‐based preferential selection is believed to affect self‐perceptions of beneficiaries, but the mechanisms by which this occurs have not been fully investigated. An online experiment was conducted with male and female undergraduates (n = 509) in the midwestern United States in which method of selection and gender type of job were manipulated. Hypotheses regarding associations between independent variables, self‐efficacy, perceptions of procedural fairness, performance, and self‐evaluations were tested. Gender‐ vs. merit‐based selection negatively affected procedural fairness; while procedural fairness perceptions related positively to post‐hire self‐evaluations, in part through performance. Job gender type interacted with applicant gender to affect pre‐hire self‐efficacy, but self‐efficacy did not moderate the relationship between procedural fairness perceptions and post‐hire performance. Implications for affirmative‐action programs are discussed.
The Role of the Follower in the Relationship Between Empowering Leadership and Empowerment: A Longitudinal Investigation
Authors: van Dierendonck Dirk , Dijkstra Maria
Published: October 2012

The purpose of this longitudinal study among 212 Dutch prison officers was to enhance insight into the nature of the relationship between empowering leader behavior and follower psychological empowerment. Empowerment was conceptualized as intrinsic task motivation, manifested in a set of 4 cognitions reflecting the individual's work‐role orientation. Data were analyzed with structural equation modeling using a cross‐lagged panel design. The results showed that followers’ belief to be able to affect organizational outcomes (i.e., impact) at Time 1 was related to increased delegation by the leader 3 months later. Furthermore, followers’ perceptions of autonomy regarding initiation and regulation of one's own actions (i.e., self‐determination) at Time 1 was related to increased accountability by the leader 3 months later.
Employment and wages in Germany since the 2004 deregulation of the temporary agency industry
Authors: GARZ Marcel
Published: October 2012

There has been a surge in temporary agency work in Germany since the 2004 deregulation of the temporary agency industry. Using empirical data, the author examines how this reform affected employment and wages. Controlling for compositional and macroeconomic effects, the results suggest that there was no change in overall employment, since temporary agency work replaced regular jobs. The wage gap between regular employees and temps widened after the reform, showing that firms use agency work to reduce labour costs. However, the main reason for the wage gap was the higher incidence of low‐wage determinants among temps compared to regular employees.
The post‐Pleistocene population genetic structure of a western North American passerine: the chestnut‐backed chickadeePoecile rufescens
Authors: Lait Linda A. , Friesen Vicki L. , Gaston Anthony J. , Burg Theresa M.
Published: October 2012

The population genetic structure of many high‐latitude species in North America was affected by the last glaciation, and current structure reflects isolation in refugia and colonisation patterns. Large ice‐free areas, both south of the ice sheets and in the north‐west, supported numerous flora and fauna throughout this period. Fossil evidence suggests additional western glacial refugia existed both on Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) and in northern Idaho. The chestnut‐backed chickadeePoecile rufescensis a songbird found along the western edge of Canada and the United States, with a linear distribution along the coast, and an isolated interior population. Mitochondrial DNA sequence data (control region and ATPase 6–8) from 10 populations (n = 122) were used to test for population genetic structure. The data supported a general north/south separation. Haida Gwaii was found to be genetically distinct from the rest of the populations, and the two northern British Columbia populations separated from all but Alaska. The interior population showed evidence of both historical isolation and secondary colonisation by birds from coastal populations. Neutrality tests suggested a past population expansion in all populations from previously glaciated areas, and a stable population in areas believed to be unglaciated. This pattern supports the use of multiple glacial refugia by the chestnut‐backed chickadee. We could not reject the use of Haida Gwaii or the interior (i.e. Clearwater Basin) as glacial refugia.
Maternal pre‐pregnancy body mass index is not associated with infant and young child feeding in low‐income Mexican children 1–24 months old
Authors: Monterrosa Eva C. , Frongillo Edward A. , Neufeld Lynnette M. , Egan Kelsey A. , Ramakrishnan Usha , Rasmussen Kathleen M.
Published: October 2012

Pre‐pregnancy overweight and obesity is associated with shorter breastfeeding (BF) duration. Whether pre‐pregnancy overweight and obesity is associated with other aspects of infant and young child feeding (IYCF) has not been investigated. We used data from 370 children born January 1999–September 2001 in a semi‐urban community in Morelos, Mexico, where information on how they were fed was available at 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24 months of age. We modified the World Health Organization's dietary diversity indicator to assess the quality of the complementary foods. An index that included BF, quality of complementary foods and other behaviours was constructed to measure IYCF. We used survival analysis to examine the association of pre‐pregnancy body mass index (pBMI) category and BF duration and mixed models for quality of complementary food and IYCF index. Mean maternal pBMI was 24.4 ± 4.1; 31% were overweight, and 9% were obese. pBMI was not associated with BF duration. Quality of complementary food improved over time (6 months, 1.3 ± 1.3; 24 months, 3.8 ± 1.04). Compared with normal‐weight women, overweight and obese women were more likely to feed from more food groups (0.24 ± 0.11 point, P = 0.03), but this did not improve diet diversity from 6 to 24 months. IYCF index decreased throughout follow‐up (1 month, 7.8 ± 2.4; 24 months, 5.5 ± 1.8), and pBMI was not associated with IYCF (−0.11 ± 0.13 point, P = 0.4). We conclude that heavier women were not engaging in IYCF behaviours that were distinct from those of normal‐weight women from 1 to 24 months post‐partum.
Effects of work participation, intergenerational transfers and savings on life satisfaction of older Malaysians
Authors: Ng Sor‐Tho , Hamid Tengku‐Aizan
Published: October 2012

Aim

To examine the effects of work participation, intergenerational transfers and savings on the life satisfaction of older community‐dwelling Malaysians.

Method

Data from the 1999 Survey on Perceptions of Needs and Problems of the Elderly on people aged 60 and over were used. The life satisfaction score was constructed from 10 questions adopted from the Life Satisfaction Inventory‐A by Neugarten, Havighurst and Tobin. Multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the expected level of life satisfaction.

Results

Controlling for other variables in the model, respondents who provided assistance to and received assistance from children with savings had significantly higher life satisfaction than their counterparts, while work participation did not have any significant effect on life satisfaction.

Conclusion

Intergenerational transfers and savings are important predictors of life satisfaction. The interdependence between generations should remain and savings habits need to be cultivated to ensure a higher life satisfaction in old age.
Photocatalytic WO3 and TiO2 Films on Brass
Authors: Mashtalir Olha , Kurtoglu Murat , Pogulay Sergey , Gogotsi Alexey , Naguib Michael , Gogotsi Yury
Published: October 2012

This paper reports on the structure, mechanical, and photocatalytic properties of titanium dioxide (TiO2) and tungsten oxide (WO3) films on a brass substrate. TiO2 and WO3 films have been successfully deposited on brass by a simple sol‐gel dip‐coating method and it has been shown that, while both films possess photocatalytic properties, WO3 films were superior to TiO2. Higher surface area and rod‐like morphology of WO3 films might have contributed to their higher photocatalytic activity. Nanoindentation results have shown that both films attach well to the substrate and possess good mechanical properties.
Materials Challenges in Reverse‐Flow Pyrolysis Reactors for Petrochemical Applications
Authors: Chun Chang Min , Desai Sanket , Hershkowitz Frank , Keusenkothen Paul F. , Mohr Gary D. , Ramanarayanan Trikur A.
Published: October 2012

Currently, the pyrolysis of hydrocarbons for the production of light olefins is almost exclusively carried out in steam crackers operating around 900–1000°C. However, cracking hydrocarbons at much higher temperature results in high selectivity to acetylene, which can be converted into many petrochemical products including ethylene. The desired hydropyrolysis reaction from hydrocarbons to acetylene can be realized in a reverse‐flow reactor at very high temperatures (>1700°C) in a scalable manner. The reactor elements include ceramic components that are placed in the hottest regions of the reactor and must withstand a temperature that is in the range of 1500–2000°C. In addition, the temperature rises and falls with the reverse‐flow cycle; a fluctuation that could be as high as 100–500°C over a period of several seconds. Moreover, the materials in the hot zone are exposed alternately to a regeneration (heat addition) step that is mildly oxidizing, and a pyrolysis (cracking) step that is strongly reducing with a correspondingly high carbon activity. This article addresses the thermodynamic stability of selected ceramic materials based on alumina, zirconia, and yttria for such an application. Results from laboratory tests involving the exposure of these ceramic materials to simulated process conditions followed by their microstructural characterization are compared with expectations from thermodynamic predictions.
Textural Properties of Beta‐lactoglobulin – Sodium Alginate Mixed Gels at Large Scale Deformation
Authors: Haug I.J. , Carlsen A.‐M.H. , Vegarud G.E. , Langsrud T. , Draget K.I.
Published: October 2012

The denaturation and gelling properties of mixed systems of β‐lactoglobulin and sodium‐alginate have been investigated as a function of alginate molecular weight, chemical composition, concentration, pH and ionic strength. Differential scanning calorimetry and small strain oscillatory measurements showed that denaturation temperature were lower than the gelling temperatures under the conditions examined. The denaturation temperatures were dependent on both pH and ionic strength, but unaffected by alginate concentration and type. The mechanical and textural properties of mixed gels of β‐lactoglobulin and sodium alginate were dependent on several factors; the gel strength increased as a function of alginate concentration under ambient conditions, and decreased as the pH and/or the ionic strength were changed. High molecular weight alginate gave the most pronounced effects, probably due to the accessibility of the alginate for protein binding. The chemical composition of the alginate had negligible effect on the mechanical properties of the gels.

Practical Applications

As both proteins and polysaccharides are widely used in the food industry, it is important to understand the interactions between these two biopolymers in order to envisage final product properties. The present article gives an overview of several important parameters when mixing β‐lactoglobulin and sodium alginate. β‐Lactoglobulin is the main protein in whey and one of the major food protein ingredients. Alginate is a polysaccharide that is often used in the food industry because of its functional properties. This study shows that if the conditions and the alginate type are adequately chosen, the textural properties of food products can be controlled and tailored.
Reviving Agrarian Studies in South‐East Asia: Geography on the Ascendancy
Authors: HIRSCH PHILIP
Published: October 2012

This paper examines the recent revival of agrarian studies in the social science scholarship of South‐East Asia following a period of decline from the 1980s onward. The hiatus provides an opportunity to examine the changed empirical contexts and theoretical framings of agrarian change in the intervening period. Renewed interest in rural agricultural and social change is also marked by a disciplinary shift, with the centre of gravity moving away from anthropology and political science and towards a geographical focus. This is explained both by institutional factors, as a large international research programme based in (but not limited to) geography has taken the lead on the revival, and also by the substantive shift in agrarian studies away from narrowly local village ethnographies or broad‐based scholarship inspired by Cold War concerns, towards a multi‐scale and contextualised approach in which environment, globalisation, migration, territorial expansion, spatial inequality, and other key geographical themes have framed explorations of agrarian change.
The Naming of Waterfalls
Authors: HUDSON BRIAN J
Published: October 2012

As features of the landscape, waterfalls have been studied extensively by geographers, but the names given to these landforms have received relatively little scholarly attention. This paper examines the naming of waterfalls and addresses the question of classifying these hydronyms. The subject is considered in a global historical context, focusing on place names in the anglophone world. Until the 18th and 19th centuries, relatively few waterfalls were named. With the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, water power rose in economic importance, and at the same time, there was a growing scientific and aesthetic engagement with the landscape. These developments are suggested as reasons for the increased interest in waterfalls which were then being recorded in topographical literature and on maps, individual names being given to increasing numbers of falls. European exploration added to the knowledge of the world's waterfalls, many of which were given names by their ‘discoverers’. This naming process accelerated with the growth of domestic and overseas tourism which exploited scenic resources such as waterfalls. Until now, research on the names of waterfalls has been fragmentary, and the classification of these hydronyms has been neglected. This paper demonstrates that waterfall names can be classified in accordance with a recognised toponymic typology. Using examples drawn from waterfall guidebooks, databases, maps, and other sources, the following discussion supports George Stewart's claim that his toponymic classification is valid for place names of all kinds.
The Aesthetics of Urban Movement: Habits, Mobility, and Resistance
Authors: SHARPE SCOTT
Published: October 2012

This paper examines new forms of urban movement from the perspective of embodiment and habit. Utilising Felix Ravaisson's recently revived work, Of Habit, the paper explores the role of grace and embodiment in establishing alternate forms of mobile activity. I argue that it is the mixture of fear and mastery that has the potential to perpetuate certain habits of mobility, leading to an aestheticised relationship to the urban environment, which to some extent overcomes the anaesthesia and blasé attitude that we have come to associate with urban life. My aim is to understand forms like urban cycling, skateboarding, and parkour from the point of view of the micropolitical relations of body, space, and habit. What is at stake here is to rethink the relationship between habit and resistance, in such a way that resistance can be seen in its materiality, rather than in merely reactive or ideological terms.
Baseline Results of the First Healthy Schools Evaluation Among a Community of Young, Irish, Urban Disadvantaged Children and a Comparison of Outcomes With International Norms
Authors: Comiskey Catherine M. , O'Sullivan Karin , Quirke Mary B. , Wynne Ciara , Hollywood Eleanor , MGillloway Sinead
Published: October 2012

BACKGROUND: In 2008, the Irish Government initiated a pilot Healthy Schools Programme based on the World Health Organization Health Promoting Schools Model among children attending schools officially designated as urban and disadvantaged. We present here the first results on physical and emotional health and the relationship between childhood depression and demographic and socioeconomic factors.

METHODS: The Healthy Schools Programme evaluation was a 3‐year longitudinal outcome study among urban disadvantaged children aged 4 to 12 years. Physical and psychological health outcomes were measured using validated, international instruments at baseline. Outcomes at baseline were compared with international norms and where differences were found, results were statistically modeled to determine factors predicting poor outcomes.

RESULTS: A total of 552 children responded at baseline, representing over 50% of all eligible children available to participate from 7 schools. Findings at baseline revealed that in general, children did not differ significantly from international norms. However, detailed analysis of the childhood depression scores revealed that in order of importance, psychological well‐being, the school environment, social support, and peer relations and age were statistically significant predictors of increased childhood depression in children under 12 years of age.

CONCLUSION: Future health and well‐being studies in schools among urban disadvantaged children need to broaden their scope to include measures of depression in children under 12 years of age and be cognisant of the impact of the school environment on the mental and emotional health of the very young.
High School Health‐Education Teachers' Perceptions and Practices Related to Teaching HIV Prevention
Authors: Herr Scott W. , Telljohann Susan K. , Price James H. , Dake Joseph A. , Stone Gregory E.
Published: October 2012

BACKGROUND: HIV/AIDS is one of the leading causes of illness and death in the United States with individuals between the ages of 13 and 19 years being especially vulnerable for infection. The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes, perceptions, and instructional practices of high school health teachers toward teaching HIV prevention.

METHODS: A total of 800 surveys were sent to a national random sample of high school health teachers and 50% responded.

RESULTS: There was almost complete agreement (99%) among respondents that HIV prevention instruction is needed. The factors that emerged as significantly influencing the attitudes and perceptions of high school health teachers about teaching HIV prevention were related to teacher preparation, training, and years of experience teaching health education. A state mandate requiring HIV prevention instruction was significantly associated with higher teacher efficacy expectations and more perceived benefits, but did not have a significant influence in relation to practices in the classroom. Characteristics of high school health teachers that were significantly related to attitudes, perceptions, and instructional practices included the instructor's age, sex, and race/ethnicity.

CONCLUSIONS: High school health teachers who reported the least experience teaching health education had the least supportive attitudes, perceived the most barriers, and had the lowest efficacy and outcome expectations related to teaching about HIV prevention. Whereas these findings support the importance of teacher preparation and training, they also suggest that more recent college graduates may not be fully prepared to provide effective instruction in HIV prevention.
Judging in Place: Architecture, Design, and the Operation of Courts
Authors: Bybee Keith J.
Published: October 2012

What can judicial architecture tell us about how courts function? In this essay, I examine Legal Architecture: Justice, Due Process, and the Place of Law (2011) by Linda Mulcahy and Representing Justice: Invention, Controversy, and Rights in City-States and Democratic Courtrooms (2011) by Judith Resnik and Dennis Curtis. I argue that both books develop an understanding of judicial architecture as a socially contingent form of communication. I relate this expressive theory of architecture to older arguments about design and construction articulated by poet and novelist Victor Hugo and architect Frank Lloyd Wright. I also briefly explore the connections between this developing “jurisprudence of what's real” and more conventional forms of law-and-courts scholarship.
Estrangement and Empowerment in Scheingold's The Political Novel
Authors: Silverstein Helena
Published: October 2012

This essay develops an understated argument in Stuart Scheingold's The Political Novel (2010), namely, how narratives of estrangement serve to empower re-imagination without reinforcing the false promises of modernism. I argue that Scheingold's earlier work in The Politics of Rights and on cause lawyering provides guidance for understanding the character of empowerment to which Scheingold points in his latest work. In addition, I examine three film narratives that treat the “mournful legacy of the twentieth century”—Pan's Labyrinth, Life Is Beautiful, and Everything Is Illuminated. Emergent in these narratives, I suggest, is a way that storytellers point to empowerment by highlighting the largely overwhelming constraints that limit the agency promised by modernism and the strategic, though contingent, choices characters make to confront and cope with their own estrangement.
Drafting the Nineteen Propositions, January–July 1642*
Authors: TYLER COLIN
Published: October 2012

This article analyses the drafting of the document eventually printed as the Nineteen Propositions. Section two addresses certain issues regarding the methods and concepts employed in the subsequent analysis, focusing on consensus‐building, constitutional leanings and the drafting of parliamentary declarations in early 1642. Section three examines the origins of the Nineteen Propositions in the draft Declaration of Ways and Means (January 1642) (hereafter cited as the Ways). Section four traces the emergence of the Declaration Concerning Grievances and Remedies (hereafter cited as the Grievances) from the Ways (January–February). Section five examines the junta's efforts to overcome the Lords' prevarication over passing the Grievances (February–May). Section six examines the emergence of the initial draft of the Nineteen Propositions from the Grievances (24–7 May). Section seven analyses the 28 May draft, while section eight explores the amendment of that draft (31 May and 1 June). Section nine examines parliament's abortive attempts to revise the Nineteen Propositions in light of His Majesty's Answer to the XIX Propositions (21 June–2 July). It is concluded that, contrary to the received view, the text of the Nineteen Propositions began to emerge in January rather than May 1642, and that the junta in the Commons rather than the Lords drove this process. The three appendices identify, respectively, the constitutional leanings of the relevant parliamentarians, the parts of the text of the Ways that were repeated in the Grievances, and dates on which the various parts of the final text of the Nineteen Propositions were written.
Scottish Representation in the Protectorate Parliaments: The Case of the Shires
Authors: LITTLE PATRICK
Published: October 2012

The 30 MPs elected for Scotland in the Cromwellian parliaments of 1654, 1656 and 1659 have often been seen as government‐sponsored placemen, foisted on constituencies by the military. Some were Scottish collaborators, but most were English carpetbaggers. Restrictions on voter qualifications, designed to weed out suspected royalists, and opposition to English rule among the Scots, further contributed to what has been described as the antithesis of representation, a ‘hollow sham’. This article revisits the question of Scottish representation in this period through the analysis of the surviving indentures for the shire elections of 1656. These documents – of which 17 of the 20 survive – give the date of election, the name of the presiding officer (usually the sheriff) and details of principal electors, often with signatures and seals attached. Four constituencies are used as case studies: Peeblesshire and Selkirkshire, Ayrshire and Renfrewshire, Perthshire, and Fife and Kinross. Each constituency had a distinct response to Cromwellian rule and to the parliamentary elections, but general themes emerge: the restrictions on voters were totally ignored; direct interference by the English authorities was rare; and the elections were dominated by local political and religious disputes between the Scots themselves. This analysis further suggests that there was no unified Scottish interest at this time, that local differences overrode other considerations, and that in many cases, choosing an Englishman as MP could be the least controversial option, as well as that most likely to secure influence at Westminster.
Radicals, Tories or Monomaniacs? The Birmingham Currency Reformers in the House of Commons, 1832–67*
Authors: MILLER HENRY
Published: October 2012

Benjamin Disraeli described Thomas Attwood as a ‘provincial banker labouring under a financial monomania’. The leader of the Birmingham Political Union, Attwood's Warwickshire accent and support for a paper currency were widely derided at Westminster. However, the themes of Attwood's brief parliamentary career were shared by the other men who represented Birmingham in the early‐ and mid‐Victorian period. None of these MPs were good party men, and this article illuminates the nature of party labels in the period. Furthermore, it adds a new dimension to the historical understanding of debates on monetary policy and shows how local political identities and traditions interacted with broader party identities. With the exception of Richard Spooner, who was a strong tory on religious and political matters, the currency men are best described as popular radicals, who consistently championed radical political reform and were among the few parliamentary supporters of the ‘People's Charter’. They opposed the new poor law and endorsed factory regulation, a progressive income tax, and religious liberty. Although hostile to the corn laws they believed that free trade without currency reform would depress prices, wages and employment. George Frederick Muntz's death in 1857 and his replacement by John Bright marked a watershed and the end of the influence of the ‘Birmingham school’. Bright appropriated Birmingham's radical tradition as he used the town as a base for his campaign for parliamentary reform. He emphasized Birmingham's contribution to the passing of the 1832 Reform Act but ignored the currency reformers' views on other matters, which had often been at loggerheads with the ‘Manchester school’ and economic liberalism.
Businessmen in the Parliament of 1852–7: Players or Spectators?*
Authors: Rosser Alex S.
Published: October 2012

This article examines the activities of the business MPs who were members of the parliament of 1852–7. Largely coming from a different social background from those who had traditionally led the United Kingdom, with different educational experiences, and inhabiting a different social milieu, they demonstrated their interest in the governance of the United Kingdom by a vigorous participation in the activities of the house of commons. Although they composed less than 21% of the membership of the Commons, they disproportionately attended the sessions of the House, spoke often on topics of interest, participated regularly on committees, were quite active in sponsorship of public bills and sponsored more than half of the local and private bills.
Resisting the Inevitable? The Parliament Act 1911
Authors: NORTON PHILIP
Published: October 2012

The Parliament Act 1911, limiting the veto power of the house of lords, constitutes a major piece of constitutional legislation in the United Kingdom. The vulnerability of the house of lords to major change was long‐standing and to be found in the actions of prime ministers over more than a century. The constitutional crisis leading to the passage of the act was triggered by the rejection of the budget by the Lords in 1909. However, the outcome of the crisis was by no means certain, either in terms of the provisions of the Parliament Bill or its passage. It was neither a product of a clash between peers and people or a principled debate as to the place of the second chamber in the nation's constitutional arrangements. It was the result of the stances taken on the issue that had dominated British politics since the 1880s: Irish home rule. This determined that the house of lords would be subject to change, not in terms of composition but in respect of its powers. In terms of the contemporary relevance of the act, attempts at further changes to the second chamber constitute neither history repeating itself nor unfinished business.
Congenital dyserythropoietic anaemia and dyskeratosis in Australian Poll Hereford calves
Authors: Kessell AE , Hanshaw DM , Finnie JW , Nosworthy P
Published: October 2012

Congenital dyserythropoietic anaemia (CDA) is a heterogeneous group of rare genetic disorders that in humans is characterised by ineffective haematopoiesis with morphological abnormalities in erythroid precursor cells and secondary iron overload. In the 1990s, a syndrome of CDA with dyskeratosis and progressive alopecia was reported in Poll Hereford calves in Canada and the USA. We report the clinical and pathological findings in two Poll Hereford calves with this syndrome from separate properties in South Australia. The animals had a variably severe anaemia, associated with abnormal nucleated red blood cells in peripheral blood, and large numbers of rubricytes and metarubricytes with a characteristic nuclear ultrastructure in the bone marrow. Both calves were born with a wiry hair coat and a progressively ‘dirty‐faced’ appearance associated with hyperkeratosis and dyskeratosis (apoptosis).
Rapid detection of total and viableLegionella pneumophilain tap water by immunomagnetic separation, double fluorescent staining and flow cytometry
Authors: Keserue Hans‐Anton , Baumgartner Andreas , Felleisen Richard , Egli Thomas
Published: October 2012

We developed a rapid detection method forLegionella pneumophila(Lp) by filtration, immunomagnetic separation, double fluorescent staining, and flow cytometry (IMS‐FCMmethod). The method requires 120 min and can discriminate ‘viable’ and ‘membrane‐damaged’ cells. The recovery is over 85% of spikedLpSG1 cells in 1 l of tap water and detection limits are around 50 and 15 cells per litre for total and viableLp, respectively. The method was compared using water samples from house installations in a blind study with three environmental laboratories performing theISO11731 plating method. In 53% of the water samples from different taps and showers significantly higher concentrations ofLpwere detected by flow cytometry. No correlation to the plate culture method was found. Since also ‘viable but not culturable’ (VNBC) cells are detected by our method, this result was expected. TheIMS‐FCMmethod is limited by the specificity of the used antibodies; in the presented case they targetLpserogroups 1–12. This and the fact that noLp‐containing amoebae are detected may explain why in 21% of all samples higher counts were observed using the plate culture method. Though theIMS‐FCMmethod is not yet fit to completely displace the established plating method (ISO11731) for routineLpmonitoring, it has major advantages to plating and can quickly provide important insights into the ecology of this pathogen in water distribution systems.
Remodulation of central carbon metabolic pathway in response to arsenite exposure in Rhodococcus sp. strain NAU‐1
Authors: Jain Raina , Adhikary Hemanta , Jha Sanjay , Jha Anamika , Kumar G. Naresh
Published: October 2012

Arsenite‐tolerant bacteria were isolated from an organic farm of Navsari Agricultural University (NAU), Gujarat, India (Latitude: 20°55′39.04″N; Longitude: 72°54′6.34″E). One of the isolates, NAU‐1 (aerobic, Gram‐positive, non‐motile, coccobacilli), was hyper‐tolerant to arsenite (AsIII, 23 mM) and arsenate (AsV, 180 mM). 16S rRNA gene of NAU‐1 was 99% similar to the 16S rRNA genes of Rhodococcus (Accession No. HQ659188). Assays confirmed the presence of membrane bound arsenite oxidase and cytoplasmic arsenate reductase in NAU‐1. Genes for arsenite transporters (arsB and ACR3(1)) and arsenite oxidase gene (aoxB) were confirmed by PCR. Arsenite oxidation and arsenite efflux genes help the bacteria to tolerate arsenite. Specific activities of antioxidant enzymes (catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione S‐transferase) increased in dose‐dependent manner with arsenite, whereas glutathione reductase activity decreased with increase in AsIII concentration. Metabolic studies revealed that Rhodococcus NAU‐1 produces excess of gluconic and succinic acids, and also activities of glucose dehydrogenase, phosphoenol pyruvate carboxylase and isocitrate lyase were increased, to cope with the inhibited activities of glucose‐6‐phosphate dehydrogenase, pyruvate dehydrogenase and α‐ketoglutarate dehydrogenase enzymes respectively, in the presence of AsIII. Enzyme assays revealed the increase in direct oxidative and glyoxylate pathway in Rhodococcus NAU‐1 in the presence of AsIII.
Rescuing Doxastic Normativism
Authors: Olinder Ragnar Francén
Published: October 2012

According to doxastic normativism, part of what makes an attitude a belief rather than another type of attitude is that it is governed by a truth‐norm. It has been objected that this view fails since there are true propositions such that if you believed them they would not be true, and thus the obligation to believe true propositions cannot hold for these. I argue that the solution for doxastic normativists is to find a norm that draws the right distinction between those true propositions we are obliged to believe (“ordinary non‐tricky propositions”) and those we are not (“tricky propositions”). I develop a norm which I argue does exactly this, and further argue that it can be used to salvage the idea that belief is constitutively normative.
Transitivity and Partial Screening Off
Authors: Atkinson David , Peijnenburg Jeanne
Published: October 2012

The notion of probabilistic support is beset by well‐known problems. In this paper we add a new one to the list: the problem of transitivity. Tomoji Shogenji has shown that positive probabilistic support, or confirmation, is transitive under the condition of screening off. However, under that same condition negative probabilistic support, or disconfirmation, is intransitive. Since there are many situations in which disconfirmation is transitive, this illustrates, but now in a different way, that the screening‐off condition is too restrictive. We therefore weaken this condition to what we call ‘partial’ screening off. We show that the domain defined by partial screening off comprises two mutually exclusive subdomains. In one subdomain disconfirmation is indeed transitive, but confirmation is then intransitive. In the other, confirmation is transitive, but here disconfirmation is once more intransitive.
Unreliable Intuitions: A New Reply to the Moral Twin‐Earth Argument
Authors: Sonderholm Jorn
Published: October 2012

This article is concerned with Mark Timmons and Terence Horgan's influential twin‐earth argument against the semantic views of that school of thought in metaethics that has come to be known as “Cornell realism”. The semantic views of Cornell realism have been developed in greatest detail by Richard Boyd, and it is Boyd's view that is targeted by Timmons and Horgan. In the first part of the article, the twin‐earth argument is introduced and two versions of it are disentangled. Thereafter, a defensive strategy is developed against the most powerful version of the argument. The conclusion of the article is that Timmons and Horgan's argument does not succeed in showing that the semantic views associated with Cornell realism are false.
How Did Modern Humans Originate
Authors: Wolpoff Milford H. , Caspari Rachel
Published: October 2012

People alive today and their immediate ancestors—modern humans—had multiple ancestors in the Middle Pleistocene. They did not originate as a new clade—the unique descendants of a recent, small African population. Therefore, the anatomical, behavioral, and genetic aspects of their modernity are not tied together in their origin. Instead, these key components of modernity have different origins and evolutionary pathways that can be understood as distinct, although interrelated, processes. Each process characterizes all living and recent human populations, and their interrelationship derives from a shared unifying factor: changes in human demographic history originating as the consequence of increased adult survivorship. Longer lifespans helped make humans modern.
Useful Ethnographies
Authors: deRoche Constance
Published: October 2012

Books reviewed in this issue.

American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement's Culture of Hate, Pete Simi and Robert Futrell.
Film and Video
Authors: Hammons Christian S.
Published: October 2012

Film reviewed in this issue.

Please Don't Beat Me, Sir! by Shashwati Talukdar and P. Kerim Friedman.
A nanoparticle depot formulation of 4-(N)-stearoyl gemcitabine shows a strong anti-tumour activity
Authors: Zhu Saijie , Li Xinran , Lansakara-P Dharmika S P , Kumar Amit , Cui Zhengrong
Published: October 2012

Objectives

Depot formulation as a carrier for cytotoxic chemotherapeutic drugs is not well studied. The objective of this study is to test the feasibility of using a subcutaneous depot formulation to administer a cytotoxic anti-cancer drug for systemic therapy.

Methods

A fatty-acid amide prodrug of the nucleoside analogue gemcitabine (4-(N)-stearoyl gemcitabine (GemC18)) was incorporated into poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles or microspheres. A GemC18 solution was used as a control. The anti-tumour activity was evaluated after subcutaneous injection of the different formulations in C57BL/6 mice with pre-established model tumours. The clearance of GemC18 from the injection site was determined by measuring the percentage of GemC18 remaining at the injection site at different times after the injection.

Key findings

The depot formulation based on the GemC18-loaded PLGA nanoparticles showed the strongest anti-tumour effect, likely due to the proper ‘release’ of GemC18 from the injection site.

Conclusions

It is feasible to dose cytotoxic anti-cancer drugs as a nanoparticle-based depot formulation, especially when combined with an advanced prodrug strategy.
No remedy for homeopathy ‘research’
Authors: Shaw David M
Published: October 2012

This paper examines an article and accompanying editorial from the August 2011 issue of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, with a focus on the severe lack of scientific and academic rigour demonstrated in these works.
Where next for rigorous CAM research?
Authors: Lee William
Published: October 2012

The purpose of CAM research is to inform clinical CAM practice but often developments in knowledge do not translate into practice. I make three suggestions for how this situation may be improved: First, carrying out different types of study; second, enhancing dissemination; third, improving engagement. Because of the weight of prior evidence, the best interpretation of even a well‐conducted positive trial of a gravely implausible CAM modality is to invoke chance. Thus no clinical trial could ever provide adequate evidence for such a modality. A way out of this problem is not to test treatment modalities for individual indications, but to test predictions of the theories of these modalities at the point at which they diverge from mainstream knowledge. Testing of this ‘basic science of CAM’ is likely to be easier, cheaper and have a larger explanatory footprint than clinical studies. Better dissemination of results can only improve the chances of research findings influencing practice, both directly by reaching practitioners, but also by reaching clients and commissioners. Suggested models include open access publishing and open data, as well as thorough use of the old and new media. Over the long term, better population health may be found through better science literacy, and the place to start is with outreach programmes in schools. In conclusion, I describe some threats and opportunities for the future and express my optimism that ineffective treatments will disappear to be replaced by effective variants which will be incorporated into evidence‐based clinical practice.
The impact of text‐based CMC on improving L2 oral fluency
Authors: Razagifard P.
Published: October 2012

This paper reports on a study investigating the potential effect of synchronous and asynchronous text‐based computer‐mediated communication (CMC) on oral fluency development of second‐language (L2) learners. Sixty‐three intermediate learners of English were randomly assigned to one of three groups (two experimental groups and one control group), each consisting of 21 participants. The participants in the experimental groups completed four communicative tasks under two different instructional environments: synchronous text‐based CMC environment and asynchronous text‐based CMC environment. The average length of pauses, the articulation rate, the fluent‐run, the phonation‐time ratio and the speaking rate served as dependent variables. The study found that the participants in synchronous CMC group improved their L2 oral fluency significantly compared with their peers in the other two groups. The results also revealed the students in asynchronous CMC group obtained higher mean scores than those in the control group, although the differences between groups were not statistically significant.
Effect of injection of brucea javanica oil emulsion plus chemoradiotherapy for lung cancer: a review of clinical evidence
Authors: Nie Yan‐li , Liu Ke‐xin , Mao Xuan‐yue , Li Yu‐lin , Li Jing , Zhang Ming‐ming
Published: October 2012

Objective: Injection of brucea javanica oil emulsion (IBJOE), one of Chinese patent drugs has been widely used for lung cancer (LC) in China, and is known to provide some favorable outcomes, in particular when it combined with conventional treatment. However, little available best evidence is known about its effect and safety. This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of IBJOE plus chemoradiotherapy to alleviate symptoms of LC patients.

Methods: A complete literature searching was conducted in databases including Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, China Academic Journals Full‐text Database, Chinese Scientific Journals Database, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, and EMBASE to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of IBJOE with chemoradiotherapy versus chemoradiotherapy alone for LC patients regardless of blinding, duration of treatment or duration of follow‐up. All searching dates were from the beginning to December 2011. Quality of the included studies was assessed using the method by Cochrane Reviewer Handbook, and data analysis was performed using RevMan 5.10 software developed by The Cochrane Collaboration.

Results: The searching yielded over 1371 relevant citations, most of which did not meet the inclusion criteria. Finally, only 21 RCTs involving 1619 patients were included, and all the studies were of poor quality. Pooled analyses were performed to reveal that compared with chemoradiotherapy alone, IBJOE plus chemoradiotherapy had a better complete response rate (relative risk (RR) = 1.42; 95% CI 1.05 to 1.92; P = 0.02) and improved quality of life (RR = 1.83; 95% CI 1.63 to 2.07; P < 0.00001) measured by Karnofsky Performance Status scale. In addition, there was a significant difference on the outcome of long‐term survival rate, level of immune function, and some incidences of adverse effects.

Conclusions: IBJOE plus chemoradiotherapy may have positive effects on LC patients in response rate, improvement of quality of life, and reducing incidences of some adverse effects compared with chemoradiotherapy alone. However, the results need to be viewed with caution because of low quality of the included studies.