bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Presence of Excessive Moisture and the Damage Mechanism in Alternative Hybrid Configurations of GFRP
Authors: Silva L.C.F. , Lahr F.R. , Aquino E.M.F.
Published: September 2010

The aim of this study was to investigate the damage mechanism and the influence of excessive exposure to moisture on the mechanical behavior of alternative configurations of glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP). There are several possible applications involving pipes, storage tanks, and roof tiles, among others. A mat-shape hybrid configuration composed of a glass fiber reinforced polyester matrix was designed using continuous roving, along with an alternative hybrid filler, derived from two different types of industrial residues: from the furniture/wood and coconut (Cocos nucifera Linn) by-product industries. A plate configuration was initially developed and manufactured industrially. The granulometry used for the hybrid filler had a 50/50 endocarp/wood weight ratio for each residue. The resin-to-hybrid filler ratio was 65/35, representing the ratio for the manufacture of 480 g of resin and 260 g of residue. The initial goal, given the possible application of the composite developed in pipes and storage tanks, was to conduct a study aimed at analyzing its mechanical behavior in the face of excessive moisture, characterized by moisture saturation of the material. The mechanical properties of strength and stiffness were studied using tensile uniaxial and three-point bending tests in the dry and saturated moisture tests. To this end, a preliminary moisture absorption test was conducted. The damage mechanism developed was crucial for a better understanding of the interface behavior in the distribution of the laminated layers.
Empty Fruit Bunches as a Reinforcement in Laminated Bio-composites
Authors: Abdul Khalil H.P.S. , Nurul Fazita M.R. , Jawaid M. , Bhat A.H. , Abdullah C.K.
Published: September 2010

In this article, we study laminated bio-composites that were reinforced with empty fruit bunches. Five-ply veneer laminated bio-composites were prepared by alternately arranging oil palm trunk veneer and empty fruit bunch mat. Composites were made with a gluing layer of 250 or 450 g/m2 of phenol formaldehyde. The mechanical, physical, and thermal (TGA) properties of the composite were studied. Results indicated an improvement in mechanical, physical, and thermal properties of the laminated bio-composites with the use of empty fruit bunches as reinforcement. The water absorption and thickness swelling of laminated bio-composites that were reinforced with empty fruit bunches were better than bio-composites not reinforced with empty fruit bunches. Laminated bio-composites with the use of empty fruit bunch as reinforcement showed better bending strength, bending modulus, and screw withdrawal. Thermal stability for laminated bio-composites with empty fruit bunch also improved. Images taken with a scanning electron micrograph indicated an improvement in the fiber-matrix bonding for the laminated panel glued with 450 g/m 2 of phenol formaldehyde.
Effects of Respiration on Soft Palate Movement in Feeding
Authors: Matsuo K. , Metani H. , Mays K.A. , Palmer J.B.
Published: September 2010

Cyclic soft palate elevation is temporally associated with masticatory jaw movement. However, the soft palate is normally lowered during nasal breathing to maintain retropalatal airway patency. We tested the hypothesis that the frequency and amplitude of soft palate elevation associated with mastication would be reduced during inspiration. Movements of radiopaque soft palate markers were recorded by videofluorography while 11 healthy volunteers ate solid foods. Breathing was monitored with plethysmography. Masticatory sequences were divided into processing and stage II transport cycles (food transport to the oropharynx before swallowing). In food processing, palatal elevation was less frequent and its displacement was smaller during inspiration than expiration. In stage II transport, the soft palate was elevated less frequently during inspiration than expiration. These findings suggest that masticatory soft palate movement is diminished during inspiration. The control of breathing appears to have a significant effect on soft palate elevation in mastication.
Altruism Born of Suffering: How Colombian Human Rights Activists Transform Pain Into Prosocial Action
Authors: Hernández-Wolfe Pilar
Published: September 2010

This study examines the impetuses for altruistic behavior of Colombian human rights activists, all of whom experienced politically based trauma. Thirty-five human rights activists participated in individual interviews conducted between 1998 and 2009. Results of the analysis are illustrated in nine themes: affirmation of self despite fear, indignation, a search for meaning, spirituality, justice to build peace, leaving a legacy of peace and agency for the next generation, support by others, and recognition and equity for ethnic minorities and for women. It is the hope of the author that these results contribute to the examination of how healing and altruism endure even in times of civil conflict and often as a result of such times, all of which ultimately leads to the betterment of community life.
Durational Patterning at Syntactic and Discourse Boundaries in Mandarin Spontaneous Speech
Authors: Fon Janice , Johnson Keith , Chen Sally
Published: September 2010

This study focused on durational cues (i.e., syllable duration, pause duration, and syllable onset intervals (SOIs)) at discourse boundaries in two dialects of Mandarin, Taiwan and Mainland varieties. Speech was elicited by having 18 participants describe events in The Pear Story film. Recorded data were transcribed, labeled, and segmented into clauses. Discourse boundary indices were used to label discourse disjuncture levels. Results showed that the scope of lengthening included both the final and the penultimate syllables. Pause was a robust but optional indicator for discourse boundaries, and Taiwan Mandarin preferred unfilled over filled ones, while the Mainland variety did not show such strong preferences. Discourse hierarchy corresponded consistently with occurrences of pauses and duration of SOIs, within which pause was the main contributor. Higher discourse levels were more likely to be accompanied by pauses, and were indicated by longer pauses and SOIs. Syllable duration only played a secondary role in indicating discourse disjuncture size when pause was absent. When there was an accompanying pause, Mainland Mandarin relied solely on it to indicate discourse hierarchy, while Taiwan Mandarin used both syllable and pause duration, a dialectal difference that seemed to be rhythm-related. By shortening the degree of lengthening in the boundary syllable and lengthening the following pause at the same time, Taiwan Mandarin increased the absolute and relative duration of pause and maximized its role in indicating discourse hierarchy. The results of this study implied that the use of pause in discourse disjuncture demarcation was more of a language-specific choice while its role in discourse hierarchy encoding is more language-universal.
Syntactic Structure Guides Prosody in Temporarily Ambiguous Sentences
Authors: Anderson Catherine , Carlson Katy
Published: September 2010

A pair of speaking and listening studies investigated the prosody of sentences with temporary Object/Clause and Late/Early Closure ambiguities. Speakers reliably produced prosodic cues that allowed listeners to disambiguate Late/Early Closure sentences, but only infrequently produced prosody that disambiguated Object/Clause sentences, as shown by the results of listening studies. The two continuations for Object/Clause sentences were not pronounced with identical prosody, but the differences in their productions were not helpful to listeners. Speakers’ different performance on the two sentence types is traced to their different syntactic structures. These results illustrate the importance of the syntax—prosody mapping in production and test the prosodic predictions of syntax—prosody models like that of Watson and Gibson (2004).
Processing Coordination Ambiguity
Authors: Engelhardt Paul E. , Ferreira Fernanda
Published: September 2010

We examined temporarily ambiguous coordination structures such as put the butter in the bowl and the pan on the towel. Minimal Attachment predicts that the ambiguous noun phrase the pan will be interpreted as a noun-phrase coordination structure because it is syntactically simpler than clausal coordination. Constraint-based theories assume that interpretations are the result of a constraint-satisfaction process, which predicts that frequency or context can bias the parser to initially pursue a more complex interpretation. The results showed an initial preference for noun-phrase coordination, despite the fact that sentential coordination is more frequent in imperative structures. These data suggest that the parser uses a syntactic simplicity heuristic for building initial structural analyses.
Thermal protective performance of protective clothing used for low radiant heat protection
Authors: Guowen Song  , Paskaluk Stephen , Sati Rohit , Crown Elizabeth M , Doug Dale J. , Ackerman Mark
Published: September 2010

A laboratory simulation was performed to study the thermal protective performance of fabric systems under low level thermal hazards in the range of 6.3—8.3 kW/m2 . Two approaches were used. The first used a method similar to the ASTM F 1939, radiant heat resistance test, while the second used a modification designed to capture the contribution to skin burn injury due to energy stored in the test specimens being released after the direct exposure had ended. Both dry and wet specimens were tested. In order to accommodate the prolonged exposure time a water cooled heat flux sensor was used to calibrate the radiant heat source and measure the energy directly transmitted through during the exposure and discharged later from the fabric systems. The Henriques Burn Integral (HBI) was adopted and programmed with a three layer skin model to predict the time required to achieve a second degree skin burn injury. The study investigated the thermal protection provided by the clothing with different layering and examined the effect of moisture under low level radiant heat exposures. In addition, the physiological burden associated with wearing the clothing was predicted and compared. The results obtained show the difference in measured protection level under low radiant heat from these two approaches and demonstrate that the stored thermal energy released from the clothing system significantly lowers the measured thermal protective performance.
Rethinking Diversity in Resegregated Schools: Lessons From a Case Study of Urban K-8 Preservice Teachers
Authors: Michael-Luna Sara , Marri Anand R.
Published: September 2010

Using the research question “How do urban teacher candidates (TCs) understand socioeconomic, racial, and cultural diversity in resegregated urban educational contexts,” this case study examines the perceptions of preservice K-8 teachers in an urban education program. These TCs complicated diversity by focusing on “unseen” elements that are often overlooked or unpacked in superficial ways in teacher education. We examine how diversity is represented by examining the ways in which an all “Black” or all “Hispanic” classroom can be diverse. This study’s findings may contribute to changing how teacher education programs present diversity in urban classrooms.
The Dynamics of Goal Congruency and Cognitive Busyness in Goal Detection
Authors: Palomares Nicholas A.
Published: September 2010

An experiment examined a theory explaining how people detect others’ goals. The framework maintains that because components or factors (e.g., context, tactic) of interaction increase the accessibility of inferable goals, goal detection is a product of the goals these cognitive linkages activate. In dyadic initial interactions, one participant was randomly assigned as the pursuer and the other as the detector; detectors sought a goal varying in congruency (i.e., identical, concord, and discord) with pursuers’ goal. Detectors’ cognitive busyness was also manipulated. The level of efficiency at which pursuers sought their goal and the accuracy and certainty of detectors’ inference of pursuers’ goal were measured. Results generally confirmed hypotheses. Efficiency and accuracy were positively correlated only when (a) not-busy detectors’ goal was concordant with pursuers’ goal and (b) busy detectors’ goal was discordant with pursuers’ goal, whereas efficiency and certainty were positively correlated only for not-busy detectors. Other results dealt with how detectors’ perspective taking promotes accuracy for inefficient goal pursuit and how accuracy yields favorable ratings of pursuers’ communication competence when goal inferences are certain. Results are discussed theoretically and methodologically.
The Influence of Black Racial Identity on the Forgiveness of Whites
Authors: Leach Mark M. , Baker Aisha , Zeigler-Hill Virgil
Published: September 2010

Forgiving a group of individuals for past transgressions instead of a single individual has only recently garnered research attention. The present study was designed to determine the association between Black racial identity attitudes and the forgiveness of Whites. An intergroup forgiveness instrument developed to assess forgiveness between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland was adapted to assess racial forgiveness. Results were generally consistent with our predictions. The Internalization Multiculturalist Inclusive identity scale predicted both Future and Never Forgiving. However, the Immersion-Emersion Anti-White and Internalization Afrocentric scale predicted Never Forgiving but not Future Forgiving. Dispositional forgiveness and personality features were found to be associated with intergroup forgiveness. Research in racial intergroup forgiveness may have implications for areas such as race relations and public policy.
Getting Specific about Demographic Diversity Variable and Team Performance Relationships: A Meta-Analysis
Authors: Bell Suzanne T. , Villado Anton J. , Lukasik Marc A. , Belau Larisa , Briggs Andrea L.
Published: September 2010

The authors revisited the demographic diversity variable and team performance relationship using meta-analysis and took a significant departure from previous meta-analyses by focusing on specific demographic variables (e.g., functional background, organizational tenure) rather than broad categories (e.g., highly job related, less job related). They integrated different conceptualizations of diversity (i.e., separation, variety, disparity) into the development of their rationale and hypotheses for specific demographic diversity variable—team performance relationships. Furthermore, they contrasted diversity with the team mean on continuous demographic variables when elevated levels of a variable, as opposed to differences, were more logically related to team performance. Functional background variety diversity had a small positive relationship with general team performance as well as with team creativity and innovation. The relationship was strongest for design and product development teams. Educational background variety diversity was related to team creativity and innovation and to team performance for top management teams. Other variables generally thought to increase task-relevant knowledge (e.g., organizational tenure) and team performance were unrelated to team performance, although these variables were almost never studied as the variety conceptualization (i.e., the conceptualization that can reflect the breadth of knowledge that can be applied to the task). Team mean organizational tenure was related to team performance in terms of efficiency. Race and sex variety diversity had small negative relationships with team performance, whereas age diversity was unrelated to team performance regardless of diversity conceptualization. Implications for staffing teams and future research are discussed.
Escaping Embarrassment: Face-work in the Rap Cipher
Authors: Lee Jooyoung
Published: September 2010

How do individuals escape embarrassing moments in interaction? Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews, and video recordings of weekly street corner ciphers (impromptu rap sessions), this paper expands Goffman's theory of defensive and protective face-work. The findings reveal formulaic and indirect dimensions of face-work. First, this paper shows how individuals use prescripted techniques and other canned resources to overcome embarrassing gaffes in interaction. Specifically, rappers use “writtens” (prewritten rhymes) when they are close to “falling off,” a local term for messing up and stopping abruptly during a “freestyle” (improvised) rap performance. Second, this paper describes how shared pressures to sustain an interaction can lead to collateral face-saving. In the cipher, surrounding peers “jump in” and begin rapping when somebody else falls off. Although this protects the person who is falling off from embarrassment, it is often done to “keep the flow going” in the cipher. At the end, this paper also outlines situations in which individuals withhold face protection from others. These findings point to other social situations in which individuals escape embarrassment with canned resources and through collateral face-saving.
“Categorizing the Categorizer”: The Management of Racial Common Sense in Interaction
Authors: Whitehead Kevin A.
Published: September 2010

In this paper, I consider one mechanism by which racial categories, racial “common sense,” and thus the social organization of race itself, are reproduced in interaction. I approach these issues by using an ethnomethodological, conversation analytic approach to analyze a range of practices employed by participants of a “race-training” workshop. These practices manage the normative accountability involved in referring to the racial categories of others when describing their actions, and thus in using racial common sense in talk-in-interaction. This accountability arises in part because a speaker's use of a racial category to explain someone else's actions may provide a warranted basis for recipients to treat the speaker's own racial category as relevant for understanding and assessing the speaker's actions. I describe three main ways in which speakers can manage this accountability, namely generalizing race, localizing race, and alluding to race. My analysis shows that, even in attempting to resist racial common sense in accounting for their own actions and those of others, speakers orient to race as a normative framework according to which individuals will produce their own actions and interpret those of others, and thus reproduce it as relevant for understanding social action. This research contributes to advancing knowledge in the fields of ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, racial studies, and categorical inequality.
Building Cohesion in Positively Connected Exchange Networks
Authors: Schaefer David R. , Kornienko Olga
Published: September 2010

This research investigates the process through which individuals build cohesive relationships in positively connected exchange relations. Positive connections exist any time exchange in one relation must precede exchange in another. Such situations arise through gatekeeping, in generalized exchange contexts, and when resources diffuse across a network. Prior exchange research has focused primarily on negative connections, whose defining feature is competition, leaving theoretical understanding of cohesion-building in positive connections relatively underdeveloped. A key feature of positive connections is that unlike negative connections, they allow actors to exchange often even if their relationship is power-imbalanced. Consequently, we propose that in positive connections, structural power affects cohesion primarily through the mediating effects of power use and emotions, but not through exchange frequency and uncertainty. Results of a laboratory experiment support this causal model and enhance our understanding of the distinctive processes operating in positive connections.
Visual impairment and self-esteem
Authors: Bowen Jayne
Published: September 2010

This account follows on from the research report ‘Visual impairment and its impact on self-esteem’ (Bowen, 2010) published in this journal. The original article reported the results of an investigation of self-esteem levels amongst a sample group of 60 children with visual impairment. Four children, whose self-esteem was measured as ‘low’ or ‘very low’ on the B/G STEEM (1993) at the outset of the study were provided with educational programmes in school designed to enhance self-esteem, and their self-esteem was subsequently re-tested on two further occasions. The strategic interventions trialled were ‘circle time’, ‘circle of friends’ and individual mentoring. The interventions were trialled singly and in combination. There was no conclusive evidence that any one strategic intervention, or combination of interventions, was more successful at enhancing self-esteem than any other.

However, three out of the four pupils had achieved higher scores for self-esteem by the second assessment; all of them had increased self-esteem levels by the third assessment six months later; and their schools openly commented about the benefits of the interventions for the young people concerned. Possible explanations for the apparent improvements in the target children are offered.
The financial crisis and the gathering of political intelligence: A cross-country comparison of SMEs in France, Sweden and the UK
Authors: Barron Andrew , Hultén Peter , Hudson Sarah
Published: September 2010

This article reports the findings of a study that compared cross-national differences in how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) monitored political responses to the economic and financial crisis of 2007–2009. Original, empirical data collected through an online survey of 206 small business managers in France, Sweden and the UK were analysed to explore the extent that they monitored policy responses to the crisis, their motivations for doing so, and the sources of information they used for political intelligence gathering purposes. The findings show that the monitoring of political initiatives by SMEs in response to the recession varied in accordance with the extent to which their countries are affected by the recession. Also, small business managers on the whole considered it more important, despite the international nature of the crisis, to monitor political responses in national rather than supranational political settings. Contrary to our expectations, we found that SMEs across all three countries drew on similarly wide sources of information when monitoring policy responses to the crisis. Also surprising was the finding that SME managers in the UK relied heavily on official government sources when gathering intelligence on attempts to alleviate the recession’s effects.
Evaluating the social capital accrued in large research networks: The case of the Sustainable Forest Management Network (1995-2009)
Authors: Klenk Nicole L. , Hickey Gordon M. , MacLellan James Ian
Published: September 2010

This paper examines the social capital that evolved in the Sustainable Forest Management Network (SFMN), one of the Canadian Networks of Centres of Excellence. Our longitudinal study shows a sevenfold increase in the total number of researchers and a high density of relationships among (researchers from) provinces across the country. The results of a social network analysis revealed that 52.6 percent of the network researchers maintained the same number of collaborators while 46.7 percent increased their number of collaborators enormously: the maximum increase in number of collaborators being 6900 percent and the minimum 6 percent. A bibliometric analysis suggested that the number of publications was strongly correlated to measures of social capital. From a science and innovation policy perspective, the finding that more than half of the researchers in the SFMN did not increase their personal networks of collaborators raises important questions. A theoretical model is proposed to examine whether funding agencies should focus on fostering various network structures and evolutions or rely on competition in the distribution of research funds through networks. The proposed model is designed to measure the impact of various network structures on the development of social capital and research output.
Fertility Trends, Marriage Patterns, and Savant Typologies in Albanian Context
Authors: Doja Albert
Published: September 2010

In this article, the author focuses on the speculative literalism and typologism in current scholarship to construct a taken-for-granted view, taking issue especially with many points raised in the literature on the subject that have associated fertility rates in Albania more closely with the existence of patriarchal cultural traits. This leads the author to argue that the specific rationale for the myth of many children, high fertility rates, and complex family structures in Albanian context, as elsewhere in patrilineal societies, is an ideological elaboration of patriarchy. Methodologically, the analysis of the standard view of childbearing, based on standard ethnographic methods, traditional historical sources and aggregate demographic data, is aimed to illustrate the inadequacy of the historical—ethnographic paradigm against the available empirical evidence. In turn, understanding how ideological elements are emphasized in cultural activism should lead, against current scholarship claims, to an understanding of the way in which the urgent need for male children must have been to hide away other more troubling reasons.
Predictors of Social Skills for Preschool Children at Risk for ADHD: The Relationship Between Direct and Indirect Measurements
Authors: Thomas Lisa B. , Shapiro Edward S. , DuPaul George J. , Lutz J. Gary , Kern Lee
Published: September 2010

The relationship between direct and indirect measurements of social skills and social problem behaviors for preschool children at risk for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was examined. Participants included 137 preschool children, aged 3 to 5 years, at risk for ADHD, who were participating in a larger study examining the effects of early intervention for young children. Teachers rated the social skills and social problems of the participants. Direct observation data of participants were also collected at preschool during free play. Results support previous research on social skills assessment and suggest that indirect and direct measures may not be measuring the same aspect of social skills. Thus, a variety of evaluation tools are necessary to comprehensively assess the social skills of preschool children with social challenges.
Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses of the Multicultural Teaching Scale
Authors: Yan Yang  , Montgomery Diane
Published: September 2010

The ongoing conceptual controversy of cultural competence for preservice teachers led to the current study that explored the underlying structure of cultural competence through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis methods. A total of 793 preservice teachers from two large Midwestern universities completed the Multicultural Teaching Scale. Results of EFAs supported a two-factor solution of cultural competence: praxis and knowledge. The final model derived from EFA yielded a 28-item two-factor model that fits the data, where χ2/ df = 2.50, comparative fit index = .91, Tucker—Lewis index = .91, and root mean square error of approximation = .06. The model comparison results suggested that the two-factor model from the current study was the best fit for the data. These findings indicate a more parsimonious model of cultural competence and suggest that the current MTS structure should be revised to more accurately reflect the structure of cultural competence for preservice teachers.
Embracing Our Visual Inspection and Analysis Tradition
Authors: Artman Kathleen , Wolery Mark , Yoder Paul
Published: September 2010

Most investigators using single-case experimental designs use interobserver agreement (IOA) checks to enhance the credibility of the collected data, and they report the results of those assessments using percentage of agreement estimates. An alternative is to graph both observers’ records of the measured behavior on the primary study graphs. Such graphing leads to greater transparency and is advocated for five reasons: (a) to make explicit how IOA assessments were distributed across the study, (b) to ensure agreement estimates are reported at the level of the measured behavior of interest rather than a broader observational code, (c) to detect observer drift, (d) to detect the effect of observer expectations, and (e) to put the IOA data in a more suitable context for assessing the internal validity of the study by eliminating the need for an arbitrary agreement criterion.
The Dialectics of the Exit Interview: A Fresh Look at Conversations About Organizational Disengagement
Authors: Gordon Michael E.
Published: September 2010

Despite being a staple of human resource management since the 1920s, the exit interview (EI) has contributed information about employee turnover that has produced as much skepticism as confidence regarding its authenticity. As the EI is a situated conversation about organizational disengagement, research on relevant communication phenomena is applied to extend our understanding of the EI. A model of the EI is presented that is based on two dialectical processes that address the conversational purposes of the interviewee and interviewer. Petronio’s treatise on the reveal-conceal dialectic is used to identify factors that influence the departing employees’ self-revelations, that is, the authenticity of personal information regarding their reasons for voluntarily leaving their jobs. Lamiell’s dialectic process is used to account for the interviewer’s sense of authenticity-inauthenticity about the departing employee’s responses.
Vocational Anticipatory Socialization (VAS): A Communicative Model of Adolescents’ Interests in STEM
Authors: Myers Karen K. , Jahn Jody L. S. , Gailliard Bernadette M. , Stoltzfus Kimberly
Published: September 2010

Models of career development have focused on important vocational influences such as self-efficacy, exposure, and gender prescriptions but have glossed over the role of communication in socializing adolescents toward or from various careers. We investigate academic interests in math and science and related career aspirations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Drawing on data from 38 focus groups (241 students), the proposed Vocational Anticipatory Socialization (VAS) model of STEM depicts factors that influence adolescent academic-career interests including communication associated with gender prescriptions; cultural membership/socioeconomic status; experiences; personal factors (self-efficacy, exposure, resilience); and importantly, the sources and significance of VAS messages for the development of academic-career pursuits.
Theoretical polyamory: Some thoughts on loving, thinking, and queering anarchism
Authors: Shannon Deric , Willis Abbey
Published: September 2010

This article argues that queering anarchism means complexifying it. Concretely, we propose that we can apply some of the ways that we (might) love to the ways that we think about political theory. Thus, we build the metaphor of ‘theoretical polyamory’ to suggest that having multiple partners (or political theories) is a way of constructing more holistic and nuanced movements than might be implied by solely relying on anarchism for the answers to the complex questions surrounding the political project of undoing all forms of structured and institutionalized domination, coercion, and control.
Expressing the self through greeting card sentiment
Authors: West Emily
Published: September 2010

As mass-produced vehicles of sentiment, greeting cards draw attention to the use of socially constructed codes for communicating, even feeling, emotion. This article describes the results of interviews with 51 greeting card consumers, focusing on what makes greeting cards ‘personal’ for them, despite their mass-produced nature. Consumers negotiate their relationships with pre-printed sentiments differently depending on whether their allegiance is stronger to an expressive individualist understanding of authenticity or a ritual perspective, and these allegiances tend to reflect cultural capital. Specifically, suspicion of pre-printed sentiments is common among people with higher cultural capital, while this is the feature of greeting cards that is most important to other greeting card consumers. I argue that scholars should avoid taking an expressive individualist understanding of authenticity as a standard against which we evaluate mass culture and its consumption.
C’mon girlfriend
Authors: Frith Hannah , Raisborough Jayne , Klein Orly
Published: September 2010

In the context of a purported shift from humiliation to the benign exemplified by the marked contrast between How to Look Good Naked and What Not to Wear, this article examines the cultural work performed by the ‘space of the benign’. We identify three main mechanisms — body appreciation, synthetic friendship and suspended sexuality — which manipulate existing constructions of female friendship and homosexuality to produce the host as the ‘gay best friend’. As such, the host sidesteps the heterosexual scopic economy while seeking to re-place women within it, and avoids the censure frequently directed at female presenters. At the same time, by coaxing women towards an acceptance of their body as is, How to Look Good Naked provides a ‘feel-good’ sense of empowerment while preserving individualistic framings of body problems and solutions. We conclude that the show rehabilitates women within the heteronormative scopic economy, and reinscribes them as neo-liberal consumers.
Cultural models and the dream
Authors: Mageo Jeannette
Published: September 2010

Dreamers practice models, I argue here, that in daytime serve as efficacious ways of acting in a cultural world but that also incorporate socioeconomic hierarchies that may be disadvantageous for the dreamer. Melding personal experience with models represented as images, dreamers conceptualize these disadvantages and pursue remedies for them. I explore these ideas through the dream of a US undergraduate (Marlene) about hair. Hair is the target of an anthropological debate about putatively universal symbols and cultural messages, which this paper will address. In Marlene’s dream, hair symbolizes what I call a US Cinderella model for being a woman — a model that embeds a gender hierarchy within Marlene’s identity. Marlene’s dream, however, reconfigures her identity and this model along with it.
The 250th anniversary of daylight science: Looking back and looking forward
Authors: Kittler R. , Kocifaj M. , Darula S.
Published: September 2010

This year it is appropriate to celebrate an event of great significance for all illuminating engineers. This year is the 250th anniversary of the publication of major books by Pierre Bouguer and Johann H. Lambert. These books summarise the principles of photometry and of daylight science in particular. It is also an opportunity to mention the basic criteria of daylight design and evaluation still used today, that is the Daylight and Sky Factors together with the methods for the calculation of window solid angles developed by Lambert and several approximations derived later. All 20th Century daylight design tools, for example diagrams, nomograms or protractors are based on these. Although the simplified Daylight or Sky Factors are obsolete now, the solid angle for large area sources with a particular sky luminance specification is still needed for calculating the Daylight Coefficient or absolute illuminance in computer programs.
Who or What Governs?: The Effects of Economics, Politics, Institutions, and Needs on Local Spending
Authors: Hajnal Zoltan L. , Trounstine Jessica
Published: September 2010

The core question driving the study of local politics is—who or what governs local democracy? After decades of study, researchers continue to debate the relative merits of economic, political, institutional, and bureaucratic accounts of local democracy. By providing a test that incorporates each of these four different theoretical perspectives, that analyzes major spending decisions that cities make, and that includes a large, representative sample of localities, we offer a systematic examination of local government decision making. We find that each of the existing one-sided stories is incomplete. Economic constraints are critical in determining what a government can do but the overall balance between redistributional, allocational, and developmental spending is also strongly influenced by political imperatives, institutional constraints, and actual needs.
Choices in Context: How Case-Level Factors Influence the Magnitude of Ideological Voting on the U.S. Supreme Court
Authors: Bartels Brandon L.
Published: September 2010

Most scholarship on Supreme Court decision making assumes that justices’ ideological preferences exhibit a uniform impact on their choices across a variety of situations. I develop a theoretical framework positing the importance of case-level context in shaping the magnitude of ideological voting on the Court. I hypothesize how issue-related factors influence this magnitude. I test the hypotheses using a multilevel modeling framework on data from the 1953-2004 terms. The results provide support for several of the hypotheses; issue salience, issue attention, the authority for the decision (statutory interpretation versus constitutionality of federal or state laws), intercourt conflict, the presence of a lower court dissent, and mandatory versus discretionary jurisdiction all significantly influence ideological voting. Overall, the article adds significant qualifications to extant theories of judicial decision making by showing how ideological voting on the Court is shaped by the varying situations that confront the justices from case to case.
In Vivo Study on the Expression Pattern of Resistin in Patients With Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm
Authors: Muehling Bernd M. , Paintner Agnes , Marx Nikolaus , Barth Thomas F. E. , Babiak Christina , Orend Karl H.
Published: September 2010

Objective: To study the expression pattern of resistin in abdominal aortic aneurysms and to correlate its plasma levels to aneurysm size and statin therapy. Patients and Methods: From 25 patients on regular and 38 patients without statin therapy tissue specimen and plasma samples were obtained for analysis. Results: Demographic data, past medical history, and body mass index showed no significant differences between the statin and no statin group. Immunohistochemistry showed positive stainings for resistin in all sections and in part colocalization to CD 68 positive cells. Patients with large aneurysms showed significant correlation of C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin 10 (IL-10) levels; patients on statin medication had significantly lower plasma levels of resistin and CRP. Conclusion: In contrast to IL-10 and CRP plasma levels of resistin are not correlated to aneurysm diameter; yet statin therapy results in decrease of resistin and CRP, suggesting an anti-inflammatory action in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs).
From Pictorial Collage to Intermedia Assemblage: Variations V (1965) and the Cagean origins of VanDerBeek’s Expanded Cinema
Authors: Uroskie Andrew V.
Published: September 2010

Post 1964, after a half-dozen years pursuing an increasingly successful career as an independent producer of animated films, Stan VanDerBeek began to devote himself to a more performative and interdisciplinary practice he termed ‘expanded cinema’. This article contends that the most significant moment and motivation in this transition was the artist’s close collaboration with John Cage and Merce Cunningham in the production of Variations V, and that an examination of VanDerBeek’s Movie-Mural in the context of that production helps us to understand the important role played by his former Black Mountain College teachers in the genesis of this vision. The author proposes that an interdisciplinary rhetoric of ‘assemblage’ in this period can help bridge the aesthetic and conceptual gap between the artist’s early practice of collage animation and his later turn to expanded cinema and intermedia performance.
Treatment of alcoholic liver disease
Authors: Frazier Thomas H. , Stocker Abigail M. , Kershner Nicole A. , Marsano Luis S. , McClain Craig J.
Published: September 2010

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) remains a major cause of liver-related mortality in the US and worldwide. The correct diagnosis of ALD can usually be made on a clinical basis in conjunction with blood tests, and a liver biopsy is not usually required. Abstinence is the hallmark of therapy for ALD, and nutritional therapy is the first line of therapeutic intervention. The role of steroids in patients with moderate to severe alcoholic hepatitis is gaining increasing acceptance, with the caveat that patients be evaluated for the effectiveness of therapy at 1 week. Pentoxifylline appears to be especially effective in ALD patients with renal dysfunction/hepatorenal syndrome. Biologics such as specific anti-TNFs have been disappointing and should probably not be used outside of the clinical trial setting. Transplantation is effective in patients with end-stage ALD who have stopped drinking (usually for ≥6 months), and both long-term graft and patient survival are excellent.
Chemotherapeutics in the treatment of multiple sclerosis
Authors: Kieseier Bernd C. , Jeffery Douglas R.
Published: September 2010

The likely pathogenic mechanisms of multiple sclerosis (MS) provide a sound rationale for investigating the efficacy of drugs possessing immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory properties. With proven efficacy, safety and tolerability, interferon beta formulations and glatiramer acetate have become the mainstay of initial treatment for patients with relapsing forms of MS. More recently, natalizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody (mAb) against the cellular adhesion molecule α4-integrin, has been employed for patients with an inadequate response or lack of tolerability to an alternate MS therapy, or as initial therapy for patients with severe disease. Various agents initially developed for oncological indications, either as chemotherapeutics or mAbs, may also have current or future uses in MS treatment. Mitoxantrone is currently the only chemotherapeutic agent approved for treatment of MS in the United States, while in parts of Europe azathioprine is approved and widely used for MS treatment. Other chemotherapeutics that have been tested in MS to date include cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, cladribine, and the mAbs alemtuzumab and rituximab. While there has been varying evidence of efficacy for these compounds, each appears to be associated with serious risks that require careful consideration and management. Given the risks that have been demonstrated for available chemotherapeutic agents and while long-term postmarketing safety data are still not available for those agents in development, it seems prudent to carefully assess the possible use of chemotherapeutics in the treatment of MS. A thorough risk-benefit analysis is becoming increasingly important in the assessment of therapeutic options for this disabling disease.
Anti-aquaporin-4 antibodies in Devic’s neuromyelitis optica: therapeutic implications
Authors: Marignier Romain , Giraudon Pascale , Vukusic Sandra , Confavreux Christian , Honnorat Jérôme
Published: September 2010

Devic’s neuromyelitis optica (DNMO) is a demyelinating and inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS) essentially restricted to the spinal cord and the optic nerves. It is a rare disorder with a prevalence estimated at less than 1/100,000 in Western countries. Since the first description by Eugène Devic in 1894, the relationship between DNMO and multiple sclerosis (MS) has been controversial. Recent clinical, epidemiological, pathological and immunological data demonstrate that MS and DNMO are distinct entities. This distinction between DNMO and MS is crucial, as prognosis and treatment are indeed different. DNMO is now considered to be an autoimmune, antibody-mediated disease especially since the identification of a specific serum autoantibody, named NMO-IgG and directed against the main water channel of the CNS, aquaporin-4 (AQP4). The assessment of AQP4 antibodies (Abs) has initially been proposed to differentiate DNMO and MS. It has also enlarged the clinical spectrum of DNMO and proved to be helpful in predicting relapses and conversion to DNMO after a first episode of longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis or isolated optic neuritis. Lastly, the discovery of the pathogenic role of AQP4 Abs in DNMO leads to a better understanding of detailed DNMO immunopathology and the elaboration of relevant novel treatment strategies specific to DNMO. In this review, we summarize the present and future therapeutic implications generated by the discovery of the various pathogenic mechanisms of AQP4 Abs in DNMO pathophysiology.
Scanning the Post-Thyroidectomy Neck: Appearance and Technique
Authors: Bieker Teresa
Published: September 2010

Thyroid cancer is the most common type of endocrine cancer. In 2009, there were approximately 37,200 cases newly diagnosed. Sonography is becoming the modality of choice to evaluate the neck preoperatively and postoperatively. Accurate scanning and evaluation is essential for proper diagnosis, surgical approach, and staging.
Internal Carotid Artery Hypoplasia
Authors: Scissons Robert P. , Mason Julie
Published: September 2010

Hypoplasia is used to define an underdeveloped or incomplete development of a tissue or organ. Hypoplasia of the internal carotid artery (ICA) is a rare congenital anomaly that is infrequently seen or reported. This case study describes multiple sonographic evaluations of a hypoplastic ICA that resulted in misidentification and misdiagnosis of ICA stenosis and ICA occlusion with duplex sonography.
Critical Thinking for Sonographic Breast Imaging
Authors: Wilson Michelle , Remlinger Rachel , Wilson Amy
Published: September 2010

Sonography of the breast has become invaluable in the characterization of breast lesions identified on mammography or at physical examination. The ability of sonographers and sonologists to employ critical thinking skills when imaging breast lesions is an important aspect to correctly diagnose and follow breast pathology. The purpose of this article is to delineate this process and provide examples of each sonographic categorization that these masses might present with. With careful attention to what can and should be documented with every breast lesion found by sonography, consistency to clinical and surgical treatment may increase.