bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Student Recruitment and the World Wide Web
Authors: Chapin Timothy , Fitzgerald Jennifer
Published: April 2009

Despite consensus that a World Wide Web (WWW) presence is crucial for any academic program, there has been very little investigation into the supply of information by Web sites and the demand for information by prospective students. This is a gap in the literature that this article attempts to fill. Two data sets lie at the heart of this work: (1) a census of the WWW sites of Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP)-accredited planning programs and (2) a student survey of online information preferences. Findings indicate that the supply of information reflects demand rather well, with only a few existing gaps in online information. Despite this, a number of shortcomings remain concerning online information provision by planning programs. Web sites should emphasize content, but organization, connectivity, and style all play important roles in effective recruitment as well.
Stimulus-Induced Diffuse Voltage Attenuation (SIDVA): A Previously Undescribed EEG Pattern in a Critically Ill Child
Authors: Losey Travis E. , Ng Yu-tze
Published: April 2009

We report the case of a 15-month-old critically ill child with stimulus-induced diffuse voltage attenuation, a previously unreported electroencephalogram pattern. No clinical evidence of seizure activity was associated with these EEG changes. The patient went on to have a full recovery. This case suggests that critically ill children have distinct stimulus induced electrographic patterns from those seen in adults. Additional research is needed to define the significance of these patterns.
A Novel Inherited Mutation in the Voltage Sensor Region of SCN1A Is Associated With Panayiotopoulos Syndrome in Siblings and Generalized Epilepsy With Febrile Seizures Plus
Authors: Livingston John H. , Cross J. Helen , Mclellan Ailsa , Birch Rachael , Zuberi Sameer M.
Published: April 2009

We report 2 families harboring a novel SCN1A mutation, one of whom had Panayiotopoulos syndrome and the other a phenotype consistent with generalized epilepsy with febrile seizures plus. Two siblings had recurrent episodes of autonomic status epilepticus with focal features consistent with the diagnosis of Panayiotopoulos syndrome. Both have the SCN1A mutation p.Phe218Leu. The mutation was present in their father who has never had a seizure. The same mutation was identified in a child diagnosed with intractable childhood epilepsy with generalized tonic clonic seizures. From the age of 5, he developed complex focal seizures associated with left hippocampal sclerosis. The mutation was present in his mother, aged 25, who had febrile seizures and developed generalized tonic clonic seizures and his sister who had 1 febrile seizure. Our findings suggest that SCN1A mutations may cause susceptibility to an idiopathic focal epilepsy phenotype, the final phenotype depending on other (genetic or nongenetic) factors.
Graded Response to Thymectomy in Children With Myasthenia Gravis
Authors: Tracy Molly M. , McRae Wes , Millichap J. Gordon
Published: April 2009

Response to thymectomy in children with juvenile myasthenia gravis was evaluated using severity and response to therapy rating scales and objective measures of hospital, intensive care, and intubation days, prethymectomy and postthymectomy, as markers of morbidity. Records of 50 patients treated for myasthenia gravis at Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, were reviewed. Thymectomy was performed in 13 patients; average age was 10 years. Days of intubation, intensive care, and hospitalization were significantly less postthymectomy compared to prethymectomy (P < .0001). Osserman rankings postthymectomy were mild (IIa) in 1, moderate (IIb) in 4, and severe (III) in 1. On a response to therapy scale, 4 patients were grade A (complete remission, no medication); 3 were grade B (improvement, lower drug dosage); 3 were grade C (slight improvement and no change in medication); and 3 were grade D (unchanged). Thymectomy is an effective treatment in 62% of children with myasthenia gravis, and remission is complete in 31%.
Clinical Research: Establishing a Comprehensive Database for Home Parenteral Nutrition: Six Years of Data
Authors: Jones Katherine R. , Kovacevich Denra S. , Teitelbaum Daniel H.
Published: April 2009

Documenting the outcomes of therapy is mandatory in today's health care environment. Such information is required by external agencies and desired by internal users. This article describes the development of a comprehensive database by one home infusion service that allows benchmarking of the results of care with other services over time. It also can be used to identify problems that are suitable for quality improvement initiatives. The database additionally allows analyses of the relationship between changing patient demographics and treatment processes over time and selected outcomes. Given the high cost and growing number of patients receiving home infusion services, the ability to address these kinds of questions is imperative for individual providers and for the entire health system.
Clinical Research: Assessment, Prevention and Management of Metabolic Bone Disease in Very Low Birthweight Infants: The Role of the Neonatal Nutritionist
Authors: Abad‐Sinden Ana , Verbrugge Kimberly C. , Buck Marcia L.
Published: April 2009

Very‐low‐birth‐weight (VLBW) preterm infants have an increased risk of developing metabolic bone disease (MBD) over term infants because of their decreased opportunity for intrauterine bone mineralization. Neonatal nutritionists are playing an increasingly important role in the prevention and management of MBD. The purpose of this survey study was to assess their role in the assessment, prevention, and management of MBD in VLBW infants. A total of 49 neonatal nutritionists primarily working in Level III Newborn Intensive Care Units (NICU) were surveyed to determine their clinical practice in the assessment and management of MBD. A total of 83.7% of the respondents assessed skeletal health at an average of 2.3 weeks of life with 16.3% assessing within the first week of life. The majority (93.9%) used serum phosphorus and alkaline phosphatase values in skeletal health assessment. Neonatal nutritionists tended to underestimate the incidence of MBD in their NICUs, with 79.2% estimating the incidence to be 5% or less. Parenteral nutrition (PN) was initiated by days 0 to 3 of life by 95.9% of the respondents, whereas enteral nutrition (EN) was begun on day 4 to 7 by 55.1% of respondents or on days 0 to 3 of life by 28.6% of the respondents. Optimal goals for ratios of calcium to phosphorus were reported as 1.3 to 1.7: 1 for PN by 84.7% and 1.8 to 2:1 in EN by 73.8% of the NICU nutritionists. Enteral vitamin supplements were used routinely by 70.2% of the respondents, with 53.2% using a pediatric multivitamin. Neutra‐Phos (44.8%), providing phosphate, and Neo‐Calglucon (37.9%), which provides calcium gluconate, were the most commonly used mineral supplements. The neonatal nutritionists surveyed played an active role in educating members of the health care team. Respondents were primarily responsible for documenting recommendations in medical records and direct communication with the NICU team on rounds (98.0%). The most common educational activities the respondents performed included: developing and revising PN order forms (77.1%), NICU handbook development (64.6%) and regular lectures to interns/residents (58.3%) and neonatologists (41.7%). The descriptive survey found that neonatal nutritionists played an increasingly proactive role in a variety of direct patient care activities, ie, risk assessment, initiation of early PN and EN, optimizing calcium and phosphorus intake and education of residents and NICU staff to promote optimal bone mineralization rates.
Clinical Research: Outcome of Home Enteral Nutrition in Patients with Malignant Dysphagia
Authors: Schattner Mark , Barrera Rafael , Nygard Stephen , Scott Faye , Quesada Ofelia , Brown Patricia , Shike Moshe
Published: April 2009

Neoplastic diseases account for approximately one‐half of all patients receiving home enteral nutrition, most of them with dysphagia due to the underlying cancer or antineoplastic therapies (malignant dysphagia). A review of the records of all patients with malignant dysphagia receiving home enteral nutrition for greater than 1 year was undertaken. The following factors were identified: age, primary cancer, type of enteral access, calories received, duration of therapy, complications, and need for tube replacement. Eighty‐two patients were studied. On average, patients received 1978 cal/day (range: 500 to 3000) and were maintained on home enteral nutrition for 976 days (range: 367 to 3026). Complications at the tube site were infection in 4 patients (4.8%) and significant leakage in 2 patients (2.4%). Average durability of the enteral access devices was percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomies (PEG) = 690 days, low profile gastrostomy = 1701 days, percutaneous endoscopic jejunostomies (PEJ) = 591 days, low‐profile jejunostomy = 902 days, and surgical jojunostomy = 1114 days. Home enteral nutrition is a safe and effective means of long‐term nutritional support in patients with severe malignant dysphagia.
Comparing the Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) Beliefs of Practitioners in General and Special Early Childhood Service Settings
Authors: Sexton David , Snyder Patricia , Lobman Marcia , Daly Theresa
Published: April 2009

This study examined the developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) beliefs of 113 practitioners employed in either general early childhood service settings (n = 74) or special early childhood service settings (n = 39) in a southern state. Results obtained on the Teachers Beliefs Scale were remarkably similar across settings, indicating general consensus on the importance of DAP practices among practitioners employed in both types of service settings. The major areas of difference between individuals employed in the two different service settings were related to the appropriateness of implementing behavioral teaching and classroom management strategies (e.g., positive reinforcement and punishment). Practitioners employed in special early childhood service settings viewed behavioral strategies as being more appropriate than did practitioners employed in general early childhood service settings. No important relationships were found between DAP beliefs and individual characteristics of the respondents, such as level of education or inservice instruction. The beliefs of these practitioners appear to parallel ongoing efforts to unify early childhood and early childhood special education recommended practices in preservice contexts.
The Use of Distance Education in a Collaborative Course in Early Childhood Special Education
Authors: Caro Patricia , McLean Mary , Browning Ellen , Hains Ann
Published: April 2009

Eight faculty members from five different campuses across the state of Wisconsin collaboratively taught a seminar course in early childhood special education through distance education technologies. A description of the course development and implementation is provided followed by summaries of the qualitative and quantitative analyses of student and faculty data. While the initial purpose for the course was program improvement through shared faculty expertise, comfort and skill in using distance education technologies also grew as a result of the course for both students and faculty. Students positively rated their acquisition of content as a result of the on-line and in-class activities.
The Virtual Conference Room: Online Problem Solving for First Year Special Educators
Authors: Hobbs Tim , Day Sheryl L. , Russo Anthony C.
Published: April 2009

Virtual teams, using existing telecommunications technology, are employed by government and industry to meet the changing needs of the new millennium. The use of virtual teams by business has become part of the new workplace phenomena. Despite their obvious potential, virtual communications in Special Education are limited to electronic mail, video-conferencing, and discussion forums. The use of virtual teams in field of education is largely unexplored. The following is a description of a web-based, virtual, problem-solving process used by teams of Special Educators to address problems encountered by first year teachers. Assessment by team participants indicates that an in vivo problem solving and collaboration process was successfully replicated as an online phenomenon and a representative case, illustrating the process, is presented. A web-site, titled The Conference Room, is proposed as a model for building electronic bridges between teacher preparation faculty and their graduates and for offering confidential consultation, support and mentoring for first year teachers.
Incomplete knowledge: ethnography and the crisis of context in studies of media, science and technology
Authors: Schlecker Markus , Hirsch Eric
Published: April 2009

This article examines strands of an intellectual history in Media and Cultural Studies and Science and Technology Studies in both of which researchers were prompted to take up ethnography. Three historical phases of this process are identified. The move between phases was the result of particular displacements and contestations of perspective in the research procedures within each discipline. Thus concerns about appropriate contextualization led to the eventual embrace of anthropological ethnographic methods. The article traces the subsequent emergence of a ‘crisis of context’ in the deployment of ethnography within these disciplines. The analysis of these historical changes is informed by a particular depiction of Euro-American knowledge conventions. The article suggests that the limits currently perceived for ethnography are a specific instance of the more general limits now recognized for these knowledge conventions.
Stratification theory and research in Weimar Germany
Authors: Segre Sandro
Published: April 2009

This article focuses on the sociological field of stratification theory and research in Weimar Germany, and pursues the following objectives: (1) to offer for consideration some of the most significant theoretical and empirical essays bearing on stratification that were produced in the German-speaking world during the Weimar period; (2) to classify their authors according to cultural, ideological and epistemological orientations; (3) to account by means of this classification for their propensity to conduct empirical research; and (4) to discuss the reasons for their interest in social stratification, their interpretations of the research findings, their reception of Marx and Weber, and their differential success in finding an audience among other scholars.
The Social Construction of Work Times
Authors: Zucchermaglio Cristina , Talamo Alessandra
Published: April 2009

This article deals with the negotiation of time boundaries in a project group. The study grew up from a theoretical approach grounded in cultural psychology, where time is considered as a cultural artifact and as a dimension of the interactive environment that could be co-constructed by all participants through discourse. The relevance of the negotiation of the temporal dimension in work settings is still unexplored. Both qualitative and quantitative data of the first meeting of a project group of an Italian national bank working on the reorganization of front-office services show how the negotiation of temporal aspects is a core topic from the very beginning of the work. This study shows that when a project starts, all participants spend a lot of effort in defining different kinds of temporal boundaries as these represent very important dimensions of work planning; time is not treated as a single topic but participants differentiate organizational time, project time, meetings time and actual meeting time. Results strengthen the hypothesis of the interactional nature of time in work settings and show specific relationships with the contents of participants' discourses.
Rural Temporal Practices
Authors: Edmondson Ricca
Published: April 2009

This article argues that, in contrast to common expectations about traditional societies, social practices in the rural West of Ireland cluster round a `communal time' oriented to the future, not the past. The article distinguishes between several `time-complexes' and `time-regimes' observed here; the significance of the future-orientation of the traditional regime is underlined by its connections with an implicit philosophical anthropology. Here, decisions and intentions have distinct tempos, structures and implications for interaction, contributing to an indigenous social order which both contrasts with and casts light on those in `core' European cultures.
Time, Globalization and the Nascent Identity of Mankind
Authors: Fraser J. T.
Published: April 2009

A person's identity is defined by the ways in which he or she is similar to and different from other persons in body, conduct, and thought. The identity of a tribe, nation or civilization is also defined by the ways in which it is similar to and is different from other social groups of its kind. A peculiar difficulty arises when the identity sought is that of a globalized mankind because there are no other mankinds with respect to which ours could establish its hallmarks of similarities and differences. A global society is a one-and-only system of its kind, as unique as is the object we call the universe or the idea of God, in monotheistic religions. To get around the difficulties posed by this uniqueness, the paper notes that all identities must include references to intentional conduct and hence to time. It then takes advantage of this necessary relationship and discusses some representative issues unique to a globalized mankind.
Time, Space and Value
Authors: Wilson H. T.
Published: April 2009

The author argues that capitalism's preference for exchange values over use values is reflected in the dominance of temporal concerns over spatial concerns in all western countries. This is partly a function of equating time with paid labour and space with unpaid work. Conceptually, this preference is evident in the empirical credibility given to dichotomies that proceed from the seminal distinction between human beings and nature. These include the mind/body, subject/object, ends/means, values/facts, policy/administration and formulation/implementation dichotomies. While this list moves from the general to the more specific, it is only by effecting a practical critique based on public participation that a greater parity between space and time, and use and exchange values, will be realized. This will require citizens to begin by challenging the dichotomies between formulation and implementation, and policy and administration, in the interests of dynamizing citizenship in and through policy implementation processes.
Surviving in the Time Machine
Authors: Medlicott Diana
Published: April 2009

Because of the nature of prison, with its forcible suspension of everday life and its emphasis on time-discipline, prisoners are forced to confront the issue of passing time and personal identity. Suicidal prisoners experience time as an acute source of suffering and connected to the deterioration of their sense of self. The nature of their relationship with time can be profitably explored by qualitative research which focuses on prisoner accounts, since prisoners themselves are valuable sources of knowledge about the prison experience in general and suicide in prison in particular. The accounts of prisoners demonstrate patterned differences between suicidal and coping prisoners in their relationship with prison time. Suicide awareness and prevention policies will be enriched if they acknowledge the special pains of prison time and their connection with personal identity, and aim at addressing these in regimes and care.
Parental Support for Young Adults
Authors: Dey Ian
Published: April 2009

This paper considers ways in which a temporal perspective can illuminate social policy analysis, through the example of developing research into parental support for young adults. In recent years parents of young adults have acquired new responsibilities, but we know little about how they perceive or fulfil them. First, the paper considers the `transition' from child to adult status, emphasizing the importance of temporal frames of reference. Second, it considers change, drawing upon Archer's temporal separation of structure and agency. Third, it draws on evolutionary theory to illuminate ways in which parental support for young adults evolves.
Do Technologies have Time?
Authors: Hörning Karl H. , Ahrens Daniela , Gerhard Anette
Published: April 2009

This article explores the idea that certain temporalities of technology relate to temporalities embodied in different social practices. Our interest focuses on practices that do not seek a priori to domesticate time but rather seek to come to terms with it. Sociological analysis can no longer assume that technological artifacts incorporate functional time demands that determine unequivocally the uses of time. Instead it is concrete practices that generate those qualities of technology that we usually tend to grasp as `permanent' and `pregiven'. To what extent the complex inter-relationship of technology and time is revealed will be illustrated by three different types - the `surfer', the `sceptic' and the `gambler'. These figures show the complicated and multidimensional ways in which technology plays a part in the constitution of reality and assumes differing shapes in everyday life.
Hierarchies and Government Versus Networks and Governance: Competing Regulatory Paradigms in Global Economic Regulation
Authors: Tshuma Lawrence
Published: April 2009

This article examines issues regarding economic policy co-ordination and regulation, using proposals for the reform of the international financial architecture as a case study of different paradigms for global economic co-ordination and regulation. Developments in global financial markets exemplify how the search for a regulatory paradigm for global capitalism is linked to the transformation that capitalism has undergone since the early 1970s. The contrast between hierarchical and network forms of regulation is examined, as are different conceptions of networks using international financial regulation as an example. The problems of legitimacy, accountability, and implementation in the network paradigm of regulation suggest that it remains an open question whether regulatory networks are capable of resolving fundamental problems of global capitalism.
Queer Readings of Europe: Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation and the (Im)potency of Rights Politics at the European Court of Justice
Authors: Beger Nico J.
Published: April 2009

The aim of this article is to argue in favour of queer theory’s potential for non-essentialist politics and legal strategies within the European context. The issues raised focus on the connection between gay/lesbian and transgender rights politics, and on the queer potential of sexual discrimination litigation. Taking as my example two recent court cases of the European Court of Justice ( P v S and Cornwall County Council; Lisa Grant v South West Trains Ltd), I attempt to establish links between the apparently contradictory ‘academic queer critiques’ and ‘practical politics’ (of litigation) through a queer reading of those cases. Two parallel lines of thought are developed: first, those cases bring the intrinsic connection of gay/lesbian and transgender politics into sight through their combination of sex discrimination and sexual orientation discrimination; secondly, the analysis of the two cases shall illustrate the simultaneous procedures involved in all staging of politics: both cases re-inscribe and disrupt the deviance of homosexuality and transgender at the same time. I contend that the apparent gap between ‘practical (legal) politics’ and ‘queer academic thought’ need not be as fundamental as many make it out to be and that in the European context a queer legal critique is both necessary and fruitful in that it highlights the ‘dilemma of rights politics’.
Abortion, Autonomy and Prenatal Diagnosis
Authors: Jackson Emily
Published: April 2009

The principle of patient self-determination has assumed central importance in British medical law in recent years. This article considers whether this increasingly strong commitment to patient autonomy has any resonance for abortion law. In particular, this article explores the possibility that the priority currently accorded to autonomous decision making may be in tension with the Abortion Act’s requirement that a woman’s reasons for seeking to terminate her pregnancy be judged acceptable by two medical practitioners. Moreover, interest in the moral legitimacy of a woman’s reasons for wanting to terminate her pregnancy seems to be intensifying. Concerns arising from the increasing availability of precise prenatal tests have led to suggestions that access to abortion should be further restricted in order to prevent the cavalier use of abortion for reasons that might seem trivial or misguided. Using abortion following prenatal diagnosis as an example, this article considers whether it is anomalous for the common law’s vigorous protection of an individual’s freedom to make irrational or morally objectionable choices about his or her medical treatment to coexist with demands for further restriction of the acceptable grounds for abortion.
Recovering Women: Intimate Images and Legal Strategy
Authors: Fegan Eileen V.
Published: April 2009

In Canada today, there is no prohibitive regulation of abortion. Indeed, federal law seems barely cognisant of the social reality of the widespread termination of pregnancy. The absence of legal obstacles appears to remove law from the abortion debate, but, having defined its terms, I argue that law continues to operate at a constitutive level, notwithstanding its invisibility. In Canadian public consciousness, there is ‘abortion on demand’. However, an examination of women’s actual experiences reveals a complexity and a mismatch with social and legal discourse that feminists need to address both theoretically and practically. This article uses 15 specific stories to explore the factors preventing the realization of feminist ideals of full and equal choice for all women. An awareness of women’s agency and the different ideological contexts and material inequalities under which they negotiate unplanned pregnancy, abortion and motherhood must inform feminist strategies within and beyond law, if the promise of reproductive rights is to be fulfilled universally.
A Visual Self-Image of Legal Authority: ‘The Temple of Law’
Authors: Carlsson Bo , Baier Mattias
Published: April 2009

The focus of this article is on the legal profession’s visual self-image of legal authority. It takes a departure from the themes of visual legal communication and discusses the relationship between text and pictures in the legal domain. The discussion concludes with a reflection on the consequences of the modern pictorial evolution. Bearing this discussion in mind, will the development of the ICT society (information and communication technology) impose new demands on the legal system, or will the law resist the sensuality of the pictorial turn? By describing and analysing 254 photographs produced by The Swedish National Court Administration ( Domstolsverket), the analysis will indicate that the internal visual self-image conveyed by the photographs supports and maintains the law’s stability and consistency.
‘Red in Tooth and Claw’: The Idea of Progress in Medicine and the Common Law
Authors: Harrington John A.
Published: April 2009

The interaction of medicine and the common law is best understood through an examination of the epistemic properties shared (or taken to be shared) by both disciplines. One such property is represented in the ideal of evolutionary progress through a conflict of ideas, as developed in the work of Karl Popper on science and politics. This ideal also provides an orientation for judicial and theoretical reflections on the role of the dissenting judge in the development of the common law. It can be linked furthermore with broader ideologies of progress that valorize liberal political and economic arrangements. The medical negligence jurisprudence of the English courts has until recently been structured by an understanding that medicine, as a science, participates in this dynamic of progress. Consequently, the protection of medical pluralism from close judicial scrutiny has been taken to be a matter of public interest. However, this weak liability regime is now threatened by increased judicial activism, regulatory intervention and patient consumerism. The latter are in turn underpinned by a series of fundamental critiques directed at the idea of progress in medicine and science.
Inventing a ‘Lesbian Age of Consent’? The History of the Minimum Age for Sex between Women in the UK
Authors: Waites Matthew
Published: April 2009

This article analyses historical and contemporary debates over age of consent legislation regulating sex between women in the UK. A minimum age for sexual activity between females was created by the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1922, which removed ‘consent’ as a defence to the offence of ‘indecent assault’ against a girl under the age of 16, yet prosecutions remained extremely rare until recent years. The article analyses parliamentary debates surrounding the creation of this legislation to investigate whether and how sex between females was represented. It then examines how the subject was addressed at a series of historical moments when age of consent laws were subject to official review. It is argued that the recent invention of a ‘lesbian age of consent’ in popular and professional legal discourse signals changes in the ways in which the law is interpreted and implemented. In conclusion, the article argues that while a standardization and equalization of the law applying in male-female, male-male and female-female contexts is desirable, an appreciation of the specific form and history of the age of consent applying to sex between females raises particular questions concerning the impact of reformulating age of consent laws.
Policing and Regulation: Whatisthe Difference?
Authors: Gill Peter
Published: April 2009

The literatures regarding policing and regulation are largely separate, reflecting the common assumption that there is some essential distinction between the activities. The relevance of the decline in state sovereignty and associated shifts to ‘governance’ and the ‘regulatory state’ are discussed. Much state intervention regarding crime is aimed formally at the repression of illegal markets while states also seek to regulate legal ones. Yet the distinction is far less in practice: the ubiquity of ‘knowledge’ and ‘power’ problems facing states, the fragmentation of policing and regulatory agencies and the persistence of ‘enterprise’ crime are some of the factors discussed. The variety of relationships existing between police and regulators on the one hand, and firms and entrepreneurs ranged on a spectrum of legal through ‘grey’ to illegal markets, on the other, are examined. It is argued that there is no essential difference between the two activities. Rather, the analysis of contemporary policing would be improved by viewing it as part of a spectrum of regulation. This will facilitate analysis of the crucial interaction between regulators and markets.
The Political Economy of the World Bank’s Legal Framework for Economic Development
Authors: Tshuma Lawrence
Published: April 2009

Over the last two decades there has been a renewed interest in the role of law in development. The major player in the new law and development movement is the World Bank which provides advice on, and funding for, law reform projects. The Bank’s initial foray into law reform issues was through adjustment programmes intended to push back the state from the economy in developing countries in order to liberate markets. Despite the Bank’s claim that adjustment programmes are technical and apolitical, they have a negative impact on the livelihoods of many social groups in the countries implementing them. In the 1990s the Bank has expanded lending for law reform programmes as part of its good governance agenda. It promotes a procedural and institutional version of the rule of law as the most appropriate framework for development. This version emphasizes formal equality and is appropriate for neo-liberal capitalist development. It is unsuitable for other strategies of development which emphasize equity and fairness. The Bank’s legal framework also emphasizes the importance of legal sector institutional reforms. This is based on new institutional economic explanations of the role of law in influencing individual and social behaviour. The relationship between institutions and human conduct is not direct and is complex. As a result of interactions between formal and informal institutions, the impact of formal reforms is difficult to predict.
The Sad Subject of Infanticide: Law, Medicine and Child Murder, 1860-1938
Authors: Ward Tony
Published: April 2009

The (English) Infanticide Act 1922 created a partial defence to murder for a woman who killed her newly born child while the balance of her mind was disturbed as a result of giving birth. Prior to the Act, psychiatric defences were comparatively rare where the victim was new-born. Only in 1938 was the law extended to cover cases where the mother was likely to be diagnosed as suffering from puerperal or lactational insanity. The relationship between law and medical knowledge underlying this legislation is too complex to be captured by a simple notion of ‘medicalization’, and in some respects fits better with the account of law/science relations offered by autopoiesis theory. That theory, however, is much less satisfactory in its view of the role of lay knowledge and morality in the development and application of the law.
Family, Law and Sexuality: Feminist Engagements
Authors: Boyd Susan B.
Published: April 2009

The author explores feminist frameworks within which questions of family, law and sexuality can best be explored, drawing on recent efforts to (re)establish materialist feminist theory. She suggests that in order to make the important link between questions of gender, sexuality, difference, desire, identity and subjectivity on the one hand, and problems of production and exploitation on the other, a materialist feminist theory must incorporate the strengths of Marxist feminism with those of postmodernist feminism. As a way of exploring the politics of current struggles for legal recognition of lesbian and gay relationships as ‘spousal’, she engages with the debate between Nancy Fraser and Judith Butler on the ‘recognition/redistribution’ dichotomy. She argues that neither theorist takes seriously enough the role of the family in the privatisation of the costs of social reproduction within capitalism. She concludes that the important lesbian/gay struggles for legal recognition of ‘spousal’ relationships, such as in the M v H lesbian spousal support case in Canada, should not be seen as sufficient to achieve social equality. Such legal struggles must be accompanied by trenchant critiques of the limits of such recognition in redistributing wealth and well-being.
Virtual Reality, Combat, and Communication
Authors: Thrush Emily Austin , Bodary Michael
Published: April 2009

A brief examination of the evolution of virtual reality devices illustrates how the development of this new medium is influenced not only by emerging technologies but also by marketing pressures. In a situation parallel to that of the earliest computers, both military and game applications seem to be the driving forces in virtual reality development. Understanding these influences may help us prepare for the role of technical communica-tors in building virtual reality applications for education and industry and aid us in pre-dicting and influencing both the technology and the ways we prepare communicators for the future.
Mythmaking in Annual Reports
Authors: David Carol
Published: April 2009

Annual reports produced today increasingly include elaborate photographs and graphics in the narrative section. Financial analysts and many scholars have judged these reports on their clarity, accuracy, and honesty. Because the narrative invites interpretations, such criteria are not sufficient, and additional standards need to be constructed. A semiological analysis of the textual and visual elements allows for the discovery of the techniques used by document designers to promote their companies’ values. Artistic images may encourage positive readings of annual reports, which, combined with similar messages in other media and repeated over time, invoke cultural myths. By definition, myths are broadly accepted commonplaces that conceal details of their subject, and communicators must expose the missing details and judge the myths within a specific context. This kind of analysis, acknowledging the constraints of the rhetorical situation of a single report, can identify effective criteria for judging the narrative's ethics.
Usability Instruction in Technical Communication Programs
Authors: Breuch Lee-Ann M. Kastman , Zachry Mark , Spinuzzi Clay
Published: April 2009

Although usability testing and research have become critical tasks for technical communicators in the workplace, little discussion in technical communication focuses on teaching usability in technical communication programs. This article asserts that technical communication programs are particularly well positioned to adopt usability testing and research in their curricula because of inherent connections between usability and technical communication, such as their mutual emphases on audience analysis, technology, and information design. Approaches to implementation of usability courses at three universities are described, and the authors share suggestions for adopting usability in the areas of curriculum, equipment, and facilities needed for conducting usability.
Design in Observational Research on the Discourse of Medicine: Toward Disciplined Interdisciplinarity
Authors: Barton Ellen
Published: April 2009

This article turns to the concept of interdisciplinarity as a framework for the design and development of observational studies investigating the discourse of medicine in language-based fields such as linguistics, rhetoric, composition, and professional communication. It argues that observational studies be designed as disciplined interdisciplinary studies, defined as research that makes an acknowledged contribution to both medicine and language studies. It proposes two guiding principles for the design of observational studies in medicine, both of which focus on issues of prospective design.
From the Margins to the Center
Authors: Wolfe Joanna L. , Neuwirth Christine M.
Published: April 2009

This article describes the importance of annotation to reading and writing practices and reviews new technologies that complicate the ways annotation can be used to support and enhance traditional reading, writing, and collaboration processes. Important directions for future research are discussed, with emphasis on studying how professionals read and annotate, how readers might use annotations that have been produced by others, and how the interface of an annotation program affects collaboration and communication on revision. In each area, the authors emphasize issues and methods that will be productive for enhancing theories of workplace and classroom communication as well as implications for the optimal design of annotation technologies.
Moving beyond the Moment
Authors: Paul Danette , Charney Davida , Kendall Aimee
Published: April 2009

Studies in the rhetoric of science have tended to focus on classic scientific texts and on the history of drafts and the interaction surrounding them up until the moment when the drafts are accepted for publication by a journal. Similarly, research on disasters resulting from failed communication has tended to focus on the history of drafts and the interaction surrounding them up until the moment of the disaster. The authors argue that overattention to the moment skews understanding of what makes scientific discourse successful and neglects other valuable sources of evidence. After reviewing the promises and limitations of studies from historical, observational, and text-analytic approaches, the authors call for studies of responses to research articles from disciplinary readers and argue for studies using a variety of qualitative and quantitative methodologies that will explore the real-time responses of readers to scientific texts, test the effects of rhetorical strategies on readers, and track the course of acceptance or rejection over time.
Factors in Reader Responses to Negative Letters
Authors: Locker Kitty O.
Published: April 2009

This article summarizes the scholarly discussion about negative messages and reports the results of two pretests and two experiments using negative letters. The results show that buffers did not significantly affect college students' responses to simulated letters refusing credit and denying admission to graduate school and that strong resale was counterproductive. Students responded least favorably to rejection when they were surprised by it and when their other options were limited. On the basis of these experiments and the published literature, the author recommends that negative letters normally begin with the reason for the refusal. If the reason makes the company look good, then it should be spelled out in as much detail as possible. If an alternative or a compromise exists, then the writer should suggest it. Although a positive ending is not necessary, if one is used, then a bland positive is better than a strong one, especially in letters to clients or customers.
The Genre System of the Harvard Case Method
Authors: Forman Janis , Rymer Jone
Published: April 2009

Focusing on the case write-up within the Harvard case method of instruction, this study provides historical and empirical evidence for the theory of genre systems. The Harvard case literature and interviews at a case-based business school in the Harvard tradition show that the purpose of this largely ignored written genre is to prepare students to participate in the primary genre, oral classroom discussion of the case. The case genre system provides highly conventionalized conductor-choreographer roles for instructors and blunt, detached consultant roles for student writers/speakers who repeatedly enact decisive, adversarial personae affirming practices and values of the business school.
Work for Hire for Nonacademic Creators
Authors: Herrington Tyanna K.
Published: April 2009

This article examines the Work for Hire Doctrine and its importance to technical communication instructors who prepare students to create intellectual products in workplace settings. The author explains how the Work for Hire Doctrine operates in practice, charts the progressive legal treatment of work for hire through case law, and calls attention to the developing trend in the courts to support a more protectionist stance regarding creative products.
A Clinical Test of Women’s Self-Diagnosis of Genitourinary Infections
Authors: Lowe Nancy K. , Ryan-Wenger Nancy A.
Published: April 2009

Vaginitis and cystitis result in 8 million ambulatory health care visits annually. For military women deployed to austere environments, gynecological problems are more likely to occur yet unlikely to be adequately diagnosed and managed. The Institute of Medicine has recommended that self-care kits be made available to military women under these circumstances. In this clinical comparative study, women’s (N = 86) self-diagnoses of vaginitis and cystitis using an investigatordesigned, self-diagnostic decision-making guide and kit were compared with clinical diagnoses by advanced practice nurses (APN). The vaginitis guide had a sensitivity of 84% for candida vaginitis (CV) and 91.3% for bacterial vaginosis (BV) and a specificity of 81.5% for CV and 82.8% for BV. The women consistently agreed with the APN’s diagnosis of presence or absence of cystitis. These findings suggest that women are capable of making reliable selfdiagnostic decisions given appropriate cues. Continued development of a self-diagnosis and treatment kit for military women deployed to austere environments is warranted.
Nurses’ Strategies When Providing for Patients’ Aesthetic Needs
Authors: Wikström Britt-Maj
Published: April 2009

The present study was conducted at five hospitals in Sweden. Data were collected by a random procedure from registered nurses (N = 165) in face-to-face interviews. The study reports on how and why nurses provide for patients’ aesthetic needs. Open substantive coding of each interview fractured the data. The category of good for the patient was identified in the following nurses“ statements: “The patient became relaxed” and “It distracted the patient from her pain.” Regarding the question about how nurses provide for the patients’ aesthetic needs, they did it in a nonactive manner. They used the basic service available at the wards. It could be concluded that although nurses show concern for patients’ aesthetic needs, there is still more to be learned in this area of research. Nurses need to be encouraged to actively incorporate aesthetic means of expression in nursing practice.
Social Support, Personal Control, and Psychosocial Recovery Following Heart Transplantation
Authors: Bohachick Patricia , Taylor Melissa V. , Sereika Susan , Reeder Sara , Anton Bonnie B.
Published: April 2009

To study the influence of psychosocial resources on psychological recovery after heart transplantation, 28 patients were surveyed during their hospitalization after transplant surgery and 6 months posttransplantation. Scales from the Coping With Serious Illness Battery were used to measure psychosocial resources (social support and personal control) and psychological and functional outcomes. Psychosocial resources assessed during hospitalization were associated with recovery outcomes at 6 months posttransplantation. Personal control was positively correlated with optimism, well-being, and satisfaction with life (r = .41 to .49) and negatively correlated with anger (r = −.57) and depression (r = −.52). Social support network helpfulness and attachment with others were correlated with psychological outcomes (r = .41 to .59) and functional outcome (r = .42 to .47). Efforts directed toward enhancing perceptions of personal control, social support network helpfulness, and attachment may be useful for promoting psychosocial recovery.
Infant Gender Differences Regarding Acute Established Pain
Authors: Fuller Barbara F.
Published: April 2009

The purpose of this study was to ascertain if any gender differences existed in the behaviors of infants experiencing different levels of acute established pain and different levels of arousal within each level of pain. To do this, the behaviors of 152 two-week- to 12-month-old infants were videotaped and compared. Levels of pain were assessed by a panel of expert pediatric nurses. Results indicated that female 2-week- to 6-month-old infants performed more generally broadcast crying than did males and that the cries of female 7- to 12-month-old infants were of higher pitch than those of males. There was no gender difference in any facial or other bodily behavior. One cannot interpolate from these results that there are any gender differences in pain thresholds, only that there seem to be gender differences in behavioral responses to acute established pain.