bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A prospective study assessing anal plug for containment of faecal soilage and incontinence
Authors: Chew M.‐H. , Quah H.‐M. , Ooi B.‐S. , Lim J.‐F. , Ho K.‐S. , Tang C.‐L. , Eu K.‐W.
Published: November 2007

Objective  Faecal incontinence is a common and embarrassing problem for many individuals. Some patients remained symptomatic despite the availability of different treatments. There is a limited range of commercially available products designed to cope with faecal incontinence. The anal plug has been developed to contain the loss of stool. This study aimed to evaluate the use of anal plug in Asian patients with intractable faecal soilage and incontinence judged by clinical and functional outcomes.

Method  A prospective study of consecutive patients with intractable faecal incontinence was carried out. Suitable patients tested the anal plug for 3 weeks. They completed a structured questionnaire on its use including the ASCRS quality of life questionnaire for faecal incontinence.

Results  Thirty patients, median age 63 (interquartile range 52–70) years, participated in the trial. Nineteen of 30 patients were comfortable wearing the plug, seven patients withdrew from the study because of discomfort, and four had tolerable discomfort and managed to complete the trial protocol. Patients who tolerated the plug found that it was highly successful in controlling faecal incontinence. Twenty‐one of 30 patients wished to continue to use the plug regularly after the study. There was a trend toward improvement in quality of life scores during the study.

Conclusion  The anal plug was effective in containing faecal incontinence and was well tolerated in the majority of patients selected for this treatment.
Applying the Theories of Reasoned Action and Planned Behavior to Athlete Training Adherence Behavior
Authors: Anderson Ailsa G. , Lavallee David
Published: November 2007

The ability of the Theories of Reasoned Action (TRA) and Planned Behavior (TPB) to predict adherence to training in a group of athletes (N = 46; M age = 20.2, SD = 3.7 years) who had recently been introduced to a new strength and conditioning training regimen was investigated. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that the TPB was superior to the TRA in predicting training behavior and accounted for 24 per cent of variance in adherence to training (F(2, 43) = 8.20, p < .01) with perceived behavioral control contributing independently. Perceived behavioral control appeared to be more important in determining adherence in early stages of training. These results suggest that the TPB and TRA offer theoretical frameworks to examine adherence to new training regimens, and that they may be used to direct interventions to increase training adherence.

La capacité des théories de l’action raisonnée (TRA) et du comportement planifié pour prédire l’adhésion à la formation d’un groupe d’athlètes (N = 46, moyenne d’âge 20,2, ET = 3,7 ans) récemment soumis à un nouveau régime d’entraînement a étéétudiée. Des analyses de régression multiple indiquent que le TPB était supérieur au TRA pour prédire le comportement lors de la formation et expliquait 24% de la variance de l’adhésion à la formation (F(2, 43) = 8,20, p > .01), le contrôle comportemental perçu contribuant indépendamment. Le contrôle comportemental perçu apparaît être plus important pour déterminer l’adhésion dans les premières étapes de l’entraînement. Ces résultats suggèrent que le TPB et le TRA offrent des cadres théoriques pour examiner l’adhésion à de nouveaux régimes d’entraînement et qu’ils peuvent être employés lors d’interventions directes dont le but est d’augmenter l’adhésion à la formation.
Salmon shark connections: North Pacific climate change, indirect fisheries effects, or just variability?
Authors: Okey Thomas A , Wright Bruce A , Brubaker Michael Y
Published: November 2007

A variety of changes are occurring in the ecosystems of the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, but information about the mechanisms of change has been relatively limited, due in part to the region’s remoteness and subarctic conditions. Any number of ecosystem components or indicators could be used to exemplify this dilemma, but here we point to the salmon shark (Lamna ditropis, Lamnidae) as an example of a species that can potentially mediate considerable ecosystem change due to its high trophic level, but for which some basic information is lacking despite attracting some interesting research and widespread rumours and anecdotal evidence of increased abundance. Increases in the abundance of sharks such as salmon sharks in this region during the 1990s, if true, may help explain other observed changes such as declines in ocean survival rates of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp., Salmonidae) in the region and declines in some wild salmon stocks. Mechanisms that could cause salmon shark increases in Alaskan coastal waters include: (i) increases in sea temperature since the 1970s allowing distributional shifts of this species and changes in the abundance or distribution of their prey; (ii) the 1992 banning of high seas drift gillnets; and (iii) indirect fisheries effects such as competitive release of salmon sharks in the North Pacific transition region and towards the more southern geographic extent of their annual migration as the result of fishery‐related reductions in blue sharks (Prionace glauca, Carcharhinidae) and other pelagic predators. The relative plausibility of these alternative explanations can be evaluated using combinations of existing ecosystem models and empirical research and monitoring programmes including local and indigenous observations.
Managing fisheries is managing people: what has been learned?
Authors: Hilborn Ray
Published: November 2007

Understanding the behaviour of fishermen is a key ingredient to successful fisheries management. The aggregate behaviour of fishing fleets can be predicted and managed with appropriate incentives. To determine appropriate incentives, we should look to successes to learn what works and what does not. In different fisheries incentive systems have been found to reduce the race‐for‐fish and make fisheries profitable, to stimulate stock rebuilding, to reduce bycatch, and to provide for reductions in illegal fishing. Yet, success can be evaluated in many dimensions, but is, in fact, rarely done – per cent overfished seems to be the dominant measure of performance. I evaluate the yield lost due to overfishing in several ecosystems and contrast the situation of North Atlantic cod where considerable yield is lost, to fisheries in New Zealand and the west coast of the USA where lost yield due to overfishing is very small. Much more systematic evaluation of the other aspects of fisheries performance is greatly needed. From examples explored in this paper I conclude that prevention of overfishing can be achieved with strong central governments enforcing conservative catch regulations, but economic success appears to require an appropriate incentive structure.
‘Robust and Raring to Go?’– Judges' Perceptions of Child Witnesses
Authors: Raitt Fiona E.
Published: November 2007

This article explores judicial perceptions of child witnesses. It considers the impact of recent legislation in England and Wales as well as in Scotland which classified all child witnesses as vulnerable and introduced a series of special measures to facilitate children's evidence. The article reports the findings of an empirical research study conducted with the judiciary in Scotland which suggests that judicial perceptions of child witnesses extend across a complex spectrum where a child may be viewed as vulnerable but is also likely to be seen as suggestible, reliable or resilient. The article advances two propositions. First, that the statutory conceptualization of children as invariably vulnerable has not displaced established beliefs concerning children's suggestibility and therefore has made little difference to perceptions of their ability to produce reliable testimony. Second, that focusing on children's potential for resilience rather than their vulnerability may prove a more productive conceptualization of children, one which could better support their capability as witnesses.
Health and Safety at Home: Private and Public Responsibility for Unsatisfactory Housing Conditions
Authors: Burridge Roger , Ormandy David
Published: November 2007

This paper reviews two legislative approaches intended to control housing conditions in the rented sector ‐ the landlords’ contractual obligations, and the powers of local authorities. The authors argue that the landlords’ covenants are almost totally ineffective, and that it now rests on local authorities to protect the health and safety of tenants. Breaches of the implied covenants that houses should be fit and in repair will provide tenants with a legal action against their landlords. However, the tenant's standing is now so weak that these covenants fail to provide protection. The Housing Act 2004 introduced a regulatory framework based upon assessing the risks to the health and safety ‐ the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) ‐ giving local authorities tools to ensure that housing is as safe and health as possible.

The history of the regulation of housing conditions also reveals important insights into the nature of private and public regulation.
How Critical is Employee Orientation for Customer Relationship Management? Insights from a Case Study
Authors: Plakoyiannaki Emmanuella , Tzokas Nikolaos , Dimitratos Pavlos , Saren Michael
Published: November 2007

abstract  This paper explores the interface of employee orientation and the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) process based on an in‐depth case study of a leading firm in the UK automotive services sector. Employee orientation is embedded in the Organizational Culture (OC) of the firm and manifested through its key elements, notably assumptions, values, behaviours and artefacts. CRM consists of four organizational activities: strategic planning, information, value creation, and performance measurement sub‐processes. Based on the case study evidence, the widely postulated link between CRM success and employee orientation is empirically supported and the mechanisms underlying this association elucidated.
Contract Formalization and Governance of Exporter–Importer Relationships
Authors: Aulakh Preet S. , Gençtürk F. Esra
Published: November 2007

abstract  Exporting relationships between manufacturers and foreign importers pose unique coordination problems because, on the one hand, transactions are recurrent and both firms make non‐trivial relationship‐specific investments, but at the same time, the exchange partners maintain separate legal entities with individual profit claims. This study examines the role of contracts as a governance mechanism in these relationships that are neither market‐based discrete transactions, nor can be governed through ownership‐based hierarchies. Drawing upon recent research on contract law and interorganizational relationships, we develop and empirically test a model that incorporates both the antecedents and performance implications of the nature of contract governing exporter–importer relationships.
Gender, Vulnerability, and the Experts: Responding to the Maldives Tsunami
Authors: Fulu Emma
Published: November 2007

This article examines the initial response by national and international agencies to gender issues during the aftermath of the Maldives tsunami, arguing that it was, in general, inadequate. Some agencies took a gender blind approach, ignoring different impacts on men and women, as well as the effects of complex gender relations on relief and recovery efforts. Other agencies paid greater attention to gender relations in their response but tended to focus exclusively on the universal category of the ‘vulnerable woman’ requiring special assistance, whilst at the same time ignoring men's vulnerabilities. This article argues that such language entrenched women as victims, excluding them from leadership and decision‐making roles and as such served to reinforce and re‐inscribe women's trauma. It is suggested that it is partly because of the nature of international bureaucracies and the fact that this disaster drew foreign ‘experts’ from around the world that the response neglected or over‐simplified gender issues.
Unsettling Experiences: Internal Resettlement and International Aid Agencies in Laos
Authors: Baird Ian G. , Shoemaker Bruce
Published: November 2007

A number of programmes and policies in Laos are promoting the internal resettlement of mostly indigenous ethnic minorities from remote highlands to lowland areas and along roads. Various justifications are given for this internal resettlement: eradication of opium cultivation, security concerns, access and service delivery, cultural integration and nation building, and the reduction of swidden agriculture. There is compelling evidence that it is having a devastating impact on local livelihoods and cultures, and that international aid agencies are playing important but varied and sometimes conflicting roles with regard to internal resettlement in Laos. While some international aid agencies claim that they are willing to support internal resettlement if it is ‘voluntary’, it is not easy to separate voluntary from involuntary resettlement in the Lao context. Both state and non‐state players often find it convenient to discursively frame non‐villager initiated resettlement as ‘voluntary’.
‘Black Economic Empowerment’, Business and the State in South Africa
Authors: Ponte Stefano , Roberts Simon , Van Sittert Lance
Published: November 2007

‘Black Economic Empowerment’ (BEE) has been a major policy thrust of the democratic governments in South Africa since 1994 in attempting to redress the effects of apartheid. In this article, we explore the historical precedents to BEE in South Africa, review the different steps taken in promoting it, and assess some of its outcomes to date. We argue that BEE can take only limited forms because of the economic policy constraints in which it has been incorporated. Moreover, these forms have an increasingly managerial logic that further restricts what can be achieved. Short of a major shift in conceptions of — and policy for — BEE, meaningful ‘empowerment’ is unlikely to take place.
DEPOSITOR DISCIPLINE, REGULATORY CONTROL, AND A BANKING CRISIS: A STUDY OF INDIAN URBAN COOPERATIVE BANKS
Authors: CHIPALKATTI Niranjan , RAMESHA K. , RISHI Meenakshi
Published: November 2007

ABSTRACT**:  Urban Cooperative banks in India (UCBs) play an important role in mobilizing resources from lower and middle‐income groups and in providing direct finance to small entrepreneurs and traders. Motivated by previous empirical work on depositor disciplining behaviour, this paper examines whether depositors punish weak UCBs by withdrawing deposits during and after a banking crisis. In addition, the paper investigates the impact of tightened prudential standards imposed by the Indian central bank (RBI) on the ratio of investments to loan assets and on the rate of growth of loans. Our sample of 45 UCBs is partitioned into strong and weak banks and subjected to econometric testing. Our analysis reveals that a banking crisis is associated with a contraction in deposits across the sample. However, weak banks appear to be disciplined by depositors during election years. We also find weak support for the contention that banks reduced loans when faced with intensified regulatory scrutiny in the aftermath of a crisis.
EXIT, CHOICE OR LOYALTY: PATIENT DRIVEN COMPETITION IN PRIMARY CARE
Authors: LEVAGGI Rosella , ROCHAIX Lise
Published: November 2007

ABSTRACT**:  This paper analyses the potential costs and benefits from patient driven competition between GPs and specialists by comparing gate‐keeping with direct access to specialist care. The two access rules are compared under fee‐for‐service and capitation, on their performance at minimizing both total financial costs and patients’ opportunity cost of time in care. To analyse the social cost of patients’ potential access mistakes, two types of illnesses are considered, with two levels of severity and an equal probability for each of the four events. The results generated under information symmetry show that gate‐keeping always dominates in terms of minimizing financial cost. Results are extended to show that under patients’ heterogeneity with respect to time preferences, allocative efficiency can be enhanced in gate‐keeping by giving the patient the option to seek a specialist directly, provided he bears the extra cost. When turning to information asymmetry, results are reversed, and direct access is shown to be more cost effective. This is due to patients’ ability to constrain providers’ opportunistic behaviour by ‘voting with their feet’. Beyond increasing allocative efficiency, patient choice is therefore found, under certain conditions, to contribute towards enhancing productive efficiency. Finally, introducing co‐payments to share the financial risk associated with direct access potentially weakens patients’ ability to curb providers’ strategic behaviour. Under information asymmetry, direct access to specialist care should therefore remain free if patient's disutility in time in care is linear. When it is instead increasing, we show that a co‐payment becomes necessary to curb specialists’ information rent. Finally, under information asymmetry, the mixed solution (gate‐keeping with optional direct access) improves on pure gate‐keeping but is still suboptimal.
LES LOGIQUES D'ACTEURS DES FINANCES SOLIDAIRES CONTEMPORAINES: DE LA RESISTANCE A LA RESILIENCE?
Authors: TAUPIN Marie‐Thérèse , GLEMAIN Pascal
Published: November 2007

RESUME**:  Cet article explore la pluralité des logiques d'action qui organise les finances solidaires contemporaines à partir d'études et d'expériences françaises. Il s'articule en deux points. D'une part, il analyse le glissement d'une finance alternative vers une finance solidaire sur les vingt‐cinq dernières années et, interroge les frontières «zone de conflit» entre cette autre finance et la finance standard. D'autre part, il insiste sur l'attraction des isomorphismes qu'ils soient marchands ou non marchands menaçant la pleine affirmation de la finance solidaire, tout en démontrant une certaine capacité de résistance et de partenariats.
DOES DISPERSED PUBLIC OWNERSHIP IMPAIR EFFICIENCY? THE CASE OF REFUSE COLLECTION IN NORWAY
Authors: SØRENSEN RUNE J.
Published: November 2007

Corporate governance theory suggests that companies with dispersed and indirect ownership suffer from agency costs. A worst case is where several political authorities jointly own a company, which allows managers to operate with inferior efficiency. In political economy, the manager is not the major agency problem. Elected politicians may impair efficiency to improve their re‐election prospects. Since politicians have less influence in jointly owned firms, such companies are expected to perform better than those owned by a single public authority.

Consistent with corporate governance – but not political economy – the empirical analysis suggests that dispersed municipal ownership impairs cost efficiency. In the Norwegian case of municipal refuse collection presented here, costs of dispersed ownership often outstrip gains from economies of scale. Use of jointly owned companies is not necessarily a proper response to efficiency problems inherent a fragmented local government structure.
PATIENT CHOICE IN HEALTHCARE IN ENGLAND AND SWEDEN: FROM QUASI‐MARKET AND BACK TO MARKET? A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF FAILURE IN UNLEARNING
Authors: FOTAKI MARIANNA
Published: November 2007

This paper compares elements of choice introduced under the market orientated reforms in health systems in the UK and Sweden in the 1990s, and the recent patient choice policy in both countries. It reviews empirical evidence on the impact of choice on users and services under these reforms to examine whether, and how far, these past developments have informed the current choice reforms. The paper asserts that the reappearance of issues and solutions in patient choice policy in the English NHS and in Sweden signifies limited learning from their own past and cross‐national experience, resulting in blurred and mutually exclusive policy agendas. The study argues that this absence of learning happens because of the seeming inability of governments and policy‐makers to unlearn effectively their preconceived ideas and schemas, pointing out the limitations of social learning theory in understanding health policy development.
Asset Specificity and Vertical Integration
Authors: Kvaløy Ola
Published: November 2007

Asset specificity is usually considered to be an argument for vertical integration. The main idea is that specificity induces opportunistic behavior, and that vertical integration reduces the cost of preventing opportunism. In this paper I show that asset specificity can be an argument for non‐integration. In a repeated‐game model of self‐enforcing relational contracts, it is shown that when parties are non‐integrated, increasing degrees of asset specificity make it possible to design relational contracts with higher‐powered incentives.
Partial Linear Models for Longitudinal Data Based on Quadratic Inference Functions
Authors: BAI YANG , ZHU ZHONGYI , FUNG WING K.
Published: November 2007

In this paper, we consider improved estimating equations for semiparametric partial linear models (PLM) for longitudinal data, or clustered data in general. We approximate the non‐parametric function in the PLM by a regression spline, and utilize quadratic inference functions (QIF) in the estimating equations to achieve a more efficient estimation of the parametric part in the model, even when the correlation structure is misspecified. Moreover, we construct a test which is an analogue to the likelihood ratio inference function for inferring the parametric component in the model. The proposed methods perform well in simulation studies and real data analysis conducted in this paper.
Do Welfare State Regimes Determine Public Sector Reforms? Choice Reforms in American, Swedish and German Schools
Authors: Klitgaard Michael Baggesen
Published: November 2007

The idea that modern welfare states can be grouped into distinct regimes dominates contemporary studies of welfare state restructuring, and several studies have concluded welfare state reforms to be correlated with regime structures. These studies build, however, on analyses of only cash‐benefit programmes whereas social services are almost neglected in current welfare state research. Thus, the aim of this article is to test the explanatory capacity of the welfare state regime perspective in relation to reforms in the service dimension of advanced welfare states – normally termed ‘public sector reforms’. For this purpose, the author has conducted a focused comparison of the degree to which archetypical examples of the liberal regime (United States), the social democratic regime (Sweden) and the conservative regime (Germany) have introduced vouchers and parental choice into their public primary schools. Schools and education have ranked high on the public sector reform agenda since the 1980s, while the school choice issue signifies core aspects of the rationale of the reform movement: re‐arranging public provision of services into quasi‐markets. The article identifies, however, a clear lack of correlation between adoption of the school‐choice policy and welfare state regimes. Instead, the reforms undertaken in all three countries seem closely related to the institutional rules of political decision making.
The Question of Roles and Identities in Public Administration
Authors: Poulsen Birgitte
Published: November 2007

The article argues that one needs to open up the question of what it means to be a civil servant today in order to understand the key characteristics of public administration in contemporary Western democracies. The role of the civil servant is characterised by a multitude of expectations deriving from old and new role demands that exist side by side. In this sense, the role is constituted of different archaeological layers. Which layers become the dominant ones are not given, but widely depend on the context within which the role is enacted and on the civil servant's individual role interpretation. The article presents the results of a case study carried out within three Danish government ministries on the role of the civil servant. It is shown how differently the role is interpreted in the Danish state administration depending on which of the archaeological layers are activated, and how these different interpretations all lead to role conflicts for the individual civil servant.
Reform by Coincidence? Explaining the Policy Process of Structural Reform in Denmark
Authors: Bundgaard Ulrik , Vrangbæk Karsten
Published: November 2007

The article investigates the processes driving the ongoing Danish reform of the structure of the public sector with the purpose of understanding the factors rendering the reform possible at this particular juncture in time. For this reason, the article applies a theoretical framework consisting of John Kingdon's ‘Multiple Streams’ perspective combined with the Institutional Rational Choice approach developed by Fritz Scharpf, among others. As a heuristic tool for the analysis, the policy process is divided into the three phases of initiation, estimation and decision making. The analysis points to a rather complex process influenced by institutional and situational factors, including those of coincidence and external events. The process can be understood as a series of interrelated games in which bounded rational actors pursue their interests. In conclusion, the article finds that the speed and tight steering of the process left relatively little room for a broader public and political debate. The process leading to what has become the largest public sector reform in Denmark was in actuality determined by relatively few actors involved in decisive moments.
Maximizing Policy Learning in International Committees: An Analysis of the European Open Method of Coordination (OMC) Committees
Authors: Nedergaard Peter
Published: November 2007

In the voluminous literature on the European Union's open method of coordination (OMC), no one has hitherto analysed on the basis of scholarly examination the question of what contributes to the learning processes in the OMC committees. On the basis of a questionnaire sent to all participants, this article demonstrates that valuable lessons can be learned about policy learning, in practice and theoretically, by analysing the cooperation in the OMC committees. Using the Advocacy Coalition Framework as the starting point of analysis, 15 hypotheses on policy learning are tested. Among other things, it is concluded that in order to maximize policy learning in international committees, empirical data should be made available to committees and provided by sources close to the participants (i.e. the Commission). In addition, the work in the committees should be made prestigious in order to attract well‐qualified and engaged participants, and a neutral presidency should be present in order to act as an authoritative persuader.
‘Culture’ as a tool and an obstacle: missionary encounters in post‐Soviet Kyrgyzstan
Authors: Pelkmans Mathijs
Published: November 2007

The relatively large number of converts from Islam to evangelical Christianity in post‐Soviet Kyrgyzstan is exceptional in the Muslim world and has challenged local confidence that Islam is an inseparable element of Kyrgyz nationality. I argue that part of the missionary success stems from unexpected synergies between communist cultural legacies and new evangelical approaches. Both communists and evangelicals attempted to advance their ideals by disconnecting religion and culture. But although these efforts delivered tangible results, they also had the (unintended) consequence of folklorizing and objectifying ‘culture’, thereby partly re‐inscribing the ethnic boundaries that they intended to overcome.

Le nombre relativement important de musulmans convertis au christianisme évangélique dans le Kirghizstan post‐soviétique est exceptionnel dans le monde musulman et ébranle la croyance locale que l'islam est indissociable de l'identité nationale kirghize. L'auteur affirme qu'une partie du succès des missionnaires provient de la synergie inattendue entre l'héritage culturel communiste et la nouvelle approche évangélique. Les communistes aussi bien que les chrétiens évangéliques ont tenté de faire progresser leurs idéaux en dissociant religion et culture. Bien que ces efforts donnent des résultats tangibles, ils ont aussi eu la conséquence involontaire de folkloriser et d'objectiver la « culture », en retraçant ainsi les frontières ethniques qu'ils avaient cherchéà abolir.
Modelling Method Effects as Individual Causal Effects
Authors: Pohl Steffi , Steyer Rolf , Kraus Katrin
Published: November 2007

Method effects often occur when different methods are used for measuring the same construct. We present a new approach for modelling this kind of phenomenon, consisting of a definition of method effects and a first model, the method effect model, that can be used for data analysis. This model may be applied to multitrait–multimethod data or to longitudinal data where the same construct is measured with at least two methods at all occasions. In this new approach, the definition of the method effects is based on the theory of individual causal effects by Neyman and Rubin. Method effects are accordingly conceptualized as the individual effects of applying measurement method j instead of k. They are modelled as latent difference scores in structural equation models. A reference method needs to be chosen against which all other methods are compared. The model fit is invariant to the choice of the reference method. The model allows the estimation of the average of the individual method effects, their variance, their correlation with the traits (and other latent variables) and the correlation of different method effects among each other. Furthermore, since the definition of the method effects is in line with the theory of causality, the method effects may (under certain conditions) be interpreted as causal effects of the method. The method effect model is compared with traditional multitrait–multimethod models. An example illustrates the application of the model to longitudinal data analysing the effect of negatively (such as ‘feel bad’) as compared with positively formulated items (such as ‘feel good’) measuring mood states.
Regional Earnings Inequality in Great Britain: Evidence from Fixed‐effects Regressions
Authors: Dickey Heather
Published: November 2007

Abstract.  Earnings inequality in Great Britain has increased substantially over the last two decades at both the national and regional levels. This paper examines the determinants of regional hourly earnings over the period 1976–95 by estimating regional fixed‐effects earnings equations. Using panel data from the New Earnings Survey, individual‐specific heterogeneity is controlled for, and superior estimates of the factors affecting regional earnings are obtained. Increasing returns to skill, increasing industrial differentials, and increasing premiums for older workers are found to have contributed to increasing regional earnings inequality, and consequently rising earnings inequality at the national level.
Employer Size‐wage Effects in Australia
Authors: Waddoups C. Jeffrey
Published: November 2007

Abstract.  The study examines rising employer size‐wage effects in the Australian labour market between 1993 — a period when the effects of decentralization in wage determination was starting to be felt — and 2001 — after the effects of structural changes had become more fully manifested. The findings indicate that most of the increase in the employer size‐wage gap between large and medium‐sized employers can be explained by changes in returns to characteristics rather than by changes in the skill mix. In addition changes in labour market structure — perhaps associated with decentralization in wage setting — captured by the intercept coefficients caused the employer size‐wage gap to increase for males and decrease for females.
PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL NECESSITY
Authors: LEEDS STEPHEN
Published: November 2007

Abstract:  I propose a different way of thinking about metaphysical and physical necessity: namely that the fundamental notion of necessity is what would ordinarily be called “truth in all physically possible worlds”– a notion which includes the standard physical necessities and the metaphysical ones as well; I suggest that the latter are marked off not as a stricter kind of necessity but by their epistemic status. One result of this reconceptualization is that the Descartes‐Kripke argument against naturalism need no longer trouble us. I end by relating the difference between my view and the standard view to the question, whether there could have been a different world than ours.
Moving Away from a Culture of Blame to that of Support‐Based Approaches to Bullying in Schools
Authors: BRAY LOUISE , LEE CHRIS
Published: November 2007

This paper considers the value of a specific non‐punitive approach to dealing with bullying. It is based upon an exploratory project undertaken in a Year 3 class in a primary school which has not been identified by name. The project involved working with pupils involved in bullying using the stages and principles of the Support Group Method (SGM) and collecting data for analysis through interviews, observations and field notes. The paper concludes with professional implications and an endorsement of support‐based approaches to managing bullying.
Comprehensive Guidance and Counselling Programmes in the Primary Schools of Hong Kong: Teachers' Perceptions and Involvement
Authors: YUEN MANTAK , CHAN RAYMOND M. C. , LAU PATRICK S. Y. , GYSBERS NORMAN C. , SHEA PETER M. K.
Published: November 2007

This article describes teachers' and Life Education Coordinators' perceptions of, and involvement in, the guidance and counselling activities in primary schools in Hong Kong. Respondents who completed a survey questionnaire comprised 367 class teachers and 66 Life Education Coordinators from 82 primary schools. The results indicated that guidance and counselling activities (including guidance curriculum, individual planning, responsive services, and system support) were being implemented in their schools to some reasonable extent. Some differences between teachers and Life Education Coordinators in terms of their involvement and perceptions are discussed. The survey identified a major weakness in the present guidance system in that many teachers who are involved in, and responsible for, implementing a guidance curriculum do not have any training in guidance work. Implications are discussed.
Telling It Like It Is: Developing Social Stories™ for Children in Mainstream Primary Schools
Authors: WHITEHEAD JO
Published: November 2007

In this article, the author reports on a practical strategy originally developed for use with pupils with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC). Based on a small‐scale research project, the article focuses on the use of Social Stories to promote pro‐social behaviour with a group of non‐ASC pupils. The topic was chosen for systematic enquiry by the author, herself the parent of a child with autism, following requests from colleagues to develop the strategy for use with other pupils with behavioural difficulties. The tensions arising from the extension of use of the strategy, devised for a particular group with specific needs, are highlighted, in particular recognising the need to maintain the integrity of the original work. The report concludes that Social Stories involve a complex strategy that relies upon sound relationships between teacher and pupil and suggests that, instead of determining success by behavioural outcome, Social Stories might be judged in terms of self‐esteem and perceptions of self of the pupil during the key process leading to the writing of the story. The strategy may be effective in helping all parties to recognise challenging situations, particularly with pupils who have difficulties in taking the perspective of others. The author also makes practical suggestions for consideration by teachers who are concerned with the pastoral care and well‐being of pupils.

The words ‘Social Story’ and uncapitalised variants are the trademarks originated and owned by Carol Gray. References to ‘stories’ hereafter indicate ‘Social Stories™’ as the full citation.
EFNS guideline on diagnosis and management of limb girdle muscular dystrophies
Authors: Norwood F. , De Visser M. , Eymard B. , Lochmüller H. , Bushby K.
Published: November 2007

The limb girdle muscular dystrophies (LGMD) are termed as such as they share the characteristic feature of muscle weakness predominantly affecting the shoulder and pelvic girdles; their classification has been completely revised in recent years because of elucidation of many of the underlying genetic and protein alterations in the various subtypes. An array of diagnostic measures is possible but with varying ease of use and availability. Several aspects of muscle cell function appear to be involved in the causation of muscle pathology. These cellular variations may confer some specific clinical features thus permitting recognition of the LGMD subtype and hence directing appropriate levels of monitoring and intervention. Despite an extensive literature on the individual limb girdle dystrophies, these publications may be impenetrable for the general neurologist in this increasingly complex field. The proposed guidelines suggest an approach to the diagnosis and monitoring of the limb girdle dystrophies in a manner accessible to general neurologists.
Medication use in patients with restless legs syndrome compared with a control population
Authors: Pearson V. E. , Gamaldo C. E. , Allen R. P. , Lesage S. , Hening W. A. , Earley C. J.
Published: November 2007

Primary restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a sensorimotor disorder causing chronic sleep deprivation in those with moderate to severe symptoms. It has been associated with other medical conditions, such as high blood pressure, depression and attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD). If these conditions are more prevalent for RLS patients, then it would be expected RLS patients would use relatively more of the medications treating these conditions. Current medication use was obtained from 110 RLS patients and 54 age, race and gender‐matched local‐community controls. Each subject was diagnosed as primary RLS or having no indications for RLS by a clinician board‐certified in sleep medicine. The RLS group used more medications than the control group even when medications used for treating RLS were excluded. Significantly more of the RLS patients than controls used anti‐depressants, gastro‐intestinal (GI) medications and asthma/allergy medications. RLS patients compared with those without RLS are more likely to use medications not related to treating RLS. Moreover they use medications for conditions that have not previously been considered related to RLS, i.e. GI and asthma/allergy conditions.
Cerebral glucose metabolism in oculopalatal tremor
Authors: Moon S. Y. , Cho S. S. , Kim Y. K. , Kim S. E. , Kim J. H. , Kim J. S.
Published: November 2007

No study adopted the statistical parametric mapping (SPM) analyses of 18F‐fluorodeoxy glucose (FDG) PET in a large number of patients with oculopalatal tremor (OPT). To determine regional cerebral glucose metabolism in patients with OPT, nine patients with OPT underwent FDG‐PET of the brain. Their glucose metabolism was compared with that of 50 normal controls (NC) by using SPM analyses. Three patients had bilateral and six showed unilateral pseudohypertrophic degeneration of the inferior olivary nucleus (ION) on MRI. Compared with NC, OPT patients did not show any metabolic derangement in the anterolateral medulla where the pseudohypertrophic ION locates. Instead, six patients with unilateral ION changes had hypometabolism in ipsilesional pontine tegmentum and hypermetabolism in contralesional thalamus. Their metabolic changes did not depend on the lateralization of ION changes. Our study failed to present any metabolic evidence for the role of ION in the generation of OPT. In part, the failure might originate from the different pathomechanism between OPT and pure palatal tremor or sensitivity/specificity issues of PET and SPM analyses. But, our results suggest that impaired cell groups of the paramedian tract and thalamic tremor cells may contribute to the generation of OPT.
Acute neurological deterioration in ovarioleukodystrophy related to EIF2B mutations: pregnancy with oocyte donation is a potentially precipitating factor
Authors: Peter L. , Niel F. , Catenoix H. , Jung J. , Demarquay G. , Petiot P. , Rudigoz R. C. , Boespflug‐Tanguy O. , Ryvlin P. , Mauguière F.
Published: November 2007

Mutations in the eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2B (eIF2B) represent a heterogenous group of autosomal recessive leucodystrophy characterized by a diffuse CSF‐like aspect of the white matter at MRI designed as vanishing white matter (VWM) and episodes of acute deterioration after stresses. The mild juvenile and adult forms are often associated with primary ovarian failure, a syndrome referred to as ovarioleukodystrophy (OLD). We reported case of a woman with OLD who successfully underwent in vitro fertilization with donated oocytes and embryo transfer. Pregnancy was complicated by a non‐convulsive epileptic status leading to the identification of compound heterozygous EIF2B5 mutation (p.Arg113His and p.Arg299His). The patient gave birth to a healthy child by Caesarean section. In conclusion, we report for the first time that in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer can lead to a successful procreation in patients with OLD related to EIF2B mutations. However this procedure must be considered with cautiousness, because of its potential neurological risks.
Early treatment after a symptomatic event is not associated with an increased risk of stroke in patients undergoing carotid stenting
Authors: Gröschel K. , Knauth M. , Ernemann U. , Pilgram S. M. , Schnaudigel S. , Kastrup A.
Published: November 2007

A recently symptomatic carotid artery stenosis carries a high risk of subsequent ischaemic events and thus requires rapid treatment. We investigated the influence of the time delay between the last symptomatic event of a carotid stenosis and subsequent carotid artery stenting (CAS) with respect to the combined 30‐day outcome of stroke and death. In a group of 320 patients undergoing CAS the median delay before the intervention was 19 days (interquartile range 10–36) and the combined 30‐day complication rate was 8.4%. Time delay was not significantly associated with peri‐procedural complications, regardless of whether this variable was dichotomized (<14 days and ≥14 days), separated into interquartile ranges or analysed as a continuous variable. Our results indicate that early CAS is not associated with an increased complication rate in patients with a recently symptomatic carotid stenosis. Thus, if CAS has been selected as the treatment modality for a patient, it should be performed as soon as possible to maximize the benefit of the intervention in reducing the risk of stroke.
Chitosan beads loaded with essential oils in cosmetic formulations
Authors: Anchisi C. , Meloni M. C. , Maccioni A. M.
Published: November 2007

Presented in part at the XXVI Congreso Internacional de la Sociedad Farmace´utica del Mediterra´neo Latino, Medicamentos del siglo XXI: Innovadores y Gene´ricos, Palma de Mallorca, September 16–18, 2004. The aim of this work is to evaluate the stability and release of chitosan beads loaded with volatile molecules of Mentha piperita essential oil (EO) in a cosmetic formulation. The ability of the beads to quickly release Mentha piperita EO during use of a cosmetic formulation such as bath foam is also assessed. The chitosan beads were produced with three different chitosan dispersions gelled with two different gelling solutions: (i) a 10% solution of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and (ii) a 4% solution of sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP). A few properties of six bead samples loaded with Mentha piperita EO are assessed. The properties are morphology, size, swelling ability, encapsulation efficiency, stability in time, and fast release of Mentha piperita EO during the use phase of the cosmetic formulation.
Ethics of studies involving human volunteers. II. Relevance and practical implementation for cosmetic scientists
Authors: Carson P. A. , Holt J.
Published: November 2007

The importance to the personal products industry of testing novel products in healthy human volunteers and the need to ensure the trials were both safe and ethical were addressed in part I. The historical development of ethical standards for human testing was also summarized. The present paper highlights the ethical principles to be considered when testing novel non‐medicinal products on human volunteers, and it describes how they can be implemented in a pragmatic manner to avoid delay to the sponsor's research program. The structure and function of ethics committees is discussed.
Hair breakage during combing. I. Pathways of breakage
Authors: Robbins C.
Published: November 2007

Hair breakage during combing was evaluated by combing tresses and examining photographs of snags of hair fibers in combs. The resultant hair fiber arrangements suggest that breakage likely involves hair‐on‐hair interactions, and broken fragment size suggests that breakage occurs primarily at or near the hair‐comb interface. Compression forces during combing were also measured, and impact loading of a hair fiber over another hair vs. a hair fiber over a comb tooth shows that compression and abrasion are important to breakage during combing and that impact loading of one hair fiber over another during snagging is a probable and important pathway for hair breakage.
Structural analysis of the cell membrane complex in the human hair cuticle using microbeam X‐ray diffraction: relationship with the effects of hair dyeing
Authors: Inoue Takafumi , Iwamoto Yoshimichi , Ohta Noboru , Inoue Katuaki , Yagi Naoto
Published: November 2007

This article deals with the structure of the cell membrane complex (CMC) in the human hair cuticle. The microbeam X‐ray provided a pattern of small‐angle scattering from the CMC in the cuticle with no sample preparations, including slicing and pre‐staining of hair. The thickness of the β‐and δ‐layers, substructure in CMC, was estimated by analysis of the scattering pattern. We used hair samples extracted with several solvents, and found that solvent extraction changed the thickness of the β‐and δ‐layers in a manner dependent on the type of solvent. Extraction of hair with solvent was also shown to have effects on the extent of dyeing. There was a high correlation between the extent of dyeing and the thickness of the δ‐layer, i.e., a thin layer tended to show a high amount of dyeing, whereas there was no significant correlation between the thickness of the β‐layer and the extent of dyeing.
Clay facial masks: physicochemical stability at different storage temperatures
Authors: Zague Vivian , De Almeida Silva Diego , Rolim Baby André , Mary Kaneko Telma , Valéria Robles Velasco Maria
Published: November 2007

Clay facial masks‐‐formulations that contain a high percentage of solids dispersed in a liquid vehicle‐‐have become of special interest due to specific properties presented by clays, such as particle size, cooling index, high adsorption capacity, and plasticity. Although most of the physicochemical properties of clay dispersions have been studied, specific aspects concerning the physicochemical stability of clay mask products remain unclear. This work aimed at investigating the accelerated physicochemical stability of clay mask formulations stored at different temperatures. Formulations were subjected to centrifuge testing and to thermal treatment for 15 days, during which temperature was varied from −5.0° to 45.0°C. The apparent viscosity and visual aspect (homogeneity) of all formulations were affected by temperature variation, whereas color, odor, and pH value remained unaltered. These results, besides the estimation of physicochemical stability under aging, can be useful in determining the best storage conditions for clay‐based formulations.