bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cosmopolitanism as a Form of Capital
Authors: Weenink Don
Published: December 2008

This article evaluates cosmopolitan theory by exploring how parents perceive cosmopolitanism. Interviews with parents whose children attend an internationalized form of education revealed that parents viewed cosmopolitanism as a form of cultural and social capital, rather than feelings of global connectedness or curiosity in the Other. Dedicated cosmopolitan parents were distinguished from pragmatic cosmopolitans.The former taught their children to explore the world and to take a global perspective on their course of life, while the latter thought that globalizing processes required cosmopolitan competencies. Analyses of survey data showed that parents' inclination to provide children with cosmopolitan capital was related to their own cosmopolitan capital and their level of ambitions, but not to their social class position. The article concludes that cosmopolitanism should be viewed as an expression of agency, which is acted out when people are forced to deal with processes of globalization.
The National Minimum Wage, Low Pay and the UK Hotel Industry
Authors: Warhurst Chris , Lloyd Caroline , Dutton Eli
Published: December 2008

This article examines low pay and the national minimum wage in the UK hotel industry, focusing on the lowest remunerated workers in the industry — room attendants — who have hitherto been overlooked in studies of the industry. It draws on qualitative research from eight case studies and relates this material to other secondary data. By including employees' experience, it reveals the management and employment practices that have limited the effect of the national minimum wage and attempts to alleviate low pay.The article ends by suggesting how this employee experience can be transmuted into political voice to improve the position of low wage workers.
`Survival Research' and the `Planetary Interest': Carrying Forward the Thoughts of John Herz
Authors: Graham Kennedy
Published: December 2008

John Herz pioneered global thinking in international relations in the mid-twentieth century with his advocacy of `survival research'. The `planetary interest' reflects similar thinking. The `vital planetary interest' identifies fundamental issues of human survival, emphasising legitimate global policy-making and enforcement power. Global policies require a pursuit of the `legitimate national interest'. This approach to IR carries revolutionary implications for the traditional political process (national policy-making) and diplomatic method (international negotiating). The conceptual framework of the `planetary interest' should be placed in a broader jurisprudential framework of `global constitutionalism'. Further work is required to develop `survival research' and the `planetary interest'.
Identity and International Relations
Authors: Lebow Richard Ned
Published: December 2008

Drawing on Kant and Hegel, debates in political theory and international relations generally assume that an identity cannot be created without the simultaneous creation and negative stereotypy of an `other'. Figures such as Schmitt and Huntington accept and even welcome this binary, while others, among them Nietzsche, Habermas and Rawls, look for ways of overcoming it. Drawing on Homer's Iliad and psychological research, I challenge the assumptions on which Kant and Hegel, and their successors, build their argument. The Greco-Roman literary tradition and recent survey and experimental research indicates that identities generally form prior to construction of `others', that `others' need not be associated with negative stereotypes, and that even when they are, boundaries between in- and outgroups are quite plastic. Nor must stereotypes be negative. Homer and modern history suggest that identity construction and maintenance often take place through positive, although not necessarily equal, interactions with `others'.
Inferring Sexually Deviant Behavior From Corresponding Fantasies
Authors: Williams Kevin M. , Cooper Barry S. , Howell Teresa M. , Yuille John C. , Paulhus Delroy L.
Published: December 2008

There is widespread concern that deviant sexual fantasies promote corresponding behaviors. The authors investigated whether that concern is valid in nonoffender samples. Self-reports of nine deviant sexual fantasies and behaviors were compared in two samples of male undergraduates. In Study 1, 95% of respondents reported experiencing at least one sexually deviant fantasy, and 74% reported engaging in at least one sexually deviant behavior. The correlations were all positive and averaged .44. However, only 38% of the high-fantasy group reported acting out fantasies. The effect of pornography use on deviant behaviors was partially mediated by increases in deviant fantasies. Study 2 investigated possible moderators, including eight personality variables. The fantasy-behavior association held only for those high in self-reported psychopathy. In addition, the association between pornography use and deviant sexual behavior held only for participants high in psychopathy. Overall, theoretically relevant individual difference variables moderated the relation between sexually deviant fantasies and behaviors and between pornography use and deviant behaviors.
Brain Dysfunction and Community Violence in Patients With Major Mental Illness
Authors: Dinn Wayne M. , Gansler David A. , Moczynski Nancy , Fulwiler Carl
Published: December 2008

The objective of this study is to determine whether violence in psychiatric patients is associated with brain dysfunction independent of substance abuse. Psychiatric inpatients with a history of violent behavior in the community were compared to nonviolent inpatients on several variables related to brain dysfunction. The two groups were similar in terms of demographics and psychiatric diagnosis. No significant differences were found in neuropsychological function, but violent patients were significantly more likely to have co-occurring substance abuse and nearly 4 times more likely to have a history of closed-head injury. Logistic regression revealed that the association between violence and head injury can be explained by comorbid substance abuse.
Latina Administrators in Local Government
Authors: Thurlow Brenner Christine
Published: December 2008

Latina administrators in urban municipal bureaucracies experiencing demographic change are continuously constructing their role—at times calling on their ethnic/nationality lens and at other times drawing on their racialized, feminist perspective and always mindful of their institutional context. Personal interviews with 16 Latina administrators provide rich insights into the ways race/ethnicity, gender, and institutional context intertwine in affecting policy outcomes. Three Latina administrator role orientations—activists, bridge builders, and institutionalists—are identified and linked to strength of identity to theoretical bases of representative bureaucracy, Latina critical race theory, new institutionalism, and concepts of legal and cultural abidance.
Depletion Makes the Heart Grow Less Helpful: Helping as a Function of Self-Regulatory Energy and Genetic Relatedness
Authors: DeWall C. Nathan , Baumeister Roy F. , Gailliot Matthew T. , Maner Jon K.
Published: December 2008

Often people are faced with conflict between prosocial motivations for helping and selfish impulses that favor not helping. Three studies tested the hypothesis that self-regulation is useful for managing such motivational conflicts. In each study, depleted self-regulatory energy reduced willingness to help others. Participants who broke a habit, relative to participants who followed a habit, later reported reduced willingness to help in hypothetical scenarios (e.g., donating food or money; Studies 1 and 3). Controlling attention while watching a video, relative to watching it normally, reduced volunteering efforts to help a victim of a recent tragedy— but drinking a glucose drink undid this effect (Study 2). Depleted energy reduced helping toward strangers but it did not reduce helping toward family members (Study 3). Helping requires self-regulatory energy to manage conflict between selfish and prosocial motivations—a metabolically expensive process—and thus depleted energy reduces helping and increased energy (glucose) increases helping.
The Effects of Multiple Identities on Psychological Well-Being
Authors: Brook Amara T. , Garcia Julie , Fleming Monique A.
Published: December 2008

The authors propose that the effects of multiple identities on psychological well-being depend on the number of identities, importance of those identities, and relationship between them. Specifically, this model predicts that when identities are highly important, having many versus few identities leads to greater psychological well-being if the identities are in harmony with each other—providing resources and expecting similar behaviors—but leads to lower psychological well-being if the identities conflict with each other—depleting resources and expecting incompatible behaviors. However, when identities are less important, neither the number of identities nor identity harmony should affect well-being. The authors further propose that emotions corresponding to self-perceptions of actual/ought self-discrepancies mediate these effects. Results supported this model. The authors discuss implications of this model for well-being in the context of the increasing social complexity of modern life.
Perceptions of Undereaters: A Matter of Perspective?
Authors: Leone Tullia , Herman C. Peter , Pliner Patricia
Published: December 2008

We assume that people, to convey positive impressions of themselves, use the amounts eaten by others as limits beyond which their eating may be deemed excessive. One should, therefore, prefer eating partners who eat a lot because others' large intake renders one's own eating nonexcessive. Two studies were conducted to test this hypothesis. As predicted, participants liked confederates who ate more than they did better than those who ate less than they did, and they also rated their own intake as more appropriate when it had been exceeded by confederates than they did when it had been undercut by confederates. Noneating observers, instead, did not display a preference for eaters who ate more. Both noneating observers and active participants, however, rated eaters who ate less more positively than eaters who ate more on self-control—related items. We conclude that the nature of the behavior-impression association depends critically on the perspective of the rater.
Healthy-Eater Self-Schema and Dietary Intake
Authors: Noureddine Samar , Stein Karen
Published: December 2008

The types and amounts of foods consumed have been shown to influence the health risks of individuals. Empirical evidence has documented a link between high dietary fat and low fiber intake and the risks for cardiovascular disease, some types of cancer, and obesity. Dietary surveys of Americans show higher fat and lower fiber intake than stipulated in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, despite the noted increase in public awareness regarding the importance of adopting healthy eating habits. The lack of congruence between the availability of dietary knowledge and behavioral adherence to dietary recommendations suggests a need to further understand the predictors of dietary intake. In this study, the authors used the schema model of the self-concept to explore the role of self-beliefs in predicting dietary intake in community-dwelling, working-class, middle-aged adults.
Development of a reliable self-report outcome measure for pragmatic trials of communication therapy following stroke: the Communication Outcome after Stroke (COAST) scale
Authors: Long AF , Hesketh A. , Paszek G. , Booth M. , Bowen A.
Published: December 2008

Objective: To develop and validate a clinically feasible measure of communication effectiveness for people with any type of communication problem following stroke.

Design: Cross-sectional, interview-based, psychometric study, building on the development phase for construction of the Communication Outcome after Stroke (COAST) scale.

Setting: A community sample from the northwest of England, UK.

Subjects: One hundred and two people with communication problems (aphasia and/or dysarthria) following a stroke, within the previous 4—12 months.

Interventions: Administration of the COAST scale, on two occasions, within a two-week period, and collection of demographic and other data relating to disability, degree of aphasia (where appropriate) and hospital diagnosis of aphasia/dysarthria.

Main measures: Acceptability (missing values), reliability (internal consistency and test—retest reliability) and item analysis (item redundancy).

Results: Ninety-seven (visit 1) and 98 (visit 2) respondents provided usable data for the psychometric analysis. The 29-item COAST scale showed good acceptability (few missing values, sample spread 28—100%), internal consistency and test—retest reliability for the scale (α = 0.95; ICC = 0.90) and its subscales (α = 0.65—0.93; ICC = 0.72—0.88), but possible item redundancy. A revised scale of 20 items was produced, demonstrating good internal consistency and test—retest reliability (α = 0.83—92; ICC = 0.72—0.88).

Conclusions: The COAST is a patient-centred, practical and reliable measure that can be used to assess self-perceived communication effectiveness for people with aphasia and/or dysarthria. Further testing on construct validity and responsiveness to change is needed before the measure can be firmly recommended for use within clinical practice and research.
Comparison of orthostatic reactions of patients still unconscious within the first three months of brain injury on a tilt table with and without integrated stepping. A prospective, randomized crossover pilot trial
Authors: Luther Marianne S , Krewer Carmen , Müller Friedemann , Koenig Eberhard
Published: December 2008

Objective: To determine whether passive leg movement during tilt table mobilization reduces the incidence of orthostatic dysfunction in mobilization of patients being comatose or semi-comatose early after brain injury.

Design: Randomized crossover pilot trial using sequential testing.

Setting: Neurorehabilitation hospital.

Subjects: Nine patients still unconscious within the first three months of brain injury (5 men, 4 women; age 51 ± 20 years).

Intervention: Patients were subjected once to a conventional tilt table and once to a tilt table with an integrated stepping device.

Main outcome measure: The number of syncopes/presyncopes (orthostatic hypotension, tachypnoea, increased sweating) during interventions.

Results: One patient had presyncopes on both devices, six patients had presyncopes on the conventional tilt table but not on the tilt table with integrated stepping, and two patients did not exhibit presyncopal symptoms on either device. There were significantly more incidents on the tilt table without than on the one with an integrated stepping device (P<0.05) at tilts of 50 or 70 degrees respectively.

Conclusion: Patients tolerate greater degrees of head-up tilt better with simultaneous leg movement.
Screening for cognitive deficits after stroke: a comparison of three screening tools
Authors: Nøkleby Kjersti , Boland Erik , Bergersen Hilde , Schanke Anne-Kristine , Farner Lasse , Wagle Jørgen , Wyller Torgeir Bruun
Published: December 2008

Objective: To assess the concurrent validity of three screening tests for focal cognitive impairments after stroke.

Design: Comparison of results from the screening tests with those from a more comprehensive neuropsychological battery.

Setting: Stroke rehabilitation wards of a general hospital and a rehabilitation hospital.

Subjects: Forty-nine stroke patients (25—91 years, 35% women).

Measures: Screening tests were the Cognistat, the Screening Instrument for Neuropsychological Impairments in Stroke (SINS) and the Clock Drawing Test. Health professionals, blind to the results of the reference method, did the screening. Reference method was a neuropsychological assessment based on the Norwegian Basic Neuropsychological Assessment, classifying the patients as `impaired' or `not impaired' within the following cognitive domains: language, visuospatial function, attention and neglect, apraxia, speed in unaffected arm, and memory.

Results: The best sensitivity (95% confidence interval) was achieved for language problems by Cognistat, naming (80%, 44—98); for visuospatial dysfunction, attention deficits and reduced speed, all by SINS visuocognitive (82%, 60—95, 72%, 39—94, and 78%, 56—93, respectively); and for memory problems by Cognistat memory (69%, 52—87). The data were insufficient to assess any subtest for apraxia. Sensitivity in detecting deficits in any domain was 82% (71—94) for the Cognistat composite score, 71% (57—85) for the SINS composite score, and 63% (49—78) for the most sensitive score of the Clock Drawing Test.

Conclusion: The Cognistat and the SINS may be used as screening instruments for cognitive deficits after stroke, but cannot replace a neuropsychological assessment. The Clock Drawing Test added little to the detection of cognitive deficits.
Does monitoring change in function in community-dwelling older adults alter outcome? A randomized controlled trial
Authors: Richardson Julie , Chan David , Risdon Kathy , Giles Christopher , Mulveney Susan , Cripps Donna
Published: December 2008

Objective: To determine whether information about an older person's physical functioning provided to the patient and his or her physician delays functional decline and improves health outcomes.

Design: A randomized controlled trial was undertaken; the assessors were not blinded to the group allocation.

Setting: The study took place in a clinic within a hospital setting.

Participants: Two hundred and sixty-five community-dwelling people over 65 years were recruited from family practice units.

Interventions: The intervention group received assessments of physical function with feedback to the participant and the participant's family physician or functional assessments alone over 18 months. Self-report measures for health status using the Short Form-36 (SF-36) and preclinical disability were used together with performance measures which included the lower extremity performance test and muscle strength.

Results: There were small, statistically significant group/time interactions which included disability scores, F=4.78, P ≤0.05), and the vitality subscale of the SF-36, F=7.47, P ≤0.01).

Conclusion: Providing information about the results of detailed assessment of physical functioning to older adults and their physicians did not show significant differences in function scores between the intervention and control groups.
A pilot study of activity-based therapy in the arm motor recovery post stroke: a randomized controlled trial
Authors: Rabadi MH , Galgano M. , Lynch D. , Akerman M , Lesser M. , Volpe BT
Published: December 2008

Objective: To determine the efficacy of activity-based therapies using arm ergometer or robotic or group occupational therapy for motor recovery of the paretic arm in patients with an acute stroke (≤4 weeks) admitted to an inpatient rehabilitation facility, and to obtain information to plan a large randomized controlled trial.

Design: Prospective, randomized controlled study.

Setting: Stroke unit in a rehabilitation hospital.

Subjects: Thirty patients with an acute stroke (≤4 weeks) who had arm weakness (Medical Research Council grade 2 or less at the shoulder joint).

Intervention: Occupational therapy (OT) group (control) (n = 10), arm ergometer (n = 10) or robotic (n = 10) therapy group. All patients received standard, inpatient, post-stroke rehabilitation training for 3 hours a day, plus 12 additional 40-minute sessions of the activity-based therapy.

Main measures: The primary outcome measures were discharge scores in the Fugl-Meyer Assessment Scale for upper limb impairment, Motor Status Scale, total Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and FIM-motor and FIM-cognition subscores.

Results: The three groups (OT group versus arm ergometer versus robotic) were comparable on clinical demographic measures except the robotic group was significantly older and there were more haemorrhagic stroke patients in the arm ergometer group. After adjusting for age, stroke type and outcome measures at baseline, a similar degree of improvement in the discharge scores was found in all of the primary outcome measures.

Conclusion: This study suggests that activity-based therapies using an arm ergometer or robot when used over shortened training periods have the same effect as OT group therapy in decreasing impairment and improving disability in the paretic arm of severely affected stroke patients in the subacute phase.
Patterns of Organized Activity Participation in Urban, Early Adolescents
Authors: Metzger Aaron , Crean Hugh F. , Forbes-Jones Emma L.
Published: December 2008

This study examines patterns of organized activity and their concurrent association with academic achievement, problem behavior, and perceived adult support in a sample of urban, early adolescent, middle school students (mean age = 13.01; N = 2,495). Cluster analyses yielded six activity profiles: an uninvolved group ( n = 775, 31.1%), a multiply involved group ( n = 247, 9.9%), a sports group ( n = 469, 18.8%), a church group ( n = 486, 19.5%), a school and community clubs group ( n = 278, 11.1%), and a community clubs and sports group ( n = 240, 9.6%). These profiles are differentially associated with academic achievement, problem behavior, and adult support. While some form of organized activity is generally associated with more positive outcomes, the school and community and community and sports profiles also report the highest levels of delinquency, drug use, and school suspensions. Results support the utility of using person-centered approaches to studying youth-organized activities.
Support and Guidance from Families, Friends, and Teachers in Latino Early Adolescents' Math Pathways
Authors: Azmitia Margarita , Cooper Catherine R. , Brown Jane R.
Published: December 2008

This longitudinal study linked concepts of familism and social capital to investigate emotional support and educational guidance from parents, siblings, friends, and teachers in predicting Latino early adolescents' math grades during their transition from elementary school to junior high. Thirty-one Latino youth were interviewed twice and their school transcripts analyzed . Youth reported that parents and siblings provided the most support and guidance across these years, followed by friends, and to a lesser extent, teachers, who primarily helped with homework. However, only families' support, guidance, and income predicted math grades. Implications for research, policy, and practice highlight immigrant Latino families with modest schooling as resources and how Latino youth draw resources from families, friends, and schools.
Clandestine migration in Europe
Authors: Düvell Franck
Published: December 2008

The concept of clandestine or illegal migration dates back to the 1930s but only became prominent during the 1980s and 1990s. It is an umbrella term that refers to a complex set of conditions and embraces various patterns. Instead of applying the conventional but crude legal/illegal dichotomy this article suggests a fine-tuned analysis of clandestine migration on a scale between the two poles. This contribution surveys the state of the art and discusses various approaches in clandestine migration research; it aims at clarifying as yet blurred definitions, discusses often problematical quantitative aspects, and gives an overview of various major patterns in clandestine migration. Finally, in reflecting on the specific conditions that determine clandestine migration, it argues that this phenomenon is a social construct of the 21st century.
Contagions de la clandestinité
Authors: Belorgey Jean-Michel
Published: December 2008

De tous les terrains où se déploie la clandestinité, le principal est aujourd'hui celui des migrations. Une législation et une réglementation de plus en plus répressives ont peu ou prou mis fin à ce qu'on a, un temps, curieusement appelé `pacte de clandestinité'. Le rapport à la loi des clandestins n'en reste pas moins complexe. Mais on assiste dans ce contexte à une contagion de la clandestinité qui est un facteur de délitement du tissu social.
Northern Chinese women in Paris: the illegal immigration—prostitution nexus
Authors: Lévy Florence , Lieber Marylène
Published: December 2008

Some Northern Chinese migrant women end up prostituting themselves after their arrival in Paris. If one must relate this phenomenon to their illegal status and their lack of information about the host society, this article shows nevertheless that Chinese prostitutes in Paris have developed know-how and tactics to survive in an extremely precarious situation. Focusing on those coping strategies allows us to understand that, despite a form of resignation, prostitution is seen as the best way to bridge the gap between the reality these women face in France and the dreams they had before departure.
The new Chinese migration flows to Africa
Authors: Kuang Emmanuel Ma Mung
Published: December 2008

The last ten years have seen important migratory movements from China towards Africa. The phenomenon is not well known, but comparing different sources reveals three kinds of migrations: a labor migration within the frame of public works realized by big Chinese enterprises, an entrepreneurial migration composed mainly of traders, and a proletarian migration in transit in Africa waiting for opportunities to go on to European countries. The article gives a succinct description of these migrations and explores their possible relation with the new foreign policy of the People's Republic of China.
L'Afrique des clandestins
Authors: Boni Tanella
Published: December 2008

Les flux migratoires de clandestins africains ne sont pas comparables aux diverses formes de migrations de travail ou celles contraintes et forcées qui ont toujours existé sur le continent. Leur existence pose un problème de développement humain et l'Afrique des clandestins fait partie des représentations collectives de l'ailleurs que se forgent les Africains en période de mondialisation.
Crise de la citoyenneté en Afrique et responsabilité des élites: la question de la migration clandestine
Authors: Sarr Fatou
Published: December 2008

Au Sénégal, en 2006 des milliers de jeunes ont du quitter leur pays à la recherche de moyens de survie pour eux et leurs familles. L'analyse de l'implication citoyenne des mères dans la gestion de ce drame nous incite à réfléchir sur la nécessité de la prise en compte des femmes dans la définition et la gestion des politiques publiques: ce qui renvoie à la question de la démocratie inclusive, objet de cette réflexion.
The Philosophical Versus Actual Adoption of Community Policing
Authors: Chappell Allison T.
Published: December 2008

Community policing is the operating philosophy of the majority of American police departments in the new millennium. Though most departments claim to engage in community policing, research has shown that implementation of the strategy is uneven. One way to investigate the implementation of community policing is to study patrol officer attitudes toward community policing because research has shown that attitudes are related to behavior. The present study used qualitative data to explore the extent to which patrol officers have endorsed and implemented community policing in one medium-sized agency in Florida. Furthermore, the research sought to gain insight into the organizational barriers that prevented officers from adopting community policing in their daily work. Results indicated that although most officers agreed with the philosophy of community policing, significant barriers, such as lack of resources, prevented its full implementation in this agency. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.
Discrimination, Stress, and Acculturation Among Dominican Immigrant Women
Authors: Araújo Dawson Beverly
Published: December 2008

Researchers have well established the association between discriminatory experiences, life chances, and mental health outcomes among Latino/as, especially among Mexican Americans. However, few studies have focused on the impact of stress or the moderating effects of low acculturation levels among recent immigrants, such as Dominicans. Using the transactional stress model, the present community-based study examines the relationship between discrimination and stress, and whether this association varies by low acculturation levels in a sample of 246 Dominican women. Results indicate a positive relationship between major racist events (e.g., job-related discrimination), everyday discrimination (e.g., not receiving services in a store), and stress levels. Furthermore, low acculturation moderated the impact that discriminatory experiences had on the stress level of Dominican women. Implications for further research on discrimination and stress among Dominican immigrants are discussed.
Role redesign in the National Health Service
Authors: Prowse Julie , Prowse Peter
Published: December 2008

This article examines the effects of role redesign on the work and professional boundaries of midwives employed in the National Health Service. It outlines midwives' views and experiences of attempts to change their skills and professional boundaries and, using the concept of closure, considers the implications for the midwifery profession. The findings show that role redesign is changing midwives' work and that the traditional emotional, social and caring skills associated with a midwife are being undermined by the growth in technical work. Importantly, midwives' attempts to use closure have met with limited success and aspects of their work which they enjoy are being delegated to maternity support workers, while midwives' roles expand to include work traditionally performed by doctors. Midwives' concerns about the implications of work redesign for maternity care and their professional boundaries reflect the uncertainty surrounding the profession about the future role and skills of a midwife.
Effects of Organizational Support on Potency in Work Teams
Authors: Kennedy Frances A. , Loughry Misty L. , Klammer Thomas P. , Beyerlein Michael M.
Published: December 2008

This study focuses on team members' perceptions of organizational support as antecedents of team processes and potency. Potency is team members' collective belief that the team can be effective. In a field study of 39 work teams in six organizations, the authors find a positive relationship between organizational support and potency that is mediated by effective team processes. The authors also find a positive relationship between team processes and managers' ratings of team performance that is mediated by potency. Understanding how organizational support affects potency is important because research has consistently found that potency is strongly associated with team performance, yet little is known about how organizational context affects potency. Therefore, this research has practical as well as theoretical implications.
Imagine You Are Dying: Would You Be Interested in Having a Hospice Palliative Care Volunteer?
Authors: Claxton-Oldfield Stephen , Gosselin Natasha , Claxton-Oldfield Jane
Published: December 2008

A community sample of 100 adults was asked to imagine that they had been recently diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. After reading about the services provided by hospice palliative care volunteers, participants were asked whether they would choose to have a volunteer help them and to give a reason for their answer. Eighty-nine of the 100 participants indicated that they would use the help of a volunteer. The most commonly given reasons for utilizing a volunteer included for the general support they provide, help with practical things, and lack of family nearby; reasons given for declining the services of a volunteer included ``I'm a private person'' and ``I don't need any help.'' Sixty-five participants knew that such a volunteer program was available. Of the 35 participants who did not, 31 (89%) expected their family doctor to tell them about it. The implications of these findings for volunteer program coordinators are discussed.
Substitutable Protections
Authors: Staton Jeffrey K. , Reenock Christopher
Published: December 2008

Scholars have argued that credible commitment institutions have important impacts on political outcomes as diverse as economic growth and social order. If commitment institutions function as theorized, then their effects should vary across individuals, groups, or states, based on their respective vulnerability to promise breaking. Yet existing empirical studies never pursue this implication. The failure to do so risks a number of inferential errors and can lead to suboptimal policy prescriptions for institutional reform. In this article, the authors develop and provide empirical evidence for these claims within the context of a commitment problem that scholars believe undermines social order.
Review: Factor XI Deficiency: Review and Management in Pregnant Women
Authors: Martin-Salces Monica , Jimenez-Yuste Victor , Alvarez Maria Teresa , Quintana Manuel , Hernandez-Navarro Fernando
Published: December 2008

Factor XI deficiency is a rare disease found predominantly in Ashkenazi Jews. There is a poor correlation between factor XI level and bleeding in patients with factor XI deficiency. Individuals with severe factor XI deficiency are usually at risk of excessive bleeding after surgery and injury, particularly when trauma involves tissues rich in fibrinolytic activity. Women with partial or severe deficiency are at risk of excessive uterine bleeding during labor. The unpredictable nature of factor XI deficiency complicates management during pregnancy and delivery. This review gives an overview of the management of pregnant women with factor XI deficiency.
truth Troubles
Authors: Tullis Owen Jillian A. , McRae Chris , Adams Tony E. , Vitale Alisha
Published: December 2008

“truth” is an issue of public discussion, research, and everyday performance. Processes of navigating truth, however, are obscure and often unknown. In this project, the authors highlight truth(s) of written life texts. They conceive of truth as a rather than the “rhetorical device” to use for evaluating personal research and believe that demanding factual, historical truth-of-life research is faulty and problematic. By illustrating how genre, trust, memory, and confession influence truth telling, the authors hope to question and enhance truth-related conversations.
Finding Academic Voice
Authors: Potgieter Ferdinand , Smit Brigitte
Published: December 2008

The narrative in this discussion article portrays the quest by two researchers to find their scholarly identity in their craft. The central issue in this narrative piece as design type of this inquiry is the space of knowledge crafting— distinguishing between adopted knowledge from the theories that sustain our thinking and the realities that they encounter in the research fields where knowledge grows in dynamic ecosystems that they wish to engage with and try to explicate and to understand. The central conundrum or the academic puzzle in this narrative is thus that they receive mixed messages about the interface between them, the researchers, the presented empirical world, and the theories from which they have learned. They are not sure where or when they speak in their own voices or portray their own identities.
Challenging Relativism
Authors: Hammersley Martyn
Published: December 2008

This article raises serious questions about the relativist approach to assessing qualitative research that has been championed by John K. Smith and various colleagues. They reject not just empiricism but also what they refer to as “neorealism.” Against both these positions, they advance an antirealist, anti-ontological argument to the effect that we should not assume the reality of social phenomena as existing independently of our knowledge claims about them; insist that assessing the value of research findings is always a practical matter, rather than an issue of method; and claim that we must abandon epistemic in favor of moral criteria in assessing social research. On the basis of detailed scrutiny of their arguments, it is shown that neither the critique of neorealism they present nor the alternative approach they recommend is coherent or convincing.
Unruly Bodies and Couples' Sleep
Authors: Meadows Robert , Arber Sara , Venn Susan , Hislop Jenny
Published: December 2008

s This article focuses on the recent production of sleep as a matter of concern in American society. In it, I draw primarily on fieldwork with sleep researchers and clinicians to understand the means by which ideas about sleep are produced and disseminated, and discuss the rise of sleep medicine since the late 1970s and the ways sleep disabilities have been constructed and mobilized in contemporary allopathic research and practice. The article provides a description of modern sleep medicine practices, and analyses clinical encounters between researchers, clinicians and patients, particularly the ways patient cases are produced and interpreted. I follow these ethnographic observations with textual analysis of the National Sleep Foundation's campaigns to promote sleep awareness, and offer the theoretical concepts of medical abstraction and insistence as a means to understand the production of sleep as a matter of concern, and how it might be made to adhere in particular patients' lives and the practices of clinicians.
`A life on hold': adolescents' experiences of stem cell transplantation in a long-term perspective
Authors: Forinder Ulla , Posse Ebba
Published: December 2008

Stem cell transplantation is one of the treatment methods for cancer in children and adolescents which has resulted in a positive outcome. Unfortunately this method of treatment brings with it a number of late effects such as short stature, cognitive effects and infertility. However, a majority of children and adolescents experience a good quality of life. By examining their medical records this study has gained a deeper understanding of the situation for the minority of young people who describe themselves as suffering severe mental distress which they relate to their illness and treatment. The population comprised seven adolescents who sought psychotherapeutic support several years after treatment. They describe how they are affected by the feeling of being different, the loss of contact with friends and their dependence on parents. The study points to the need for long-term psychosocial support for children and adolescents who have undergone stem cell transplantation.
Benefits and barriers to medically supervised pediatric weight-management programs
Authors: Grimes-Robison Cindy , Evans Retta R.
Published: December 2008

Obesity in children and adolescents is now the most common chronic condition in the USA. Data indicate that approximately one in five children in the USA is now overweight. Public health professionals have increased efforts in recent years to develop medically supervised programs for this population. However, research shows that only a small amount of obese children participate in weight-reduction programs. Also, the long-term effects of these weight-reduction interventions for obese children have not been well researched. Several recent studies report that most of the successful obesity programs utilize an interdisciplinary approach that combines a diet, physical activity, parental involvement and behavioral modification. This article provides a review of the professional literature related to the benefits and barriers of medically supervised pediatric weight-management programs. It summarizes the programs that work and the perceived barriers that parents and families struggle with in adhering to treatment plans.
Alien Games
Authors: Heeter Carrie , Egidio Rhonda , Mishra Punya , Winn Brian , Winn Jillian
Published: December 2008

This 3-year study used a mixed-method design beginning with content analysis of games envisioned by 5th and 8th graders, followed by a survey of students in the same age range reacting to video promos representing these games. Results show that the designer's gender influences the design outcome of games and that girls expected that they would find the girl-designed games significantly more fun to play than the boy-designed games, whereas boys imagined that the boy-designed games would be significantly more fun to play than the girl-designed games. Boys overwhelmingly picked games based entirely on fighting as their top ranked games. Girls overwhelmingly ranked those same fighting games as their least preferred. Girls as designers consciously envisioned games with both male and female players in mind, whereas boys designed only for other boys. Both 8th-grade boy game ideas were liberally ``borrowed'' from a successful commercial game.
Events and Collusions
Authors: Giddings Seth
Published: December 2008

This essay draws on a number of recent research projects that record and analyze video game play. The ``microethnographic'' approach that they develop suggests methodological strategies, both for analyzing gameplay and for identifying and conceptualizing relationships between technology, agency, and aesthetics in everyday technoculture across and between the virtual and the actual. It suggests a new model of technoculture in everyday life, shifting analytical and critical attention away from established research objects and notions (the ``impact'' of technologies, consumption, identities and subjectivity, interactivity) and toward the ``event'' of gameplay as one with nonhuman as well as human participants, and brought into being by relationships, and translations, of human and nonhuman agency.
Evaluation of zinc rich ethyl silicate primer by applying electrochemical methods
Authors: Akbarinezhad E. , Faridi H. R. , Ghanbarzadeh A.
Published: December 2008

This paper discusses the performance of a zinc rich ethyl silicate primer by employing accelerated tests and electrochemical evaluations. The primer has been applied on carbon steel panels and a series of accelerated tests, e.g. salt spray (according to ASTM Bll7-03) and 100% relative humidity (according to ASTM D2247-02) were used for evaluating coated panels. Electrochemical evaluations of the primer were studied using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and by determining the electric potential during immersion in 3⋅5% NaCl solution for a period of 120 days. The characteristics and properties of the coated samples were assessed by measuring the fluctuations in resistance and capacitance of coatings. The results revealed that the open circuit potential of coated panels were in the ranges of –1⋅12 to –1⋅02 V versus saturated calomel reference electrode. The extracted parameters allowed the examination of the coating degradation.
Vacuum hot roll bonding of titanium alloy and stainless steel using nickel interlayer
Authors: Yan J. C. , Zhao D. S. , Wang C. W. , Wang L. Y. , Wang Y. , Yang S. Q.
Published: December 2008

Vacuum hot roll bonding of titanium alloy and stainless steel using a nickel interlayer was investigated. No obvious reaction or diffusion layer occurs at the interface between stainless steel and nickel. The interface between titanium alloy and nickel consists of an occludent layer and diffusion layers, and there are the intermetallic compounds (TiNi3, TiNi, Ti2Ni and their mixtures) in the layers. The total thickness of intermetallic layers at the interface between titanium alloy and nickel increases with the bonding temperature, and the tensile strength of roll bonded joints decreases with the bonding temperature. The maximum tensile strength of 440·1 MPa was obtained at the bonding temperature of 760°C, the reduction of 20% and the rolling speed of 38 mm s–1.
Dysfunctional homologous recombination mediates genomic instability and progression in myeloma
Authors: Shammas Masood A. , Shmookler Reis Robert J. , Koley Hemanta , Batchu Ramesh B. , Li Cheng , Munshi Nikhil C.
Published: December 2008

A prominent feature of most if not all cancers is a striking genetic instability, leading to ongoing accrual of mutational changes, some of which underlie tumor progression, including acquisition of invasiveness, drug resistance, and metastasis. Thus, the molecular basis for the generation of this genetic diversity in cancer cells has important implications in understanding cancer progression. Here we report that homologous recombination (HR) activity is elevated in multiple myeloma (MM) cells and leads to an increased rate of mutation and progressive accumulation of genetic variation over time. We demonstrate that the inhibition of HR activity in MM cells by small inhibitory RNA (siRNAs) targeting recombinase leads to significant reduction in the acquisition of new genetic changes in the genome and, conversely, the induction of HR activity leads to significant elevation in the number of new mutations over time and development of drug resistance in MM cells. These data identify dysregulated HR activity as a key mediator of DNA instability and progression of MM, with potential as a therapeutic target.
HOXA9 is required for survival in human MLL-rearranged acute leukemias
Authors: Faber Joerg , Krivtsov Andrei V. , Stubbs Matthew C. , Wright Renee , Davis Tina N. , van den Heuvel-Eibrink Marry , Zwaan Christian M. , Kung Andrew L. , Armstrong Scott A.
Published: December 2008

Leukemias that harbor translocations involving the mixed lineage leukemia gene (MLL) possess unique biologic characteristics and often have an unfavorable prognosis. Gene expression analyses demonstrate a distinct profile for MLL-rearranged leukemias with consistent high-level expression of select Homeobox genes, including HOXA9. Here, we investigated the effects of HOXA9 suppression in MLL-rearranged and MLL-germline leukemias using RNA interference. Gene expression profiling after HOXA9 suppression demonstrated co–down-regulation of a program highly expressed in human MLL-AML and murine MLL-leukemia stem cells, including HOXA10, MEIS1, PBX3, and MEF2C. We demonstrate that HOXA9 depletion in 17 human AML/ALL cell lines (7 MLL-rearranged, 10 MLL-germline) induces proliferation arrest and apoptosis specifically in MLL-rearranged cells (P = .007). Similarly, assessment of primary AMLs demonstrated that HOXA9 suppression induces apoptosis to a greater extent in MLL-rearranged samples (P = .01). Moreover, mice transplanted with HOXA9-depleted t(4;11) SEMK2 cells revealed a significantly lower leukemia burden, thus identifying a role for HOXA9 in leukemia survival in vivo. Our data indicate an important role for HOXA9 in human MLL-rearranged leukemias and suggest that targeting HOXA9 or downstream programs may be a novel therapeutic option.
Transferrin-a modulates hepcidin expression in zebrafish embryos
Authors: Fraenkel Paula G. , Gibert Yann , Holzheimer Jason L. , Lattanzi Victoria J. , Burnett Sarah F. , Dooley Kimberly A. , Wingert Rebecca A. , Zon Leonard I.
Published: December 2008

The iron regulatory hormone hepcidin is transcriptionally up-regulated in response to iron loading, but the mechanisms by which iron levels are sensed are not well understood. Large-scale genetic screens in the zebrafish have resulted in the identification of hypochromic anemia mutants with a range of mutations affecting conserved pathways in iron metabolism and heme synthesis. We hypothesized that transferrin plays a critical role both in iron transport and in regulating hepcidin expression in zebrafish embryos. Here we report the identification and characterization of the zebrafish hypochromic anemia mutant, gavi, which exhibits transferrin deficiency due to mutations in transferrin-a. Morpholino knockdown of transferrin-a in wild-type embryos reproduced the anemia phenotype and decreased somite and terminal gut iron staining, while coinjection of transferrin-a cRNA partially restored these defects. Embryos with transferrin-a or transferrin receptor 2 (TfR2) deficiency exhibited low levels of hepcidin expression, however anemia, in the absence of a defect in the transferrin pathway, failed to impair hepcidin expression. These data indicate that transferrin-a transports iron and that hepcidin expression is regulated by a transferrin-a–dependent pathway in the zebrafish embryo.