bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The contentious politics of unemployment: The Italian case in comparative perspective
Authors: BAGLIONI SIMONE , DELLA PORTA DONATELLA , GRAZIANO PAOLO 
Published: July 2008

AbstractThis article discusses the evolution of the public debate in Italy about unemployment over a period of almost ten years (1995–2002) that was particularly crucial for the Italian labour and political systems. From the early 1980s and throughout the 1990s, the country experienced major industrial change, which dramatically restructured its labour landscape. Moreover, this industrial earthquake occurred within internal (a deep political party system re‐assessment and the fluctuating importance of unions) and external (European Union‐driven state budgetary limits) political constraints that have heavily influenced the debate itself. The analysis of the public policy debates allows the authors of this article to portray the agendas, concepts and strategies introduced and discussed by experts, politicians and interest groups as pillars of a new edifice of public policies. Although other sources are more complete in presenting the policy‐making process on unemployment issues, the focus in this article on the public debate in the mass media reflects a specific interest in the discursive interactions between the symbolic images promoted by different actors. To this end, the authors have combined claims analysis and semi‐structured interviews. Through their combined use, the article describes the selective field of contentious politics as far as main actors are concerned: its effect on the policy issues addressed, and the repertoire used for making claims and influencing policies. The authors also single out the role of the European Union and its potential impact on Italian public debates. In particular, the authors are interested in learning how inclusive these public debates are with reference to weakly represented interests and precariously organised groups (particularly the unemployed).
From foot‐slogging to call centres and direct mail: A framework for analysing the development of district‐level campaigning
Authors: FISHER JUSTIN , DENVER DAVID 
Published: July 2008

AbstractDrawing upon ideas formulated with national‐level campaigning in mind and also analyses of district or local‐level campaigning, a conceptual framework to assist in analysing the development of district‐level campaigning is presented. The proposed framework is further amplified, explained and tested using quantitative and qualitative data collected at British General Elections between 1992 and 2005. Various aspects of district (constituency) campaigning in Britain are examined and the extent of change over four General Elections analysed. In broad terms, the data show a good fit with the framework, which offers a useful way of thinking about developments in campaigning both within and across countries.
Shifting policy positions in the European Union
Authors: ARREGUI JAVIER 
Published: July 2008

AbstractThe most visible output of the European Union (EU) negotiation process is shifts in actors' policy positions. Shifts in actors' positions have relevant implications for understanding the EU decision‐making process. On the one hand, actors' shifts in positions can be interpreted as evidence that negotiation actually has taken place. On the other hand, shifts in positions imply that there is a tendency to compromise for convergence upon a final solution. This article indicates the extent to which institutional factors and negotiation conditions can explain those shifts in actors' positions. A subset of the DEU dataset containing information on shifts in actors' positions on issues raised by 28 Commission proposals is examined. The research shows that shifts in positions can be explained by institutional factors such as the decision rule and the legislative procedure implemented, the voting power actors hold in the decision‐making process and/or the type of policy instrument executed.
Effect of Porcine Small Intestinal Submucosa on Acute Full‐Thickness Wounds in Dogs
Authors: SCHALLBERGER SANDRA P. , STANLEY BRYDEN J. , HAUPTMAN JOE G. , STEFICEK BARBARA A. 
Published: July 2008

Objective—To evaluate the effects of porcine small intestinal submucosa (PSIS) on the healing of full‐thickness wounds in dogs, specifically the appearance of granulation tissue, percent epithelialization and contraction, histologic variables of inflammation and repair, and aerobic culture results.Study Design—Prospective, controlled, experimental study.Animals—Purpose‐bred, female dogs (n=10).Methods—Wounds were created bilaterally on the trunk; 1 side as a control and 1 treated with PSIS. First appearance of granulation tissue was recorded. Total wound area, open wound area, and epithelialized area were measured at 21 time points—wound contraction and percent epithelialization were calculated. Aerobic cultures were taken at 4 time points and wound biopsies at 8. Histologic features were graded into an Acute Inflammation Score and Repair Score.Results—There was no difference in first appearance of granulation tissue between PSIS‐treated and control wounds. Wound contraction was significantly faster in control wounds as was percent epithelialization after day 21. Histologic Acute Inflammation Scores were significantly higher in PSIS‐treated wounds compared with control wounds on days 2 and 6. There were no differences in Histologic Repair Scores between PSIS‐treated and control wounds or in aerobic culture results.Conclusion—Wounds treated with PSIS contract more slowly, epithelialize less, and have more pronounced acute inflammation after implantation than control wounds.Clinical Relevance—Acute, full‐thickness wounds in dogs do not benefit from treatment with PSIS.
Validation of a Technique to Assess Radial Torsion in the Presence of Procurvatum and Valgus Deformity Using Computed Tomography: A Cadaveric Study
Authors: MEOLA STACY D. , WHEELER JASON L. , RIST CASSIDY L. 
Published: July 2008

Objective— To validate a technique to assess radial torsion with and without procurvatum and valgus deformity using computed tomography (CT).Study Design— Anatomic study.Animals— Radii (n=3) from normal dogs.Methods— Three cadaveric radii were scanned using CT (3 mm slices). Transverse image sections were assessed at the distal and proximal physeal scar parallel to the joint surface in both sagittal and dorsal planes. Anatomic landmarks of the radius were identified and torsion was measured. A hinged Ilizarov circular external skeletal fixator was constructed to create known procurvatum, valgus, and torsional deformities.Results— Between observers results were highly correlated for calculation of torsion (r=0.972, r2=0.9448, P<.00001). Mean baseline torsion of the radius in the construct was 4.88°. At 20° procurvatum and valgus, mean calculated torsion was 5.07° (confidence interval [CI]=4.6–5.6°). At 20° procurvatum and valgus with 22.5°‐induced torsion, mean measured torsion was 25.4° (expected=27.38°; CI=22.7–28.1°). At 40° procurvatum and valgus and 45°‐induced torsion, mean measured torsion was 51.1° (expected=49.88°; CI=−49.2 to 53.0°).Conclusion— Assessment of radial torsion by CT is reproducible and accurate in the presence of procurvatum and valgus antebrachial angular limb deformities in the dog.Clinical Relevance— Despite complex presurgical planning, current measurements only allow for measurement of valgus and procurvatum deformities in the sagittal and dorsal planes, this method allows for more precise measurements of radial torsion in the transverse plane.
Biomechanical Comparison of Six Suture Configurations Using a Large Diameter Polyester Prosthesis in the Muscular Process of the Equine Arytenoid Cartilage
Authors: KELLY JENNY R. , CARMALT JAMES , HENDRICK STEVEN , WILSON DAVID G. , SHOEMAKER RYAN 
Published: July 2008

Objective—To compare biomechanical properties of 6 suture configurations using a large diameter polyester prosthesis in the muscular process (MP) of the arytenoid cartilage and to determine failure mode.Study Design—Experimental study.Sample Population—Cadaveric equine larynges (n=121).Methods—Suture configurations (4 single, 2 double) were inserted, and then constructs were tested in a single‐cycle to failure at a 100 mm/min distraction. Load deformation curves were generated to assess the biomechanical properties of each construct. A 1‐way ANOVA was used to compare the mean differences in construct failure force, cricoarytenoid joint (CAJ) disarticulation force, and energy stored at failure. A 2‐sample t‐test was used to compare single versus double suture patterns and a Fisher's exact test was used to compare failure mode.Results—Both construct and CAJ failure force were significantly greater (P<.05) for double suture patterns compared with single suture patterns; however, there were no significant differences in energy stored at construct failure. Failure at the MP accounted for ≥50% of construct failures for 3 of the single suture patterns and 1 of the double suture patterns tested. The remaining 2 patterns had an increased frequency of clamp failures as well as failure of the cricoid cartilage.Conclusions—Sutures that sufficiently engage the spine of the MP alone or in conjunction with a second suture were found to be biomechanically superior.Clinical Relevance—Engaging the spine of the MP appears to result in the most biomechanically sound laryngeal construct.
Epidural Idiopathic Sterile Pyogranulomatous Inflammation Causing Spinal Cord Compressive Injury in Five Miniature Dachshunds
Authors: AIKAWA TAKESHI , YOSHIGAE YUKI , KANAZONO SHINICHI 
Published: July 2008

Objective— To characterize the clinical signs, diagnostic and surgical findings, and outcome of dogs with idiopathic sterile pyogranulomatous inflammation (ISP) of epidural fat causing spinal cord compression.Study Design— Retrospective study.Animals— Dogs (n=5).Methods— Dogs with epidural ISP (2002–2006) were identified retrospectively. Inclusion criteria were neurologic examination, myelography, and definitive diagnosis of ISP confirmed by surgery and histopathologic examination of epidural spinal cord compressive tissue.Results— The most common clinical sign was paraparesis/paraplegia. No abnormalities were detected by laboratory testing or survey spine radiographs. On myelography, extradural spinal cord compressions were focal (dogs 1, 3, and 5) or multifocal (dogs 2 and 4). Surgical decompression of the spinal cord was completed by hemilaminectomy. Epidural fat collected surgically had pyogranulomatous inflammation of unknown cause and was histologically similar to subcutaneous ISP. All dogs had good long‐term neurologic outcome (10–45 months follow‐up). Some dogs had episodes of ISP at other sites before or after surgical treatment of epidural ISP, suggesting there may be a systemic form of ISP.Conclusion— Epidural ISP may cause a spinal cord compressive lesion in Miniature Dachshunds, which can be treated by surgical decompression of the spinal cord with or without administration of adjunctive steroids.Clinical Relevance— Epidural ISP should be considered as a possible cause of thoracolumbar myelopathy for Miniature Dachshunds.
In vitro clinical‐grade generation of red blood cells from human umbilical cord blood CD34+ cells
Authors: Baek Eun Jung , Kim Han‐Soo , Kim Sinyoung , Jin Honglien , Choi Tae‐Yeal , Kim Hyun Ok 
Published: July 2008

BACKGROUND: There is no appropriate alternative source of red blood cells (RBCs) to relieve the worsening shortage of blood available for transfusion. Therefore, in vitro generation of clinically available RBCs from hematopoietic stem cells could be a promising new source to supplement the blood supply. However, there have been few studies about the generation of clinical‐grade RBCs by coculture on human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and various cytokine supplements, even though the production of pure RBCs requires coculture on stromal cells and proper cytokine supplements.STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Umbilical cord blood (CB) CD34+ cells were cultured in serum‐free medium supplemented with two cytokine sets of stem cell factor (SCF) plus interleukin‐3 (IL‐3) plus erythropoietin (EPO) and SCF plus IL‐3 plus EPO plus thrombopoietin (TPO) plus Flt‐3 for 1 week, followed by coculture upon MSCs derived from bone marrow (BM) or CB for 2 weeks.RESULTS: Almost pure clinical‐grade RBCs could be generated by coculturing with CB‐MSCs but not BM‐MSCs. Expansion fold and enucleation rate were significantly higher in coculture with CB‐MSCs than BM‐MSCs. Despite a 2.5‐fold expansion of erythroblasts in the presence of TPO and Flt‐3 for 8 days, the final RBC count was higher without TPO and Flt‐3.CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first report on generating clinical‐grade RBCs by in vitro culture with human MSCs and compared effectiveness of several cytokines for RBC production. This provides a useful basis for future production of clinically available RBCs and a model of erythropoiesis that is analogous to the in vivo system.
Good clean tobacco: Philip Morris, biocapitalism, and the social course of stigma in North Carolina
Authors: Benson Peter 
Published: July 2008

ABSTRACTIn this article, I analyze the central role of economic liberalization in Philip Morris's makeover into a “responsible corporate citizen,” including the firm's unlikely support for U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation of tobacco products. On the basis of fieldwork in North Carolina, I provide an ethnographic view of how the recent shift from traditional auction marketing to private contract agriculture affects differently positioned farmers and farmworkers. This transition has galvanized both potent cultural meanings associated with locality and modes of stigmatization deployed by various actors to respond to social and economic restructuring. Ostensibly about improving public health, Philip Morris's makeover, linked to stringent producer contracts and government regulation of consumption, makes U.S. farm businesses less stable, deepens their dependency on a transnational flow of low‐wage labor migration from Mexico and Central America, and compounds social and housing problems that affect migrants. The tobacco industry's transition is an exemplary case of biocapitalism, a strategic merger of economic, ethical, and public health values that mirrors trends in the pharmaceutical industry. Analyzing social dynamics of stigmatization in light of health‐driven production models, I show how the involvement of a private firm in regulatory politics builds on uneven social and economic conditions among people who manage and work on tobacco farms. This study expands the scope of tobacco's public health picture beyond a narrow focus on consumer health to include important social and health problems related to commercial leaf production. [tobacco, cigarettes, smoking, corporate social responsibility, agriculture, farm labor, stigma, biocapitalism, North Carolina]
Female saints and the practice of Islam in Sylhet, Bangladesh
Authors: CALLAN ALYSON 
Published: July 2008

ABSTRACTUnlike the saintly power of her male counterpart, which is conceived as an attribute of the individual, the spiritual power of the female saint in Sylhet, Bangladesh, is attributed to a supernatural entity that is temporarily affiliated with her. This difference cannot simply be regarded as an example of gendered domains of religious practice, in which men study the Qu'ran and women traffic with spirits, as in Sylhet, male healers practice with the aid of spirits. I describe how one woman's saintly status allowed her to resist the virilocal rule of residence, a patriarchal structure that is said to underpin women's subordinate position in Bangladesh. Her story demonstrates that Islam cannot be conflated with patriarchy and that it may support women's emancipation from structures of male authority. The meaning of Islam is context dependent and revised through practice. [Islam, gender, agency, sainthood, Bangladesh, spirit possession, healing]
Commemorating a suspended death: Missing soldiers and national solidarity in Israel
Authors: KAPLAN DANNY 
Published: July 2008

ABSTRACTIsrael's intense preoccupation with its missing soldiers provides an interesting case for examining national solidarity and commemoration. Efforts to retrieve the soldiers constitute both a site of conflictual politics and a source of wide‐ranging civic engagement that takes the form of a depoliticized stance of solidarity. Framing this solidarity as an extension of friendship, I explore it along two dimensions: the relationship between the living and the dead and national conceptions of time. Missing soldiers arouse identification in much the way that fallen soldiers do, as emblems of sacrifice associated with “mythic” time. Yet their suffering is also juxtaposed to the everyday life of the community through “simultaneous” time. Merging both temporal conceptions, they become the most intimately felt of all national heroes, epitomizing the ideological transformation of absent others into beloved brothers. [missing soldiers, commemoration, Israel, solidarity, nationalism, time, living dead]
Articulate(d) bodies: Traditional medicine in a Tanzanian hospital
Authors: LANGWICK STACEY A. 
Published: July 2008

ABSTRACTHospital practitioners in East Africa see traditional and modern medicine interrupt and interfere with one another on hospital grounds everyday. In response, nurses and nurse's aides have developed innovative ways of assembling diverse therapies and the knowledges, practices, desires, and medicines of which they consist. Through their care and coordination, nurses and nurse's aides forge complex bodies within the therapeutic interruptions and interferences they face in their clinical work. [traditional medicine, biomedicine, body, ontology, Tanzania, Africa]
Enter microcredit: A new culture of women's empowerment in Rajasthan?
Authors: MOODIE MEGAN 
Published: July 2008

ABSTRACTMost studies of microcredit programs for women have been concerned with the relationship between borrowers and men outside microcredit groups, such as husbands and moneylenders. In this article, I focus on the relationships forged between women within microcredit groups in a small village in Rajasthan, India. I argue that, rather than representing a new paradigm for women's empowerment, microcredit has become one of several possible platforms from which rural Rajasthani women articulate their concerns about caste, poverty, and the burden of raising daughters. Thus, microcredit is not a foreign economic form that is subsequently culturally inflected, nor does it represent the instrumentalization of culture; rather, microcredit, like other local frameworks such as evil eye, feminist organizing, and personal history, produces cultural possibility. [microcredit, Rajasthan, women's empowerment, capitalocentrism, caste relations]
Revolution and reaction in the Himalayas: Cultural resistance and the Maoist “new regime” in western Nepal
Authors: SHAH SAUBHAGYA 
Published: July 2008

ABSTRACTThe projects of modernity and revolution tend to marginalize and erase the experiences and intentions of their local subjects. Focusing on a women‐led uprising against the “people's government” formed by Maoist rebels in one of the western hill districts of Nepal, I examine the disjuncture between external ideological practice and local cultural worlds. I conclude that the radical encounter in this case was culturally mediated, as was the resistance to it. The outcome of the uprising points to “the event” as critical in causing structural indeterminacy—to the possibility that human agency and the contingent can alter the presumed linearity of even the most compelling projects by inserting themselves within structural interstices. [resistance, Maoism, Nepal, peasant, funeral, event, structure]
Cytokine gene polymorphisms in periodontal disease: a meta‐analysis of 53 studies including 4178 cases and 4590 controls
Authors: Nikolopoulos Georgios K. , Dimou Niki L. , Hamodrakas Stavros J. , Bagos Pantelis G. 
Published: July 2008

AbstractAim: We conducted a systematic review and a meta‐analysis, in order to investigate the potential association of cytokine gene polymorphisms with either aggressive or chronic periodontal disease.Material and Methods: A comprehensive literature search was performed. We retrieved a total of 53 studies summarizing information about 4178 cases and 4590 controls. Six polymorphisms were included in our meta‐analysis which are the following: IL‐1A G[4845]T, IL‐1A C[−889]T, IL‐1B C[3953/4]T, IL‐1B T[−511]C, IL‐6 G[−174]C and TNFA G[−308]A. Random effect methods were used for the analysis. We calculated the specific odds ratios along with their 95% confidence intervals to compare the distribution of alleles and genotypes between cases and controls.Results and Conclusions: Using random effect methods we found statistically significant association of IL‐1A C[−889]T and IL‐1B C[3953/4]T polymorphisms with chronic periodontal disease without any evidence of publication bias or significant statistical heterogeneity. A weak positive association was also found concerning IL‐1B T[−511]C and chronic periodontal disease. No association was found for all the cytokines examined as far as the aggressive form of the disease is concerned. Future studies may contribute to the investigation of the potential multigenetic predisposition of the disease and reinforce our findings.
The Indetermination of Reason and the Role of the Will in Aquinas's Account of Human Freedom
Authors: Wang Stephen 
Published: July 2008

AbstractThomas Aquinas argues that human choices are made by the will and reason working together. It is easy to misinterpret his argument and suppose that the reason alone works out what should be done while the will simply ratifies this. Instead Aquinas believes that in practical matters the reason is often undetermined since it arrives at many simultaneous conclusions. This is the often unacknowledged heart of Aquinas's account of freedom. All these simultaneous rational conclusions derive from the objective circumstances of the world; each one could give rise to a different rationally justified course of action; yet only one can be acted upon. The reason cannot decide between them. It is the will that accepts and affirms one of these conclusions and gives force to the reasonableness of one course of action. This is why a choice is always rational and personally willed – which is what makes it free. The indetermination of reason is what allows the future to be open-ended for the deliberating agent; it allows past and present to be interpreted in different ways, each of which has its own coherence and rationality. In this way Aquinas's account of human freedom avoids both an irrational voluntarism and a deterministic intellectualism
Pro Veritate: A Case for a Method of Concordance in Theology
Authors: Geldhof Joris 
Published: July 2008

AbstractGiven the many modern and post‐modern fashions of reasoning, this contribution is a programmatic proposal for a new kind of thinking in the field of theology. It is deliberately called a “method of concordance,” and it relies in the first place on a semantic exploration and a conceptual analysis of the term ‘concordance’ itself. Hence making an appeal to the heart, this method aims at integrating all human capacities in the never‐ending search for truth. With a view to do that, a firm confidence in the unfolding of reality and an enlargement of the concept of reason are regarded both as indispensable and wise. It is further argued that the proposal for a method of concordance can rely on efforts made in the history of thought, among others, by Anselm, Jaspers, and Baader. Next to these probably unexpected references, an appeal is also made to contemporary thinkers such as Hebblethwaite, Turner, Valadier, and Desmond. The article concludes with pointing to some methodological and epistemological consequences of a method of concordance, and thereby elucidates why speaking ‘for’ truth is to be preferred over speaking ‘about’ truth.