bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Development of a Typology of Dual-Earner Couples Caring for Children and Aging Parents
Authors: Cullen Jennifer C. , Hammer Leslie B. , Neal Margaret B. , Sinclair Robert R.
Published: November 2008

Using a national sample of 267 couples, the authors identify distinct profiles of dual-earner couples in the sandwiched generation (i.e., those caring for children and aging parents) using cluster analysis and then assess the relationship between these profiles and work—family conflict. The profiles are defined by characteristics of couples' child care demands (age and number of children), parent care demands (hours spent as caregiver each week), and work-role demands (hours worked per week). Three distinct profiles of sandwiched couples emerge: a high child care demands group, a high parent care demands group, and a high work demands group. The authors find differences in work-to-family conflict across the three groups but not differences in family-to-work conflict. Implications for work life practitioners and human resource managers are discussed.
Intergenerational Transmission of Abuse of Incarcerated Fathers
Authors: Ball Jeremy D.
Published: November 2008

Research on the intergenerational transmission of abuse hypothesis often only examined the existence of abuse. The current study utilizes retrospective recalls of incarcerated male defendants ( N = 414), using questions formulated from the modified Conflict Tactics Scales. Five logistic regression models are run, representing a different physical abuse measure, including incidence of physical abuse; severity of physical abuse; and three composite measures: total frequency, total severity, and total frequency/severity. Although social desirability is a limitation in any study relying on self-report data, the comparison of the chi-square values of each model may give indication that the simpler abuse measures (“incidence of physical abuse” and “severity of physical abuse”) are more predictive of later abusive behaviors than the more complex, composite measures.
Religious Beliefs, Sociopolitical Ideology, and Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment
Authors: Ellison Christopher G. , Bradshaw Matt
Published: November 2008

The use of corporal punishment to discipline children remains a perennial focus of controversy. Several studies published in the 1990s linked support for, and use of, corporal punishment with religious factors, particularly core doctrines of conservative (i.e., evangelical and fundamentalist) Protestantism. This study reexamines the relationships between religious beliefs and attitudes toward corporal punishment using data from the 1998 National Opinion Research Center General Social Survey, which contains an extensive special module of items tapping aspects of religious doctrine. The authors also consider the implications of the “culture wars” thesis, which suggests that sociopolitical ideology—in addition to, or instead of—religious factors may shape corporal punishment attitudes. Findings underscore the importance of conservative Protestant beliefs, especially hierarchical images of God and belief in Hell, but not denominational affiliation. Sociopolitical conservatism is independently related to support for corporal punishment, but controlling for ideology does not substantially reduce the estimated net effects of religious factors.
Modeling Sustainability in Product Development and Commercialization
Authors: Carlson Robert C. , Rafinejad Dariush
Published: November 2008

In this article, the authors present the framework of a model that integrates strategic product development decisions with the product's impact on future conditions of resources and the environment. The impact of a product on stocks of nonrenewable sources and sinks is linked in a feedback loop to the cost of manufacturing and using the product and to the end-users' preference for a sustainable product. Two product development scenarios are analyzed to illustrate the model's capabilities. These cases represent widely different market conditions and strategies in product development vis-à-vis sustainable product design and manufacturing. Future work must focus on application of the present framework to cases of realistic products and markets to further develop the model as a useful decision-making tool. The model might also serve as a means of analyzing normative resource-cost scenarios in regulatory policy mechanisms for sustainability.
Integrated System Approach to Sustainability Bio-Fuels and Bio-Refineries
Authors: Elnashaie Said S. E. H. , Fateen Seif-Eddeen , El-Ahwany Ahmed , Moustafa Tarek M.
Published: November 2008

The ISA, based on system theory, is the best way to organize knowledge and exchange it. It depends on defining every system through its boundary, main processes within this boundary, and exchange with the environment through this boundary. It relies upon thermodynamics and information theory and is, therefore, applicable to all kinds of systems, which makes it most suitable for cross-disciplinary investigations and innovation. SD is complex and cross-disciplinary by its very nature and, therefore, the ISA is the best way to investigate its different subsystems. Among the most important subsystems of SD are integrated bio-refineries and bio-fuels, both of which are investigated in this article.
The Contribution of Local Experiments and Negotiation Processes to Field-Level Learning in Emerging (Niche) Technologies
Authors: Raven Rob P. J. M. , Heiskanen Eva , Lovio Raimo , Hodson Mike , Brohmann Bettina
Published: November 2008

This article examines how local experiments and negotiation processes contribute to social and field-level learning. The analysis is framed within the niche development literature, which offers a framework for analyzing the relation between projects in local contexts and the transfer of local experiences into generally applicable rules. The authors examine 2 case studies drawn from a meta-analysis of 27 new energy projects. The case studies, both pertaining to biogas projects for local municipalities, illustrate the diversity of applications for a technology through processes of local variation and selection. The authors examine the diversity of expectations and the negotiation and alignment of these expectations underlying the diversity of local solutions. Moreover, the authors address how the transfer of lessons from individual local experiments can follow different pathways and yet always require due attention to the social and cultural limits to the transferability of solutions.
A Preliminary Investigation of a New Pictorial Method of Measuring Aggression-Supportive Cognition Among Young Aggressive Males
Authors: Hutchings Jade N. , Gannon Theresa A. , Gilchrist Elizabeth
Published: November 2008

A new pictorial assessment was developed to measure aggression-supportive cognitions among young aggressive male students. The assessment was comprised of 17 watercolor ambiguous sketches that could be interpreted in either an aggressive or a benign manner (e.g., two young people facing each other with their arms folded). The results showed that high trait aggressive male students were more likely to make hostile attributions of the pictures, providing significantly more themes of entitlement and power in the stories they generated about the pictures. Aggressive male students also endorsed significantly more aggression-supportive cognitions on a self-report measure and provided some supporting qualitative accounts of physically aggressive encounters. The results of this study are discussed and evaluated with reference to future work with young violent adolescents.
Management Control in Bureaucratic and Postbureaucratic Organizations
Authors: Styhre Alexander
Published: November 2008

The notion of the postbureaucratic organization has been employed in organization theory to denote a number of movements beyond the control mechanisms of the bureaucratic organization. This article aims to use the notions of the symbolic and the imaginary, developed by the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and applied to technology studies by Friedrich Kittler, when examining control in these two archetypical organizational configurations. The article argues that the departure from the use of written documents, scripts, and protocols and the increasing emphasis on identity, culture, ideology, and other unobtrusive forms of control can be examined in terms of being a change of emphasis from the symbolic to the imaginary register, from the register of language to the register of images.
Shaping the Other
Authors: Cooney Richard , Sewell Graham
Published: November 2008

This article examines the micro politics of organizational change by presenting the results of a long-term case study of complex technological change in an automotive manufacturing firm. The article focuses on the political contest around the generation of legitimate knowledge within the change program. The article discusses managerial strategies of knowledge appropriation and employee strategies of resistance to such appropriation. The article follows the evolving managerial accounts of change and highlights the way in which managers developed pragmatic accounts of change in response to the concerns of the employees, accounts that left intact their claims to be change experts in control of the change process.
Group Cohesion as an Enhancement to the Justice—Affective Commitment Relationship
Authors: Andrews Martha C. , Kacmar K. Michele , Blakely Gerald L. , Bucklew Neil S.
Published: November 2008

Using a social exchange framework, the present study explores the role of group cohesion as a moderator of the relationship between the four dimensions of organizational justice and affective commitment. The hypotheses are tested using a sample of 142 employees of a pharmaceutical company. Results indicate that the relationship between distributive, interpersonal, and informational justice and affective commitment was stronger for individuals who reported high levels of work group cohesion. The relationship between procedural justice and affective commitment was unaffected by work group cohesion. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Multilevel Investigation of Adaptive Performance
Authors: Tae Young Han  , Williams Kevin J.
Published: November 2008

This study investigates adaptability as a performance criterion in organizations. A multilevel approach was used to test predictors of individual-level adaptive performance (AP) and to examine how individual AP contributes to team AP. A multilevel survey found evidence for a multilevel composition pattern whereby AP varies within and between groups. At the individual level, continuous learning activities predicted individual AP. In addition, a cross-level effect was found such that team learning climate had an independent effect on individual AP. However, a hypothesized cross-level moderation effect of team learning climate on the relationship between continuous learning and individual AP was found nonsignificant. At the group level, team learning climate displayed a significant, positive relationship with team AP. A major contribution of this study is a new conceptualization of AP within a framework of multilevel theory. Practical implications to help align human resource management with higher level organizational factors are also discussed.
Sexual Preferences and Recidivism of Sex Offenders With Mental Retardation
Authors: Rice Marnie E. , Harris Grant T. , Lang Carol , Chaplin Terry C.
Published: November 2008

By some accounts, sex offenders with mental retardation commit sex offenses against children because the offenders lack sexual knowledge or are socially and intellectually immature rather than because of sexually deviant interests. By other accounts, these offenders exhibit pedophilic sexual interests. In this study, phallometrically determined sexual interests, recidivism, and choices of victims of 69 sex offenders with mental retardation are examined and compared with those of 69 sex offenders of average or higher IQ. Consistent with hypotheses, sex offenders with mental retardation exhibit more deviant preferences for prepubertal children, male children, and young children than do the comparison offenders. They are also more likely to have had a prepubertal victim, a prepubertal male victim, and a very young victim. They are no more likely than the comparison offenders to exhibit preferences for extremely coercive sex with children or to exhibit deviant adult activity preferences, nor are they more likely to recidivate violently. Results support the idea that pedophilia is a disorder of neurodevelopment and point to the importance of risk assessments that include assessing sexual preferences among sex offenders with mental retardation.
Game Theory and Strategic Human Resource Development
Authors: Pandey Vivek K. , Chermack Thomas J.
Published: November 2008

The problem and the solution .A fundamental approach to strategic human resource development (SHRD) planning is to present human resource development (HRD) investment as a viable solution to advance the organizational interactions. We examine two specific instances of interactions: the interactions between the firm and the employee, and the interactions between HRD and other functional areas within the firm. The prescriptive solution arising from the analyses presented here is a Nash equilibrium encouraging the firm to invest in frequent and continuous HRD. For HRD professionals, the prescriptive solution lies in providing measurable productivity and performance gains to organizational decision makers.
Technical Adequacy of Early Numeracy Curriculum-Based Measurement in Kindergarten
Authors: Martinez Rebecca S. , Missall Kristen N. , Graney Suzanne Bamonto , Aricak O. Tolga , Clarke Ben
Published: November 2008

The current study examines the technical adequacy of four Early Numeracy Curriculum-Based Measurement (EN-CBM) screening tasks: Oral Counting (OC), Number Identification (NI), Quantity Discrimination (QD), and Missing Number (MN). Results from 59 kindergarten students assessed in the fall and spring reveal moderate to high test—retest and delayed alternate-form reliability. In addition, data from the four measures demonstrate adequate concurrent and predictive validity by comparing them to an established measure of early numeracy. The measures demonstrated growth over time from the beginning to the end of kindergarten. Finally, combinations of the measures were evaluated post hoc, and the combination of NI, QD, and MN produced the highest reliability, validity, and rate of growth coefficients. Overall, results support the technical adequacy of EN-CBM for use with kindergarten-aged children.
Psychometric Properties of the Texas Primary Reading Inventory for Early Reading Screening in Kindergarten
Authors: Nelson Jason M.
Published: November 2008

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the kindergarten Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI; Texas Education Agency and the University of Texas System, 2004—2006) Mid-Year screeners with a sample of 180 students. The TPRI screeners were designed to determine which students are not at risk for later reading failure. Results indicated adequate internal consistency reliability and concurrent and predictive validity for screening purposes. Classification validity analyses indicated low false negative rates and high negative predictive power but substantial false positive rates and low positive predictive power. The TPRI Mid-Year screeners were found to be adequate instruments for identifying students who are unlikely in need of further assessment. Recommendations are provided for using the TPRI within a response-to-intervention or other prevention-based service delivery model.
Mental Health and Latino/a College Students
Authors: Del Pilar Jose A.
Published: November 2008

This psychologically oriented study examined the use of mental health services by Latino/a college students. Significant differences were found between Latinos/as and non-Latinos/as on four variables: Latinos/as tended to live at home, have more children, be foreign born, and have past depression. Because the data for the Latino/a students revealed subtle signs of psychological distress, such as past depression and indications of suicidal behavior, it was hypothesized that low-level distress could be affecting Latino/a students. Finally, recommendations are made.
Emotions and Change During Professional Development for Teachers
Authors: Scott Caitlin , Sutton Rosemary E.
Published: November 2008

Teaching is emotional, especially when teachers must change their practices. Past research on emotions and change in the general population has been predominately quantitative. Research about teachers' emotions, however, has been predominately qualitative. To draw on both these approaches, this mixed methods study examined 50 elementary teachers' emotions during eight workshops on the writing process, by using repeated questionnaires with scale and open-ended questions, follow-up questionnaires 4 months later, and participant interviews. Quantitative data revealed that teachers' emotions became more positive, but returned to initial levels 4 months later. Quantitative data analysis found no relationships between emotions and change in practice. Interviews, however, revealed mixed emotions related to changes found in the quantitative data.
Lifestyle and Successful Aging: An Overview
Authors: Franklin Nina C. , Tate Charlotte A.
Published: November 2008

Since the 1950s, the phrase successful aging has been used increasingly to represent the factors and conditions underlying healthy aging and is often attributed to the healthy elderly. In this short review, the authors discuss the transformation in the social theories of aging that allowed for the evolution of successful aging as a construct and ultimately a theoretical basis for investigation. Because of the multifactorial nature of the psychosocial and biomedical domains, there is no clear consensus on the definition of successful aging or its determinants. What is clear, however, is that successful aging is related to the human health span, or healthy life expectancy. Moreover, the accumulating information from multidimensional studies suggests that many age-associated changes in physiological and cognitive functioning can be explained by such modifiable lifestyle factors as smoking, physical activity, and nutrition choice. The evidence presented supports the promotion of a healthy lifestyle as an effective strategy for successful aging.
Effect of fluctuation, modification and surface chill on structure of 20%Cr hypereutectic white cast iron
Authors: Zhi X. H. , Xing J. D. , Fu H. G. , Gao Y. M.
Published: November 2008

The microstructural refinement of a cast hypereutectic Fe–20Cr–4C alloy using modification, surface chill and a novel ‘fluctuation’ approach has been studied. Fluctuation involves the addition during pouring of powder or liquid metal to produce variations in temperature and/or composition in microareas of the liquid near the solidification front. The structures of the alloy were investigated using optical microscopy and image analysis. Increasing the degree of fluctuation (ferroalloy powder) resulted in finer primary and eutectic carbides. The combination of fluctuation with the addition of modifying agents (Fe–Si–Re alloy, aluminium and a laboratory intermediate alloy) and the application of surface chill, was found to increase the refinement of the carbides.
Specificity and affinity of human Fcγ receptors and their polymorphic variants for human IgG subclasses
Authors: Bruhns Pierre , Iannascoli Bruno , England Patrick , Mancardi David A. , Fernandez Nadine , Jorieux Sylvie , Daëron Marc
Published: November 2008

Distinct genes encode 6 human receptors for IgG (hFcγRs), 3 of which have 2 or 3 polymorphic variants. The specificity and affinity of individual hFcγRs for the 4 human IgG subclasses is unknown. This information is critical for antibody-based immunotherapy which has been increasingly used in the clinics. We investigated the binding of polyclonal and monoclonal IgG1, IgG2, IgG3, and IgG4 to FcγRI; FcγRIIA, IIB, and IIC; FcγRIIIA and IIIB; and all known polymorphic variants. Wild-type and low-fucosylated IgG1 anti-CD20 and anti-RhD mAbs were also examined. We found that (1) IgG1 and IgG3 bind to all hFcγRs; (2) IgG2 bind not only to FcγRIIAH131, but also, with a lower affinity, to FcγRIIAR131 and FcγRIIIAV158; (3) IgG4 bind to FcγRI, FcγRIIA, IIB and IIC and FcγRIIIAV158; and (4) the inhibitory receptor FcγRIIB has a lower affinity for IgG1, IgG2, and IgG3 than all other hFcγRs. We also identified parameters that determine the specificity and affinity of hFcγRs for IgG subclasses. These results document how hFcγR specificity and affinity may account for the biological activities of antibodies. They therefore highlight the role of specific hFcγRs in the therapeutic and pathogenic effects of antibodies in disease.
Dose volume histogram analysis of normal structures associated with accelerated partial breast irradiation delivered by high dose rate brachytherapy and comparison with whole breast external beam radiotherapy fields
Authors: Stewart Alexandra J , O'Farrell Desmond A , Cormack Robert A , Hansen Jorgen L , Khan Atif J , Mutyala Subhakar , Devlin Phillip M
Published: November 2008

Purpose

To assess the radiation dose delivered to the heart and ipsilateral lung during accelerated partial breast brachytherapy using a MammoSite™ applicator and compare to those produced by whole breast external beam radiotherapy (WBRT).

Materials and methods

Dosimetric analysis was conducted on patients receiving MammoSite breast brachytherapy following conservative surgery for invasive ductal carcinoma. Cardiac dose was evaluated for patients with left breast tumors with a CT scan encompassing the entire heart. Lung dose was evaluated for patients in whom the entire lung was scanned. The prescription dose of 3400 cGy was 1 cm from the balloon surface. MammoSite dosimetry was compared to simulated WBRT fields with and without radiobiological correction for the effects of dose and fractionation. Dose parameters such as the volume of the structure receiving 10 Gy or more (V10) and the dose received by 20 cc of the structure (D20), were calculated as well as the maximum and mean doses received.

Results

Fifteen patients were studied, five had complete lung data and six had left-sided tumors with complete cardiac data. Ipsilateral lung volumes ranged from 925–1380 cc. Cardiac volumes ranged from 337–551 cc. MammoSite resulted in a significantly lower percentage lung V30 and lung and cardiac V20 than the WBRT fields, with and without radiobiological correction.

Conclusion

This study gives low values for incidental radiation received by the heart and ipsilateral lung using the MammoSite applicator. The volume of heart and lung irradiated to clinically significant levels was significantly lower with the MammoSite applicator than using simulated WBRT fields of the same CT data sets.

Trial registration

Dana Farber Trial Registry number 03-179
Comparison of quality control for trauma management between Western and Eastern European trauma center
Authors: Calderale Stefano Massimiliano , Sandru Raluca , Tugnoli Gregorio , Di Saverio Salomone , Beuran Mircea , Ribaldi Sergio , Coletti Massimo , Gambale Giorgio , Paun Sorin , Russo Livio , Baldoni Franco
Published: November 2008

Background

Quality control of trauma care is essential to define the effectiveness of trauma center and trauma system. To identify the troublesome issues of the system is the first step for validation of the focused customized solutions. This is a comparative study of two level I trauma centers in Italy and Romania and it has been designed to give an overview of the entire trauma care program adopted in these two countries. This study was aimed to use the results as the basis for recommending and planning changes in the two trauma systems for a better trauma care.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed a total of 182 major trauma patients treated in the two hospitals included in the study, between January and June 2002. Every case was analyzed according to the recommended minimal audit filters for trauma quality assurance by The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACSCOT).

Results

Satisfactory yields have been reached in both centers for the management of head and abdominal trauma, airway management, Emergency Department length of stay and early diagnosis and treatment. The main significant differences between the two centers were in the patients' transfers, the leadership of trauma team and the patients' outcome. The main concerns have been in the surgical treatment of fractures, the outcome and the lacking of documentation.

Conclusion

The analyzed hospitals are classified as Level I trauma center and are within the group of the highest quality level centers in their own countries. Nevertheless, both of them experience major lacks and for few audit filters do not reach the mmum standard requirements of ACS Audit Filters. The differences between the western and the eastern European center were slight. The parameters not reaching the minimum requirements are probably occurring even more often in suburban settings.
New onset Graves' disease as a cause of an adrenal crisis in an individual with panhypopituitarism: brief report
Authors: Lewandowski Krzysztof C , Marcinkowska Magdalena , Skowrońska-Jóźwiak Elżbieta , Makarewicz Jacek , Lewiński Andrzej
Published: November 2008

46 year old patient was admitted as an emergency with vomiting, hypotension and serum cortisol of 0,940 μg/dl (26 nmol/l) indicative of adrenal failure. Despite previous history of panhypopituitarism he was found to be hyperthyroid [free T4 6.32 ng/dl (ref. range: 0.93–1.7), free T3 22.21 pg/ml (ref. range: 1.8–4.6)]. He was fit and well till the age of 45. Eight months prior to this hospitalisation he presented with diabetes insipidus and was found to have a large cystic tumour in the area of the pituitary gland. Surgery was only partially successful and histologically the tumour was diagnosed as craniopharyngioma. Endocrine assessment revealed deficiency in ACTH-cortisol, growth hormone, and gonadotropin, as well as low-normal free T4. On the day of his emergency admission he looked ill and dehydrated, though was fully conscious and cooperative. Heart rate was 120 beats/min (sinus rhythm), blood pressure 85/40 mm Hg. There were no obvious features of infection, but there was marked tremor and thyroid bruit. He received treatment with intravenous fluids and hydrocortisone. L-thyroxine was stopped. Administration of large dose of methimazole (60 mg/day) resulted in gradual decrease in free T4 and free T3 (to 1.76 ng/ml, and 5.92 pg/ml, respectively) over a 15-day period. The patient was found to have increased titre of antithyroperoxidase (anti-TPO) and anti-TSH receptor (anti-TSHR) antibodies [2300 IU/l (ref. range <40) and 3.6 IU/l (ref. range <1.0), respectively]. He was referred for radioactive iodine treatment. Iodine uptake scan performed prior to radioiodine administration confirmed uniformly increased iodine uptake consistent with Graves' disease.

Conclusion

Our case illustrates coexistence of hypopituitarism and clinically significant autoimmune thyroid disease. The presence of hypopituitarism does not preclude the development of autoimmune thyrotoxicosis.
Use of the Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Sunitinib in a Patient with von Hippel-Lindau Disease: Targeting Angiogenic Factors in Pheochromocytoma and Other von Hippel-Lindau Disease-Related Tumors
Authors: Jimenez Camilo , Cabanillas Maria E. , Santarpia Libero , Jonasch Eric , Kyle Karen L. , Lano Elizabeth A. , Matin Surena F. , Nunez Rodolfo F. , Perrier Nancy D. , Phan Alexandria , Rich Thereasa A. , Shah Beejal , Williams Michelle D. , Waguespack Steven G.
Published: November 2008

Context: von Hippel-Lindau disease is characterized by highly vascularized tumors of multiple organs.

Evidence Acquisition: We present a patient with von Hippel-Lindau disease with multiple renal and pancreatic tumors and a malignant pheochromocytoma infiltrative of the sacrum and associated with lymph nodule metastases. The pheochromocytoma expressed high protein level of vascular endothelial growth factor and platelet-derived growth factor-β receptor. The patient presented with a poor performance status, severe pelvic pain, weight loss, and manifestations of catecholamine excess.

Evidence Synthesis: Treatment against malignant pheochromocytoma with surgery, chemotherapy, or participation in clinical trials was not feasible because of the patient’s poor performance status, the presence of multiple tumors, and the extension of the pheochromocytoma into the bones. Patient was treated with sunitinib, a potent tyrosine kinase inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor, RET, c-KIT, and FLT-3 receptors. Six months of treatment with sunitinib was associated with normalization of the patient’s performance status and blood pressure, absence of symptoms of catecholamine excess, weight gain, disappearance of pain, shrinkage of each of the tumors (50% in the largest renal tumor, 38% in the largest islet cell tumor, 21% in the pelvic malignant pheochromocytoma), and reduction of plasma normetanephrines and chromogranin A.

Conclusion: This study provides evidence that targeting tyrosine kinase receptors such as the vascular endothelial growth factor pathway and the platelet-derived growth factor-β receptor may have value in the treatment of VHL-related tumors including pheochromocytoma.
Sati in Philadelphia: The Widow(s) of Malabar
Authors: Richards Jeffrey H.
Published: November 2008

David Humphreys's 1790 play, The Widow of Malabar, has been little studied, but it demonstrates surprising complexity as a cultural artifact of the American new republic. Written as a close adaptation of Antoine-Marin Lemierre's La Veuve du Malabar (1770), Humphreys's version appeared in Philadelphia and New York as a vehicle of American social liberality toward women, developing a theme barely visible in Lemierre, and as the rare product of an American author on a U.S. stage otherwise dominated by British dramas and actors. Replaced in U.S. theaters by Marianna Starke's British version of the same French source, the old Widow made way for an adaptation radically different from Humphreys's close translation. Starke's drama on the Philadelphia stage represents a turn away from French ideas and characters and toward a reconception of the early republic as a nation culturally dependent upon Great Britain. In addition, sati itself becomes a dynamic theatrical sign of a variety of local and international concerns connected to Asian Indians, Native Americans, and the place of the United States in global politics and culture. It reflects, among other things, both American awareness of events and manners on the subcontinent and its confusions over its own Indians. In the end, sati in Philadelphia is not merely an exotic displacement but a domestic site for sometimes contradictory national self-conceptions.
Documenting Tradition: Territoriality and Textuality in Black Hawk's Narrative
Authors: Rifkin Mark
Published: November 2008

In the spring of 1832, a well-respected Sauk warrior named Black Hawk led a group of Sauks, Foxes, Kickapoos, and Potawatomies across the Mississippi River, through lands formerly occupied by the Sauks. Characterized as an assault on white settlements by U.S. officials during and afterwards, the movements of Black Hawk's band were represented as a direct threat to the safety of the American public and a violation of existing treaties. In contrast, Black Hawk's Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, or Black Hawk (1833) offers a genealogy of the conflict that contextualizes it within a decades-long struggle between the United States and the Sauks, as well as other native peoples in the western Great Lakes region, over how to conceptualize native landholding, diplomacy, and trade. The narrative explores the effects of reducing a complex regional matrix to a series of treaty-mediated relationships between individual tribes and the federal government, insisting on the existence of an alternative native-centered framework through which to understand occupancy and exchange. While it is the result of a layered composition involving transcription, translation, and editing, Black Hawk's Life functions as a self-consciously traditionalist critique of the mappings and subjectivities of U.S. Indian policy. The text uses the medium of print to provide a countervailing narrative to the texts of the treaty-system, sketching a set of regional native processes, practices, and principles which have no place either in the atomizing political geography of Indian policy or the hybridized critical imaginary of the “middle ground.”
The Killing Joke of Sympathy: Chester Himes's End of a Primitive Sounds the Limits of Midcentury Racial Liberalism
Authors: Melamed Jodi
Published: November 2008

“The Killing Joke of Sympathy” reconstructs the centrality of the “race novel” for the consolidation of racial liberalism as an official and limited state of antiracism in the United States after World War II. In particular, it considers the evidentiary and emotional values ascribed to literature by the Julius Rosenwald Fund, arguably the most influential philanthropy at mid-century dedicated to race relations. For the fund, literature was a privileged tool for antiracist social transformation because of its unique capability to arouse white sympathies. Jodi Melamed argues that such ideas shaped a dominant practice of reading that had a regulative effect, narrowing what counted as acceptable antiracism.

Melamed reads Chester Himes's End of a Primitive as a novel where we see satire deliberately misfired in an attempt to dehegemonize racial liberal meanings secured through the discourse of “the race novel.” Featuring the murder of a white, female race relations professional by an African American author resembling Himes, End of a Primitive “predicts” (through metafictional address) that the force of racial liberal reading practices will cause the novel to be misread by white liberal readers as protest, rather than satire. At the same time, the novel constructs an imaginative exercise that dares readers to go against the grain of such reading practices, to experience the novel's humor, and to “get the handle to the joke” of their own confinement. For the reader who fails the imaginative exercise, End of a Primitive nonetheless debunks liberal ideas of sympathy as a guarantee of racial progress.
The Synthesis of Carbohydrate Microarrays by S-Alkylation of the Glass-supported 2-Bromoacetamides
Authors: Takahashi Daisuke , Tanaka Hiroshi , Nakane Emiko , Takahashi Takashi
Published: November 2008

S-alkylation reaction of a thiol group on a carbohydrate probe with 2-bromoacetamide-coated glass slide as a loading reaction was developed under physiological conditions, and the synthesis of carbohydrate microarrays using the immobilization reaction was achieved.
One-step Preparation of Cationic Sugar–Peptide Nanospheres Using the Water-soluble Chitosan-initiated Polymerization of l-Phenylalanine-N-carboxylic Anhydride
Authors: Waku Tomonori , Matsusaki Michiya , Chirachanchai Suwabun , Akashi Mitsuru
Published: November 2008

Biodegradable chitosan-based nanospheres were prepared by the one-step polymerization of l-phenylalanine-N-carboxylic anhydride initiated by water-soluble chitosan. The obtained chitosan-g-poly(phenylalanine) nanospheres with a diameter of 220–290 nm showed a strong positive charge, and thus it will be valuable as novel biodegradable cationic nanosphere.
OR PRACTICE—Assisting Defined-Benefit Pension Plans
Authors: Mulvey John M. , Simsek Koray D. , Zhang Zhuojuan , Fabozzi Frank J. , Pauling William R.
Published: November 2008

The defined-benefit pension system poses substantial, long-term risks for the U.S. economy. We describe a flexible asset-liability management (ALM) system for pension planning. The primary goals are to improve the performance and survivability of the pension trust. We first employ a stochastic program for enhancing investment strategies in light of company and other goals and pension risk constraints. The results are linked with a policy simulator for further analysis. We illustrate the concepts via two disparate real-world companies. The first is a slowly growing auto company, and the second a profitable pharmaceutical enterprise. We show that a stochastic program can help in the process of discovering sound policy rules. The ALM system has been employed extensively throughout the world by a large global actuarial firm.
Effects of Garlic on Blood Pressure in Patients with and Without Systolic Hypertension: A Meta-Analysis
Authors: Reinhart Kurt M , Coleman Craig I , Teevan Colleen , Vachhani Payai , White C Michael
Published: November 2008

Background:

Garlic has been suggested to lower blood pressure; however, studios evaluating this parameter have provided conflicting results.

Objective:

To examine the effect of garlic on blood pressure in patients with and without elevated systolic blood pressure (SPB) through meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials.

Methods:

A systematic search of MEDLINE, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials was conducted to identify randomized controlled trials in humans evaluating garlic's effect on blood pressure. All databases were searched from their inception through June 26, 2008, using the key words garlic, Allium sativum, and allicin. A manual search of published literature was used to identify additional relevant studies. To be included in the analysis, studies must have been written in English or German and reported endpoints of SBP or diastolic blood pressure (DBP). Studies whose population had a mean baseline SBP greater than 140 mm Hg were evaluated separately from those whose population had lower baseline blood pressures. Garlic's effect on SBP and DBP was treated as a continuous variable and weighted mean differences were calculated using a random-effects model.

Results:

Ten trials were included in the analysis; 3 of these had patients with elevated SBP. Garlic reduced SBP by 16.3 mm Hg (95% CI 6.2 to 26.5) and DBP by 9.3 mmHg (95% CI 5.3 to 13.3) compared with placebo in patients with elevated SBP. However, the use of garlic did not reduce SBP or DBP in patients without elevated SBP. There was only a minor degree of heterogeneity in the analyses and publication bias did not appear to influence the results.

Conclusions:

This meta-analysis suggests that garlic is associated with blood pressure reductions in patients with an elevated SBP although not in those without elevated SBP. Future research should focus on the impact of garlic on clinical events and the assessment of the long-term risk of harm.
Examples in Theory: Interpassive Illustrations and Celluloid Fetishism
Authors: Hagin Boaz
Published: November 2008

This essay examines some of the uses of examples from films in theoretical writing. Employing Žižek’s concept of interpassivity, it argues that the use of examples need not be limited to illustrating a preexistent theory that is already believed to be true.
The New Wave Meets the Tradition of Quality: Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Authors: Hill Rodney
Published: November 2008

Jacques Demy’s importance in the French New Wave ironically becomes clearest by way of his least obviously New Wave work of the 1960s, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which represents a curious intersection between the New Wave aesthetic and that of the “Tradition of Quality,” against which the movement claimed to rebel.
“Feed Me!”: Power Struggles and the Portrayal of Race in Little Shop of Horrors
Authors: Jensen Marc
Published: November 2008

This study is an analysis of the horror-comedy-musical Little Shop of Horrors . Not present as an element intrinsic to the story itself, the conflict of this film is subtly framed in terms of race relations. A carefully manipulated palette of musical styles and characterizations articulates associations between blackness, the alien “other,” and the threat of an imminent social collapse accompanying integration.
Pop Go the Warner Bros., et al.: Marketing Film Songs during the Coming of Sound
Authors: Spring Katherine
Published: November 2008

The confluence of the American film and music industries began as early as 1927, when Hollywood’s transition to sound encouraged the major film production companies to invest in the business of popular music. In print advertising and on film soundtracks, the studios promoted motion picture songs as discrete, self-contained moments of performance.
The Eye of the Frog: Questions of Space in Films Using Digital Processes
Authors: Tudor Deborah
Published: November 2008

This article maps initial cinematic terrains produced through digital processes. Composited shots, multiple screens, and new transition strategies shift viewers’ understanding of spatial relations, reconfigure shot boundaries, and construct “semantic clusters” combining different types of information. Digital processes recreate older cinematic styles, and resituate production culturally, economically, and institutionally.
Freedom, Foreknowledge, and Frankfurt: A Reply to Vihvelin
Authors: Fischer John M.
Published: November 2008

In a fascinating and challenging article in this journal, Kadri Vihvelin presents a spirited and vigorous critique of the strategy of defending compatibilism about causal determinism and moral responsibility that employs (in part, at least) the ‘Frankfurt-examples.’ Here is her presentation of such an example:

… Jones … chooses to perform, and succeeds in performing, some action X. Tell the story so that it is vividly clear that Jones is morally responsible for doing X. If you are a libertarian, you may specify that Jones is an indeterministic agent who can choose otherwise, given the actual past and the laws. If you are a compatibilist, you may fill in the details so that Jones does X in a way that satisfies your favorite account of the counterfactual or dispositional facts that make it true that Jones could have done otherwise in the sense you think relevant to responsibility. Now, add to your story the following facts: there is standing in the wings another agent, Black. Black is interested in what Jones does. In particular, he wants Jones to do X and, moreover, Black has it in his power to prevent Jones from doing anything other than X.
Foreknowledge, Frankfurt, and Ability to Do Otherwise: A Reply to Fischer
Authors: Vihvelin Kadri
Published: November 2008

There is one important point about which Fischer and I are in agreement. We agree that determinism is compatible with moral responsibility. We disagree about the best way of defending that claim. He thinks that Frankfurt's strategy is a good one, that we can grant incompatibilists the metaphysical victory (that is, agree with them that determinism means that we are never able to do otherwise) while insisting that we are still morally responsible. I think this a huge mistake and I think the literature spawned by Frankfurt's attempt to undercut the metaphysical debate between compatibilists and incompatibilists is a snare and a delusion, distracting our attention from the important issues.
Truth in Virtue of Meaning
Authors: Sullivan Arthur
Published: November 2008

In recent work on a priori justification, one thing about which there is considerable agreement is that the notion of truth in virtue of meaning is bankrupt and infertile. (For the sake of more readable prose, I will use ‘TVM’ as an abbreviation for ‘the notion of truth in virtue of meaning.’) Arguments against the worth of TVM can be found across the entire spectrum of views on the a priori, in the work of uncompromising rationalists (such as BonJour (1998)), of centrist moderates (such as Boghossian (1997)), and of uncompromising empiricists (such as Devitt (2004)). My aim is to dispute this widespread opinion.

The outline is as follows: first, §§II-III consist of preliminary stage-setting. Then, in §IV I will argue that some of the most prevalent arguments against the worth of TVM — in particular, one which is given clear expression by Quine (1970), and is recently reinforced by Boghossian (1997) — do not engage with the core idea motivating TVM. After deflecting this charge of incoherence, the aim of §§V-VIII is to work toward developing a useful conception of TVM.
Self-Knowledge and Knowledge of Content
Authors: Wikforss Åsa Maria
Published: November 2008

The question of content externalism's compatibility with a plausible account of self-knowledge has been the subject of much debate in recent years. If the very content of my thoughts depends on external factors beyond me, factors that can only be known a posteriori, what happens to the traditional assumption that we know our own thoughts directly, without having to rely on any empirical investigations of the environment?

Two decades ago, Tyler Burge presented what has become the standard compatibilist reply to this challenge. Burge focused on a certain class of judgments, what he calls ‘basic self-knowledge,’ such asI think (with this very thought) that water is wet.Exploiting the fact that reflexive judgments of this sort reemploy the content of the first-order thought, such that no ‘content mistakes’ are possible, Burge argued that externalism is perfectly compatible with the traditional view that we know our own thoughts directly and authoritatively.
Kant's Incorporation Requirement: Freedom and Character in the Empirical World
Authors: McCarty Richard
Published: November 2008

In Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason Kant wrote that ‘freedom of the power of choice has the characteristic, entirely peculiar to it, that it cannot be determined to action through any incentive except insofar as the human being has incorporated it into his maxim.’ This is an obscure statement, in both meaning and provenance. Yet almost all recent interpreters of Kant's practical philosophy find it crucial for understanding his theories of freedom and motivation, since it seems to indicate what we are required to do in order to act by our own free choice. Here I refer to Kant's statement expressing the requirement that incentives be incorporated into maxims as his ‘incorporation requirement.’ How that requirement is best understood will be the leading question in what follows: a question I shall answer by showing why the incorporation requirement, and Kant's theories of freedom and motivation, should be understood differently from the way they are now usually understood.
Making the Lightness of Being Bearable: Arithmetical Platonism, Fictional Realism and Cognitive Command
Authors: Wringe Bill
Published: November 2008

In this paper I wish to defend a minimalist version of arithmetical Platonism — which I shall refer to as ‘minimal Platonism’ — from an objection which alleges that an advocate of this view is committed to an unduly capacious ontology. The objection, which I shall call the ‘Lightness of Being’ objection, runs as follows. The minimal Platonist is committed to the claim that arithmetical objects, such as numbers, exist provided that two conditions are met. The first is that terms for numerals are singular terms — where something's being a singular term is judged on the basis of purely syntactic criteria. The second is that some sentences in which these singular terms feature are non-trivially true. However, the names of fictional characters are also singular terms (when judged by the metaphysically lightweight criteria used by advocates of minimal Platonism).