bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Functionalizing Nanowires with Catalytic Nanoparticles for Gas Sensing Application
Authors: Kolmakov Andrei , Chen Xihong , Moskovits Martin
Published: February 2008

Metal oxide semiconducting nanowires are among the most promising materials systems for use as conductometric gas sensors. These systems function by converting surface chemical processes, often catalytic processes, into observable conductance variations in the nanowire. The surface
properties, and hence the sensing properties of these devices can be altered dramatically improving the sensitivity and selectivity, by the deposition of catalytic metal nanoparticles on the nanowire's surface. This leads not only to promising sensor strategies but to a route for understanding
some of the fundamental science occurring on these nanoparticles and at the metal/nanowire junction. In particular studying these systems can lead to a better understanding of the influence of the catalyst particle on the electronic structure of the nanowire and its electron transport. This
report surveys results obtained so far in this area. In particular, the comparative sensing performance of single quasi-1D chemiresistors (i.e., nanowires or nanobelts) before and after surface decoration with noble metal catalyst particles show significant improvement in sensitivity toward
oxidizing and reducing gases. Moreover, one finds that the sensing mechanism can depend dramatically on the degree of metal coverage of the nanowire.
Copper Phthalocyanine Quasi-1D Nanostructures: Growth Morphologies and Gas Sensing Properties
Authors: Strelcov E. , Kolmakov A.
Published: February 2008

The growth conditions of meso- and nanoscopic copper phthalocyanine quasi-1D structures, single crystalline whiskers and "nanowebs" were investigated on various technologically important substrates and were compared to existing literature. The synthesized morphologies were used to fabricate
organic conductometric gas-sensing devices, and their sensitivity and selectivity toward NOx were investigated. The obtained results demonstrate excellent sensitivity and selectivity of these quasi-1D chemiresistors. Both the response time of the quasi-1D CuPc sensors and their
overall gas sensing performance can be further enhanced by reducing the surface-to-bulk ratio of these nano- and meso-structures.
Optical Properties of Carbon Nanotubes Under Axial Strain
Authors: Kumar Rajay , Cronin Stephen B.
Published: February 2008

A review is given of Raman spectroscopy of carbon nanotubes under axial strain. Carbon nanotubes possess a high Young's modulus (1 TPa) and breaking strains of 5–15%. Resonance Raman spectroscopy reveals changes in the electronic energies and lattice structure of nanotubes under
applied strain. Studies performed on composite materials, where nanotubes have been added to increase the material's strength, are reviewed. Measurements of individual nanotubes under strain are also presented. Emphasis is given to the important new physics revealed by observing the strain-induced
changes in the Raman spectra of individual nanotubes. A brief review of theoretical calculations performed on nanotubes under strain is also presented. The implications for using carbon nanotubes as a high strength material and as a strain sensitive material are indicated.
Size Dependent Magnetization and High-Vacuum Annealing Enhanced Ferromagnetism in Zn1−xCoxO Nanowires
Authors: Jian Wen-Bin , Chen I-Jan , Liao Tai-Ching , Ou Yi-Ching , Nien Cheng-Hsun , Wu Zhong-Yi , Chen Fu-Rong , Kai Ji-Jung , Lin Juhn-Jong
Published: February 2008

Diameter controllable ZnO nanowires have been fabricated by thermal evaporation (vapor transport) with various sizes of gold nanoparticles as catalysts. Diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) Zn1−xCoxO nanowires were then made by high energy Co
ion implantation. The as-implanted and the argon-annealed Zn1−xCoxO nanowires displayed weak ferromagnetism while the high-vacuum annealed nanowires exhibited strong ferromagnetic ordering at room temperature. Size dependent behavior has been observed
in the magnetic field and temperature dependences of magnetization. The shrinkage of the nanowire diameter reduced the spontaneous magnetization as well as the hysteresis loops. Field cooled and zero-field cooled magnetization and coercivity measurements were performed between 2 and 300 K
to study the evolution of magnetism from the weak to the strong ferromagnetic states. In particular, superparamagnetic features were observed and shown to be intrinsic characteristics of the DMS Zn1−xCoxO nanowires. The room-temperature spontaneous
magnetization of individual Zn1−xCoxO nanowires was also established by using magnetic force microscope measurements.
Nanorods and Nanotubes for Solar Cells
Authors: Kislyuk V. V. , Dimitriev O. P.
Published: February 2008

Nanorods and nanotubes as photoactive materials as well as electrodes in photovoltaic cells have been launched a few years ago, and the literature in this field started to appear only recently. The first steps have shown both advantages and disadvantages of their application, and the
main expectation associated with their effective charge transport has not been realized completely. This article aims to review both the first and the recent tendencies in the development and application of nanorod and nanotube materials in photovoltaic cells. Two basic techniques of synthesis
of crystalline nanorod structures are described, the top-down and bottom-up approaches, respectively. Design and photovoltaic performance of solar cells based on various semiconductor nanorod materials, such as TiO2, ZnO, CdS, CdSe, CdTe, CuO, Si are presented and compared with
respective solar cells based on semiconductor nanoparticles. Specific of synthesis and application of carbon nanotubes in photovoltaic devices is also reviewed.
Examining the Anomalous Electrical Characteristics Observed in InN Nanowires
Authors: Chaudhry Anurag , Islam M. Saif
Published: February 2008

Research interest in InN has intensified in recent years because of its unique material properties and promising applications in electronic and photonic devices. Measurements on InN nanowires presented by Chang et al., [J. Electron. Mater. 35, 738 (2006)] showed an anomalous
resistance behavior in InN nanowires with diameters less than 90 nm. We examine possible theories presented in literature to explain this intriguing observation. We propose that the presence of a high density electron accumulation layer at the surface of thin InN nanowires is the most probable
cause for the uncharacteristic relationship between the total measured resistance and the ratio of length-to-area. High density surface electron accumulation layer, characteristic of InN films and nanowire, promotes a surface conduction path distinct from the bulk conduction. For large diameter
nanowires, bulk conduction is likely to be the dominant mechanism while surface conduction is proposed to play a major role for small diameter InN nanowires.
Analysis of the Impact of Model Nonlinearities in Inverse Problem Solving
Authors: Vukicevic T. , Posselt D.
Published: February 2008

In this study, the relationship between nonlinear model properties and inverse problem solutions is analyzed using a numerical technique based on the inverse problem theory formulated by Mosegaard and Tarantola. According to this theory, the inverse problem and solution are defined via convolution and conjunction of probability density functions (PDFs) that represent stochastic information obtained from the model, observations, and prior knowledge in a joint multidimensional space. This theory provides an explicit analysis of the nonlinear model function, together with information about uncertainties in the model, observations, and prior knowledge through construction of the joint probability density, from which marginal solution functions can then be evaluated. The numerical analysis technique derived from the theory computes the component PDFs in discretized form via a combination of function mapping on a discrete grid in the model and observation phase space and Monte Carlo sampling from known parametric distributions. The efficacy of the numerical analysis technique is demonstrated through its application to two well-known simplified models of atmospheric physics: damped oscillations and Lorenz’s three-component model of dry cellular convection. The major findings of this study include the following: (i) Use of a nonmonotonic forward model in the inverse problem gives rise to the potential for a multimodal posterior PDF, the realization of which depends on the information content of the observations and on observation and model uncertainties. (ii) The cumulative effect of observations over time, space, or both could render the final posterior PDF unimodal, even with the nonmonotonic forward model. (iii) A greater number of independent observations are needed to constrain the solution in the case of a nonmonotonic nonlinear model than for a monotonic nonlinear or linear forward model for a given number of degrees of freedom in control parameter space. (iv) A nonlinear monotonic forward model gives rise to a skewed unimodal posterior PDF, implying a well-posed maximum likelihood inverse problem. (v) The presence of model error greatly increases the possibility of capturing multiple modes in the posterior PDF with the nonmonotonic nonlinear model. (vi) In the case of a nonlinear forward model, use of a Gaussian approximation for the prior update has a similar effect to an increase in model error, which indicates there is the potential to produce a biased mean central estimate even when observations and model are unbiased.
Antarctic Bottom Water Variability in a Coupled Climate Model
Authors: Santoso Agus , England Matthew H.
Published: February 2008

The natural variability of the Weddell Sea variety of Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) is examined in a long-term integration of a coupled climate model. Examination of passive tracer concentrations suggests that the model AABW is predominantly sourced in the Weddell Sea. The maximum rate of the Atlantic sector Antarctic overturning (ψatl) is shown to effectively represent the outflow of Weddell Sea deep and bottom waters and the compensating inflow of Warm Deep Water (WDW). The variability of ψatl is found to be driven by surface density variability, which is in turn controlled by sea surface salinity (SSS). This suggests that SSS is a better proxy than SST for post-Holocene paleoclimate reconstructions of the AABW overturning rate. Heat–salt budget and composite analyses reveal that during years of high Weddell Sea salinity, there is an increased removal of summertime sea ice by enhanced wind-driven ice drift, resulting in increased solar radiation absorbed into the ocean. The larger ice-free region in summer then leads to enhanced air–sea heat loss, more rapid ice growth, and therefore greater brine rejection during winter. Together with a negative feedback mechanism involving anomalous WDW inflow and sea ice melting, this results in positively correlated θ–S anomalies that in turn drive anomalous convection, impacting AABW variability. Analysis of the propagation of θ–S anomalies is conducted along an isopycnal surface marking the separation boundary between AABW and the overlying Circumpolar Deep Water. Empirical orthogonal function analyses reveal propagation of θ–S anomalies from the Weddell Sea into the Atlantic interior with the dominant modes characterized by fluctuations on interannual to centennial time scales. Although salinity variability is dominated by along-isopycnal propagation, θ variability is dominated by isopycnal heaving, which implies propagation of density anomalies with the speed of baroclinic waves.
On the Abyssal Circulation in the Glacial Atlantic
Authors: Marchal Olivier , Curry William B.
Published: February 2008

An inverse method is used to evaluate the information contained in sediment data for the Atlantic basin during the Last Glacial Maximum (defined here as the time interval 18–21 kyr before present). The data being considered are an updated compilation of the isotopic ratios 18O/16O (δ18O) and 13C/12C (δ13C) of fossil shells of benthic foraminifera (bottom-dwelling organisms). First, an estimate of the abyssal circulation in the modern Atlantic is obtained, which is consistent with (i) climatologies of temperature and salinity of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment, (ii) observational estimates of volume transport at specific locations, and (iii) the statements of a finite-difference geostrophic model. Second, estimates of water properties (δ18O of equilibrium calcite or δ18Oc and δ13C of dissolved inorganic carbon or δ13CDIC) derived from sediment data are combined with this circulation estimate to test their consistency with the modern flow. It is found that more than approximately 80% of water property estimates (δ18Oc or δ13CDIC) are compatible with the modern flow given their uncertainties. The consistency of glacial δ13CDIC estimates with the modern flow could be rejected after two assumptions are made: (i) the uncertainty in these estimates is ±0.1‰ (this uncertainty includes errors in sediment core chronology and oceanic representativity of benthic δ13C, which alone appears better than this value on average); and (ii) δ13CDIC in the glacial deep Atlantic was dominated by a balance between water advection and organic C remineralization. Measurements of δ13C on benthic foraminifera are clearly useful, but the current uncertainties in the distribution and budget of δ13CDIC in the glacial Atlantic must be reduced to increase the power of the test.
USP Marion
Authors: Richards Stephen C.
Published: February 2008

The U.S. Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois (USP Marion) was the first federal supermax prison. The “mean little house” is one of the most significant U.S. prisons built in the past century. It has served as a model for high-security detention confinement and been copied worldwide. Marion also has a history of violence, mistakes, and inflicting serious damage on prisoners. This article employs a “convict criminology perspective” to discuss the history of Marion, the profile of federal prisoners, control units, programs and services, prisoners released from Marion, the prison camp, transfer of high-security prisoners, and comparable supermax penitentiaries. Early in 2007, USP Marion was converted to medium security, closing one of the most infamous chapters in recent American penal history.
An Assessment of Supermax Prisons Using an Evaluation Research Framework
Authors: Mears Daniel P.
Published: February 2008

In recent years, states have invested heavily in supermaximum (supermax) security prisons, yet critical questions about them remain unaddressed. In this article, the author examines these prisons through an evaluation research framework, focusing on five questions: (a) Are supermaxes needed? (b) Do they rest on sound theory? (c) Are they typically implemented as intended? (d) Do they achieve their intended goals (i.e., impacts)? (e) Are they cost-efficient? This article argues that investigation of each question reveals substantial research gaps that raise significant questions about whether supermaxes are warranted, effective, or efficient. It then discusses a range of research and policy implications.
The Elusive Data on Supermax Confinement
Authors: Naday Alexandra , Freilich Joshua D. , Mellow Jeff
Published: February 2008

This exploratory research examines supermax confinement in the United States. An examination of counts of supermax institutions and inmates from 2001-2004 produced by the American Correctional Association and an examination of Criminal Justice Institute data found that different procedures made it difficult to compare numbers across states. Certain states produced incorrect figures about the number of supermax prisons and inmates because of reporting and/or recording errors. This study found, in short, that disagreements about definitions, changing policies and court decisions, reporting and recording errors, and different counting procedures have led to a lack of reliable and valid data on supermax issues. These findings indicate that researchers attempting to examine, or collect data on, supermax issues on the macrolevel (e.g., across states) face important difficulties. This article accounts for this confusion, discusses policy implications that may result from this confusion, and concludes with suggestions for future research.
Administrative Segregation From Within
Authors: O'Keefe Maureen L.
Published: February 2008

The growth of the inmate population nationwide has given rise to supermax prisons over the past two decades. Among the controversial issues that supermax prisons face are concerns about the types of individuals placed in solitary confinement and the arbitrary nature of those placements. This study profiled inmates in administrative segregation, as supermax confinement is called in Colorado, and the process and reasons for their placement. Evidence of institutional misbehavior, more serious criminal histories, and preexisting mental health needs were found among segregated inmates.
Violence in the Supermax
Authors: King Kate , Steiner Benjamin , Ritchie Breach Stephanie
Published: February 2008

The supermax prison was designed to control the most violent, assaultive individuals, gang members, and other prisoners who could not be managed in less secure settings. Pelican Bay State Prison, which houses California's supermax, holds approximately 1,300 inmates in its security housing unit (SHU). This article examines the mission, architecture, and organization of Pelican Bay State Prison, the architecture and procedures in the SHU, the training and mind-set of correctional officers who work at Pelican Bay, the inmate culture and mentality, and the findings of the federal court in Madrid v. Gomez, which addressed conditions in the SHU. The authors maintain that the mission of Pelican Bay, combined with the officer and inmate cultures, creates a self fulfilling prophecy: the super violent supermax.
The Normative North and the Stigmatized South
Authors: Bucholtz Mary , Bermudez Nancy , Fung Victor , Vargas Rosalva , Edwards Lisa
Published: February 2008

As part of a larger perceptual dialectology study of linguistic diversity within California, this article focuses on a survey of Californians regarding the evaluation of language use within the state. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of two open-ended survey questions regarding where Californians “speak the best” and “speak the worst” reveals that Southern California is stigmatized by a majority of respondents as having the worst speech within the state and Northern California is valorized as having the best speech, due to the perceived differential access of speakers to educational opportunities. A small but socially significant “political correctness effect” also emerges, whereby some respondents indicate reluctance to evaluate others' linguistic varieties. The findings demonstrate both the need for greater attentiveness to ideological issues in research design and the importance of combining different theoretical and methodological traditions in the study of language ideologies and attitudes.
Australian Public Housing and the Diverse Histories of Social Mix
Authors: Arthurson Kathy
Published: February 2008

In Australia, the concept of social mix has strong currency in contemporary public housing estate regeneration policy, where balancing social mix is attached to addressing social and behavioral issues on the postwar public housing estates. However, contemporary debates about social mix tend to ignore the finding that interest in social mix is by no means new. Attention to social mix has informed Australian new town planning and housing policy since the post—World War II years, although the origins of the concept can be seen earlier in mid-nineteenth-century Britain. The focus of this article is on examining the relevance of the concept of social mix through history by drawing on South Australian housing policy and the Salisbury North housing estate as a specific case study of social mix in practice. The aim is to show how the concept of social mix is constructed differently over time and how it has been adapted to the present situation of dealing with concentrations of impoverished residents on public housing estates. The article draws on context, practice, and texts as important variables that help to constitute the meaning of social mix.
Developing the Capacity of Australian Secondary Schools to cater for Students with High Support Needs in Mental Health and Wellbeing
Authors: De Jong Terry , Griffiths Coosje
Published: February 2008

MindMatters Plus is a mental health promotion initiative in Australia which aims to improve the capacity of secondary schools to cater for students who have high support needs in the area of mental health. The development of effective school case management was one of the projects associated with this initiative. The aim of this project was to produce a practical resource on the principles and practices of effective school case management for staff who work with secondary school students who have high support needs in the area of mental health (e.g. student support personnel, school administrators, school psychologists, school counsellors and mental health workers). This article briefly outlines the school case management initiative — its rationale, and research and development process. This is followed by a description of the resource itself, namely the framework for effective school case management, and the kit for developing effective school case management practices. Feedback on the resource is invited from readers following access to and utilization of the kit from the website provided.
The Impact of Acculturation on the Perception of Academic Achievement by Immigrant Mothers and Their Children
Authors: Zohreh Yaghoub Zadeh  , Geva Esther , Rogers Maria A.
Published: February 2008

This study investigated the effect of acculturation on definitions and attributions towards children's school achievement. Iranian and Iranian-canadian immigrant mothers and their upper-elementary school children were interviewed about their definitions and attributions about school success and failure. There were significant effects of acculturation on the definitions and attributions of both mothers and children. Definitions of school success and failure held by Iranian mothers and their children were product-based, whereas the immigrant mothers and their children used definitions that were more process-based. While Iranian mothers attributed their children's school performance primarily to `effort', `family' appeared to be the most frequent attribution held by Iranian-canadian immigrant mothers. The Iranian children consistently attributed academic success and failure to `effort', whereas the immigrant children's responses were variable, demonstrating acculturation to Western belief systems. The findings demonstrate how acculturation influences mothers' and children's beliefs about school achievement through the process of immigration. Implications for theory are discussed.
A 10-Step Guide to Teaching Carbohydrate Counting
Authors: Buethe Marie
Published: February 2008

C-O-U-N-T C-A-R-B-S: A 10-Step Guide to Teaching Carbohydrate Counting describes a performance-based approach staff nurses can use to reinforce carbohydrate-counting learning in patients newly diagnosed with diabetes. A pilot of this strategy, which emphasizes practical, interactive exercises designed to improve transference of learning after discharge, was implemented in the Patient Learning Center at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Minneapolis. Based on feedback offered by 8 patient participants, guidelines were developed to help nurses apply evidenced-based adult learning principles to their diabetes education practice.

Many nurses lack confidence in their ability to provide diabetes diet education. This article offers nurses practical guidelines for providing patients with opportunities for successful performance experiences in diet education, a method shown to produce better behavioral outcomes than the didactic strategies commonly used in hospitals at present.
Glucagon as a Treatment of Severe Hypoglycemia
Authors: Pearson Teresa
Published: February 2008

Over the past 2 decades, a number of different studies have demonstrated that tight metabolic control not only reduces the incidence but also delays the development of complications in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Unfortunately, the intensive insulin therapy required to achieve tight glucose control is also associated with a significantly increased risk of developing hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia can cause physical as well as psychosocial morbidity, has been associated with adverse neurological manifestations, and can sometimes result in death. It can affect daily activities such as driving, working, and studying and can result in inconvenience and embarrassment as well as cause fear for both the person with diabetes and significant others. This fear is often the biggest barrier for optimal glycemic control. With self-management education and regular monitoring of blood glucose, people with diabetes can learn to recognize their unique signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia, and with improved understanding of how insulin, food, and activity affect blood glucose levels, the patient can learn to prevent hypoglycemia. However, because managing blood glucose can be such a delicate balancing act, it is important to be prepared. An important weapon in the treatment of severe hypoglycemia is the use of glucagon, a treatment that is generally underappreciated, under-evaluated, undertaught, and most certainly underutilized. The purpose of this article is to review the role of glucagon in the treatment of severe hypoglycemia and discuss how better information about and understanding of the use of glucagon might be helpful toward alleviating some of the fears surrounding hypoglycemia.
Optimizing Treatment Success With an Amylin Analogue
Authors: Want Laura L.
Published: February 2008

Diabetes affects approximately 18 million adults in the United States. Diabetes increases the risk of microvascular and macrovascular complications, such as nerve neuropathy, retinopathy, nephropathy, and cardiovascular disease. Intensive diabetes management reduces the risk of complications but presents numerous challenges in clinical practice. In the natural course of type 2 diabetes β cell function declines over time and may necessitate frequent medication adjustment. Oral antihyperglycemic medications may lose efficacy over time and may induce intolerable adverse events. Some medications for diabetes can cause weight gain, even if patients exercise and watch their food intake. Furthermore, patients with type 1 diabetes may experience frequent blood glucose fluctuations despite optimizing their use of insulin. Hypoglycemia is a common adverse effect of intensive diabetes management. Pramlintide as an adjunct to insulin therapy is useful for treating both type 1 and type 2 diabetes to improve control of postprandial glucose. To ensure maximal efficacy of pramlintide with minimal adverse events, it is extremely important that diabetes educators thoroughly understand pramlintide's mode of action, indications, appropriate patient selection, required insulin dose adjustments, and provide careful patient instruction.
The role of judgment and orientation in hermeneutics
Authors: Makkreel Rudolf A.
Published: February 2008

This paper attempts to reassess the role of judgment in hermeneutics. Beyond considering the different modes of judgment involved in interpretation, a topology of contexts that can orient understanding is proposed, starting with the way Kant distinguishes among a field, a territory and a domain. Other relevant contexts are also considered. One of the main tasks of hermeneutics is to be able to coordinate various interdisciplinary contexts.
Aesthetic reflection and its ethical significance
Authors: Menke Christoph
Published: February 2008

In the Critique of Judgment, Kant quotes the traditional view of the relation between the ethical and the aesthetical ('the beautiful is the symbol of the morally good'). However, he elaborates this view in a radically new way: as equivalence between two forms of reflection, between ethical and aesthetic reflection. The article distinguishes three different aspects of aesthetic reflection in Kant and discusses their respective ethical meaning. It shows the unresolved tension between Kant's program of an 'aesthetics of autonomy' on the one hand, and his reference to sensualistic and vitalist motifs of an aesthetic 'energetism' on the other.
Does Kant share Sancho's dream?
Authors: Ferrara Alessandro
Published: February 2008

In this paper the notion of sensus communis, as articulated by Kant in the Critique of the Power of Judgment, is discussed from the vantage point of the author's project of exporting the model of exemplary universalism underlying reflective and, specifically, aesthetic judgment beyond the realm of aesthetics. In the first section, the relevance of such a project relative to an appraisal of the new and unsuperseded philosophical context opened by the Linguistic Turn is elucidated. Then the centrality of sensus communis, for making sense of the specific universalism inherent in reflective judgment, is highlighted. In the second section, the limitations inherent in two opposite strategies for conceptualizing sensus communis are discussed: namely, the hermeneutic idea of a `horizon' and the phenomenological notion of a life-world on one hand, and the Kantian minimalist, naturalized concept of sensus communis on the other. The former is argued to become entangled in relativism, the latter to run against our intuitions concerning the inter-subjective constitution of the subject. In the final section, a third notion of sensus communis is offered, still compatible with the Kantian conception, different from the Gadamerian concept of a tradition or to the phenomenological notion of Lebenswelt, yet still capable of offering a plausible ground for the exemplary universalism of aesthetic judgment. Expanding on Kant's view of aesthetic pleasure, sensus communis is understood as consisting of a universal capacity, on the part of every human being, to sense from within a plurality of coordinates the flourishing of human life and what favours it.
Rereading Rawls in Arendtian light
Authors: Thiebaut Carlos
Published: February 2008

With Arendt's insight regarding the need of judgment in the background, this paper pursues the ways in which the need for theory, or political philosophy, articulates Rawls' overall approach in order to tell just from unjust institutions. It suggests that the Kantian mould of reflective judgment gives form to the construction of a theory of justice via the mechanism of reflective equilibrium. The need for theory so devised has to constantly move between the demands of theory itself — the social contract tradition as understood by Rawls — and the demands of action understood as the guide that our considered judgments lend to our understanding of the social world. Finally, it is also suggested that a particular grasp of the lessons of historical experience, as a way of fulfilling the need for theory that lies in the heart of the exercise of judgment, is what renders the Rawlsian proposal theoretically attractive, and what constantly underlies the construction of his theory via the particular exemplification and the theoretical rendering of the moral semantics underlying democratic culture.
Judgment and the reification of the faculties
Authors: Fine Robert
Published: February 2008

The core argument in this paper is that, to reconstruct the last unwritten section on Judging in Hannah Arendt's Life of the Mind , it is necessary to address what Arendt was doing with the book as a whole and how the different parts relate internally to one another. This is no easy matter, especially as the existing sections on Thinking and Willing are quite different in tone from one another. My proposition is that the work should be read as a critique of the life of the `modern' mind, and especially of the differentiation of the modern mind into distinct and reified faculties. The work as a whole is an attempt to understand the distorted forms of modernization that result from the division of the life of the mind into opposing faculties. It is, so to speak, a critique of the combined and uneven development of the life of the modern mind. While Arendt famously argues that the activity of thinking itself conditions people against evildoing, the spectre that informs her analysis of both thinking and willing is the danger of nihilism inherent in these mental activities. The work raises vital questions concerning the conditions under which this danger is actualized and the means by which it might be averted. What this entails for our reconstruction of the missing section on judgment is that, rather than see it as the core of Arendt's contribution to political thought or as the promised solution to an impasse, we should explore the equivocations of judging. This aporetic reading of the text helps clarify Arendt's concerns over the separation of the life of the mind from the world and the role of both judging and understanding in renewing its connections to the world.
Learning to Listen: Teaching an Active Listening Strategy to Preservice Education Professionals
Authors: McNaughton David , Hamlin Dawn , McCarthy John , Head-Reeves Darlene , Schreiner Mary
Published: February 2008

The importance of parent–teacher communication has been widely recognized; however, there is only limited research on teaching effective listening skills to education professionals. In this study, a pretest–posttest control group design was used to examine the effect of instruction on the active listening skills of preservice education professionals. Instruction resulted in statistically significant improvement for targeted active listening skills. As a measure of social validity, parents of preschool and school-age children viewed pre- and postinstruction videotapes of preservice education professionals in role-play conversations. The parents judged the postinstruction performances of the preservice education professionals to be better examples of effective communication than the preinstruction performances of the preservice education professionals.
At the Eye of the Storm
Authors: Sikes Pat
Published: February 2008

The climate of moral panic that pertains around child abuse is such that any research that touches on children and sex is almost seen in itself to be abusive, with identity and career consequences for those who engage in it. In November 2005, an article that I had written some years earlier, Scandalous Stories and Dangerous Liaisons: When Female Pupils and Male Teachers Fall in Love, was misreported and misrepresented in the press and, during a period of 5 days, I became the focus of media attention throughout the world but particularly in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. This article deals with my experiences of being at the heart of a moral panic and raises questions about research ethics and about academic freedom and voice.
The Impact of Call Center Employees' Customer Orientation Behaviors on Service Quality
Authors: Rafaeli Anat , Ziklik Lital , Doucet Lorna
Published: February 2008

The authors identify specific customer orientation behaviors (COBs) of call center employees and show that these behaviors relate to customer evaluations of service quality. Using qualitative, inductive analyses of 166 telephone service interactions in a retail bank call center, they identify five types of COBs associated with helping customers. The COBs are (a) anticipating customer requests, (b) offering explanations/justifications, (c) educating customers, (d) providing emotional support, and (e) offering personalized information. Using deductive analyses, the authors show that customers rate the quality of service interactions higher when service providers employ COBs. The qualitative findings contribute to the understanding of the specific employee behaviors associated with service quality, and the quantitative findings validate the importance of these behaviors.
Online journals as virtual bedrooms?
Authors: Hodkinson Paul , Lincoln Sian
Published: February 2008

This article considers the increasing importance of personal, individualized spaces in the lives and identities of young people through a comparative examination of the contemporary use of the physical space of the bedroom and the ‘virtual’ territory of the online journal. Particularly popular among those in their teens and early twenties, online journals constitute an interactive form of web log whose content tends to be dominated by reflections upon the everyday experiences, thought and emotions of their individual owner. We propose here that such online journals often take on for their users the symbolic and practical properties of individually owned and controlled space — something we illustrate through a comparison with young people's uses of the primary, individual-centred, physical space in their lives — the bedroom. This discussion is informed by research by each of the authors, on young people's bedrooms and on the use of online journals respectively. The article identifies and explores understandings and functions of these two spaces for young people, identifying a number of apparent similarities in their use. Through doing so, we illustrate the potential value of the bedroom as a prism through which to understand online journal use at the same time as helping to illuminate the general significance of personal space to the lives and identities of contemporary young people.
Juvenile and drugs
Authors: Suoninen Eero , Virokannas Elina
Published: February 2008

The article focuses on the self-conceptions of a juvenile who uses drugs. Different dimensions of categories and connotations are analyzed in an interview given by a young girl who has used hard drugs for several years. The analysis aims at making clear the spectrum of culturally given resources that are available for a young person with a drug history when she attempts to make her life understandable. By concentrating on one young person's story, the analysis illustrates that a variation of self-conceptions is not about differences between individuals, but is more about the general cultural alternatives of different categories. The variation of self-conceptions is abstracted into four alternative identity types that associate with very different attributes and activity types. The analysis demonstrates how a young person with a drug history both applies the attributes of generally known categories and takes distance from these depending on the identity type. Based on the analysis of these four identities, some conclusions are drawn about the possibilities of parents or other adults to support the identity constructions of a juvenile with a drug history.
Dancing bodies, decaying bodies
Authors: Gvion Liora
Published: February 2008

This article examines the meaning Israeli female dancers assign to extra-thin bodies. It claims that dancers interpret extra-thinness as an essential tool for the making of an ideal body-machine which allows entrance to a professional world of dancers. Working in a demanding professional world, anorexic bodies are seen by dancers as indicators of success and commitment. It is a means to win recognition from significant others and make the most out of a short-term and risk-embedded career. An haute-ecole of dance was chosen as a location for this study because it is a social setting that sets its own rules of transforming the body into an instrument of training. This study allows us to understand why certain professional and age groups tend to develop anorexia and helps understanding how anorexia, once embedded in a professional ideology, is hard to overcome.
'Oh goodness, I am watching reality TV'
Authors: Skeggs Bev , Thumim Nancy , Wood Helen
Published: February 2008

One of the most striking challenges encountered during the empirical stages of our audience research project, `Making Class and the Self through Televised Ethical Scenarios' (funded as part of the ESRC's Identities and Social Action programme), stemmed from how the different discursive resources held by our research participants impacted upon the kind of data collected. We argue that social class is reconfigured in each research encounter, not only through the adoption of moral positions in relation to `reality' television as we might expect, but also through the forms of authority available for participants. Different methods enabled the display of dissimilar relationships to television: reflexive telling, immanent positioning and affective responses all gave distinct variations of moral authority. Therefore, understanding the form as well as the content of our participants' responses is crucial to interpreting our data. These methodological observations underpin our earlier theoretical critique of the `turn' to subjectivity in social theory (Wood and Skeggs, 2004), where we suggest that the performance of the self is an activity that reproduces the social distinctions that theorists claim are in demise .
Looking good
Authors: Maguire Jennifer Smith , Stanway Kim
Published: February 2008

This article considers the anxieties and risks that attend the process of self-production in the context of consumption. Drawing from interviews with a small sample of British young adults — white, middle-class, university-educated — the article examines how material practices and discursive strategies resonate with theoretical accounts of the nexus of consumption, identity and individualization. The analysis highlights how respondents discursively cope with anxieties and risks associated with the question of style, the problem of conformity, the desire for confidence and the negotiation of gender. In doing so, the article indicates ways in which the process of self-production in contemporary consumer societies may be less reflexive, and more socially conservative, than some accounts of individualization would suggest.
Socio-economic Development in Nepal
Authors: Devkota Surendra R.
Published: February 2008

In the past five decades, Nepal has followed the standard modernization path with mixed results. The country witnessed the growth of rent seeking elites and increased income inequality, in spite of huge national and international expenditures. This article presents a retrospect of the major socio-economic development policies that Nepal adopted in the past 50 years during which a variety of politico-economic decision-making systems were introduced. The initial years in the fifties, after emancipation from a very autocratic regime of more than 100 years, were particularly chaotic. The second half of the fifties ushered in a period of reform but this was interrupted by King Mahendra's unfortunate political coup of 1960. The socioeconomic development of 1961 to 1990 was very sluggish, regionally biased and unproductive, which led to mass poverty level in Nepal. The socio-economic progress after 1990 seems encouraging but the real achievements have been overshadowed by the weakness of the politico-economic character of the ruling classes. Furthermore, the emergence of the Maoists in 1996 created a politico-economic crisis and halted the opportunities for socio-economic development. A new understanding among political parties including the Maoists in 2006 provides hope for building a new Nepal. A politico-economic structural change is required to enhance village/rural economy along with human and social capital enrichment strategies that will pave the way to break the poverty cycle. A novel constitution that guarantees rights, resources and responsibility, accountability at different levels and empowers people, rather than a simple politico-administrative makeshift at the central level is expected.
Pakistan's Economy since 1999
Authors: Khan Shahrukh Rafi
Published: February 2008

Military governments in Pakistan and elsewhere claim legitimacy based on superior economic management and the pretext for assuming power is usually corruption and economic mismanagement of incumbent political regimes. Ever since the current military government seized power in Pakistan in October 1999, it has, like earlier military governments, claimed to have turned the economy around citing selective statistics. A more careful and comprehensive review of the same statistics suggests that this claim is exaggerated. Also, like past military governments, this one has ignored investing in people, and the human condition as measured by unemployment and poverty has worsened and as measured by other social indicators the progress has notably slackened. Most now agree that improving the human condition is a necessary condition for robust and sustainable economic growth and by this criterion the military government has not done well.
Wh-interrogative formats used for questioning and beyond: German warum (why) and wieso (why) and English why
Authors: Egbert Maria , Vöge Monika
Published: February 2008

This article contributes to a critical discussion of how `question' and `questioning' may be defined in terms of form and function by analyzing the interactional usage of two apparently synonymous `question' words, German warum ( why) and wieso ( why) and their common English translation why. Warum and why are employed for two different interactional achievements. Wieso marks the utterance as an information request. In this respect, it is affiliative. In contrast, warum points to something wrong and is thus complaint implicative. Recipients orient to warum as disaffiliative. A contrastive analysis of German warum and wieso with English why (Clayman and Heritage, 2002a; Koshik, 2003; Schegloff, 1984) shows that why allows for ambiguity, whereas warum and wieso are unambiguous. While there is a core usage of these lexical items, they are also employed differently with an orientation to institutionality. In business meetings, there is a correlation between the occurrence of the complaint-implicative warum and the leadership status of the speaker in the team.
Questions of accountability: yes—no interrogatives that are unanswerable
Authors: Heinemann Trine
Published: February 2008

This article examines one practice for challenging a co-participant, the use of polar interrogatives that are unanswerable. These are questions that are designed to receive a confirming answer of the same polarity as the question, so-called `Same Polarity Questions'. Speakers accomplish this bias by formatting the question in accordance with their state of knowledge. Based on the recipient's prior turns at talk, a speaker can infer what the recipient's stance towards some matter is and use a `Same Polarity Question' to assert this inference and invite the recipient to confirm the stance. However, the sequential context in which these questions are produced means that with a confirming answer the recipient is heard to be in disagreement with the speaker and can subsequently be held accountable for this disagreement. Neither is a disconfirming response a real alternative, because this would contrast with the information provided by the recipient in prior talk. As this information is what leads the speaker to convey a certain belief about the recipient, the recipient is accountable for having misled the speaker. Because both confirming and disconfirming answers are accountable and hence problematic, recipients treat this type of question as unanswerable and instead orient to it as a challenge.
Introducing direct complaints through questions: the interactional achievement of `pre-sequences'?
Authors: Monzoni Chiara Maria
Published: February 2008

This article considers how two different question designs as positive polar questions and wh-questions occurring in different interactional contexts (institutional calls and ordinary face-to-face interactions) set up a sequence in which a direct complaint is produced in third position as the result of an interactional achievement. Positive polar questions are employed to establish immediately a common ground of understandability between caller and call-taker. Wh-questions are used as challenges and speakers subsequently provide explicit grounds for the challenges in third turns, due to the interpretation of the question given by their recipients.