bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Geography of Evolution and the Evolution of Geography
Authors: Lieberman Bruce S. 
Published: April 2012

Abstract
Insights into the geography of life have played a fundamental role in motivating major developments in evolutionary biology. The focus here is on outlining some of these major developments, specifically in the context of paleontology, by emphasizing the significance of geographic isolation and allopatric speciation, punctuated equilibria, and the Turnover Pulse Hypothesis to evolutionary theory. One of the major debates in evolution concerns the relative contributions of abiotic and biotic factors to macroevolution, and each one of these developments increasingly suggested that it was climatic and geologic factors, rather than competition, that played the primary role in motivating macroevolution. New technical developments, including in the area of Geographic Information Systems, allow continued detailed testing of the relative roles that biotic as opposed to abiotic factors play in causing evolution, and some of the work in this area will also be described.
Fast versus slow onset of depressive episodes: A clinical criterion for subtyping patients with major depression
Authors: Hegerl U. , Mergl R. , Quail D. , Schneider E. , Strauß M. , Hundemer H.-P. , Linden M. 
Published: April 2012

AbstractPurpose:The speed of onset of depressive episodes is a clinical aspect of affective disorders that has not been sufficiently investigated. Thus, we aimed to explore whether patients with fast onset of the full-blown depressive symptomatology (≤ 7 days) differ from those with slow onset (> 7 days) with regard to demographic and clinical aspects.Subjects and methods:Data were obtained within an observational study conducted in outpatients with major depression who were treated with duloxetine (30–120 mg/day). Onset of depression (without any preceding critical life event) was fast in 416 (less than one week) and slower in 2220 patients.Results:Compared to patients with slow onset, those with fast onset of depression had more suicide attempts in the previous 12 months (2.7% versus 1.3%, P = 0.046) and less somatic comorbidity (61.7% versus 74.1%, P < 0.0001). In addition, they were slightly younger at onset of depression (mean ± SD 40.2 ± 14.6 versus 42.8 ± 14.2 years, P < 0.001) and used analgesics at baseline significantly less frequently (22.8% versus 33.4%, P < 0.0001).Discussion and conclusion:The speed of onset of depression has to be regarded as a relevant clinical characteristic in patients with unipolar depression.
Professional Autonomy Reconsidered: The Case of Czech Medicine under State Socialism
Authors: Hoffman Lily M. 
Published: April 2012

The opening of the formerly closed, state socialist societies of East Central Europe has provided the opportunity to bring new empirical evidence to bear upon models of profession-state relations developed in pluralist western societies. The classic view of Tocqueville and Durkheim has been that professions are an intermediary group linking individuals and the state. Although not always explicitly stated, this model served as the basis for scholarly work on the professions in the post-World War II period, where it (more or less) fit the image of a differentiated pluralist society. Most work on the professions was based on the Anglo-American case.But even in the United States, state support was more central to maintaining professional authority than was originally thought. Without explicitly discarding the model, Freidson (1970) introduced a distinction between corporate and technical (clinical) autonomy that provided a way out of the paradox he identified, that both aspects of professional autonomy are protected by the state. Corporate autonomy refers to the political power of the organized profession to define the social and economic context of professional work, and clinical autonomy, to the control of decision making in the workplace. Testing his hypothesis on the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, Freidson argued that despite differing degrees of corporate autonomy, the medical profession retained clinical control of decision making, the core of professional autonomy, even in the extreme case of the former Soviet Union.
The EroticVaṭan[Homeland] as Beloved and Mother: To Love, To Possess, and To Protect
Authors: Najmabadi Afsaneh 
Published: April 2012

Modern nations have often been explicitly imagined through familial metaphors. In particular, the construction of the national community as a brotherhood (afraternity) has pointed both to the centrality of male bonding in the production of nationalist sentiment and to the exclusion of women from the social contract. Within that contract not only were women “subject to men's power; it also implied complementary bonds between men;… women had no place in the new political and social order except as markers of social relations between men.”Hunt's observation recalls Sedgwick's analysis of how male bonding is mediated through the figure of woman. In nationalist discourse representing the homeland as a female body has often been used to construct a national identity based on male bonding among a nation of brothers.
Prior Transcripts, Divergent Paths: Resistance and Acquiescence to Logging in Sarawak, East Malaysia
Authors: Brosius J. Peter 
Published: April 2012

In 1987, there was an uprising of sorts in the remote interior headwaters of Sarawak, East Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. In March of that year, Penan hunter-gatherers in the Baram and Limbang Districts of Sarawak suddenly erected more than a dozen blockades against logging companies. Since that time, scores of Penan have been arrested for resisting the activities of these companies by erecting more blockades and engaging in other acts of civil disobedience. In doing so, they have achieved a great deal of international reknown among environmentalists, indigenous rights activists, and the Euramerican public at large. Their story has received broad international media coverage, and scores of celebrities, from politician Al Gore and musician Jerry Garcia to Prince Charles, have spoken out on their behalf. The Malaysian government has responded to these efforts with a vigorous media campaign of its own and, in the process, has come to play an increasingly visible role as a critic of what is portrayed as neocolonialist attempts at control over environmental affairs in the South.Recently I have been examining the international campaign that emerged around the Penan issue in the late 1980s. In a series of interviews with European and American environmentalists, Penan resistance to logging was repeatedly cited as an important influence in the growth of movements promoting rainforest preservation and indigenous rights. Virtually everyone describes the Penan as exemplars of how an indigenous people can assert control over their own destiny and, in the process, halt the loss of global biodiversity. In short, the Penan have become an icon of resistance for environmentalists worldwide.
Civilizing Processes—Myth or Reality? A Comment on Duerr's Critique of Elias
Authors: Mennell Stephen , Goudsblom Johan 
Published: April 2012

It is a great tribute to the late Norbert Elias that Hans-Peter Duerr has embarked upon a four-volume critique, Der Mythos vom Zivilisationsprozess, of Elias's original two volumes of The Civilizing Process (recently reissued in a single-volume edition). Duerr's volumes may initiate a major intellectual debate and thus lead to the wider recognition of the importance of Elias—whom Duerr himself rates as “perhaps the most influential and stimulating sociologist of the second half of the twentieth century” (Duerr, vol. 3:11).Space does not permit us to examine here the wealth of empirical detail which Duerr deploys, so we shall concentrate on discussing the main theoretical issues at stake. We cannot help noticing, however, a certain double standard in his handling of evidence. Duerr is a very severe judge of the way that Norbert Elias handles his historical evidence in documenting medieval customs and sensitivities, and his keen eye in this regard is to be applauded. However, whereas every item used by Elias to support his point of view is subjected to extremely rigorous criticism, all the items that can be used to contest Elias's views are accepted at face value.
A NEW TYPE OF CITIZEN: YOUTH, GENDER, AND GENERATION IN THE GHANAIAN BUILDERS BRIGADE
Authors: AHLMAN JEFFREY S. 
Published: April 2012

ABSTRACTThis article analyzes one key feature of the Convention People's Party's youth policy in postcolonial Ghana: the Ghana Builders Brigade. Founded as a response to rapid urbanization and growing unemployment, the Builders Brigade aimed to create a new productive and modern citizenry by returning the country's young men and women to the land through a network of mechanized work camps and state farms. Remembered as both a locus for party intimidation and indiscipline as well as a source for political and social opportunity, the Brigade emerged as a key site for a generationally-defined and gendered debate over the roles and responsibilities of the country's youth in the first decade of self-rule. Through an interrogation of this debate, this article argues that the Brigade provided a space for its members to explore a socially recognized yet politically conceived notion of adulthood under Kwame Nkrumah's rule.
BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE CROSS: RELIGION, SLAVERY, AND THE MAKING OF THE ANLO-EWE
Authors: VENKATACHALAM MEERA 
Published: April 2012

ABSTRACTThe idea that mission Christianity played a pivotal role in the creation of modern African ethnic identities has become paradigmatic. Yet, the actual cultural and social processes that facilitated the widespread reception of specific ethnic identities have been under-researched. Suggesting that historians have overemphasised the role of Christian schooling and theology in ethnic identity formation, this article examines how the Anlo people of south-eastern Ghana came, over the twentieth century, to recognise themselves as part of the larger Ewe ethnic group. Although Christian missionaries were the first to conceive of ‘Ewe’ as a broad ethnic identity, a corpus of non-Christian ritual practices pioneered by inland Ewe slave women were crucial to many Anlos' embrace of Eweness.
QUALITY-ADJUSTED LIFE-YEARS FOR THE ESTIMATION OF EFFECTIVENESS OF SCREENING PROGRAMS: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW
Authors: Mäklin Suvi , Räsänen Pirjo , Laitinen Riikka , Kovanen Niina , Autti-Rämö Ilona , Sintonen Harri , Roine Risto P. 
Published: April 2012

Objectives:The aim of this study was to identify and characterize studies that have used quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) based on measurements of patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL) as an indicator of effectiveness of screening programs.Methods:Systematic search of the literature until March 2010, using several electronic databases. Initial screening of articles based on abstracts, and evaluation of full-text articles were done by at least two of the authors.Results:The search identified 1,610 articles. Based on review of abstracts, 431 full-text articles were obtained for closer inspection and, of these, 81 reported QALYs based on patient-derived data using a valid HRQoL assessment. The most frequently used method to assess HRQoL was Time Trade-Off (55 percent) followed by EQ-5D (26 percent). The most frequently studied medical conditions were malignant diseases (23 percent) followed by cardiovascular diseases (19 percent). All studies employed some kind of modeling with the Markov model being the most prevalent type (65 percent). Majority of the articles (59 percent) concluded that the screening program studied was cost-effective.Conclusions:The use of QALYs in the evaluation of screening programs has expanded during the last few years. However, only a minority of studies have used HRQoL data derived from patients, using direct or indirect valuation. Further investigation and harmonization of the methodology in evaluation of screening programs is needed to ensure better comparability across different screening programs.
Agent-based computational economics: a short introduction
Authors: Richiardi Matteo G. 
Published: April 2012

AbstractIn this paper we provide a brief overview of the main characteristics of agent-based computational economics. We discuss its points of strength, with respect to analytical models, and its weaknesses. The latter are mainly related to how the results of a simulation model can be interpreted, and how the structural parameters of the model can be estimated. We then show how these problems can be dealt with.
On the scientific status of economic policy: a tale of alternative paradigms
Authors: Fagiolo Giorgio , Roventini Andrea 
Published: April 2012

AbstractIn recent years, a number of contributions have argued that monetary—and, more generally, economic—policy is finally becoming more of a science. According to these authors, policy rules implemented by central banks are nowadays well supported by a theoretical framework (the New Neoclassical Synthesis) upon which a general consensus has emerged in the economic profession. In other words, scientific discussion on economic policy seems to be ultimately confined to either fine-tuning this ‘consensus’ model, or assessing the extent to which ‘elements of art’ still exist in the conduct of monetary policy. In this paper, we present a substantially opposite view, rooted in a critical discussion of the theoretical, empirical, and political-economy pitfalls of the neoclassical approach to policy analysis. Our discussion indicates that we are still far from building a science of economic policy. We suggest that a more fruitful research avenue to pursue is to explore alternative theoretical paradigms, which can escape the strong theoretical requirements of neoclassical models (e.g. equilibrium, rationality, etc.). We briefly introduce one of the most successful alternative research projects—known in the literature as agent-based computational economics (ACE)—and we present the way it has been applied to policy analysis issues. We conclude by discussing the methodological status of ACE, as well as the (many) problems it raises.
Agent-based economic models and econometrics
Authors: Chen Shu-Heng , Chang Chia-Ling , Du Ye-Rong 
Published: April 2012

AbstractThis paper reviews the development of agent-based (computational) economics (ACE) from an econometrics viewpoint. The review comprises three stages, characterizing the past, the present, and the future of this development. The first two stages can be interpreted as an attempt to build the econometric foundation of ACE, and, through that, enrich its empirical content. The second stage may then invoke a reverse reflection on the possible agent-based foundation of econometrics. While ACE modeling has been applied to different branches of economics, the one, and probably the only one, which is able to provide evidence of this three-stage development is finance or financial economics. We will, therefore, focus our review only on the literature of agent-based computational finance, or, more specifically, the agent-based modeling of financial markets.
Agent-based models and hypothesis testing: an example of innovation and organizational networks
Authors: Wilhite Allen , Fong Eric A. 
Published: April 2012

AbstractHypothesis testing is uncommon in agent-based modeling and there are many reasons why (see Fagioloet al. (2007) for a review). This is one of those uncommon studies: a combination of the new and old. First, a traditional neoclassical model of decision making is broadened by introducing agents who interact in an organization. The resulting computational model is analyzed using virtual experiments to consider how different organizational structures (different network topologies) affect the evolutionary path of an organization's corporate culture. These computational experiments establish testable hypotheses concerning structure, culture, and performance, and those hypotheses are tested empirically using data from an international sample of firms. In addition to learning something about organizational structure and innovation, the paper demonstrates how computational models can be used to frame empirical investigations and facilitate the interpretation of results in a traditional fashion.
Zero intelligence in economics and finance
Authors: Ladley Dan 
Published: April 2012

AbstractThis paper reviews the Zero Intelligence (ZI) methodology for investigating markets. This approach models individual traders, operating within a market mechanism, who behave without strategy, in order to determine the impact of the market mechanism and consequently the effect of trader behaviour. The paper considers the major contributions and models within this area from both the economics and finance communities before examining the strengths and weaknesses of this methodology.
Developing a framework for risk-based surveillance of tuberculosis in cattle: a case study of its application in Scotland
Authors: BESSELL P. R. , ORTON R. , O'HARE A. , MELLOR D. J. , LOGUE D. , KAO R. R. 
Published: April 2012

SUMMARYDue to its substantially lower prevalence of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) relative to other areas of Great Britain, Scotland was designated as an officially (bovine) TB-free region in 2009. This paper investigates resultant possibilities for reducing surveillance by developing risk-based alternatives to current 4-year testing of eligible herds. A model of freedom of infection was used to develop strategies that specifically tested herds that are at risk of infection but would probably not be identified by slaughterhouse meat inspection. The performance of current testing is mimicked by testing all herds that slaughter fewer than 25% of their total stock per year and regularly import animals from high-incidence areas of England and Wales or from Ireland. This system offers a cost reduction by requiring 25% fewer herd and animal tests and 25% fewer false positives.
The role of modern imaging techniques in the diagnosis of malposition of the branch pulmonary arteries and possible association with microdeletion 22q11.2
Authors: Cuturilo Goran , Drakulic Danijela , Krstic Aleksandar , Gradinac Marija , Ilisic Tamara , Parezanovic Vojislav , Milivojevic Milena , Stevanovic Milena , Jovanovic Ida 
Published: April 2012

AbstractMalposition of the branch pulmonary arteries is a rare malformation with two forms. In the typical form, pulmonary arteries cross each other as they proceed to their respective lungs. The “lesser form” is characterised by the left pulmonary artery ostium lying directly superior to the ostium of the right pulmonary artery, without crossing of the branch pulmonary arteries. Malposition of the branch pulmonary arteries is often associated with other congenital heart defects and extracardiac anomalies, as well as with 22q11.2 microdeletion. We report three infants with crossed pulmonary arteries and one adolescent with “lesser form” of the malformation. The results suggest that diagnosis of malposition of the branch pulmonary arteries could be challenging if based solely on echocardiography, whereas modern imaging technologies such as contrast computed tomography and magnetic resonance angiography provide reliable establishment of diagnosis. In addition, we performed the first molecular characterisation of the 22q11.2 region among patients with malposition of the branch pulmonary arteries and revealed a 3-megabase deletion in two out of four patients.
Gender differences in health conditions and socio-economic status of adults with congenital heart disease in a developing country
Authors: Eslami Bahareh , Sundin Örjan , Macassa Gloria , Reza Khankeh Hamid , Soares Joaquim J. F. 
Published: April 2012

AbstractBackgroundProviding appropriate care for adults with congenital heart disease requires the evaluation of their current situation. There is limited research in Iran about these patients, particularly in relation to gender differences in the demographic/socio-economic and lifestyle factors, as well as disease parameters.Materials and methodsThe sample consisted of 347 congenital heart disease patients in the age group of 18–64 years, including 181 women, assessed by an analytical cross-sectional study. The patients were recruited from the two major heart hospitals in Tehran. Data were collected using questionnaires.ResultsThe mean age of the patients was 33.24 years. Women were more often married and more often had offspring than men (p < 0.001). Educational level and annual income were similar between women and men. Unemployment was higher among women (p < 0.001), but financial strain was higher among men (p < 0.001). Smoking, alcohol, and water-pipe use was higher among men than among women (p < 0.001). Cardiac factors, for example number of cardiac defects, were similar among women and men, except that there were more hospitalisations owing to cardiac problems, for example arrhythmia, among men. Disease was diagnosed mostly at the hospital (57.4%). Most medical care was provided by cardiologists (65.1%). Only 50.1% of patients had knowledge about their type of cardiac defect.ConclusionGender differences exist in the socio-economic and lifestyle characteristics of adults with congenital heart disease, in some cases related to the disease severity. Our findings also point to the need for interventions to increase patients’ knowledge about, and use of, healthier lifestyle behaviours, irrespective of gender. Furthermore, providing appropriate jobs, vocational training, and career counselling may help patients to be more productive.
Post-traumatic stress disorder symptom severity in service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with different types of injuries
Authors: McLay Robert N. , Webb-Murphy Jennifer , Hammer Paul , Volkert Stacy , Klam Warren 
Published: April 2012

IntroductionRisk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) varies in part due to the nature of the traumatic event involved. Both injury and return from combat pose high risk of PTSD symptoms. How different injuries may predispose towards PTSD is less well understood.MethodsA retrospective record review was conducted from 1402 service members who had returned to Naval Medical Center San Diego from Iraq or Afghanistan and who had completed the PTSD Checklist as part of their post-deployment screening. Rates of PTSD were examined in relation to mechanism of injury.ResultsOf those without injury, 8% met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual criteria for PTSD. Thirteen percent of those with a penetrating injury, 29% with blunt trauma, and 33% with combination injuries met criteria for PTSD. PTSD severity scores varied significantly according to type of injury.DiscussionThe World War I concept of “shell shock” implied that blast-related injuries were more likely to result in psychological symptoms than were other injuries. These data may support that idea. Circumstance of injury, population differences, and reporting bias could also have influenced the results.ConclusionThese results suggest that service members with blunt or combination injuries merit particular attention when screening for PTSD.