bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effects of Nimesulide, a Selective Cyclooxygenase-2 Inhibitor, on Cardiovascular Alterations in Endotoxemia
Authors: Azab Abed N. , Kobal Sergio , Rubin Mazal , Kaplanski Jacob
Published: December 2004

Prostanoids and cytokines are known to play a pivotal role in the mechanisms leading to endotoxin-induced cardiovascular failure. We investigated the effect of nimesulide (NIM), a selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor, on the cardiovascular alterations occurring during endotoxemia, and on prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) levels in endotoxemic rats. NIM significantly reduced endotoxin-induced elevation of plasma and myocardial levels of TNF-α, but not those of IL-1β. Searching for the mechanism underlying the anti-TNF-α effect of NIM, it was found that the drug reduced nuclear factor kappa B activation through diminished nuclear levels of p-65 accompanied by a protective effect against the cardiovascular alterations and mortality seen during endotoxemia. In addition, the inhibitory effect of NIM on endotoxin-induced elevation in plasma and hypothalamic levels of PGE2 was noteworthy, and this may suggest that the large amounts of PGE2 observed during endotoxemia are mainly produced via COX-2.
Connexin 43 Downregulation and Dephosphorylation in Nonischemic Heart Failure Is Associated With Enhanced Colocalized Protein Phosphatase Type 2A
Authors: Ai Xun , Pogwizd Steven M.
Published: December 2004

In nonischemic heart failure (HF), ventricular tachycardia initiates by a nonreentrant mechanism, but there is altered conduction (that could lead to re-entry) that could arise from changes in gap junctional proteins, especially connexin43 (Cx43). We studied Cx43 expression and phosphorylation state in the left ventricle (LV) from an arrhythmogenic rabbit model of nonischemic HF and from patients with HF attributable to idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. We also investigated the role of protein phosphatases that dephosphorylate Cx43—PP1 and PP2A. In HF rabbit LV, Cx43 mRNA and total protein were decreased by 29% and 34%, respectively (
P
<0.05 and
P
<0.001). In controls, Cx43 was primarily in the phosphorylated state, but with HF there was a 64% increase in nonphosphorylated Cx43 (Cx43-NP, normalized to total Cx43;
P
<0.05). Similar results were noted in HF rabbit myocytes (
P
<0.05) and in human idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy LV (
P
<0.05). We found that PP1 and PP2A colocalized with Cx43 in rabbit LV. With HF, the level of colocalized PP2A increased >2.5-fold (
P
<0.002), whereas colocalized PP1 was unchanged. We also found intercellular coupling (assessed by Lucifer Yellow dye transfer) was markedly reduced in HF. However, okadaic acid (10 nmol/L) reduced the amount of Cx43-NP and significantly improved cell coupling in HF. Thus, in nonischemic HF in rabbits and humans, there is a decrease in both Cx43 expression and phosphorylation that contributes to uncoupling. Increased levels of PP2A that colocalize with Cx43 can underlie enhanced levels of Cx43-NP in HF. Modulation of Cx43 phosphorylation may be a potential therapeutic target to improve conduction in HF.
Targeted Expression of Cyclin D2 Results in Cardiomyocyte DNA Synthesis and Infarct Regression in Transgenic Mice
Authors: Pasumarthi Kishore B.S. , Nakajima Hidehiro , Nakajima Hisako O. , Soonpaa Mark H. , Field Loren J.
Published: December 2004

Restriction point transit and commitment to a new round of cell division is regulated by the activity of cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and its obligate activating partners, the D-type cyclins. In this study, we examined the ability of D-type cyclins to promote cardiomyocyte cell cycle activity. Adult transgenic mice expressing cyclin D1, D2, or D3 under the regulation of the α cardiac myosin heavy chain promoter exhibited high rates of cardiomyocyte DNA synthesis under baseline conditions. Cardiac injury in mice expressing cyclin D1 or D3 resulted in cytoplasmic cyclin D accumulation, with a concomitant reduction in the level of cardiomyocyte DNA synthesis. In contrast, cardiac injury in mice expressing cyclin D2 did not alter subcellular cyclin localization. Consequently, cardiomyocyte cell cycle activity persisted in injured hearts expressing cyclin D2, ultimately resulting in infarct regression. These data suggested that modulation of D-type cyclins could be exploited to promote regenerative growth in injured hearts.
Abnormal Intravoxel Cerebral Blood Flow Heterogeneity in Human Ischemic Stroke Determined by Dynamic Susceptibility Contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Authors: Perkiö Jussi , Soinne Lauri , Østergaard Leif , Helenius Johanna , Kangasmäki Aki , Martinkauppi Sami , Salonen Oili , Savolainen Sauli , Kaste Markku , Tatlisumak Turgut , Aronen Hannu J.
Published: December 2004

Background and Purpose—

The determination of cerebral blood flow heterogeneity (FH) by dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) magnetic resonance imaging has recently been proposed as a tool to predict final infarct size in acute stroke. In this study, we describe the evolution of FH during the first week as well as its correlation to the patients’ clinical status.

Methods—

Ten patients with ischemic stroke were studied with DSC MRI and diffusion-weighted imaging in hyperacute (<6 hours) phase, at 24 hours, and 1 week after symptom onset. In addition to intravoxel FH, cerebral blood volume (CBV), cerebral blood flow (CBF), and contrast agent mean transit time (MTT) were determined from DSC MRI. All patients were evaluated neurologically with National Institute of Health Stroke Scale concurrently with the imaging sessions.

Results—

All patients showed infarct growth, judged by diffusion-weighted imaging, during the week with simultaneous decrease in the sizes of FH, CBV, CBF, and MTT abnormalities. The FH abnormality was shown to be larger than CBV and CBF abnormalities at the hyperacute phase and 24 hours, but smaller than MTT abnormality in all 3 imaging sessions. The sizes of hyperacute FH, CBV, CBF, and MTT abnormalities correlated well with infarct size at 24 hours and at 1 week. Additionally, FH was the only perfusion parameter that correlated with the clinical score.

Conclusions—

FH predicts infarct size equally well with the other perfusion parameters but is superior in correlation with the clinical score. FH can easily be incorporated to hyperacute stroke imaging without additional efforts.
Simulating Springtime Temperature Patterns in the Community Atmosphere Model Coupled to the Community Land Model Using Prognostic Leaf Area
Authors: Levis Samuel , Bonan Gordon B.
Published: December 2004

Observations show that emergence of foliage in springtime slows surface air temperature warming as a result of greater transpiration. Model simulations with the Community Atmosphere Model coupled to the Community Land Model confirm that evapotranspiration contributes to this pattern and that this pattern occurs more reliably with prognostic leaf area as opposed to prescribed leaf area. With prescribed leaf area, leaves emerge independent of prevailing environmental conditions, which may preclude photosynthesis from occurring. In contrast, prognostic leaf area ensures that leaves emerge when conditions are favorable for photosynthesis, and thus transpiration. These results reveal a dynamic coupling between the atmosphere and vegetation in which the observed reduction in the springtime warming trend only occurs when photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and leaf emergence are synchronized with the surface climate.
Variability of the Intermediate Atlantic Water of the Arctic Ocean over the Last 100 Years
Authors: Polyakov I. V. , Alekseev G. V. , Timokhov L. A. , Bhatt U. S. , Colony R. L. , Simmons H. L. , Walsh D. , Walsh J. E. , Zakharov V. F.
Published: December 2004

Recent observations show dramatic changes of the Arctic atmosphere–ice–ocean system, including a rapid warming in the intermediate Atlantic water of the Arctic Ocean. Here it is demonstrated through the analysis of a vast collection of previously unsynthesized observational data, that over the twentieth century Atlantic water variability was dominated by low-frequency oscillations (LFO) on time scales of 50–80 yr. Associated with this variability, the Atlantic water temperature record shows two warm periods in the 1930s–40s and in recent decades and two cold periods earlier in the century and in the 1960s–70s. Over recent decades, the data show a warming and salinification of the Atlantic layer accompanied by its shoaling and, probably, thinning. The estimate of the Atlantic water temperature variability shows a general warming trend; however, over the 100-yr record there are periods (including the recent decades) with short-term trends strongly amplified by multidecadal variations. Observational data provide evidence that Atlantic water temperature, Arctic surface air temperature, and ice extent and fast ice thickness in the Siberian marginal seas display coherent LFO. The hydrographic data used support a negative feedback mechanism through which changes of density act to moderate the inflow of Atlantic water to the Arctic Ocean, consistent with the decrease of positive Atlantic water temperature anomalies in the late 1990s. The sustained Atlantic water temperature and salinity anomalies in the Arctic Ocean are associated with hydrographic anomalies of the same sign in the Greenland–Norwegian Seas and of the opposite sign in the Labrador Sea. Finally, it is found that the Arctic air–sea–ice system and the North Atlantic sea surface temperature display coherent low-frequency fluctuations. Elucidating the mechanisms behind this relationship will be critical to an understanding of the complex nature of low-frequency variability found in the Arctic and in lower-latitude regions.
Time in careers - careers in time
Authors: Bailyn Lotte
Published: December 2004

This article deals first with the temporal patterns of everyday career activities - time in careers - and then with the life-long career line - careers in time. In the former, it introduces the concept of grandmother time and uses telecommuting as an example. In the latter, it builds on the concept of a life-stage responsive career and uses the academic career as an example. The article argues that the accepted notions of time in both daily activities and the life course need serious modification if people are to be productive in the public professional-occupational world as well as in the private world of family and community.
Target-based team working: Groups, work and interdependence in the UK civil service
Authors: Procter Stephen , Currie Graeme
Published: December 2004

In terms of its implications for work and production, studies of teamworking have generally relied on concepts of autonomy and flexibility. An in-depth, qualitative case study of the UK Inland Revenue reveals a form of teamworking in which both autonomy and flexibility play little part. It is argued that teamworking in this case is best conceptualized by giving greater weight to interdependence. In particular, teamworking in the Inland Revenue works through the outcome interdependence engendered by the emphasis on the team’s work targets. This form of teamworking is given the name ‘target-based teamworking’. Certain aspects of the nature of production appear to encourage this form of teamworking. More generally, the case promotes interdependence as a means of understanding teamworking, and suggests that the key to this understanding is an analysis of the relationship between interdependence and autonomy.
Finance and the End of Appeasement: The Bank of England, the National Government and the Czech Gold
Authors: Blaazer David
Published: December 2004

Following the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, the Bank of England allowed £6,000,000 worth of gold belonging to the Czechoslovak National Bank to be transferred to the ownership of the Reichsbank. Despite the public controversy which followed disclosure of the transaction, it has not attracted the serious attention of historians. The archives, press reports and parliamentary debates dealing with both the transaction and the controversy bring to light aspects of the affair which have remained shrouded in mystery since 1939, and contribute significantly to our understanding of the complex relationship between financial and diplomatic appeasement.
The false ‘Ortega Hypothesis’: a literature science case study
Authors: Száva-Kováts Endre
Published: December 2004

The well-known anti-elitist ‘Ortega Hypothesis’ published just over 30 years ago in Science was constructed and named by two science sociologists, and refuted by themselves on the basis of a quantitative author ‘citation analysis’ investigation carried out in the physics literature. Textual evidence presented here proves that the construction of this so-called ‘Ortega Hypothesis’ with its anti-elitist meaning was based on falsification of the quoted text and misinterpretation of the doctrine of the eminent elitist Spanish philosopher. This anti-elitist, and hence anti-Ortega, false hypothesis spread very widely in the scientific literature as the ‘Ortega Hypothesis’. The literatures of numerous disciplines have so far accepted this falsely constructed hypothesis: the fact of the falsity of the ‘Ortega Hypothesis’ has not even arisen in the debates about it and under its name. Analysis of the literature case of the false ‘Ortega Hypothesis’ has also thrown light on the current depressing state of referencing practice in the scientific literature. Scientific communications of doubtful and even false content have continued to appear and their world-wide dissemination has accelerated. For this reason, correction work in science is more important than ever.
Public reason and the normativity of the reasonable
Authors: Ferrara Alessandro
Published: December 2004

The main purpose of the paper is to contribute to reconstructing the kind of normativity underlying Rawls’s notion of public reason and of the reasonable. The implicit target is the somewhat popular view according to which the transition from the framework of A Theory of Justice to that of Political Liberalism would entail a loss of normativity. On the contrary, the related ideas of public reason and the reasonable are argued to presuppose a notion of normativity – linked with judgment – far more consistent with the premise of the fact of pluralism. After reconstructing Rawls’s notion of public reason, the two following problems are addressed: the problem of determining when allegedly shared truths, the building stones of public reason, are really such and, second, the problem of what it means for one reason to follow or proceed from a shared basis. In the context of such discussion three distinct meanings of the term ‘reasonable’ are identified, and the normatively more demanding one – the notion of some thesis or proposal being not just reasonable, but comparatively ‘more reasonable’ than another – is found to require that the reasonable be understood as the exemplary and, consequently, that we find ways to translate the Kantian doctrine of the exemplary yet universalist validity of aesthetic judgments into a non-aesthetic vocabulary.
Habermas on human cloning
Authors: Mendieta Eduardo
Published: December 2004

Jürgen Habermas’s recent book Die Zukunft der menschlichen Natur (2001) is discussed. Particular attention is paid to the central argument concerning the adverse effects the general acceptance of cloning and pre-implantation genetic diagnostics (PGD) would have on the moral and political self-understanding of present and future generations. The argument turns to a critique of Habermas’s central arguments against PGD, and develops at least two arguments that are in harmony with his general defense of procedural democracy and deontological morality. Appeal is made to Peter Singer and John Rawls to develop arguments that do not reject either PGD or genetic engineering and that are nonetheless in full compliance with the spirit of political modernity, as it is defended and defined by Habermas. The conclusion calls for less moralizing and more political-economic critique of the biotechnologies unleashed by the information revolution.
Sovereignty, ethics, community
Authors: Nelson Scott G.
Published: December 2004

‘The political’ is much talked about today, but its invocation in international political theory is all but entirely dismissed. Yet, moral-ethical articulations do impact theorizing about international life, albeit in a most peculiar and often concealed fashion. In this paper I investigate the modernity of sovereignty in political and international theory and explain why invocations of the moral-ethical are so forcefully liquidated from international relations theory. I examine the constitutive effects of the sovereignty imperative and explain how modern notions of ethics, politics and community are delimited by the need to effect what can be made to count as the pre-political ground of will-formation. A peculiar modernist strategy delimits the imagination of the politically possible in international life. I argue that critique must attend and not dispense with a fundamental paradoxicality (which is transfigured as modernity’s very metaphysical embodiment) that structures a distinctively modern manner of reflecting on ethics and community. The paradoxicality is sovereignty. It is accommodated by a liberal politics that works to conceal a restive anxiety of the modern ‘condition’. This anxiety is in turn productive of a politics with which we must grapple as we elaborate governance in global life.
Nicotinic receptor mechanisms and cognition in normal states and neuropsychiatric disorders
Authors: Sacco Kristi A. , Bannon Katie L. , George Tony P.
Published: December 2004

Cigarette smoking rates in the American population are approximately 23%, whereas rates of smoking in clinical and population studies of individuals with neuropsychiatric disorders are typically two- to four-fold higher. Studies conducted in a variety of neuropsychiatric populations [e.g. attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia] have collectively suggested that nicotine may be efficacious in remediating selected cognitive deficits associated with these disorders, thus providing a framework for understanding the specific vulnerability of these patients to smoking initiation and maintenance. However, the specific gain in cognitive performance produced by nicotine administration in healthy subjects with normal cognitive function is less clear. This article reviews our current understanding of central nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChRs) systems in normal and neuropsychiatric disease states and, specifically, their role with respect to cognitive dysfunction and clinical symptoms in several specific neuropsychiatric populations, including ADHD, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Tourette’s Disorder, schizophrenia and affective disorders. The potential benefits of nicotinic agents for therapeutic use in neuropsychiatric disorders is discussed, as well as directions for further research in this area.
Moderate differences in circulating corticosterone alter receptor-mediated regulation of 5-hydroxytryptamine neuronal activity
Authors: Judge Sarah J. , Ingram Colin D. , Gartside Sarah E.
Published: December 2004

Circulating glucocorticoid levels vary with stress and psychiatric illness and play a potentially important role in regulating transmitter systems that regulate mood. To determine whether chronic variation in corticosterone levels within the normal diurnal range altered the control of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) neuronal activity, male rats were adrenalectomized and implanted with either a 2% or 70% corticosterone/cholesterol pellet (100 mg). Two weeks later, the regulation of 5-HT neuronal activity in the dorsal raphe nucleus was studied by in vitro electrophysiology. At this time, serum corticosterone levels approximated the low-point (2%) and mid-point (70%) of the diurnal range. The excitatory response of 5-HT neurones to the α1-adrenoceptor agonist phenylephrine (1-11 μM) was significantly greater in the 2% group compared to the 70% group. By contrast, the inhibitory response to 5-HT (10-50 μM) was significantly lower in the 2% group compared to the 70% group. Thus, chronic variation in circulating corticosterone over a narrow part of the normal diurnal range causes a shift in the balance of positive and negative regulation of 5-HT neurones, with increased α1-adrenoceptor-mediated excitation and reduced 5-HT-mediated autoinhibition at lower corticosterone levels. This shift would have a major impact on control of 5-HT neuronal activity.
Effect of chronic lithium treatment on glucocorticoid and 5-HT1A receptor messenger RNA in hippocampal and dorsal raphe nucleus regions of the rat brain
Authors: McQuade Richard , Leitch Mel M. , Gartside Sarah E. , Young Allan H.
Published: December 2004

The therapeutic mechanism of action of lithium in the treatment of bipolar disorder is not well understood. Dysfunction of both 5-HT1A receptor mediated neurotransmission and the glucocorticoid receptor is associated with mood disorders, and preclinical studies suggest that lithium treatment can modulate these receptor subtypes. In this study, we investigated the effect of chronic lithium treatment on 5-HT1A receptors and glucocorticoid receptors in the rat brain. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with lithium (3 mmol/kg/day) or saline for 28 days via subcutaneous implanted mini-osmotic pumps. After 28 days of treatment, the expression of mRNA for 5-HT1A receptors and glucocorticoid receptors in the rat hippocampus and dorsal raphe nucleus was determined by in situ hybridization histochemistry. Chronic administration of lithium decreased mRNA coding for post-synaptic 5-HT1A receptors in hippocampal subregions but not for somatodentritic 5-HT1A receptors in the dorsal raphe nucleus. Chronic administration of lithium did not affect mRNA coding for glucocorticoid receptors in hippocampal subregions or in the dorsal raphe nucleus. Mean plasma lithium levels in the lithium-treated group were 0.50 ± 0.03 mmol/l; all animals appeared healthy and maintained a normal increase in body weight. Given recent reports implicating hypersensitive post-synaptic 5-HT1A receptors in bipolar manic patients, the present study suggests that down-regulation of this receptor population may be important in the therapeutic mechanism of action of lithium.
Two new neurophysiological indices of cocaine craving: evoked brain potentials and cue modulated startle reflex
Authors: Franken Ingmar H.A. , Hulstijn Kai P. , Stam Cornelis J. , Hendriks Vincent M. , van den Brink Wim
Published: December 2004

Craving for cocaine is one of the hallmarks of cocaine dependence. One of the problems with craving is its measurement. Traditional psychophysiological indices such as skin conductance and heart rate have yielded contradictory results. These measures of craving were found to correlate only moderately with self-reported craving. In the present study, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and the cue modulated startle response (CMSR) are evaluated as indices for cocaine craving. Twenty-one abstinent cocaine-dependent subjects were divided into high and low cravers group based on the median split of self-reported craving scores. ERPs and CMSR were measured when subjects watched neutral, pleasant, unpleasant and cocaine-related pictures. Overall, it was found that cocaine-dependent subjects showed augmented slow-positive waves (SPWs) of the ERP on the cocaine pictures compared to neutral pictures. Only high cravers showed larger SPWs on the cocaine cues, suggesting an association between cue-elicited SPWs and self-reported cocaine craving. By contrast to the ERP measures, CMSR did not differentiate between cocaine pictures and neutral pictures. In addition, no differences between the low- and high cravers on the CMSR measure were found. The present results show that the evoked-potentials paradigm provides promising results to index cue-elicited craving. The use of startle modulation deserves further investigation.
‘Don’t Tell the Crocodile’
Authors: Van Heekeren Deborah
Published: December 2004

This article explores the relationship between Heidegger’s phenomenological ontology and Maurice Leenhardt’s ethnographic study of New Caledonia. For Leenhardt, the kamo, or authentic person, was a participatory personage existing in relationship with other humans, with nature and with mythic beings. He used the term mythe vécu (living myth) to argue for an under-standing of myth that was grounded in experience, rather than narrative, and to elaborate his understanding of a uniquely Melanesian mode of Being. I argue that, as well as echoing some of Heidegger’s insights, Leenhardt’s view of mythic consciousness has much in common with Sartre’s analysis of emotional consciousness. The ‘experience’ I refer to in this discussion is that of the Hula, on the south-east coast of Papua New Guinea. Drawing also on some other Melanesian ethnography, I suggest that an existentialist perspective not only extends the relevance of Leenhardt’s interpretation of myth but also constitutes an important development in our understanding of Melanesian ontology.
Effects of Small Incongruities in a Sheep Model of Osteochondral Autografting
Authors: Huang Fred S. , Simonian Peter T. , Norman Anthony G. , Clark John M.
Published: December 2004

Background

Exact reconstruction of an osteochondral defect by autogenous transplantation (mosaicplasty) is difficult given the variation in joint surface contour. Clinical and experimental studies do not show the extent to which incongruity can be tolerated in autografting.

Hypothesis

Grafted articular cartilage will hypertrophy to correct the incongruity created by recession of the transplanted surface.

Study Design

Controlled laboratory study.

Methods

To test the response of grafts to incongruities, osteochondral autografts were transplanted from the trochlea to the femoral condyle in adult male sheep stifle joints. In groups of 6 animals, graft surfaces were placed flush, countersunk 1 mm or countersunk 2 mm, then histologically analyzed 6 weeks after surgery. Cartilage thickness, condition of the articular surfaces, and preservation of hyaline characteristics were the primary features compared.

Results

Bony union, vascularization, and new bone formation were present in all grafts. Cartilage-to-cartilage healing did not occur. In flush specimens, cartilage changed minimally in thickness and histologic architecture. The specimens countersunk 1 mm demonstrated significant cartilage thickening (54.7% increase, P < .05). Chondrocyte hyperplasia, tidemark advancement, and vascular invasion occurred at the chondroosseous junction, and the surface remained smooth. Cartilage necrosis and fibrous overgrowth were observed in all grafts countersunk 2 mm.

Conclusions

Minimally countersunk autografts possess a capacity for remodeling that can correct initial incongruities while preserving hyaline characteristics. Grafts placed deeper do not restore the contour or composition of the original articular surface.

Clinical Relevance

If preservation of normal hyaline cartilage is the objective, thin grafted articular cartilage can remodel, but the tolerance for incongruity is limited and probably less than that reported for an intra-articular fracture.
Axiological and normative dimensions in Georg Simmel’s philosophy and sociology: a dialectical interpretation
Authors: Gangas Spiros
Published: December 2004

In this article I consider the normative and axiological dimension of Simmel’s thought. Building on previous interpretations, I argue that although Simmel cannot be interpreted as a systematic normative theorist, the issue of values and the normative standpoint can nevertheless be traced in various aspects of his multifarious work. This interpretive turn attempts to link Simmel’s obscure theory of value with his epistemological relationism. Relationism may offer a counterweight to Simmel’s value-pluralism, since it points to normative elements (e.g. internal teleology, justice) that can contribute to the reconciliation between incommensurablity of forms and totality. Axiological and normative concerns (of a Hegelian source) survive also in his metaphysics of life, pointing beyond a merely Bergsonian and conservative Lebensphilosophie. I conclude with some thoughts on how this normative rethinking of Simmel’s thought can contribute towards more adequate appreciations of Simmel’s overall theory.
Healing Aesthetics
Authors: Sayers Janet
Published: December 2004

The visual arts are arguably psychologically healing in giving outward shape and form to what can otherwise be disquietingly shapeless and formless in our inner psyche or spirit. Psychologists, however, often overlook this. So too do psychoanalysts, so much do they focus on art’s inner, unconscious or fantasy meaning. To counter this prevalent neglect of art’s healing outwardness, this article focuses on a marked exception, namely Adrian Stokes. It compares and contrasts his outwardly oriented aesthetics with that of Ruskin, Pater, Nietzsche, Bradley and Pound; with the inward orientation of the writing about art of Freud, Jung, Klein, Segal and Rivière; and with the attention to the inter-relation of inner and outer reality in the post-Freudian writing about literature and the visual arts of Kristeva, Milner, Ehrenzweig and Bion.
On the Constitution of ‘Self’ and ‘Mind’
Authors: Falmagne Rachel Joffe
Published: December 2004

This article introduces a perspective in which questions at a psychological grain of analysis are integrated with a broad societal frame of interpretation, drawing on interdisciplinary feminist writings that provide alternative ways to theorize the social. It is argued that understanding the constitution of subjectivity, ‘self’ and thought requires a societal-level model of the social with both discursive and material constituents as well as local discursive processes that are deployed within, and configured through, that broader system. It is further argued that the ontological notion of a ‘person’ (in a specific, non-modern sense of ‘person’ and in a specific sense of ‘ontological’) is a conceptually necessary part of the theoretical language, as the anchor for processes of social constitution and as the substrate of agency, where agency is theorized as a multilevel process. One central claim developed in this article is that it is through the dialectic among these societal-level, local, and personal constituents that subjectivity, ‘self’ and thought are constituted, a ‘self’ that is assumed to be situated, hybrid, complex, tension-filled and unstable, yet substantial.
Teaching in a High-Tech Conference Room:
Authors: Rehling Louise
Published: December 2004

As a response to research about both the work space of professional writers and the pedagogy using workplace simulations, a professional writing course was adapted for a high-tech conference room equipped with electronic meeting tools. This experiment improved students’ learning of course content, which included collaborative writing strategies, project management, and teamwork; research methods; presentation and design skills; and organizational culture and professional development. Students also better understood workplace realities and distinctions between academic and workplace environments. In addition, the experiment facilitated students’idea sharing and communication as well as their preparation for transitioning to the workplace. The teaching experience was more creative and rewarding, too.
Seeing Technical Communication from a Career Perspective
Authors: Jablonski Jeffrey
Published: December 2004

This article explores the implications of career research for the field of technical communication. The interdisciplinary strands of career theory provide a useful perspective on the contexts of work with which our field interacts and for which it prepares technical communicators. To help us gain an understanding of the historical, methodological, and ideological contexts of career studies, the article first provides a historical overview then reviews current trends, particularly in the way recent research diverges from traditional approaches. Finally, it discusses four broad but interrelated strands of inquiry that technical communication researchers might pursue based on research in career studies.
Beyond Ethics
Authors: Longaker Mark Garrett
Published: December 2004

By wedding a historical materialist understanding of class formation to pedagogical efforts at teaching ethics in the professional writing classroom, language-arts instructors can intervene at an important postindustrial juncture between culture and economics. They can take a vital role in the formation and political developmentof elite and influential knowledge workers, making them more critical of the links between diachronic economic developments and locally experienced institutions such as communication practices and organizational constructions.
Dentate Gyrus Neurogenesis after Cerebral Ischemia and Behavioral Training
Authors: Briones Teresita L. , Suh Eugene , Hattar Hilda , Wadowska Magdalena
Published: December 2004

Neurogenesis in the mammalian brain continues throughout adulthood. Several factors have been shown to influence neurogenesis, including experience in a complex environment (EC), exercise (EX), and ischemic insult. The authors investigated the effects of behavioral rehabilitation training following transient global cerebral ischemia on the number of new cells in the dentate gyrus that incorporated bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU), a thymidine analog that labels cells undergoing DNA replication. Seventy-two animals were included in the study, and 4-vessel occlusion was used to induce cerebral ischemia while control animals were subjected to anesthesia and sham surgery alone. Within 3 days of surgery, rats were randomly assigned to either EC, EX, or control (paired housing in standard laboratory conditions) groups. All animals were sacrificed 2 weeks after behavioral training. Immunohistochemistry results showed an increased number of BrdU-labeled cells in the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus in all ischemic groups and in the EC and EX sham groups, although no significant group differences were seen. Examination of cell phenotype showed that almost all BrdU-positive cells colabeled with TuJ1, an immature neuron marker, in all animals whereas only a few BrdU-positive cells colabeled with NeuN, a mature neuron marker. BrdU/NeuN-labeled cells were seen only in the sham and ischemia EC groups. No new cells showed glial fibrillary acidic protein, astrocyte marker, colabeling. These results suggest that the adult brain has an inherent regenerative capacity after insult and that behavioral training following injury does not have an additive effect on neurogenesis. Finally, the enhanced maturation of BrdU-positive cells seen in the EC rats is probably modulated by environmental cues.
Oxidative Changes in Cerebral Spinal Fluid Phosphatidylcholine during Treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Authors: Miketova Petra , Kaemingk Kris , Hockenberry Marilyn , Pasvogel Alice , Hutter John , Krull Kevin , Moore Ida M. (Ki)
Published: December 2004

Central nervous system (CNS) treatment contributes to improved long-term disease-free survival from childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) by sigificantly decreasing the rate of disease relapse. Methotrexate (MTX), a drug commonly used for CNS treatment, has been associated with cognitive and academic problems, white-matter changes, perfusion defects, and brain atrophy. This study investigated oxidative stress as a possible mechanism of chemotherapyinduced CNS injury. Unoxidized and oxidized components of phosphatidylcholine (PC), the most prevalent phospholipid in CNS cellular membranes, were measured in cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) samples obtained from 21 children diagnosed with low (n = 7), standard (n= 7), or high (n= 7) risk ALL. Children with high-risk ALL received the most MTX, especially during the most intensive phase of treatment (consolidation). Phospholipids were extracted from CSF samples obtained at diagnosis and during the induction, consolidation, and continuation treatment phases. Unoxidized and oxidized PC were measured by normalphase high-performance liquid chromatography at 2 ultraviolet wavelengths (206 and 234 nm, respectively). Data were analyzed by 2-way repeated-measures analysis of variance. Results support the hypotheses that the highest levels of oxidized PC would be observed during the most intensive phase of ALL therapy and in the high-risk ALL group. Findings provide preliminary evidence for chemotherapy-induced oxidative stress inCNSmembrane phospholipids.
From Questions to Answers: Reviewing Organizational Learning Research
Authors: Bapuji Hari , Crossan Mary
Published: December 2004

Prior reviews of organizational learning (OL) have noted an exponential growth in the literature through the 1990s and have expressed concerns about the lack of empirical research. In this paper, we review the literature published during the period 1990-2002 and take stock of the state of empirical research in OL. Based on the 123 articles reviewed, we note a phenomenal growth in empirical research and the emergence of a learning perspective. We discuss key research findings pertaining to internal and external learning, and the facilitators of organizational learning. We discuss the implications of the empirical research and suggest directions for future research.
Discerning the Quality of Organizational Learning
Authors: Naot Yael Ben-Horin , Lipshitz Raanan , Popper Micha
Published: December 2004

This paper presents a conceptualization of organizational learning quality based on a comparison of two successful and two unsuccessful episodes of post-accident reviews in an elite combat unit of the Israel Defense Forces. Analyses of semi-structured interviews of key participants revealed that: (1) the outcomes of high-quality organizational learning (OL) were effective lessons learned that are assimilated into the organization’s mode of operation. (2) Assimilation was contingent on gaining the hearts and minds of the organization’s members. (3) The processes of high-quality organizational learning were systematic and mindful, enlisted internal and external sources of knowledge, and engaged members in active participation. In addition, these processes were embedded in a culture of learning. (4) The immediate context of high-level organizational learning consisted of a receptive and supportive leadership that induces psychological safety. A 10-parameters integrative model of the quality of OL based on these findings is presented.
The Processes of Project-based Learning
Authors: Scarbrough Harry , Bresnen Michael , Edelman Linda F. , Laurent Stephane , Newell Sue , Swan Jacky
Published: December 2004

This paper explores the implications of an increasing reliance on project forms for learning within organizations. In particular, we focus on the tensions between learning at project level and the stocks and flows of organizational knowledge. Based on a review of the existing literature, we outline propositions on two major processes of project-based learning (PBL): ‘learning-by-absorption’ and ‘learning-by-reflection’. Subsequently, the paper applies and refines this framework through the analysis of the findings from a qualitative study of three linked projects in the UK water industry. The findings from our study support and highlight the role of the above-noted processes in determining the extent and transfer of PBL. In particular, they indicate the role played by ‘quasi-organizational’ forms in enabling ‘learning-by-absorption’ and ‘learning-by-reflection’ at a project level. But equally, they help to explain limitations on the ability of project-based learning to bring about significant changes in knowledge stocks and flows in the wider organization.
Glass Cages and Glass Palaces: Images of Organization in Image-Conscious Times
Authors: Gabriel Yiannis
Published: December 2004

Max Weber’s metaphor of ‘the iron cage’ has provided an abiding image of organizations during the high noon of modernity. But these organizations—rigid, rational and bureaucratic—may no longer be sustainable in our times. Instead of a preoccupation with efficient production and rational administration, management today is increasingly turning to the consumer as the measure of all things, a consumer who seeks not merely the useful and the functional, but the magical, the fantastic and the alluring. Management of organizations thus finds itself increasingly preoccupied with the orchestration of collective fantasies and the venting of collective emotions through the power of image, in what Ritzer has named the cathedrals of consumption, such as shopping malls, tourist attractions and holiday resorts. The core thesis of this paper is that decline of Weber’s iron cage of rationality has exposed us neither to the freedom of a garden of earthly delights nor to the desolation of the law of the jungle. Instead, I propose that the new experiences of work and consumption allow for greater ambivalence and nuance, for which I offer the twin metaphors of glass cages and glass palaces. As a material that generates, distorts and disseminates images, glass seems uniquely able to evoke both the glitter and the fragility of organizations in late modernity. The metaphor of the glass cage suggests certain constraints, discontents and consolations quite distinct from those we encounter at the high noon of modernity. Shared features of the glass cage of work and the glass cage of consumption are an emphasis on display, an invisibility of constraints, a powerful illusion of choice, a glamorization of image and an ironic questionmark over whether freedom lies inside or outside the glass. Above all, there is an ambiguity about whether the glass is a medium of entrapment or a beautifying frame.
Uncovering the Semiotic in Organizational Aesthetics
Authors: Hancock Philip
Published: December 2004

This article seeks to illustrate the utility of a semiotically grounded approach to the analysis of organizational aesthetics. Developed from a critique of the tendency to romanticize the notion of aesthetics within both organization studies and the social sciences more generally, it is argued that such a tendency tends to overlook the ways in which organizational imagery and artefacts are imbued with aesthetic meaning—which in turn can be understood to function as what Gell (1992) has described as cultural ‘technologies of enchantment’. Commencing with a brief review of increasing practitioner interest in the possibility of harnessing the aesthetic as a managerial resource, the article then considers the nature of the aesthetic as an essentially contested concept within both philosophy and organization studies. In doing so, it outlines the dominance of what it considers to be a romanticized understanding of the aesthetic amongst those who believe it to provide what Strati (1999) has described as an ‘epistemological metaphor’ for organizational studies. In contrast to this, a case is then made for the utility of a semiotic approach to studying organizational aesthetics, which is itself illustrated with reference to an analysis of a particular organizational artefact, namely a graduate recruitment document.
Organization, Surveillance and the Body: Towards a Politics of Resistance
Authors: Ball Kirstie
Published: December 2004

This paper examines the problematic of embodied resistance to biometric surveillance practices. After establishing that surveillance is becoming more widespread, the paper draws on the multidisciplinary areas of organization theory, surveillance theory, and body and feminist sociology. It is argued that current theoretical resources available to organization theorists are inadequate for analysing resistance to these technologies. After an investigation of recent developments in the sociology of the body and in surveillance theory, resistance is conceptualized at the interface of bodies and technologies, and is antagonistic towards categorizations and fixities produced by biometrics. A number of resistance strategies are distilled, using feminist and post-structuralist sociology. Although it is acknowledged that the paper’s arguments do not address questions of agency and an ethics of the self, resistance arguments that challenge the totalizing impulse of surveillance practice are welcome in the face of government and private sector rhetoric about its desirability.
Triangulation in Organizational Research: A Re-Presentation
Authors: Cox Julie Wolfram , Hassard John
Published: December 2004

This paper extends the discussion of postmodern thinking in organizational theory through a re-presentation of the concept of triangulation in organizational research. Initially triangulation is defined through the contrasting lenses of positivism and post-positivism/postmodernism and analysed as a metaphor for fixing and capturing the research subject. Subsequently triangulation is ‘re-presented’ as ‘metaphorization’—in terms of process and movement between researcher-subject positions. Rethinking the lines and angles of enquiry in triangulation, the paper suggests a shift from the ‘triangulation of distance’ tradition to a more reflexive consideration of ‘researcher stance’. This movement is represented across three perspectives: the researcher as a follower of nomothetic lines; the researcher as the taker of an ideographic overview; and the researcher as the finder of a particular angle. The implications of this re-presentation are then discussed in terms of perspective, data capture, reflexivity and metatriangulation.
The ‘white worrier’ in South Australia
Authors: Bulbeck Chilla
Published: December 2004

In his analysis of ‘paranoid nationalism’, Hage (2003: xii, 2) coins the figure of the ‘white worrier’ to identify how white Australians marginalized by the inequalities of economic rationalism and globalization displace their anxieties onto even weaker ‘others’, Aboriginal people and migrants, particularly refugees. Hage’s ideas are applied to the discourses used by young South Australians when they discuss Australian multiculturalism, immigration and reconciliation. Hage’s suggestion that white worrying is the response of the white working class male to his economic and ideological marginalization is only partially supported in this sample of young people. While those from non-English speaking and Indigenous backgrounds are much less likely to be ‘paranoid nationalists’, fear and loathing of the other are expressed across the socio-economic spectrum of young ‘white’ Australians, with exposure to a university education, either on the part of respondents or their parents, being the main antidote to hostile attitudes to the ‘other’.
Temporal strategies and fear in the workplace
Authors: Skinner Janne
Published: December 2004

The contemporary workplace appears to be a prime source of fear for many Australians. Over the course of the last decade, large-scale workplace change has rendered many workers redundant, leaving them with the problem of working out who they are and what they are to do in the future. I suggest in this article that such changes have increased workers’ awareness of time, and that they, either implicitly or explicitly, use this awareness to manage their levels of fear and anxiety. Using empirical material from an in-depth experiential study of a small group of workers who had survived large-scale downsizing, I outline two different kinds of temporal strategy, or ways of manipulating the subjective experience of time, that these workers appear to engage in as a way of minimizing felt levels of fear and anxiety. Whilst these strategies seem to be successful in minimizing the emotional impact of workplace change, some evidence suggests that these strategies as coping mechanisms may, in the longer term, reduce levels of workplace engagement and social connection.