bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Contribution of Fibrosis and the Autonomic Nervous System to Atrial Fibrillation Electrograms in Heart Failure
Authors: Koduri Hemantha , Ng Jason , Cokic Ivan , Aistrup Gary L. , Gordon David , Wasserstrom J. Andrew , Kadish Alan H. , Lee Richard , Passman Rod , Knight Bradley P. , Goldberger Jeffrey J. , Arora Rishi
Published: June 2012

Background—

Fibrotic and autonomic remodeling in heart failure (HF) increase vulnerability to atrial fibrillation (AF). Because AF electrograms (EGMs) are thought to reflect the underlying structural substrate, we sought to (1) determine the differences in AF EGMs in normal versus HF atria and (2) assess how fibrosis and nerve-rich fat contribute to AF EGM characteristics in HF.

Methods and Results—

AF was induced in 20 normal dogs by vagal stimulation and in 21 HF dogs (subjected to 3 weeks of rapid ventricular pacing at 240 beats per minute). AF EGMs were analyzed for dominant frequency (DF), organization index, fractionation intervals (FIs), and Shannon entropy. In 8 HF dogs, AF EGM correlation with underlying fibrosis/fat/nerves was assessed. In HF compared with normal dogs, DF was lower and organization index/FI/Shannon entropy were greater. DF/FI were more heterogeneous in HF. Percentage fat was greater, and fibrosis and fat were more heterogeneously distributed in the posterior left atrium than in the left atrial appendage. DF/organization index correlated closely with %fibrosis. Heterogeneity of DF/FI correlated with the heterogeneity of fibrosis. Autonomic blockade caused a greater change in DF/FI/Shannon entropy in the posterior left atrium than left atrial appendage, with the decrease in Shannon entropy correlating with %fat.

Conclusions—

The amount and distribution of fibrosis in the HF atrium seems to contribute to slowing and increased organization of AF EGMs, whereas the nerve-rich fat in the HF posterior left atrium is positively correlated with AF EGM entropy. By allowing for improved detection of regions of dense fibrosis and high autonomic nerve density in the HF atrium, these findings may help enhance the precision and success of substrate-guided ablation for AF.
Essential Role for Thymosin β4 in Regulating Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Development and Vessel Wall Stability
Authors: Rossdeutsch Alex , Smart Nicola , Dubé Karina N. , Turner Martin , Riley Paul R.
Published: June 2012

Rationale:

Compromised development of blood vessel walls leads to vascular instability that may predispose to aneurysm with risk of rupture and lethal hemorrhage. There is currently a lack of insight into developmental insults that may define the molecular and cellular characteristics of initiating and perpetrating factors in adult aneurismal disease.

Objective:

To investigate a role for the actin-binding protein thymosin β4 (Tβ4), previously shown to be proangiogenic, in mural cell development and vascular wall stability.

Methods and Results:

Phenotypic analyses of both global and endothelial-specific loss-of-function Tβ4 mouse models revealed a proportion of Tβ4-null embryos with vascular hemorrhage coincident with a reduction in smooth muscle cell coverage of their developing vessels. Mechanistic studies revealed that extracellular Tβ4 can stimulate differentiation of mesodermal progenitor cells to a mature mural cell phenotype through activation of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGFβ) pathway and that reduced TGFβ signaling correlates with the severity of hemorrhagic phenotype in Tβ4-null vasculature.

Conclusions:

Tβ4 is a novel endothelial secreted trophic factor that functions synergistically with TGFβ to regulate mural cell development and vascular wall stability. These findings have important implications for understanding congenital anomalies that may be causative for adult-onset vascular instability.
Dynamical Systems Approach to Endothelial Heterogeneity
Authors: Regan Erzsébet Ravasz , Aird William C.
Published: June 2012

Endothelial cells display remarkable phenotypic heterogeneity. An important goal is to elucidate the scope and mechanisms of endothelial heterogeneity and to use this information to develop vascular bed–specific therapies. We reexamine our current understanding of the molecular basis of endothelial heterogeneity. We introduce multistability as a new explanatory framework in vascular biology. We draw on the field of nonlinear dynamics to propose a dynamical systems framework for modeling multistability and its derivative properties, including robustness, memory, and plasticity. Our perspective allows for both a conceptual and quantitative description of system-level features of endothelial regulation.
Blocking
Scn10a
Channels in Heart Reduces Late Sodium Current and Is Antiarrhythmic
Authors: Yang Tao , Atack Thomas C. , Stroud Dina Myers , Zhang Wei , Hall Lynn , Roden Dan M.
Published: June 2012

Rationale:

Although the sodium channel locus
SCN10A
has been implicated by genome-wide association studies as a modulator of cardiac electrophysiology, the role of its gene product Nav1.8 as a modulator of cardiac ion currents is unknown.

Objective:

We determined the electrophysiological and pharmacological properties of Nav1.8 in heterologous cell systems and assessed the antiarrhythmic effect of Nav1.8 block on isolated mouse and rabbit ventricular cardiomyocytes.

Methods and Results:

We first demonstrated that
Scn10a
transcripts are identified in mouse heart and that the blocker A-803467 is highly specific for Nav1.8 current over that of Nav1.5, the canonical cardiac sodium channel encoded by
SCN5A
. We then showed that low concentrations of A-803467 selectively block “late” sodium current and shorten action potentials in mouse and rabbit cardiomyocytes. Exaggerated late sodium current is known to mediate arrhythmogenic early afterdepolarizations in heart, and these were similarly suppressed by low concentrations of A-803467.

Conclusions:

Scn10a
expression contributes to late sodium current in heart and represents a new target for antiarrhythmic intervention.
Semaphorin3A, Neuropilin-1, and PlexinA1 Are Required for Lymphatic Valve Formation
Authors: Bouvrée Karine , Brunet Isabelle , del Toro Raquel , Gordon Emma , Prahst Claudia , Cristofaro Brunella , Mathivet Thomas , Xu Yunling , Soueid Jihane , Fortuna Vitor , Miura Nayoki , Aigrot Marie-Stéphane , Maden Charlotte H. , Ruhrberg Christiana , Thomas Jean Léon , Eichmann Anne
Published: June 2012

Rationale:

The lymphatic vasculature plays a major role in fluid homeostasis, absorption of dietary lipids, and immune surveillance. Fluid transport depends on the presence of intraluminal valves within lymphatic collectors. Defective formation of lymphatic valves leads to lymphedema, a progressive and debilitating condition for which curative treatments are currently unavailable. How lymphatic valve formation is regulated remains largely unknown.

Objective:

We investigated if the repulsive axon guidance molecule Semaphorin3A (Sema3A) plays a role in lymphatic valve formation.

Methods and Results:

We show that Sema3A mRNA is expressed in lymphatic vessels and that Sema3A protein binds to lymphatic valves expressing the Neuropilin-1 (Nrp1) and PlexinA1 receptors. Using mouse knockout models, we show that Sema3A is selectively required for lymphatic valve formation, via interaction with Nrp1 and PlexinA1. Sema3a
−/−
mice exhibit defects in lymphatic valve formation, which are not due to abnormal lymphatic patterning or sprouting, and mice carrying a mutation in the Sema3A binding site of Nrp1, or deficient for Plxna1, develop lymphatic valve defects similar to those seen in Sema3a
−/−
mice.

Conclusions:

Our data demonstrate an essential direct function of Sema3A-Nrp1-PlexinA1 signaling in lymphatic valve formation.
Relationship Between Arterial Partial Oxygen Pressure After Resuscitation From Cardiac Arrest and Mortality in Children
Authors: Ferguson Lee P. , Durward Andrew , Tibby Shane M.
Published: June 2012

Background—

Observational studies in adults have shown a worse outcome associated with hyperoxia after resuscitation from cardiac arrest. Extrapolating from adult data, current pediatric resuscitation guidelines recommend avoiding hyperoxia. We investigated the relationship between arterial partial oxygen pressure and survival in patients admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) after cardiac arrest.

Methods and Results—

We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the Pediatric Intensive Care Audit Network (PICANet) database between 2003 and 2010 (n=122 521). Patients aged <16 years with documented cardiac arrest preceding PICU admission and arterial blood gas analysis taken within 1 hour of PICU admission were included. The primary outcome measure was death within the PICU. The relationship between postarrest oxygen status and outcome was modeled with logistic regression, with nonlinearities explored via multivariable fractional polynomials. Covariates included age, sex, ethnicity, congenital heart disease, out-of-hospital arrest, year, Pediatric Index of Mortality-2 (PIM2) mortality risk, and organ supportive therapies. Of 1875 patients, 735 (39%) died in PICU. Based on the first arterial gas, 207 patients (11%) had hyperoxia (Pa
o
2
≥300 mm Hg) and 448 (24%) had hypoxia (Pa
o
2
<60 mm Hg). We found a significant nonlinear relationship between Pa
o
2
and PICU mortality. After covariate adjustment, risk of death increased sharply with increasing hypoxia (odds ratio, 1.92; 95% confidence interval, 1.80–2.21 at Pa
o
2
of 23 mm Hg). There was also an association with increasing hyperoxia, although not as dramatic as that for hypoxia (odds ratio, 1.25; 95% confidence interval, 1.17–1.37 at 600 mm Hg). We observed an increasing mortality risk with advancing age, which was more pronounced in the presence of congenital heart disease.

Conclusions—

Both severe hypoxia and, to a lesser extent, hyperoxia are associated with an increased risk of death after PICU admission after cardiac arrest.
Barotropic Impacts of Surface Friction on Eddy Kinetic Energy and Momentum Fluxes: An Alternative to the Barotropic Governor
Authors: Barnes Elizabeth A. , Garfinkel Chaim I.
Published: June 2012

As the surface drag is increased in a comprehensive general circulation model (GCM), the upper-level zonal winds decrease and eddy momentum flux convergence into the jet core increases. Globally averaged eddy kinetic energy decreases, a response that is inconsistent with the conventional barotropic governor mechanism whereby decreased barotropic shears encourage baroclinic wave growth. As the conventional barotropic governor appears insufficient to explain the entire response in the comprehensive GCM, the nondivergent barotropic model on the sphere is used to demonstrate an additional mechanism for the effect of surface drag on eddy momentum fluxes and eddy kinetic energy. Analysis of the pseudomomentum budget shows that increased drag modifies the background meridional vorticity gradient, which allows for enhanced eddy momentum flux convergence and decreased eddy kinetic energy in the presence of a constant eddy source. This additional feedback may explain the changes in eddy momentum fluxes observed in the comprehensive GCM and was likely present in previous work on the barotropic governor.
Upward Shift of the Atmospheric General Circulation under Global Warming: Theory and Simulations
Authors: Singh Martin S. , O’Gorman Paul A.
Published: June 2012

Many features of the general circulation of the atmosphere shift upward in response to warming in simulations of climate change with both general circulation models (GCMs) and cloud-system-resolving models. The importance of the upward shift is well known, but its physical basis and the extent to which it occurs coherently across variables are not well understood. A transformation is derived here that shows how an upward shift of a solution to the moist primitive equations gives a new approximate solution with higher tropospheric temperatures. According to the transformation, all variables shift upward with warming but with an additional modification to the temperature and a general weakening of the pressure velocity. The applicability of the vertical-shift transformation is explored using a hierarchy of models from adiabatic parcel ascents to comprehensive GCMs. The transformation is found to capture many features of the response to climate change in simulations with an idealized GCM, including the mid- and upper-tropospheric changes in lapse rate, relative humidity, and meridional wind. The transformation is less accurate when applied to simulations with more realistic GCMs, but it nonetheless captures some important features. Deviations from the simulated response are primarily due to the surface boundary conditions, which do not necessarily conform to the transformation, especially in the case of the zonal winds. The results allow for a physical interpretation of the upward shift in terms of the governing equations and suggest that it may be thought of as a coherent response of the general circulation of the mid- and upper troposphere.
Rationale for Monitoring Discharge on the Ground
Authors: Fekete Balázs M. , Looser Ulrich , Pietroniro Alain , Robarts Richard D.
Published: June 2012

The hydrological cycle is receiving increasing attention both as an essential natural resource for humans and ecosystems and as a critical component controlling the earth’s climate system. Better understanding of the water cycle and its interaction with changing climate will require improved monitoring of the various water fluxes and storages in hydrological processes. River discharge is a unique component reflecting an integrated hydrological signal over larger regions. Existing in situ monitoring solutions to monitor discharge are often considered too expensive and the difficulties in data sharing are viewed as insurmountable obstacles, which has led to growing interest in finding an alternative. This paper argues that in situ monitoring is far less expensive than claimed and the obstacles are not necessarily as insurmountable as often stated and a conscious effort to revitalize in situ monitoring will be needed. This paper demonstrates that there is no substitute for in situ discharge monitoring, but there should be a synergy between in situ monitoring and remote sensing since they are truly complementary. This paper primarily focuses on river discharge, but the conclusions are relevant for a host of other earth observations (particularly water quality) that would greatly benefit from a reconsidered balance between in situ and remote sensing observations.
Snowfall Limit Forecasts and Hydrological Modeling
Authors: Tobin Cara , Rinaldo Andrea , Schaefli Bettina
Published: June 2012

Hydrological flood forecasting in mountainous areas requires accurate partitioning between rain and snowfall to properly estimate the extent of runoff contributing areas. Here a method to make use of snowfall limit information—a standard output of limited-area models (LAMs)—for catchment-scale hydrological modeling is proposed. LAMs consider the vertical, humid, atmospheric structure in their snowfall limit calculations. The proposed approach is thus more physically based than inferring snowfall limit estimates based on (dry) ground temperature measurements, which is the standard procedure in most hydrological models. The presented case study uses forecast reanalyses from the Consortium for Small-Scale Modeling (COSMO) limited-area model as input for discharge simulation in a topographically complex catchment in the Swiss Alps. Results suggest that the use of COSMO snowfall limits during spring snowmelt periods can provide more accurate runoff simulations than routine procedures, with practical implications for operational hydrology in Alpine regions.
Atmospheric Temperature and Absolute Humidity Profiles over the Beaufort Sea and Amundsen Gulf from a Microwave Radiometer
Authors: Candlish Lauren M. , Raddatz Richard L. , Asplin Matthew G. , Barber David G.
Published: June 2012

A Radiometrics MP-3000A microwave radiometric profiler (MWRP) provided high temporal resolution atmospheric profiles for temperature and absolute humidity up to 10 km, while 113 radiosondes were launched (and 68 were used in the analysis) over sea ice and the open ocean during the 2008 Circumpolar Flaw Lead System Study and the 2009 ArcticNet Cruise in the western Canadian High Arctic. The profiles were categorized by season and by the underlying sea ice concentrations. The MWRP was validated against the radiosonde data, focusing on the lower 2 km, which are generally influenced by the nature of the underlying surface. Root-mean-square (RMS) differences for temperature averaged 1.79 K through the lowest 2 km for the winter season, 1.81 K for spring, 2.51 K for summer, and 2.47 K for fall. Average biases of +0.99, +1.19, +2.13, and +2.08 K, respectively, indicate that the MWRP measurements were colder than the raobs for the lower 2 km. The RMS difference for absolute humidity averaged 0.25 g m−3 in the lowest 2 km during the winter season, 0.32 g m−3 for spring, 0.74 g m−3 for summer, and 0.37 g m−3 for fall. Average biases of +0.08 g m−3 for profiles over and sea ice concentration, +0.26 g m−3 for profiles over concentrations, and +0.16 g m−3 over and concentrations indicated that the MWRP measurements were slightly drier than the raobs for the lower 2 km. An estimate of the vertical resolutions indicated that it was as coarse as the height measured; however, the structure apparent in the profiles and the verification statistics suggest a higher vertical resolution, at least in the lowest 2 km.
A Two-Way Nested Global-Regional Dynamical Core on the Cubed-Sphere Grid
Authors: Harris Lucas M. , Lin Shian-Jiann
Published: June 2012

A nested-grid model is constructed using the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory finite-volume dynamical core on the cubed sphere. The use of a global grid avoids the need for externally imposed lateral boundary conditions, and the use of the same governing equations and discretization on the global and regional domains prevents inconsistencies that may arise when these differ between grids. A simple interpolated nested-grid boundary condition is used, and two-way updates use a finite-volume averaging method. Mass conservation is achieved in two-way nesting by simply not updating the mass field.

Despite the simplicity of the nesting methodology, the distortion of the large-scale flow by the nested grid is such that the increase in global error norms is a factor of 2 or less in shallow-water test cases. The effect of a nested grid in the tropics on the zonal means and eddy statistics of an idealized Held–Suarez climate integration is minor, and artifacts due to the nested grid are comparable to those at the edges of the cubed-sphere grid and decrease with increasing resolution. The baroclinic wave train in a Jablonowski–Williamson test case was preserved in a nested-grid simulation while finescale features were represented with greater detail in the nested-grid region. The authors also found that lee vortices could propagate out of the nested region and onto a coarse grid, which by itself could not produce vortices. Finally, the authors discuss how concurrent integration of the nested and coarse grids can be significantly more efficient than when integrating the two grids sequentially.
The Bowdle, South Dakota, Cyclic Tornadic Supercell of 22 May 2010: Surface Analysis of Rear-Flank Downdraft Evolution and Multiple Internal Surges
Authors: Lee Bruce D. , Finley Catherine A. , Karstens Christopher D.
Published: June 2012

Mobile mesonet sampling in the hook echo/rear-flank downdraft (RFD) region of a tornadic supercell near Bowdle, South Dakota, provided the opportunity to examine RFD thermodynamic and kinematic attributes and evolution. Focused analysis of the fifth low-level mesocyclone cycle that produced two significant tornadoes including a violent tornado, revealed four RFD internal surge (RFDIS) events. RFDISs appeared to influence tornado development, intensity, and demise by altering the thermodynamic and kinematic character of the RFD region bounding the pretornadic and tornadic circulations. Significant tornadoes developed and matured when the RFD, modulated by internal surges, was kinematically strong, only weakly negatively buoyant, and very potentially buoyant. In contrast, the demise of the Bowdle tornado was concurrent with a much cooler RFDIS that replaced more buoyant and far more potentially buoyant RFD air near the tornado. This surge also likely contributed to a displacement of the tornado from the storm updraft. Development of the first tornado and rapid intensification of the Bowdle tornado occurred when an RFDIS boundary convergence zone interacted with the pretornadic and tornadic circulations, respectively. In the latter case, a strong vertical vortex sheet along an RFDIS boundary appeared to be a near-surface cyclonic vorticity source for the tornado. A downdraft closely bounding the right flank of the developing first tornado and intensifying Bowdle tornado provided some of the inflow to these circulations. For the Bowdle tornado, parcels were also streaming toward the tornado from its immediate east and northeast. A cyclonic–anticyclonic vortex couplet was observed during a portion of each significant tornado cycle.
Land Use Change in Central Florida and Sensitivity Analysis Based on Agriculture to Urban Extreme Conversion
Authors: Hernández José L. , Hwang Syewoon , Escobedo Francisco , Davis April H. , Jones James W.
Published: June 2012

This paper explored recent land use and land cover change in western central Florida, examining both socioeconomic and biophysical influences on land transformation and the impacts of that change. Between 1995 and 2006, a growth in population resulted in the conversion of agricultural areas, grasslands, and upland forests to urban areas. Additionally, the amount of extractive land uses (e.g., mining) increased by 21.8%, water reservoirs by 19.9%, and recreation areas by 13.3%. Regional climate modeling experiments suggest that the overall effects of land use change (LUC) on mesocale climates in summer days resulted in modified temperatures that were modulated by the new LU characteristics, local and synoptic atmospheric circulations, and the distance of rural and urban land uses from the shoreline. The difference between the extreme and actual LU simulations for temperature, wind speed, wind direction, and precipitation presented higher variability in the inland urbanized and rural zones. Results can be used to better understand the basic influences of LUC and urbanization on key climate parameters, and urban heat island effects in peninsular Florida under typical weather conditions.
The Transparency Paradox
Authors: Bernstein Ethan S.
Published: June 2012

Using data from embedded participant-observers and a field experiment at the second largest mobile phone factory in the world, located in China, I theorize and test the implications of transparent organizational design on workers’ productivity and organizational performance. Drawing from theory and research on learning and control, I introduce the notion of a transparency paradox, whereby maintaining observability of workers may counterintuitively reduce their performance by inducing those being observed to conceal their activities through codes and other costly means; conversely, creating zones of privacy may, under certain conditions, increase performance. Empirical evidence from the field shows that even a modest increase in group-level privacy sustainably and significantly improves line performance, while qualitative evidence suggests that privacy is important in supporting productive deviance, localized experimentation, distraction avoidance, and continuous improvement. I discuss implications of these results for theory on learning and control and suggest directions for future research.
The Dynamics of Consensus Building in Intracultural and Intercultural Negotiations
Authors: Liu Leigh Anne , Friedman Ray , Barry Bruce , Gelfand Michele J. , Zhang Zhi-Xue
Published: June 2012

This research examines the dynamics of consensus building in intracultural and intercultural negotiations achieved through the convergence of mental models between negotiators. Working from a dynamic constructivist view, according to which the effects of culture are socially and contextually contingent, we theorize and show in two studies of U.S. and Chinese negotiators that while consensus might be generally easier to achieve in intracultural negotiation settings than intercultural settings, the effects of culture depend on the epistemic and social motives of the parties. As hypothesized, we find that movement toward consensus (in the form of mental model convergence) is more likely among intracultural than intercultural negotiating dyads and that negotiators’ epistemic and social motives moderated these effects: need for closure inhibited consensus more for intercultural than intracultural dyads, while concern for face fostered consensus more for intercultural than intracultural dyads. Our theory and findings suggest that consensus building is not necessarily more challenging in cross-cultural negotiations but depends on the epistemic and social motivations of the individuals negotiating.
Researching transformations in healthcare services and policy in international perspective: An introduction
Authors: Kuhlmann Ellen , Annandale Ellen
Published: June 2012

Across countries healthcare systems face new pressures for change towards more cost-effective and sustainable health services for all citizens. In recent years health policy-makers have responded to these challenges mainly by introducing or reinforcing market mechanisms and by expanding managerial controls. This is leading to major transformations in health policy and, subsequently, to the organization and delivery of healthcare services. This collection brings an international perspective to the research on contemporary transformations in health policy and services, by focusing on countries as wide-ranging as the US and Western and Eastern European countries, to Japan, China and Australia and by addressing different healthcare sectors from hospital to home care. Together these international experiences help us to better understand both the risks of social inequality embedded in new health policies and the opportunities of mobilizing new resources towards better healthcare for all citizens.
Marketization and universalism: Crafting the right balance in the Turkish healthcare system
Authors: Agartan Tuba I
Published: June 2012

Turkey is undertaking comprehensive reforms in its healthcare sector which bring about a major transformation in the boundaries between the public and private sectors. As in many transition and late-developing countries reforms seek to universalize coverage, increase efficiency and improve quality of healthcare services. The Turkish case is interesting as it draws attention to the balance that is being struck between two major components of the reforms, namely marketization and universalism. Expansion of coverage and improvements in equity are taking place alongside state-induced market and managerial reforms. This article assesses the extent of marketization and argues that while market elements have been limited to the provision dimension, in the long run they may lead to some erosion in universalism. The Turkish case serves as an example of transformations in developing countries where market reforms have to be accompanied by a strong and active state for universalism to be achieved.
Gatekeeping and provider choice in OECD healthcare systems
Authors: Reibling Nadine , Wendt Claus
Published: June 2012

Gatekeeping and provider choice have become central in health policymaking within the last two decades. This article contributes to the debates in two ways: first, it provides an extended review of evidence on the impact of gatekeeping and provider choice on efficiency, costs, quality, equality and patient empowerment; and second, it empirically analyses regulations and identifies common trends in healthcare reforms in OECD countries since 1990. More than half of the countries analysed have established gatekeeping systems, while a smaller number provides free access to secondary care. The study discovers a trend towards strengthening gatekeeping regulations within free access countries. Free choice of provider is the standard in the OECD, where only a small number of countries restrict provider choice. The article identifies a diverging trend of reforms, with some traditionally restrictive countries offering more provider choice and other countries limiting the choice of providers as a result of managed care reforms.
Community and health sector partnerships for primary prevention in Australia: Developing a typology
Authors: Taylor Judy , Braunack-Mayer Annette , Cargo Margaret , Larkins Sarah , Preston Robyn
Published: June 2012

The Australian health system requires novel strategies to implement widespread primary prevention to reduce the burden of chronic illness. One approach is for health sectors to draw on resources available in communities of place and to form partnerships which maximize the relevance and uptake of initiatives designed to promote healthy lifestyles. This article presents a typology of conceptual approaches to community and health sector partnerships, developed through an extensive literature search and empirically tested using in-depth case studies across regional Australia. The article finds that the health sector’s orientation to primary prevention is generally instrumental involving highly targeted outcomes and pre-defined programmes. Communities of place have multifaceted priorities that include building the social and economic sustainability of their community. While these approaches might appear incompatible, careful ‘manipulation’ and ‘massaging’ of instrumental objectives to adjust to community agendas and the presence of ‘boundary crossers’ can lead to successful primary prevention outcomes.
Integrating health and social care: Interprofessional relations of multidisciplinary teams in Italy
Authors: Tousijn Willem
Published: June 2012

Integrating health and social care has been a major objective of recent policy reforms in Italy. Integration has been implemented on three levels, namely institutional, organizational and professional. At the professional level multiprofessional teams have been created or adapted (if existing) in several areas, including among others, care of the elderly, the disabled and the addicted. This article discusses the findings of an empirical study based on 57 interviews with managers and members of community-based, multiprofessional teams in the Turin area, Italy. The topics addressed include the effects of integration on the traditionally dominant role of the medical profession, on relationships between professionals and managers and on work organization and interprofessional strains. The findings point to a more balanced role of medicine and other professions than before the policy reforms, and to a reconsideration of the managerialism–professionalism dichotomy, since professionals tend to capture managerial work and co-opt it into a new professionalism.
Mainstreaming gender into healthcare: A scoping exercise into policy transfer in England and Germany
Authors: Kuhlmann Ellen , Annandale Ellen
Published: June 2012

Across the globe the concept of gender mainstreaming is indicative of substantive transformations, and healthcare is a particularly important policy arena. Yet existing research reveals only modest success in the implementation of gender policies in national healthcare systems, despite the availability of complex tools and guidelines. This article introduces an approach that links gender mainstreaming with approaches into policy transfer as dynamic processes of translation involving active players. In a scoping exercise the authors select England and Germany as case studies and draw on document analysis, other secondary sources and additional expert information. The analysis reveals varieties of translation of gender mainstreaming into national healthcare systems – even within the legal framework of the European Union – and the crucial relevance of feminist actors. The study raises more general questions on the nature of international policy-making in relation to national and local healthcare institutions and policy entrepreneurs.
Transforming health policy and services: Challenges for comparative research
Authors: Burau Viola
Published: June 2012

Over the last 20 years or so the comparative study of health policy and services has become a well-established field of research. However, over this same period, health policy and services themselves have undergone significant transformations, and this has changed the business of comparison itself. Comparisons have become more diverse in terms of geographical and substantive scope, in the inclusion of practice in addition to policy, and at the level of analysis with greater interest for sub-national levels. This transformation results in a range of challenges related to ensuring comparability, to comparing beyond the nation-state and to finding appropriate data for comparison. Importantly, although the challenges are not necessarily greater now, they are different ones. Also, as this monograph issue demonstrates, the appeal of a comparative perspective remains strong as does the richness of insights offered.
An Investigation of Play
Authors: Beisser Sally Rapp , Gillespie Catherine Wilson , Thacker Valerie Marsh
Published: June 2012

The purpose of this study was to explore the concept of play through the eyes of talented and gifted (TAG) fifth- and sixth-grade students. Three focus groups consisting of fifth- and sixth-grade TAG students were conducted in one urban, one suburban, and one rural school district in the Midwest. Students were asked to describe the value of play in the cognitive, physical, and social domains. Additional open-ended questions were asked about the importance of play and its relevance to their lives. From these results, an online survey was created. Data from an additional 162 fifth- and sixth-grade TAG respondents substantiated that play is a significant activity for learning and socializing in the general classroom, gifted programs, and outside their classrooms. Despite its importance, students experienced structural barriers for time to play.

Putting the Research to Use

Results of this study hold implications for teachers to acknowledge the value of play as a tool for learning. Children see play as a renewal activity. They see play as motivating and as a way to increase attention, retention, and focus in learning. Children emphasized that play develops teamwork and problem-solving skills. Play enhances meaningful activities in the talented and gifted program as well as the general classroom. Results of this study suggest that parents should acknowledge their children’s need for play in all three domains (cognitive, physical, and social) and allow time for self-directed play after school with limits on scheduled activities.
A social/emotional theory of ‘mental illness’
Authors: Scheff Thomas
Published: June 2012

One reason that theories of mental illness have made little progress may be their focus on individuals, omitting the social/relational and emotional world. Adding these components will be difficult, however: in modern societies they have become virtually invisible, particularly the emotion of shame. The theory outlined here is based on the work of Cooley, Elias, Lewis and Goffman: shame is both social and individual and, if anticipation is included, virtually omnipresent in modern societies. It is proposed that most symptoms of mental illness are products of shame and relational feedback loops: emotion and alienation can both spiral leading to further alienation and chaotic or hidden emotions. Almost everyone is especially ashamed of their shame. Being ashamed of one’s shame and/or anger can spiral when not acknowledged. Under certain conditions, these spirals continue without limit, generating immense force for acting out symptoms or depression. To the extent that this theory is true, we would need to rename the field using non-medical terms, such as emotional/social dysfunction.
Submerging the imperial eye: Affective narration as environmentalist intervention in Richard Flanagan’s Death of a River Guide
Authors: White Laura A.
Published: June 2012

In Richard Flanagan’s novel, Death of a River Guide, the narrator, river guide Aljaz Cosini, occupies an unusual position; throughout the novel, he remains underwater, drowning in Tasmania’s Franklin River. Bringing postcolonial analyses of the novel form into conversation with ecofeminist critiques of rationalist constructions of the human, I contend that Flanagan uses the position of his narrator to deliver a critique of the imperial eye and the rationalist construction of the human that it manifests, revealing their complicity in reinforcing an illusion of human separation from non-human nature that has destructive environmental consequences. Affect scholarship provides a framework for studying the alternative model that Flanagan provides as he narrates Aljaz’s “visions” in ways that force a rethinking of the human in non-reductive, non-binary terms that preserve the relationality between mind and body, human and non-human nature. Attending to Flanagan’s narrative strategies in the context of Tasmanian environmental history and Flanagan’s environmental activism, I contend that his novel constitutes an environmentalist intervention that demands increased attention to the role that constructions of the human play in our relationships with non-human nature and to the role that novels can play in perpetuating or challenging destructive understandings of the human.
Fictions of sedition and the framing of Indian revolutionaries in colonial India
Authors: Morton Stephen
Published: June 2012

In the context of British colonial India in the early twentieth century, legal and literary narratives of sedition worked together – often in mutually reinforcing ways – to provide an important technique of power and control. In this respect, literary and legal representations of sedition as a form of criminality can tell us much about the relationship between the law and colonial governmentality. By tracing the ways in which India’s “revolutionary terrorists” were framed and criminalized in colonial novels of counter-insurgency, this essay suggests that a critical reading of the literary prose of counter-insurgency can raise important questions about the operation of colonial stereotypes and the limitations of colonial authority in legal narratives of counter-insurgency. It concludes with a brief assessment of the way in which transportation to the Cellular Jail at the Andaman Islands was figured as a form of punishment for anti-colonial resistance, and considers the significance of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s reflections on sedition in the context of colonial India. By returning to these records and narratives of colonial law and policing, and to narratives of anti-colonial insurgency, this essay suggests that there are parallels and continuities between colonial formations of counter-insurgency in early twentieth-century British India and techniques of counter-terrorism in the colonial present.
In/justice and necro-natality in Edwidge Danticat’s Brother, I’m Dying
Authors: Knepper Wendy
Published: June 2012

IIn a post-9/11 world, theorists such as Judith Butler and Giorgio Agamben argue for the need to reframe politics and justice through a critique of the exclusions, exceptions, and threshold conditions that render life vulnerable or precarious. Edwidge Danticat’s Brother, I’m Dying contributes to this wider discourse about justice through her account of Joseph Dantica’s flight from violence in Haiti and untimely death as an asylum seeker in the United States of America, which she pairs with an account of her pregnancy at the time. Danticat’s inquiry into her uncle’s death leads to a wide-ranging interrogation of Haitian precarity, the claims of non-citizens on the state, and the role of vernacular culture in contesting prevailing paradigms of justice. At the same time, Danticat’s account of her pregnancy links the hopes and fears concerning the gestation of life to biopolitics: the miscarriages of justice, aborted hopes of sovereignty, and stillborn democracies that characterize Haitian history. Danticat’s vision of necro-natality exposes violence and injustice even as it lays claims to a more expansive, pluralistic, and equitable political future, born of an ethics of care and fostered through shared speech and action in the world.
Attitudes Toward Peers With Physical Disabilities at High School
Authors: Bustillos Antonio , Silván-Ferrero María del Prado
Published: June 2012

The aim of this work was to study attitudes toward people with disabilities from the viewpoint of the integrated threat theory of prejudice. This theory postulates that threat may cause negative attitudes toward a group and posits that such threat may come from different sources. To test this model, a study was carried out with high school students ( N = 228), which included social dominance orientation (SDO) as antecedent variable. Perceived threat for resources and intergroup anxiety were the mediating threats investigated in this process. Results showed support for the theory: Perceived threat for resources and intergroup anxiety seemed to be effective mediators. SDO also appeared as a potent antecedent predictor of attitudes toward people with physical disabilities.
Models of College Entry in the United States and the Challenges of Estimating Primary and Secondary Effects
Authors: Morgan Stephen L.
Published: June 2012

In recent work in the sociology of education, the primary effects of stratification are defined as the effects of social class origins on preparation for future educational attainment. The secondary effects are then the net direct effects of social class on the transition to the next higher level of education, which are interpreted as average effects of class conditions on students’ choices. In this article, the standard model of primary and secondary effects is laid out in explicit form, and primary and secondary effects are then estimated for college entry among recent high school graduates in the United States. The challenges of estimating these effects for educational transitions in the United States are then explained, focusing on the weak warrant for causal inference that is used to justify the calculation of counterfactual net differences across classes. Alternative estimates of associational primary and secondary effects are then offered, after which the prospects for the identification of causal secondary effects by conditioning on additional confounders are assessed. In conclusion, an appeal is made for attention to the policy-relevant patterns of heterogeneity that research on primary and secondary effects may be able to reveal, and a case is made for elaboration and direct identification of the presupposed choice mechanism that has been assumed to generate secondary effects in past research.
Testing Negative Error Variances
Authors: Kolenikov Stanislav , Bollen Kenneth A.
Published: June 2012

Heywood cases, or negative variance estimates, are a common occurrence in factor analysis and latent variable structural equation models. Though they have several potential causes, structural misspecification is among the most important. This article explains how structural misspecification can lead to a Heywood case in the population, and provides several ways to test whether a negative error variance is a symptom of structural misspecification. The authors consider z-tests based on a variety of standard errors, confidence intervals, bootstrap resampling, and likelihood-ratio-type tests. In their discussion of z-tests, the authors demonstrate which of the standard errors are consistent under different kinds of misspecification. They also introduce new tests based on the scaled chi-square difference: the test on the boundary and the signed root of the scaled chi-square difference. A simulation study assesses the performance of these tests. The authors find that signed root tests and z-tests based on the empirical sandwich and the empirical bootstrap standard errors perform best in detecting negative error variances. They outperform z-tests based on the information matrix or distribution-robust standard errors.
The Comparative Advantages of fsQCA and Regression Analysis for Moderately Large-N Analyses
Authors: Vis Barbara
Published: June 2012

This article contributes to the literature on comparative methods in the social sciences by assessing the strengths and weaknesses of regression analysis and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) for studies with a moderately large-n (between approximately 50 and 100). Moderately large-n studies are interesting in this respect since they allow for regression analysis as well as fsQCA analysis. These two approaches have a different epistemological foundation and thereby answer different, yet related, research questions. To illustrate the comparison of fsQCA and regression analysis empirically, I use a recent data set ( n = 53) that includes data on the conditions under which governments in Western democracies increase their spending on active labor market policies (ALMPs). This comparison demonstrates that while each approach has merits and demerits, fsQCA leads to a fuller understanding of the conditions under which the outcome occurs.
Meta-Analysis of Group Learning Activities: Empirically Based Teaching Recommendations
Authors: Tomcho Thomas J. , Foels Rob
Published: June 2012

Teaching researchers commonly employ group-based collaborative learning approaches in Teaching of Psychology teaching activities. However, the authors know relatively little about the effectiveness of group-based activities in relation to known psychological processes associated with group dynamics. Therefore, the authors conducted a meta-analytic examination of whether learning outcomes are moderated by aspects of group process and collaborative learning. Results indicated that (a) group duration of a brief period (one to three classes) was more effective than group duration lasting more than one-half semester, (b) high levels of participant interdependence were associated with greater learning outcomes, and (c) group activities incorporating a formal group project presentation evidenced significantly less robust learning outcomes than activities that did not include a formal group presentation. Based on the findings, the authors provide teaching suggestions that reflect how group processes may impact learning effectiveness.
Undergraduate Psychology Courses Preferred by Graduate Programs
Authors: Lawson Timothy J. , Reisinger Debra L. , Jordan-Fleming Mary Kay
Published: June 2012

Information about the undergraduate psychology courses preferred by graduate programs is useful for a number of purposes, including (a) advising psychology majors who are interested in graduate school, (b) undergraduate curriculum planning, and (c) examining whether graduate programs’ preferences reflect national guidelines for the undergraduate psychology curriculum. The authors examined the undergraduate course preferences of U.S. psychology graduate programs ( N = 548). Among Clinical/Counseling (C/C) programs, PsyD programs’ course preferences were more likely than those of master’s and PhD programs to reflect national undergraduate curriculum guidelines. Differences also emerged among various types of training (e.g., C/C vs. Educational/School), and these are important for advisors and students to understand.