bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Running reds and killing peds: the lexicon of bicycle messengers
Authors: NYSSA ZOE
Published: March 2004

PERFORMING what is often considered one of the world's most dangerous jobs, bicycle couriers are proud to be considered ‘other’ – or simply suicidal – by the rest of the world. The job lacks prestige and security, and the wages of bike couriers, which were already low relative to the risks, have been steadily decreasing in the last decade. Yet there is a kind of solidarity. This study seeks not only to discuss the kind of language couriers use but also to show how that language reflects both the work and the solidarity in the ‘messengering’ world.
Responses to indirect speech acts in a chat room
Authors: SCHEYDER ELIZABETH
Published: March 2004

THIS STUDY compares responses to indirect speech acts in a chat room with responses in a telephone conversation. In this instance, the chat room serves as a meeting place for members of a recent undergraduate university course and the telephone conversations are taken from a study done by Clark in 1979. Indirect speech acts are those that have a literal meaning (e.g., ‘Do you have a dollar?’ – the surface question is a request for information) as well as an indirect meaning (in this case, a request for money). Responses can consist of (1) just the answer to the surface question, (2) that answer plus the information indirectly requested, (3) only the information indirectly requested, or (4) some other form of response. The percentage of each type of response was compared in the two forms of communication. Clark found that the majority of responses consisted of only the information requested, and as predicted, the typed environment of the chat room yielded an even greater majority of this simplified form of response.
How to tell ‘right’ from ‘wrong’
Authors: POOLE BRIAN
Published: March 2004

In British English texts, the frequency profiles of the collocation of right and wrong with preceding adverbs show patterns which are almost symmetrically opposed. This general truth obtains despite the fact that there are adverbs – such as completely or absolutely – which logic, or the intuitions of a learner of English as a second or foreign language, might suggest should combine equally happily or frequently with either.
Participation or Pathology: Contradictory Tensions in Area-Based Policy
Authors: Alcock Pete
Published: March 2004

This paper discusses some of the tensions revealed in the development and implementation of recent area-based approaches to social policy in England. Such programmes are now a central feature of Government policy practice, although similar programmes have been developed in the past in the UK and other welfare capitalist countries. They reflect concerns to combat social exclusion and ‘join-up’ service provision. They are also evidence of a shift towards more agency based policy practice – from ‘top-down’ to ‘bottom-up’ planning. Thus participation of citizens is a key element in all programmes. Some of the problems of securing such participation are discussed, including in particular the tendency for expectations of participation to lead to pathological interpretations of the causes of (and solutions too) social exclusion.
European Pension Privatisation: Taking Account of Gender
Authors: Ginn Jay
Published: March 2004

Debate on pension privatisation in Europe has provided useful insights into the diversity of European pension systems in terms of ideological orientation, design features and reform paths followed. However, the gender dimension has often been neglected. Thus a recent analysis states that, depending on predominant social values, pension privatisation may be ‘consistent with the notion of collective responsibility for needs-satisfaction’ (Hyde et al., 2003: 189). Yet the unequal effects of privatisation on men and women are ignored. This article argues that, despite considerable variation among countries in the nature of their private pension schemes, the latter share a failure to incorporate allowances for periods of unpaid caring work over the lifecourse. Comparison of the needs-satisfying capacity of private and public pensions must take account of the situation of those who raise the next generation of producers and taxpayers.
Western European Pensions Privatisation: A Response to Jay Ginn
Authors: Hyde Mark , Dixon John , Drover Glenn
Published: March 2004

Our recent paper on state-mandated private pension schemes in Western Europe has been criticised by Ginn because it did not look specifically at the impact of private provision on women. This was not our intent, but she raises important issues that are largely ignored in economics-driven pension privatisation policy discourses. She has addressed this omission by demonstrating that private pension provision may result in significant levels of economic disadvantage among women retirees. We do not disagree with the broad thrust of her analysis and its conclusions. However, because she has failed to appreciate the crucial difference between voluntary and state-mandated private pension provision, her thoughtful analysis does not invalidate our proposition that the state-mandated provision of private pensions in Western Europe is consistent, to varying degrees, with the notion of collective responsibility for needs satisfaction.
Introduction: Themed section on Age, Employment and Policy
Authors: Platman Kerry , Taylor Philip
Published: March 2004

Older workers have moved up the policy agenda within the industrialised nations. In the 1980s and first half of the 1990s, policy-making in much of the European Union emphasised the virtues of early retirement, partly as a response to high levels of unemployment. Since the late 1990s, there has been an increasing emphasis on overcoming age barriers in the labour market and on extending working life. This has been driven by concerns over ageing and shrinking labour forces, the sustainability of public pension systems, evidence of age discrimination in the labour market and the potential influence of the ‘grey’ voter. By contrast in the USA, the pronounced trend towards ‘early exit’ which has characterised Europe never existed. This is even more the case in Japan.
Age and Work: International Perspectives
Authors: Taylor Philip
Published: March 2004

The need to extend working life is being increasingly emphasised in policy debates in the developed economies. Recent years have seen the emergence of new policies on work on retirement aimed at closing off ‘early exit’ pathways and promoting the employment of older workers. This article summarises recent developments in selected countries, concluding that the effectiveness of policy making to date is difficult to gauge, that as yet, it lacks the necessary sophistication and that, as a consequence, it may not provide appropriate pathways for older workers or employers.
Public Policy and the Ageing Workforce in the United States
Authors: Rix Sara E.
Published: March 2004

Despite an ageing work force and the impending retirement of millions of baby boomers that could lead to serious labour, skills, and occupational shortages, older workers are not high on the policy agenda in the United States. Nonetheless, labour force participation rates for the older population have been rising, and public opinion polls reveal a sizeable demand for post-retirement employment. The challenge lies in meeting that demand and fostering longer worklives on the part of even more older Americans. A substantial public policy response is by no means certain, although raising the retirement age is likely to feature prominently in the debate on Social Security reform.
Flexible Employment in Later Life: Public Policy Panaceas in the Search for Mechanisms to Extend Working Lives
Authors: Platman Kerry
Published: March 2004

Flexible employment has been suggested as an important policy solution to ‘the problem’ of inactive older workers. Temporary contracts, part-time jobs, self-employment and freelance consulting have been seen as viable options for people needing to make gradual transitions into retirement and for governments wishing to encourage an extension to working lives. Using the case of the UK, the paper examines the multi-stakeholder appeal of flexible transitions into retirement. However, the term has been poorly defined and conceptualised. Drawing on her own research, the author challenges the notion of flexible extensions to working lives for the oldest members of the labour force.
Levels of Processing Effects on Implicit and Explicit Memory Tasks
Authors: Newell Ben R. , Andrews Sally
Published: April 2004

Abstract. One interpretation of levels of processing effects (LOP) on priming in implicit tests of memory is in terms of deficits in lexical processing during shallow study tasks. In two experiments the extent of lexical processing engaged in during standard shallow encoding tasks was manipulated by placing the encoding question either before or after the target stimulus. Clear evidence was found in explicit memory tasks that placing the question after the target stimulus increased the depth of processing of words presented in shallow encoding tasks. In contrast, there was no evidence of such an effect on the priming observed in implicit memory tasks. The results suggest that the role of lexical processing in LOP effects on priming requires further specification.
Wind observations of extreme ion temperature anisotropies in the lunar wake
Authors: Clack D. , Kasper J. C. , Lazarus A. J. , Steinberg J. T. , Farrell W. M.
Published: March 2004

We describe Wind observations of two lunar wake encounters which occurred on 12–13 November 1996 and 18 July 2002. The observations were made at downstream distances of around 25 and 15 lunar radii (RL), respectively. Both encounters occurred prior to the spacecraft entering the lunar shadow; one event took place within the magnetosheath. A characteristic feature of the lunar wake is the presence of two counterstreaming ion beams drawn in from either flank. We find that both ion components exhibit an extreme temperature anisotropy, often with T⊥ ∼ 10T∥. The anisotropy is greatest in the central wake region. It appears that the anisotropy arises through the conservation of adiabatic invariants as solar wind plasma expands to fill in the cavity behind the Moon. Despite their large anisotropy, the proton distributions appear stable to the cyclotron instability. Correlated field and flow directional changes show that the wake geometry is dependent upon the prevailing magnetic field orientation.
Covariation of coastal water temperature and microbial pollution at interannual to tidal periods
Authors: Boehm Alexandria B. , Lluch‐Cota Daniel B. , Davis Kristen A. , Winant Clinton D. , Monismith Stephen G.
Published: March 2004

Water temperature and fecal indicator bacteria levels covary along the shoreline of Huntington and Newport Beach, California at interannual to tidal periods. During summer, cooler than average waters caused by interannual variability in sea surface temperature (SST), synoptic upwelling, and tidal‐period cooling are coincident with elevated levels of microbial pollution in the surf zone. This relationship can be explained by the effects of weakening in stratification on the fate of a waste water plume and the prolonged persistence of fecal indicator bacteria in colder waters. During winter, warmer than average water caused by basin scale oscillations and atmospheric and oceanographic processes that contribute to the Multivariate El Nino Southern Oscillation Index are indicative of elevated total coliform levels in the surf zone. The elevated coliform levels can be ascribed to increased rainfall, and the resultant storm water inflow to the surf zone.
Temperature and salinity increase in the eastern North Atlantic along the 24.5°N in the last ten years
Authors: Vargas‐Yáñez Manuel , Parrilla Gregorio , Lavín Alicia , Vélez‐Belchí Pedro , González‐Pola César
Published: March 2004

The ocean section along the 24.5°N has been one of the most frequently sampled of the world's oceans. It has been sampled in 1957, 1981, 1992 and 1998. Previous works showed a progressive warming and salt increase of the thermocline and intermediate waters from around 800 m to 3000 m. The maximum warming rate was 0.009°C/yr at 1100 m. The eastern part of this section was sampled in 2002. The warming of the main thermocline has continued at a higher rate (0.042°/yr at 400 m) in the last 10 years. Salinity has also increased along the thermocline conserving the 1992 θS relationship. From 100 to 1000 db, the warming is mainly due to downward displacement of the isopycnals, though some cooling along isopycnals is also observed in the upper 350 db.
Cone model for halo CMEs: Application to space weather forecasting
Authors: Xie Hong , Ofman Leon , Lawrence Gareth
Published: March 2004

In this study, we present an innovative analytical method to determine the angular width and propagation orientation of halo Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). The relation of CME actual speed with apparent speed and its components measured at different position angle has been investigated. The present work is based on the cone model proposed by Zhao et al. [2002]. We have improved this model by (1) eliminating the ambiguity via a new analytical approach, (2) using direct measurements of projection onto the plane of the sky (POS), (3) determining the actual radial speeds from projection speeds at different position angles to clarify the uncertainty of projection speeds in previous empirical models. Our analytical approach allows us to use coronagraph data to determine accurately the geometrical features of POS projections, such as major axis, minor axis, and the displacement of the center of its projection, and to determine the angular width and orientation of a given halo CME. Our approach allows for the first time the determination of the actual CME speed, width, and source location by using coronagraph data quantitatively and consistently. The method greatly enhances the accuracy of the derived geometrical and kinematical properties of halo CMEs, and can be used to optimize Space Weather forecasts. The applied model predications are in good agreement with observations.
Narrow‐scale flow and a weak field by the top of Earth's core: Evidence from Ørsted, Magsat, and secular variation
Authors: Voorhies C. V.
Published: March 2004

To test two hypotheses against seismology, the Ørsted initial field model is used to estimate the radius of Earth's core by spectral methods. The model coefficients are used to compute the mean‐square magnetic flux density in spherical harmonics of degree n on the reference sphere of radius a = 6371.2 km, which is an observational spectrum Rn. The theoretical spectrum tested, {Rnc} = K(n + 1/2)[(n(n + 1)]−1(c/a)2n+4, is obtained from the hypotheses of narrow‐scale flow and a dynamically weak magnetic field near the top of Earth's core; it describes a low‐degree, core source magnetic energy range. Core radius c and amplitude K are estimated by fitting log theoretical to log observational spectra at low degrees. Estimates of c from Rn of degrees 1 through N vary between 3441 and 3542 km as N increases from 4 to 12. None of these estimates differ significantly from the seismologic core radius of 3480 km. Significant differences do occur if N exceeds 12, which is consistent with appreciable noncore, crustal source fields at degrees 13 and above, or if other spectral forms are assumed. Similar results are obtained from the 1980 epoch Magsat model CM3. One way to deduce {Rnc} uses an expectation spectrum for low‐degree secular variation (SV) induced by narrow‐scale flow near the top of Earth's core, {Fnc} = Cn(n + 1/2)(n + 1)(c/a)2n+4. The value of c obtained by fitting this form to the mean observational SV spectrum from model GSFC 9/80 is 3470 ± 91 km, also in accord with seismologic estimates. This test of the narrow‐scale flow hypothesis is independent of the weak field hypothesis. The agreement between SV, Magsat, Ørsted, and seismologic estimates of core radius means the hypotheses pass these tests. Additional tests are described.
Seasonal characteristics of bottom boundary layer detachment at the shelfbreak front in the Middle Atlantic Bight
Authors: Linder Christopher A. , Gawarkiewicz Glen G. , Pickart Robert S.
Published: March 2004

The seasonality of various characteristics of the detached bottom boundary layer of the Middle Atlantic Bight shelfbreak front is examined using a collection of high‐resolution transects across the front. The analysis follows previous methodology in which accumulated temperature change along isopycnals within the front is used to infer the location of the detached layer. The seasonal mean isopycnal at which detachment occurs (approximately 26.0 kg m−3) is fairly constant throughout the year. However, the vertical scale of the detached layer varies significantly with season, extending 60−80 m above the bottom in winter and spring, but only 20−40 m above the bottom in summer. The vertical scale is controlled by the strength and depth of the seasonal pycnocline. The observations suggest that the detached layer is capable of extending into the euphotic zone during winter and spring.
Year‐round records of gas and particulate formic and acetic acids in the boundary layer at Dumont d'Urville, coastal Antarctica
Authors: Legrand Michel , Preunkert Susanne , Jourdain Bruno , Aumont Bernard
Published: March 2004

Multiple year‐round levels of acetate and formate in gas and aerosol phases were investigated at Dumont d'Urville (DDU, a coastal Antarctic site) by using mist chamber and aerosol filter sampling. Formate and acetate aerosol levels range from <0.5 ppt in winter to 3 ppt in summer. With corresponding gas phase levels of more than a hundred of pptv, formic and acetic acids are mainly (99%) present in the gas phase, representing the 2 major acidic gases before inorganic species (HCl, HNO3 and SO2) there. Mixing ratios of formic acid are minimal from May to August (70 pptv) and increase regularly toward November–February months when levels reach ∼200 pptv. Mixing ratios of acetic acid exhibit a more well‐marked seasonal cycle with values remaining close to 70 pptv from April to October and strongly increase during November–February months (mean value of 400 pptv). These seasonal changes suggest that the 2 carboxylic acids mainly originate from biogenic emissions of the Antarctic ocean whose variations follow the annual cycle of sea ice extent and solar radiation via photochemical production of alkenes from dissolved organic carbon released by phytoplankton. In summer, acetic acid levels show daily variations with maxima at noon and minima at night whereas formic acid levels peaks later in the afternoon. These dial variations in summer suggest that carboxylic acids are rapidly produced during the day and lost at night due to dry deposition on wet surface. It is suggested that the reactions of peroxy acetyl radical produced from propene with HO2 and CH3O2 in these poor NOx environments represent in summer the dominant chemical mechanisms producing acetic acid whereas ozone‐alkene reactions remain of minor importance at that season. Neither ozone‐alkene reactions nor aqueous phase HCHO oxidation can explain the summer levels of formic acid. In winter the long range transport of alkenes emitted at more temperate oceanic regions and reactions with ozone could account for the observed level of formic acid and possibly of acetic acid.
Pollen record of rapidly changing air trajectories to the North Pole
Authors: Rousseau Denis‐Didier , Duzer Danielle , Etienne Jean‐Louis , Cambon Geneviève , Jolly Dominique , Ferrier Jackie , Schevin Patrick
Published: March 2004

Tracing modern atmospheric dynamics is important for constraining models used in past climate reconstruction. However, these models must be verified by modern observations. We present the rapid changeover of two different air trajectories to the North Pole determined by studying the long distance transport of pollen. Samples were collected on a manned floating capsule drifting southward on the sea ice from the North Pole in 2002. It was observed that an air mass at 3000 m altitude transported birch and pine pollen released in Western Europe during week 22 (May 27). Two weeks later, during week 24 (June 10), alder, birch and willow pollen from eastern Siberia reached the drifting station with an air mass at 1000 m altitude. These particular patterns support independent investigations of air trajectories in the Arctic, especially the transport of anthropogenic pollutants such as sulfate and nitrate.
Low‐level jets and the summer precipitation regimes over North America
Authors: Mo Kingtse C. , Berbery Ernesto H.
Published: March 2004

The summer precipitation regimes over the United States and their relation to two low level jets are examined using a daily gauge‐based precipitation data set, the NCEP‐NCAR reanalysis and the 10‐yr summer (June–September) simulations based on the 50‐km NCEP regional spectral model (RSM) with the initial and boundary conditions provided by the global reanalyses. The quality at regional scales of the RSM simulations is assessed through the comparison with the NCEP's operational Eta Data Assimilation System (EDAS) analyses. The RSM, as EDAS, captures the seasonal evolution of the North American monsoon rainfall and the related vertically integrated moisture fluxes, but details differ. The fluxes associated with the Great Plains low level jet (GPLLJ) and the Gulf of California low level jet (GCLLJ) depicted by the two data sets are similar, but the 50‐km RSM has difficulty in capturing the vertical structure of the meridional moisture flux associated with the GCLLJ. The recurrent summer precipitation regime is a three cell pattern that consists of an inverse phase relationship between the Great Plains and the core monsoon region with an additional weak center over the southeastern United States. Over the southwestern United States, Arizona and New Mexico belong to two different rainfall regimes and have different moisture sources. The out of phase precipitation relationship is consistently related to an out of phase relationship between the two LLJs, whose variations are in turn associated with the upper level jet streams. The strong GCLLJ cases imply a weaker GPLLJ and less rainfall over the central United States and the Mississippi Valley. The strong GPLLJ cases only imply weaker meridional moisture fluxes from northern Mexico or Gulf of California to the southwestern United States and less monsoon rainfall there, but they do not have an impact on moisture fluxes along the Gulf of California.
On the existence of hemisphere‐wide climate variations
Authors: Wu Qigang , Straus David M.
Published: March 2004

Ward's hierarchical cluster algorithm has been applied to the NCEP reanalyzed monthly mean Northern Hemisphere (NH) wintertime geopotential height at 500 hPa (Z500). A combination of criteria involving distance, pattern correlation, well‐defined branches of the family tree, significance testing, and comparison of hierarchical clustering results to other clustering methods has lead to a reasonable choice of four or five clusters. The four clusters obtained, using a subset of empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) of Z500, reproduce the Northern Hemisphere Annular Mode (NAM), also called the Arctic Oscillation (AO) pattern, and the Cold‐Ocean‐Warm‐Land (COWL) pattern in both polarities. During the occurrence of NAM‐like regimes, the full‐field centers of action over the Pacific and the Atlantic have positive or negative anomalies simultaneously. For the COWL‐like regimes, the center of action over the Pacific is out of phase with that over the Atlantic. The coexistence of NAM‐like and COWL‐like regimes explains the apparent lack of correlation between the Z500 fluctuations near the Azores and the Northern Pacific.
Paleomagnetic poles of Mars: Revisited
Authors: Arkani‐Hamed Jafar , Boutin Daniel
Published: March 2004

The huge amount of data acquired by Mars Global Surveyor during its mapping period provides a unique opportunity to reassess the paleomagnetic pole positions of Mars previously determined on the basis of the limited low‐altitude magnetic data. We identify nine small and isolated magnetic anomalies on the basis of the global magnetic maps and model each anomaly using a vertical prism of elliptical cross section. Both high‐altitude (360–430 km) and low‐altitude (100–200 km) magnetic data are used simultaneously. We calculate a paleomagnetic pole position assuming that the body is magnetized by a dipole core field. Although the new pole positions do not cluster as closely as the old ones, the new cluster overlaps the older cluster. The clustering suggests that Mars' rotation axis has likely wandered by ∼50°–60° in the last ∼4 Gyr. The number of north and south poles in the cluster suggests at least one reversal of the core field during the time the source bodies acquired magnetization.
Pliocene exhumation and landscape evolution of central North Island, New Zealand: The role of the upper mantle
Authors: Pulford Anna , Stern Tim
Published: March 2004

Mudstone porosity analyses show that over 2 km of exhumation has occurred in central North Island, New Zealand, since 5 Ma. This, combined with a coeval surface uplift of ∼500 m, indicates a maximum 2.5 km of rock uplift in central North Island. The magnitude and wavelength (∼400 km) of the rock uplift is similar to some topographic doming observed in continental areas associated with mantle upwelling, yet central North Island is recognized as a region of back arc extension. Marine terraces 100–150 km from the center of maximum exhumation show uplift rates of ∼0.2–0.3 mm yr−1, consistent with about 1 km of exhumation if averaged over 4–5 Myr, which compares well with mudstone porosity analyses. Seismic attenuation and slow Pn velocities indicate that a thermal anomaly in the upper mantle is the source of this rock uplift. The rock uplift may be explained by the replacement of a 100‐km‐thick mantle lid by asthenosphere with a density ∼66 kg m−3 less than the lid. About half this density contrast can be explained by thermal expansion, and the rest is ascribed to partial melts in the upper mantle. Southward migration for the locus of maximum rock uplift is consistent with the zone of maximum incision erosion, being 50 km south of the southernmost volcano. Such a migration is in keeping with other geological markers of volcanic and thermal phenomena and further strengthens the link of landscape evolution at active continental margins with processes in the mantle.
Equivalent mean flow models for fractured aquifers: Insights from a pumping tests scaling interpretation
Authors: Le Borgne T. , Bour O. , de Dreuzy J. R. , Davy P. , Touchard F.
Published: March 2004

We investigate if a mean equivalent flow model can be defined to describe hydraulic head variations in a crystalline aquifer characterized by multiscale heterogeneity. We analyzed in particular the hydraulic response of a crystalline aquifer to pumping tests covering a large range of spatial and temporal scales. Pumping tests appear to be well designed to test the medium hydraulic properties and to track scaling effects, since the perturbation induced by pumping grows with time and samples increasingly large volumes. We tested well‐test interpretation frameworks underpinned by equivalent media models that basically contain scaling information. Interpretations of drawdown time series, recorded in piezometers located at distances ranging from 2 to 400 m from the pumping well and of durations ranging from 5 to 90 days, show that the temporal evolutions of drawdown are well modeled by fractional flow models [Barker, 1988; Acuna and Yortsos, 1995]. Estimates of flow dimensions are consistent across the whole site and lie in the range [1.4–1.7]. To investigate the nature of diffusion, we defined a methodology based on the evolution of the characteristic time or amplitude of hydraulic head variations with the distance from the pumping well. For most of the piezometers, those aligned along the main fault, it is possible to define a scaling law for all piezometers with a unique set of parameters. The derived exponents imply that hydraulic head diffusion is anomalously slow, a characteristic that is taken into account only in the model of Acuna and Yortsos [1995], based on diffusion in fractals.
Modulation of trigeminal sensory neuron activity by the dual cannabinoid–vanilloid agonists anandamide, N‐arachidonoyl‐dopamine and arachidonyl‐2‐chloroethylamide
Authors: Price Theodore J , Patwardhan Amol , Akopian Armen N , Hargreaves Kenneth M , Flores Christopher M
Published: April 2004

Peripheral cannabinoids have been shown to suppress nociceptive neurotransmission in a number of behavioral and neurophysiological studies. It is not known, however, whether cannabinoids exert this action through direct interactions with nociceptors in the periphery and/or if other processes are involved. To gain a better understanding of the direct actions of cannabinoid‐vanilloid agonists on sensory neurons, we examined the effects of these compounds on trigeminal ganglion (TG) neurons in vitro.

AEA (EC50=11.0 μM), NADA (EC50=857 nM) and arachidonyl‐2‐chloroethylamide ACEA (EC50=14.0 μM) each evoked calcitonin gene‐related peptide (CGRP) release from TG neurons. The TRPV1 antagonists iodo‐resiniferatoxin (I‐RTX) and capsazepine (CPZ) each obtunded AEA‐, NADA‐, ACEA‐ and capsaicin (CAP)‐evoked CGRP release with individually equivalent IC50's for each of the compounds (I‐RTX IC50 range=2.6–4.0 nM; CPZ IC50 range=523–1140 μM).

The pro‐inflammatory mediator prostaglandin E2 significantly increased the maximal effect of AEA‐evoked CGRP release without altering the EC50. AEA, ACEA and CAP stimulated cAMP accumulation in TG neurons in a calcium‐ and TRPV1‐dependent fashion. Moreover, the protein kinase inhibitor staurosporine significantly inhibited AEA‐ and CAP‐evoked CGRP release.

The pungency of AEA, NADA, ACEA and CAP in the rat eye‐wipe assay was also assessed. Interestingly, when applied intraocularly, NADA or CAP each produced nocifensive responses, while AEA or ACEA did not.

Finally, the potential inhibitory effects of these cannabinoids on TG nociceptors were evaluated. Neither AEA nor ACEA decreased CAP‐evoked CGRP release. Furthermore, neither of the cannabinoid receptor type 1 antagonists SR141716A nor AM251 had any impact on either basal or CAP‐evoked CGRP release. AEA also did not inhibit 50 mM K+‐evoked CGRP release and did not influence bradykinin‐stimulated inositol phosphate accumulation.

We conclude that the major action of AEA, NADA and ACEA on TG neurons is excitatory, while, of these, only NADA is pungent. These findings are discussed in relation to our current understanding of interactions between the cannabinoid and vanilloid systems and nociceptive processing in the periphery.

British Journal of Pharmacology (2004) 141, 1118–1130. doi:10.1038/sj.bjp.0705711
Protein kinase CK2: a new view of an old molecular complex
Authors: Filhol Odile , Martiel Jean‐Louis , Cochet Claude
Published: April 2004

Protein kinase CK2 (formerly known as casein kinase II) has been viewed traditionally as a stable heterotetrameric complex, but new analytical techniques are bringing a different picture into focus. The transient nature of this complex has been highlighted by the elucidation of its structure. Furthermore, analysis of the spatiotemporal organization of individual CK2 subunits in living cells has shown that they are dynamic and that they integrate into different multimolecular assemblies. These new studies give an additional dimension to the challenge of determining the cellular regulation of this protein kinase.
Advances in Intelligent Information Technology: Re-Branding or Progress towards Conscious Machines?
Authors: Aleksander Igor
Published: March 2004

Is artificial intelligence (AI) just something that is done in laboratories disconnected from the development of the pragmatic computing, which constitutes current information technology or does it contribute to progress in computing and information technology? It has even been suggested that advances in AI are merely a re-branding exercise for promises that are rarely kept. This paper is a personal view of the forces that have driven the development of AI in the past and what might be a serious paradigm shift in the future. The latter points to what appears to be the most abstruse corner of the subject: the modelling of the human brain and the possibility of designing systems with the brain's ability to create conscious thought. There have been accusations that AI is always ahead on promise and behind on delivery. This is an inaccurate view. In broad terms, the argument presented here suggests that as AI developed, progress was achieved by overcoming unforeseen difficulties in the pursuit of very ambitious targets, not just a re-branding of promises. This process not only advanced AI but also fed into the mainstream of computing that underpins the information technology of the present time. While the outcome of the paradigm shift towards conscious machines, which is examined at the end of this paper is still unclear, it is possible to speculate how information technology might be affected in the future.
Technochange Management: Using IT to Drive Organizational Change
Authors: Markus M Lynne
Published: March 2004

Using IT in ways that can trigger major organizational changes creates high-risk, potentially high-reward, situations that I call technochange (for technology-driven organizational change). Technochange differs from typical IT projects and from typical organizational change programs and therefore requires a different approach. One major risk in technochange—that people will not use information technology and related work practices—is not thoroughly addressed by the discipline of IT project management, which focuses on project cost, project schedule, and solution functionality. Organizational change management approaches are also generally not effective on their own, because they take as a given the IT “solutions” developed by a technical team. Consequently, the potential for the IT “solution” to be misaligned with important organizational characteristics, such as culture or incentives, is great.

Merely combining IT project management and organizational change management approaches does not produce the best results, for two reasons. First, the additive approach does not effectively address the many failure-threatening problems that can arise over the lengthy sequential process of the typical technochange lifecycle. Second, the additive approach is not structured to produce the characteristics of a good technochange solution: a complete intervention consisting of IT and complementary organizational changes, an implementable solution with minimal misfits with the existing organization, and an organization primed to appropriate the potential benefits of the technochange solution. With hard work and care, the combined IT project management plus organizational change approach can be made to work. However, an iterative, incremental approach to implementing technochange can be a better strategy in many situations. The essential characteristic of the technochange prototyping approach is that each phase involves both new IT functionality and related organizational changes, such as redesigned business processes, new performance metrics, and training.
Progress in the IT/Business Relationship: A Longitudinal Assessment
Authors: Willcoxson Lesley , Chatham Robina
Published: March 2004

This paper investigates perceptions of the IT/business relationship held by 653 IT managers and their staff and 503 of their business counterparts. On the basis of data collected over a 3-year period using a survey instrument, the paper highlights areas of perceived difficulty in the IT/business relationship and seeks evidence of trends in the business/IT relationship. The data reveal significant differences in the perceptions of business managers and those of IT professionals, especially with respect to issues of IT system efficacy and communication efficacy. Both cohorts demonstrate increasing awareness of the importance of IT as a driver of business activity, as well as comparable upward or downward trends in response on issues relating to IT's alignment with business strategy and communication efficacy, but only the first mentioned issue is identified as a statistically significant trend.
Customer Evaluation of Application Services Provisioning in Five Vertical Sectors
Authors: Currie Wendy L , Desai Bhavini , Khan Naureen
Published: March 2004

How value is created for the customer from e-business is a topic of much concern in academic and practitioner circles. In the light of the dot.com downturn, numerous e-business firms ceased to exist. This paper reports the findings from an ongoing research study on the development and decline of the application service provider (ASP) industry. Having witnessed the decline of the first wave of ASPs, with many failing to convince small and medium businesses (SMBs) of the value of adopting an ASP solution, the second wave calls for a more rigorous approach that clearly identifies the key performance areas and indicators of the ASP business model. Applying the constructs of strategic positioning, product/service portfolio, and value proposition, this paper represents the findings from 215 responses to a questionnaire survey on how potential and existing ASP customers evaluate the benefits and risks of ASP. The findings suggest that, if the ASP model is to succeed, vendors will need to carefully identify customer requirements and avoid the pitfalls that beset the first wave of the ASP model, which was largely based upon a technology push strategy.
A Conceptual Framework for Studying Gender in Information Systems Research
Authors: Wilson Melanie
Published: March 2004

This paper aims to attend the under-theorisation of gender within the Information Systems (IS) literature by adopting a critical and feminist approach to the organisational context of IS development and use. The IS are conceived of as innovations with theoretical concepts and observations for comprehending the innovation process advanced within Social Studies of Technology being described and applied to IS. Consequently, a conceptual framework for studying gender and IS is constructed by combining insights derived from: (1) gender and computing, concerning the differences and inequalities of development and use of IS; (2) gender and society concerning the existence of gendered spheres; (3) studies of gender and organisations concerning the social division of labour; and (4) gender and technology, concerning the masculinity of technology culture. The developed framework is tabulated, areas for future research suggested and potential research questions outlined. The latter employ examples from the field of nursing to illustrate their tangible application. The framework constitutes a contribution to IS research by providing access to additional explanations for organisational phenomena (such as user rejection); by deepening our understanding of the innovation process; by improving IS practice through increased awareness of social issues (especially gender); and by promoting further potential topics for IS researchers.
Variational second-order Møller–Plesset theory based on the Luttinger–Ward functional
Authors: Dahlen Nils Erik , von Barth Ulf
Published: March 2004

In recent years there have been some rather successful applications of a new variational technique for calculating the total energies of electronic systems. The new method is based on many-body perturbation theory and uses the one-electron Green function as the basic “variable” rather than the wave function of traditional variational calculations. It is the purpose of the present work to promote the new methods within the realm of traditional theoretical chemistry by demonstrating their utility for calculating the correlation energies of a number of atoms at a level corresponding to second-order Møller–Plesset perturbation theory. The generalization to any desired order of perturbation theory is not hard to accomplish.
Simulation of environmental effects on coherent quantum dynamics in many-body systems
Authors: Riga Jeanne M. , Martens Craig C.
Published: March 2004

In this paper we describe an application of the trajectory-based semiclassical Liouville method for modeling coherent molecular dynamics on multiple electronic surfaces to the treatment of the evolution and decay of quantum electronic coherence in many-body systems. We consider a model representing the coherent evolution of quantum wave packets on two excited electronic surfaces of a diatomic molecule in the gas phase and in rare gas solvent environments, ranging from small clusters to a cryogenic solid. For the gas phase system, the semiclassical trajectory method is shown to reproduce the evolution of the electronic–nuclear coherence nearly quantitatively. The dynamics of decoherence are then investigated for the solvated systems using the semiclassical approach. It is found that, although solvation in general leads to more rapid and extensive loss of quantum coherence, the details of the coupled system–bath dynamics are important, and in some cases the environment can preserve or even enhance quantum coherence beyond that seen in the isolated system.
Computing minimal entropy production trajectories: An approach to model reduction in chemical kinetics
Authors: Lebiedz D.
Published: March 2004

Advanced experimental techniques in chemistry and physics provide increasing access to detailed deterministic mass action models for chemical reaction kinetics. Especially in complex technical or biochemical systems the huge amount of species and reaction pathways involved in a detailed modeling approach call for efficient methods of model reduction. These should be automatic and based on a firm mathematical analysis of the ordinary differential equations underlying the chemical kinetics in deterministic models. A main purpose of model reduction is to enable accurate numerical simulations of even high dimensional and spatially extended reaction systems. The latter include physical transport mechanisms and are modeled by partial differential equations. Their numerical solution for hundreds or thousands of species within a reasonable time will exceed computer capacities available now and in a foreseeable future. The central idea of model reduction is to replace the high dimensional dynamics by a low dimensional approximation with an appropriate degree of accuracy. Here I present a global approach to model reduction based on the concept of minimal entropy production and its numerical implementation. For given values of a single species concentration in a chemical system all other species concentrations are computed under the assumption that the system is as close as possible to its attractor, the thermodynamic equilibrium, in the sense that all modes of thermodynamic forces are maximally relaxed except the one, which drives the remaining system dynamics. This relaxation is expressed in terms of minimal entropy production for single reaction steps along phase space trajectories.
Meta-generalized gradient approximation: Explanation of a realistic nonempirical density functional
Authors: Perdew John P. , Tao Jianmin , Staroverov Viktor N. , Scuseria Gustavo E.
Published: March 2004

Tao, Perdew, Staroverov, and Scuseria (TPSS) have constructed a nonempirical meta-generalized gradient approximation (meta-GGA) [Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 146401 (2003)] for the exchange-correlation energy, imposing exact constraints relevant to the paradigm densities of condensed matter physics and quantum chemistry. Results of their extensive tests on molecules, solids, and solid surfaces are encouraging, suggesting that this density functional achieves uniform accuracy for diverse properties and systems. In the present work, this functional is explained and details of its construction are presented. In particular, the functional is constructed to yield accurate energies under uniform coordinate scaling to the low-density or strong-interaction limit. Its nonlocality is displayed by plotting the factor Fxc that gives the enhancement relative to the local density approximation for exchange. We also discuss an apparently harmless order-of-limits problem in the meta-GGA. The performance of this functional is investigated for exchange and correlation energies and shell-removal energies of atoms and ions. Non-self-consistent molecular atomization energies and bond lengths of the TPSS meta-GGA, calculated with GGA orbitals and densities, agree well with those calculated self-consistently. We suggest that satisfaction of additional exact constraints on higher rungs of a ladder of density functional approximations can lead to further progress.
Reactions of O+ with CnH2n+2, n=2–4: A guided-ion beam study
Authors: Levandier Dale J. , Chiu Yu-hui , Dressler Rainer A.
Published: March 2004

We have measured absolute reaction cross sections for the interaction of O+ with ethane, propane, and n-butane at collision energies in the range from near thermal to approximately 20 eV, using the guided-ion beam (GIB) technique. We have also measured product recoil velocity distributions using the GIB time-of-flight (TOF) technique for several product ions at a series of collision energies. The total cross sections for each alkane are in excess of 100 Å2 at energies below ∼2 eV, and in each case several ionic products arise. The large cross sections suggest reactions that are dominated by large impact parameter collisions, as is consistent with a scenario in which the many products derive from a near-resonant, dissociative charge-transfer process that leads to several fragmentation pathways. The recoil velocities, which indicate product ions with largely thermal velocity distributions, support this picture. Several product ions, most notably the C2H3+ fragment for each of the alkanes, exhibit enhanced reaction efficiency as collision energy increases, which can be largely attributed to endothermic channels within the dissociative charge-transfer mechanism.