bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
New Insights into the Endocrine and Metabolic Roles of Dopamine D2 Receptors Gained from the Drd2–/– Mouse
Authors: Garcia-Tornadú Isabel , Perez-Millan Maria Ines , Recouvreux Victoria , Ramirez Maria Cecilia , Luque Guillermina , Risso Gabriela Sofia , Ornstein Ana Maria , Cristina Carolina , Diaz-Torga Graciela , Becu-Villalobos Damasia
Published: October 2010

Dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) participation in prolactin regulation is well documented, but the role of D2Rs in the control of other hormones involved in growth, food intake and glucose metabolism has not been extensively studied. The study of D2R knockout mice (Drd2–/–) puts forward new insights into the role of the D2R in growth hormone (GH)-releasing hormone-GH regulation, peptides involved in food intake, glucose homeostasis, as well as in prolactinoma development. The expected phenotype of chronic hyperprolactinemia and prolactinoma development was found in the Drd2–/– mouse, and this model constitutes a valuable tool in the study of dopamine-resistant prolactinomas. Unexpectedly, these mice were growth retarded, and the importance of functional hypothalamic D2Rs in the neonatal period was revealed. In the Drd2–/– mouse there was a failure of high neonatal GH levels and therefore the expansion of pituitary somatotropes was permanently altered. These mice also had increased food intake, and a sexually dimorphic participation of the D2R in food intake regulation is suggested. The effect described is probably secondary to D2R regulation of prolactin secretion. Furthermore, the negative modulation of D2Rs on α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone release and positive action on the hypothalamic expression of orexins reveals the complex D2R regulation of food intake. Finally, pancreatic D2Rs inhibit glucose-stimulated insulin release. Lack of dopaminergic inhibition throughout development in the Drd2–/– mouse may exert a gradual deteriorating effect on insulin homeostasis, so that eventually glucose intolerance develops. These results highlight the complex endocrine actions of the D2Rs at different levels, hypothalamus, pituitary or pancreas, which function to improve fitness, reproductive success and survival.
Partial Protein-Hydrolyzed Infant Formula Decreased Food Sensitization but Not Allergic Diseases in a Prospective Birth Cohort Study
Authors: Kuo Ho-Chang , Liu Chieh-An , Ou Chia-Yu , Hsu Te-Yao , Wang Chih-Lu , Huang Hsin-Chun , Chuang Hau , Liang Hsiu-Mei , Yang Kuender D.
Published: October 2010

Background: Exposure to cow’s milk protein in early infancy could lead to increased rates of allergic diseases later in life. We investigated whether feeding a protein-hydrolyzed formula (HF) in the first 6 months of life decreased allergic diseases up to 36 months later. Methods: Newborns who had at least 1 first-degree family member with a history of atopy and could not breast-feed were enrolled. They were fed with HF or cow’s milk infant formula (CM) for at least 6 months via an open-label protocol and were monitored prospectively at 6, 18 and 36 months of age to assess allergy sensitization and allergic diseases. Results: A total of 1,002 infants were enrolled and 679 infants were consistently fed the same formula for the first 6 months of life (345 HF and 334 CM). The percentage of food sensitization (especially to milk protein) was significantly lower in the HF group than in the CM group at 36 months (12.7 vs. 23.4%, p = 0.048). There was no significant difference in the prevalence of aeroallergen sensitization between the groups. Occurrence of allergic diseases during the first 3 years of life was significantly correlated with aeroallergen sensitization, but not to food allergen sensitization, parental atopy or feeding types. Conclusions: Infants fed with HF during the first 6 months of life had a significantly lower percentage of sensitization to milk protein allergens, but not allergic diseases during the first 3 years of life. Avoidance of cow’s milk protein alone in infancy is not enough to decrease rates of allergic diseases.
Basophil CD203c Levels Are Increased at Baseline and Can Be Used to Monitor Omalizumab Treatment in Subjects with Nut Allergy
Authors: Gernez Yael , Tirouvanziam Rabindra , Yu Grace , Ghosn Eliver E.B. , Reshamwala Neha , Nguyen Tammie , Tsai Mindy , Galli Stephen J. , Herzenberg Leonard A. , Herzenberg Leonore A. , Nadeau Kari C.
Published: October 2010

Rationale: Basophils contribute to anaphylaxis and allergies. We examined the utility of assessing basophil-associated surface antigens (CD11b/CD63/CD123/CD203c/CD294) in characterizing and monitoring subjects with nut allergy. Methods: We used flow cytometry to analyze basophils at baseline (without any activation) and after ex vivo stimulation of whole blood by addition of nut or other allergens for 2, 10, and 30 min. We also evaluated whether basophil expression of CD11b/CD63/CD123/CD203c/CD294 was altered in subjects treated with anti-IgE monoclonal antibody (omalizumab) to reduce plasma levels of IgE. Results: We demonstrate that basophil CD203c levels are increased at baseline in subjects with nut allergy compared to healthy controls (13 subjects in each group, p < 0.0001). Furthermore, we confirm that significantly increased expression of CD203c occurs on subject basophils when stimulated with the allergen to which the subject is sensitive and can be detected rapidly (10 min of stimulation, n = 11, p < 0.0008). In 5 subjects with severe peanut allergy, basophil CD203c expression following stimulation with peanut allergen was significantly decreased (p < 0.05) after 4 and 8 weeks of omalizumab treatment but returned toward pretreatment levels after treatment cessation. Conclusions: Subjects with nut allergy show an increase of basophil CD203c levels at baseline and following rapid ex vivo stimulation with nut allergen. Both can be reduced by omalizumab therapy. These results highlight the potential of using basophil CD203c levels for baseline diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring in subjects with nut allergy.
Case-Control Study of Eczema Associated with IL13 Genetic Polymorphisms in Japanese Children
Authors: Miyake Yoshihiro , Kiyohara Chikako , Koyanagi Midori , Fujimoto Takahiro , Shirasawa Senji , Tanaka Keiko , Sasaki Satoshi , Hirota Yoshio
Published: October 2010

Background: Several association studies have investigated the relationships between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the IL13 gene and eczema, with inconsistent results. We conducted a case-control study of the relationship between the polymorphisms of rs1800925 and rs20541 and the risk of eczema in Japanese children aged 3 years. Methods: Included were the 209 cases identified based on criteria of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC). Controls were 451 children without eczema based on ISAAC questions who had not been diagnosed by a physician as having asthma or atopic eczema. Results: The minor TT genotype of the rs1800925 SNP and the minor AA genotype of the rs20541 SNP were significantly related to an increased risk of eczema: adjusted odds ratio for the TT genotype was 2.78 (95% confidence interval 1.22–6.30) and that for the AA genotype was 2.38 (95% confidence interval 1.35–4.18). Haplotype analyses showed a protective association between the CG haplotype and eczema, whereas the TA haplotype was positively related to the risk of eczema. Perinatal smoking exposure did not interact with genotypes of the IL13 gene in the etiology of eczema. The significant association of the rs20541 SNP with eczema essentially disappeared after additional adjustment for the rs1800925 SNP, whereas a relationship with the rs1800925 SNP remained significant. Conclusions: A common genetic variation in the IL13 gene at the levels of both single SNPs and haplotypes was associated with eczema. However, the significant association with the rs20541 SNP might be ascribed to the rs1800925 SNP.
Effectiveness of Outpatient, Day Hospital, and Inpatient Psychotherapeutic Treatment for Patients with Cluster B Personality Disorders
Authors: Bartak Anna , Andrea Helene , Spreeuwenberg Marieke D. , Ziegler Uli M. , Dekker Jack , Rossum Bert V. , Hamers Elisabeth F.M. , Scholte Wubbo , Aerts Janneke , Busschbach Jan J.V. , Verheul Roel , Stijnen Theo , Emmelkamp Paul M.G.
Published: October 2010

Background: For patients with cluster B personality disorders there is no consensus regarding the optimal treatment setting. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of different psychotherapeutic settings for patients with cluster B personality disorders, i.e. outpatient, day hospital, and inpatient treatment. Methods: The study was conducted between March 2003 and June 2008 in 6 mental health care centres in the Netherlands, with a sample of 207 patients with a DSM-IV-TR axis II cluster B diagnosis. Patients were assigned to 3 different settings of psychotherapeutic treatment and effectiveness was assessed at 18 months after baseline. An intention-to-treat analysis was conducted for psychiatric symptoms (Brief Symptom Inventory), psychosocial functioning (Outcome Questionnaire-45), and quality of life (EQ-5D), using multilevel statistical modelling. As the study was non-randomised, the propensity score method was used to control for initial differences. Results: Patients in all 3 settings improved significantly in terms of psychiatric symptoms, social and interpersonal functioning, and quality of life 18 months after baseline. The inpatient group showed the largest improvements. The comparison of outpatient and inpatient treatment regarding psychiatric symptoms showed a marginally significant result (p = 0.057) in favour of inpatient treatment. Conclusions: Patients with cluster B personality disorders improved in all investigated treatment settings, with a trend towards larger improvements of psychiatric symptoms in the inpatient setting compared to the outpatient setting. Specialised inpatient treatment should be considered as a valuable treatment option for cluster B personality disorders, both in research and in clinical practice.
Indigenous Struggles, Environmental Justice, and Community Capabilities
Authors: Schlosberg David , Carruthers David
Published: October 2010

Environmental justice is often defined in terms of the distribution (or maldistribution) of environmental goods and bads. Activists and scholars have also focused on issues of cultural recognition and political participation. This article posits a capabilities-based conception of environmental justice. We argue that environmental challenges raised by indigenous communities demonstrate a broad, complex conception of environmental justice focused on a range of capabilities and basic functionings, at both the individual and community levels. We begin with a theoretical justification for a capabilities-based approach to understanding environmental justice. We then offer two in-depth case studies from the US and Chile, to illustrate our argument that indigenous environmental justice struggles clearly articulate themes of community capabilities and functioning, highlighting the importance of social and cultural reproduction.
Energy, Environment, and Security: Critical Links in a Post-Peak World
Authors: Mulligan Shane
Published: October 2010

Energy supplies are central to human ecology and key to the sustainability of human communities, but the decline of fossil fuel resources is largely ignored in global environmental politics. Most political analysis of energy focuses on state-centered “energy security” while largely overlooking discourses of environmental or ecological security. Yet energy and the environment are intimately connected; in the 1970s and 1980s, energy resources were seen as very much a part of the environment to be secured, while today fossil energy is seen as an evident threat to the environment, especially through the medium of climate change. This article surveys the changing relationships among energy, the environment, and security, and suggests a framework for examining the discursive forces that have affected such changes. This framework offers guidance toward developing a more ecologically informed approach to energy and (state, global, and human) security under conditions of scarce and declining global fossil fuel supplies.
Fixing the EU Emissions Trading System? Understanding the Post-2012 Changes
Authors: Skjærseth Jon Birger , Wettestad Jørgen
Published: October 2010

This article explains why the significant changes in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for the 2013–2020 phase were adopted in 2008. The combination of a more stringent EU-wide cap, allocation of emission allowances for payment, and limits on imports of credits from third countries have strengthened the system for the post-2012 period. This will promote reduction in greenhouse gases compared to the old system. The main reasons for these changes are, first, changes in the positions of the member states due to unsatisfactory experience with performance of the EU ETS so far. Second, a “package approach” where the EU ETS reform was integrated into wider energy and climate policy facilitated agreement on the changes. Third, changes in the position of nonstate actors and a desire to affect the international climate negotiations contributed to the reform.
Does training managers enhance the effects of implementing team-working? A longitudinal, mixed methods field study
Authors: Nielsen Karina , Randall Raymond , Christensen Karl Bang
Published: October 2010

The introduction of team-working often has positive effects on team members but places significant new demands on managers. Unfortunately, little research has examined whether the impact of the intervention may be enhanced by providing managers with training during the change process. To test this possibility we carried out a longitudinal intervention study (with a ‘no training’ comparison group) in a part of the Danish elderly care sector that was implementing teamwork. Kirkpatrick’s (1998) training evaluation model was used to examine the effects of training team managers in issues such as teamwork, transformational leadership and change management on the outcomes of team implementation. We used a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods to isolate the impact of manager training on the success of the teamwork intervention. The results identified some significant, but modest, incremental positive effects that could be attributed to the manager training. The results also showed that significant organizational changes during the intervention had an impact on both the team intervention and the transfer of manager training.
Reimagining the Urban: A Canadian Perspective
Authors: Daniel Beverly-Jean
Published: October 2010

This article makes the argument for a reframing and a reconceptualization of the urban—suburban divide which can inform the options and possibilities for transformative practices in urban schools. Drawing primarily from a Canadian, and more specifically a southern Ontario context, the article explores the changing realities of urban within this region; examines the extent to which the suburban and the urban realties have become enmeshed; and explores the educational opportunities that can emerge through that reframing. Reconceptualizing the “urban” is a vital aspect of contemporary and future schooling given the shifting context of actual urban spaces and the people who inhabit them in many of the major city centers of the world. The article also addresses the need for the development of leadership in these urban/suburban school settings that is collaborative, transformative, and moves beyond hierarchical conceptions.
Investing in Diversity in London Schools: Leadership Preparation for Black and Global Majority Educators
Authors: Johnson Lauri , Campbell-Stephens Rosemary
Published: October 2010

This article traces the historical roots, describes the philosophy and curriculum, and analyzes the approach to leadership in Investing in Diversity, a 1-year Black-led leadership development course in the London schools. An exploratory qualitative case study approach was used to collect historical and empirical data about the program over a 2-year period (2008—2010). Findings from selected survey data indicated that the leadership course enhanced self-confidence, provided role models, and was perceived as “empowering” by both participants and instructors. Interviews with four Black and Global Majority senior school leaders who are instructors in the program (including the program developer) characterize their leadership approach as collaborative and community-centered, with high expectations for students and a responsibility to give back to their respective communities. Although little research has been conducted on the leadership perspectives of Black school leaders in Britain, data from Investing in Diversity resonated with themes in the extant research on African American leadership perspectives.
Suffering and theory: Max Horkheimer’s early essays and contemporary moral philosophy
Authors: Berendzen J.C.
Published: October 2010

Max Horkheimer does not generally receive the scholarly attention given to other ‘Frankfurt School’ figures. This is in part because his early work seems contradictory, or unphilosophical. For example, Horkheimer seems, at various points (to use contemporary metaethical terms), like a constructivist, a moral realist, or a moral skeptic, and it is not clear how these views cohere. The goal of this article is to show that the contradictions regarding moral theory exist largely on the surface, and that one can go below the surface to reconstruct a coherent position. Part I will examine Horkheimer’s skeptical critique of morality, and show that it leads to the realist position discussed in part II. Part III then shows that such realism can only be understood within a larger constructivist project, which elaborates on a minimal normativity present in human experience. This reconstruction should make sense of Horkheimer’s work, and show its contemporary relevance.
Why Giorgio Agamben is an optimist
Authors: Prozorov Sergei
Published: October 2010

The article takes Giorgio Agamben’s declaration of his optimism with regard to the possibilities of global political transformation as a point of departure for the inquiry into the affirmative aspects of Agamben’s political thought, frequently overshadowed by his more famous critical claims. We reconstitute three principles grounding Agamben’s optimism that pertain respectively to the total crisis of the contemporary biopolitical apparatuses, the possibility of a radically different form-of-life on the basis of their residue and the minimalist character of this transformation that consists entirely in the subtraction of existence from these apparatuses. While the first two principles are unproblematic in the wider context of Agamben’s work, the third principle introduces the problematic of will that remains highly ambiguous in his philosophy. In the remainder of the article we address this ambiguity in an analysis of Agamben’s reading of Melville’s ‘Bartleby the Scrivener’ and conclude that Agamben’s optimism ultimately consists in the affirmation of absolute contingency, beyond both will and necessity.
Wittgenstein, value pluralism and politics
Authors: Moore Matthew J.
Published: October 2010

This article makes three main claims: (1) that the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, properly understood, has no normative or political implications whatsoever; (2) that scholars with otherwise dramatically conflicting interpretations of Wittgenstein should nonetheless all agree with this conclusion; and (3) that understanding the (non-) implications of Wittgenstein’s philosophy helps to answer the two motivating questions of the literature on value pluralism — whether values are (or can be) plural (yes), and whether value pluralism leads to, requires, or reveals some particular normative or political response (no).
The political philosophy of Walzer’s social criticism
Authors: Gregory James
Published: October 2010

This article calls for a critical re-evaluation of Walzer’s theory of justice. It argues that there is a deep tension between Walzer’s social criticism and his complex equality. Social criticism is based on the normative value of a connected and ‘whole’ self, and complex equality is based upon a value pluralism that threatens to fragment this sense of wholeness. Walzer therefore commissions a tacit premise, borrowing from the same ‘political philosophy’ that he explicitly repudiates, and which social criticism is intended to supplant. This premise is a Kantian-inspired conception of self; brought to the argument as an a priori premise and thus in violation of Walzer’s own stated commitment to ‘internalism’ and ‘interpretation’. Furthermore, this same conception of self is the moral source of Walzer’s substantive commitment to the universal value of pluralist political regimes. The article closes with a suggested reconciliation of the inherent tension within Walzer’s theory.
Winning the business case for knowledge management
Authors: Desouza Kevin C.
Published: October 2010

Without a sound business case, securing resources for knowledge management is difficult. When organizations do not devote the necessary resources to knowledge management efforts, it is often not due to a lack of resources, but rather because managers have not made an appealing business case. In this article, the author outlines guidelines on how to tie knowledge management efforts to an organization’s goals, objectives and key performance indicators.
The constant evolution of business sources: Entrepreneurial spirit in the midst of consolidation
Authors: Yaremchuk Jean
Published: October 2010

An overview of the history and evolution of business information, including a typology of players, sources, and information delivery. News aggregators bringing together regional sources, databases publishers packaging information available on individual websites and from filings, and companies creating electronic repositories of paper and other dispersed documents undoubtedly resulted in larger entities. But while stronger providers acquired smaller niche players and startups, these acquisitions encouraged new players. Vested former executives who cashed out started new niche companies or joined smaller companies. Boosting this bubbling up of new players are the regulators, who are supporting middle-tiered players in their growth as competitors. The prediction is that while high-end aggregators will continue to sell value-add products with all available content for high prices and will pay to acquire content and technology, smaller companies will continue to arise in order to grow and compete or sell to the big guys. And individual sources will still be available, and usually easier to find and retrieve.
Tailoring products for the end-user: The influence of user-practitioners
Authors: Green Louise
Published: October 2010

The information industry is changing. It is expanding but who are the users? This article explores how the expansion of information use across departments in corporates has led to end users becoming a major user group. Information providers are faced with new dilemmas as they address their varying needs which often include ambitious projects such as data integration. It looks at the growing number of practitioner users — end users with sophisticated and specific research needs. Drawing on Bureau van Dijk’s experience, it concludes with the importance of understanding how to implement information and research processes into corporate life for maximum benefit.
The challenge to professional knowledge: How CMI is adapting to prosper in the digital age
Authors: Cain Piers
Published: October 2010

The digital age is challenging the business model of professional organizations. Many of these are facing membership decline. Newer entrants to a profession fail to see the value yielded from significant membership fees especially as informal networks and the vast information resource of the Web appear to meet their needs. However, by embracing new technologies professional organizations have an armoury of weapons with which to fight for their growth and sustainability. This article provides insight into the power of the knowledge offer now being developed by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). The blend of social technologies, well-structured information platforms and the professional insight and knowledge of its members is being used to create new products and to attract new members. Partnership with other organizations is widening access and is enabling CMI to develop its reputation and its role as the ‘first port of call’ for management and leadership development. Library and information skills are an essential contributor to this transformation.
Six keys to real-time analytics: How to maximize analytics initiatives
Authors: MacMillan Leah
Published: October 2010

This article provides six best practices for data management professionals to ensure that their performance management and analytics initiatives are set up for success.
Never mind the width, feel the quality: The provision of library services to a global business school
Authors: Broadhurst Dominic
Published: October 2010

The Manchester Business School (MBS) Library Service of the John Rylands University Library Service provides a full range of services to the wide varied customer base of the Manchester Business School and the University of Manchester. As befitting a full service global business school there are some additional unique customer groups in comparison to those present in other academic library settings. These in tandem with a range of associated issues provide both opportunities for service innovation and a range of challenges to be met. A full analysis of the customer groups is provided, preceded by background to the establishment of the current Manchester Business School. A range of issues that have a direct impact on service provision together with some of current day imperatives are examined in turn.
Reliability and Validity of the Novaco Anger Scale and Provocation Inventory (NAS-PI) and State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2) in Hispanic and Non-Hispanic White Student Samples
Authors: Culhane Scott E. , Morera Osvaldo F.
Published: October 2010

This project tested the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory—2 (STAXI-2) and the Novaco Anger Scale—Provocation Inventory (NAS-PI) in a sample of U.S. Hispanic ( n = 257) and U.S. non-Hispanic White ( n = 246) undergraduate students. Internal consistency, subscale correlations, convergent validity with the Multidimensional Anger Inventory (MAI), and predictive validity were all analyzed. Across ethnic groups, all major subscales demonstrated adequate internal consistency reliability. Correlations between the subscales were strong for both groups within each measure and with the subscales of the other measure. In predicting PI scores, there was no evidence of intercept invariance across the ethnic groups and no evidence of slope invariance when either measure was used as a predictor. Results suggest that both measures are valid for use in Hispanic samples.
Ideology and Existence of 50%-Majority Equilibria in Multidimensional Spatial Voting Models
Authors: Crès Hervé , Ünver M. Utku
Published: October 2010

When aggregating individual preferences through the majority rule in an n-dimensional spatial voting model, the ‘worst-case’ scenario is a social choice configuration where no political equilibrium exists unless a super-majority rate as high as 1 — 1/(n+1) is adopted. In this paper we assume that a lower d-dimensional (d < n) linear map spans the possible candidates’ platforms. These d ‘ideological’ dimensions imply some linkages between the n political issues. We randomize over these linkages and show that there almost surely exists a 50%-majority equilibria in the above worst-case scenario, when n grows to infinity. Moreover, the equilibrium is the mean voter.
Transparency and Accountability: Empirical Results for Us States
Authors: Alt James E. , Lowry Robert C.
Published: October 2010

Recent formal models of accountability allow us to make different conditional predictions about how transparency affects voters’ willingness to re-elect incumbents and acceptance of higher taxes. We review two models and investigate empirical implications derived from or related to them, using panel data from 1972—2000 for U.S. state budget process transparency, gubernatorial elections, and tax increases in a small structural model. We do not find that budget transparency has a direct effect on incumbent retention, but we do find clear evidence that increased transparency dampens the negative effect of tax increases on retention of incumbent governors. Independent of this, we also find that increased transparency leads to greater fiscal scale. We suggest some possible directions for future models based on our results.
Power Concentration and Interstate Conflict: Is There a Connection?
Authors: Lee Ray James , Bentley Patrick
Published: October 2010

Singer et al. (1972) hypothesized that the distribution of military—industrial capabilities among the major powers, as reflected in an index referred to as CON, would have an impact on the incidence of war for those states. Subsequent research on the possible connection between CON and interstate conflict has continued for almost four decades. A recent book declares that CON is the single most potent predictor of interstate conflict. However, theoretical arguments linking CON to conflict tend to be implausible or illogical. Furthermore, empirical analyses over the years have produced inconsistent results. These problems cannot be traced to flaws in CON. The long history of CON suggests that models of interstate conflict would benefit from more cogent theoretical bases for choices of individual variables, as well as the set of variables included in those models.
Evaluating the Unfairness of Representation With the Nash Social Welfare Function
Authors: Wada Junichiro
Published: October 2010

Using the Nash product (Nash Social Welfare Function) as a micro foundation, we create a decomposable index to evaluate the unfairness of representation in electoral districts. Using this index, we decompose the factors of such unfairness into apportionment and districting. We explore the situations of New Zealand, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Canada. We then provide an integer solution that minimizes the index of the apportionment, which can be obtained by the divisor method (Balinski and Young, 1982) using a logarithmic mean.
Analysis of WAIS-IV Index Score Scatter Using Significant Deviation from the Mean Index Score
Authors: Grégoire Jacques , Coalson Diane L. , Jianjun Zhu
Published: October 2010

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) does not include verbal IQ and performance IQ scores, as provided in previous editions of the scale; rather, this edition provides comparisons among four index scores, allowing analysis of an individual’s WAIS-IV performance in more discrete domains of cognitive ability. To supplement the pairwise index score comparisons included in the WAIS-IV manuals, this article describes the use of the mean of the four index scores (the average index score) as a baseline for analyzing index score variability and as a method for identifying strengths and weaknesses within an individual’s index score pattern. Davis’s formula was used to calculate critical values for the identification of index scores with a statistically significant difference from the average index score. Subsequent analysis of the WAIS-IV normative sample indicates that variability in performance at the index score level is not uncommon in the general population. More than 70% of individuals in the normative sample have at least one index score that differs significantly from their mean index score. This variability in index score performance appears to have little relationship to age or gender, but it is strongly related to the full-scale IQ.
What Does the Case In Re: Katrina Canal Breaches Consolidated Litigation Mean for Infrastructure Managers?
Authors: Lichter-Heath Laurie Jean
Published: October 2010

This case study is based on the six consolidated lawsuits arising out of the damages caused by Hurricane Katrina. During Hurricane Katrina various levees were breached resulting in property damage to surrounding homes and businesses. Those parties filed law suits asking for damages from the U.S. government asserting that its agent (the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) was negligent in designing and maintaining the levees in the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. This study provides guidance to infrastructure managers on how to minimize liability through use of the federal trial court’s finding of facts and conclusion of law in the case of In Re: Katrina Canal Breaches Consolidated Litigation.
The management of enthusiasm: Motives and expectations in cardiovascular medicine
Authors: Will Catherine M.
Published: October 2010

Debates about appropriate action in medicine often turn on finding the right emotional orientation to new developments. In this article enthusiasm emerges as a key term in a professional ‘vocabulary of motive’ around innovation, complicating current sociological interest in expectations. The negative associations that adhere to this word among clinical researchers indicate awareness with the difficulty of managing hype and public hopes, but analysis of its use by cardiologists over the past two decades also reveals tension around more specific professional dangers, including ‘credulity’ and inappropriate activism. An emphasis on clinical trials offers one resolution, but additional narrative strategies can be identified when discussing when to start such trials here illustrated for stem cells for cardiac repair. In particular, while some suggest delaying trials until there is good knowledge of mechanism gained in the laboratory, others support early clinical research through gestures of therapeutic and epistemic modesty.
Privatization within the Dutch context: A comparison of the health insurance systems of the Netherlands and the United States
Authors: Naderi Pooya S.D. , Meier Brian D.
Published: October 2010

In 2006, the Netherlands passed the Health Insurance Act requiring all legal residents to obtain health insurance from private insurance companies. The reform created a national health insurance system guaranteed to all citizens regardless of income or labor force status and introduced a market orientation that makes private insurance companies the sole providers of health insurance. How does the new policy compare to the US model of private health insurance provision? Is this reform evidence of a shift toward the American model? We use a comparative case study method to distinguish the new Dutch system from the private insurance system in the United States. We find that although the Dutch system includes market solutions similar to the US model, it still provides a universal guarantee of coverage to all of its citizens and should be viewed as ‘privatization’ within the Dutch context rather than a cooptation of American health policy.
The plastic brain: Neoliberalism and the neuronal self
Authors: Pitts-Taylor Victoria
Published: October 2010

Neuroscience-based representations and practices of the brain aimed at lay populations present the brain in ways that both affirm biological determinism and also celebrate plasticity, or the brain’s ability to change structure and function. Popular uses of neuroscientific theories of brain plasticity are saturated with a neoliberal vision of the subject. Against more optimistic readings of plasticity, I view the popular deployment of plasticity through the framework of governmentality. I describe how popular brain discourse on plasticity opens up the brain to personal techniques of enhancement and risk avoidance, and how it promotes a neuronal self. I situate brain plasticity in a context of biomedical neoliberalism, where the engineering and modification of biological life is positioned as essential to selfhood and citizenship.
When trans translates into tolerance - or was it monstrous? Transsexual and transgender identity in liberal humanist discourse
Authors: Gressgård Randi
Published: October 2010

The article explores the way in which trans people represent a cultural ‘difference’ that has to be managed in liberal-democratic societies of today. The point of departure is liberal tolerance discourse, as analysed by Wendy Brown, in which the threatening ‘others’ are being regulated in order to prevent the social order from being destroyed from within. In accordance with liberal norms and values, tolerance promotes individual choice and autonomy: the individual’s freedom of identity. It also assumes, however, that identities, such as trans identity, issue from an essence or inner truth to be found in the person. This subjectivity-constituting contradiction lies at the core of liberal tolerance discourse. Trans people bring into question this contradiction, thereby challenging the foundations of normative subjectivity. The key question that emerges is whether liberal humanist tolerance defies horror and hostility or whether tolerance discourse creates its own gendered and sexualized monsters suitable for late-modern, flexible regimes of governmentality.
Protecting the lesbian border: The tension between individual and communal authenticity
Authors: Tabatabai Ahoo
Published: October 2010

Far from considering sexuality a dichotomous system of classification, with exclusive categories such as heterosexual and homosexual, scholars are paying closer attention to the ways in which individuals navigate sexual identity categories and engage in behavior that makes a single classification problematic. The focus of this article is on the experience of self-identified lesbian, bisexual and queer women who have moved from relationships with female partners to relationships with male partners. After 14 interviews, this research shows that the women in question reject some labels, such as straight and bisexual, but become protective of other labels, such as lesbian. The women themselves begin to serve as a sort of boundary police, protective of who exactly fits into the lesbian category.
Nocturnal queers: Rent boys’ masculinity in Istanbul
Authors: Özbay Cenk
Published: October 2010

Recently, ‘rent boys’ have become increasingly visible in the queer social spaces of Istanbul. They come from impoverished areas of the city and engage in compensated sex with other men. In this article, I examine how these heterosexually identified rent boys assemble and perform exaggerated masculinity in order to negotiate the tensions between their local socially excluded environments and an burgeoning western-style gay culture while they conduct their ‘risky’ sexual interactions with other men. Exaggerated masculinity repairs and masks the subverting effects of compensated sex for rent boys’ heterosexual subjectivities and makes them closer to the hegemonic ideals of masculinity. Through intense participant observation and 20 recorded interviews with rent boys and their clients, this study demonstrates how rent boys perform an assiduous self-governance through symbols and implicit meanings vis-à-vis different and contradictory class positions, gender identities, and sexual acts.
Shifting sexual boundaries: Comparing gay-identified and non-gay-identified men who have sex with men in Brazil and in the USA
Authors: Voon Chin Phua
Published: October 2010

Recent studies have examined the different criteria a person could use to affirm his sexual identity. Using in-depth interviews conducted with Brazilian and American men, this study examines specifically the relationship between sexual behavior and sexual identity. The results indicate that being the passive person in anal intercourse is considered the final line drawn between being straight and being gay for Brazilians, whereas this sexual act is not necessary the determinant boundary for American men. Definitional criteria of sexual identification and of the sexual act boundaries are situational. Sexual identities are fluid in part because the criteria used to determine them are also fluid.
From The Devil in Miss Jones to DMJ6 — power, inequality, and consistency in the content of US adult films
Authors: Tibbals Chauntelle Anne
Published: October 2010

I conducted a thematic content analysis of key adult films in order to explore patterns and trends occurring in US adult film industry production and development between 1972 and 2005. Insights from grounded theory informed my consideration of a systematic sampling of 26 films. Emergent patterns and trends include: (1) content consistency across eras; (2) shifts in the form of sex depiction presentation; (3) continuous industry mainstreaming; and (4) changes in women talents’ (actors’) aesthetics. These patterns and trends reveal some tensions existing between the adult film industry and wider society, highlight symbiotic developments in what has been and what is currently considered ‘pornographic’, and illustrate the continued presence of dualistic power-based relationships in shaping persons’ social-sexual interactions.
Analysing group dynamics within the focus group
Authors: Farnsworth John , Boon Bronwyn
Published: October 2010

Focus groups are routinely used as a research tool in a wide variety of settings. Based on recent experience with poverty research, we argue this method needs to be problematized and further rethought. The article draws on focus group studies conducted over seven years to argue that the method routinely excludes a key area of group interaction: group dynamics. Our work underlines how these are central to shaping group participation as well as the themes, absences and forms of reporting in studies. We employ Whitaker and Lieberman’s (1964) focal conflict theory as a methodology to follow the configuration of these dynamics within a group setting. Drawing on this analytic framework, and examples from the study, we argue that an orientation to group relations is essential to expanding the method’s sensitivity as an effective research procedure.
Revealing and concealing secrets in research: the potential for the absent
Authors: Rappert Brian
Published: October 2010

Qualitative research accounts are characterized by absences; absences resulting from what can not be told because it is not known and from what can not be repeated because it should not be stated. This article examines the problems associated with undertaking research in conditions of secrecy in order to ask how the missing could figure as a creative resource in our accounts of the social world. It advances an overall strategy of exemplifying the negotiation of revelation and concealment experienced by researchers within the relation between the reader and author in order to convey lived experiences. Particular attention is given to secrets and absences in relation to the sub-field of autoethnography, where much of the discussion to date has been bounded by a delimiting ‘ethics of exposure’.
‘I like this interview; I get cakes and cats!’: the effect of prior relationships on interview talk
Authors: Garton Sue , Copland Fiona
Published: October 2010

Research interviews are a form of interaction jointly constructed by the interviewer and interviewee, what Silverman (2001: 104) calls ‘interview-as-local-accomplishment’. From this perspective, interviews are an interpretative practice in which what is said is inextricably tied to where it is said, how it is said and, importantly, to whom it is said (Holstein and Gubrium, 2004). The relationship between interviewer and interviewee, then, is fundamental in research interviews. But what happens when the relationship between interviewer and interviewee is not only that of researcher-informant but also involves other roles such as colleague and friend? In this article we will show how prior relationships are invoked and made relevant by both parties during educational research interviews and how these prior relationships therefore contribute to the ‘generation’ (Baker, 2004: 163) of interview data.
Positioning place: polylogic approaches to research methodology
Authors: Anderson Jon , Adey Peter , Bevan Paul
Published: October 2010

This article focuses on the difference that place makes to methodological practice. It argues, following Sin, that the spatial contexts in which methods are carried out remain ‘largely excluded from any theorization of the social construction of knowledge’ (2003: 306). Through viewing ‘place’ as both a social and a geographical entity (following Cresswell, 1996), this article argues that although the importance of social relationships in methodology is widely accepted (through, for example, processes of researcher reflexivity), the influence of the ‘where of method’ has received less attention. The article addresses this issue by arguing for the explicit consideration of the geographical dimension of place in methodology. It does so by introducing the notion of a polylogic approach to method. The polylogic approach moves away from the conventional configuration of method as a dialogue (e.g. between researcher and researched) and towards method explicitly including researcher, researched, and the geographic place of methodology.
Lubricant use among men who have sex with men reporting receptive anal intercourse in Peru: implications for rectal microbicides as an HIV prevention strategy
Authors: Kinsler J J , Galea J T , Peinado J , Segura P , Montano S M , Sánchez J
Published: October 2010

This study assessed lubricant use during receptive anal intercourse (RAI) among Peruvian men who have sex with men (MSM) and willingness to use a hypothetical rectal microbicide (RM) formulated as a lubricant to prevent HIV infection. Data were collected from 843 Peruvian MSM for the 2008 HIV Sentinel Surveillance using a computerized self-interview. Half of the participants reported using a lubricant with their last sex partner during RAI, while 77% were willing to use a lubricant to prevent HIV transmission. Lubricant use with last sex partner was significantly associated with unprotected RAI (odds ratio [OR] 1.59, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.23, 2.05; P < 0.001) and willingness to use a future lubricant RM (OR 1.56, 95% CI: 1.24, 1.95; P < 0.001). This study provides information on the behaviours associated with lubricant use and non-use among MSM practicing RAI in Peru that should inform future RM studies in Peru and other Latin American countries.
Risk factors for immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome under combination antiretroviral therapy can be aetiology-specific
Authors: Espinosa E , Ormsby C E , Vega-Barrientos R S , Ruiz-Cruz M , Moreno-Coutiño G , Peña-Jiménez Á , Peralta-Prado A B , Cantoral-Díaz M , Romero-Rodríguez D P , Reyes-Terán G
Published: October 2010

In order to discriminate general from aetiology-specific risk factors for immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS), we followed up, during six months, 99 patients with advanced HIV infection commencing antiretroviral therapy (ART) without active opportunistic infections or evident inflammation. IRIS predictors were determined by univariate analysis using clinical data from 76 ART-responding patients either completing follow-up or developing IRIS, and by multivariate analysis of inflammation, disease progression and nutrition status variables. We identified 23 primary IRIS events (30.3%). Univariate predictors for all IRIS events were higher platelet counts and lower CD4/CD8 ratio, whereas subclinical inflammation was the multivariate predictor. Platelets, alkaline phosphatase levels and %CD8 T-cells in univariate analysis also predicted mycobacteria-associated IRIS independently, remaining elevated during follow-up. Herpesvirus IRIS was predicted by platelets and inflammation. Indicators of advanced HIV disease and subclinical inflammation jointly predict IRIS, and some are specific of the underlying microbial aetiology, possibly explaining previous reports.