bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Robust optimum design of base isolation system in seismic vibration control of structures under uncertain bounded system parameters
Authors: Roy Bijan Kumar , Chakraborty Subrata , Mihsra Sudib K
Published: December 2012

The optimum design of a base isolation (BI) system in the framework of total probability theory cannot be applied in many real situations when the required detailed information about the uncertain parameters are limited and the maximum possible ranges of variations are only known and can be modeled as an uncertain but bounded type. The interval analysis based bounded design optimization usually applied in such cases are the worst case measures and unsuitable for practical design. Moreover, such a design method does not consider the variation of the performance of an isolated system due to uncertainty and may not correspond to an optimum design yielding maximum performance with its minimum dispersion. The robust optimization requiring only the bounds on the magnitude of the uncertain parameters will be a viable alternative in such situations. The present study deals with the robust optimization of BI system for seismic vibration mitigation of structures characterized by bounded uncertain parameters. The robust optimization is performed by using a two-criteria equivalent optimization problem, where the weighted sum of the nominal value of the maximum root mean square acceleration of the superstructure and its dispersion is optimized. The bounded design optimization is also performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed robust optimization approach. A five-storied building frame with attached isolator elucidates the effectiveness and importance of the proposed design approach by comparing the present robust optimization results with the results obtained by the bounded design optimization procedure.
Linear and nonlinear active feedback controls for vortex-induced vibrations of circular cylinders
Authors: Mehmood A , Abdelkefi A , Akhtar I , Nayfeh AH , Nuhait A , Hajj MR
Published: December 2012

We consider the problem of suppressing oscillations of an elastically mounted rigid cylinder undergoing vortex-induced vibrations by linear and nonlinear active velocity feedback controllers. Each controller relies on an actuator, which imparts an opposing force to the cylinder motion, thereby reducing its high-amplitude oscillations. A strongly coupled fluid–structure numerical model is used to solve the fluid–structure interaction equations. The results show that the choice of the active feedback controller depends on the allowable controlled amplitude of the cylinder. It is found that a cubic velocity feedback controller is more efficient than its linear velocity counterpart when very small controlled amplitudes are desired.
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Surgical Treatment of Acute Myocardial Infarction
Authors: He Daifeng , Mellor Jennifer M. , Jankowitz Eytan
Published: December 2012

Many studies document disparities between Blacks and Whites in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction on controlling for patient demographic factors and comorbid conditions. Other studies provide evidence of disparities between Hispanics and Whites in cardiac care. Such disparities may be explained by differences in the hospitals where minority and nonminority patients obtain treatment and by differences in the traits of physicians who treat minority and nonminority patients. We used 1997-2005 Florida hospital inpatient discharge data to estimate models of cardiac catheterization, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, and coronary artery bypass grafting in Medicare fee-for-service patients 65 years and older. Controlling for hospital fixed effects does not explain Black–White disparities in cardiac treatment but largely explains Hispanic–White disparities. Controlling for physician fixed effects accounts for some extent of the racial disparities in treatment and entirely explains the ethnic disparities in treatment.
On the Root of Feeling One Is Subjectively Understanding Another
Authors: Witz Klaus G. , Brown Ronda J.
Published: December 2012

Witz and Goodwin suggest that every individual illustrates the “phenomenon/reality” of being “a single-consciousness-and-‘I’ from childhood to old age.” This includes three aspects that are experienced together in an inseparable unity: (a) the fact that a sense of I is constantly in innumerable ways part of one’s subjective experience, (b) feeling (presupposing, tacitly taking for granted, believing) one is the same continuous “consciousness-and-I” all the time from childhood on, and (c) feeling (presupposing, etc.) one is always the same person. This article argues that to these aspects should be added (d) the fact that the individual feels that in his or her interactions with others during the day he or she is to some extent subjectively understanding them.
Employing Poetry to Understand the Transformative Experience of Attending a Virtual Conference
Authors: Peté Marí
Published: December 2012

In this article the author employs the poetic form to crystallize the transformative event of attending a virtual conference for the first time. The poem revealed a range of themes, among others: embodied and disembodied experiences; interplay and tension between poles such as north–south, local–global, virtual–real, and poetic–technological; the leveling of power dynamics and gender differences; deconstruction of conventions and norms for such etiquette of face-to-face events; experiencing multiple identities, playing many roles simultaneously, satisfying curiosity and desire by having it all, and the compromises involved. A meta-theme running through many of the above is liminality—finding oneself on thresholds (Harrison, 2009), followed by border crossing and conceptual transformation (Meyer & Land, 2005).

The poem illuminates ways of knowing and being academic in the 21st century, risk taking and rehearsing new modes of learning and researching, and the discomfort and liberation of this experience.
Can I Have a Voice in the Nation’s Classroom?
Authors: Sughrua William
Published: December 2012

This article utilizes a reflexive ethnographic approach in the form of a “layered text” consisting of academic argument, literary criticism, biography, autobiography, and fiction. The dimension of academic argument involves “critical applied linguistics”; the dimension of literary criticism, Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Algren’s The Man with the Golden Arm, Blake’s “The Tyger,” and Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”; the dimension of biography, the African American activist Malcolm X; autobiography, an account of my elderly father’s visit with me in my city of residence (Oaxaca); and fiction, the story of me in an urban classroom teaching a group of students that includes Malcolm X as well as the authors of and characters from The Great Gatsby and The Man with the Golden Arm. This diverse “layered text” intends to perform its theme involving the “critical”-minded teacher in an English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom as one who regulates her/his personal “political” awareness in order to foster a “critical” classroom accessible to all students.
Not All Suburbs Are the Same
Authors: Miller Brian J.
Published: December 2012

Although American suburbs are commonly understood as the result of growth machine efforts or are grouped in categories like edge cities or inner-ring suburbs, these approaches obscure the unique characters of individual suburbs. This study examines four consequential “character moments” in three Chicago suburbs, Naperville, West Chicago, and Wheaton, where the suburb’s character was open to public debate. These moments show character over time is critical for understanding suburbs, character moments are rare but often consequential, not all moments involve particular development projects and some may be prompted by perceived threats, and suburban character is more dynamic than typically posited.
Sexual Preference or Opportunity
Authors: Holt Karen , Massey Christina
Published: December 2012

The overwhelming number of male victims of clergy sexual abuse led to assumptions regarding sexual preference of clergy offenders. The present study examined 9,540 records (incidents) of alleged cleric sexual abuse in the United States between 1950 and 1999 to explore situational factors of the abuse by victim gender. No evidence was found to suggest that male victims were purposefully targeted more than female victims; rather, the abuse appeared to be more a function of opportunity. These findings support a situational framework of sexual abuse for the majority of clergy abuse and the assertion that abuse in church can be understood as not a crisis regarding homosexuality but as a social problem that must be examined in its context.
Quantifying the Relative Risk of Sex Offenders
Authors: Hanson R. Karl , Babchishin Kelly M. , Helmus Leslie , Thornton David
Published: December 2012

Given the widespread use of empirical actuarial risk tools in corrections and forensic mental health, it is important that evaluators and decision makers understand how scores relate to recidivism risk. In the current study, we found strong evidence for a relative risk interpretation of Static-99R scores using 8 samples from Canada, United Kingdom, and Western Europe ( N = 4,037 sex offenders). Each increase in Static-99R score was associated with a stable and consistent increase in relative risk (as measured by an odds ratio or hazard ratio of approximately 1.4). Hazard ratios from Cox regression were used to calculate risk ratios that can be reported for Static-99R. We recommend that evaluators consider risk ratios as a useful, nonarbitrary metric for quantifying and communicating risk information. To avoid misinterpretation, however, risk ratios should be presented with recidivism base rates.
Characterization of the Theta to Beta Ratio in ADHD
Authors: Loo Sandra K. , Cho Alexander , Hale T. Sigi , McGough James , McCracken James , Smalley Susan L.
Published: December 2012

Objective: The goal of this study is to characterize the theta to beta ratio (THBR) obtained from electroencephalogram (EEG) measures, in a large sample of community and clinical participants with regard to (a) ADHD diagnosis and subtypes, (b) common psychiatric comorbidities, and (c) cognitive correlates. Method: The sample includes 871 participants (595 youth and 276 adults) with and without ADHD. All participants underwent extensive assessment, including semistructured diagnostic interviews, cognitive testing, and EEG recording. Results: The THBR did not differ significantly by ADHD status for youth but was significantly lower in adults with ADHD compared with controls. ADHD subtype and psychiatric comorbidities such as disruptive behavior disorders and depression have opposing and significant mediating effects on the THBR. Conclusion: The THBR is affected by several mediating factors associated with ADHD such as ADHD subtype and psychiatric comorbidity. More research is needed to understand the functional significance of the THBR in ADHD.
Do Stimulants Reduce the Risk for Alcohol and Substance Use in Youth With ADHD? A Secondary Analysis of a Prospective, 24-Month Open-Label Study of Osmotic-Release Methylphenidate
Authors: Hammerness Paul , Petty Carter , Faraone Stephen V. , Biederman Joseph
Published: December 2012

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of stimulant treatment on risk for alcohol and illicit drug use in adolescents with ADHD. Method: Analysis of data derived from a prospective open-label treatment study of adolescent ADHD ( n = 115, 76% male), and a historical, naturalistic sample of ADHD ( n = 44, 68% male) and non-ADHD youth ( n = 52, 73% male) of similar age and sex. Treatment consisted of extended-release methylphenidate in the clinical trial or naturalistic stimulant treatment. Self-report of alcohol and drug use was derived from a modified version of the Drug Use Screening Inventory. Results: Rates of alcohol and drug use in the past year were significantly lower in the clinical trial compared with untreated and treated naturalistic ADHD comparators, and similar to rates in non-ADHD comparators. Conclusion: Well-monitored stimulant treatment may reduce the risk for alcohol and substance use in adolescent ADHD.
Effects of Biological Versus Psychosocial Explanations on Stigmatization of Children With ADHD
Authors: Lebowitz Matthew S. , Rosenthal Jessica E. , Ahn Woo-kyoung
Published: December 2012

Objective: Previous studies have found biological conceptualizations of psychopathology to be associated with stigmatizing attitudes and prognostic pessimism. This research investigated how biological and psychosocial explanations for a child’s ADHD symptoms differ in affecting laypeople’s stigmatizing attitudes and prognostic beliefs. Method: Three experiments were conducted online with U.S. adults, using vignettes that described a child with ADHD and attributed his symptoms to either biological or psychosocial causes. Dependent measures gauged social distance and expectations about the child’s prognosis. Results: Across all three studies, the biological explanation yielded more doubt about treatability but less social distance—a result that diverges from previous research with other disorders. Differences in the amount of blame ascribed to the child mediated the social distance effect. Conclusion: The effects of biological explanations on laypeople’s views of ADHD seem to be a “double-edged sword,” reducing social rejection but exacerbating perceptions of the disorder as relatively untreatable.
Heart Failure Associated With Adult Congenital Heart Disease
Authors: DiNardo James A.
Published: December 2012

The population of adults with congenital heart disease (ACHD) now exceeds that of children with congenital heart disease. Within this relatively young population of adults in their third decade of life exist a population of patients with heart failure (HF) who, in functional status, closely resemble patients in their fifth and sixth decades of life with HF caused by coronary artery disease and myocardial ischemia. The ACHD patients currently at greatest risk for HF are those with single-ventricle physiology, those with a 2-ventricle circulation with the right ventricle as the systemic ventricle, and those with repaired tetralogy of Fallot and pulmonary valve insufficiency. This article will review the demographics, diagnosis, functional capacity, and treatment of HF in the ACHD population.
Designing Service Guarantees With Construal Fit
Authors: Jin Liyin , He Yanqun
Published: December 2012

This article examines the influence of temporal distance on consumer responses to different types of service guarantees. Four studies revealed that the effectiveness of service guarantees depends on whether their elements match the time frame of consumer purchase decisions. Full-satisfaction guarantees more strongly influence decisions in the distant future, while attribute-specific guarantees more strongly influence decisions in the near future. Combined guarantees are as effective as attribute-specific guarantees for temporally close consumer decisions, but less effective than full-satisfaction guarantees for temporally distant decisions. Attribute-specific guarantees that are easy to invoke are more persuasive for purchases in the near future, while full-satisfaction guarantees with high compensation are more effective for purchases in the distant future. The finding that the construal fit between guarantee elements and the purchase time frame significantly enhances a guarantee’s effectiveness contributes to the service literature by identifying the time-contingent effects of service guarantees. Service firms can improve a guarantee’s effectiveness by ensuring that its scope, compensation level, and invocation process match the consumer’s purchase time frame.
Masculinity and Men’s Violence against Known Women in Trinidad—Whose Responsibility?
Authors: Sukhu Raquel L. M.
Published: December 2012

This paper explores the male batterer's account of his violence based on a qualitative study of a sample of working class men, alleged batterers, conducted in Caribbean island of Trinidad demonstrating that the violence that they perform is integral to their masculine gender identity and that they take little or no responsibility for this violence. The findings are congruent with the international literature on the male account of battering which consistently reveals patterns of denial, minimization, excuses and justifications - tools through which the batterer may deny responsibility or accept limited responsibility for his violence. The paper also highlights the international and regional trends in responsibility in relation to masculinity and men's violence against known women particularly in the context of battering. In this study the complexity of the issue of responsibility in relation to local masculinities is further developed in the question of men taking responsibility for their violence against female intimate (ex)partners if not the men themselves.
High rates of physician services utilization at least five years before multiple sclerosis diagnosis
Authors: Marrie Ruth Ann , Yu Nancy , Wei Yichuan , Elliott Lawrence , Blanchard James
Published: December 2012

Background:

Multiple sclerosis (MS) management has changed over time, but changes in health care utilization by MS patients remain understudied. We estimated physician services utilization in the five-year periods before and after MS diagnosis, and over the period 1984–2008.

Methods:

Using administrative data we identified 4092 persons with MS and a matched general population (GPOP) cohort of 21,446 persons. Using general linear models we compared physician visits between the MS and GPOPs for the period 1984–2008, the year of MS diagnosis, and for the five-year periods pre- and post-diagnosis.

Results:

From 1984 to 2008, 98% of the MS population averaged ≥1 physician visits/year versus 87% of the GPOP. In 2008, the MS population had 12.9 physician visits/person-year while the GPOP had 8.4 (rate ratio (RR) 1.53; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.52–1.55). Five years pre-MS diagnosis, the MS population had more physician visits than the GPOP (RR 1.15; 95% CI; 1.10–1.21). The number of visits peaked the year of MS diagnosis (19.0), decreasing thereafter, but remaining elevated versus the pre-diagnosis period.

Conclusion:

The MS population uses more physician services than the GPOP, starting at least five years pre-MS diagnosis. A better understanding of the reasons for these higher utilization rates may ultimately improve outcomes in MS.
Believing in “making a difference” to collective efforts: Participative efficacy beliefs as a unique predictor of collective action
Authors: van Zomeren Martijn , Saguy Tamar , Schellhaas Fabian M. H.
Published: December 2012

When rational actors believe that their group can achieve its goals through collective action (i.e., when they have strong group efficacy beliefs), they should not participate in it because they expect little benefit from their own participation. Paradoxically, however, research shows that individuals are more likely to participate when their group efficacy beliefs are stronger. In contrast to approaches that explain this paradox by invoking different psychological mechanisms (e.g., group identity, group-based anger), we provide a novel efficacy-based explanation by introducing the notion of participative efficacy beliefs (i.e., beliefs that one’s own actions will “make a difference” to collective efforts aimed at achieving group goals). Three correlational studies supported the construct and predictive validity of participative efficacy beliefs across different samples and contexts. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this notion for the psychology of collective action and social change.
European integration and national parliamentary oversight institutions
Authors: Winzen Thomas
Published: December 2012

This article analyses to what extent and why national parliaments have created oversight institutions to adapt to European integration. Employing data from 22 member states from 1984–2006, the analysis suggests that government-supporting parliamentary groups create oversight institutions to enhance policy participation as integration becomes more important. Moreover, parliamentarians improve their access to information about government policy if governing parties are internally divided over European integration. Finally, oversight institutions that constrain the government’s discretion to act in European Union affairs exist in Eurosceptic countries, where they help parliamentarians to enhance electoral security.
Inequality and anti-globalization backlash by political parties
Authors: Burgoon Brian
Published: December 2012

Does income inequality increase political backlash against European and global integration? This paper reports research suggesting that it can. The article analyses party opposition to and support for trade openness, European Union integration and general internationalism of political party platforms in advanced industrial democracies between 1960 and 2008. It finds that inequality tends to increase anti-globalization positions of parties, net of pro-globalization positions, an effect that does not significantly differ across party families or levels of actual globalization. This effect, however, does depend on, and is diminished by, generous redistributive policies. These findings clarify socio-economic conditions underlying the backlash against political and economic globalization.
Response to Franchino
Authors: Slapin Jonathan B
Published: December 2012

Fabio Franchino provides an insightful and critical examination of the findings of my book Veto Power, as well as the volume by Finke et al., Reforming the European Union. Here I respond to some of the issues raised by Franchino. First, I discuss Franchino's replication of my main empirical results, and then I discuss my treatment of intergovernmentalism.
Exploratory-triangulation design in mixed methods studies: A case of examining graduating seniors who meet hospitality recruiters’ selection criteria
Authors: Kwok Linchi
Published: December 2012

This article introduces the exploratory-triangulation mixed methods approach to hospitality and tourism research. A specific empirical example of using the exploratory-triangulation design is illustrated. With this approach, hospitality recruiters’ selection criteria for entry-level managerial positions in the college recruiting settings were explored and triangulated with the attributes of hospitality graduating seniors who receive job offers. The advantages and disadvantages of the exploratory-triangulation design are discussed. Considerations are proposed for researchers who plan to adopt the exploratory-triangulation mix methods approach in future studies.
Food social practices: Theory of practice and the new battlefield of food quality
Authors: Domaneschi Lorenzo
Published: December 2012

Given the growing transitional character of food, on its way from farm to fork, a rising number of people and institutions affect what we eat, governing how food is produced, consumed and distributed day-to-day. The sociological response to these transformations lead to a conceptualization of food as a dynamic field, crucial to the understanding of how we negotiate production and consumption as specific and meaningful sets of activities. In this article, I suggest applying the recent conceptualization of practice theory in order to understand the increasing complexity of food issues. I start by illustrating some basic sociological works on consumption of food quality, then I present the main outcome of a qualitative research study about the commercial cooking in a Northern Italian city. The issue of food quality and the effects of its social construction on consumers habits are eventually discussed.
Practices and trajectories: A comparative analysis of reading in France, Norway, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA
Authors: Southerton Dale , Olsen Wendy , Warde Alan , Cheng Shu-Li
Published: December 2012

Using time diary data to examine practices of reading, this article examines trajectories of change within five countries in the last quarter of the 20th century. It employs a conceptual framework derived from theories of practice to illustrate their application in a quantitative and comparative analysis of change in patterns of consumption. Analysing recruitment and defection, the multiplication and diversification of reading-related practices, and the presence of distinct enthusiast groups leads to the rejection of popular claims that the practice of reading is in decline and that this might be a universal process across societies characterized as having ‘advanced reading cultures’. Critiques of cultural homogenization in the context of global consumer cultures are also corroborated. Also, a conceptual and methodological framework for the application of practice theories to the analysis of consumption and social change is advocated.
Branding in the American funeral industry
Authors: Sanders George
Published: December 2012

This article explores the ways in which interpassivity, as conceptualized in the work of Robert Pfaller and Slavoj Žižek, can contribute to understanding the role of brands in today’s commodity form. Interpassivity, like interactivity, implies an active relationship between an actor and an external entity. Interpassivity, however, suggests that the actor is active in order to take on a passive role. As it is used here, it refers to a condition in which a consumer actively delegates her or his emotional expressions to a brand. The integration of brands in funerals is appealing given the abject nature of deathcare, the affective intensity of dealing with loss, and the increasingly rationalized role of the funeral industry in deathcare. Based on a multi-sited ethnography, the author discusses the ways in which brandscapes are becoming more widespread in funeral products and services and are even contributing to ‘themed’ funerals and funeral settings. The author argues that these developments are conducive to conditions of interpassivity and they further the ongoing colonization of capital into human emotion.
‘What I’ve found is that your related experiences tend to make you dissatisfied’: Psychological obsolescence, consumer demand and the dynamics and environmental implications of de-stabilization in the laptop sector
Authors: Spinney Justin , Burningham Kate , Cooper Geoff , Green Nicky , Uzzell David
Published: December 2012

Research on product life-spans tends to link the causes of psychological obsolescence with end-users and product designers, and posits the consequences of obsolescence in terms of increasing e-waste and energy use. Drawing upon qualitative fieldwork conducted with employees of a global computer firm and users of its laptop computers this article brings together the poles of production and consumption to explore the dynamics of de-stabilization in product qualities, connecting the intensification of this process to psychological obsolescence and unsustainable patterns of consumption. First, we demonstrate that consumer-facing functions within the firm such as user research, sales and marketing play a key role in driving the pace of technological change within the firm by specifying consumer demand. We argue that by distilling an imaginary demanding consumer from various sources, the firm justifies and drives rapid de-stabilization in product qualities and specifications. We show how this prompts end consumers to constantly re-evaluate product qualities, devaluing existing products and contributing to psychological obsolescence and disposal of functioning products. We then go on to discuss the environmental implications of this process, suggesting that whilst premature disposal due to perceived obsolescence may not increase waste in the short term, it is still likely to contribute to an increase in material and energy use in manufacturing.
A Teenie Weenie amount of ‘Goodwill’: Cross-media character brand merchandizing in the 1920s
Authors: Santo Avi
Published: December 2012

This article analyses correspondence and legal documents pertaining to William Donahey’s efforts to merchandize his Teenie Weenies comic strip in the 1920s, with particular emphasis on Donahey’s negotiations with toy distributor Geo. Borgfeldt & Company. I argue that neither the Teenie Weenies’ value as intellectual property, nor Donahey’s creative authority as licensor nor Borgfeldt’s as licensee preceded the negotiations between these two parties, but rather, that they were created through the tactical discursive exchange of what John Caldwell labels ‘trade stories’ designed to establish each party’s ‘career capital’. These trade stories were, in turn, inspired by the particular socio-historical and industrial contexts in which they were told; in this case the post-First World War pre-Depression era children’s market and its construction of an imaginary child consumer. Moreover, I argue that the interactions between Donahey and Borgfeldt reveal how the concept of ‘goodwill’ was understood and given meaning through discourse in an era prior to the codification of secondary meaning into trademark law. Early debates over what constituted ‘goodwill’ would have profound effects on Donahey’s authority over the Teenie Weenies as a brand as well as on how managerial stewardship would come to be understood as essential to establishing and maintaining brand equity. Rather than view correspondence between Donahey and Borgfeldt as evidencing particular industrial norms, I argue that it reveals as much about the uncertainties of extending character brands as it does about the tenuous positions held by both licensor and licensee at an historical moment where the value of intellectual property – and, more precisely, who was responsible for ensuring that value – was in flux.
Film consumer decision-making: The Philadelphia story, 1935–36
Authors: Sedgwick John , Pokorny Michael
Published: December 2012

This article uses consumer research conducted in the early 1940s to interrogate and interpret a new dataset of daily box-office returns for 22 cinemas in the city of Philadelphia over 33 weeks traversing 1935–36. Our findings attempt to contextualize the observation made by the 1940s market investigators that just under half of cinema audiences were non-selective. It does this by a detailed analysis of the system of film distribution in which films were distributed in a hierarchical manner, from first-run through to fourth-run cinemas. Through an analysis of the variation in the performance of films at each level of the distribution hierarchy, and the impact that this variation had on the distribution of film revenues, we conclude that the impact of non-selective audiences on film outcomes was limited, irrespective of the relative importance of this audience component. We conclude by comparing and contrasting risk environments of the 1930s and contemporary film industries.
The language of planning: Cancerous development
Authors: Saunders Melissa J
Published: December 2012

Are ubiquitous “Cancerous Development” metaphors legitimate and appropriate? Initially a terminal diagnosis requiring radical treatment, many cancers are now chronic diseases managed by pharmaceutical intervention. Similarly, the cancer of urban decay engendered extreme surgical remedy, namely, Urban Renewal. Now planners must convert sprawl—metastasizing across green fields, wasting older urban fabric—into sustainable forms healing diseased ecosystems. The productive employment of metaphors directs thinking to focus on that which is highlighted. This exclusionary process inhibits holistic, systems thinking. When we recognize the constraints of this metaphor, we can operationalize a boundary-crossing, future-oriented process. This article begins to unpack the layers embedded in Cancerous Development to recognize inherent limitations and value.
How do new immigrant Latino parents interpret problem behavior in adolescents?
Authors: Chapman Mimi V , Stein Gabriela L
Published: December 2012

Parents are gatekeepers for their children’s mental-health treatment, yet many are unclear about what behaviors warrant intervention. Seeking treatment is further complicated for immigrant parents whose cultural backgrounds may influence their understanding of mental health. This analysis uses qualitative data from [MASKED], which is a representative study of newly immigrated youth (12–18 years) and their parents, to examine parental perceptions of mental health and to determine patterns of help seeking and service use. Sixteen parents participated in semistructured qualitative interviews that used vignettes to elicit parental beliefs about adolescent behavior and mental health. Findings suggest parents 1) identify behavior that meets diagnostic criteria as problematic; 2) ascribe those behaviors to a range of etiologies; and 3) desire to intervene. Two areas of service delivery emerged as problematic: many parents expect services delivered in ways that conflict with current practice standards, and new immigrant families often encounter cultural and practical barriers to accessing care.
Characterizing the intelligence analysis process through a longitudinal field study: Implications for visual analytics
Authors: Kang Youn-ah , Stasko John
Published: December 2012

While intelligence analysis has been a primary target domain for visual analytics system development, relatively little user and task analysis has been conducted within this area. Our research community’s understanding of the work processes and practices of intelligence analysts is not deep enough to adequately address their needs. Without a better understanding of the analysts and their problems, we cannot build visual analytics systems that integrate well with their work processes and truly provide benefit to them. In order to close this knowledge gap, we conducted a longitudinal, observational field study of intelligence analysts in training within the intelligence program at Mercyhurst College. We observed three teams of analysts, each working on an intelligence problem for a 10-week period. Based on the findings of the study, we describe and characterize processes and methods of intelligence analysis that we observed, make clarifications regarding the processes and practices, and suggest design implications for visual analytics systems for intelligence analysis.
Encounters with haunted industrial workplaces and emotions of loss: class-related senses of place within the memories of metalworkers
Authors: Meier Lars
Published: December 2012

This article is about the relevance of social class within emotional geography. Based on life history interviews with former metalworkers in Bavaria, it analyses their identity-related sense of place and the feelings of loss they experience when encountering their former places of work. By concentrating on the perspective of those who have worked on industrial sites, and their encounters with those sites, now transformed, this article focuses on a specific identity-related emotion experienced by working-class people, which is often underestimated. Recollections of common experiences linked to the workplace may seem haunting in the form of memories of body routines within a place ballet, or of former buildings and walls. Workers describe how, when they visit their former workplace, they have to confront this haunting from the past; and it is through these haunting experiences that their class identity takes on a new but often painful existence.
The application of signal processing techniques for real-time monitoring of the dynamic stability of a ship via its motion responses
Authors: Enshaei Hossein , Birmingham Richard
Published: December 2012

Significant changes of stability at sea can lead to dangerous situations and eventually stability failure. Despite its importance, the current intact stability criteria do not evaluate the motion responses of a vessel. More recently, the International Maritime Organization has identified phenomena in seaways responsible for stability failures. These phenomena can cause large roll angles and/or accelerations that can endanger ships due to critical stability situations in waves. The measurement of waves while a ship is underway is a major challenge, but ship motion is a good reflection of the wave characteristics and can be captured. Signal processing techniques are used in the detection and estimation of the influential parameters of a wave through the analysis of motion responses. Some variables of the system can be detected by spectral analysis of heave and pitch responses. These variables are the peak wave frequencies and associated magnitudes which can cause a high roll motion when similar to the roll natural frequency. The instantaneous frequency present in the signal is revealed through spectral analysis of short-time Fourier transforms in less than a minute. The instantaneous frequency is a parameter of practical importance which can be used in decision-making processes to avoid high roll motions.
The Roots of Citizens' Knowledge of State Politics
Authors: Lyons Jeffrey , Jaeger William P. , Wolak Jennifer
Published: December 2012

Do citizens have the information they need to hold state politicians accountable? We consider what people know about state politics and whether knowledge of state government is rooted in the same factors that explain knowledge of national matters. We argue that while knowledge of national politics is rooted within individual dispositions like education and political interest, knowledge of state politics depends on the political climate of the state. When state political environments provide more information and greater incentives to become informed, people are more knowledgeable about state matters. Even if citizens are not always well versed in matters of state politics, they appear to monitor the business of the states. Citizens are most knowledgeable about state politics in the cases where information is arguably most important—when state governments are underperforming, when political competition is high, and when the political parties in the state are ideologically divided.
Restless Legs Syndrome in a Group of Patients With Alzheimer’s Disease
Authors: Talarico Giuseppina , Canevelli M. , Tosto G. , Vanacore N. , Letteri F. , Prastaro M. , Troili F. , Gasparini M. , Lenzi G. L. , Bruno G.
Published: December 2012

Background: Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a neurological disorder characterized by the urge to move the legs associated with peculiar unpleasant sensations during periods of rest and inactivity that are relieved by movement. A few studies analyzed RLS in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease (AD). The aim of our study was to assess the prevalence and the clinical characteristics of RLS in a cohort of AD patients. Methods: Three hundred and thirty-nine subjects with a diagnosis of AD were recruited. Cognitive, functional, and neuropsychiatric measures were collected at baseline and six-monthly for a 2-years follow-up Results: Fourteen subjects met the RLS criteria. RLS subjects were more frequently male (p:0,006) and younger than AD subject without RLS (p:0,029). MMSE, ADL and IADL were not significantly different. NPI total scores did not differ significantly, however, AD patients with RLS were found to be more apathetic (p:0,001) than AD subjects without RLS. Conclusion: RLS prevalence in our AD cohort was estimated to be about 4%. RLS appeared to be associated with neuropsychiatric symptoms such as apathy. RLS and apathy might share a common pathophysiological basis represented by a dysfunction of the central dopaminergic system
Efavirenz Outperforms Boosted Atazanavir among Treatment-Naive HIV-1-Infected Persons in Routine Clinical Care
Authors: Taniguchi Toshibumi , Grubb Jessica R. , Nurutdinova Diana , Önen Nur F. , Shacham Enbal , Donovan Michael , Overton Edgar Turner
Published: December 2012

Background:

Effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in a routine clinical care may result different from the clinical trials. We assessed the virologic outcomes in treatment-naive persons who received either efavirenz (EFV) or atazanavir/ritonavir (ATV/r) with a backbone of tenofovir/emtricitabine (TDF/FTC) as their combination ART (cART).

Methods:

This was a retrospective cohort study conducted at the Washington University HIV Outpatient Clinic from January 2004 to June 2009.  Predictors of virologic suppression (HIV RNA level <400 copies/mL) by week 48 were assessed by multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models.

Results:

Of 324 persons, 221(68%) received EFV and 103 (32%) received ATV/r. Persons on EFV had 1.4-fold increased likelihood of virologic suppression (95% confidence interval, 1.0-1.8) when compared to ATV/r after adjustment with primary drug resistance, pre-cART opportunistic infection, HIV RNA levels, and timing to start cART.

Conclusions:

In routine clinical care settings, EFV had higher likelihood of achieving virologic suppression than ATV/r with backbone of TDF/FTC.
Is That All There Is? GLBTQ Adolescent Support in the Best of Circumstances
Authors: Wright Travis , Roach Virginia , Yukins Brendan
Published: December 2012

Acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (GLBTQ) adolescents in high schools is growing. Yet, the experience of this family suggests that creating and maintaining a safe environment for GLBTQ students requires constant vigilance, even in the best of environments. As school administrators face competing pressures from stakeholders, GLBTQ advocacy is often left to the students, unlike other types of diversity advocacy based on race, culture, or gender. This case describes how one family chose a “safe” school and struggles to keep it so. The case challenges education administration students to experience school through the eyes of a young man who is gay, and his family, and to determine what is adequate student support.
The Rationalizing Logics of Public School Reform
Authors: Bridwell-Mitchell E. N.
Published: December 2012

The research herein uses a mixed methods approach to examine how organizational phenomena at the macro level of analysis translate into phenomena at the micro level. Specifically, the research attempts to explain how cultural institutions may translate into individual attitudes and actions, such as public school teachers’ decisions about using instructional practices prescribed by reform. The findings suggest that public school teachers rationalize their instructional practices by drawing on the logics of three core cultural institutions: bureaucracy, democracy, and markets. When the logics of these institutions are violated, teachers reduce their reported use of prescribed instructional practices.
(Re)negotiating police culture through partnership working: Trust, compromise and the ‘new’ pragmatism
Authors: O’Neill Megan , McCarthy Daniel J
Published: December 2012

While a topic of considerable interest in the 1990s and early 2000s, there has been little literature on partnership working in the public sector in recent years. This is surprising given that the practice has been extended through the national roll-out of Neighbourhood Policing in England and Wales in 2008. This article presents a reassessment of how the police operate in partnership with other agencies. In contrast to the previous literature, our research suggests that police officers involved in partnerships find them effective, crucial to their work and, at times, enjoyable. Rather than conflicting with traditional police culture, partnership work is enhanced by, and enhances, the police orientation towards the pragmatic. We explore the implications of this for our understandings of police culture.
Acute and chronic cognitive effects of levodopa and dopamine agonists on patients with Parkinson’s disease: a review
Authors: Poletti Michele , Bonuccelli Ubaldo
Published: December 2012

The spatiotemporal progression of dopamine depletion in Parkinson’s disease (PD) provides a special model for assessing dopaminergic effects on neural systems with differential baseline dopamine levels. This study aims at reviewing cognitive effects of dopaminergic stimulation in PD. While considering dopaminergic drugs (levodopa or dopamine agonists), temporal intervals (acute or chronic) and cognitive domains, we found that empirical evidence was almost focused on acute effects of levodopa on executive functions. The paucity of empirical evidence suggests that no meaningful conclusions can be actually drawn and further research is needed in relation to: (1) other cognitive domains; (2) the acute cognitive effects of dopamine agonists, as compared with levodopa; (3) possible differences between cognitive effects of different dopamine agonists; (4) the cognitive effects of chronic dopaminergic therapies. The latter issue is of particular clinical interest considering that many PD patients present a mild cognitive impairment: is this cognitive feature worsened or improved by the prolonged dopaminergic therapy? In addition to the potential risk of inducing dyskinesia and behavioral side effects such as impulse control disorders, also cognitive effects of prolonged dopaminergic treatments should be taken in account by clinicians in order to anticipate or to delay their prescription to PD patients.
Plasma quetiapine in relation to prescribed dose and other factors: data from a therapeutic drug monitoring service, 2000–2011
Authors: Handley Simon A. , Bowskill Sally V.J. , Patel Maxine X. , Flanagan Robert J.
Published: December 2012

Objective:

Suggested predose plasma quetiapine target ranges for effective therapy in schizophrenia lie between 50 and 500 µg/l. We aimed to examine data from a quetiapine therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) service to assess the plasma quetiapine concentrations attained at specified doses in clinical practice.

Method:

We studied TDM data from patients given immediate-release quetiapine in the period 2000–2011.

Results:

There were 946 samples from 487 patients (257 males, age at time of first sample, median [range] 34 [14–87] years, and 230 females, age at time of first sample, median [range] 38 [10–92] years). The plasma quetiapine concentration was <50 and <100 µg/l in 30% and 50% of samples, respectively (no quetiapine detected in 9% of samples). The relationship between dose and plasma quetiapine was poor. The mean (95% confidence interval [CI]) quetiapine dose was higher ( t = 3.6, df = 446, p <0.01) in males versus females (641 [600–1240] and 548 [600–943] mg/day, respectively), although there was no difference in median dose (600 mg/day) or in the mean (95% CI) plasma quetiapine concentrations attained. Smoking habit had no discernible effect on plasma quetiapine concentration.

Conclusions:

There was a poor relationship between dose and plasma quetiapine concentration in this study, as found by others. This is probably because of the short plasma half-life of the drug, at least in part. Nevertheless, quetiapine TDM can help assess adherence and measurement of quetiapine metabolites, notably N-desalkylquetiapine, as well as quetiapine itself may enhance the value of quetiapine TDM in future.