bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Clostridium difficile PCR ribotype 078 toxinotype V found in diarrhoeal pigs identical to isolates from affected humans
Authors: Debast Sylvia B. , Van Leengoed Leo A. M. G. , Goorhuis Abraham , Harmanus Celine , Kuijper Ed J. , Bergwerff Aldert A.
Published: October 2008

In diseased piglets from two Dutch pig‐breeding farms with neonatal diarrhoea for more than a year, culture and PCR analyses identified the involved microorganism as Clostridium difficile PCR ribotype 078 harbouring toxin A (tcdA) and B (tcdB), and binary toxin genes. Isolated strains showed a 39 bp deletion in the tcdC gene and they were ermB gene‐negative. A number of 11 porcine and 21 human isolated C. difficile PCR ribotype 078 toxinotype V strains were found genetically related by multiple‐locus variable‐number tandem‐repeat analysis (MLVA). Moreover, a clonal complex was identified, containing both porcine and human isolates. The porcine isolates showed an antimicrobial susceptibility profile overlapping that of isolates from Dutch human patients. On the basis of these pheno‐ and genotypical analyses results, it was concluded that the strains from affected piglets were indistinguishable from increasingly encountered C. difficile PCR ribotype 078 strains of human C. difficile infections in the Dutch population and that a common origin of animal and humans strains should be considered.
Insulin‐induced weight gain and cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes. A report from the DIGAMI 2 study
Authors: Aas A.‐M. , Öhrvik J. , Malmberg K. , Rydén L. , Birkeland K. I. ,   the DIGAMI 2 Investigators
Published: October 2008

Aim:  We investigated whether insulin treatment‐induced weight gain was accompanied by increased cardiovascular (CV) mortality and morbidity in the second Diabetes Insulin Glucose in Acute Myocardial Infarction (DIGAMI 2) study.

Methods:  We studied the 865 patients who survived during 12 months without any change in their glucose‐lowering (GL) therapy. They were divided into four subgroups according to GL treatment: group I, no pharmacological GL treatment (n = 99); group II, oral hypoglycaemic agents (n = 250); group III, new insulin treatment (n = 245) and group IV, insulin before inclusion continued during the first year of follow up (n = 271).

Results:  Patients who started on insulin (group III) experienced an average body weight increase of 2.3 (1.5–3.2) kg during the first year of treatment, whereas weight remained unchanged in groups I, II and IV. The incidence of non‐fatal reinfarction was higher in group III compared with the other groups (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.5, p = 0.011) and CV mortality was higher in group IV (HR = 2.4, p = 0.003). When the subjects were grouped in quartiles according to maximal body weight increase, those in the lowest quartile experienced the highest CV mortality. Each kilogram increase in weight reduced the risk for CV death with 6%. The incidence of reinfarction did not differ between quartiles.

Conclusions:  Initiation of insulin treatment after myocardial infarction was associated with a significant increase in weight and incidence of reinfarction. The increase in weight did, however, not explain the increased rate of reinfarction.
Diet‐induced adiposity alters the serum profile of inflammation in C57BL/6N mice as measured by antibody array
Authors: Fenton J. I. , Nuñez N. P. , Yakar S. , Perkins S. N. , Hord N. G. , Hursting S. D.
Published: October 2008

Morbid obesity is considered a systemic inflammatory state. The objective of this project was to characterize the adipokine, cytokine and chemokine protein profile in serum from control, lean and obese mice. We hypothesized that chemokines and cytokines are altered by caloric restriction and diet‐induced obesity as a function of changes in body composition. Six‐week‐old female C57BL/6N mice (n = 12 per group) were randomized to one of three diets: control (fed ad libitum); lean (30% calorie‐restricted regimen relative to control) and diet‐induced obese (DIO; high calorie diet, fed ad libitum). Body weight, body composition and food intake were monitored throughout the study. After 10 weeks on the diets, blood samples were collected, and adipokine/cytokine/chemokine serum profiles were measured by antibody array. Lean mice, relative to the control group, displayed increased concentrations of insulin‐like growth factor (IGF) binding protein‐3, ‐5 and ‐6 and adiponectin and decreased IGF‐1. These mice also showed increased concentrations of interleukin (IL)‐10, IL‐12 p40/p70, eotaxin, monocyte chemoattractant protein‐5 and SDF‐1. In contrast, DIO mice displayed increased leptin, IL‐6 and LPS‐induced chemokine and decreased concentrations of all chemokines/cytokines measured relative to control mice. As such, these data indicate that DIO may lead to an inflammatory state characterized as a shift towards a T helper lymphocyte type 1–skewed responsiveness. The demonstration of differential adipokine, cytokine and chemokine protein profile in control, lean and DIO mice may have implications for immune responsiveness and risk of disease.
Long‐acting insulin analogues vs. NPH human insulin in type 1 diabetes. A meta‐analysis
Authors: Monami M. , Marchionni N. , Mannucci E.
Published: October 2008

Aim:  Basal insulin in type 1 diabetes can be provided using either NPH (Neutral Protamine Hagedorn) human insulin or long‐acting insulin analogues, which are supposed to warrant a better metabolic control with reduced hypoglycaemic risk. Aim of this meta‐analysis is the assessment of differences with respect to HbA1c (Glycated hemoglobin), incidence of hypoglycaemia, and weight gain, between NPH human insulin and each long‐acting analogue.

Methods:  Of 285 randomized controlled trials with a duration > 12 weeks comparing long‐acting insulin analogues (detemir or glargine) with NPH insulin in type 1 diabetic patients identified through Medline search and searches on www.clinicaltrials.gov, 20 met eligibility criteria (enrolling 3693 and 2485 in the long‐acting analogues and NPH group respectively). Data on HbA1c and body mass index at endpoint, and incidence of any, nocturnal and severe hypoglycaemia, were extracted and meta‐analysed.

Results:  Long‐acting analogues had a small, but significant effect on HbA1c [‐0.07 (−0.13; −0.01)%; p = 0.026], in comparison with NPH human insulin. When analysing the effect of long‐acting analogues on body weight, detemir was associated with a significantly smaller weight gain than human insulin [by 0.26 (0.06;0.47) kg/m2; p = 0.012]. Long‐acting analogues were associated with a reduced risk for nocturnal and severe hypoglycaemia [OR (Odd Ratio, 95% Confidence Intervals) 0.69 (0.55; 0.86), and OR 0.73 (0.60; 0.89) respectively; all p < 0.01].

Conclusions:  The switch from NPH to long‐acting analogues as basal insulin replacement in type 1 diabetic patients had a small effect on HbA1c, and also reduced the risk of nocturnal and severe hypoglycaemia.
Improved glycaemic control decreases inner mitochondrial membrane leak in type 2 diabetes
Authors: Rabøl R. , Højberg P. M. V. , Almdal T. , Boushel R. , Haugaard S. B. , Madsbad S. , Dela F.
Published: October 2008

Aim:  Several mechanisms have been targeted as culprits of weight gain during antihyperglycaemic treatment in type 2 diabetes (T2DM). These include reductions in glucosuria, increased food intake from fear of hypoglycaemia, the anabolic effect of insulin, decreased metabolic rate and increased efficiency in fuel usage. The purpose of the study was to test the hypothesis that mitochondrial efficiency increases as a result of insulin treatment in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Methods:  We included ten patients with T2DM (eight males) on oral antidiabetic treatment, median age: 51.5 years (range: 39–67) and body mass index (BMI): 30.1 ± 1.2 kg/m2 (mean ± s.e.). Muscle biopsies from m. vastus lateralis and m. deltoideus were obtained before and after seven weeks of intensive insulin treatment, and mitochondrial respiration was measured using high‐resolution respirometry. State 3 respiration was measured with the substrates malate, pyruvate, glutamate, succinate and ADP. State 4o was measured with addition of oligomycine. An age, sex and BMI‐matched control group was also included.

Results:  HbA1c improved significantly and the patients gained on average 3.4 ± 0.9 kg. Before treatment, respiratory control ratios (RCRs) of the T2DM were lower than the obese controls [2.6 vs. 3.2 (p < 0.05)], but RCR returned to the levels of the control subjects during treatment. Average state 4o of arm and leg declined by 14% (p < 0.05) during insulin treatment.

Conclusions:  Tight glycaemic control leads to reductions in inner mitochondrial membrane leak and increased efficiency of mitochondria. This change in mitochondrial physiology could contribute to the weight gain seen with antihyperglycaemic treatment.
Effects of a controlled hypoglycaemia test on QTc in adolescents with Type 1 diabetes
Authors: Rothenbuhler A. , Petit Bibal C. , Le Fur S. , Bougneres P.
Published: October 2008

Our objective was to test the ventricular repolarization response to a controlled hypoglycaemia test in Type 1 diabetic adolescents, an age group at risk for ‘dead in bed syndrome’. We measured QTc, blood glucose level, potassium, heart rate, blood pressure and urinary metanephrine levels in 16 Type 1 diabetic adolescents during an insulin clamp mimicking the transition from mild hyperglycaemia to hypoglycaemia. QTc increased in all patients by 146 ± 44 ms (mean ±sd) ranging from 70 to 230 ms. The longest QTc (630 ms) was recorded in the sibling of a diabetic patient found ‘dead in bed’. Heart rate and urinary metanephrine levels correlated with QTc (r = 0.60 and 0.79, respectively; P = 0.02 and 0.003). QTc in euglycaemia showed no correlation with hypoglycaemia associated QTc prolongation. The prognostic value of the hypoglycaemia test for the risk of recurrent episodes of QTc prolongation should be evaluated in real‐life conditions in large‐scale studies of diabetic adolescents.
Training and transfer effects of executive functions in preschool children
Authors: Thorell Lisa B. , Lindqvist Sofia , Bergman Nutley Sissela , Bohlin Gunilla , Klingberg Torkel
Published: October 2008

Executive functions, including working memory and inhibition, are of central importance to much of human behavior. Interventions intended to improve executive functions might therefore serve an important purpose. Previous studies show that working memory can be improved by training, but it is unknown if this also holds for inhibition, and whether it is possible to train executive functions in preschoolers. In the present study, preschool children received computerized training of either visuo‐spatial working memory or inhibition for 5 weeks. An active control group played commercially available computer games, and a passive control group took part in only pre‐ and posttesting. Children trained on working memory improved significantly on trained tasks; they showed training effects on non‐trained tests of spatial and verbal working memory, as well as transfer effects to attention. Children trained on inhibition showed a significant improvement over time on two out of three trained task paradigms, but no significant improvements relative to the control groups on tasks measuring working memory or attention. In neither of the two interventions were there effects on non‐trained inhibitory tasks. The results suggest that working memory training can have significant effects also among preschool children. The finding that inhibition could not be improved by either one of the two training programs might be due to the particular training program used in the present study or possibly indicate that executive functions differ in how easily they can be improved by training, which in turn might relate to differences in their underlying psychological and neural processes.
Logic and belief across the lifespan: the rise and fall of belief inhibition during syllogistic reasoning
Authors: De Neys Wim , Van Gelder Elke
Published: October 2008

Popular reasoning theories postulate that the ability to inhibit inappropriate beliefs lies at the heart of the human reasoning engine. Given that people's inhibitory capacities are known to rise and fall across the lifespan, we predicted that people's deductive reasoning performance would show similar curvilinear age trends. A group of children (12‐year‐olds), young adults (20‐year‐olds), and older adults (65+‐year‐olds) were presented with a classic syllogistic reasoning task and a decision‐making questionnaire. Results indicated that on syllogisms where beliefs and logic conflicted, reasoning performance showed the expected curvilinear age trend: Reasoning performance initially increased from childhood to early adulthood but declined again in later life. On syllogisms where beliefs and logic were consistent and sound reasoning did not require belief inhibition, however, age did not affect performance. Furthermore, across the lifespan we observed that the better people were at resisting intuitive temptations in the decision‐making task, the less they were biased by their beliefs on the conflict syllogisms. As with the effect of age, one's ability to override intuitions in the decision‐making task did not mediate reasoning performance on the no‐conflict syllogisms. Results lend credence to the postulated central role of inhibitory processing in those situations where beliefs and logic conflict.
To generalize or not to generalize: spatial categories are influenced by physical attributes and language
Authors: Hespos Susan J. , Piccin Thomas B.
Published: October 2008

The current work explored the conditions under which infants generalize spatial relationships from one event to another. English‐learning 5‐month‐olds habituated to a tight‐ or loose‐fitcoveringevent dishabituated to a change in fit during acontainmenttest event, but infants habituated to a visually similarocclusionevent did not. Thus, infants’ responses appeared to be driven by the physical nature of the fit rather than visual similarity. This response pattern was replicated with Korean‐speaking adults, but English‐speaking adults showed no sensitivity to change in fit for either event. These findings suggest that language development links linguistic forms to universal, pre‐existing representations of meaning, and that linguistic experience can shape sensitivity to distinctions that are marked in one's native language.
Motor and cognitive control in a normative sample of 7‐year‐olds
Authors: Roebers Claudia M. , Kauer Marianne
Published: October 2008

The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between cognitive and motor control by correlating individual performance on a variety of complex tasks in a normative sample of over 100 7‐year‐olds. While there are a few studies including children with specific developmental disorders (i.e. ADHD and DCD) showing that they share similar comorbid deficits, it is still unclear whether control processes share variance in normative samples. Results presented here reveal on the one hand that some aspects of cognitive and motor control are significantly interrelated, even when controlling for age. On the other hand, individuals’ ability to efficiently respond to the speed and accuracy demands of any of the included tasks appeared to constitute an important aspect of executive functioning.
Primary care physicians' knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices regarding childhood obesity: a systematic review
Authors: Van Gerwen M. , Franc C. , Rosman S. , Le Vaillant M. , Pelletier‐Fleury N.
Published: October 2008

Obesity is an important public health issue with an epidemic spread in adolescents and children, which needs to be tackled. This systematic review of primary care physicians' knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices (KABP) regarding childhood obesity will help to implement or adjust the actions necessary to counteract obesity. Eligible studies were identified through a systematic database search for all available years to 2007. Articles were selected if they included data on primary care physicians' KABP regarding childhood obesity: 130 articles were assessed and eventually 11 articles covering the period 1987–2007 and responding to the inclusion criteria were analyzed. The included studies showed that almost all physicians agreed on the necessity to treat childhood obesity but they believed to have a low self‐efficacy in the treatment and experienced a negative feeling regarding obesity management. There was a large heterogeneity in the assessment of childhood obesity between the different studies but the awareness of the importance of using body mass index increased over the years among physicians. Almost all studies noted that physicians recommended dietary advice, exercise or referral to a dietician. From this review, it is obvious that there is a need for education of primary care physicians to increase the uniformity of the assessment and to improve physicians' self‐efficacy in managing childhood obesity. Multidisciplinary treatment including general practitioners, paediatricians and specialized dieticians appears to be the way to counteract the growing obesity epidemic and thus, primary care physicians have to initiate, coordinate and obviously participate in obesity prevention initiatives.
From Lydia Pinkham to Queen Levitra: direct‐to‐consumer advertising and medicalisation
Authors: Conrad Peter , Leiter Valerie
Published: October 2008

The medicalisation of life problems has been occurring for well over a century and has increased over the past 30 years, with the engines of medicalisation shifting to biotechnology, managed care, and consumers. This paper examines one strand of medicalisation during the last century: direct‐to‐consumer advertising (DTCA) of pharmaceuticals. In particular, it examines the roles that physicians and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have played in regulating DTCA in the US. Two advertising exemplars, the late 19thcentury Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound (for ‘women's complaints’) and contemporary Levitra (for erectile dysfunction) are used to examine the parallels between the patent medicine era and the DTCA era. DTCA re‐establishes the direct and independent relationship between drug companies and consumers that existed in the late 19thcentury, encouraging self‐diagnosis and requests for specific drugs. The extravagant claims of Lydia Pinkham's day are constrained by laws, but modern‐day advertising is more subtle and sophisticated. DTCA has facilitated the impact of the pharmaceutical industry and consumers in becoming more important forces in medicalisation.
Sociology of pharmaceuticals development and regulation: a realist empirical research programme
Authors: Abraham John
Published: October 2008

A realist conceptualisation of interests is proposed in opposition to the fashionable view that interests, objectivity and reality are merely social constructs, and that sociological analyses should be confined to discourse, actor‐networks and micro‐contextual practices. The objective interests of pharmaceutical companies in profit‐maximisation, and of patients/public health in the optimisation of drugs’ benefit‐risk ratios, can be empirically validated. The relationship between those interests and pharmaceutical regulation is best characterised by ‘neo‐liberal corporate bias’ at the macro‐ and meso‐levels. How such bias manifests itself at the micro‐social level of science‐based pharmaceutical testing and regulatory decision making is examined using a realist sociology of scientific knowledge, which appreciates that assessment of the validity of techno‐scientific knowledge claims is essential for their sociological explanation. Commercial interests are shown to have biased science away from the interests of public health, in favour of industry. International comparisons of drug regulation demonstrate that drug injuries are not necessarily an inevitable by‐product of pharmaceutical progress because some countries have fewer drug safety problems than others. Similarly, the lowering of techno‐scientific standards for drug safety testing is not an inevitable cost of faster development of therapeutically valuable medicines, but a consequence of the internationalisation of neo‐liberal corporate bias.
Over‐the‐counter medicines: professional expertise and consumer discourses
Authors: Stevenson Fiona A. , Leontowitsch Miranda , Duggan Catherine
Published: October 2008

Ideas of participation and partnership in health care consultations have attracted increasing attention in recent years; however the consequences in terms of the necessary shifts in existing relationships are often overlooked. We examine how pharmacists work to maintain their professional expertise against the rise of health‐care consumerism. We draw on the following data from a UK study of consultations for over‐the‐counter (OTC) medicines in two pharmacies: (i) an outline of the pharmacy owners’ views of their practice model, (ii) data from observations and tape recorded consultations (iii) interviews with customers and pharmacists and (iv) views expressed in two feedback sessions discussing vignettes developed from observational and interview‐based fieldwork. There was no suggestion that attempts to engage customers in discussions about their treatment necessitated a diminution of the importance of pharmaceutical expertise. Indeed, both pharmacists and customers acknowledged the importance of the asymmetry of knowledge between pharmacists and customers. Pharmaceutical expertise was however not always perceived to be necessary and transactions in pharmacies may be treated like those in any other retail environment. Further research using a larger dataset to investigate problems in interactions resulting from tensions between pharmaceutical expertise and consumerism is indicated.
In whose interest? Relationships between health consumer groups and the pharmaceutical industry in the UK
Authors: Jones Kathryn
Published: October 2008

This paper explores how health consumer groups in the UK disclose and manage links with pharmaceutical companies in the context of their growing involvement in the policy process. In particular, it examines claims that industry engages with groups in an attempt to capture the groups’ policy agenda, thereby increasing industry's political influence. Drawing on theories of disclosure, analysis of group and industry websites revealed a varying level of detail on the nature and extent of relationships. Only 26 per cent of consumer groups known to be in receipt of industry financial or in‐kind support openly acknowledged this. Interviews undertaken with representatives from consumer groups, industry and other health‐care stakeholders, highlighted a coincidence of aims between the two sectors, an acknowledgement that collaboration was inevitable, and tacit support for policy guidelines to manage conflicts of interest. The paper concludes by arguing that while claims of organisational capture are over‐stated, the shallow approach to transparency adopted by the majority of companies and groups strengthens critiques of undue influence. This may ultimately reduce policy makers’ willingness to see consumer groups as the legitimate voice of patients, users and carers in the policy process.
Shifting paradigms? Reflections on regenerative medicine, embryonic stem cells and pharmaceuticals
Authors: Wainwright Steven P. , Michael Mike , Williams Clare
Published: October 2008

Will human embryonic stem (hES) cells lead to a revolutionary new regenerative medicine? We begin to answer this question by drawing on interviews with scientists and clinicians from leading labs and clinics in the UK and the USA, exploring their views on the bench‐bedside interface in the fields of hES cells, neuroscience and diabetes. We employ Bourdieu's concepts of field, habitus and capital in order to understand stem cell science and cell transplantation. We also build on research on the sociology of expectations, and explore expectations of pharmaceutical approaches in hES research through our concept of ‘expectational capital’. In the process we discuss emerging expectations within stem cell research, most especially the ‘disease in a dish’ approach, where hES cells will be used as tools for unravelling the mechanisms of disease to enable the development of new drugs. We argue that experts’ persuasive promises advance their interests in the uncertain stem cell field, and explore how this performative strategy might stabilise the emerging ‘disease in a dish’ model of translational research.
The sociology of pharmaceuticals: progress and prospects
Authors: Williams Simon J. , Gabe Jonathan , Davis Peter
Published: October 2008

This paper takes a critical look at progress and prospects regarding the sociology of pharmaceuticals over the years. Key themes examined include: (i) medicalisation and pharmaceuticalisation; (ii) regulation; (iii) consumption and consumerism; (iv) expectations and innovation. Papers in the monograph are also introduced and discussed in relation to these themes. The paper concludes with some further comments and reflections on progress and prospects in this field, emphasising the continuing importance of sociological engagement with these personal and political issues in the 21st century.
New forms of citizenship and socio‐political inclusion: accessing antiretroviral therapy in a Rio de Janeirofavela
Authors: Cataldo Fabian
Published: October 2008

Brazil has received praise internationally for its national health policy against HIV. Whilst the ethical stance of the Brazilian programme has been widely applauded, there is a lack of empirical data on how the commitment to equitable and universal HIV prevention and treatment works in practice among the poorest population groups. The aim of this paper is to explore the broad ethics of the Brazilian AIDS programme by investigating how universal access to HIV treatment is being implemented within afavela(shanty town). Data collected through anthropological research show that in settings such as thefavelas, the universal character of this public health programme is challenged by a number of issues such as local definitions of illness, problems related to the understanding of and adherence to treatment, structural violence, political alienation, and lack of perspectives about the future. It is also argued that such health intervention has contributed to the promotion of novel attitudes towards individual notions of socio‐political participation. These are explored with reference to the notion of therapeutic citizenship, which in the context of afavelaneighbourhood translates into a new set of concerns around free access to and availability of treatment, the right to health care and the sustainability of public health policies.
SACRIFICIAL AGAPE AND GROUP SELECTION IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY
Authors: Tillman J. Jeffrey
Published: October 2008

Human altruistic behavior has received a great deal of scientific attention over the past forty years. Altruistic‐like behaviors found among insects and animals have illumined certain human behaviors, and the revival of interest in group selection has focused attention on how sacrificial altruism, although not adaptive for individuals, can be adaptive for groups. Curiously, at the same time that sociobiology has placed greater emphasis on the value of sacrificial altruism, Protestant ethics in America has moved away from it. While Roman Catholic ethics has a longstanding tradition emphasizing an ordering of love, placing love of self second only to love for God, Protestant ethics in America has adopted a similar stance only recently, replacing a strong sacrificial ethic with one focusing on mutual regard for self and others. If sociobiology is correct about the significance of sacrificial altruistic behaviors for the survival of communities, this shift away from sacrificial agape by American Christianity may cut the community off from important resources for the development of a global ethic crucial for the survival of that faith community and humankind itself.
EVIDENCE AND FALSIFICATION: CHALLENGES TO GREGORY PETERSON
Authors: Jones Nicholaos
Published: October 2008

In this reply to Gregory Peterson's essay “Maintaining Respectability,” which itself is a response to my “Is Theology Respectable as Metaphysics?” I elaborate upon my claims that theology treats God's existence as an absolute certainty immune to refutation and that modern science constitutes the canons of respectable reasoning for metaphysical disciplines. I conclude with some comments on Peterson's “In Praise of Folly? Theology and the University.”
NATURALISTIC METHODOLOGY IN AN EMERGING SCIENTIFIC PSYCHOLOGY: LOTZE AND FECHNER IN THE BALANCE
Authors: McDonald Patrick
Published: October 2008

The development of a methodologically naturalistic approach to physiological and experimental psychology in the nineteenth century was not primarily driven by a naturalistic agenda. The work of R. Hermann Lotze and G. T. Fechner help to illustrate this claim. I examine a selected set of central commitments in each thinkers philosophical outlook, particularly regarding the human soul and the nature of God, that departed strongly from a reductionist materialism. Yet, each contributed significantly to the formation of experimental and physiological psychology. Their work was influenced substantively by their respective philosophical commitments. Nevertheless, the evaluation of the merits of their specific proposals, Fechner's psychophysics and Lotze's local sign hypothesis respectively, did not depend upon sharing their metaphysical views regarding the human soul or the nature of God. A moderate, but significant, distinction between the contexts of discovery and of justification aids in understanding this balancing act.
MAN OF SCIENCE, MAN OF FAITH: PIERRE DUHEM'S “PHYSIQUE DE CROYANT”
Authors: Deltete Robert J.
Published: October 2008

The essay “Physique de croyant” is an important statement of Pierre Duhem's position on the relation between his science and his religion. Duhem trod a difficult path, some might say an impossible one, in Republican France because he was both a physicist and a devout Catholic. In this essay, using “Physique de croyant” as a touchstone, I explore the way in which he tried to reconcile his conflicting allegiances. There are several strands in Duhem's strategy that need to be teased out. First, Duhem sought to defend his science against the charge that it was materialist and atheist. He did this with his claim, usually called the autonomy thesis, that physics and metaphysics are fundamentally different enterprises—that physics, properly conducted, has no metaphysical implications and requires no metaphysical support. This did not deny metaphysics its rightful territory. Second, Duhem used his segregationist position to defend the Roman Catholic Church against the assaults of the positivist scientism then in favor with the Republicans. Third, he also sought to protect his science against fellow Catholics who wanted to use it for polemical purposes. I develop and evaluate these lines of defense.
HOW THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE CHANGED RELIGION AT NINETEENTH‐CENTURY HARVARD
Authors: Nartonis David K.
Published: October 2008

Nineteenth‐century Harvard faculty and students looked to philosophical ideas about the proper and effective study of nature as the model of rationality to which their religion must conform. As these ideas changed, notions of rationality changed and so did Harvard religion.
QUESTIONING SCIENTIFIC FAITH IN THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY
Authors: Gregory Frederick
Published: October 2008

The late nineteenth century was not only a time in which religious faith was questioned in light of increasing claims of natural science. It is more accurate to see the familiar Victorian crisis of faith as but one aspect of a larger historical phenomenon, one in which the methods of both religion and science came under scrutiny. Among several examinations of the status of scientific knowledge in the waning decades of the century, the treatment of the subject by the German theologian Wilhelm Herrmann and philosopher Hans Vaihinger rejected its objective nature and denied that either scientists or theologians had access to the truth of nature. Although this stance regarding the nature of science, religion, and their relationship was limited to intellectuals in German society at the time, it foreshadowed developments in our own day in which the traditional search for truth has been problematized.
STRUCTURES OF EVIL ENCOUNTERED IN PASTORAL COUNSELING
Authors: Davis Marjorie Hall
Published: October 2008

This essay explores some relationships between social structures or systems and the internal psychological structures or systems of individuals. After defining evil, pastoral counseling, and structures or systems, I present examples of persons affected by social systems of power who have sought counseling. I present a form of counseling known as Internal Family System Therapy (IFS) and show with an extended example how I have worked with clients using this approach. In this process the client is guided to use “Self‐leadership” in healing and transforming inner conflict between various subpersonalities or “parts.” I then compare the IFS approach to one used by mediators in community conflict transformation and peacebuilding.
SCIENCE‐AND‐RELIGION/SPIRITUALITY/THEOLOGY DIALOGUE: WHAT FOR AND BY WHOM?
Authors: Reich K. Helmut
Published: October 2008

In recent years the science‐and‐religion/spirituality/theology dialogue has flourished, but the impact on the minds of the general public, on society as a whole, has been less impressive. Also, religious believers and outspoken atheists face each other without progressing toward a common understanding. The view taken here is that achieving a more marked impact of the dialogue would be beneficial for a peaceful survival of humanity. I aim to argue the why and how of that task by analyzing three possible purposes of the dialogue and their logical interdependence, suggest conceivable improvements of the quality and extent of the current efforts toward a negotiated action plan, and consider an enlargement of the circle of the actors involved. The dialogue that has been carried on between science and religion/spirituality/theology could be expanded and usefully applied to some major problems in the present world.
TOTEMISM, METAPHOR AND TRADITION: INCORPORATING CULTURAL TRADITIONS INTO EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY EXPLANATIONS OF RELIGION
Authors: Palmer Craig T. , Steadman Lyle B. , Cassidy Chris , Coe Kathryn
Published: October 2008

Totemism, a topic that fascinated and then was summarily dismissed by anthropologists, has been resurrected by evolutionary psychologists’ recent attempts to explain religion. New approaches to religion are all based on the assumption that religious behavior is the result of evolved psychological mechanisms. We focus on two aspects of Totemism that may present challenges to this view. First, if religious behavior is simply the result of evolved psychological mechanisms, would it not spring forth anew each generation from an individual's psychological mechanisms? Yet, Australian Totemism, like other forms of Totemism, is profoundly traditional, copied by one generation from the prior ones for hundreds of generations. Regardless of personal inclinations, individuals are obligated to participate. Second, it is problematic to assume that all practitioners of Totemism actually believe their religious claims. We propose an alternative explanation that accounts for the persistence of Totemism and that does not rely on an assumption that its practitioners are preliterate or naive because they have strange beliefs. We focus on Totemism as a cultural mechanism aimed at building and sustaining social relationships among close and distant kinsmen.
‘IF YOU BELIEVE THAT DISCRIMINATION EXISTS, IT WILL’*†
Authors: AHMED ALI M.
Published: October 2008

A model is presented where identical firms announce vacancies and wages and workers apply to the firm. Workers are of two types, b and g, but identical in productivity. Firms do not prefer a particular type of worker over another; however, a common belief among all workers is that type b workers are discriminated against. This causes type b workers to avoid applying for jobs that offer wages perceived to be too high. In equilibrium some firms announce high wages thereby attracting only type g workers, while others announce low wages thereby attracting only type b workers.
PRODIGALITY AND MYOPIA—TWO RATIONALES FOR SOCIAL SECURITY*
Authors: PESTIEAU PIERRE , POSSEN URI
Published: October 2008

Among the rationales for social security, there is the fact that some people have to be forced to save. To explain undersaving, rational prodigality and hyperbolic preferences are often cited but treated separably. In this paper we study those two particular behaviors that lead to forced saving within an optimal income tax second‐best setting.
INCOME EFFECTS OF INVESTMENTS AND WAGES WHEN SAVING RATES DIFFER*
Authors: HELMEDAG FRITZ
Published: October 2008

Macroeconomic reasoning often postulates a uniform saving rate. Yet, this approach is only consistent with two special cases: either all households spend the same fraction of earnings or the shares in national income are held constant by assumption. Both premises lead astray. It is shown that fluctuations in investments (as a synonym for autonomous demand) generally affect distribution. In addition, the impacts of a changing wage bill on domestic product (‘purchasing power argument’) or profits (‘wage–profit trade‐off’) are revealed.
William James, ‘The World Of Sense’ and Trust in Testimony
Authors: HARRIS PAUL L. , RICHERT REBEKAH A.
Published: October 2008

Abstract:  William James argued that we ordinarily think of the objects that we can observe—things that belong to ‘the world of sense’—as having an unquestioned reality. However, young children also assert the existence of entities that they cannot ordinarily observe. For example, they assert the existence of germs and souls. The belief in the existence of such unobservable entities is likely to be based on children’s broader trust in other people’s testimony about objects and situations that they cannot directly observe for themselves.
Imagination and the I
Authors: NICHOLS SHAUN
Published: October 2008

Abstract:  Thought experiments about the self seem to lead to deeply conflicting intuitions about the self. Cases imagined from the 3rd person perspective seem to provoke different responses than cases imagined from the 1st person perspective. This paper argues that recent cognitive theories of the imagination, coupled with standard views about indexical concepts, help explain our reactions in the 1st person cases. The explanation helps identify intuitions that should not be trusted as a guide to the metaphysics of the self.
Pretence as Individual and Collective Intentionality
Authors: RAKOCZY HANNES
Published: October 2008

Abstract: Focusing on early child pretend play from the perspective of developmental psychology, this article puts forward and presents evidence for two claims. First, such play constitutes an area of remarkable individual intentionality of second‐order intentionality (or ‘theory of mind’): in pretence with others, young children grasp the basic intentional structure of pretending as a non‐serious fictional form of action. Second, early social pretend play embodies shared or collective we‐intentionality. Pretending with others is one of the ontogenetically primary instances of truly cooperative actions. And it is a, perhaps the, primordial form of cooperative action with rudimentary rule‐governed, institutional structure: in joint pretence games, children are aware that objects collectively get assigned fictional status, ‘count as’ something, and that this creates a normative space of warranted moves in the game. Developmentally, pretend play might even be a cradle for institutional phenomena more generally.
VOTING, LOBBYING, AND THE DECENTRALIZATION THEOREM
Authors: LOCKWOOD BEN
Published: October 2008

This paper revisits the well‐known fiscal “Decentralization Theorem” by relaxing the role of the assumption that governments are benevolent, while retaining the assumption of policy uniformity. If, instead, decisions are made by majority voting, the theorem fails. Specifically, (i) centralization can welfare‐dominate decentralization even if there are no externalities and regions are heterogeneous and (ii) decentralization can welfare‐dominate centralization even if there are positive externalities and regions are homogeneous. Similar results are obtained if a benevolent government is subject to lobbying. Hence, the Decentralization Theorem is not robust to relatively minor deviations away from the benchmark of a purely benevolent government.
Psychological Bias as a Driver of Financial Regulation
Authors: Hirshleifer David
Published: October 2008

I propose here the psychological attraction theory of financial regulation – that regulation is the result of psychological biases on the part of political participants – voters, politicians, bureaucrats, and media commentators; and of regulatory ideologies that exploit these biases. Some key elements of the psychological attraction approach are: salience and vividness, omission bias, scapegoating and xenophobia, fairness and reciprocity norms, overconfidence, and mood effects. This approach further emphasises emergent effects that arise from the interactions of individuals with psychological biases. For example, availability cascades and ideological replicators have powerful effects on regulatory outcomes.
The Long‐Term Effect of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act on Cross‐Listing Premia
Authors: Litvak Kate
Published: October 2008

This paper uses a triple difference approach to assess whether the adoption of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act predicts long‐term changes in cross‐listing premia of affected foreign firms. I measure cross‐listing premia as the difference between the Tobin's q of a cross‐listed company and a non‐cross‐listed company from the same country matched on propensity to cross‐list (first difference). I find that average premia for firms cross‐listed on levels 2 or 3 (subject to SOX) declined in the year of SOX adoption (2002) and remained significantly below their pre‐SOX level through year‐end 2005 (second difference). Firms listed on levels 2 or 3, which are subject to SOX, experienced larger declines in premia than firms listed on levels 1 or 4, which are not subject to SOX (third difference). The estimated decline is 0.15–0.20 depending on specification. Riskier firms and firms from high‐disclosing and high‐GDP countries suffered larger post‐SOX declines. Firm size predicts smaller declines in premia in well‐governed countries. Faster‐growing firms in poorly‐governed countries experienced smaller declines in premia. The results are robust to the use of different before‐and‐after periods; the use of annual, quarterly, or monthly data; the use of individual companies' Tobin's q's instead of matched pairs, and different regression specifications. The overall evidence is consistent with the view that SOX negatively affected cross‐listed premia, and particularly hurt riskier firms and firms from well‐governed countries, while perhaps helping high‐growth firms from poorly‐governed countries. At the same time, after‐SOX, level‐23 firms continue to enjoy a substantial premium, estimated at about 0.32.
Corporate Governance When Managers Set Their Own Pay
Authors: Ruiz‐Verdú Pablo
Published: October 2008

This paper presents a model of the firm in which the manager has discretion over his own compensation, constrained only by the threat of shareholder intervention. The model addresses two main questions. How does shareholder power affect managers' compensation and their incentives to maximise firm value? And what is the optimal level of shareholder power? Expectedly, the model shows that increasing shareholder power leads to lower managerial pay. Greater shareholder power, however, also weakens the manager's incentives to maximise value and may even lead to lower profits for shareholders. There might, thus, be too much, as well as too little, shareholder power. The model characterises the optimal level of shareholder power and yields predictions about the relation between shareholder power, managerial pay, performance and firm characteristics.
The European Judicial Organisation in a New Paradigm: The Influence of Principles of ‘New Public Management’ on the Organisation of the European Courts
Authors: Mak Elaine
Published: October 2008

Recent reforms regarding the European Courts raise the question in which way do ‘new public management’ principles influence the European judicial organisation and how is a balance struck between these principles and classic ‘rule of law’ principles? The article first presents a classification of these types of principles in the framework for discussion regarding the European judicial organisation. Starting out from two paradigms, an inquiry is made into the status of the two sets of principles in the present‐day European ‘constitutional’ framework. Second, the interaction of principles is investigated with regard to a number of current dilemmas, including the demarcation of the judicial domain, the management of the Courts and the distribution of judicial competences.
Why Do the European Court of Justice Judges Need Legal Concepts?
Authors: Leczykiewicz Dorota
Published: October 2008

The article considers the reasons why the European Court of Justice (ECJ) judges need legal concepts when they pronounce their judgments. It points out that the ECJ as a law‐interpreting and an ipso facto law‐making court needs legal concepts to communicate results of its interpretative and law‐making enterprise. The article also shows how in the context of Article 234 EC preliminary ruling procedure legal concepts become useful tools of portraying ECJ judgments as mere products of interpretation and not as the results of subsuming the facts of the case into a legal provision. It is by means of application of legal concepts, that the ECJ judges are able to justify that they are not overstepping the mandate they have been entrusted with. In the same time the use of legal concepts enables them to engage in dialogue with national judges, who seek guidance as to the content of EC law rules, and to maintain a strong doctrine of precedent. Most importantly, however, the use of concepts promotes coherence which, the article maintains, is the primary source of Community law's authority, and thus constitutes the foundational technique of persuading the relevant audience that Community law is indeed a legal system.
The National Judiciary—Sword of European Court of Justice Rulings: The Example of the Kohll/Decker Jurisprudence
Authors: Obermaier Andreas J.
Published: October 2008

The role of the national judiciary in enforcing EC law, and particularly European Court of Justice (ECJ) rulings, has been largely neglected by empirical legal and political science research. Existing research has categorised the role of the national judiciary as either shielding national legislation from the ECJ or as serving as a ‘sword’ to foster integration and to force change on reluctant governments. This article sides with the second assumption and attempts to empirically assess it using the example of the patient mobility jurisprudence by the ECJ, the so‐called Kohll/Decker jurisprudence. The three case studies on France, the UK and Germany show that national courts played an important role in overcoming the resistance against this jurisprudence: via a multiplication of national court cases that contradicted domestic legislation they forced the legislator to end judicial uncertainty.