bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Employment in the public and private sectors: toward a confusing hybridization process
Authors: Emery Yves , Giauque David
Published: December 2005

The aim of this article is to provide a better insight into the trend towards hybridization of the public and private spheres. More specifically, its focus is to gain a better understanding of the similarities and differences between employment in the public and private sectors in the wake of recent changes. Public sector reforms within OECD countries have largely been inspired by principles and tools used in private enterprise. Most countries, as a result of financial and budgetary crises, want to modernize their public administration to make it more successful, efficient and effective. Moreover, we are witnessing the development of problem areas which are novel in the public sector, but familiar to the commercial sector. This article accordingly analyses the effects of this trend towards the integration of the public and private sectors in order to show its advantages and limitations for public sector employment.
Strategies for Cultural Renewal in an American-Based Version of African Globalism
Authors: Temple Christel N.
Published: December 2005

The United States is a prime setting for African cultural renewal because it offers a dynamic set of human and technological variables that can link our present to the foundations of our classical African past. The most recent human variables to include in modern strategies for success are the masses of recent immigrants from Africa. In a historical perspective of renewal, it would seem that because Africans can now voluntarily migrate to the United States, they would consider this a unique opportunity for expanding collaborative African globalism. Unfortunately, there is discord between newly arrived African groups and the traditional African American groups. However, the technological variables of the modern era can help to bridge the cultural gap between African Americans, Africans, and the classical African past. There are also perspectives available in literature that function within a social science context and offer additional strategies for a post-Western renewal.
The Marketing of Megalomania: Celebrity, Consumption and the Development of Political Technology in the British Union of Fascists
Authors: Gottlieb Julie
Published: December 2005

This article offers a reassessment of British fascist politics during the 1930s by shifting the empirical focus away from area studies and investigations of policy and ideology to the reading of the movement’s visual culture, its relations with the media, and its development of a distinctive material culture and innovative political technologies. It seeks to place the BUF within its own national and metropolitan context by adopting an approach informed by cultural history to extremist politics in the 1930s. Critical discourses about British fascism appropriated the language of popular culture to describe and understand the phenomenon of the BUF. The movement was clearly not to be understood only as the next phase in the history of party formation, and thus the language of high politics was either inappropriate or insufficient to conceptualize the movement. Instead, the BUF seemed to represent a merger between a politics of provocation and the new lexicon of cinema and celebrity, a protean movement that blurred the lines between high politics and popular culture. Mosley was described as a dog track promoter, a pantomime character and a swash-buckling movie star. His meetings rivalled the cinema, and his followers were figured as ‘fans’. This examination of the BUF’s cultural production and cultural responses to the movement invites us to problematize the easy dichotomy between left-wing modernism and extreme-right anti-modernism, and to ponder whether the BUF represented political innovation despite political failure.
The Katyn Massacre and Polish-Soviet Relations, 1941-43
Authors: Sanford George
Published: December 2005

Polish-Soviet relations went through three periods during the second world war. Between 1939 and 1941, the nazi-Soviet allies destroyed the Polish state while the Soviets extinguished Polish influence in the Eastern Territories which they had occupied in September 1939. After April 1943 Stalin marginalized the ‘London’ Poles and asserted his favoured eastern frontier while his pro-Soviet forces took over Poland. In the middle period of formal Polish-Soviet relations between the nazi invasion of the USSR in June 1941 and Stalin’s breaking-off of diplomatic relations as a result of the German revelation of Katyn in April 1943, Sikorski’s government-in-exile and the Western Allies attempted to establish a genuine London Polish-Soviet understanding. Post-communist documentation now allows a full appreciation of the role played by Stalin’s massacre of 14,700 Polish PoWs (aka Katyn), mainly officers and policemen, held in three NKVD-run special camps and executed in three separate execution locales in April-May 1940. Admitting responsibility for the massacre was not an option for Stalin as it would have weakened his regime’s legitimacy and bargaining position and alerted Western élites and public opinion to its totalitarian character. Why the Western Allies went along with this remains highly controversial, as it involves revised judgments about both the morality and effectiveness of their warfighting strategy during the second world war and its consequences for the postwar settlement.
The Language of Resistance? Czech Jokes and Joke-telling under Nazi Occupation, 1943-45
Authors: Bryant Chad
Published: December 2005

This article analyses jokes that Czech informants transmitted to their London government in exile from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, a nazi rump state carved from the former Czechoslovakia in March 1939. The first half of the article explores the informants’ claims that jokes constituted a particular form of resistance [ odboj] and Czech nationalism in the face of an oppressive and ‘Germanizing’ nazi regime. The second half of the article complicates the informants’ interpretations, suggesting other ways in which we might understand Czech jokes and joke-telling under nazi rule. At times the Czechs’ ‘resistance’ was individual, personal and local, not necessarily part of any collective, national project. Further, jokes show that ambiguity and uncertainty constituted the essence of everyday life for most Czechs in the Protectorate. While challenging the resistance/collaboration and Czech/German dichotomies that have informed history writing on the Protectorate, the article proposes a different approach to the study of everyday life and experience under occupation, and not just in the nazi-controlled Czechlands.
Understanding the ‘War on Terrorism’: Responses to 11 September 2001
Authors: Gray Jacqueline M. , Wilson Margaret A.
Published: December 2005

This study investigates how people interpret the war on terrorism that commenced as a result of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. The utilitarian and retributive philosophies of punishment and the international relations approach to deterrence provide a framework for understanding the ways in which the war on terrorism may be construed. The participants were 178 British university students. The literature suggests that messages of deterrence and revenge have potentially opposite outcomes in terms of the behaviour of the targeted audience. This study identified five different messages that could be conveyed by the range of possible reprisals that could be taken in response to terrorist attacks: negotiation with terrorists; military action against terrorists; diplomacy with countries supporting terrorists; economic sanctions; and military action or use of weapons of mass destruction against countries supporting terrorists. All types of reprisal were understood as demonstrating that terrorism would not be tolerated, and none was interpreted as communicating that terrorism would be eliminated. Non-military responses of diplomacy and negotiation were interpreted as deterrence, whereas the more severe military sanctions were interpreted as revenge. It is suggested that there may be a discrepancy between intended and conveyed messages of government responses to terrorist action. Further research is required, but the findings of this study suggest that the nature of government responses to terrorism could have implications for public support for the war on terrorism and future counter-terrorism policies.
Special Data Feature; The Severity of the Colombian Conflict: Cross-Country Datasets Versus New Micro-Data
Authors: Restrepo Jorge A. , Spagat Michael , Vargas Juan F.
Published: December 2005

This article compares the treatment of Colombia in large cross-country conflict datasets with the information of a unique dataset on the Colombian conflict (CERAC). The big datasets display a strong tendency to record fewer killings than does CERAC. Moreover, when the big datasets provide annual time series on the conflict, these figures look either erratic or flat compared to CERAC’s and often move in different directions. The article also examines the criteria of the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) for dataset inclusion and finds them considerably more restrictive than CERAC’s. The primary differences are that UCDP generally excludes attacks purely on civilians and any activity of illegal right-wing paramilitary groups. It is argued here that these omissions impoverish our perception of many civil wars. A calculated modified series based on UCDP methodology and CERAC raw information closes 56% of the gap between the two approaches. The remainder appears to derive mainly from a number of small events in CERAC but not UCDP, reflecting the limits of English-language press coverage of Colombia, upon which UCDP data is based. The gap with other big datasets is also closed. The dynamics of the lower-bound UCDP curve clearly resemble the modified CERAC curve, so UCDP does reasonably well on its own terms. A brief Northern Ireland case study is consistent with our Colombia conclusions. The article concludes with a recommendation for conflict researchers to prioritize the construction of more micro-datasets that will facilitate detailed studies of conflict intensity and its dynamics.
Global Leadership and Global Health: Contending Meta-narratives, Divergent Responses, Fatal Consequences
Authors: Ingram Alan
Published: December 2005

Global health problems are often framed as common challenges confronting humanity, and while political commitment and resources have recently increased, a number of faultlines run through efforts to mount collective responses. Although the United States has staked its claim to leadership in the fight against disease, its actions diverge in several key respects from much of the international community, undermining the effectiveness of global efforts. These divergences can be traced to domestic politics, and are related to three debates of significance for international relations more generally: on global governance, models of globalisation, and relationships between development and security. In this article US approaches are contrasted in each of these dimensions with those of the UK, which has been active in promoting its own vision. The prospects for overcoming current limitations are examined on two levels: the technocratic, and the ideological and political. Developments on both levels are evaluated in light of events early in the second term of the Bush administration. In conclusion, it is suggested that there are two contending meta-narratives underlying the faultlines in global health.
The resource-based view of the firm: Ten years after 1991
Authors: Barney Jay , Wright Mike , Ketchen David J.
Published: December 2005

At present, the resource-based view of the firm is perhaps the most influential framework for understanding strategic management. In this editor’s introduction, we briefly describe the contributions to knowledge provided by the commentaries and articles contained in this issue. In addition, we outline some additional areas of research wherein the resource-based view can be gainfully deployed.
Human resources and the resource based view of the firm
Authors: Wright Patrick M. , Dunford Benjamin B. , Snell Scott A.
Published: December 2005

The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm has influenced the field of strategic human resource management (SHRM) in a number of ways. This paper explores the impact of the RBV on the theoretical and empirical development of SHRM. It explores how the fields of strategy and SHRM are beginning to converge around a number of issues, and proposes a number of implications of this convergence.
The resource-based view and marketing: The role of market-based assets in gaining competitive advantage
Authors: Srivastava Rajendra K. , Fahey Liam , Christensen H. Kurt
Published: December 2005

This article posits a framework that shows how market-based assets and capabilities are leveraged via market-facing or core business processes to deliver superior customer value and competitive advantages. These value elements and competitive advantages can be leveraged to result in superior corporate performance and shareholder value and reinvested to nurture market-based assets and capabilities in the future. The article also illustrates how resource-based view (RBV) and marketing considerations in the context of generating and sustaining customer value can refine and extend each other’s traditional frames of analysis. Finally, the article posits a set of research directions designed to enable scholars to further advance the integration of RBV and marketing from both theory-driven practice management as well as a problem-driven theory development perspectives.
The resource-based view and international business
Authors: Peng Mike W.
Published: December 2005

The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm has become an influential theoretical perspective in recent international business (IB) research. Tracking the evolution of the RBV literature in IB, this article has three objectives. First, it documents the extent to which the RBV has diffused to IB research. Second, it explains the rationale behind such diffusion. Finally, it provides a state-of-the-art review of the substantive work through a proposed organizing framework, focusing on multinational management, strategic alliances, market entries, international entrepreneurship, and emerging markets strategies. Overall, a broad, expanding, and cumulative knowledge base is emerging to connect IB and strategy research through the RBV. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of such a development in the intellectual marketplace, with an emphasis on future research directions.
Explaining Suspect Resistance in Police-Citizen Encounters
Authors: Belvedere Kimberly , Worrall John L. , Tibbetts Stephen G.
Published: December 2005

The authors analyzed police records to explore why suspects resist arrest. The analysis was based on a sample of 400 police reports from a mid-size urban police department in Southern California. Two hundred cases involved suspects who were charged with resisting arrest. The remaining 200 cases involved arrested suspects who did not resist. The authors used logistic regression to explore the association between several demographic factors and a binary outcome measuring suspect resistance. They found that suspects arrested in police beats characterized by a disproportionate number of calls for service were more likely to resist. They further found that Black suspects were more likely to resist relative to their White and Hispanic counterparts. The authors also explored interaction effects.
Weeding Criminals or Planting Fear
Authors: Bridenball Blaine , Jesilow Paul
Published: December 2005

This study employed a quasi-experimental design to test the effect of a “Weed and Seed” program in a Santa Ana, California, neighborhood. The authors were specifically interested in learning how it affected the residents’attitudes about their neighborhood and their fear of crime. Interviews were conducted before and after a major “gang sweep” and Seeding in a targeted community. The results of the analyses failed to reveal any positive effects of the program on residents’ attitudes and may have had the unintended consequence of enhancing citizens’ fears of gang activity and crime.
Hidden Literacies and Inquiry Approaches of Bilingual High School Writers
Authors: Villalva Kerry Enright
Published: December 2005

This article presents findings from case studies of two Latina bilingual high school writers engaged in a year-long research and writing project. Both young women demonstrated unique patterns related to their approaches to inquiry and performance of literacy practices. By using an ecological framework to integrate a multiple literacies perspective into the study, the author argues that both young women engaged in “hidden literacies” that indicated potential toward the development of academic English. The article closes with suggestions for a reframing of common approaches to the study of academic English.
Photo-Heat Transition of Coatings Derived from Furfural Resin and Fe2 O3 Nanoparticles
Authors: Gang Liu , Yan-Feng Li , Lin-Cheng Zhou , Bo-Nian Li , Xue-Hu Men , Xian-Zhen Li
Published: December 2005

A composite coating based on furfural matrix resin and Fe2O3 nanoparticles was prepared by the ultrasonic mixing of furfural with Fe2O3 nanoparticles. Coatings obtained from this mixture exhibited improved photo-heat transition properties. The composition, structure and properties of the composite coating were investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and spectrophotometry. The TEM results indicated that the size of resulting Fe2O3 particles were in the range of 50 to 100 nm. The initial decomposition temperature of the composite coating was 250°C. The solar absorptivity (αs) of the composite coatings was as high as 90%, and its emission rate (εn) was reduced to 56%, while the relative eff iciency of light-heat transition (αs/εnK) was about 1.6. The nanocomposite coatings exhibited excellent abrasion resistance, weatherability and water resistance due to the formation of a three-dimensional network structure during the thermal curing process. The results indicate that the nanocomposite material could be used as a solar light-heat transition coating that could be employed in solar hot-water collection.
Static Torsion and Torsion Fatigue of UHMW-PE and Aramid Filaments
Authors: Liu Xiaoyan , Yu Weidong , Yu Weidong
Published: December 2005

The effects of pre-tension and torsion angle on the torsion fatigue lifetimes of high performance fibers (HPFs), including three p-aramid fibers (Twaron® 2000, Kevlar® 29 and Kevlar 129) and ultra high molecular weight polyethylene fiber (UHMW-PE), were studied by means of a self-made torsion fatigue tester. The torsion fatigue performance of the HPFs were characterized and compared. The fracture-end morphology of these fibers after the fatigue tests was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to seek to explain the fracture mechanism of the fiber fatigue. The experimental results indicate that there was a linear relationship between the logarithm of the fatigue lifetime and the pre-tension or torsion angle for the high performance p-aramid fibers, and the order of torsional fatigue lifetime for the four fibers was UHMW-PE ≥ Kevlar® 129 ≥ Kevlar® 29 ≥ Twaron® 2000. Furthermore, the torsion-to-rupture test showed that the property of torsion to rupture relies on the twist transfer along the fibers, and the degree of twist transfer (DTT) for the UHMW-PE and aramid fibers was also in the order of UHMW-PE ≥ Kevlar® 129 ≥ Kevlar® 29 ≥ Twaron® 2000.
The Nature of Southeast Asian Security Challenges
Authors: Rüland Jürgen
Published: December 2005

The article argues that there has been a convergence of security challenges in Southeast Asia and the OECD world since the end of the Cold War, but this has not been matched by a convergence of security cultures. Interstate wars and military conflicts, absent in the OECD world since the end of World War II, have also subsided in Southeast Asia, while non-conventional security threats - such as international terrorism, organized crime, irregular migration, environmental degradation and pandemics - have increased in both worlds. However, despite incipient institution-building, Southeast Asian security policies still differ markedly from those of the OECD world. Power and state-centric approaches and a strong reliance on national sovereignty impair collective action.
Changing Organizational Communication Practices and Norms
Authors: Suchan Jim
Published: December 2005

Efforts to get workers to change significantly their communication practices often fail. This failure occurs because external consultants, who are often academics, and internal organizational development specialists see changing communication practices as merely introducing new skills rather than altering the way workers habitually think and talk about communication. In this article, the author uses organizational theory and details from his research and consulting experience to explain why changing communication practices is difficult. He proposes a theory-based framework to help the professional and managerial communication disciplines better understand the steps necessary to change communication practice and norms in large, complex organizations.
Career Self-Efficacy Theory: Back to the Future
Authors: Betz Nancy E. , Hackett Gail
Published: December 2005

This article begins by reviewing the scientific origins of research on career self-efficacy, highlighting its original development as a means of understanding the career development of women and discussing its development through the years into what is now, along with its extension as social cognitive career theory, a widely applicable major approach to the understanding and facilitation of the career development process. Concerns about current research efforts are discussed. The first is the tendency of researchers to overlook the fact that the concept of self-efficacy must be linked to a specific behavioral domain to have meaning. As a corollary, measures of self-efficacy expectations must be developed with careful and exact specification of the behavioral domain in question. Detailed suggestions are provided for the construction of such measures. A second major concern is the lack of familiarity of many researchers with the theory that underlies this work, in particular, Bandura’s theory and its elaborations. The article praises the extensive research attention given to these exceedingly useful theories (self-efficacy and social cognitive) and suggests that more careful attention to the theoretical underpinnings and issues of conceptualization and measurement would be beneficial.
Academic Self-Efficacy as a Predictor of College Outcomes: Two Incremental Validity Studies
Authors: Gore Paul A.
Published: December 2005

A growing body of literature supports the relationship between students’ self-efficacy beliefs for academic tasks and milestones and their academic performance. Not surprisingly, some researchers have investigated the role that academic self-efficacy beliefs play in predicting college success. Two incremental validity studies were conducted to determine the extent to which academic self-efficacy beliefs could account for variance in college outcomes beyond that accounted for by standardized test scores. Results suggest that academic self-efficacy beliefs predict college outcomes but that this relationship is dependent on when efficacy beliefs are measured, the types of efficacy beliefs measured, and the nature of the criteria used.
Outcome Expectations: Looking to the Past and Potential Future
Authors: Fouad Nadya A. , Guillen Amy
Published: December 2005

This article focuses on the construct of outcome expectations. It is argued that the construct has received relatively little attention in the vocational literature. The authors define outcome expectations, trace the precursors to the construct, provide a critique of the operationalization of the construct, and propose recommendations for future research.
Vocational Confidence and Personality in the Prediction of Occupational Group Membership
Authors: Betz Nancy E. , Borgen Fred H. , Harmon Lenore W.
Published: December 2005

This study examined the relationships of vocational interests and self-efficacy expectations, or confidence, to personality, as measured by the Personal Styles scales of the Strong Interest Inventory. The study also examined the extent to which confidence and personality measures contributed incrementally to the prediction of occupational group membership. In a sample of 1,103 adults employed in 21 occupations representing the complete Holland hexagon, confidence–personality relationships were very similar to interest–personality relationships found in previous research. Discriminant analyses indicated that both personality and confidence contributed incrementally to the prediction of occupational group membership, although the most powerful single predictor set was 14 basic confidence dimensions (e.g., science, public speaking, and writing) extracted through principal components analysis. There were substantial differences across the 21 occupations in their predictability and in the extent to which they were differentiated by personality variables versus confidence dimensions. Implications for further work on the intersections of vocational interests, confidence, and personality are discussed.
Twenty-Five Years of Self-Efficacy in Career Assessment and Practice
Authors: Gainor Kathy A.
Published: December 2005

In this article, the ways in which self-efficacy has influenced career assessment and practice during the past 25 years are explored. Focus is on research describing or evaluating specific theory-based interventions or programs with particular attention to experimental, quasi-experimental, and program evaluations studies published in refereed professional journals. Suggestions for further research and practice are given.
The Complicated Relationship between Sex, Gender and the Substantive Representation of Women
Authors: Childs Sarah
Published: December 2005

Simply counting the numbers of women present in politics is an inadequate basis for theorizing the difference they might make. Drawing on research on British MPs (interviews with Labour women MPs first elected in 1997, analysis of Labour MPs’ voting behaviour and signing of early day motions in the 1997 parliament, and MPs’ participation in parliamentary debates accompanying the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act), this article shows how insights gained from empirical research can inform and improve our theorizing. It suggests that the relationship between women’s descriptive and substantive representation is better conceived as complicated rather than straightforward.
Towards Transnational Feminisms
Authors: Gupta Jyotsna Agnihotri
Published: December 2005

This article discusses the emergence of the concept of ‘transnational feminisms’ as a differentiated notion from ‘global sisterhood’ within feminist postcolonial criticism. This is done in order to examine its usefulness for interrogating the globalization of reproductive technologies and women’s right to selfdetermination over their own bodies by using these technologies. In particular, women’s use of technologies for assisted conception, and the local and global transactions in reproductive body parts form a testing ground for transnational feminisms. Does the construction of individual reproductive rights still leave some ground for women’s collective struggles? It is proposed that, if at all, transnational solidarity on this issue is possible, it will have to be built on the concept of universal ethical norms regarding human dignity.
Love Poetry, Women’s Bonding and Feminist Consciousness
Authors: Michailidou Artemis
Published: December 2005

This article examines Adrienne Rich’s Twenty-One Love Poems in relation to Edna St Vincent Millay’s Fatal Interview. Discussing notions such as lyric voice and innovation within traditional genres, the author analyses how Millay’s attempts to challenge commonplace definitions of female sexuality impacted on Rich’s articulation of sexual desire. The intertextual dialogue between the above works reveals that Millay and Rich produced two remarkably similar erotic narratives, which resist masculinist conceptions of literary history and comment on the self-referentiality of poetic composition. Finally, the author approaches Fatal Interview as a work that foregrounds the significance of women’s bonding, and argues that it was precisely this aspect that caught Rich’s attention and helped the younger poet develop her feminist consciousness.
System as Difference
Authors: Luhmann Niklas
Published: December 2005

This is an edited and translated transcript of a lecture by Niklas Luhmann in which he outlined the foundation of his systems theory based on the notion of difference and distinction. After a brief introduction to early theories of distinction, the central ideas of Spencer-Brown’s Laws of Form as the most radical form of differential thinking are presented. For Luhmann’s systems theory, this has four important consequences. First, the system is the difference between system and environment. Second, the system can be defined through a single mode of operation. Third, every (social) system observes internally (i.e. within the system) its own system/environment distinction; there is a re-entry of the system/environment distinction into the system. Fourth, every social theory is part of the social domain and as such part of what it describes.
Making Present: Autopoiesis as Human Production
Authors: Cooper Robert
Published: December 2005

In Niklas Luhmann’s social theory, autopoiesis is the repeated work of human self-construction through which social and cultural forms are maintained against a background of their continuous dissolution and disappearance. Autopoiesis in this sense is the production and reproduction of the human world through which the human body constitutes and reconstitutes itself by making the raw material of the world fit the requirements of the body and its organs. Human production thus makes the world present to the human body and its parts such as we see in the examples of the supermarket which brings together the products of the world in one space for our visual and manual convenience and the domestic television set which literally brings home to us the distant happenings of the world. Human systems and institutions can thus be seen as means for making the world’s materials fit the human mind and body and for ensuring their continuous presence as meaningful forms. But, significantly, the production of presence depends on absence, disappearance and decay. Absence has to be seen as a major force in human production; it is the missing presence that haunts all human work and which helps us to understand the development of such modern production methods as mass production and information technology.
The Distinctions within Organizations: Luhmann from a Cultural Perspective
Authors: Martens Wil
Published: December 2005

Cultural theories of organization generally focus on deciphering and deconstructing forms of meaning and social constructions of reality used in organizational behaviour. In line with this approach, Luhmann emphasizes the important role of distinctions and semantics for the production and orientation of organizations. However, producing organizations is, in his view, not just a matter of reality construction. It means the actual production of a specific social system using specific distinctions in recursively related communications. This paper first shows that Luhmann’s writings are helpful to identify the constitutive distinctions for organization as a specific type of social system. Relating Luhmann’s theory of organization to his theory of functionally differentiated society, it identifies, second, the specifying distinctions that are responsible for the specific problem orientations typical of modern organizations. In a third step, it shows how the distinctions and schemes used in organizations fit into and contribute to a general functionalist culture of modernity.
The Interpretation of Signs of Child Sexual Abuse
Authors: Jensen Tine K.
Published: December 2005

In this paper sign interpretation and interpretive repertoires are used as a framework for understanding why child sexual abuse is difficult for caregivers to detect. This framework offers an alternative to current, ‘mother-blaming’ theories. It redirects attention from the level of individual subjectivity to the interpretation process involved when caregivers construct an understanding of their children's behavior. This approach makes it possible to study the cultural landscape of interpretations without losing sight of the individual. The results from a study using this perspective suggest an array of factors that contribute to making the processes of interpretation difficult for caregivers. These range from general aspects related to the arbitrariness involved in all modes of interpretation, to aspects that contribute to turning the process of interpretation within this area into a delicate, finely tuned and extremely difficult process. The richer picture this analysis creates underlines the value of a cultural psychological approach, particularly for understanding the complexities involved in interpreting culturally sensitive issues.
William Morris and the Problem of Englishness
Authors: Kinna Ruth
Published: December 2005

This article examines William Morris’s idea of Englishness, considered through a critique of his concept of fellowship or community. It looks at the charge that Morris wrongly neglected the importance of nationality as a focus for organization in socialism, preferring instead an internationalist ideal, based on an unworkable model of small-scale community. I defend Morris against these claims by arguing that Morris’s socialism was consistent with expressions of nationality and that his communitarianism was grounded on a concept of enjoyable labour, not friendship as is often supposed.
Achieving content representativeness in organizational diagnosis
Authors: Moates K. Nathan , Armenakis Achilles A. , Gregory Brian T. , Albritton M. David , Feild Hubert S.
Published: December 2005

An organizational diagnosis provides analysts with information on which to base and plan an appropriate intervention to improve an organization’s functioning. In many instances, the data collected are from a sample of an organization’s population. However, the information collected must be considered representative of the whole organization. In this article, we discuss the importance of response rate in organizational surveys and non-response bias in achieving the necessary representativeness. We describe an action research project in which we involved members of a high-tech organization. Our data were collected through interviews and an anonymous web survey representing 42 percent of the organization’s population. We describe how we employed action groups to determine the content representativeness of our data. This step was deemed necessary before initiating the action planning step. We propose a guideline for action researchers to apply during organizational diagnoses requiring respondent anonymity.
Black Managers in Further Education
Authors: Mackay Fiona , Etienne Jan
Published: December 2005

This article reports on an exploratory study of black managers in Further Education colleges and records their individual views and experiences. The premise of this article is that, contrary to rhetoric about equal opportunities, black managers are experiencing barriers in progressing their careers. With examples from participants on a postgraduate programme in management, the article explores their experiences and perceptions and illustrates the various forms these barriers can take. The study follows seven black managers and their career aspirations over an 18-month period. The article suggests that black managers face additional constraints to progressing their careers and this has implications for organizations, and, in particular, how they encourage and maintain a diverse workforce.
Lack of α4 integrin expression in stem cells restricts competitive function and self-renewal activity
Authors: Priestley Gregory V. , Scott Linda M. , Ulyanova Tatiana , Papayannopoulou Thalia
Published: December 2005

Alpha4 integrin or VLA4 (CD49d/CD29) is a multitask molecule with wide expression within and outside the hematopoietic system. Because targeted ablation of α4 integrin leads to embryonic lethality, to study its effects on adult hematopoiesis, we used animals with conditional excision of α4 integrin (α4Δ/Δ) in hematopoietic cells. In such animals, we previously documented weakened bone marrow retention of progenitor cells during homeostasis and impaired homing and short-term engraftment after transplantation. In the present study we show that long-term repopulating cells lacking α4 integrins display a competitive disadvantage in hematopoietic reconstitution compared to normal competitors. Although initial dominance of α4+ competitors is due to their better homing and proliferative expansion early after transplantation, a progressive decline in contribution of α4Δ/Δ hematopoiesis is compatible with neither normal homing nor normal function of α4Δ/Δ hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in post-homing hematopoiesis. In the absence of α4+ competitor cells, α4Δ/Δ HSCs can establish long-term hematopoiesis in primary recipients, however, some resurgence of host hematopoiesis is evident, and it becomes dominant in secondary transplants, so that no survivors with exclusively α4Δ/Δ cells are seen in tertiary transplants. Collectively, our data provide compelling evidence that under regenerative stress α4 integrin assumes a greater importance than for maintenance of steady-state hematopoiesis.
T-bet concomitantly controls migration, survival, and effector functions during the development of Vα14i NKT cells
Authors: Matsuda Jennifer L. , Zhang Qianjun , Ndonye Rachel , Richardson Stewart K. , Howell Amy R. , Gapin Laurent
Published: December 2005

Vα14i natural killer T (NKT)–cell function has been implicated in a number of disease conditions. The molecular events that drive Vα14i NKT-cell development remain elusive. We recently showed that T-bet is required for the terminal maturation of these cells. Here we identify some of the genetic targets of T-bet during Vα14i NKT-cell lineage development. Microarray gene-expression analyses on developing Vα14i NKT cells were performed and provide a molecular framework to study these maturation events. In vitro ectopic expression of T-bet in immature Vα14i NKT cells, which do not yet express T-bet, was sufficient to promote Vα14i NKT-cell maturation, driving the expression of multiple genes, including those that participate in migration, survival, and effector functions. By regulating the expression of T-helper 1 (Th1)–associated cytokines, chemokines, chemokine receptors, and molecules involved in cytolysis, T-bet defines the unique lineage attributes of mature Vα14i NKT cells and acts to link these attributes to a developmental process.
Ectodermally derived steel/stem cell factor functions non–cell autonomously during primitive erythropoiesis in Xenopus
Authors: Goldman Devorah C. , Berg Linnea K. , Heinrich Michael C. , Christian Jan L.
Published: December 2005

Signals derived from nonhematopoietic tissues are essential for normal primitive erythropoiesis in vertebrates, but little is known about the nature of these signals. In Xenopus, unidentified factors secreted by ectodermal cells during gastrulation are required to enable the underlying ventral mesoderm to form blood. Steel is expressed in the ectoderm of early Xenopus embryos and is known to regulate definitive erythroid progenitor survival and differentiation in other organisms, making it an excellent candidate regulator of primitive erythropoiesis. In this study, we tested whether steel signaling is required for primitive red blood cell differentiation in mice and frogs. We show that Xsl is expressed in the ectoderm in Xenopus gastrulae and that c-kit homologs are expressed in the underlying mesoderm at the same stages of development. We present loss of function data in whole Xenopus embryos and explants that demonstrate a requirement for ectodermally derived steel to signal through c-kit in the mesoderm to support early steps in the differentiation of primitive erythroid but not myeloid cells. Finally, we show that primitive erythropoiesis is not disrupted in mouse embryos that lack c-kit function. Our data suggest a previously unrecognized and unique function of steel/c-kit during primitive erythropoiesis in Xenopus.
Analysis of concordance of different haplotype block partitioning algorithms
Authors: Indap Amit R , Marth Gabor T , Struble Craig A , Tonellato Peter , Olivier Michael
Published: December 2005

Background

Different classes of haplotype block algorithms exist and the ideal dataset to assess their performance would be to comprehensively re-sequence a large genomic region in a large population. Such data sets are expensive to collect. Alternatively, we performed coalescent simulations to generate haplotypes with a high marker density and compared block partitioning results from diversity based, LD based, and information theoretic algorithms under different values of SNP density and allele frequency.

Results

We simulated 1000 haplotypes using the standard coalescent for three world populations – European, African American, and East Asian – and applied three classes of block partitioning algorithms – diversity based, LD based, and information theoretic. We assessed algorithm differences in number, size, and coverage of blocks inferred under different conditions of SNP density, allele frequency, and sample size.

Each algorithm inferred blocks differing in number, size, and coverage under different density and allele frequency conditions. Different partitions had few if any matching block boundaries. However they still overlapped and a high percentage of total chromosomal region was common to all methods. This percentage was generally higher with a higher density of SNPs and when rarer markers were included.

Conclusion

A gold standard definition of a haplotype block is difficult to achieve, but collecting haplotypes covered with a high density of SNPs, partitioning them with a variety of block algorithms, and identifying regions common to all methods may be the best way to identify genomic regions that harbor SNP variants that cause disease.
Mutations in APC, CTNNB1 and K-ras genes and expression of hMLH1 in sporadic colorectal carcinomas from the Netherlands Cohort Study
Authors: Lüchtenborg Margreet , Weijenberg Matty P , Wark Petra A , Saritas A Merdan , Roemen Guido MJM , van Muijen Goos NP , de Bruïne Adriaan P , van den Brandt Piet A , de Goeij Anton FPM
Published: December 2005

Background

The early to intermediate stages of the majority of colorectal tumours are thought to be driven by aberrations in the Wnt (APC, CTNNB1) and Ras (K-ras) pathways. A smaller proportion of cancers shows mismatch repair deficiency. The aim of this study was to analyse the co-occurrence of these genetic alterations in relation to tumour and patient characteristics.

Methods

In a group of 656 unselected sporadic colorectal cancer patients, aberrations in the APC, K-ras, CTNNB1 genes, and expression of hMLH1 were investigated. Additionally, tumours were divided in groups based on molecular features and compared with respect to patient's age at diagnosis, sex, family history of colorectal cancer, tumour sub-localisation, Dukes' stage and differentiation.

Results

Mutations at the phosphorylation sites (codons 31, 33, 37, and 45) in the CTNNB1 gene were observed in tumours from only 5/464 patients. Tumours with truncating APC mutations and activating K-ras mutations in codons 12 and 13 occurred at similar frequencies (37% (245/656) and 36% (235/656), respectively). Seventeen percent of tumours harboured both an APC and a K-ras mutation (109/656). Nine percent of all tumours (58/656) lacked hMLH1 expression. Patients harbouring a tumour with absent hMLH1 expression were older, more often women, more often had proximal colon tumours that showed poorer differentiation when compared to patients harbouring tumours with an APC and/or K-ras mutation.

Conclusion

CTNNB1 mutations seem to be of minor importance in sporadic colorectal cancer. The main differences in tumour and patient characteristics are found between groups of patients based on mismatch repair deficiency.
A long-term survivor of Bland-White-Garland syndrome with systemic collateral supply: A case report and review of the literature
Authors: Barbetakis N , Efstathiou A , Efstathiou N , Papagiannopoulou P , Soulountsi V , Fessatidis I
Published: December 2005

Background

land-White-Garland syndrome (anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery) is a rare disease which may result in myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure and sometimes death during the early infantile period. Case presentation: A succesfully treated case of a 45-year-old mother of 2 children with Bland-White-Garland syndrome and concomitant severe mitral regurgitation is presented. Subsequent therapy consisted of ligation of the anomalous origin of the left coronary artery, anastomosis of the left internal mammary artery to the left anterior descending branch and mitral valve replacement. Continuous blood flow from the left coronary artery ostium during extracorporeal circulation and aorta clamping suggested systemic collateral supply. Conclusions: Recognition and diagnosis of Bland-White-Garland syndrome is important due to its potentially life-threatening complications.