bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Systematic review of educational interventions in palliative care for primary care physicians
Authors: Alvarez Marta Pelayo , Agra Yolanda 
Published: October 2007

Background: A literature review of educational interventions in palliative care (PC) for primary care physicians (PCP) was performed, to evaluate its impact in changing professional practice. Methods: Studies undertaking any educational intervention in PC by PCP, published between 1966 and February 2005, identified through Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Clinical Trials, Educational Resources Information Centre, Research and Development Resource Base in Continuing Medical Education, Spanish Medical Index, using a combined text word and MESH heading search strategy. Results: Eighteen articles were included with 1653 physicians. Educative methods were: role model training, small group discussions, and distribution of guidelines. Quality of the studies was low. Opioids prescription improved in two studies. Discrepancies were shown between the perception of PCP in symptom management, determined through questionnaires, and the data concerning opioids prescription. Knowledge improved in all studies. Some benefit of multifaceted approach was stated. Carers were satisfied, in general, with the PCP care, but dissatisfied with patients' pain control. Conclusion: PC education for PCP is poorly studied. Adequate research designs are necessary in future studies with objective outcomes and patient opinion.
Future Needs for Faculty in Clothing and Textiles
Authors: Lind Charlene 
Published: October 2007

In recent years departments teaching courses in clothing and textiles have been challenged from a number of directions, including qualifications and/or lack of academic productivity of some faculty members. The evolving nature of the discipline and changing employment opportunities for graduates also suggest the need for accurate information. This Association of College Professors of Textiles and Clothing-sponsored study provides data on characteristics of current departments and anticipated future needs for faculty. The majority of the academic units teaching clothing and textiles are Home Economics departments with fewer than four faculty members teaching in the subject area. Anticipated retirements indicate a fluctuating but continuing demand for faculty who have terminal degrees. Future faculty will need different qualifications than the people they replace. Merchandising or other industry experience is important, as are teaching experience and research/publishing expertise. Some faculty hired in the past five years have lacked desired qualifications, indicating that the pool of clothing and textiles professionals is not great enough to meet current needs.
Importance of Clothing and Self-Esteem Among Adolescents
Authors: Daters Catherine M. 
Published: October 2007

Society recognizes the role of clothing as a communicator of information during social interaction and as an aid in the establishment of self-identity. As an adolescent builds self-identity, self-esteem and use of clothing to affect its enhancement become important aspects of his/her development. This study sought to (1) determine if there were differences in the importance of clothing comfort in three situations (social, school, and leisure) among adolescents in a metropolitan city (500,000 SMSA), and (2) to determine if there was a relationship between the rating on the importance of clothing comfort and the level of self-esteem in social, school, and leisure situations. The importance of clothing comfort was measured using the Clothing Comfort Dimensions, Importance by Situation, and self-esteem was measured using the Sliding Person Test of Self-Esteem. One hundred ninety-seven female junior high students from a metropolitan city responded to a self-administered questionnaire. Statistically significant interactions were found among the three situations (social, school, and leisure) in each of the three dimensions (physical, social, and psychological) for the importance of clothing comfort. Adolescents acknowledge clothing comfort as being more important in social and school situations than in leisure, and they reflect limited differences in importance of clothing comfort in social or school situations. No significant differences were found among self-esteem scores across the five groups of individuals who placed the level ofclothing comfort importance as from Very Important to Very Unimportant. For this group of adolescents, self-esteem was not related to situational clothing comfort.
Adhesion Promotion in Rayon/Nylon Skin/Core Bigeneric Fibers
Authors: Collier Billie J. , Collier John R. , Weiying Tao  
Published: October 2007

Rayon/nylon skin/core bigeneric fibers have been developed to combine mechanical properties ofsynthetic core material with moisture and comfort properties of cellulosic skin. Fibers are produced in a fiber coating operation where oriented nylon fiber is coated with viscose rayon solution in a fiber coating die. For fibers produced in earlier studies, adhesion between skin and core was not sufficient, and the skin debonded during subsequent processing. In this study, fumaric acid (FA) was used as an adhesion promoter in rayon coated fibers. Results of a severe abrasion test show that FA is an effective coupling agent with adhesion dependent on application conditions. There was significant interaction between FA concentration and time of FA pretreatment; high concentrations at shorter pretreatment times and low concentrations at longer times gave best adhesion. Results of the adhesion test were confirmed with electron microscopy.
The Influence of Appropriateness of Dress and Gender on The Self-Perception of Occupational Attributes
Authors: Kwon Yoon-Hee 
Published: October 2007

This study investigated male and female perceptions of the role clothing plays in enhancing ten occupational attributes: responsibility, competence, knowledgability, professionalism, honesty, reliability, intelligence, trustworthiness, willingness to work hard, and efficiency. The objective was to investigate gender differences of perceived influence of dress on enhancement of occupational attributes mediated by (a) two dress modes (properly dressed and not properly dressed), (b) subjects' self-perceptions of their own attributes, and (c) subjects' clothing interests. Data collected from 132 males and 190 females supported the belief that clothing generally enhances self-perception of occupational attributes. Males generally believed proper clothing can enhance occupational attributes (intelligence, competence, knowledgability, honesty, and reliability) and this belief was influenced by perceptions of their own attributes and clothing interests. Females did not believe many attributes could be enhanced by manipulation of clothing, and their belief was not influenced by perceptions of occupational attributes or clothing interests.
Design and Evaluation of Thermal Protective Flightsuits. Part I: The Design Process and Prototype Development
Authors: Tan Yi-bin , Crown Elizabeth M. , Capjack Linda 
Published: October 2007

An aviator's flightsuit must protect against hazardous thermal environments. In addition, it must be comfortable, fit properly, allow for mobility, and meet several other expectations for military clothing. A systematic approach to designing protective garments is needed to ensure acceptance on all criteria. The purpose of this study was to design and evaluate garment systems for optimum thermal protection for Canadian Forces flight personnel and to determine the effect of selected garment parameters (style, fit, closure system and seam type) on thermal protection. Part I focuses on the design process. Orlando's (1979) functional apparel design process served as the conceptual framework; for this study the process incorporated a literature search, material analysis, focused group interviews and movement analysis to develop design criteria and specifications for eight alternative flightsuits incorporating the parameters of interest. The design criteria included thermal protection, other functional requirements, psychological requirements, production and maintenance. Patterns for the garments were developed using AutoCAD® and PCPattern® software. The design process allowed systematic consideration of all related aspects of the problem. Evaluation of the garments is described in Part II.
Sir Richard Clarke - 1910-1975 A Most Unusual Civil Servant
Authors: Hubback David 
Published: October 2007

Sir Richard Clarke, known always as Otto, was a highly unusual and controversial Treasury civil servant responsible for a wide range of new initiatives in Whitehall between 1945 and 1970. A Cambridge Wrangler, a pre-war chess champion and originator of the Financial Times Index he entered Whitehall in war time more literate and numerate than most of his contemporaries. He regarded Keynes with whom he worked as his model. He was one of a new breed of post-war forceful civil servants, and one of the few capable of original thought. This biographical article tries to assess Otto's contribution, especially in the period 1945-52, compared with that of his contemporaries, in working out the new economic and financial strategy needed for post-war recovery. It also glances at his later career as the main architect of the P.E.S.C. system for controlling public expenditure.
Performance Review: Threats and Opportunities
Authors: Ball Rob , Monaghan Claire 
Published: October 2007

This paper explores the growth in interest in performance review in the local government context. It reviews the role which Central Government and the Audit Commission have played in bringing pressure to bear on local authorities to introduce review systems whilst recognising that pressure has also come from within councils. The accountability implications of the adoption of PR are considered as is the impact which the Citizen's Charter legislation is likely to have on local government. Our research has uncovered a number of useful performance review systems in a variety of councils which have been developed in response to specific local needs and circumstances. We are concerned that the Audit Commission's literature in this area, has placed undue emphasis on cost-cutting and as a result, has introduced confusion as to the role which performance review should play in councils. We also conclude that there is a serious danger that in the light of the Citizen's Charter, councils may abandon the development of appropriate internal review mechanisms in favour of the indicators which are to be published nationally as part of the legislation.
Openness and Financial Development
Authors: Law Siong Hook 
Published: October 2007

This article examines the effect of openness on financial development pertaining to the Rajan and Zingales (2003) hypothesis, namely that simultaneous openness of trade and capital flows has a positive influence on financial development. They hypothesise that when a country's borders are open to both trade and capital flows, it will deliver benefits to the financial markets. The dynamic heterogeneous panel data results based on 68 countries for the period 1980–2001 indicate that simultaneously open product and capital markets do promote better financial development. Openness in terms of trade and capital are most potent in promoting financial development in middle–income countries, whereas its influence is relatively small in low–income and high–income countries.
Cultural Dimensions: a Factor Analysis of Textor's A Cross-Cultural Summary
Authors: Stewart Robert A. C. , Jones Kenneth J. 
Published: October 2007

Textor's A Cross-Cultural Summary is a computer-produced compilation of significant relationships between all the extant cross-cultural variables that were available at the time. Together with two coefficients of association (phi and chi-square) and levels of significance, the relationships are also expressed in verbal form. In order, however, to reduce these findings to more manageable form and to obtain basic underlying factor dimensions which account for the relationships between the variables, a principal components analysis and Varimax rotation were conducted. The first 488 variables from the Summary were used. Also included was a review of cross-cultural research to date and the problem of sampling as related to the area. A random stratified sample of 98 cultures was drawn from Textor's list of cultures for which there were at least 6 samples of contributions (not including contributions of the Ethnographic Atlas). Specific hypotheses of "Bibliographic Selection Bias" relating to this sample were tested, using actual comparisons in the Summary. Twelve factors of phi were obtained, and a thirteenth factor was disregarded, as it accounted for less than 5 percent of the total variance. The factors were rotated to the Varimax criterion to approach Thurstone's simple structure. Factor scores were computed for each culture on each factor dimension. For each of the following factors, the cultures with the highest positive and negative factor scores are given in order: Factor One: Structural Complexity (Thai, Copper Eskimo); Factor Two: Father-Centered Family (Rwala, Lamba); Factor Three: Tropical Rain Forest Culture (Trobriand, Siriono); Factor Four: Paternal Authority (Samoan, Navaho); Factor Five: Matrilineal Kin Groups (Trobriand, Semang); Factor Six: Status as Determined by Occupation (Thai, Lamba); Factor Seven: Aggressive Achievement Behavior (Ashanti, Hano); Factor Eight: North American Tribal Culture (Cheyenne, Ashanti); Factor Nine: Child Affection and Indulgence (Papago, Thonga); Factor Ten: Sexual Restraint Cultures (Thonga, Ifugao); Factor Eleven: Postpartum Sex Taboo (Tiv, Tanala); Factor Twelve: Adolescent Pecr Group Activity (Samoans, Jivaro). Within the limits of the study, these suggest key dimensions to describe a given culture, and it may be that future refinements of this work will permit the development of reliable and valid methods of ethnographic enquiry for the tapping of these major cultural dimensions.
Developing Musical Creativity: the Singapore Young Composers' Project as a Case-study
Authors: Howard John , Martin Jeffrey 
Published: October 2007

Education and the arts are growth areas in Singapore and their interface presents interesting research opportunities for music education. This paper outlines a study of the development of composition within music education in Singapore, describing action research together with two case profiles. These findings are aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the strategies adopted, learning about students' musical decision-making and seeing how creative approaches can enhance music learning. Part 1 of the paper outlines the Project, its background and its operation from 1993-1995. The changing nature of the Project is documented, showing its development in response to need. Part 2 consists of case profiles of two participants. Whilst the Project and the evaluatory research continue, some meaningful conclusions can be drawn, including that the Project needs to allow for wide-ranging ability with some participants aspiring to the level of professional composers; that the group-work and ensemble-playing dimensions fulfil a major need; and that individuals can meet their differing needs from this approach, as the case profiles demonstrate. A refined, three-year project design resulted from these conclusions, attempting to balance group work with the emerging individual need for closer, more personal, guidance. Future research will explore how successful this design has been in meeting those needs.
Young People's Music in the Digital Age
Authors: Folkestad Göran , Lindström Berner , Hargreaves David J. 
Published: October 2007

Recent technological developments and the increasing impact of the media mean that listening to music and creative music making constitute a major and integrated part of many young people's lives. The aim of the present article is to describe the process of computer-based composition, and how this is perceived by young composers. This paper describes a three-year empirical study of 129 computer-based compositions by 15-16 year-olds. Computer MIDI-files were systematically collected covering the sequence of the composition processes step by step: interviews were carried out with each of the participants, and observations were made of their work. All the participants succeeded in composing music and in the subsequent analysis, six qualitatively different ways of creating music were identified which could be divided into two main categories, HORIZONTAL and VERTICAL. These categories, devised by the authors in this context, refer to compositional strategies, not to structures in the music itself. In the horizontal categories composition and arranging are separate processes, whereas in the vertical categories composition and arranging are one integrated process. Some of the differences between these strategies, as well as the music's character, were found to be related to gender.
improving Music Teaching and Learning Through Assessing the Music Classroom Environment
Authors: Gifford Edward 
Published: October 2007

Teachers often speak of a classroom's climate, environment, atmosphere, tone and ethos as important in their own right as well as being influential in terms of students' learning. Although classroom environment has been shown to be a subtle concept, considerable progress has been made over the last two decades (Fraser 1986, 1989, 1994) in conceptualising, assessing and researching it. Research into classroom learning environments can answer important questions such as the following: How does a classroom's environment affect student learning and attitudes? Can teachers conveniently and reliably assess the climates of their own classrooms and can they change these environments? Is there a difference between actual and preferred classroom environment as perceived by students, and does this matter in terms of student outcomes? Much of this research has attempted to answer such questions in the areas of maths and science teaching. There have been few applications of this work to music classrooms in schools or universities. This paper presents data from research with general primary teachers undertaking music as part of their teacher training at Griffith University, Mt Gravatt Campus. The instrument used was the College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI) (Fraser, 1986a). The paper concludes that, while there is considerable difference between students' perceptions of actual and preferred music environments, the music classroom environment can be reliably assessed and improved, with demonstratable gains in students' attitude towards music.
The Role of Linguistic Dominance in the Acquisition of Song
Authors: Welch Graham F. , Sergeant Desmond C. , White Peta J. 
Published: October 2007

There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that there is a developmental sequence in children's singing, with certain singing behaviours having developmental primacy over others. The research literature indicates that, when learning songs, children first focus on the linguistic features, then rhythm, and finally the pitch and melodic attributes. This theorised hierarchy was examined as part of a larger study of singing development in early childhood in which a longitudinal sample (n=184) were assessed on a variety of vocal pitch matching tasks during each year of their first three years at school, i.e. at age five, six and seven years. In each year of testing, the assessment protocol embraced a specially-designed test battery and two sample songs. The protocol was constructed so that the test battery items (pitch glides, pitch patterns and single pitches) were deconstructed features of the two test songs, thus enabling an analysis to be made of the effects of the task on vocal pitch matching performance. The results suggest that children enter school with a clear disposition towards learning the words of the songs. In general, this ability is not matched by an ability to learn and reproduce the melodic components of the test songs. It is only in the third year of schooling that vocal pitch matching in song singing improves, but this particular ability is still significantly less well developed than that for learning and reproducing the words. 'For singers are given honour and respect by all people on the earth, since the Muse has taught them their songs, and she loves the race of singers' (Homer Odyssey) 1
Time of interferon-β 1a injection and duration of treatment affect clinical side effects and acute changes of plasma hormone and cytokine levels in multiple sclerosis patients
Authors: Kümpfel T. , Schwan M. , Pollmächer Th. , Yassouridis A. , Uhr M. , Trenkwalder C. , Weber F. 
Published: October 2007

During initiation of interferon-beta (IFN-β) therapy, many multiple sclerosis (MS) patients experience systemic side effects which may depend on the time point of IFN-β injection. We investigated the time course of plasma hormone-, cytokine- and cytokine-receptor concentrations after the first injection of IFN-β either at 8.00 a.m. (group A) or at 6.00 p.m. (group B) and quantified clinical side effects within the first 9 h in 16 medication free patients with relapsing-remitting MS. This investigation was repeated after 6-month IFN-β therapy. Plasma ACTH and cortisol concentrations followed their physiological rhythms, with lower levels in the evening compared to the morning, but raised earlier and stronger in group B after IFN-β administration. IFN-β injection in the evening led to a prompter increase of plasma IL-6 concentrations and temperature during the first hours and correlated to more intense clinical side effects compared to group A. Plasma IL-10 concentrations increased more in group A compared to group B, but sTNF-RI and sTNF-RII concentrations raised 7 h after IFN-β injection only in group B. Acute effects on plasma hormone and cytokine concentrations adapted after 6-month IFN-β treatment, while diurnal variations were still present. Baseline sTNF-RII concentrations were elevated after 6-month IFN-β therapy only in group A. Our results show that time point of IFN-β injection has differential effects on acute changes of plasma hormone and cytokine concentrations and is related to systemic side effects. This may have implications on the tolerability and effectiveness of IFN-β therapy. Multiple Sclerosis 2007; 13: 1138—1145. http://msj.sagepub.com