bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Aortic Arterial Stiffness is a Moderate Predictor of Cardiovascular Disease in Patients With Psoriasis Vulgaris
Authors: Balta Ilknur , Balta Sevket , Demirkol Sait , Celik Turgay , Ekiz Ozlem , Cakar Mustafa , Sarlak Hakan , Ozoguz Pınar , Iyisoy Atila
Published: May 2013

Psoriasis is associated with an increased risk of atherosclerosis. Endothelial dysfunction is the critical early step in the process of atherogenesis, and it is commonly investigated by measuring arterial stiffness. We aimed to investigate the relationship between arterial stiffness and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) in patients with psoriasis. A total of 32 patients with psoriasis and 35 patients with other skin diseases were included in the study. The hsCRP levels and arterial stiffness measurements were compared. Arterial stiffness was significantly different between the 2 groups ( P = .01). Arterial stiffness was not associated with the duration of the disease or the disease activity ( P = .34 and .64, respectively). In patients with psoriasis, arterial stiffness correlated positively with age, sex, body mass index, diastolic blood pressure, and hsCRP level ( P < .05). These findings provide further evidence of a link between inflammation, premature atherosclerosis, and psoriasis.
New Obesity Indices and Adipokines in Normotensive Patients and Patients With Hypertension
Authors: Stępień Mariusz , Stępień Anna , Banach Maciej , Wlazeł Rafał N. , Paradowski Marek , Rizzo Manfredi , Toth Peter P. , Rysz Jacek
Published: May 2013

We compared the obesity parameters and selected adipokines—leptin, adiponectin, and resistin—in obese patients with hypertension and normotensive patients. A total of 67 nondiabetic obese outpatients were divided into 2 groups: A–hypertensive and B–normotensive. Serum levels of leptin, adiponectin, resistin, and insulin were measured. Weight, height, waist circumference, and hip circumference were measured to calculate waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), weight-to-height ratio, visceral adiposity index, and body adiposity index (BAI). Among patients with hypertension, significant positive correlations were observed between leptin and body mass index and BAI ( r = .31 and r = .63, respectively). In normotensive patients, leptin positively correlated with BAI ( r = .73, P < .01) and negatively with WHR ( r = −.55, P < .0001); adiponectin negatively correlated with WHR ( r = .38, P < .01) and BAI ( r = .52; P < .0001), and resistin negatively correlated with WHR ( r = −.36, P < .05). In conclusion, visceral obesity and leptin are associated with hypertension in obese patients.
A New Parameter Predicting Chronic Total Occlusion of Coronary Arteries
Authors: Vatankulu Mehmet Akif , Sonmez Osman , Ertas Gokhan , Bacaksiz Ahmet , Turfan Murat , Erdogan Ercan , Tasal Abdurrahman , Kul Seref , Uyarel Huseyin , Goktekin Omer
Published: May 2013

Platelet distribution width (PDW) measures the variability in platelet size and is a marker of platelet activation. We investigated whether PDW is associated with the extent of coronary artery disease (CAD) and coronary total occlusions (CTOs). We studied 162 patients: 108 had a coronary lesion with a diameter stenosis of ≥50%, the CAD(+) group, and 54 patients had normal coronary anatomy, the CAD(−) group. The CAD(+) group was subdivided into CAD(+) CTO(+) and CAD(+) CTO(−) groups. Among patients with CAD, the CTO(+) group had a significantly greater PDW (%) than the CTO(−) group (16.9 ± 2.8, 15.4 ± 3.0, and 15.4 ± 1.9, respectively; P = .008). In a receiver–operating characteristic analysis, a PDW cut point of 15.7% was identified in patients with CTO(+) (area under curve = 0.64, 95% confidence interval 0.54-0.75). A PDW value of more than 15.7% demonstrated a sensitivity of 64% and a specificity of 66%. The PDW is a simple platelet index that may predict the presence of CTO.
Glomerular Filtration Rate is Associated With Burden of Coronary Atherosclerosis in Patients With Acute Coronary Syndrome
Authors: Duran Mustafa , Uysal Onur Kadir , Gunebakmaz Ozgur , Baran Oguzhan , Turfan Murat , Ornek Ender , Cetin Mustafa , Murat Sani Namik , Yarlioglues Mikail , Karadeniz Muhammed , Kurtul Alpaslan , Kaya Mehmet Gungor
Published: May 2013

We aimed to elucidate the relationship between mild to moderate renal impairements and burden of atherosclerosis in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). A total of 380 patients with ACS were included in the study. Gensini and SYNTAX scores were also calculated. Kidney function was classified based on estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) into stage 1: eGFR >90, stage 2: 60 to 89, and stage 3: 30 to 60 mL/min per 1.73 m2. Gensini and SYNTAX scores were higher in stages 2 and 3 than in stage 1. Also, the number of diseased vessels, number of critical lesions (>50 and 70%), left main disease, and number of total occlusion vessels were higher in stages 2 and 3 than in stage 1. Multivariate linear regression analysis demonstrated that a decreased eGFR was an independent risk factor for SYNTAX and Gensini scores together with age and male gender.
The role of inflammatory cytokines on the aetiopathogenesis of depression
Authors: Makhija Karan , Karunakaran Satish
Published: May 2013

Objective:

The primary focus of this review is to provide an overview of the role of inflammation in the development of depression. The article will describe how inflammatory cytokines contribute to depression via action on three major pathways in the brain: the neuroendocrine; neurotransmitter depletion; and neuroprogression pathways.

Methods:

An online literature search was carried out in July 2012. Original articles and reviews were selected if they discussed the role of inflammation on the development of depression.

Results:

There is a large body of current research on the role of inflammatory cytokines on the development of depression. Cytokines have been found to interact with different pathways in the brain, and may contribute to the development of depression. Cytokines cause hypercortisolaemia by dysregulation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis directly by activating it and indirectly by modifying glucocorticoid receptor sensitivity to cortisol leading to cortisol hypersecretion. Cytokines deplete central synaptic serotonin levels by reducing its synthesis and increasing its reuptake. They may also deplete neurotrophic factors which are believed to play a neuroprotective role against depression. Cytokines activate cellular cascades that cause excitotoxicity and apoptosis and inhibit neurogenesis in the hippocampus.

Conclusion:

There is a growing body of correlative studies that suggest inflammatory cytokines may be a central factor that can affect multiple neuronal pathways and have an additive effect on the development of depression. However, the fact that not all people with inflammatory conditions suffer from depression suggests that depression is not purely a result of elevated inflammatory cytokines. Depression may be a result of a complex pathology that remains an area of growing interest and importance.
Nearly 50 Years Post-Jim Crow
Authors: Vasquez Heilig Julian , Holme Jennifer Jellison
Published: May 2013

This study addresses the segregation of English language learner (ELL) students in schools across Texas. We descriptively analyze levels of racial, economic, and linguistic isolation experienced by ELL students across the state of Texas. We also examine the association between segregation by race/ethnicity, economic disadvantage, and language proficiency with high-stakes accountability ratings. Despite nearly two decades of accountability policies that have promised equality, our statistical analyses show that a majority of ELL students in Texas still attend high-poverty and high-minority schools, and we find that segregation by socioeconomic status (SES) and race and ethnicity is highly significant for predicting whether schools will be low performing relative to high performing.
Linear Modeling of Human Hand-Arm Dynamics Relevant to Right-Angle Torque Tool Interaction
Authors: Ay Haluk , Sommerich Carolyn M. , Luscher Anthony F.
Published: May 2013

Objective:

A new protocol was evaluated for identification of stiffness, mass, and damping parameters employing a linear model for human hand-arm dynamics relevant to right-angle torque tool use.

Background:

Powered torque tools are widely used to tighten fasteners in manufacturing industries. While these tools increase accuracy and efficiency of tightening processes, operators are repetitively exposed to impulsive forces, posing risk of upper extremity musculoskeletal injury.

Methods:

A novel testing apparatus was developed that closely mimics biomechanical exposure in torque tool operation. Forty experienced torque tool operators were tested with the apparatus to determine model parameters and validate the protocol for physical capacity assessment.

Results:

A second-order hand-arm model with parameters extracted in the time domain met model accuracy criterion of 5% for time-to-peak displacement error in 93% of trials (vs. 75% for frequency domain). Average time-to-peak handle displacement and relative peak handle force errors were 0.69 ms and 0.21%, respectively. Model parameters were significantly affected by gender and working posture.

Conclusion:

Protocol and numerical calculation procedures provide an alternative method for assessing mechanical parameters relevant to right-angle torque tool use. The protocol more closely resembles tool use, and calculation procedures demonstrate better performance of parameter extraction using time domain system identification methods versus frequency domain.

Application:

Potential future applications include parameter identification for in situ torque tool operation and equipment development for human hand-arm dynamics simulation under impulsive forces that could be used for assessing torque tools based on factors relevant to operator health (handle dynamics and hand-arm reaction force).
Diagnosing Organizational Identity Beliefs by Eliciting Complex, Multimodal Metaphors
Authors: Jacobs Claus D. , Oliver David , Heracleous Loizos
Published: May 2013

The purpose of this article is to extend the organizational development diagnostics repertoire by advancing an approach that surfaces organizational identity beliefs through the elicitation of complex, multimodal metaphors by organizational members. We illustrate the use of such “Type IV” metaphors in a postmerger context, in which individuals sought to make sense of the implications of the merger process for the identity of their organization. This approach contributes to both constructive and discursive new organizational development approaches; and offers a multimodal way of researching organizational identity that goes beyond the dominant, mainly textual modality.
Cultural Diplomacy, Language Planning, and the Case of the University of Nairobi Confucius Institute
Authors: Wheeler Anita
Published: May 2013

As China’s economic and political presence in Africa increases, so does the need for its government to maintain a favorable image with African publics. Borrowing theories of soft power diplomacy and language planning, this paper analyzes, from the perspectives of African and Chinese policymakers, the impact of the Confucius Institutes on higher education in Africa and its intersections with language planning and cultural diplomacy. An empirical case study at the University of Nairobi Confucius Institute shows that policymakers and administrators anticipate that a competent group of Kenyans with Mandarin language skills will be able to engage with Chinese people and Chinese-owned companies on the ground in Kenya. However, Chinese diplomats are more concerned with China’s image and achieving its political and economic interests in Kenya than with effective cultural exchange and language instruction.
Interactions of montmorillonite and electron beam irradiation in enhancing the properties of alumina trihydrate–added polyethylene and ethylene vinyl acetate blends
Authors: Bee Soo-Tueen , Hassan A , Ratnam CT , Tee Tiam-Ting , Lee Tin Sin
Published: May 2013

This study aims at investigating the effects of electron beam irradiation on the montmorillonite and alumina trihydrate–added low-density polyethylene and ethylene vinyl acetate blends. The mechanical, flammability and electrical resistivity of the montmorillonite and alumina trihydrate–added low-density polyethylene and ethylene vinyl acetate blends were investigated. The addition of montmorillonite provided the reinforcing effect to the alumina trihydrate–added low-density polyethylene and ethylene vinyl acetate, whereby the tensile strength of 150 kGy and 250 kGy irradiated samples gradually increased with increasing of montmorillonite composition (i.e. 5 phr to 20 phr). Furthermore, the addition of montmorillonite into low-density polyethylene and ethylene vinyl acetate blends increased the limiting oxygen index and thermal decomposition temperatures of samples, thus improving the flame retardancy and thermal stability. The increasing of montmorillonite and irradiation dosage promoted the char formation during combustion. Besides, the increasing of montmorillonite loading levels gradually decreased the surface and volume resistivities of the polymer blends. The high irradiation dosages (i.e. 150 kGy and 250 kGy) were found to slightly decrease the electrical resistivity of the alumina trihydrate–added low-density polyethylene and ethylene vinyl acetate blends especially at high loading of montmorillonite. The irradiation effect improved the mobility of montmorillonite ions in polymer matrix, subsequently causing the reduction of the electrical resistivity of the polymer blends. The storage capacity of electrical charges of samples was slightly declined with the increasing of montmorillonite loading levels and irradiation dosages as shown by the dielectric constant results. The dielectric loss tangent of samples slightly increased at the increasing of montmorillonite loading level. However, the dielectric loss tangent was declined with increasing of irradiation dosages.
A constitutive ply model for stiffness degradation and plastic strain accumulation: Its application to the Third World Wide Failure Exercise (Part A)
Authors: Flatscher Th , Schuecker C , Pettermann HE
Published: May 2013

This paper represents the authors' contribution to Part A of the third World Wide Failure Exercise where a constitutive model is proposed which considers stiffness degradation and plastic strain accumulation for the prediction of stress–strain curves and failure envelopes of 13 test cases, involving various continuous fiber-reinforced laminates with polymeric matrix materials. The model calibration by means of the provided material data is described and the limits of applicability of the proposed constitutive model are discussed. Finally, the predictions are presented as being obtained without any experimental results available. The test cases consider unidirectional and multidirectional laminates under biaxial loads, laminates under various loading conditions (uniaxial, bending, thermal, loading and unloading) and laminates with open hole under tension or compression. Most of the predictions are documented in terms of stress–strain curves and curves presenting the evolution of brittle damage and of plastic strains.
Mineralization of Dense Collagen Hydrogel Scaffolds by Human Pulp Cells
Authors: Coyac B.R. , Chicatun F. , Hoac B. , Nelea V. , Chaussain C. , Nazhat S.N. , McKee M.D.
Published: May 2013

While advances in biomineralization have been made in recent years, unanswered questions persist on bone- and tooth-cell differentiation, on outside-in signaling from the extracellular matrix, and on the link between protein expression and mineral deposition. In the present study, we validate the use of a bioengineered three-dimensional (3D) dense collagen hydrogel scaffold as a cell-culture model to explore these questions. Dental pulp progenitor/stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHEDs) were seeded into an extracellular matrix-like collagen gel whose fibrillar density was increased through plastic compression. SHED viability, morphology, and metabolic activity, as well as scaffold mineralization, were investigated over 24 days in culture. Additionally, measurements of alkaline phosphatase enzymatic activity, together with immunoblotting for mineralized tissue cell markers ALPL (tissue-non-specific alkaline phosphatase), DMP1 (dentin matrix protein 1), and OPN (osteopontin), demonstrated osteo/odontogenic cell differentiation in the dense collagen scaffolds coincident with mineralization. Analyses of the mineral phase by electron microscopy, including electron diffraction and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, combined with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and biochemical analyses, were consistent with the formation of apatitic mineral that was frequently aligned along collagen fibrils. In conclusion, use of a 3D dense collagen scaffold promoted SHED osteo/odontogenic cell differentiation and mineralization.
Hydrogen Peroxide Diffusion Dynamics in Dental Tissues
Authors: Ubaldini A.L.M. , Baesso M.L. , Medina Neto A. , Sato F. , Bento A.C. , Pascotto R.C.
Published: May 2013

The aim of this study was to investigate the diffusion dynamics of 25% hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) through enamel-dentin layers and to correlate it with dentin’s structural alterations. Micro-Raman Spectroscopy (MRS) and Fourier Transform Infrared Photoacoustic Spectroscopy (FTIR-PAS) were used to measure the spectra of specimens before and during the bleaching procedure. H2O2 was applied to the outer surface of human enamel specimens for 60 minutes. MRS measurements were performed on the inner surface of enamel or on the subsurface dentin. In addition, H2O2 diffusion dynamics from outer enamel to dentin, passing through the dentin-enamel junction (DEJ) was obtained with Raman transverse scans. FTIR-PAS spectra were collected on the outer dentin. MRS findings revealed that H2O2 (O-O stretching µ-Raman band) crossed enamel, had a more marked concentration at DEJ, and accumulated in dentin. FTIR-PAS analysis showed that H2O2 modified dentin’s organic compounds, observed by the decrease in amides I, II, and III absorption band intensities. In conclusion, H2O2 penetration was demonstrated to be not merely a physical passage through enamel interprismatic spaces into the dentinal tubules. H2O2 diffusion dynamics presented a concentration gradient determined by the chemical affinity of the H2O2 with each specific dental tissue.
A Life-course Perspective on Adolescents’ Attitudes to Police
Authors: Schuck Amie M.
Published: May 2013

Objectives:

Describe the developmental trajectory of perceptions of the police by youth as they transition from adolescence to young adulthood.

Method:

A longitudinal experiment to evaluate the impact of the D.A.R.E. program ( N = 1,773). Latent variable growth modeling was used.

Results:

A dramatic decline in the favorable attitudes of youth toward the police begins in about seventh grade. More negative perceptions of police are associated with minority racial status, negative experiences with officers, involvement in the delinquent subculture, and greater expressions of skewed legal norms. There is a long-term positive effect of D.A.R.E. on attitudes toward the police, particularly for African American youth.

Conclusion:

The study highlights the importance of theorizing about perceptions of the police from a life course perspective. Findings raise new policy questions about the long-term impact of school-based programs, such as D.A.R.E., and the role of multiple reference groups in the formation of minorities’ attitudes. More research is needed to gain a better understanding of the cognitive and experiential processes involved in attitude formation.
Intimate Partner Violence and the Victim-Offender Overlap
Authors: Tillyer Marie Skubak , Wright Emily M.
Published: May 2013

Objectives:

Examine the prevalence and correlates of intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization and offending, as well as the overlap of these experiences.

Method:

Data from wave 4 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were analyzed to examine IPV among adults ages 24 to 33. A multinomial logistic regression model was estimated to determine whether the correlates of IPV vary across victims, perpetrators, and victim-perpetrators.

Results:

Approximately 20% of respondents reported some IPV involvement in the past year, one-third of whom reported victimization and perpetration. The victim-offender overlap was observed for males and females across various measures of IPV. Bivariate correlations suggest victimization and perpetration have common correlates. Multivariate analysis, however, reveals considerable differences once we distinguish between victims, offenders, and victim-offenders and control for other variables. Perpetrators and victim-perpetrators were more likely to live with a nonspouse partner; feel isolated; display negative temperaments; and report substance use problems. “Victims only” were more likely to live with children and have lower household incomes.

Conclusions:

The victim-offender overlap exists for IPV across a variety of measures. Though perpetrators and victim-perpetrators have similar characteristics, those who are victims only appear distinctly different. We discuss the implications for theory, policy, and research.
Underemployment in the UK Revisited
Authors: Bell David N.F. , Blanchflower David G.
Published: May 2013

This paper addresses the issue of underemployment in the UK labour market – the demand for hours of work is less than workers’ willingness to supply extra hours. Workers would like to work more hours, but there is insufficient product demand to justify additional hours. This phenomenon has been evident in the UK labour market for some time, but has grown significantly during the Great Recession. In this paper, we develop a new index of underemployment which is intended to combine indicators of excess capacity on the extensive (jobs) and intensive (hours) margins of the labour market. This index continued to increase during 2012, though unemployment was stable. The paper also investigates the microeconomic determinants of underemployment, finding that it is particularly prevalent among the young and unqualified.
Prospects for the UK Economy
Authors: Kirby Simon
Published: May 2013

The production of this forecast is supported by the Institute's Corporate Members: Bank of England, HM Treasury, Mizuho Research Institute Ltd, the Office for National Statistics, Santander (UK) plc and by the members of the NiGEM users group.
Consuming the City: Public Fashion Festivals and the Participatory Economies of Urban Spaces in Melbourne, Australia
Authors: Weller Sally
Published: May 2013

This paper examines how the conduct of a local festival of fashion retailing—the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival—reinvigorates the commodity fair format of older times. The paper takes a longitudinal view of the festival’s evolution and draws on Lefebvre’s spatiology, complemented by Terranova’s approach to the participatory economy, to explore how it produces monetary value as it produces space. The discussion highlights the contradictory nature of event processes, arguing that they reinforce dominant representations of the city and extend retailers’ reach into public space, but at the same time undermine spaces of business activity. The paper suggests that the event’s use of participatory economies of cultural mobilisation are similar to the tactics of social movement activism, but that in this context mobilisation works to support the value-capturing strategies of local retailers and to reinscribe urban spaces as spaces of consumption.
Fibro Dreaming: Greenwashed Beach-house Development on Australia’s Coasts
Authors: Shaw Wendy S. , Menday Lindsay
Published: May 2013

New Urbanism has been appropriated in an Australia context and deployed in the marketing of a peri-urban housing development on the far north coast of New South Wales. Mimicking the ‘neo-traditional’ focus in the US, developers offered a resurrection of quintessential Australian beach house architecture ‘lost’ through the suburbanisation of the coast. Symbolic references to a more ‘authentic’ past, represented in the built form, were contemporised using tropes of environmental sustainability and integration with nature. The image of beach housing and a green lifestyle have successfully attracted buyers and housing price premiums. This paper demonstrates that the cultural capitals of ‘heritage’ and ‘greenness’ are valued as distinction to the suburban norm. It is concluded that, while this development appeals to the notion of an enlightened consumer, this new model of development ultimately offers little to challenge issues of environmental degradation associated with other versions of (sub)urban sprawl.
Youth Drinking in Public Places: The Production of Drinking Spaces in and Outside Nightlife Areas
Authors: Demant Jakob , Landolt Sara
Published: May 2013

This article explores youth drinking in Zurich, Switzerland, on both public squares away from nightlife areas, referred to as ‘square street drinking’ and on the street within the vicinity of nightclubs, defined as ‘club street drinking’. Taking a relational space approach, the analysis adds a social perspective to the dominant economic-political perspective to drinking in urban nightlife zones. The results suggest that the normative landscapes of drinking are constructed differently: the same regulation by police and social workers works differently between the two areas both in terms of inclusion and exclusion as well as in terms of how the material and social dimensions interact. Production and regulation are dependent on how young people participate in these processes. This finding suggests that it would be fruitful to develop a regulation approach on drinking in the post-industrial city that is sensitive to young people as co-producers of space.
Misleading Chinese Legal and Statistical Categories
Authors: Huang Philip C. C.
Published: May 2013

The mixing of socialist and capitalist discourses in Reform China has engendered some complex and misleading usages of key legal and statistical categories. This article considers three in particular: “labor,” “individual entities,” and “private enterprises.” The meaning of the word “labor” has changed from its early days’ meaning of the “working class” in a Marxist revolutionary perspective into a relatively privileged group classified along with government officials as “employees-workers” who are under the protection of formal labor laws and regulations. The category in fact excludes the great majority of China’s laboring people today, who work mainly in the informal economy, considered to belong outside the official legal-statistical category of “employees-workers” and formal “labor relations,” and to belong rather under casual or “task-based labor relations,” not covered by the state’s labor laws. “Individual entities,” on the other hand, includes mainly self-employed artisans, peddlers, and service workers closely tied to peasants, even as it includes also a minority of new-style shops and eateries, higher-paying service entities, and other individual businesses. As for “private enterprises,” it includes mainly small-scale businesses that currently employ an average of just 13–15 people and does not include the larger private and part-private firms. They are also as a rule not formally incorporated as limited liability companies with separate “legal person” status and are therefore not considered legal “employing units” that are involved in “labor relations.” As will be seen, literal usage of these terms according to their surface meanings in English without consideration of the complex historical backgrounds and changes in the categories can lead to some serious misunderstandings of Chinese realities, as has occurred in even some of the best scholarly studies of China—by Ching Kwan Lee, Kellee Tsai, and Yasheng Huang.
Generational Changes in Materialism and Work Centrality, 1976-2007
Authors: Twenge Jean M. , Kasser Tim
Published: May 2013

We examined whether culture-level indices of threat, instability, and materialistic modeling were linked to the materialistic values of American 12th graders between 1976 and 2007 ( N = 355,296). Youth materialism (such as the importance of money and of owning expensive material items) increased over the generations, peaking in the late 1980s to early 1990s with Generation X and then staying at historically high levels for Millennials (GenMe). Societal instability and disconnection (e.g., unemployment, divorce) and social modeling (e.g., advertising spending) had both contemporaneous and lagged associations with higher levels of materialism, with advertising most influential during adolescence and instability during childhood. Societal-level living standards during childhood predicted materialism 10 years later. When materialistic values increased, work centrality steadily declined, suggesting a growing discrepancy between the desire for material rewards and the willingness to do the work usually required to earn them.
The Application of the Monte Carlo Approach to Cognitive Diagnostic Computerized Adaptive Testing With Content Constraints
Authors: Mao Xiuzhen , Xin Tao
Published: May 2013

The Monte Carlo approach which has previously been implemented in traditional computerized adaptive testing (CAT) is applied here to cognitive diagnostic CAT to test the ability of this approach to address multiple content constraints. The performance of the Monte Carlo approach is compared with the performance of the modified maximum global discrimination index (MMGDI) method on simulations in which the only content constraint is on the number of items that measure each attribute. The results of the two simulation experiments show that (a) the Monte Carlo method fulfills all the test requirements and produces satisfactory measurement precision and item exposure results and (b) the Monte Carlo method outperforms the MMGDI method when the Monte Carlo method applies either the posterior-weighted Kullback–Leibler algorithm or the hybrid Kullback–Leibler information as the item selection index. Overall, the recovery rate of the knowledge states, the distribution of the item exposure, and the utilization rate of the item bank are improved when the Monte Carlo method is used.
Intestinal Microbial Diversity and Perioperative Complications
Authors: Ralls Matthew W. , Miyasaka Eiichi , Teitelbaum Daniel H.
Published: May 2013

Background and Aims: Enteral nutrient deprivation via parenteral nutrition (PN) in a mouse model leads to a local mucosal inflammatory response. This proinflammatory response leads to a loss of epithelial barrier function and atrophy of the intestine. Although the underlying mechanisms are unknown, a potential contributing factor is the impact PN has on the intestinal microbiome. We recently identified a shift in the intestinal microbial community in mice given PN; however, it is unknown whether such changes occur in humans. We hypothesized that similar microbial changes occur in humans during periods of enteral nutrient deprivation. Methods: A series of small bowel specimens were obtained from pediatric and adult patients undergoing small intestinal resection. Mucosally associated bacteria were harvested and analyzed using 454 pyrosequencing techniques. Statistical analysis of microbial diversity and differences in microbial characteristics were assessed between enterally fed and enterally deprived portions of the intestine. Occurrence of postoperative infectious and anastomotic complications was also examined. Results: Pyrosequencing demonstrated a wide variability in microbial diversity within all groups. Principal coordinate analysis demonstrated only a partial stratification of microbial communities between fed and enterally deprived groups. Interestingly, a tight correlation was identified in patients who had a low level of enteric microbial diversity and those who developed postoperative enteric‐derived infections or intestinal anastomotic disruption. Conclusions: Loss of enteral nutrients and systemic antibiotic therapy in humans is associated with a significant loss of microbial biodiversity within the small bowel mucosa. These changes were associated with a number of enteric‐derived intestinal infections and intestinal anastomotic disruptions.
Comparative International Entrepreneurship
Authors: Terjesen Siri , Hessels Jolanda , Li Dan
Published: May 2013

This review systematically examines comparative international entrepreneurship (CIE) research, analyzing 259 articles published in 21 leading journals from 1989 to 2010. We outline the importance of multi-country studies of entrepreneurial activity in enabling the comparison and replication of research and generating meaningful contributions to scholarship, practice, and policy. Our systematic review classifies research findings into four levels—individual, firm, industry, and country—each with respect to characteristics, antecedents, and outcomes of entrepreneurial activities as well as theory and methodology. Taken together, our review highlights the heterogeneous nature of entrepreneurship across countries and its role in explaining outcomes at firm (e.g., financial and export performance) and country (e.g., economic growth) levels as well as antecedents at the country level (e.g., culture). We find the CIE literature is highly fragmented with substantial knowledge gaps related to content, theory, and methodology, for which we outline a detailed future research agenda. Given the atheoretical nature of most published CIE research, we provide specific suggestions to extend the current dominant theoretical perspectives (institutions, culture, resource-based view, transaction cost economics, economic growth, and human capital); consider new lenses from management, international business, and entrepreneurship; and integrate and test multiple theories. From a content perspective, we outline the need to define and cross-reference prior studies of entrepreneurship and prioritize emerging phenomena that are critical to practice, and policy, and offer specific directives for integrated and multi-level studies of characteristics, antecedents, and outcomes. Methodological suggestions include theory-based rationale for the selection of countries, greater attention to data collection and sample selection equivalence, and the solutions to the ecological fallacy problem. We urge scholars to work together and across countries, cooperating with interested agencies and associations to develop new longitudinal, multi-level data sets and introduce dual qualitative/quantitative approaches and new diverse, sophisticated analytical tools.
The Cliff and Ord Test for Spatial Correlation of the Disturbances in Unbalanced Panel Models
Authors: Pfaffermayr Michael
Published: May 2013

In many cases, only an unbalanced panel data set with some observations missing at random is available. This note derives a Cliff and Ord test for spatially autocorrelated disturbances for such data. In a small Monte Carlo simulation exercise, the performance of the proposed test is similar to its balanced counterpart. In almost all simulation experiments, the test is properly sized. Naturally, the lower the power of the test, the higher the share of missing data.
Where Are the Innovative Entrepreneurs? Identifying Innovative Industries and Measuring Innovative Entrepreneurship
Authors: Low Sarah A. , Isserman Andrew M.
Published: May 2013

This article concentrates on a crucial technical aspect of regional entrepreneurship research: how do we measure the most innovative of entrepreneurs, the entrepreneurs most likely to create regional growth? Innovation is a crucial component of entrepreneurship; yet, the frequent use of entrepreneurship proxies that do not consider innovation motivated us to propose and develop an indicator of innovative entrepreneurship that is useful for studies of regions, counties, states, and metropolitan areas as well. We posit that a novel combination of start-ups in innovative industries and self-employed in innovative industries yields entrepreneurship indicators that incorporate three widely recognized functions of entrepreneurship, including innovation. We detect sharp contrasts between our innovative entrepreneurship indicators and widely used entrepreneurship proxies. Our analysis demonstrates that innovative entrepreneurship is a useful empirical concept and that ignoring innovation in entrepreneurship likely has produced misleading research results and policy implications about regional entrepreneurship, its determinants, and its role in regional economic growth.
The Impact of Regional R&D Subsidy in a Computable General Equilibrium Model
Authors: Garau Giorgio , Lecca Patrizio
Published: May 2013

This article presents a computable general equilibrium model for the region of Sardinia (Italy) with the purpose of investigating the macroeconomic impact of research and development (R&D) policies. The model incorporates induced technical change obtained through knowledge accumulation and external knowledge spillovers. It turns out that the cost of R&D policies may change according to wage setting in the region. Indeed, the likely size of the optimal subsidy that is required to reach a given target growth is lower when wages are bargained locally compared to the case where wages are bargained nationally. Furthermore, the capacity of such a policy to generate knowledge spillovers from international and interregional trade is quite modest. Indeed, the capacity of the regional system to internalize innovations embedded in imported goods is partially offset by an increase in internal efficiency that lowers the spillover intensity through a reduction in the share of imports.
The Average Propagation Length
Authors: Oosterhaven Jan , Bouwmeester Maaike C.
Published: May 2013

The average propagation length (APL) has been proposed as a measure of the fragmentation and sophistication of an economy. For a one-sector economy, we show that the APL is strictly proportional to the macro multiplier of that economy. The same holds for strong intra-industry linkages. Hence, for comparing economies and comparing single industries, the concept of the APL is of no value. For pure interindustry linkages, however, we find that the length of the supply chain between two different industries is negatively related to the strength of the multiplier between those two industries, be it weakly. Hence, the APL should only be used to compare pure interindustry linkages.
Adolescent home-leaving and the transition to adulthood
Authors: Egondi Thaddaeus , Kabiru Caroline , Beguy Donatien , Kanyiva Muindi , Jessor Richard
Published: May 2013

Home-leaving is considered an important marker of the transition to adulthood and is usually framed as an individual decision. We move beyond this limited assumption to examine a broader conceptualization that might better illuminate home-leaving among youth in impoverished circumstances. We adopt the Problem Behavior Theory-framework to investigate the association of home-leaving with behavioral and psychosocial variables and with other transitions. We use data on adolescents aged 14–22 years from a three-wave study conducted between 2007 and 2010. We used variable- and person-centered cross-sectional analyses, as well as predictive analysis of home-leaving by subsequent waves. Parental controls protection predicted home-leaving by subsequent waves. Overall, protective factors moderated the association of problem behavior involvement with leaving home in Nairobi’s slums.
Performing Sales: Material Scripts and the Social Organization of Obligation
Authors: Darr Asaf , Pinch Trevor
Published: May 2013

Can a dramaturgical analysis of sales encounters further our understanding of the social organization of selling and buying in contemporary markets? The main argument of this paper is that limiting economic action in markets to the formal and often stylized and abstract properties of the exchange, as economists suggest, misses the material and social organization of this endeavor. Employing ethnographic methods, we apply our dramaturgical approach to three research sites in three different countries. We show how an often overlooked fundamental ingredient of economic transactions, the situated constitution of social obligation, is achieved locally on the sales floor. Social obligation allows the sellers and the buyers to move from one stage of the sales encounter to the next, and enables the closing of deals. As part of the constitution of obligation, market actors appeal to scripts which are observable, recurrent activities and patterns of interaction characteristic of a particular setting. Scripts are presented here as a basic unit of analysis in social studies of markets. We place most emphasis upon what we call “material scripts”, and show how they are organized to produce an escalating scale of obligation which helps buyers and sellers to produce and reproduce the underlying social and material logic of markets.
Movements as Political Conditions for Diffusion: Anti-Corporate Movements and the Spread of Cooperative Forms in American Capitalism
Authors: Schneiberg Marc
Published: May 2013

Addressing the spread of cooperatives in the early 20th-century US economy, this study analyzes the role of anti-corporate movements in the diffusion of politically contested organizational innovations. It finds that institutional change can rest fundamentally on the combination of standard diffusion processes and collective mobilization in support of new practices. Specifically, it finds that the Grange, a leading anti-corporate social movement, was a political condition for the diffusion of cooperative alternatives to corporations in American capitalism. Cooperatives evoked fierce opposition by corporate forces, suppressing the diffusion of cooperative forms. When the Grange was weak or absent, cooperative organization in states or sectors had weak or no effects on cooperative organization in other states or sectors. But when the Grange was present and increased in strength, it amplified and even made possible the diffusion of cooperatives across states and industries. These findings shed new light on the contentious transactions between movements, corporations, and non-governmental organizations, expanding existing work on the trajectories, tactics, and organizational effects of anti-corporate movements.
A Market Mediation Strategy: How Social Movements Seek to Change Firms’ Practices by Promoting New Principles of Product Valuation
Authors: Dubuisson-Quellier Sophie
Published: May 2013

Social movement theory has recently paid a lot of attention to the diversity of strategies used by social movements to pressurize companies, and has spawned an abundant literature on the combined perspective of social movement studies and market organization studies. This paper adopts a rather different perspective, drawing on market theories from the economic sociology of evaluation to assess a specific strategy developed by a number of groups within the environmental social movement, which relies on the market’s capacity to mediate their claims. The literature has widely considered why some environmental social movement organizations (SMOs) choose to address consumers, even though it is not in their tradition to do so and even though their objective is not directly related to consumption issues. I seek to contribute to this debate by analysing the ‘how’ rather than the ‘why’, by highlighting a specific social movement strategy which is mediated by market mechanisms. The paper provides an in-depth analysis of a strategy consisting of attempts to change the most prevalent valuation criteria within the market by introducing principles of worth that rely on products’ environmental performance. This involves activist organizations suggesting new product valuation criteria, and then seeking to convince firms that consumers’ preferences are changing. Their assumption is that firms will see new business opportunities, which will prompt them to adopt more eco-friendly practices. This market mediation strategy is designed to encourage firms to shift towards more eco-friendly supply practices, by creating business opportunities for them. It shows how SMOs, in order to directly shape consumers’ preferences, urge them to introduce eco-friendly principles of worth into their valuation of products by providing them with market devices to help in their purchasing choices. By applying these strategies, SMOs seek to shape the market and create business opportunities for firms. Their intention is to make companies see the value of changing some of their practices by introducing new eco-friendly features in their products, because consumers have been convinced by SMOs of the value of such features. SMOs must then pursue two important objectives: one is to shape consumers’ preferences for that kind of valuation category on the market by convincing them of their responsibilities and their role as agents of change; and the other is to convince companies that a real shift in consumers’ preferences is taking place in the market, so that they see it as an interesting opportunity to benefit from the SMOs’ shaping of the market.
Organizing Spaces: Meeting Arenas as a Social Movement Infrastructure between Organization, Network, and Institution
Authors: Haug Christoph
Published: May 2013

In recent years, social movement scholars have shown increasing interest in the internal lives of social movements, but this turn from “social movements as actors” to “social movements as spaces” has not yet led to a conceptual apparatus that addresses the key role of face-to-face meetings, especially in the inter-organizational domain of mesomobilization. Building on the concept of “partial organization”, the paper develops the concept of “meeting arena” as a hybrid of three forms of social order: organization, institution, and network. It is argued that the complex figuration of meeting arenas in a social movement or protest mobilization constitutes an infrastructure that synchronizes the dispersed activities of movement actors in time and space. This infrastructure is not an entirely emergent phenomenon but is also the result of conscious decisions by organizers. Heuristic, methodological, and theoretical implications of this novel perspective on social movements are discussed, highlighting especially the potential of the distinction between organizing and mobilizing as two intertwined but essentially different types of social movement activity.
Bounding the Effects of Social Experiments
Authors: Grogger Jeffrey
Published: May 2013

Background:

Social experiments frequently exploit data from administrative records. However, most administrative data systems are designed to track earnings or benefit payments among residents within a single state. When an experimental participant moves across state lines, his entries in the data system of his state of origin consist entirely of zeros. Such attrition may bias the estimated effect of the experiment.

Objective:

To estimate the attrition arising from interstate mobility and provide bounds on the effect of the experiment.

Method:

Attrition is estimated from runs of zeros at the end of the sample period. Bounds are constructed from these estimates. These estimates can be refined by imposing a stationarity assumption.

Results:

The width of the estimated bounds depends importantly on the nature of the data being analyzed. Negatively correlated outcomes provide tighter bounds than positively correlated outcomes. Conclusion: Attrition can introduce considerable ambiguity into the estimated effects of experimental programs. To reduce ambiguity, one should collect as much data as possible. Even data on outcomes of no direct interest to the objectives of the experiment may be valuable for reducing the ambiguity that arises due to attrition.