bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Modern Society and Prospects of Low Vitamin B12 Intake
Authors: Volkov Ilia , Rudoy Inna , Machagna Mochamed , Glezer Inna , Ganel Uri , Orenshtein Anna , Press Yan
Published: November 2007

Background: Vitamin B12 deficiency can occur in individuals with dietary patterns that exclude animal foods and patients who are unable to absorb vitamin B12 in food. Material and Method: Our clinic serves a high-income population living in Southern Israel. We hypothesize that a tendency to decrease of level of vitamin B12 in our population is caused by a premeditated decrease in consumption of animal products. We analyzed 512 medical histories of patients undergoing blood tests for vitamin B12 level for various reasons. Result: The level of vitamin B12 in 192 patients (37.5%) was less than 250 pg/ml. Conclusion: As a result of media information disseminating the relationship between meat, cholesterol and cardiovascular diseases, consumption of meat, particularly beef, has decreased. Changes in life style among segments of the population with high socioeconomic level, on one hand, and the existence of poverty, on the other, are two main factors in the decreasing consumption of animal products. This causes a decrease in the level of vitamin B12 in the general population, and as a consequence, this will increase pathology due to vitamin B12 deficiency. In lieu of these possible developments and in order to prevent serious health problems, vitamin B12 fortification should be seriously considered and discussed.
Prevalence of Hypertension and Association of Dietary Mineral Intake with Blood Pressure in Healthy Schoolchildren from Northern Greece Aged 7–15 Years
Authors: Papandreou D. , Stamou M. , Malindretos P. , Rousso I. , Mavromichalis I.
Published: November 2007

Background and Aims: Pediatric hypertension is urgently increasing in Greece. The purpose of this study is to record the prevalence of hypertension in schoolchildren and to relate dietary minerals to blood pressure (BP). Methods and Results: 308 males and 298 females, aged 7–15 years, from 10 schools in Northern Greece participated in the study. BP and dietary minerals were measured in all children. Twenty-seven and 12.3% of boys and 21.2 and 15.1% of girls were diagnosed with prehypertension systolic BP and systolic hypertension, respectively. For diastolic BP, 19 and 13.3% of boys and 21.5 and 15.1% of girls were diagnosed with prehypertension diastolic BP and diastolic hypertension, respectively. Systolic BP was significantly positively associated with age (β: 0.283, 95% CI: 1.440–2.484, p < 0.001), BMI (β: 0.267, 95% CI: 0.830–1.489, p < 0.001) and potassium (β: 0.139, 95% CI: 0.001–0.005, p < 0.001) and negatively related to Ca (β: –0.160, 95% CI: –0.012 to 0.002, p = 0.007). Diastolic BP was positively related only to BMI (β: 0.194, 95% CI: 0.380–0.968, p < 0.001). Conclusion: The current study tried to estimate the prevalence of hypertension among children in Northern Greece. Early prevention through nutrition education programs on BP that include diet and exercise modifications is urgently needed in order to avoid certain chronic risk factors in early life.
Speeding Up Evolutionary Algorithms through Asymmetric Mutation Operators
Authors: Doerr Benjamin , Hebbinghaus Nils , Neumann Frank
Published: November 2007

Successful applications of evolutionary algorithms show that certain variation operators can lead to good solutions much faster than other ones. We examine this behavior observed in practice from a theoretical point of view and investigate the effect of an asymmetric mutation operator in evolutionary algorithms with respect to the runtime behavior. Considering the Eulerian cycle problem we present runtime bounds for evolutionary algorithms using an asymmetric operator which are much smaller than the best upper bounds for a more general one. In our analysis it turns out that a plateau which both algorithms have to cope with changes its structure in a way that allows the algorithm to obtain an improvement much faster. In addition, we present a lower bound for the general case which shows that the asymmetric operator speeds up computation by at least a linear factor.
Geometric Crossovers for Multiway Graph Partitioning
Authors: Moraglio Alberto , Kim Yong-Hyuk , Yoon Yourim , Moon Byung-Ro
Published: November 2007

Geometric crossover is a representation-independent generalization of the traditional crossover defined using the distance of the solution space. By choosing a distance firmly rooted in the syntax of the solution representation as a basis for geometric crossover, one can design new crossovers for any representation. Using a distance tailored to the problem at hand, the formal definition of geometric crossover allows us to design new problem-specific crossovers that embed problem-knowledge in the search.

The standard encoding for multiway graph partitioning is highly redundant: each solution has a number of representations, one for each way of labeling the represented partition. Traditional crossover does not perform well on redundant encodings. We propose a new geometric crossover for graph partitioning based on a labeling-independent distance that filters out the redundancy of the encoding. A correlation analysis of the fitness landscape based on this distance shows that it is well suited to graph partitioning.

A second difficulty with designing a crossover for multiway graph partitioning is that of feasibility: in general recombining feasible partitions does not lead to feasible offspring partitions. We design a new geometric crossover for permutations with repetitions that naturally suits partition problems and we test it on the graph partitioning problem. We then combine it with the labeling-independent crossover and obtain a much superior geometric crossover inheriting both advantages.
Pareto-adaptive ε-dominance
Authors: Hernández-Díaz Alfredo G. , Santana-Quintero Luis V. , Coello Coello Carlos A. , Molina Julián
Published: November 2007

Efficiency has become one of the main concerns in evolutionary multiobjective optimization during recent years. One of the possible alternatives to achieve a faster convergence is to use a relaxed form of Pareto dominance that allows us to regulate the granularity of the approximation of the Pareto front that we wish to achieve. One such relaxed forms of Pareto dominance that has become popular in the last few years is ε-dominance, which has been mainly used as an archiving strategy in some multiobjective evolutionary algorithms. Despite its advantages, ε-dominance has some limitations. In this paper, we propose a mechanism that can be seen as a variant of ε-dominance, which we call Pareto-adaptive ε-dominance (paε-dominance). Our proposed approach tries to overcome the main limitation of ε-dominance: the loss of several nondominated solutions from the hypergrid adopted in the archive because of the way in which solutions are selected within each box.
Perceptions of Assertive Community Treatment in the UK and Lithuania
Authors: Tyrer Peter , Balod Agne , Germanavicius Arunas , McDonald Andrew , Varadan Mythili , Thomas Jacqui
Published: November 2007

Background: There is current uncertainty over the future of assertive community and outreach teams in view of recent evidence suggesting that they no longer reduce hospital admissions. Despite this, assertive teams remain popular among practitioners.

Aims: To eXamine the views of assertive community team members and other mental health professionals in London (UK) and Vilnius (Lithuania) to determine important differences in attitudes.

Method: A questionnaire, involving the assessment of statements giving common opinions on assertive community teams, was given to 62 staff in Vilnius, Lithuania and West London, UK, 33 from assertive community or outreach teams and 29 from other mental health professionals.

Results: The results of the questionnaire showed that personnel in eXperienced assertive outreach teams in London believed that they gave more intensive care ( p < 0.001), felt it of greater value to see patients in the community ( p < 0.001) and were not just well-resourced community teams with low caseloads ( p < 0.01) than did other groups, but they placed lower value on assertiveness ( p = 0.04) and comprehensive care ( p < 0.04). These differences were less marked in Lithuania where staff regarded home treatment as similar to clinic treatment and were more supportive of comprehensive care.

Conclusion: The results suggest that in eXperienced community teams the notion of assertiveness has become less important in planned intensive community care and so the term ACT may be outmoded. However, for countries such as Lithuania, somewhat similar to the United States in 1972 when ACT began, the original principles are still appropriate and `assertive' is a major component of their effectiveness.
Talking About the Gene for Cancer: A Study of Lay and Professional Knowledge of Cancer Genetics
Authors: Prior Lindsay
Published: November 2007

This article is concerned with the ways in which people who work in and use a cancer genetics clinic in the UK talk about the `gene for cancer'. By conceptualizing such a gene as a boundary object, and using empirical data derived from clinic consultations, observations in a genetics laboratory and interviews with patients, the author seeks to illustrate how the various parties involved adopt different discursive strategies to appropriate, describe and understand what is apparently the `same' thing.The consequent focus on the ways in which the rhetorical and syntactical features of lay and professional talk interlink and diverge illustrates not merely how our contemporary knowledge of genes and genetics is structured, but also how different publics position themselves with respect to the biochemistry of life.
Identity, Expertise and HIV Risk in a Case Study of Reflexivity and Medical Technologies
Authors: Davis Mark
Published: November 2007

Using qualitative interviews with gay men with HIV and with reference to identity, expertise and HIV medical technologies, this article contributes to debate concerning the concept of risk reflexivity. Since the mid 1990s, people with HIV in the affluent, global North have had access to HIV treatment that substantially improves health. Recent research has expressed fears that, by satisfying hopes for effective treatment among affected citizens, HIV prevention will be undermined. This paradoxical idea has sharpened focus on how users apply knowledge regarding the effects of treatment on the risk of HIV transmission through sexual practice. This article argues that the concept of risk reflexivity has value because it draws attention to the limitations of extant assumptions about the users of HIV medical technologies. But this concept requires development in terms of the positioning of the person with HIV in risk reflexivity and the related mobilization of blame.
`A Darker Shade of Pale?' Whiteness, the Middle Classes and Multi-Ethnic Inner City Schooling
Authors: Reay Diane , Hollingworth Sumi , Williams Katya , Crozier Gill , Jamieson Fiona , James David , Beedell Phoebe
Published: November 2007

Drawing on data from interviews with 63 London-based families, this article argues that there are difficult and uncomfortable issues around whiteness in multi-ethnic contexts. Even those parents, such as the ones in our sample, who actively choose ethnically diverse comprehensive schools appear to remain trapped in white privilege despite their political and moral sentiments. This is a complicated question of value; of having value, finding value in, getting value from, and adding value. Even those white middle classes committed to multi-ethnic schooling face the perils of middle-class acquisitiveness, extracting value from, as they find value in, their multi-ethnic `other'. In such processes of generating use and exchange value a majority of both the white working classes and the black working classes, those who are perceived not to share white middle-class values, are residualized and positioned as excessive. Symbolically, they come to represent the abject `other' of no value.
Sex Work Stigma: Opportunist Migrants in London
Authors: Scambler Graham
Published: November 2007

The social institution of prostitution or sex work has a long and varied history in the West, during almost all of which women plying their trade within it have been stigmatized. After a brief excursus on contemporary sex work and the concept of stigma itself, this article applies the author's jigsaw model to throw light on the causal role of social structures in shaping sex work stigma, in relation to women migrants from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics working as escorts in central London, typically on a short-term opportunistic basis. Interviews with a small snowball sample of a dozen women inform and illustrate the analysis. The differential causal effects of relations of class, command, gender and ethnicity, as well as those of stigma, are considered. It is argued that stigma relations in a given context or figuration cannot be grasped in isolation, but are always part of a nexus of social structures of varying causal importance.
Research Ethics in the UK: What Can Sociology Learn from Health?
Authors: Richardson Sue , McMullan Miriam
Published: November 2007

The article reviews ethical consideration in social research and identifies current approaches to safeguarding ethical standards. One of these is the requirement to obtain approval from research ethics committees (RECs). Based on the results of a survey of UK social science academics about the process of applying to National Health Service RECs, we conclude that lessons can be learned for Sociology from the experiences of social researchers in Health. Overly rigid ethics committees could be counter-productive; we may need to reassess the functions of RECs and to strengthen other procedures to ensure the highest ethical standards for Sociology. Some suggestions for how this might be done are taken from the literature in the hope that they will stimulate debate.
Friendship quality as a moderator between perception of interparental conflicts and maladjustment in adolescence
Authors: Larsen Helle , Branje Susan J. T. , van der Valk Inge , Meeus Wim H. J.
Published: November 2007

The aim of this study was to longitudinally examine the moderating role of friendship quality in the association between adolescent perception of interparental conflicts and maladjustment. Participants were 1294 adolescents enrolled in the Dutch CONAMORE 2001—2006 study ( Mage = 13.6 years). AMOS multigroup analyses were utilized. Results show that low friendship quality is a risk factor for both boys and girls, aggravating the effect of interparental conflicts on anxiety, whereas for aggression this was only the case for boys. No convincing support was found for high friendship quality's protective function against the effect of perceived interparental conflict on maladjustment. These findings show the substantial importance of not being in a low quality friendship when adolescents perceive interparental conflicts.
Relating relationships: Development, expansion, and interrelations in relationship networks
Authors: Collins W. Andrew , Haydon Katherine C. , Hesemeyer Paloma
Published: November 2007

The four articles in this special section underscore three key themes in research on close relationships during adolescence: normative changes in their nature and functional significance; expansion and diversification of networks of relationships; and increasing interrelations among close relationships. We identify important ways in which the four articles both extend knowledge on these three points and inspire further advances by future researchers.
The winning mindset
Authors: Kendrick Terry
Published: November 2007

Suggests that search engines are useful but limited in their application for competitive intelligence searching on the internet, and highlights the importance and effectiveness not just of structured searching but also of creativity. Explains some of the technical limitations of internet searching and suggests conditions in which a competitive intelligence search may be made more effective, pointing out that the value an information professional adds is in having some idea in advance of what they are likely to find. Gives details of what search engines will and will not retrieve, and illustrates how search strategies can be improved through use of the available filtering syntax. Suggests that using Boolean logical operators and other features directly in the search box is likely to produce better results than simply relying on the search engine's advanced search feature. Concludes by re-emphasizing the need for a creative mindset, building on some structure.
Personal credit information
Authors: Bradford Mike
Published: November 2007

Explains how credit reporting company Experian sets about ensuring privacy and security in the personal credit information that it holds. Outlines the scale of the company's data collection and analysis operations and emphasizes that the legal standards need to be simply the baseline upon which further internal policies are built. Suggests that balance, accuracy, security, integrity and communication are the key issues to be addressed. Outlines some of the legislation protecting personal data and consumer rights to privacy, emphasizing the importance of achieving a balance between business information benefits and consumer rights. Refers briefly to the need to encourage credit reporting and associated data protection safeguards in developing countries. Explains the steps Experian takes to maintain data security, including training to avoid accidental or deliberate breaches. Includes brief mention of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.
Vendor view
Authors: Simidian Greg
Published: November 2007

Interview with Greg Simidian, Managing Director of company information vendor Perfect Information. Discusses the company itself and how it has changed over the years, concentrating particularly on its customer relations. Considers relations between vendors and intermediaries generally, covering contract negotiation and the impact of end users, and also considering recruitment and skills issues for the information industry. Speculates on the future of the industry, considering social networking in particular. Reflects on Greg Simidian's previous career, considering the benefits of working for both mainstream and niche information providers.
Is there intelligent life outside the City?
Authors: Newgass Oriole
Published: November 2007

Offers comprehensive advice to information professionals considering taking up self-employed freelance information consultancy. Draws attention to the risks associated with leaving the protection offered by corporate employment, alongside the benefits of empowerment through being self-employed. Emphasizes the need for prior business planning and offers advice on business name, web presence, logos, business cards, professional subscriptions, the need to have an accountant and register for value added tax, and dealings with banks and with the local Business Link. Advises against acquiring company status, joining trade groups, untargeted advertising, brochures and mailshots, and professional indemnity cover. Suggests ways of seeking work through networking with contacts, advises on the risks associated with imprecise agreements with clients, and emphasizes that the most important aspect of successful self-employment is self promotion.
Transdisciplinarity as a Nonimperial Encounter: for an Open Sociology
Authors: Steinmetz George
Published: November 2007

In this article I argue for a transdisciplinary approach to the human or social sciences. There is little ontological or epistemological justification for a division among these disciplines. I recommend that sociology stop worrying about policing its disciplinary boundaries and begin to encourage various forms of intellectual transculturation. I then analyze barriers to transdisciplinarity by comparing disciplines to states and comparing the relations among disciplines to different sorts of imperial practice, or interstate relations. The most common interdisciplinary strategies are analogous to the informal, nonterritorial imperialism practiced globally by the United States. Three other forms of interdisciplinarity are discussed: the annexation of one discipline by another — a situation that is analogous to colonialism; nonhegemonized systems of equal disciplines (analogous to the Westphalian state system); and nonimperial `traveling' and transculturation among disciplines (analogous to the practices of members of weak or declining imperial states).
Territorial Stigmatization in the Age of Advanced Marginality
Authors: Wacquant Loïc
Published: November 2007

The comparative sociology of the structure, dynamics, and experience of urban relegation in the United States and the European Union during the past three decades reveals the emergence of a new regime of marginality. This regime generates forms of poverty that are neither residual, nor cyclical or transitional, but inscribed in the future of contemporary societies insofar as they are fed by the ongoing fragmentation of the wage labour relationship, the functional disconnection of dispossessed neighbourhoods from the national and global economies, and the reconfiguration of the welfare state in the polarizing city. Based on a methodical comparison between the black American ghetto and the French working-class banlieue at century's turn, this article spotlights three distinctive spatial properties of `advanced marginality' — territorial fixation and stigmatization, spatial alienation and the dissolution of `place', and the loss of a hinterland — and draws out their implications for the formation of the `precariat' in postindustrial societies.
Memory of the Holocaust: Sources
Authors: Bauman Janina
Published: November 2007

How will the Holocaust be remembered as its survivors disappear? In this article Janina Bauman reflects upon her own work on the Holocaust in the context of the Holocaust's broader reception. She offers her own views about the genre with reference to contemporary documents and testimonials, secondary work, scholarly work, fiction and film. These observations and stories all circulate around her own 1986 landmark text, Winter in the Morning.
Dementia and Comorbidities: An Overview of Diagnosis and Management
Authors: Swanson Keith A. , Carnahan Ryan M.
Published: November 2007

The term “dementia” describes various neurodegenerative disorders that effect cognition, including Alzheimer disease, vascular dementia, and others. This article reviews the diagnosis and management of common types of dementia and comorbidities. Dementias are differentiated clinically by history, symptom presentation, and exclusion of other causes through laboratory and imaging studies. Cholinesterase inhibitors are useful but may not be effective for all types of dementia and provide only modest benefits. Certain medical comorbidities may increase the risk of dementia, although genetics are also important in its etiology. Psychiatric comorbidities in dementia include delirium, which is treated primarily by addressing underlying medical disorders, but antipsychotics can be useful for symptom management and patient comfort. Nonpharmacologic interventions are first-line treatments for other psychiatric comorbidities, although drug therapy may be useful in some cases. The management of patients with dementia presents many challenges and will continue to do so unless agents with pronounced disease-modifying capabilities are developed.
Polychlorinated biphenyls alter the expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase mRNA in human umbilical vein endothelial cells
Authors: Omori Naoko , Fukata Hideki , Sato Koji , Yamazaki Koji , Aida-Yasuoka Keiko , Takigami Hidetaka , Kuriyama Motone , Ichinose Masaharu , Mori Chisato
Published: November 2007

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a group of persistent pollutants that are detected in maternal serum and umbilical cord, suggesting that fetal exposure also needs to be considered. The effects of dioxin-like PCB congeners 3,3',4,4'-tetrachlorobiphenyl (PCB77) and 3,3',4,4',5-pentachlorobiphenyl (PCB126) and a non-dioxin-like compound 2,2',4,4',5,5'-hexachlorobiphenyl (PCB153) on the expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), known to maintain blood flow to the fetus, in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were investigated. The mRNA levels of eNOS, aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) and cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A1 in cells treated with 5 µM PCBs for 24 hours were analysed by real-time RT-PCR. Cells were also treated with α-naphthoflavone (α NF), an AhR antagonist or ICI 182780, an estrogen receptor (ER) antagonist, one hour prior to PCB exposure, to observe the effects of these receptors on eNOS modulation. Each PCB increased the eNOS mRNA level by 4.5-fold that was markedly inhibited by αNF. ERs were also suspected of altering eNOS levels because ICI 182780 treatment resulted in a decrease in the eNOS level. These results suggest that the eNOS mRNA expression increases due to the action of PCBs related to both AhR and ERs in HUVECs, and that maternal PCB exposure could influence fetal circulation. Human & Experimental Toxicology (2007) 26, 811— 816
Comparative analysis of gene expression between renal cortex and papilla in nedaplatin-induced nephrotoxicity in rats
Authors: Uehara Takeki , Miyoshi Takako , Tsuchiya Noriko , Masuno Koichi , Okada Manabu , Inoue Satoshi , Torii Mikinori , Yamate Jyoji , Maruyama Toshiyuki
Published: November 2007

To elucidate the mechanism of nephrotoxicity caused by anti-neoplastic platinum complex, nedaplatin (NDP), treatment with a particular focus on the renal papillary toxicity, we analysed the gene expression profiles of two renal regions, the cortex (RC) and the papilla (RP) in rat kidneys. Male Wistar rats received a single administration of 10 mg/kg intravenous NDP or vehicle alone (5% xylitol solution) and were sacrificed six days later. The kidneys were dissected into the RC and RP and used for histopathological and microarray analyses. Histopathologically, NDP caused characteristic renal lesions, such as necrosis, single cell necrosis (with TUNEL TdT-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labelling-positive) and regeneration/hyperplasia of the epithelial cells in both renal regions. Global gene expression analysis revealed that several genes involved in various functional categories were commonly deregulated in both renal regions, such as apoptosis, cell cycle regulation, DNA metabolism, cell migration/adhesion and cytoskeleton organization or genes induced as a perturbation of oxidative status and calcium homeostasis. Comparative analysis of gene expression between RC and RP revealed that genes encoding several subtypes of cytokeratins were identified as being specifically overexpressed in RP by the NDP treatment. Differential expression patterns of these selected genes observed by microarray analysis were further confirmed by quantitative real time RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry, which demonstrated increased expression of cytokeratins (CKs) 14 and 19 at the epithelium covering RP and/or collecting duct epithelium. Overall, the results contribute to understanding the renal molecular events of NDP-induced nephrotoxicity including novel potential biomarker genes encoding CKs 14 and 19 that may serve as indicators of renal papillary toxicity. Human & Experimental Toxicology (2007) 26, 767—780
Effects of chlorinated biphenyls and metabolites on human uterine myocyte proliferation
Authors: Bredhult Carolina , Bäcklin Britt-Marie , Olovsson Matts
Published: November 2007

Uterine myometrial cells are responsive to sex steroids, which could make them susceptible to actions of endocrine disrupting environmental contaminants such as some PCBs. The aim of this investigation was to identify possible effects of some chlorinated biphenyls (CBs) and their metabolites on myometrial cell proliferation. Myometrial cells obtained from women in both phases of the menstrual cycle and from pregnant women were grown in vitro and exposed to CB 101, CB 118, 3' -MeSO2CB 101, 4'-MeSO2-CB 101, 4-OH-CB 107, 17 β-estradiol, progesterone, ethinylestradiol or levonorgestrel.

The proliferative activity was studied by a BrdU assay. Myometrial cell cultures originating from pregnant women exhibited decreased proliferation in response to 3'-MeSO 2-CB 101, 4'-MeSO2-CB 101 and 4-OH-CB 107. Estradiol, a combination of 1 nM 17β-estradiol and 10 nM progesterone, ethinylestradiol and levonorgestrel also reduced the proliferation of the myometrial cells, regardless of whether the cells were collected from either of the menstrual cycle phases or from pregnant women. To our knowledge this study is the first to demonstrate that some CBs affect the proliferative activity of human uterine myocytes. Human & Experimental Toxicology (2007) 26, 801— 809
Arsenic neurotoxicity — A review
Authors: Vahidnia A. , van der Voet G.B. , de Wolff F.A.
Published: November 2007

Arsenic (As) is one of the oldest poisons known to men. Its applications throughout history are wide and varied: murder, make-up, paint and even as a pesticide. Chronic As toxicity is a global environmental health problem, affecting millions of people in the USA and Germany to Bangladesh and Taiwan. Worldwide, As is released into the environment by smelting of various metals, combustion of fossil fuels, as herbicides and fungicides in agricultural products. The drinking water in many countries, which is tapped from natural geological resources, is also contaminated as a result of the high level of As in groundwater. The environmental fate of As is contamination of surface and groundwater with a contaminant level higher than 10 particle per billion (ppb) as set by World Health Organization (WHO). Arsenic exists in both organic and inorganic species and either form can also exist in a trivalent or pentavalent oxidation state. Long-term health effects of exposure to these As metabolites are severe and highly variable: skin and lung cancer, neurological effects, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. Neurological effects of As may develop within a few hours after ingestion, but usually are seen in 2—8 weeks after exposure. It is usually a symmetrical sensorimotor neuropathy, often resembling the Guillain—Barré syndrome. The predominant clinical features of neuropathy are paresthesias, numbness and pain, particularly in the soles of the feet. Electrophysiological studies performed on patients with As neuropathy have revealed a reduced nerve conduction velocity, typical of those seen in axonal degeneration. Most of the adverse effects of As, are caused by inactivated enzymes in the cellular energy pathway, whereby As reacts with the thiol groups of proteins and enzymes and inhibits their catalytic activity. Furthermore, As-induced neurotoxicity, like many other neurodegenerative diseases, causes changes in cytoskeletal protein composition and hyperphosphorylation. These changes may lead to disorganization of the cytoskeletal framework, which is a potential mechanism of As-induced neurotoxicity. Human & Experimental Toxicology (2007) 26, 823— 832
Laundering in Cold Water: Detergent Considerations for Consumers
Authors: Cameron Bruce A.
Published: November 2007

The e fectiveness (ability to whiten) of six consumer laundry detergents, three powders and three liquids, was tested using a standard procedure. Assessment of each detergent's ability to clean (ability to remove stain, thus whiten) a standard soiled cloth in six di ferent cold water samples was evaluated. Two of the detergents, one powder and one liquid, are new laundry products designed to function in cold water. Results were based on a standardized procedure using launder‐ometer treatment and reflectance colorimeter testing. Although no one detergent was very e fective in whitening, the di ferences in the detergents were significant when compared to the original standard soiled cloth. In addition, when laundering this particular standard soiled cloth (carbon black/olive oil) in cold water, neither of the new cold water detergents were better at cleaning (whitening) the samples than the detergents without bleach or the bleach‐containing detergents, and in fact, the powdered detergent with bleach performed the best in each of the tests in this study. The liquid detergent with bleach was best in comparison to other liquid detergents in only half of the tests performed.
Organizational Consequences of Implementing an ISO 14001 Environmental Management System
Authors: Concepción López-Fernández Maria , Serrano-Bedia Ana Maria
Published: November 2007

The authors assess and measure the repercussions of the implementation and certification of an ISO 14001 environmental management system (EMS) on company organizational structure. They identify these e fects on Mintzberg's parameters of structural design by postulating a series of hypotheses. These hypotheses are then studied empirically among firms that have implemented the ISO 14001 EMS. With this empirical evidence, they conclude the key determinants of the intensity of organizational changes observed are EMS maturity, management involvement in the implementation process, and the prior existence of an ISO 9001 quality management system.
The Role of Organizational Culture in the On-Ground Implementation of Tourism Partnerships in Protected Areas
Authors: Larsen Kathryn A. , Valentine Peter S.
Published: November 2007

This article explores the influences of organizational culture on rangers' perceptions of tourism management in North Queensland's (Australia) protected areas. This research was undertaken during a time of an increasingly anthropocentric management focus, including the creation of partnership agreements with tourism operators. Qualitative, semistructured interviews revealed that some rangers embraced tourism as an asset to parks, whereas others perceived the industry to be in conflict, or in competition, with the preservation of their areas. The concepts of organizational culture and climate were found to be useful for explaining the di ferences in rangers' perceptions of tourism and for explaining the presence of a distinct subcultural group amongst the rangers interviewed. Poor communication of tourism policy changes between the upper management levels and the on-park rangers had contributed to a loss of goal congruence, infighting, low morale, and an organizational climate in turmoil.
Seeing Shades
Authors: Cliath Alison Grace
Published: November 2007

Although appropriate product labeling allows global justice groups, environmental groups, and health-concerned consumers to support and participate in the development of markets for more sustainable or just alternatives to many products, consumers can also be misled by deceptive labeling practices. In analyzing labeling as a technology made up of artifacts, acts, and social organization, this article asks, Can one visually distinguish labels signifying real social and environmental improvements from industry blue/greenwash and typical products? Using the techniques of visual sociology in a grounded-theory-style investigation of a variety of supermarket-available blue/green products, the author identifies five strategies to see shades. She then tests the salience of these visual indicators with a population of co fees from six Pacific Northwest supermarkets. Theoretically, she explores the labeling technology's potential to facilitate conscientious consumption and reshape how social and environmental relationships are represented, regulated, seen, and experienced in a capitalist economy.
Dejustification and Dispute Settlement: Irredentism in European Politics
Authors: Kornprobst Markus
Published: November 2007

Irredentism developed into an anomaly in post-World War II Europe and — contradicting the dire predictions of the 1990s — has remained an anomaly even since the end of the Cold War. Focusing on the renunciation of the FRG's and the Republic of Ireland's irredentist claims, I propose a novel route to analyse dispute settlement. I contend that nations justify their stance in a conflict. In the case of irredentism, they do not merely assert that a disputed territory is their land but justify to themselves and others why the disputed territory is rightfully theirs and why pursuing the irredentist stance is worthwhile. The disruption of this justification — what I call dejustification — constitutes a pathway to dispute settlement. Dejustification occurs through a change of the ideational environment that serves as the resource for justifying the claim and an advocacy that constructs a mismatch between environment and claim.
Perilous Polities? An Assessment of the Democratization-Conflict Linkage
Authors: Daxecker Ursula E.
Published: November 2007

While evidence continues to mount that democracies resort to military force reluctantly, the transition to democracy may in fact be a dangerous and conflictual one. Given the emphasis now being put on democratization, a reassessment of the relationship between the stability of domestic institutions and interstate conflict seems fitting. To date, the evidence remains mixed. No clear consensus has emerged on whether regime transition either increases or decreases conflict propensities. Employing a logit specification with splines and robust standard errors, this research analyzes the conflict behavior of transitioning states for the 1950—2000 period. The results indicate that `rocky' transitions or democratic reversals increase the likelihood of conflict occurrence. I demonstrate, however, that this result is driven by the conflict behavior of autocratizing countries. An interaction term shows that although regime change itself may increase conflict propensities, such exacerbating effects are reversed for democratizing states.
Reform Intervention and Democratic Revolution
Authors: Finlay Christopher J.
Published: November 2007

Can interventions be used to assist oppressed peoples in overthrowing their governments? According to the influential non-interventionist arguments of J.S. Mill and Michael Walzer, reform interventions are incompatible with a principle of national self-determination. This article challenges Mill and Walzer, arguing that, in limited cases, interventions could in principle support revolutionary movements in such a way as to facilitate democratic transition. It does so by tracing a lack of conceptual clarity back to Mill's argument in `A Few Words on Non-Intervention'. In particular, it is argued that Mill's and consequently Walzer's account of domestic revolutionary conflicts fails to distinguish the salience of military from properly political forces. Mill's Considerations on Representative Government provides the starting point for a clearer set of distinctions through which to reconstruct the principle of non-intervention on a stronger footing.
Social-property Regimes and the Uneven and Combined Development of Nationalist Practices
Authors: Dufour Frédérick Guillaume
Published: November 2007

Concepts like `nation', `society', and `culture' name bits and threaten to turn names into things. Only by understanding these names as bundles of relationships, and by placing them back into the field from which they were abstracted, can we hope to avoid misleading inferences and increase our share of understanding. (Wolf, 1997: 3)

Theories of International Relations have often shied away from apprehending the historicity of modern nationalism. Inversely, theories of nationalism have not spent much time theorizing the inter-national. The analysis of the relationships among social relations, international orders and nationalism has fallen in the cracks between the field of IR and the field of comparative nationalism. In the context of a renewal of interest for the historical sociology of the international, the analysis of these relations remains of particular relevance. In this article, the author builds on Benno Teschke, Justin Rosenberg and Hannes Lacher's theorization of modern sovereignty, capitalism and the uneven and combined development of International Relations to recast the socio-historical conditions of emergence and diffusion of the modern national form.
State, power and mobile communication: a case study of China
Authors: Lu Jia , Weber Ian
Published: November 2007

China's telecommunications and information industry has seen unprecedented growth since the turn of the century, with the mobile telephony sector driving significant expansion. This article examines the Chinese government's strategy for managing the complexities of socio-economic changes created by the widespread adoption of mobile telephony. The study found that the government's adoption of subtler forms of power establishes a relational contract with Chinese telecommunications and information industry partners and citizenry as a foundation for implementing the strategy of controlled commodification. This contract acts to modify and clarify operational boundaries within private and public spheres in an attempt to manage often competing economic, social and political objectives.
The hermeneutic circle of cellphone use: four universal moments in a Malaysian narrative of continuing contact
Authors: Wilson Tony , Thang Florence
Published: November 2007

Telephone users are teleological or future-oriented — temporarily apart, anticipatory, they articulate and appropriate meaning. Often, gender and generational cultures are held to differ in their accessing of phone formats and functions (call, data download, email, internet, multimedia and short message services). Drawing upon hermeneutic theory of understanding, the article argues that despite this diversity, there are four underlying universal cognitive moments characterizing the process of receiving and responding to handphone content: (1) perceiving and simultaneously (2) projecting potential narrative; (3) producing a coherent call, message or text; and (4) positioning the significance of cellphone meaning for a life-world. Referring to this fourfold ludology of immersion and inferring content allows us to consider in conceptual detail Malaysian corporate and consumer narratives of employing handphone technology. Philosophically grounded theory shows how culturally concrete experiences of cellphone use during work and leisure instantiate abstract patterns of understanding in reception and response.
Media dependencies in a changing media environment: the case of the 2003 SARS epidemic in China
Authors: Tai Zixue , Sun Tao
Published: November 2007

This article investigates media dependency among Chinese individuals during the SARS epidemic of 2003. While most media dependency research has examined dependency relations under circumstances when information was readily available, this study looks at a situation in which information was highly controlled and thus was not easily available from the mainstream media. As the socio-structural environment was not conducive to the free flow of information during a major public health crisis, audience members were not only actively engaged in information seeking from alternative resources such as short message services (SMS) and the internet, but they were also involved in creating alternative information channels by being information producers and disseminators. The internet was a particularly empowering tool to allow individuals to bypass official control and to challenge official claims during the crisis.
Lifestyles, flying and associated health problems in flight attendants
Authors: Sharma Lekha
Published: November 2007

Aims: This study was conducted in order to investigate the effect of flying on Indian male and female flight attendants (FAs), flying for over 10 years and up to 30 years.

Methods: The FAs selected for this study were subjected to the same set of conditions, such as number of hours flown per month and flight routes. Questionnaires were prepared, based on complaints heard on a regular basis, and also after talking to a small sample of FAs. Nearly 100 completed questionnaires were returned, from 500 delivered directly to FAs by post. In addition to this, we met 130 FAs either before their departure or after their arrival and secured completed questionnaires from them, being sure to maintain anonymity.

Results: According to this study there are five major problems faced by the FAs: Stress (88.85%) Back pain (72.65%) Loss of memory (67.47%) Headaches (58.42%) Loss of hearing (51.37%) 88.85% of FAs have reported feeling stressed `often' or `sometimes'. Many participants felt that if the work environment were more employee-friendly their stress level might come down. Back pain was reported by 72.65% of FAs which, according to them, could be largely remedied by being provided with better equipment and user-friendly galleys. Loss of memory was prevalent in 67.47% of FAs studied. 58.42% of FAs suffer from headaches. Stress, loss of memory and headaches seem to share the same etiology such as hypoxia, jetlag and irregular sleep. Diminished hearing, prevalent in 51.37% of FAs, was not a major cause of worry but was largely perceived as an inconvenience.

Conclusions: These occupational health problems of flight attendants require serious and immediate attention.
Needleguard systems: an evaluation
Authors: Sherwood Clive S.
Published: November 2007

Aims: The National Blood Service is responsible for ensuring that the NHS demand for blood products is met. The use of needles forms a fundamental procedure in the collection of blood. A common engineering control used to minimize needlestick injury is a needleguard. This study investigates the effectiveness of needleguards as a risk reduction measure. Injury rates, performance and the effectiveness of training are also addressed.

Methods: The methodology adopted two techniques for collecting data, namely database analysis and questionnaire analysis. In examining the accident database, it was identified that the incidence of needlestick injuries fell when needleguards were introduced in 2001. However, a rise in injuries was observed over the 12 months of 2003.

Results: Although the questionnaire showed that staff directly involved in the collection of blood believed that needleguards act to reduce the risk of injury, they also reported difficulties in the operation of the needleguard system. An association was identified between the perceived quality of training and the reported difficulties. It was also identified that training provided by external organizations had the least effect in reducing the operational difficulties.

Conclusions: The study concludes that the use of needleguards as a successful control measure requires further investigation and that further research should be carried out to ensure the effectiveness of training in reducing injuries.
Mesopic visual efficiency III: Discrimination threshold measurements
Authors: Várady G. , Freiding A. , Eloholma M. , Halonen L. , Walkey H. , Goodman T. , Alferdinck J.
Published: November 2007

The authors represent a research consortium which has adopted a task performance based approach for nighttime driving to obtain mesopic spectral sensitivity functions. This study describes investigations based on discrimination threshold techniques and compares the results with those obtained from detection threshold measurements. It forms a continuation of `Mesopic models — from brightness matching to visual performance in night-time driving: a review'. 1

The achromatic increment contrast threshold for discrimination of a quasi-static target represents the ability to correctly identify a target which has low contrast with the background and is therefore a highly relevant visual task in the context of nighttime driving. The psychophysical experiments reported here are carried out in the laboratory and in dynamic nighttime driving tests.

The spectral sensitivity functions resulting from the discrimination threshold contrast investigations show a significant contribution from the colour-opponent (or chromatic) channels of the visual system. Similar features have been observed in results from investigations using detection threshold techniques.