bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Observed Changes in the Lifetime and Amplitude of the Madden–Julian Oscillation Associated with Interannual ENSO Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies
Authors: Pohl Benjamin , Matthews Adrian J.
Published: June 2007

The Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) is analyzed using the reanalysis zonal wind– and satellite outgoing longwave radiation–based indices of Wheeler and Hendon for the 1974–2005 period. The average lifetime of the MJO events varies with season (36 days for events whose central date occurs in December, and 48 days for events in September). The lifetime of the MJO in the equinoctial seasons (March–May and October–December) is also dependent on the state of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). During October–December it is only 32 days under El Niño conditions, increasing to 48 days under La Niña conditions, with similar values in northern spring. This difference is due to faster eastward propagation of the MJO convective anomalies through the Maritime Continent and western Pacific during El Niño, consistent with theoretical arguments concerning equatorial wave speeds.

The analysis is extended back to 1950 by using an alternative definition of the MJO based on just the zonal wind component of the Wheeler and Hendon indices. A rupture in the amplitude of the MJO is found in 1975, which is at the same time as the well-known rupture in the ENSO time series that has been associated with the Pacific decadal oscillation. The mean amplitude of the MJO is 16% larger in the postrupture (1976–2005) compared to the prerupture (1950–75) period. Before the 1975 rupture, the amplitude of the MJO is maximum (minimum) under El Niño (La Niña) conditions during northern winter, and minimum (maximum) under El Niño (La Niña) conditions during northern summer. After the rupture, this relationship disappears. When the MJO–ENSO relationship is analyzed using all-year-round data, or a shorter dataset (as in some previous studies), no relationship is found.
Finescale Vertical Structure and Evolution of a Preconvective Dryline on 19 June 2002
Authors: Sipprell Benjamin D. , Geerts Bart
Published: June 2007

High-resolution airborne cloud radar data and other International H2O Project datasets are used to describe the vertical structure of an unusual prefrontal dryline. This dryline, observed in northwestern Kansas on 19 June 2002, first progressed eastward and tilted toward the west, and later became more stationary and reversed its tilt, toward the moist side. The convective boundary layer (CBL) depth difference also reversed: only in the later phase did the dry-side CBL become deeper than on the moist side. Echo and single/dual-Doppler velocity data in a vertical transect across the dryline suggest a solenoidal circulation dynamically consistent with the observed horizontal buoyancy gradient. Both this gradient and the solenoidal circulation reversed in the later phase. Simultaneously, confluence toward the dryline increased, resulting in an increasing moisture gradient as well as a deepening CBL in the dryline convergence zone. It is speculated that the baroclinically generated horizontal vorticity contributed to this CBL deepening, as the sign of this vorticity was opposite to that of the low-level wind shear on the opposite side of the dryline in both phases. Deep-convective initiation appears to have resulted from this local CBL deepening, leading to a total elimination of convective inhibition near the dryline.
Effects of Precipitation on the Upper-Ocean Response to a Hurricane
Authors: Jacob S. Daniel , Koblinsky Chester J.
Published: June 2007

The effect of precipitation on the upper-ocean response during a tropical cyclone passage is investigated using a numerical model in this paper. For realistic wind forcing and empirical rain rates based on satellite climatology, numerical simulations are performed with and without precipitation forcing to delineate the effects of freshwater forcing on the upper-ocean heat and salt budgets. Additionally, the performance of five mixing parameterizations is also examined for the two forcing conditions to understand the sensitivity of simulated ocean response. Overall, results from 15 numerical experiments are analyzed to quantify the precipitation effects on the oceanic mixed layer and the upper ocean. Simulated fields for the same mixing scheme with and without precipitation indicate a decrease in the upper-ocean cooling of about 0.2°–0.5°C. This is mainly due to reduced mixing of colder water from below induced by the increased stability of the added freshwater. The cooler rainwater contributes a maximum of approximately 10% to the total surface heat loss from the ocean. The rate of freshening due to precipitation exceeds the rate of mixing of the more saline water from below, leading to a change in sign of the mixed layer salinity response. As seen in earlier studies, large uncertainty exists in the simulated upper-ocean response due to the choice of mixing parameterization. Although the nature of simulated response remains similar for all the mixing schemes, the magnitude of freshening and cooling varies by as much as 0.5 psu and 1°C between the schemes to the right of the storm track. While changes in the mixed layer and in the top 100 m of heat and salt budgets are strongly influenced by the choice of mixing scheme, integrated budgets in the top 200 m are seen to be affected more by advection and surface fluxes. However, since the estimated surface fluxes depend upon the simulated sea surface temperature, the choice of mixing scheme is crucial for realistic coupled predictive models.
The Necessity of Being Comparative:Theory Confirmation in Quantitative Political Science
Authors: Clarke Kevin A.
Published: June 2007

The aim of this article is to demonstrate that comparative theory testing is necessary if political scientists wish to make positive statements regarding the confirmation of their theories. Using the tools of formal logic, the author first establishes that theory confirmation is not possible when a theory is tested in isolation, regardless of the statistical approach—falsificationism, confirmationism, or Bayesian confirmationism—employed by the researcher. The author then establishes a necessary and sufficient condition for positive theory confirmation and shows that this condition is met only when two rival theories are tested against one another. Finally, the author discusses two methods of comparative theory testing demonstrating that being comparative, besides being necessary, is also straightforward and practical.
Contradictions in the ideologies of helping
Authors: Moldovan Vadim , Moyo Otrude
Published: June 2007

English

This article explores conflicting social work ideologies of helping and social justice in an international context. Ideological distinctions are examined in the countries of Zimbabwe and Moldova, both societies in transition. The article indicates the need for an ideological reorientation of international social work in the direction of the fundamental value of social justice.

French

Cet article explore les diffé rentes contradictions idé ologiques en travail social en matiè re d’aide et de justice sociale dans un contexte international. On y examine les diffé rences idé ologiques qui ont cours au Zimbabwe et en Moldavie, deux socié té s en transition. Cette é tude fait valoir la né cessité de ré aligner les ré flexions du travail social international sur la valeur fondamentale de la justice sociale.

Spanish

Este artículo explora las ideologías conflictivas de ayuda y justicia social en el contexto internacional. Distinciones ideoló gicas son examinadas en los países de Zimbabwe y Moldava, ambas sociedades en transició n. Este artículo indica la necesidad de una reorientació n ideoló gica del trabajo social internacional en la direcció n de los valores fundamentales de la justicia social.
Social participation and psychological distress among immigrants from the former Soviet Union
Authors: Slonim-Nevo Vered , Mirsky Julia , Nauck Bernhard , Horowitz Tamar
Published: June 2007

English

The adaptation of immigrants to Israel and to Germany is compared. While in Germany immigrants were oriented towards the general society, in Israel they tended towards less social participation. Adolescent immigrants in Israel reported more stress than did their German peers, but no differences in the psychological stress were found among their parents.

French

Cette é tude compare la façon dont des immigrants en Israë l et en Allemagne se sont adapté s. Il en ressort que les immigrants en Allemagne ont é té , de façon gé né rale, davantage inté gré s à la socié té comparativement aux immigrants en Israë l, qui tendent à être moins engagé s socialement. Les immigrants adolescents en Israë l font é tat d’un plus grand stress que leurs pairs en Allemagne, alors qu’on ne relè ve pas de diffé rences chez leurs parents respectifs.

Spanish

La adaptació n de los inmigrantes a Israel y Alemania es comparada. Mientras que en Alemania los inmigrantes se orientan hacia la sociedad en general, en Israel ellos tienden hacia una participació n social baja. Inmigrantes adolescentes en Israel reportaron má s estré s que sus contrapartes alemanes, pero no se encontraron diferencias en el estré s psicoló gico entre los parientes.
Survival strategies of street children in Ghana
Authors: Orme Julie , Seipel Michael M.O.
Published: June 2007

English

Children are working and sleeping in the streets of many urban centers. They are sometimes viewed as deviants and often treated with harshness. Despite difficult circumstances, not all of them manifest antisocial behaviors or hopelessness. This study shows how street children in Accra, Ghana, manage street life by adopting socially constructive strategies.

French

Dans un grand nombre de centres urbains, les enfants travaillent et dorment dans les rues. Ils sont parfois perçus comme des personnes dé viantes et ils sont souvent traité s avec brutalité . En dé pit de ces difficulté s, ces enfants ne pré sentent pas tous des comportements antisociaux et ils ne sont pas tous en proie au dé sespoir. Cette é tude té moigne de la façon dont les enfants de la rue à Accra, au Ghana, gè rent leurs conditions en adoptant des straté - gies socialement constructives.

Spanish

Niños se encuentran trabajando y durmiendo en las calles de muchos centros urbanos. Ellos son vistos a veces como desviados y frecuentemente tratado con dureza. A pesar de circunstancias difíciles no todos ellos mani- fiestan conductas antisociales o desesperació n. Este estudio muestra como los ninños de la calle en Accra, Gana gestionan la vida en las calles incorporando estrategias sociales constructivas.
Social capital as a strategy to overcome poverty in Latin America
Authors: Saracostti Mahia
Published: June 2007

English

Poverty reduction remains one of the main challenges globally. New measures indicate that poverty has declined in most Latin American countries since 2002. Some countries have pioneered new poverty policies and programs, including components of social capital. This paper explores the concept of social capital in overcoming poverty and analyzes its application in the Latin American region.

French

La ré duction de la pauvreté demeure un enjeu crucial à l’é chelle de la planè te. Des donné es ré vè lent que la pauvreté a diminué dans les pays d’Amé rique Latine depuis 2002. Certains pays ont mis de l’avant de nouvelles politiques anti-pauvreté , y compris des é lé ments du capital social. Cette é tude examine le concept de capital social associé à la lutte contre la pauvreté et en analyse l’application en Amé rique Latine.

Spanish

Reducció n de la pobreza continú a siendo un desafío globalmente. Indicadores sugieren que la pobreza ha declinado en la mayoría de los países de Amé rica Latina desde 2002. Algunos países han sido pioneros en nuevas políticas contra la pobreza que incluye componentes de capital social. Este artículo explora el concepto de capital social para la superació n de la pobreza y analiza sus aplicaciones en Amé rica Latina.
Utilizing a social work perspective to enhance sustainable development efforts in Loreto, Mexico
Authors: Carrilio Terry E.
Published: June 2007

English

Social work with its unique person-in-environment focus can play a key role in international sustainable development efforts. This paper offers a case study of impending mega-development in the small town of Loreto, and illustrates ways that a social work perspective can contribute to efforts to address sustainability and social development.

French

En mettant l’accent de façon particuliè re sur la personne dans son environnement, le travail social peut jouer un rôle dans les initiatives de dé veloppement durable à l’é chelle internationale. Cet article pré sente une é tude de cas sur un imminent projet de trè s grande envergure dans la petite ville de Loreto, au Mexique. Elle illustre comment la perspective du travail social peut contribuer aux efforts dé ployé s pour assurer la durabilité et le dé veloppement social.

Spanish

Trabajo social con su perspectiva ú nica que enfatiza la persona-en-ambiente puede jugar un role internacional en esfuerzos de desarrollo sostenible. Este artículo ofrece un estudio de caso sobre un inminente mega-desarrollo en la ciudad pequeñ a de Loreto, Mé xico, e ilustra maneras como una perspectiva de trabajo social puede contribuir a los esfuerzos de toman en cuenta sostenibilidad y desarrollo social.
What Has Spilled Over from Chinese Cities into Rural Industry?
Authors: Yusheng Peng
Published: June 2007

Rural industry in China has played an important role in driving national economic growth and facilitating economic reform over the past two decades. One prominent feature of rural industrialization in China is its geographic concentration around urban centers. Existing literature suggests that the dynamic growth of rural industries should be examined in the context of urban agglomeration because it is an integral part of the post-reform urban expansion. This study considers three possible mechanisms: (1) capital trickle-down from state-owned enterprises in the city, (2) technology spillovers embodied in urban technical personnel moonlighting in and commuting to nearby rural firms, and (3) urban consumer market potential. Statistical analysis of a large county-level data set (1985-91) shows that cities with a large stock of technical personnel and high consumer market potential tend to foster rural nonagricultural growth in the surrounding counties, whereas cities with a high concentration of state industrial capital tend to suppress it. Concentration of state industrial capital discouraged rural industrialization because city officials who were used to milking state banks via local state firms may have drained funds out of surrounding rural counties.
The Twilight of the Beijing Gendarmerie, 1900-1924
Authors: Dray-Novey Alison J.
Published: June 2007

The early-twentieth-century police of Beijing sprang not only from Japanese and European institutional models but also from the large Eight Banner and Green Standard Gendarmerie of the Qing era. The career of the gendarmerie, which had Ming dynasty and earlier roots and continued after the fall of the Qing until 1924, overlapped with that of the modern police for more than two decades. A significant number of individuals, including some leaders, were active in both forces simultaneously. Although the Qing-era capital cannot be called a “policed society” in all current senses of that term, the gendarmerie exercised considerable control. After 1900, this background sped the emergence of modern police in Beijing, a turn of events that contrasts sharply with contemporaneous urban history in Chengdu as reported by Kristin Stapleton.
Ephemeral Households, Marvelous Things
Authors: Liang Samuel Y.
Published: June 2007

This article maps the unique social, gender, and material configurations in the courtesan houses of fin de siècle Shanghai by portraying Chinese sojourners' life in this dream “home.” The male sojourners lacked comfortable, homelike lodgings, and as a result adopted courtesan houses not only as places for romantic liaisons but also as sites in which they could entertain friends and join broader social networks under circumstances more comfortable than their temporary lodgings. The courtesan houses were marked by a different sense of family organization, which merely masked their commercial nature, and a different set of gender roles, in which the courtesan challenged normative understandings of male and female. Finally, the new types of relationships between clients and courtesans were increasingly structured around material objects. This new urban culture, I argue, embodied a new consciousness of time, space, and materiality that constitutes a modernity distinctly different from the positivist conception of the modern marked by linear progress.
Audience reactions to Hollywood politics
Authors: van Zoonen Liesbet
Published: June 2007

In this article I analyse people’s reactions to popular American movies and TV series about politics, in order to find out whether and how they use such stories to perform a ‘political self’. The material used for this study was selected from the Internet Movie Database and consisted of comments of viewers. The analysis produced four types of performance which show how particular movies and series enable people to think about the dilemmas that politicians and politics face (reflection), criticize or praise politicians for their morals and stories for their ideology (judgement) and express their hopes and ideals (fantasy). In addition, some stories give their viewers the feeling that they have acquired new knowledge about specific elements of politics, which provide them with means to describe what they see as politics (description). In contrast to ‘television malaise’ perspectives, the results suggest that people ‘do’ politics in relation to films and series and construct in their reactions a particular and public version of their political selves.
Worlds Apart: nation-branding on the National Geographic Channel
Authors: Sinha Roy Ishita
Published: June 2007

This article argues that ‘nation-branding’ on the National Geographic Channel symbolically reinforces the idea of a ‘natural’ hierarchy of nations within globalization. I examine how, as ‘edutainment’, the American reality television series Worlds Apart (2003), teaches US viewers how to navigate the ideological spaces of home and the world. The tourist ethnographies of American families visually fetishize Third World ‘lack’ as proof of the superiority of the American ‘race’. The show suggests America’s move away from insular nationalism even as it advocates the primacy of home/homeland. The technologies of this First World gaze produce what I term ‘specular geographies’, or a neocolonial visual mapping of nations into spaces of modernity and underdevelopment.
The `Murdochization' of news? The case of Star TV in India
Authors: Thussu Daya Kishan
Published: June 2007

Global media magnate Rupert Murdoch has been a key player in the exponential growth of the Indian television market, attracted by the large and increasingly affluent urban middle classes. The success of his Star network in India reflects marketdriven strategies, which include the skilful localization of content. This article examines the case of Star News as exemplifying the trend in television news towards infotainment in the context of a more general ‘Murdochization’ of the media in India. It then goes on to analyse its impact on the quality of public discourse in television news. This, the article argues, has implications for the role of the media in a developing country where one-third of the population is illiterate.
Citizens and consumers: discursive debates during and after the Communications Act 2003
Authors: Livingstone Sonia , Lunt Peter , Miller Laura
Published: June 2007

The regulation of media and communications in the UK has recently been subject to reform resulting in the creation of the Office of Communications (Ofcom). This statutory body, established by an Act of Parliament, is a new, sector-wide regulator, protecting the interests of what has been termed the ‘citizen-consumer’. This article charts the discursive shifts that occurred during the passage of the Communications Act through Parliament and in the initial stages of its implementation to understand how and why the term ‘citizen-consumer’ came to lie at the heart of the new regulator’s mission. By critically analysing the various alignments of ‘citizen’ and ‘consumer’ interests within the debates, the underlying struggles over the formulation of power, responsibility and duties for the new regulator and for other stakeholders – industry, government and public – are identified. The article concludes that the legacy of these debates is that regulatory provisions designed to further the ‘citizen interest’ contain significant and unresolved dilemmas.
Autonomous Stair Climbing for Tracked Vehicles
Authors: Mourikis Anastasios I. , Trawny Nikolas , Roumeliotis Stergios I. , Helmick Daniel M. , Matthies Larry
Published: June 2007

In this paper, an algorithm for autonomous stair climbing with a tracked vehicle is presented. The proposed method achieves robust performance under real-world conditions, without assuming prior knowledge of the stair geometry, the dynamics of the vehicle's interaction with the stair surface, or lighting conditions. The approach relies on fast and accurate estimation of the robot's heading and its position relative to the stair boundaries. An extended Kalman filter is used for quaternion-based attitude estimation, fusing rotational velocity measurements from a 3-axial gyroscope, and measurements of the stair edges acquired with an onboard camera. A two-tiered controller, comprised of a centering- and a heading-control module, utilizes the estimates to guide the robot rapidly, safely, and accurately upstairs. Both the theoretical analysis and implementation of the algorithm are presented in detail, and extensive experimental results demonstrating the algorithm's performance are described.
Image-based Visual Servoing of a Gough—Stewart Parallel Manipulator using Leg Observations
Authors: Andreff Nicolas , Dallej Tej , Martinet Philippe
Published: June 2007

In this paper, a tight coupling between computer vision and parallel robotics is exhibited through the projective line geometry. Indeed, contrary to the usual methodology where the robot is modeled independently from the control law that will be implemented, the proposed method takes into account, from the early modeling stage, the fact that vision will be used for control. Hence, kinematic modeling and projective geometry are fused into a control-devoted projective kinematic model. Thus, starting from a vision-based kinematic modeling of a Gough—Stewart manipulator, a visual servoing scheme is presented, where the image projection (edges) of the non-rigidly linked legs are servoed, rather than the end-effector pose or the leg directions.
Environmental drivers of large, infrequent wildfires: the emerging conceptual model
Authors: Meyn Andrea , White Peter S. , Buhk Constanze , Jentsch Anke
Published: June 2007

Large, infrequent fires (LIFs) can have substantial impacts on both ecosystems and the economy. To better understand LIFs and to better predict the effects of human management and climate change on their occurrence, we must first determine the factors that produce them. Here, we review local and regional literature investigating the drivers of LIFs. The emerging conceptual model proposes that ecosystems can be typified based on climatic conditions that determine both fuel moisture and fuel amount. The concept distinguishes three ecosystem types: (1) biomass-rich, rarely dry ecosystems where fuel moisture rather than fuel amount limits LIFs; (2) biomass-poor, at least seasonally dry ecosystems where fuel amount rather than fuel moisture limits LIFs; and (3) biomass-poor, rarely dry ecosystems where both fuel amount and fuel moisture limit the occurrence of LIFs. Our main goal in this paper is to discuss the drivers of LIFs and the three mentioned ecosystem types in a global context. Further, we will discuss the drivers that are not included within the `fuels' versus `climate' discussion. Finally, we will address the question: what kinds of additional information are needed if models predicting LIFs are to be coupled with global climate models? As with all generalizations, there are local deviations and modifications due to processes such as disturbance interaction or human impact. These processes tend to obscure the general patterns of the occurrence of LIFs and are likely to cause much of the observed controversy and confusion in the literature.
Deliberation as Self-Discovery and Institutions for Political Speech
Authors: Hafer Catherine , Landa Dimitri
Published: June 2007

We present a game-theoretic model of the social dynamics of belief change in which the (relevant) logically non-omniscient audience becomes convinced that the speakers' messages are `true' because its own prior beliefs logically entail them, rather than — as in cheap-talk models — because the speaker is (endogenously) trustworthy. We characterize the equilibria of the game and consider how their aggregate informational properties change with the variation in the institutions determining the ability of the speakers to reach their audience. We find that for plausible restrictions on the distribution of arguments and on the corresponding policy preferences in society, the informationally optimal institutions are first-best implementable, inegalitarian with respect to the resource allocation across speakers, and assign priority to the (more) extreme argument- and policy-holders.
Primary antiphospholipid syndrome as the forerunner of systemic lupus erythematosus
Authors: Tarr T. , Lakos G. , Bhattoa H.P. , Szegedi G. , Shoenfeld Y. , Kiss E.
Published: June 2007

The objective of this study was to analyse whether primary antiphospholipid syndrome (PAPS) may precede and modify the characteristics of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Out of the total 362 SLE patients in our service, 223 patients had antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL), of whom 110 met the criteria of antiphospholipid syndrome. In 26 cases (7.2%) PAPS appeared 5.5 years before the onset of lupus (PAPS+SLE Group). Their clinical findings were compared to lupus patients without (SLE only Group, n = 26) and with secondary APS (SLE+SAPS Group, n = 26). The prevalence of deep venous thrombosis, stroke/TIA, recurrent fetal loss, coronary heart disease and myocardial infarction was significantly higher in PAPS+SLE Group as compared to SLE only Group. The difference in prevalence of fetal loss ( P = 0.014) between PAPS+SLE and SLE+SAPS Groups was also recorded. On comparison to PAPS+SLE Group, patients without APS (SLE only Group) were younger at onset of lupus, with more frequent flares and a higher prevalence of WHO type III/IV nephritis ( P = 0.007), requiring higher doses of cyclophosphamide and corticosteroids. Lupus started in the form of PAPS in 7.2% of our SLE patients, who presented with more thrombotic and less inflammatory complications than in SLE patients without a prior or with a following secondary APS. Considering the long latency between the two diseases, PAPS may be a forerunner of lupus, but it may also coexist with SLE as an independent autoimmune disorder. Lupus (2007) 16 , 324—328.
Safety and efficacy of hepatitis B vaccine in systemic lupus erythematosus
Authors: Kuruma K.A.M. , Borba E.F. , Lopes M.H. , de Carvalho J.F. , Bonfá E.
Published: June 2007

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination has been implicated as a potential trigger for autoimmune diseases but there are no prospective studies in lupus. We therefore assessed prospectively the safety and efficacy of immunization with recombinant DNA HBV vaccine (Euvax B®; LG Life Sciences) in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. Twenty-eight consecutive inactive SLE patients [Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) <4], age between 18 and 50 years and negative serology for HBV, were selected. Exclusion criteria were prednisone ≥20 mg/day and immunosuppressive drugs. Clinical and laboratorial assessments were obtained at study entry and one month after the three doses. In addition, a previous one year evaluation was performed using a standard electronic protocol. The mean age was 34 ± 7.7 years and disease duration was 10.4 ± 6.7 years. An adequate seroconversion was achieved at the end of the study (93%), although a lower frequency after the first (4%) and second dose (54%) was observed. No significant change in mean SLEDAI score was detected after each dose throughout the study (0.14 ± 0.52 versus 0 versus 0.61 ± 1.66 versus 0.36 ± 1.34, P = 0.11). Reinforcing these findings, the 11% flares during vaccination was similar to the 21% observed in the previous year ( P = 0.46). Furthermore, the mean prednisone dose at study entry was comparable to the end of the study (2.86 ± 3.06 versus 4.64 ± 8.25 mg/day, P = 0.32). In addition, the frequency of immunosuppressive therapy during the vaccination period (11%) was alike to the 14% observed in the previous year before entry ( P = 0.66). Hepatitis B vaccination was safe in inactive SLE patients with an adequate vaccine response rate. Lupus (2007) 16, 350—354.
Multiple imputation of discrete and continuous data by fully conditional specification
Authors: van Buuren Stef
Published: June 2007

The goal of multiple imputation is to provide valid inferences for statistical estimates from incomplete data. To achieve that goal, imputed values should preserve the structure in the data, as well as the uncertainty about this structure, and include any knowledge about the process that generated the missing data. Two approaches for imputing multivariate data exist: joint modeling (JM) and fully conditional specification (FCS). JM is based on parametric statistical theory, and leads to imputation procedures whose statistical properties are known. JM is theoretically sound, but the joint model may lack flexibility needed to represent typical data features, potentially leading to bias. FCS is a semi-parametric and flexible alternative that specifies the multivariate model by a series of conditional models, one for each incomplete variable. FCS provides tremendous flexibility and is easy to apply, but its statistical properties are difficult to establish. Simulation work shows that FCS behaves very well in the cases studied. The present paper reviews and compares the approaches. JM and FCS were applied to pubertal development data of 3801 Dutch girls that had missing data on menarche (two categories), breast development (five categories) and pubic hair development (six stages). Imputations for these data were created under two models: a multivariate normal model with rounding and a conditionally specified discrete model. The JM approach introduced biases in the reference curves, whereas FCS did not. The paper concludes that FCS is a useful and easily applied flexible alternative to JM when no convenient and realistic joint distribution can be specified.
Evaluation of software for multiple imputation of semi-continuous data
Authors: Yu L.-M. , Burton Andrea , Rivero-Arias Oliver
Published: June 2007

It is now widely accepted that multiple imputation (MI) methods properly handle the uncertainty of missing data over single imputation methods. Several standard statistical software packages, such as SAS, R and STATA, have standard procedures or user-written programs to perform MI. The performance of these packages is generally acceptable for most types of data. However, it is unclear whether these applications are appropriate for imputing data with a large proportion of zero values resulting in a semi-continuous distribution. In addition, it is not clear whether the use of these applications is suitable when the distribution of the data needs to be preserved for subsequent analysis. This article reports the findings of a simulation study carried out to evaluate the performance of the MI procedures for handling semi-continuous data within these statistical packages. Complete resource use data on 1060 participants from a large randomized clinical trial were used as the simulation population from which 500 bootstrap samples were obtained and missing data imposed. The findings of this study showed differences in the performance of the MI programs when imputing semi-continuous data. Caution should be exercised when deciding which program should perform MI on this type of data.
A comparison of imputation techniques for handling missing predictor values in a risk model with a binary outcome
Authors: Ambler Gareth , Omar Rumana Z , Royston Patrick
Published: June 2007

Risk models that aim to predict the future course and outcome of disease processes are increasingly used in health research, and it is important that they are accurate and reliable. Most of these risk models are fitted using routinely collected data in hospitals or general practices. Clinical outcomes such as short-term mortality will be near-complete, but many of the predictors may have missing values. A common approach to dealing with this is to perform a complete-case analysis. However, this may lead to overfitted models and biased estimates if entire patient subgroups are excluded. The aim of this paper is to investigate a number of methods for imputing missing data to evaluate their effect on risk model estimation and the reliability of the predictions. Multiple imputation methods, including hotdecking and multiple imputation by chained equations (MICE), were investigated along with several single imputation methods. A large national cardiac surgery database was used to create simulated yet realistic datasets. The results suggest that complete case analysis may produce unreliable risk predictions and should be avoided. Conditional mean imputation performed well in our scenario, but may not be appropriate if using variable selection methods. MICE was amongst the best performing multiple imputation methods with regards to the quality of the predictions. Additionally, it produced the least biased estimates, with good coverage, and hence is recommended for use in practice.
Multiple imputation: current perspectives
Authors: Kenward Michael G , Carpenter James
Published: June 2007

This paper provides an overview of multiple imputation and current perspectives on its use in medical research. We begin with a brief review of the problem of handling missing data in general and place multiple imputation in this context, emphasizing its relevance for longitudinal clinical trials and observational studies with missing covariates. We outline how multiple imputation proceeds in practice and then sketch its rationale. We explore the problem of obtaining proper imputations in some detail and distinguish two main classes of approach, methods based on fully multivariate models, and those that iterate conditional univariate models. We show how the use of so-called uncongenial imputation models are particularly valuable for sensitivity analyses and also for certain analyses in clinical trial settings. We also touch upon other forms of sensitivity analysis that use multiple imputation. Finally, we give some open questions that the increasing use of multiple imputation has thrown up, which we believe are useful directions for future research.
Book review: Jason Corburn, Street Science: Community Knowledge and Environmental Health Justice (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005), 217 pp. ISBN 0262532727, $24.00/£15.95
Authors: Jones Catherine Emma
Published: June 2007

The four case studies are engaging, and are well framed by supporting chapters outlining not only the need and importance of local knowledge but also its juxtaposition with professional science. This book is refreshingly accessible and is an excellent supportive text for researchers, students, community members and local government professionals who are embarking on, or are currently engaged in, local knowledge gathering or community participation projects.
Fostering Participation in Scampia
Authors: De Muro Pasquale , Di Martino Paola , Cavola Lucia
Published: June 2007

We present a case-study of social innovation to counter deprivation and social exclusion in Naples. The case, studied within the SINGOCOM research project, is located in Scampia, an extremely deprived neighbourhood on the northern outskirts of Naples. A network of civic associations, Piazziamoci, is trying to build a `piazza' (square), as a place where the local community can meet and experience collective initiatives, with the aim of (re)constructing social relations, especially among young people. On the one hand, these social relations are inhibited and corrupted by criminality and, on the other hand, by neglectful city planning. The civic network succeeded in enhancing local social capital and fighting social exclusion; furthermore, it developed a planning project for the `piazza' through direct citizen participation. The use of ICTs had a relevant role in community networking. The article assesses the socially innovative content of the Piazziamoci project and its impact on neighbourhood dynamics, taking into consideration the intolerable living conditions in the neighbourhood, and the difficult relations between the network and the municipal government.
The End of Social Innovation in Urban Development Strategies?
Authors: Christiaens Etienne , Moulaert Frank , Bosmans Bie
Published: June 2007

This article examines the changes since the 1970s in the urban political regime in Antwerp. It focuses on the period 1990—2005; there was a shift from the traditional physical renewal policy (including social housing construction) of the 1980s, to a neighbourhood-based socially innovative urban development policy (1990s), and finally to a more mainstream real-estate led and market-driven urban policy starting in 2002. The article addresses both the material and discursive practices of main actors within the spheres of political and civil society. The analysis is built around the history of the neighbourhood development association BOM, once a leading urban policy innovator, but closed down in 2005 because it no longer fitted within the `new' city-hall-controlled top-down urban policy concept.
Centro Sociale Leoncavallo
Authors: Membretti Andrea
Published: June 2007

In this article we analyse the bottom-up response to the lack of social and cultural services in a post-industrial area of Milan (Italy) as a revealing experience of social innovation. Leoncavallo, a self-managed and Leftist social, cultural and political centre established in 1975, represents a peculiar approach to the management of collective services in a participative and informal way, based on the principle of autogestione (self-management). Through an interesting process of `flexible institutionalization', this collective agent has been able to survive the post-1968 era, evolving nowadays into an important political actor in the national and international scenes. From an organizational point of view, the analysis shows how social innovation processes (Moulaert et al., 1990) are strongly related to the social enterprise logic and to the spatial dimension (at different scales): both the management of sense-making processes and the `enactment' of physical spaces (frames) by the activists and by the users of Leoncavallo provide the opportunity to combine the economic, political and social dimensions. This leads in the direction of a `glocal' development, focused on human needs and potentialities as fields for the building of an active citizenship.
Holding Therapy and Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy Are Not Supported and Acceptable Social Work Interventions: A Systematic Research Synthesis Revisited
Authors: Pignotti Monica , Mercer Jean
Published: June 2007

This article re-examines material discussed in a recent systematic research synthesis by Craven and Lee. The authors find that two of the interventions for foster children discussed by Craven and Lee were erroneously classified as supported by evidence of efficacy, and one, holding therapy, is shown to be potentially physically harmful to children. Detailed evidence is offered to show that holding therapy and dyadic developmental psychotherapy are not appropriately categorized as supported and acceptable interventions.
CAD/CAPP Integration using Feature Ontology
Authors: Dartigues Christel , Ghodous Parisa , Gruninger Michael , Pallez Denis , Sriram Ram
Published: June 2007

In a collaborative computer-supported engineering environment, the interoperation of various applications will need a representation that goes beyond the current geometry-based representation, which is inadequate for capturing semantic information. The primary purpose of this study is to discuss a semantically based information exchange protocol that will facilitate seamless interoperability among current and next generation computer-aided design systems (CAD) and between CAD and other systems that use product data. An ontological approach is described to integrating computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided process planning (CAPP). Two commercial software applications are used to demonstrate the approach. This involves the development of a shared ontology and domain specific ontologies in the Knowledge Interchange Format (KIF) language. Domain specific ontologies — which are feature-based — are developed after a detailed analysis of the CAD and the CAPP software. Mapping between the domain ontologies and the shared ontology is achieved by several mapping rules. The approach is validated by using a variety of parts.
An Index-based Method to Manage the Tradeoff between Diversity and Commonality during Product Family Design
Authors: Thevenot Henri J. , Alizon Fabrice , Simpson Timothy W. , Shooter Steven B.
Published: June 2007

The competitiveness in today's market forces many companies to rethink the way they design products. Instead of developing one product at a time, many manufacturing companies are developing families of products to provide enough variety for the marketplace while keeping costs relatively low. Although the benefits of commonality are widely known, many companies are still not taking full advantage of it when developing new products or redesigning existing ones. One reason is the lack of appropriate methods and useful indices to assess a product family based on commonality and diversity. Although many component-based commonality indices have been proposed in the literature, they emphasize commonality at the expense of diversity in a product family. In this study, the design for commonality and diversity method based on two new commonality indices — the commonality diversity index and the comprehensive metric for commonality — is introduced to help designers manage the inherent tradeoff between commonality and diversity during the product family design process. To illustrate the proposed method, an example application involving a family of single-use cameras is presented. The proposed method provides useful recommendations at both the functional and component levels during product family design.
Frameworks for Product Family Design and Development
Authors: Alizon Fabrice , Khadke Kiran , Thevenot Henri J. , Gershenson John K. , Marion Tucker J. , Shooter Steven B. , Simpson Timothy W.
Published: June 2007

In today's market, products must meet or exceed customers' needs while being competitively priced and developed in the shortest time possible. While product platforms address many of these requirements, they can incur additional development challenges with regards to coordination, time, and cost. Companies therefore need to use a concurrent engineering process to develop product families and product platforms efficiently; however, no concurrent engineering process models exist to support product family development. Based on concurrent engineering principles, four processes are proposed for systematic product family design using two platforming approaches — top-down and bottom-up — and two development drivers: product-driven and platform-driven. The first objective of this study is to propose a consistent product family development process terminology. The second objective is to detail representative frameworks and processes for the four proposed product family design processes based on the two approaches and two drivers. Several industry examples highlight the context and illustrate the four proposed processes.
Designing Platforms for Customizable Products and Processes in Markets of Non-Uniform Demand
Authors: Williams Christopher B. , Allen Janet K. , Rosen David W. , Mistree Farrokh
Published: June 2007

The foremost difficulty in making the transition to mass customization is how to offer product variety affordably. The answer to this quandary lies in the successful management of modularity and commonality in the development of products and their production processes. While several platform design techniques have emerged as a means to offer modularity and commonality, they are limited by an inability to handle multiple modes of offering variety for multiple design specifications. The Product Platform Constructal Theory Method (PPCTM) is a technique that enables a designer to develop platforms for customizable products while handling issues of multiple levels of commonality, multiple product specifications, and the inherent tradeoffs between platform extent and performance. The method is limited, however, by its inability to handle multiple design objectives and its reliance on the assumption that demand in the market is uniform for each product variant. The authors address these limitations in this study by infusing the utility-based compromise decision support problem and demand modeling techniques. The authors further augment the PPCTM by extending its use to a new domain: the design of process parameter platforms. The augmented approach is illustrated through a tutorial example: the design of a product and a process parameter platform for the realization of a line of customizable cantilever beams.
ISO 15531 MANDATE: A Product-process-resource based Approach for Managing Modularity in Production Management
Authors: Cutting-Decelle A.F. , Young R.I.M. , Michel J.J. , Grangel R. , Le Cardinal J. , Bourey J.P.
Published: June 2007

Managing modularity and commonality in product development more and more needs modularity and commonality in the production process, with the objectives of reducing manufacturing costs, time to market and improving quality. A critical issue is the way of managing data, information and knowledge: data most of the time structured according to data models, often using proprietary formats, leading to consistency problems for the exchanges. The use of international standards is a good way of improving quality of the information systems used in production management, since they facilitate interoperability of the software tools used. They also contribute to the integration of the production process in a product life cycle management-based approach. This study presents the ISO 15531 MANDATE standard for the exchanges of industrial manufacturing management data. In terms of industrial maturity, MANDATE is a new standard, whose development is based on research work done by the authors and whose parts have not reached the IS status (necessary for sake of stability) at the same time. For this reason, the different models proposed by the standard have not been implemented altogether at the same time. Indeed numerous standards do exist in the domain of production information management, however the information models proposed are not always compatible in between them, the vocabulary used is not defined in the same way even though the terms used are the same: ontology-based approaches are sometimes necessary to find the common `essence' of the information handled, but they can be integrated in software interfaces, thus making easier to convey a higher level of semantics in the exchanges. This study presents one of those approaches, defined in the INTEROP NoE EC funded project.