bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Serum Leptin Levels and the Risk of Stroke
Authors: Saber Hamidreza , Himali Jayandra J. , Shoamanesh Ashkan , Beiser Alexa , Pikula Aleksandra , Harris Tamara B. , Roubenoff Ronenn , Romero Jose Rafael , Kase Carlos S. , Vasan Ramachandran S. , Seshadri Sudha
Published: September 2015

Background and Purpose—

Leptin is a major adipokine that regulates weight balance and energy homeostasis. There is inconsistent evidence linking circulating leptin levels to risk of stroke. We tested the hypothesis that leptin levels are associated with risk of incident stroke in an elderly community based sample.

Methods—

Serum leptin levels were assayed in 757 stroke free individuals (mean age, 79 years; 62% women) from the Framingham Original Cohort at the 22nd examination cycle (1990–1994). Incidence of all -stroke and ischemic stroke were prospectively ascertained.

Results—

During a mean follow up of 10 years, 119 individuals developed stroke (99 ischemic strokes). In multivariable Cox regression models, log leptin levels were not associated with incidence of all -stroke or ischemic stroke (hazard ratios per SD increment in log leptin 0.90 [0.73–1.09] and 0.89 [0.72–1.11], respectively). The results were suggestive for potential effect modification by waist/hip ratio for the association between leptin and stroke (
P
=0.03). Adjusting for age, sex, and established stroke risk factors, analysis stratified by waist/hip ratio quartiles revealed a lower incidence of first-ever all-stroke and ischemic stroke associated with higher leptin levels among only subjects in the top waist/hip ratio quartile (hazard ratio, 0.64 [0.43, 0.95] versus 0.98 [0.77, 1.25] for incident all-stroke and 0.61 [0.39, 0.95] versus 0.96 [0.74, 1.26] for ischemic stroke).

Conclusions—

Leptin levels were not directly related to the risk of incident stroke overall but there was an inverse association with stroke in the top waist/hip ratio quartile. Further investigations are required to confirm these findings and explore possible mechanisms for the observed association.
Bryophytes from Saiwa Swamp National Park, Kenya
Authors: Chuah-Petiot Min S.
Published: September 2015

57 species of bryophytes belonging to 30 families are reported from Saiwa Swamp National Park, of which 57 species are new for Saiwa Swamp National Park and 10 records are new for Kenya, indicated by * and ** respectively. Although small in surface area (15.5 sq.km.) the park represents an undercollected area in Kenya with a good diversity of bryophytes.
Bryophytes from the Republic of Equatorial Guinea (West-Central Africa) I. Introduction and preliminary checklist.

Authors: Pérez Patxi Heras , Sánchez Marta Infante
Published: September 2015

A preliminary list consisting of 159 bryophyte taxa (82 liverworts and 77 mosses) has been compiled from the bryological literature on the Republic of Equatorial Guinea (Central-Western Africa) until 1995. A general overview of the physical features and vegetation of the country, and an account of the history of its bryological exploration are also included.
Nargus (Eunargus) celli sp. nov. (Coleoptera: Leiodidae: Cholevinae: Cholevini), a new species from China
Authors: WANG CHENG-BIN , RŮŽIČKA JAN , ZHOU HONG-ZHANG
Published: September 2015

Nargus (Eunargus) celli sp. nov. (Coleoptera: Leiodidae: Cholevinae: Cholevini) is described from Guangxi autonomous region, China. Important morphological characters of examined species of Eunargus Perreau are illustrated by color plates or line drawings. A key to three known species of the subgenus Eunargus Perreau is compiled, and known distribution is mapped.
Diversity of spiders in Fanjing Mountain Nature Reserve, Guizhou, China,
I: Six new species of Phrurolithidae (Araneae)
Authors: WANG LU-YU , CHEN HUI-MING , ZHOU KE-XIN , ZHANG FENG , ZHANG ZHI-SHENG
Published: September 2015

Male and female specimens of six new spider species of the family Phrurolithidae were collected from the Fanjing Mountain Nature Reserve: Otacilia microstoma sp. nov., O. songi sp. nov., O. subliupan sp. nov., Phrurolithus anticus sp. nov., P. fanjingshan sp. nov. and P. zhouyun sp. nov.. Photographs, line drawings and descriptions of all species are provided in the current study. Additionally, the assignment of each species has been discussed on the basis of the type species of Otacilia Thorell, 1897 and Phrurolithus C. L. Koch, 1839.
Biological, morphological and morphometric studies of Triatoma melanocephala Neiva & Pinto, 1923 (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae)
Authors: OLIVEIRA JADER DE , MENDONÇA VAGNER J. , ARAÚJO RENATO FREITAS DE , NASCIMENTO ELIANE GÓES , ROSA JOÃO ARISTEU DA
Published: September 2015

Triatoma melanocephala Neiva & Pinto is found in the Brazilian states of Bahia, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte, and Sergipe. In addition to the species' specific description, eight other articles on this insect were found in the literature. In this study, data was obtained on the morphology, morphometry, and life cycle of T. melanocephala, since this vector is of epidemiological and taxonomic importance. The specimens studied were obtained from a colony that has been kept at the Triatomine Insectarium of the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences of São Paulo State University’s in Brazil. The morphological studies were performed using scanning electron microscopy. These studies characterized the eggs, the external adult female genitalia, and the ninth ventral abdominal segments of male and female nymphs. The morphometric studies characterized the five nymphal instars and the adult stage by measuring the head, thorax, abdomen, antennae, and mouthparts parameters. The life cycle of T. melanocephala was developed starting by 15 couples in the fifth instar. They were fed on Swiss mice every two weeks and observed daily. During daily observation, minimum temperature, maximum temperature, and relative humidity of the laboratory were measured. The results of the biological, morphometric, and morphological studies have increased the knowledge available on T. melanocephala.
Catastrophe and Mechanism Analyses of Multiple Equilibria in the Western Pacific Subtropical High System Based on Objective Fitting of Spatial Basis Functions
Authors: Hong Mei , Zhang Ren , Hu Yijia , Dandan Yu , Jiang Guorong
Published: September 2015

Scholars have been showing great interest in revealing the mechanisms that govern the activities of the western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH). However, the problem currently remains unresolved. In this paper, a new model is developed to reveal the dynamical mechanism of the WPSH abnormal activities. Variables in the partial differential vorticity equations based on latent heat flux are separated in space and time using Galerkin methods. To overcome three deficiencies of the traditional highly truncated spectral method, spatial basis functions are reconstructed from observation field time series based on a combination of empirical orthogonal function decomposition and genetic algorithm. Based on the atmospheric vorticity equation, nonlinear ordinary differential equations of the WPSH can be obtained using an objective spatial basis function. Moreover, dynamical characteristics and actions, such as bifurcation and catastrophe induced by latent heat flux factors, are analyzed. Results show that the latent heat flux field in the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal region determines the formation and rupture of the WPSH (such as the “double ridge” phenomenon). The enhancements of land–sea heating contrast and latent heat flux field in the South China Sea lead to WPSH abnormal activities and WPSH circulation anomalies, such as subtropical high northward jump and rapid westward extension. Linked with the real weather phenomena and the diagnostic analysis of the previous studies, the credibility of the bifurcation and catastrophe analysis is confirmed. This work documents new areas of research on the evolution mechanism of the WPSH under the action of latent heat flux from the view of chaotic dynamics.
NCAR’s Experimental Real-Time Convection-Allowing Ensemble Prediction System
Authors: Schwartz Craig S. , Romine Glen S. , Sobash Ryan A. , Fossell Kathryn R. , Weisman Morris L.
Published: September 2015

This expository paper documents an experimental, real-time, 10-member, 3-km, convection-allowing ensemble prediction system (EPS) developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in spring 2015. The EPS is particularly unique in that continuously cycling, limited-area, mesoscale ensemble Kalman filter analyses provide diverse initial conditions. In addition to describing the EPS configurations, initial forecast assessments are presented that suggest the EPS can provide valuable severe weather guidance and skillful predictions of precipitation. The EPS output is available to operational forecasters, many of whom have incorporated the products into their toolboxes. Given such rapid embrace of an experimental system by the operational community, acceleration of convection-allowing EPS development is encouraged.
Bilirubin Levels and Thrombus Burden in Patients With ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction
Authors: Hamur Hikmet , Duman Hakan , Bakirci Eftal Murat , Kucuksu Zafer , Demirelli Selami , Kalkan Kamuran , Degirmenci Husnu
Published: September 2015

We investigated whether serum bilirubin level (a marker of heme oxygenase activity) is a predictor of thrombus burden in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Patients (n = 229; male 72.9%; mean age 63 ± 13.4 years) who were admitted with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) were enrolled. Patients were divided into 2 groups. Group 1 was defined as low thrombus burden and group 2 was defined as high thrombus burden. Patients with high thrombus burden had higher total bilirubin levels (14.4 [4.3-22.9] vs 7.7 [2.4-20.3] µmol/L, P ≤ .001), (0.84 [0.25-1.34] vs 0.45 [0.14-1.19] mg/dL P ≤ .001) and direct bilirubin levels (3.1 [2.1-8.4] vs 1.7 [0.5-6.5] µmol/L, P ≤ .001), (0.18 [0.03-0.49] vs 0.10 [0.03-0.38] mg/dL, P ≤ .001). At multivariate analysis, total bilirubin (odds ratio: 1.05, 95% confidence interval: 1.03-1.08, P ≤ .001) was the independent predictor of high thrombus burden. In conclusion, total bilirubin level is independently associated with high thrombus burden in patients with STEMI.
Towards Dynamic Efficiency
Authors: Schilling Melissa A.
Published: September 2015

There is growing consensus that the goal of antitrust enforcement should be to manage for dynamic efficiency, that is, an appropriate balance between short-run static efficiencies such as reducing costs and maximizing consumer surplus, and the longer-term gains that arise from innovation. However, determining how to incorporate innovation into efficiency goals is complicated; innovation typically entails great uncertainty, long time horizons, and interdependencies across projects. This means there are no easy solutions for estimating the welfare impact of any given innovation investment or strategy. We can, however, use what we know about how firms manage the innovation process, including how they choose and value projects and ration their capital to meet their short- and long-term needs, to gain insight into how we can best foster firms’ incentives to innovate in ways that improve long-run economic welfare. I provide some illustrative examples for how these insights can be incorporated into antitrust enforcement.
Convergent or divergent Europeanization? An analysis of higher education governance reforms in France and Italy
Authors: Dobbins Michael
Published: September 2015

This article comparatively examines the higher education reform pathways of France and Italy. Using a scheme of empirical indicators, I focus on the divergent and convergent developments in these two countries, which played a pioneering role in the Europeanization of higher education. While France has consistently moved closer to a market-oriented model, legacies of academic self-rule were initially strengthened in Italy, before recent reforms aimed to crack down on academic power abuses. To explain these policy pathways, I pursue a dual theoretical argument by linking institutional isomorphism with historical institutionalism.

Points for practitioners

The article examines the changing structures of higher education management and administration in France and Italy. It focuses on the new roles attributed to the state, university leaders and external stakeholders, and addresses whether both systems have converged on a market-oriented paradigm. I explain how and why various new competitive steering instruments were introduced. The analysis should be of interest to both scholars and practitioners due to its focus on new power arrangements in quality assurance, university administration and research governance.
Street-level bureaucrats’ turnover intention: does public service motivation matter?
Authors: Shim Dong Chul , Park Hyun Hee , Eom Tae Ho
Published: September 2015

This study examines the joint influences of work exhaustion, job demands (red tape, role conflict, work overload), and public service motivation on street-level bureaucrats’ turnover intention. Based on a survey of 4974 Korean street-level bureaucrats, the study examines the potential mediating role of work exhaustion and complex moderating role of public service motivation in determining street-level bureaucrats’ turnover intention. In line with previous research, we find that job demands have both direct and indirect associations with street-level bureaucrats’ turnover intention through work exhaustion. However, public service motivation was found to reduce the employees’ turnover intention in two different ways. First, public service motivation was found to have a direct negative association with turnover intention. In addition, it was also found to mitigate the positive associations between job demands and work exhaustion, and between job demands and turnover intention.

Points for practitioners

The findings of the current study provide several practical implications for public managers. First of all, it suggests that imbuing public sector values through formal and informal training is important. Second, it provides some clues for local government managers to reduce street-level bureaucrats’ work exhaustion and turnover intention. For example, the problem of work overload for street-level bureaucrats could be reduced by reassigning work responsibilities according to workload analyses for given jobs.
US sub-national governmental response to the ‘Great Recession’: implications for the ‘equitable distribution of the costs and benefits of public services’
Authors: Wooldridge Blue , Smith Heidi Jane M.
Published: September 2015

Experts suggest that when faced with fiscal stress public managers can engage in three coping practices: an actual cutback in services, expansion of existing financial resources, or reduction in work force. During the Great Recession (2007–2012), US subnational governments utilized all three of these practices. The purpose of this article is to identify coping mechanisms used by state and local governments to respond to the Great Recession, and identify approaches to minimize the negative and disproportionate impact of these actions on women, minorities, and the economically disadvantaged. The authors provide specific examples of tactics employed by US subnational governments in response to fiscal stress and evaluate the equity of their consequences on the distribution of goods and services. A review of the concept of social equity, its related literature, and an analysis of the disparate impact of coping practices on underrepresented groups is provided. Finally, the article presents mitigating strategies in order to reduce the regressive impact of these coping practices on the vulnerable populations.

Points for practitioners

This article identifies ‘coping’ strategies used by US Subnational Governments in response to the Global Recession. It presents the inequities caused by these responses and suggests some ‘mitigating’ strategies to reduce the regressive impact on the disadvantaged.
Personality and decision-making in public administration: the five-factor model in cultural perspective
Authors: Filiz Erdinc , Battaglio R. Paul
Published: September 2015

Using a cross-sectional survey of 254 Turkish district governors, this study assesses the impact of personality on decision-making among public managers. The research evaluates self-reported results from the Five-Factor Model of personality and the Decision-Making Questionnaire of the psychology literature. The findings suggest that Openness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion are important in the analysis of decision-making subjects, tasks, and contexts, respectively. Departing from previous research, the analysis here suggests that culture and structure are important factors in explaining personality and decision-making in public administration.

Points for practitioners

This study offers policy implications for the recruitment, performance appraisal, training, and assignment of practitioners in the public service. Personality assessments can be used as a valuable tool during the evaluation of public officials under consideration for recruitment, appointment, and promotion. Matching the personalities of potential candidates to positions requiring comparable qualifications has important organizational, personnel, and financial implications. Our research also suggests that decision-making and personality should also account for social, cultural, and organizational differences in their applications.
Validating a scale for citizen trust in government organizations
Authors: Grimmelikhuijsen Stephan , Knies Eva
Published: September 2015

Citizen trust in government at the macro level has been studied by public administration scholars for many years. To further our understanding, assessing trust at the meso level of government organizations is important to more precisely determine effects and antecedents of trust at the organizational level. The organizational trust literature has shown that organizational trustworthiness is multidimensional, but the extant literature has not validated such measures in a public administration context. The proposed scale builds on and adapts an existing organizational trust scale to a public administration context. The ‘Citizen Trust in Government Organizations’ scale is validated using data from two different samples (total n = 991), resulting in a scale of nine items measuring three dimensions: perceived competence, benevolence, and integrity. This scale can be used by other researchers and is valuable to gain a more specific and multi-dimensional understanding of trust in government organizations.

Points for practitioners

A major problem for government organizations worldwide is the lack of perceived trustworthiness by the public. To tackle this problem, a way to measure it is needed, but at the moment there are only generic measures to assert perceived trustworthiness in a government organization. This article presents a first validation and incorporates three dimensions: perceived competence, benevolence, and honesty. Practitioners can use this scale and adapt to their relevant local context to identify specific trustworthiness problems.
Emerging Adults’ Conceptions of Purpose and the Good Life: A Classification and Comparison
Authors: Glanzer Perry L. , Hill Jonathan P. , Robinson Jessica A.
Published: September 2015

To understand the purpose acquisition of young emerging adults (18-23), scholars claim we need to learn the types of purposes to which they are committing and how they conceptualize purpose differently from other related concepts such as future goals and the good life. To address these issues, we examined interviews with 229 young emerging adults about their life purpose, future goals, and conceptions of the good life. Although the interviewees’ purposes and future goals fit within shared categories of achievement, relationships, religion, and moral concerns, important differences also emerged. While one fourth of the sample lacked purpose, no one lacked a vision for the good life or future goals. Moreover, their future vision of the good life focused more on individualistic concerns such as happiness, material acquisitions and personal experiences with family being the only communal interest.
Thermal performance of a typical residential Cyprus building with phase change materials
Authors: Ozdenefe Murat , Dewsbury Jonathan
Published: September 2015

This work investigates the thermal performance of a typical building in Cyprus, and the effect of application of a particular passive technology (phase change material or PCM) with the aim of reducing indoor air temperatures and energy supplied for the cooling season. Phase change materials for passive building applications are an emerging technology and have not been tested for the buildings of Cyprus, either by computer simulation or practical application. In this paper, the effect of incorporating a phase change material wallboard with a phase change temperature of 26℃ was investigated by simulation in Energy Plus. Four scenarios were considered for the same building geometry, each having different constructions. Two construction styles were used: perforated clay brick walls with reinforced concrete slabs and cellular concrete block walls with cellular concrete slabs. Each construction style was used in two different thicknesses. Simulations were carried out for the city of Larnaca for the cooling season only (May–October). The results showed that with this particular phase change material product, indoor air temperatures and cooling energies supplied to the building could be reduced by up to 1.7℃ and 14.0%.

Practical application: Sensible heat storage in building fabric is usual practice in Cyprus, as traditional building materials are thermally heavy. This paper will have practical impact as it introduces application of PCMs, a new method for storing heat in the buildings of Cyprus in much lighter way, where the weight is significant constraint due to earthquake load.
Innovating at Cultural Crossroads: How Multicultural Social Networks Promote Idea Flow and Creativity
Authors: Chua Roy Y.J.
Published: September 2015

Diversity in social networks is often linked to enhanced creativity. Emerging research on exposure to diverse informational resources (e.g., ideas and knowledge), however, has painted a more complex picture regarding its effect on individuals’ creative performance. This research examines the effects of culturally diverse networks on the flow of ideas and individuals’ creativity. Combining social network analysis with experimental methods, two studies using different samples found that a culturally diverse network increases the likelihood of receiving culture-related novel ideas (but not other types of novel ideas) from network contacts, whether or not these contacts share one’s own culture of origin. Additionally, the creativity effect of network diversity depends on the type of tasks. Networks’ degree of cultural diversity increases creativity on tasks that draw on varied cultural-knowledge resources but not on other types of tasks. These findings highlight that network diversity provides access to specific forms of knowledge and has a domain-specific effect on creativity. Theoretical and practical implications for creativity and social network research are discussed.
Is literacy for blind people under threat? Does braille have a future?
Authors: Tobin Michael J , Hill Eileen W
Published: September 2015

Changes to braille to produce a Unified English Braille (UEB) have caused grave concerns among some braillists. Proponents of UEB claim it will make braille easier to learn and produce and ensure uniformity of practice in the English-speaking world. Section ‘Introduction’ puts the controversy into its wider historical context, citing research showing braille has always been changing. Part A brings out some of braille’s problems in relation to ink-print: quantity and complexity of braille signs, heavier demands on children and newly blind adults in learning their rules of use, the paper-space requirements and bulk of braille books, lower redundancy, lower reading speeds, limited/slower scanning strategies for accessing information, and difficulties with tools for reading and writing. Research is presented from a longitudinal investigation into the cognitive factors affecting the development of braille reading accuracy, comprehension, and speed. Part B argues that there is evidence underlining the need for early teaching to compensate for the absence of casual, unstructured learning available to sighted infants and for continuing the teaching of braille, especially speed of reading, beyond the Primary School Stage of education. It is inferred that contrary to claims that computer technology will render this unique tactile code obsolete, it is in fact making access to braille easier, faster, and cheaper. The code’s flexibility and contribution to the personal, social, and economic independence of blind people are so important that it is vital that teachers, rehabilitation professionals, and psychologists recognise their roles in fostering the attainment of literacy through braille.
The Fiftieth Year of Independent Kenya: Elections, Righteousness and Churches
Authors: Knighton Ben
Published: September 2015

The year 2013 has proved to have been a turning-point for the nation of Kenya in a number of ways. It was a year when Kenya chose peace rather than democracy, but insecurity rather than accountability, cooperation with East rather than West, and nationalism above free speech. The article focusses on two moments framed by the elections: the armed attack on the Westgate shopping mall, and the funeral of the previous Archbishop. The newly elected government utilized these events to frustrate the International Criminal Court. It draws from eye-witness presence in addition to an analysis of print and other media, and it finds that peace and nation-building were bought at the price of insecurity and the aspirations that eventually inaugurated a new constitution. The churches were this time minor players, and with the death of David Gitari were shown almost bereft of the courageous spirit that had been the voice of disempowered Kenyans.
‘Who Filled His Heart to Do This?’ Conceptual Metaphors of the Self in the Book of Esther
Authors: Beal Timothy
Published: September 2015

This essay responds to Carol A. Newsom's recent call for finer-grained studies of particular formulations of the moral self and agency in biblical and related Second Temple texts in two ways: first, drawing on cognitive linguistic research of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, it highlights the embodied metaphorical quality of all forms of self-conception and self-representation; second, it examines the network of conceptual metaphors of the self in the Hebrew text of Esther, especially as they speak to questions of subjective agency. Although the book of Esther draws several of its conceptual metaphors from other Hebrew biblical texts (e.g. the heart as self, the self as fillable, the self filled with wine, the self filled with heat, heat abating or dissipating from the self, etc.), it deploys them in such a way as to call into question any delusion of self-control and agency on the part of its royal patriarchal subjects, Ahasuerus and Haman. Instead of affirming agency, these metaphors conceive of the self as easily manipulated and unsettled, thereby revealing a highly insecure subjectivity that is never fully in possession of itself.
Vision-based calibration/compensation technique for automatic stiffener bonder
Authors: Ye Su , Ye Yutang , Xie Yu , Luo Ying , Du Chunlei
Published: September 2015

This study developed a novel error compensation method aimed at eliminating placement error caused by hand–eye calibration and pick-and-place tool motions in automatic stiffener bonder for flexible printed circuit. Using the transformation of homogeneous coordinates to develop an error model of the system describing the coupling of errors among various coordinate systems, the least squares method is used to calculate the unknown model parameters. The experiment results demonstrate that this error compensation method reduced placement error by an order of magnitude. The mounting precision throughout the entire work area was ±0.046 mm at 3sigma, and for flexible printed circuit products with a specification limit of 0.1 mm, the process capability index of the automatic stiffener bonder in this study was 2.19. This represents that the system is capable of fully satisfying the precision requirements of flexible printed circuit stiffener bonding. The proposed system employing a vibrating feeder bowl and machine vision–aided target positioning is applicable to a variety of stiffeners, which enhances production flexibility. The proposed error model considers the complex coupling effect of the errors among multiple coordinate systems in hand–eye calibration, without the need of detecting and calculating the calibration error item by item, and takes into account the errors produced by the rotation and downward pressing motions of the pick-and-place tool.
Public toilets and their customers in low-income Accra, Ghana
Authors: Peprah Dorothy , Baker Kelly K , Moe Christine , Robb Katharine , Wellington Nii , Yakubu Habib , Null Clair
Published: September 2015

Public pay-per-use toilets are the only alternative to open defecation for a significant number of people in many low-income, urban neighbourhoods where insecure tenure, space constraints, and/or cost make private sanitation facilities unfeasible. This study explores public toilet use, characteristics of public toilet customers and possible improvements to public toilet facilities in four neighbourhoods in Accra, Ghana, the country with the highest reliance on shared sanitation facilities globally. Reliance on public toilets ranged considerably depending on neighbourhood affluence, but even some people living in compounds with a private toilet used a public toilet. The vast majority of users were adults. Few public toilet customers could foresee owning a household toilet in the coming year, mostly because of lack of space, and they voiced desires for more and cleaner public toilets with better provision of handwashing facilities. Improved accessibility and management of public toilets, along with facilities more suitable for children, could reduce open defecation.
Six Sigma application in small enterprise
Authors: Amitrano Fernanda Gonçalves , Estorilio Carla Cristina Amodio , de Oliveira Franzosi Bessa Ligia , Hatakeyama Kazuo
Published: September 2015

Six Sigma has been used by large companies to improve the performance of their manufacturing processes. However, the interest and the application of this methodology in small- and medium-sized enterprises is something emerging, despite being little widespread in the literature. This article shows the applicability of Six Sigma in a small Brazilian company, explaining the application strategy and its impacts. This work presents a revision about Six Sigma and DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control) method, which had been mostly successfully used by large-scale industries and it is suitable for this case, and approaches the particularities of small business that could have some impact in this application. Then, it details the application of Six Sigma with DMAIC in a small surface treatment company of mechanical components. This article shows the feasibility, applicability, and impact of Six Sigma in this small company, which obtained a rework reduction of approximately 20% on their zinc coating process.
Effects of staggering and pitch error on the dynamic response of a double-helical gear set
Authors: Siyu Chen , Jinyuan Tang
Published: September 2015

Theoretical analysis is conducted to investigate the nonlinear vibration response in a double-helical gear set under the influence of staggering, single pitch error and cumulative pitch error. A dynamic model of the double-helical gear set is established considering the axial deflection of shaft and gyroscopic effect, and the natural frequencies, mode shapes and critical speeds for the gear set with axial degree and gyroscopic effect are calculated. Moreover, several cases are numerically simulated after consideration of time varying mesh stiffness and gear backlash, and then some general results are deduced about the influences of staggering, single pitch error and cumulative pitch error on vibration intensity and gear teeth impact. Although the pitch error is modeled as a lower frequency excitation, high natural frequencies and modes are excited, especially when the double-helical gear pair operates under high speed condition. Comparisons are listed which are useful for understanding the high speed performance of a high speed gear set.
Harmonic current suppression of active-passive magnetically suspended control moment gyro based on variable-step-size FBLMS
Authors: Cui Peiling , Cui Jian
Published: September 2015

Due to the limitation of the machining accuracy, there exist mass imbalance and sensor runout in magnetically suspended rotor system, which will result in harmonic current in the rotor system. Harmonic current can not only increase the power consumption but also induce harmonic vibration which will be transmitted to spacecraft by magnetic bearings and affect the attitude stability of spacecraft. In order to analyze and reduce harmonic current, the model of magnetically suspended rotor system is built and analyzed. Variable-step-size FBLMS algorithm is proposed in this paper to suppress harmonic current simultaneously. According to the proposed algorithm, step size variation depending on harmonic current and individual step size is figured out for each weight vector so that each frequency component in the block can be adjusted. As a result, convergence performances are further improved by adjusting the weight vectors adaptively. The validity of the proposed method is testified by simulation. Simulation results show that variable-step-size FBLMS algorithm can reduce the harmonic current further and increase the convergence rate.
Purpose, Practice, and (Discovery) Process
Authors: Franks Tara M.
Published: September 2015

This article represents a collection of discoveries influenced by academic mentors, insightful research methods courses, and personal introspection that together demonstrate how I have come to make sense of, and apply self-reflection as a methodological practice of qualitative inquiry. To begin, I share a sequence of brief narrative excerpts, influenced by the scholarship of Dr. H. L. “Bud” Goodall, that demonstrates the self-reflexive writing process as narrative inquiry. I position my story as a reflexive piece of comedy writing (and eventual performance) alongside historical narratives of diverse death rituals to demonstrate how the process of self-reflection makes complex cultural knowledge accessible to both authors and readers. Next, I explore the meaning of self-reflection as method—its purpose, characteristics, and formal and informal practices. The article concludes with a short discussion of the rewards of self-reflection as qualitative inquiry to researchers and audiences alike.
Fractured Identity in the Context of Intimate Partner Violence
Authors: O’Doherty Lorna Jane , Taft Angela , McNair Ruth , Hegarty Kelsey
Published: September 2015

Intimate partner violence has profound effects on women’s identities. However, detailed examination of how abuse affects identity is lacking. We interviewed 14 diverse women (Australia), applying social identity theory to analyze their experiences of identity and help-seeking in health settings. The destabilizing effect of violence on social identities was strongly supported. Women concealed abuse to preserve a public identity. However, when the violence threatened the most integrated identities, women unveiled an abuse identity, receiving mixed responses from health providers. A healing context where a woman can display an abuse identity safely is crucial to enable her to rebuild an integrated self-concept.
A convenient form of the multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient
Authors: Casey James
Published: September 2015

For many purposes in continuum mechanics it has been found useful to decompose the deformation gradient into two factors, which result from some elastic process through which destressing is achieved at a material point. There is an essential rotational non-uniqueness in these factors; however, some subfactors are uniquely defined. In particular, a certain unique right stretch tensor is identified, which serves as a convenient independent variable for describing the anisotropic elastic response of a solid from its evolving stress-free intermediate configurations.
Stresses in equilibrium configurations of inextensible nets with slack
Authors: Šilhavý Miroslav
Published: September 2015

The paper deals with nets formed by two families of fibers (cords) which can grow shorter but not longer, in a deformation. The nets are treated as two-dimensional continua in the three-dimensional space. The inextensibility condition places unilateral constraint on the partial derivatives y,1 and y,2 of the deformation [Formula: see text] of the form

[Formula: see text]

[Formula: see text] There is no deformation energy, the total energy reduces to the potential energy of the net under external forces. Equilibrium configurations are those of minimum energy. The stresses in equilibrium configurations thus reduce to the reactions to the constraints. Nonzero stresses occur only in tense regions where one or two constraints are satisfied with the equality sign. The paper follows the work of Paroni in treating the stress problem via the dual variational problem in the sense of convex analysis. Unlike in the work of Paroni, where stresses are modeled as finitely additive set functions, here a (perhaps more economic) choice of spaces is made that leads to more accessible stresses represented by (countably additive) measures. The present development is made possible by an observation, of independent value, that the space of measures with divergence measure is the dual of another Banach space, in the present context naturally interpreted as the space of strains. Our measures generalize stress fields represented by ordinary functions to account for stress concentrations along folded lines in tension, frequently occurring in equilibrium configurations of the net.
Male smokers’ experiences of an appearance-focused facial-ageing intervention
Authors: Flett Keira , Grogan Sarah , Clark-Carter David , Gough Brendan , Conner Mark
Published: September 2015

This study investigated 30 male smokers’ experiences of an appearance-focused, facial-ageing intervention. Individual interviews ( n = 21) and three focus groups ( n = 9) were conducted. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Male smokers explained that viewing the impacts of smoking on their own faces was the most effective part of the intervention and 22 men (73%) said that they intended quitting smoking or reducing number of cigarettes smoked post-intervention. It is recommended that designers of appearance-focused interventions target men in the future as the current findings demonstrated that the majority of men engaged well with the intervention.
The limits of autonomy in Latin American social policies
Authors: Lo Vuolo Rubén M
Published: September 2015

Latin American social protection systems show that the fundamental ambivalence of modernity is captured by the twin notion of liberty and discipline in the context of a plurality of modes of socio-political organization. According to this understanding, this article analyses the potential of the so-called Conditional Cash Transfer programmes, which are widespread in the region, to strength or reduce personal autonomy. These programmes are promoted by claiming their virtues to reduce poverty and impose good behaviour on poor people in order to improve the ‘human capital’ of future generations. However, numerous elements challenge these alleged virtues: arbitrary selection of beneficiaries, interference in people’s lives, stigmatization of recipients, inability to achieve universal coverage and act in a preventive manner with regards to urgent needs, the creation of poverty traps and informal working, etc. Taking these elements into account, this article explains how these programmes do not improve people’s autonomy and political independence.
Introduction: Doing Asian cities
Authors: Goh Daniel P.S. , Bunnell Tim , van der Veer Peter
Published: September 2015

This special issue seeks to highlight the ways in which diverse Asian cities – Mumbai, Seoul, Singapore – exceed current urban theorization. Modest, but nonetheless more-than-local re-theorization, can proceed from such empirical excess, which itself can only be derived from sustained ethnographic examination of cities in all their diversity. Relatedly, we cast Asia as a frontier for ethnographic strategizing – where, rather than merely importing and applying methodological tools from elsewhere, new ways of ‘doing’ cities emerge from reflexive engagement with emergent urban forms and ways of life. Considering diverse urban contexts in Asia, we foreground the aspirational dynamics of cities and ethnographic approaches to studying them. This has produced findings that have pushed the theoretical understanding of aspirations beyond Arjun Appadurai’s initial formulations in three ways. First, breaking from the dichotomy of pastness and cultural futures, the authors have found pastness making up important ingredients for aspirations. Second, the urban middle classes could very well express subaltern aspirations for and with subaltern groups, and it would be a mistake for us to ignore the sense and sensibility of the middle classes on account of their purported lack of subalternity. Third, the capacity to aspire is primarily achieved in the embodied production of space and limited by the same.
Voicing Christian aspiration: The semiotic anthropology of voice in Seoul
Authors: Harkness Nicholas
Published: September 2015

This article proposes some analytical and methodological approaches to the urban ethnography of the human voice. Drawing on research among Protestant Christians in Seoul, South Korea, I consider the voice along three semiotic dimensions: the relationship between body and sound, the relationship between speech and song, and the relationship between the literal voice and more metaphorical understandings of voice (as perspective, political position, personhood, style, etc.). By focusing on Seoul’s rapid postwar urbanization, the growth of Protestant Christianity, and the intersection of these two phenomena in the suppression and erasure of signs of struggle and hardship by a certain population among the city’s Christians, I demonstrate how a focus on the human voice has the potential to illuminate important issues in the urban ethnography of newer Asian ‘megacities.’
The paradox from within: research participants doing-being-observed
Authors: Hazel Spencer
Published: September 2015

This article analyses a collection of cases from video recordings of naturally occurring interaction in institutional settings, where members display an orientation to the presence of the recording equipment. Such instances have been treated elsewhere as evidence of contamination of the ecology of the setting. The findings suggest that participants do remain aware of the recording activity, but that they publicly display when they are attending to it. Indeed, it is used as one resource to occasion identity work as competent, knowledgeable members of a particular institutional community, displaying to one another their understanding of the research aims, and their knowledge of how these kinds of data are constituted. Investigating how observational research is oriented to and constituted by the observed allows for a better understanding of what at that moment and in that setting is deemed recording-appropriate or -inappropriate conduct, and offers a more nuanced perspective on how data are co-constituted.
Factors associated with resilience among female family caregivers of a functionally or cognitively impaired aging relative in Lebanon: A correlational study
Authors: Séoud Joelle N , Ducharme Francine
Published: September 2015

Background

Owing to the loss of autonomy associated with aging, home-dwelling older people often need the support of family and friends, particularly of a family caregiver whose demanding role can have negative health consequences. The empirical literature reports that some caregivers are resilient and continue to grow and develop, whereas others have difficulty coping with the role and suffer psychological distress.

Aims

The aim of this study was to examine the contribution of personal and contextual factors to the resilience of female family caregivers of home-dwelling functionally or cognitively impaired older people in Lebanon.

Methods

A predictive correlational design was used. The study was conducted with a cohort of 140 female primary family caregivers cohabiting with an older person aged 65 years or over. Data were collected through home-based structured interviews.

Results

Four factors were shown to be significantly associated with caregiver resilience: problem-focused coping strategies, emotion-focused coping strategies, sense of self-efficacy and caregiver meaning of caregiving.

Conclusion

The study offers potential priorities for nursing interventions aimed at promoting caregiver resilience. The results enable the creation of the foundations of a transferable contextual theory of resilience among female family caregivers in Lebanon.
Is metal theft committed by organized crime groups, and why does it matter?
Authors: Ashby Matthew PJ
Published: September 2015

Using the example of metal theft in the United Kingdom, this study used mixed methods to evaluate the accuracy of police estimates of the involvement of organized crime groups (OCGs) in crime. Police estimate that 20–30 per cent of metal theft is committed by OCGs, but this study found that only 0.5 per cent of metal thieves had previous convictions for offences related to OCGs, that only 1.3 per cent were linked to OCGs by intelligence information, that metal thieves typically offended close to their homes and that almost no metal thefts involved sophisticated offence methods. It appears that police may over-estimate the involvement of OCGs in some types of crime. The reasons for and consequences of this over-estimation are discussed.