bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Ethics and information
Authors: Hauptman Robert
Published: November 2008

This article gives a detailed encyclopedic overview of the many areas and concepts that fall within the domain of information ethics. Thus, it offers brief synoptic remarks on, for example, privacy and peer review, rather than in-depth discussions of these topics, many of which have generated thousands of studies, articles, and monographic treatments.
Risk assessment
Authors: Rarity Brian
Published: November 2008

This article reminds us that risk needs to be identified before it can be quantified. It points out that risk models are only as good as the people who devised them and the basic assumption needs to be frequently re-examined. Points out the advantages of using well-researched credit scoring based on current — and not just on statutory filings — and of the value of monitoring trends. It reminds the reader of the valuable risk-relevant information held in corporate trees and of the advisability of discovering what kind of corporate companions any given director has promotes awareness. Aware of the unfortunate effects that the counsel of perfection can have on cash-strapped Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in difficult times — with some suggestions as how to avoid the perfect hamstringing the good.
Organizational change
Authors: Lane Gina
Published: November 2008

Change management is the subject of many books but what is it like to have to lead staff who are finding it difficult? Gina Lane has extensive experience of change in local government, and Non Departmental Public Body and a charity, and in this article provides insight and practical tips for how to support and lead your team as the organization undergoes change.
BL BIPC Column
Authors: Spencer Nigel
Published: November 2008

News from the National:

In this article, Nigel Spencer compares and contrasts his experience of delivering fee-based business information research from 1987 to 2008. Although the article is written from the perspective of the British Library priced research services, many points made could also apply to the changing role of the business information professional.
Why it's not naive to be green
Authors: Gabriel Chris
Published: November 2008

This article aims to promote awareness of the environmental impact of IT. It illustrates the impact of extensive use of IT in homes and organizations, and considers the ways in which a business could address IT efficiency and at the same time benefit from Green IT. It looks at the organizational, process, cultural and ICT efficiencies which Green IT offers. It sets out a best practice framework of five steps for a programme that will after the first stage become part of the standard processes of IT operations. The author draws attention to the responsibility of organizations to audit their information and look at information lifecycle management as a key element of greening IT.
Newspaper Readers in Europe
Authors: Elvestad Eiri , Blekesaune Arild
Published: November 2008

■ This article discusses national and individual differences in newspaper reading in Europe. The study uses comparative data on newspaper reading from 23 European countries from the European Social Survey (ESS). By using a multilevel analysis technique, newspaper reading is analysed from the perspective of both individual and national characteristics. The authors claim the findings of this study could throw new light on Hallin and Mancini's theory of media systems. The analysis shows that individual differences explain most of the variation in newspaper reading, but some of the variance could also be explained as national variance. Age, gender, education level and household income explain differences in newspaper reading, but these variables do not have the same effect in all countries. National-level variables in newspapers' situation, other media use, demography and public opinion also improve the effectiveness of `the newspaper reading in Europe' model. ■
Death Duties
Authors: Brants Kees , Bardoel Jo
Published: November 2008

The suicide of David Kelly in the UK, following revelations by the BBC of questionable treatment by the government with regard to information on Iraq, and the killing of Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands, after intensive TV election coverage was criticized for 'demonizing' the populist politician, have resulted in comparable public outcries and political indignation. Both cases led to a crisis in trust and in similar demands for new arrangements visa-vis the responsibility and accountability of public broadcasting. The actual outcomes, however, differ considerably: a strong (self) regulatory reaction in the UK and a limited government response in the Netherlands.
Syndecan-1 plasma levels during coronary artery bypass surgery with and without cardiopulmonary bypass
Authors: Svennevig K , Hoel TN , Thiara AS , Kolset SO , Castelheim A , Mollnes TE , Brosstad F , Fosse E , Svennevig JL
Published: November 2008

The glycocalyx covering the endothelium is shed during ischemia and reperfusion. The shedding is accompanied by increased levels of the glycocalyx component syndecan-1 in the circulation. Our aim was to compare plasma levels of syndecan-1 in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), with or without the use of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Syndecan-1 plasma concentrations were measured in patients undergoing CABG on-pump (n = 22) or off-pump (n = 22). The syndecan-1 concentration increased significantly from 29.5 ± 4.6 ng/mL at baseline to 98.7 ± 9.8 ng/mL (p < 0.01) after the start of CPB or 30 minutes after the induction of anesthesia in the off-pump group. There were no significant differences in peak syndecan-1 plasma concentrations between on-pump and off-pump patients. Plasma levels of syndecan-1 increased significantly during CABG, with or without the use of CPB. There were no significant differences in syndecan-1 concentrations in the two groups.
Cerebral venous congestion during cardio-pulmonary bypass: role of bispectral index monitoring
Authors: Puri GD , Agarwal J , Solanki A , Rana SS
Published: November 2008

A 58-year-old male patient was posted for double valve replacement under hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). During aortic cross-clamp (AXC), the central venous pressure (CVP) was found to have increased to 22 mmHg. After 4 minutes of sustained increase in CVP, burst suppression (SR) started increasing. After 5 min of increase in SR, bispectral index (BIS) declined rapidly to 17. Propofol infusion was stopped and re-evaluation of signs of facial congestion showed changes to that effect. The perfusionist noted steadily decreasing venous return. As soon as the superior vena cava (SVC) cannula was withdrawn by 3 cm, CVP immediately declined to 6 mmHg. The venous return in the CPB reservoir normalized and BIS returned to 42 after a transient rise to a maximum of 58 and SR decreased to 0 within 2 min of repositioning of the venous cannula. The patient was successfully extubated after 7 hours without any sequelae.
Treatment of accidental hypothermia with cardiopulmonary bypass: a case report
Authors: Binnema R , van der Wal A , Visser C , Schepp R , Jekel L , Schröder P
Published: November 2008

This case report describes the successful treatment of severe accidental hypothermia of a 40-year-old woman. At arrival in the operating theatre her rectal temperature was 23°C, her nasal temperature 21°C and her periferal temperature 14°C. The patient presented with a severe respiratory and metabolic acidosis which was corrected during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). She was rewarmed to obtain a rectal and nasal temperature of 34°C. After 272 minutes, the patient was weaned successfully from CPB. The patient remained at mild hypothermia (34°C) for 24 hours in the intensive care unit (ICU). The chest X-ray showed some signs of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in spite of normal blood gas values. This improved within a few days and, after five days, she was transferred to the nursing department. On the seventh day, the patient was discharged from hospital without physical or neurological complaints.
Family meetings in palliative care: are they effective?
Authors: Hudson P , Thomas T , Quinn K , Aranda S
Published: November 2008

Despite the promotion of family meetings as an essential tool for information sharing and planning in palliative care, minimal evidence exists to show their effectiveness. We sought to rectify this gap in evidence-based practice by evaluating recently developed clinical guidelines for facilitating family meetings. Palliative care nurses were trained to conduct family meetings using the guidelines. To assess the effectiveness of the guidelines, primary family carers who attended a family meeting completed a self-report instrument to measure unmet needs at three time periods: immediately before the meeting (T1), immediately after the meeting (T2) and two days after the meeting (T3). Phone interviews with carers were also conducted at T3. Patients, health professionals and family meeting facilitators were also invited to complete an evaluation form at T2. A focus group was conducted at the end of the project to gain reflections from the family meeting facilitators about their role, re-evaluate the family meeting clinical guidelines and discuss barriers and facilitators for ongoing implementation. Twenty family meetings were conducted at St Vincent’s Hospital (Melbourne, Australia). A total of 42 participants were involved, including 20 family carers, 4 patients and 18 health professionals. Family carers reported a statistically significant increase in having their care needs met, from T1 to T2, which was maintained at T3; they also reported that the meetings were useful. Health professionals and patients advised that the meetings were well facilitated. The results from this pilot study indicate that family meetings, conducted using specific clinical practice guidelines, were useful and effective. However, more research is required to confirm these findings. Strategies for implementation and further research are outlined.
Convexly Stratified Deformation Spaces and Efficient Path Planning for Planar Closed Chains with Revolute Joints
Authors: Li Han  , Rudolph Lee , Blumenthal Jonathon , Valodzin Ihar
Published: November 2008

Systems involving loops have been especially challenging in the study of robotics, partly because of the requirement to maintain loop closure constraints, conventionally formulated as highly nonlinear equations in joint parameters. In this paper, we present our novel triangle-tree-based approach and parameters for planar closed chains with revolute joints. For such a loop, the loop closure constraints are exactly, not approximately, a set of linear inequalities in our new parameters. Further, our new parameters provide ex plicit parametrization of the system deformation space (configuration space modulo the group of rigid motions of the system's ambient space respecting system specifications) and endow it with a nice geometry. More precisely, the deformation space of a generic planar loop with n revolute joints consists of 2n-2 copies of one and the same convex polytope (which, when all of the link lengths are fixed, is bounded and of dimension n - 3), glued together into either one connected component or two (ignoring collision-free constraints), via proper boundary identification. Such a completely solved, stratified space of convex strata will have profound implications for these sys tems and lead to great simplifications in many kinematics related issues. For example, in essence, our approach makes path planning for planar loops with revolute joints no more difficult than for open chains. We also briefly point out the connection and extension of the work presented here to other systems such as spatial loops with spher ical joints and systems involving multiple loops.
Visibility-based Pursuit—Evasion with Bounded Speed
Authors: Tovar Benjamín , LaValle Steven M.
Published: November 2008

In this paper we present a study on the visibility-based pursuit— evasion problem in which bounds on the speeds of the pursuer and evader are given. In this setting, the pursuer tries to find the evader inside a simply connected polygonal environment, and the evader in turn tries to avoid detection. The focus of the paper is to develop a characterization of the set of possible evader positions as a function of time (the reachable sets). This characterization is more complex than the unbounded-speed case, because it no longer depends only on the combinatorial changes in the visibility region of the pursuer. The characterization presented can be used as a filter to keep track of the possible evader's position as a pursuer moves in the environment, or it can be used to guide the construction of the pursuer search strategy. This search algorithm is at least as powerful as a complete algorithm for the unbounded-speed case, and with the knowledge of speed bounds, generates solutions for environments that were unsolvable previously. Given that numerical methods are needed to compute the reachable sets, we also present a conservative approximation which can be computed with a closed formula.
Sampling-based Falsification and Verification of Controllers for Continuous Dynamic Systems
Authors: Peng Cheng  , Kumar Vijay
Published: November 2008

In this paper, we present a sampling-based verification algorithm for embedded robotic systems with continuous dynamics and uncertainty due to adversaries, unmodeled disturbance inputs, unknown parameters, or initial conditions. The algorithm attempts to find inputs (and resulting trajectories) that falsify the specifications of the system thus providing examples of bad inputs to the system. The system is said to be verified if the algorithm cannot find falsifying inputs. The main contribution of the paper is the analysis of the effects of discretization of the state and input spaces that are inherent to sampling-based techniques. We derive conditions that guarantee resolution completeness. These provide sufficient, although conservative, conditions for verifying Lipschitz continuous (but possibly non-smooth) dynamic systems without known analytical solutions. We analyze the effects of transformations of the input and state space on these conditions. The main results of this paper are illustrated with several simple examples.
Motion Planning Under Uncertainty for Image-guided Medical Needle Steering
Authors: Alterovitz Ron , Branicky Michael , Goldberg Ken
Published: November 2008

We develop a new motion planning algorithm for a variant of a Dubins car with binary left/right steering and apply it to steerable needles, a new class of flexible bevel-tip medical needle that physicians can steer through soft tissue to reach clinical targets inaccessible to traditional stiff needles. Our method explicitly considers uncertainty in needle motion due to patient differences and the difficulty in predicting needle/tissue interaction. The planner computes optimal steering actions to maximize the probability that the needle will reach the desired target. Given a medical image with segmented obstacles and target, our method formulates the planning problem as a Markov decision process based on an efficient discretization of the state space, models motion uncertainty using probability distributions and computes optimal steering actions using dynamic programming. This approach only requires parameters that can be directly extracted from images, allows fast computation of the optimal needle entry point and enables intra-operative optimal steering of the needle using the pre-computed dynamic programming look-up table. We apply the method to generate motion plans for steerable needles to reach targets inaccessible to stiff needles, and we illustrate the importance of considering uncertainty during motion plan optimization.
Planning Among Movable Obstacles with Artificial Constraints
Authors: Stilman Mike , Kuffner James
Published: November 2008

In this paper we present artificial constraints as a method for guiding heuristic search in the computationally challenging domain of motion planning among movable obstacles. The robot is permitted to manipulate unspecified obstacles in order to create space for a path. A plan is an ordered sequence of paths for robot motion and object manipulation. We show that under monotone assumptions, anticipating future manipulation paths results in constraints on both the choice of objects and their placements at earlier stages in the plan. We present an algorithm that uses this observation to incrementally reduce the search space and quickly find solutions to previously unsolved classes of movable obstacle problems. Our planner is developed for arbitrary robot geometry and kinematics. It is presented with an implementa tion for the domain of navigation among movable obstacles.
Caging Polygons with Two and Three Fingers
Authors: Vahedi Mostafa , van der Stappen A. Frank
Published: November 2008

We study two- and three-finger caging grasps of a given polygonal object with n edges. A grasp is said to cage an object when it is impossible to take the object to a distant location without penetrating a finger. Using a classification into squeezing and stretching cagings, we provide an algorithm that reports all caging grasps of two disk fingers in O (n2 log n) time. Our result extends and improves a recent solution for point fingers (Pipattanasomporn and Sudsang 2006). In addition, we construct a data structure in O (n2 log n) time requiring O (n2 ) space that can be queried in O (log n) time whether a given two-finger grasp cages the polygon. We also establish a relation between two-finger caging grasps and two-finger immobilizing grasps of polygons without parallel edges. We also study caging grasps with three point fingers. Given the placements of two so-called base fingers, the caging region is the set of all placements of the third finger that jointly with the base fingers forms a caging grasp of a polygonal object. Using the relation between equilibrium grasps and the boundary of the caging region, we present an algorithm that reports the entire caging region in O (n6 log2 n) time. Our result extends a previous solution that only applies to convex polygons (Erickson et al. 2007).
Efficient Cell Labelling and Path Non-existence Computation using C-obstacle Query
Authors: Liangjun Zhang  , Kim Young J. , Manocha Dinesh
Published: November 2008

We present a simple algorithm to check for path non-existence for a low-degree-of-freedom (DOF) robot among static obstacles. Our algorithm is based on approximate cell decomposition of configuration space or C-space. We use C-obstacle cell query to check whether a cell lies entirely inside the C-obstacle region. This reduces the path non-existence problem to checking whether a path exists through the set of all cells that do not lie entirely inside the C-obstacle region. We present a simple and efficient algorithm to perform C-obstacle cell query using generalized penetration depth computation. Our algorithm is simple to implement and we demonstrate its performance on three-DOF and four-DOF robots.
Affect and the Rise of the Self-Regulating Market
Authors: Gammon Earl
Published: November 2008

This article outlines a post-rationalist approach to international political economy that factors in the role of affect in social causation. There are key historical junctures where social transformations cannot be neatly explained by instrumental logics, such as the profit motive or the pursuit of increasing productive efficiency. Affect, in the form of anxiety and aggression, overdetermines social behaviour in ways that belie conventional notions of rationality, premised on a clear ordering of needs or preferences by social actors. This analysis specifically reassesses the role of affect in the rise of market civilisation in Britain in the early part of the nineteenth century. It critiques Karl Polanyi's account, which privileges technology and pecuniary greed as the expedients of the institution of the self-regulating market. As an alternative, this article explains the rise of the self-regulating market as a retributive mechanism, whereby the market became conceived as a means of punishing and disciplining social behaviour in the early Victorian period. The market, I argue, was an aggressive response to anxiety that plagued Victorian society regarding social order, an anxiety precipitated by the waning belief in a natural moral economy guided by the hand of Providence.
Neoliberal Governance of States: The Role of Competitiveness Indexing and Country Benchmarking
Authors: Fougner Tore
Published: November 2008

This article engages in a critical analysis of two of the most influential contemporary economic publications — namely, the competitiveness reports published annually by the World Economic Forum and the International Institute for Management Development. Drawing on Michel Foucault's work on governmentality, it emphasises the governmental work that these reports do in relation to ongoing efforts aimed at governing states in a neoliberal fashion. In and through competitiveness indexing and country benchmarking, they are argued to contribute not only to constitute states as flexible market subjects, but also to guide their `rational' conduct thus constituted. Acknowledging that there is nothing natural or given about states striving to improve their `national competitiveness', the article concludes with some broader reflections on the future prospects for neoliberal governance of states.
Narrative Explanation and International Relations: Back to Basics
Authors: Suganami Hidemi
Published: November 2008

One of the central concerns of International Relations (IR), as well as International History (IH), is to explain how a given event came to occur. However, the importance and effectiveness of narrative as explanation is often neglected in IR. By focusing on the structure and role of narrative causal accounts, this article argues that drawing a distinction between IR and IH on the basis of their treatment of narrative is senseless. In the course of the discussion, a number of standard philosophical distinctions underpinning mainstream IR are challenged: in particular, reasons and causes, understanding and explanation, history and social science, and history and theory. It contends that the historical mode of knowledge production is indispensable to IR in addressing its substantive issues. However, it also warns that if IR is to take advantage of history in this way, it should also take seriously the epistemological and political critique of history and the narrative mode of representation. It ends by taking a critical glance at the works of Hollis and Smith, Lebow, and Edkins, and identifies a number of important meta-historical questions that need to be addressed in order to deepen our understanding of our ways of knowing world politics.
Libraries Driving Access to Knowledge: a discussion paper
Authors: Tise Ellen R. , Raju Reggie , Masango Charles
Published: November 2008

Libraries are critical contributors to knowledge generation. The paper provides a brief examination of the evolution of libraries and their contribution to literacy and information provision and access to that information. However, the mode of access has significantly changed, which has brought with it a different set of challenges. These include, among others, the dismantling of barriers to access in an era of information explosion and the moral obligation to drive access to knowledge and information. This paper was prepared as a discussion document for the Presidentelect's Brainstorming Session held at the recent IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Québec City, Canada on 12 August 2008.
The Public Library in Contemporary Nigeria: challenges and the way forward
Authors: Opara Umunna N.
Published: November 2008

This paper examines the state of public libraries in Nigeria. It states that the tempo of public library development in the country in the years immediately after independence, and after the Nigerian civil war could not be sustained due to inadequate financial support by the establishing authorities. The paper identifies inadequate funding, demoralized and inadequate workforce, inadequate accommodation, etc. as the challenges currently confronting these libraries. It proposes a remediation of these conditions as a way forward.
The hormesis concept and risk assessment: are there unique ethical and policy considerations?
Authors: Hoffmann GR , Stempsey WE
Published: November 2008

The hormesis concept holds that low doses of toxic substances and radiation elicit modest biological responses opposite to those caused by higher doses of the same agents. This concept stands in contrast to the prevailing views that a threshold model predicts most responses to toxicants at low doses and that linear extrapolation best predicts mutagenic and carcinogenic responses. Beyond the scientific considerations, there has been concern that inclusion of the hormesis model in risk assessment would raise complex ethical questions, pose serious challenges for policy makers, and threaten public safety. This article briefly reviews the growing evidence for hormesis and offers a perspective on the related ethical and societal issues. Complexities stem from the nature of biphasic curves, in which biological responses fall both above and below background levels. The monotonic responses of the threshold and linear models lend themselves to a single policy objective – avoiding harm associated with exposures. The biphasic responses of the hormesis model, however, suggest the possibility of accruing benefit as well as avoiding harm. The prospect of applying the hormesis model to public health policy is impeded by insufficient ability to identify the hormetic and toxic zones with precision. Moreover, heterogeneity among individuals in susceptibility to toxicants suggests that benefit and risk may be distributed unequally in the population. The potential shift in policy objectives associated with hormesis is considered relative to the difficulty of balancing the ethical principles of nonmaleficence and beneficence while maintaining a higher priority on the former.
Risks to health and risks to science: the need for a responsible “bioevidential” scrutiny
Authors: Mayo DG , Spanos A
Published: November 2008

Ethical issues of evidence relevant for risk policy are not adequately addressed if divorced from issues of the responsible interpretation of the risk evidence itself. Evidence for hormetic hypotheses are based on data that disagree with a null hypothesis asserting H0: zero (0) improvement (at low doses). We critically evaluate some of the reasoning and the procedures used by leading proponents of hormesis, and suggest how potential errors may be avoided.
The ethics of hormesis – no fuss?
Authors: Sandin P
Published: November 2008

It has been argued that the phenomenon of hormesis should prompt us to revise current regulatory policy in order to take beneficial effects of small doses of various agents into account. I argue that three problems – the comparative smallness of hormetic effects, the fine-tuning problem, and the problem of aggregated actions – should lead us not to overemphasize the importance of hormesis for policy, and that they, if anything, points towards a non-consequentialist approach to the ethics of risk.
An ethical appraisal of hormesis: toward a rational discourse on the acceptability of risks and benefits
Authors: Renn O
Published: November 2008

Hormesis has been defined as a dose-response relationship in which there is a stimulatory response at low doses but an inhibiting response at high doses, resulting in a U- or inverted U-shaped dose response. Until now, regulatory agencies have been reluctant to address this new insight or adjusted their routines for regulating such substances. Should regulators change their principles of decision making and standard setting in the light of the new insights from hormesis research? To answer this question, it is essential to review the ethical implications of hormesis in risk assessment and management. What kind of values should goven the regulation of substances and radiation that may cause positive and negative impacts at the same time (depending on dose and individual variability)? This article tries to address this problem. It deals with the basic ethical principles and foundations of risk management and introduces the essentials of ethics and the application of ethical principles to judging the acceptability of risks to humans and the environment. It will also discuss the merits of an analytic deliberative approach to evaluating complex risks and address the application of this discursive methods to risk management taking into account the hormesis challenge.
Increased arterial stiffness correlated with disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus
Authors: Shang Q , Tam LS , Li EKM , Yip GWK , Yu CM
Published: November 2008

To evaluate the relationships between arterial stiffness, disease activity and end-organ damage in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), non-invasive vascular assessments were made on 32 female SLE patients and 32 female normal controls. The patients had significantly increased brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (PWV) (13.06 ± 1.79 vs. 11.50 ± 1.00 m/s; P < 0.001), heart-ankle PWV (8.98 ± 1.16 vs. 7.88 ± 0.73 m/s; P < 0.001), carotid augmentation index (AI) (21.6 ± 17.2% vs. 5.4 ± 14.0%; P = 0.001) and carotid intima-medial thickness (IMT) (0.753 ± 0.132 vs. 0.644 ± 0.092 mm; P = 0.002) when compared with controls. The disease activity and organ damage were evaluated by SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI) and systemic lupus international collaborating clinics (SLICC) damage index. Patients with active disease (SLEDAI ≥ 3) had significantly higher carotid AI (34.4 ± 9.7% vs. 17.8 ± 17.3%, P < 0.05) than stable ones (SLEDAI < 3) and those with organ damage (SLICC ≥ 1) had significantly higher heart-ankle PWV (9.69 ± 1.13 vs. 8.61 ± 1.02 m/s, P < 0.05) than those with SLICC = 0. After making adjustments for age, body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure, carotid AI was found to show correlation with SLEDAI and haPWV with SLICC. A carotid AI value of 33.3% identified SLEDAI ≥ 3 with a sensitivity of 83% and a specificity of 80%, whereas a heart-ankle PWV value of 9.0 m/s identified SLICC ≥ 1 with a sensitivity of 91% and a specificity of 67%. In conclusion, SLE was an independent risk factor of sub-clinical atherosclerosis and arterial stiffness may identify the presence of active disease.
Linear variant of chronic cutaneous lupus erythematosus: a clue for the pathogenesis of chronic cutaneous lupus erythematosus?
Authors: Seitz CS , Bröcker EB , Trautmann A
Published: November 2008

Lesions of chronic cutaneous lupus erythematosus usually occur in a discoid pattern as erythematous, well-defined, scaly patches affecting face and scalp. The linear variant of chronic cutaneous lupus erythematosus is an exceptional clinical variation with band-like arranged lesions along the lines of Blaschko which represent the developmental growth pattern of embryonic ectodermal cells. Therefore, this unusual clinical observation may provide additional clues for the pathogenesis of chronic cutaneous lupus erythematosus. It is intriguing to hypothesize that linear lesions of chronic cutaneous lupus erythematosus may be caused by increased susceptibility of resident skin cells due to mutations of genes in early embryogenesis.
Cerebellar ataxia in systemic lupus erythematosus
Authors: Appenzeller S , Cendes F , Costallat LTL
Published: November 2008

Neuropsychiatric manifestations are commonly observed in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients; however, cerebellar involvement has rarely been reported. In the presence of acute cerebellar ataxia, etiologies related (focal edema and ischemia) and not related (infections, malignancy and paraneoplastic syndromes) to lupus have to be considered and they imply different treatment strategies. We report the clinical and radiological features of 3 SLE patients who presented with acute cerebellar ataxia. A review of the literature was performed by documenting cases of cerebellar ataxia in SLE and the importance of neuroimaging in the evaluation of these patients.
Accelerated atherosclerosis is independent of feeding high fat diet in systemic lupus erythematosus–susceptible LDLr−/− mice
Authors: Braun NA , Wade NS , Wakeland EK , Major AS
Published: November 2008

Individuals suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are predisposed to accelerate cardiovascular disease. Our laboratory has recently developed an animal model of SLE-accelerated atherosclerosis. We have shown that, following 8 weeks feeding high fat Western diet, radiation chimeras consisting of SLE-derived haematopoietic cells transferred to low-density lipoprotein (LDL)r−/− mice (LDLr. Sle) have increased atherosclerosis compared with C57Bl/6 bone marrow recipients (LDLr.B6). However, this feeding regimen resulted in significant mortality in SLE-susceptible mice compared with controls with surviving animals having extremely elevated serum cholesterol (>500 mg/dL) and increased serum markers of kidney pathology. To test the hypothesis that SLE-associated autoimmune dysregulation can exacerbate atherosclerosis under more mild serum cholesterol conditions (approximately 200 mg/dL), we examined SLE and lesion development in radiation chimeras fed either a normal chow or high fat Western diet for 8 weeks. High fat fed LDLr. Sle mice exhibited increased mortality and were significantly more hypertensive. LDLr. Sle mice had greater titres of antibodies against dsDNA, oxLDL and phospholipid compared with controls. Lupus-susceptibility increased the atherosclerotic lesions and the percentage of CD4+ T cells in the lesions of proximal aortas, independent of diet. These data show that increased dyslipidemia resulting from high-fat feeding can exacerbate autoimmunity and associated vascular complications. Conversely, they also show that autoimmune dysregulation can accelerate atherosclerosis in LDLr-deficient animals independent of feeding high fat diet. Collectively this study provides additional evidence that the accelerated atherosclerosis observed in SLE is autoimmune associated.
Acupuncture for systemic lupus erythematosus: a pilot RCT feasibility and safety study
Authors: Greco CM , Kao AH , Maksimowicz-McKinnon K , Glick RM , Houze M , Sereika SM , Balk J , Manzi S
Published: November 2008

The objective of this study was to determine the feasibility of studying acupuncture in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and to pilot test the safety and explore benefits of a standardized acupuncture protocol designed to reduce pain and fatigue. Twenty-four patients with SLE were randomly assigned to receive 10 sessions of either acupuncture, minimal needling or usual care. Pain, fatigue and SLE disease activity were assessed at baseline and following the last sessions. Safety was assessed at each session. Fifty-two patients were screened to enroll 24 eligible and interested persons. Although transient side effects, such as brief needling pain and lightheadedness, were reported, no serious adverse events were associated with either the acupuncture or minimal needling procedures. Twenty-two participants completed the study, and the majority (85%) of acupuncture and minimal needling participants were able to complete their sessions within the specified time period of 5–6 weeks. 40% of patients who received acupuncture or minimal needling had ≥30% improvement on standard measures of pain, but no usual care patients showed improvement in pain. A ten-session course of acupuncture appears feasible and safe for patients with SLE. Benefits were similar for acupuncture and minimal needling.
Resistance to Technological Innovation in Elite Sport
Authors: Trabal Patrick
Published: November 2008

In 1998, the French Canoe and Kayak Federation embarked on the creation of a new kayak. However, there was concern it would not succeed in its venture due to `social resistance'. This article aims therefore to reveal the social characteristics of those showing opposition to technological innovation, as well as those who are calling for it, and to determine the reasons behind reticence. A questionnaire was handed out to elite athletes, and interviews conducted with national coaches. The results show that, contrary to preliminary hypotheses, all athletes (including those of flat water racing) generally view such a project in a favourable light. The coaches express different types of `resistance' — a term which should be used with caution, as it suggests legitimacy and faith in progress — which have less to do with the social position of the actors than with criticism of past and present policies of the Federation.
The Establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency
Authors: Hanstad Dag Vidar , Smith Andy , Waddington Ivan
Published: November 2008

This article examines the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which was established following the World Conference on Doping in Sport convened by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and held in Lausanne in 1999. More specifically, the article draws upon Elias's game models to analyse: i) the way in which the IOC sought to manage this process of change in such a way that its longstanding position as the world's leading anti-doping organization would be reinforced; and ii) the IOC's inability to control this process, with the result that the IOC failed to achieve any of its objectives, its position as the world's anti-doping organization was actually undermined, and world leadership passed to a new organization which had a significant measure of independence from the IOC.
Lessons From Ximelagatran: Issues for Future Studies Evaluating New Oral Direct Thrombin Inhibitors for Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis in Orthopedic Surgery
Authors: Lazo-Langner Alejandro , Rodger Marc A. , Wells Philip S.
Published: November 2008

Venous thromboembolism is a frequent complication of total hip and knee replacement requiring prophylaxis with anticoagulants. A direct thrombin inhibitor— ximelagatran—did not show advantages over other anticoagulants and it was withdrawn from the market; however, new drugs are being developed. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to identify conditions under which ximelagatran might potentially be superior to current standards. Medline, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and grey literature were screened for randomized trials comparing ximelagatran with warfarin or low-molecular-weight heparin for thromboprophylaxis in total hip or knee replacement. Two reviewers independently assessed and extracted data. A meta-analysis with especial attention to statistical heterogeneity was conducted. This study suggested that the risk-benefit profile of ximelagatran—and probably other similar agents— depends on the type of surgery, the initial timing of administration, and probably the dose. These issues should be explicitly explored in future trials evaluating new direct thrombin inhibitors.
Hypercomplementemia at relapse in patients with anti-aquaporin-4 antibody
Authors: Doi H , Matsushita T , Isobe N , Matsuoka T , Minohara M , Ochi H , Kira JI
Published: November 2008

Objective

Because Asian patients with opticospinal multiple sclerosis (OSMS) frequently have anti-aquaporin-4 (AQP4) antibody, complement-mediated disruption of astrocyte foot processes is proposed but not yet proven. We aimed to clarify whether complement consumption occurs at relapse in anti-AQP4 antibody-positive patients.

Methods

We analyzed serum CH50, C3, C4, and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels and their relation to clinical phases in 118 MS patients with or without anti-AQP4 antibody. Serum CH50 levels were higher in 24 patients with anti-AQP4 antibody than in 39 OSMS and 54 conventional form of MS (CMS) patients without anti-AQP4 antibody at relapse ( Pcorr < 0.05) but not in remission. The frequency of hypercomplementemia at relapse was also higher in anti-AQP4 antibody-positive patients than in anti-AQP4 antibody-negative CMS patients (70.4% vs 29.0%, Pcorr < 0.05). C3 and C4 levels did not differ significantly among the three groups at relapse. In patients with anti-AQP4 antibody, the coexistence of hypercomplementemia and high CRP values was more common at relapse than in the remission phase (36.0% vs 10.5%, P < 0.05). In patients with extensive central nervous system lesions, hypercomplementemia was significantly more common in anti-AQP4 antibody-positive patients than anti-AQP4 antibody-negative ones (88.9% vs 16.7%, P < 0.01). We consider that hypercomplementemia in anti-AQP4 antibody-positive patients may reflect a systemic inflammatory reaction at relapse.
Human-Biometeorological Effects on Sleep Disturbances in Athens, Greece: A Preliminary Evaluation
Authors: Nastos Panagiotis T. , Matzarakis Andreas
Published: November 2008

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of the daily minimum air temperature and human-biometeorological variables, as well as their day-to-day changes, on sleep disturbances (SD) in the inhabitants of Athens, Greece. The SD dataset used for the analysis included the daily records of the psychiatric emergency unit of the Athens University Medical School for the years 1989 (with mild thermal load) and 1994 (with heavy thermal load). The meteorological variables for the estimation of the thermal indices were recorded by the meteorological station of Hellenikon, which is located at the headquarters of the Hellenic National Weather Service. The mean radiant temperature ( T mrt) and the thermal indices predicted mean vote (PMV), physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) and standard effective temperature (SET*) have been analyzed. The first step was to assess the SD frequencies as a function of the meteorological and human-biometeorological variables on the basis of 10-day intervals to determine the influence of the examined variables on SD. The daily SD records were included as Poisson random variables in the applied Generalized Linear Models (GLM). The extracted results suggested that a considerable increase in SD existed in 1994 compared to 1989. This was due to the many consecutive days with heavy thermal load (PET >35°C and Tmin >23°C) in 1994 compared to the lack of such days in 1989. Furthermore, statistically significant ( p<0.01) positive relationships were found between minimum air temperature, all thermal indices and SD.
Examination of Personal Factors in Work Accidents
Authors: Işsever Halim , Özdilli Kürsat , Önen Levent , Tan Oktay , Dişçi Rian , Yardιmcι Oktay
Published: November 2008

Accidents, by their nature, are sudden events that may cause physical and emotional damage. There are usually several reasons for accidents. In general, the causes of accidents at work may be divided into two. First, unsafe conditions; second, attitudes to the work that cannot be guaranteed. It is the second cause that shows that in spite of good working conditions personal characteristics are very important factors in work accidents.

This research examines the effect of personal factors on work accidents in a safe work place where 1200 workers work. Our experimental group of research participants were 50 injured workers who came to the infirmary in May—June 2000. The participants' demographic properties were determined with the help of a questionnaire, then they were given the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), a Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), the Benton Visual Retention Test, the Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI). A control group was formed from 150 randomly chosen workers who worked at the same place. The same tests were administered to the control group with a one to one interview technique.

At the end of the evaluations it was found the injured experimental group participants had lower scores in Benton's test, higher scores in the EPQ questions on neuroticism and 24 h general tiredness. Differences between the experimental and control groups were statistically significant ( p<0.05). There were no significant differences for other variables ( p>0.05).

As a result, we believe work entrance health examinations should be given more importance for those work places which have a high risk of accidents. Work entrance must depend on evaluation of the personal characteristics of workers.
Simulation of Recurring Automated Inspections on Probability-of-Fracture Estimates
Authors: Shook B.D. , Millwater H.R. , Enright M.P. , Hudak S.J. , Francis W.L.
Published: November 2008

On-board sensors that can detect and size a crack in a structural component are being developed and will be deployed to enhance structural health monitoring and prognosis. This research examines the simulation of recurring automated inspections resulting from simulated on-board `crack' sensors, and their potential effect on reducing the probability-of-fracture of structural components. The concept of a probability-of-detection (POD) curve is used to characterize the performance of the sensor, as done for traditional inspections. However, we assert that, unlike the simulation of traditional infrequent inspections, recurring inspections for an automated system should be modeled as dependent with respect to the first inspection due to the largely repeatable aspects of the sensor and data collection system. This assertion has a large effect on the computed probability of detecting a crack and alleviates the substantial over prediction of sensor efficacy generated using the assumption of independent inspections for automated systems. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the fundamental feature that determines the efficacy of a recurring automated on-board sensor is the probability of detecting a crack of critical size, i.e., the size that will cause fracture, and this feature is by and large separate from the shape of the POD curve. This information can be used to determine the required accuracy of an on-board automated inspection to achieve a specified reliability of a structural component. The methodology is demonstrated using fatigue and fracture of a representative titanium compressor disk from a gas turbine aircraft engine but is applicable to any structural system with recurring automated inspections.
Voices from the field
Authors: Cunningham W. Scott
Published: November 2008

Numerous accounts of the difficulties encountered in research collaborations can be found in the extant literature. Most of these accounts, however, are from the perspective of academically based researchers. Comparatively little is known about how agency staff respond to these initiatives. To address this gap in knowledge, the article describes the challenges encountered during a research collaboration from the perspective of agency participants. Interviews were conducted with agency staff who have partnered with a university-based research team in an attempt to implement a continual learning system in their agencies. Despite taking great care to set up the project in a way that was intended to foster collaboration, the project encountered some difficulties over the course of its first three years. The article concludes with suggestions for both the implementation of research collaborations and research on the endeavors themselves.
Chronic cough – occupational considerations
Authors: Barber CM , Fishwick D
Published: November 2008

Chronic cough is a common symptom in a wide range of respiratory conditions, and may also occur as a result of upper airway or gastro-esophageal problems. Whilst chronic cough of any cause may be exacerbated by work, in some cases it has a direct occupational cause, resulting from a harmful acute or chronic workplace exposure. Such occupational conditions may only be suspected by taking a detailed occupational history, and directly asking employed patients whether their cough improves away from work. Early and accurate diagnosis, linked with tailored drug therapy, modification of workplace exposures, and expert compensation advice is likely to offer the best outcome for this group of patients.