bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A study of the functional aberration of the pouch in anorectal malformation associated with congenital pouch colon
Authors: Gangopadhyay A. N. , Pandey A. , Rastogi N. , Mandal M. B. , Gopal S. C. , Gupta D. K. , Srivastava A. 
Published: January 2009

AbstractObjective There are noin vitrostudies of congenital pouch colon (CPC) associated with anorectal malformation (ARM) to understand its mechanism of contractility. There is no consensus regarding the utilization of the CPC in repair of anorectal malformation. In view of the above, it was decided to carry out detailedin vitrophysiological study of the excised CPC.Method The excised specimens of CPC were taken and 15‐ to 20‐mm long both longitudinal and transverse strips of muscle were obtained both from the proximal and distal part. Contraction was recorded using softwarechart‐5for windows. Drugs used were acetylcholine, histamine, adrenaline, atropine and pheniramine maleate. The amplitude of contractions was converted to tension gram and then the tension so developed was expressed as tension per unit mass (per gram of wet tissue).Results There were total of 21 specimens of high ARM with CPC. Five specimens were of the complete pouch, which did not show a response to any drug and the remaining 16 had an incomplete pouch. The mean longitudinal and circular muscle contractions of these 16 samples were statistically higher for the proximal segment than the distal segment both for acetylcholine and histamine. The effect of atropine was not significant but that of adrenaline and pheniramine maleate were significant on the distal segment muscle.Conclusion Congenital pouch colon being deficient or having poorly developed receptors in their wall can not function properly as a reservoir for faeces and, hence, it should be excised to allow adequate function.
Enhanced recovery programmes and colorectal surgery: does the laparoscope confer additional advantages?
Authors: Khan S. , Gatt M. , MacFie J. 
Published: January 2009

AbstractBackground  Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocols aim to reduce postoperative lengths of stay (LOS). Laparoscopic surgery shares the same objective. Whether or not laparoscopic surgery conveys additional benefits over and above those achievable with ERAS alone is unclear.Method  A review of the literature from January 1966 to June 2008 was performed. Randomized trial and case series investigating the role of laparoscopic surgery within ERAS protocols were included. These were assessed for LOS, readmissions, return of gut function, quality of life and cost of treatment.Results  Four publications from three randomized trials and another seven case series were identified. Two randomized trials revealed no difference in the LOS and readmission rates between ERAS when used alone and ERAS with the inclusion of laparoscopic surgery. However, a third trial revealed a significantly shorter LOS and a lower readmission rate in the ERAS and laparoscopic group.Conclusion  The limited evidence presently available suggests that no further benefit is obtained by the inclusion of laparoscopic surgery in ERAS protocols. Further research is needed to derive more definitive conclusions.
Diagnosis at a distance: the invisible work of patients and healthcare professionals in cardiac telemonitoring technology
Authors: Oudshoorn Nelly 
Published: January 2009

AbstractAlthough patients are often absent in discourses on telemedicine, many telemonitoring applications constitute a new medical practice in which patients are expected to play an active role. The paper is based on a study of the use of one specific telemonitoring device, an ambulatory ECG recorder introduced to diagnose infrequent irregularities of the heart rhythm. It seeks to examine all the invisible work it takes to produce patients who are active and responsible as participants in the diagnosis of their heart problem. In particular, I address the question of how we can understand that individuals who are anxious about their heart function manage to adopt the role of ‘diagnostic agent’. This research shows that, although many patients managed to become competent users of the new technology, there are important patterns of selective use patients invented to integrate the technology in their daily life. In conclusion, the paper suggests that most patients were able to adopt the role of diagnostic agent not only because of their individual motivation but because of their location in the socio‐technical network of this technology, in which the invisible work of home‐care nurses and physicians at the telemedical centre made all the difference.
The micropolitics of responsibility vis‐à‐vis autonomy: parental accounts of childhood genetic testing and (non)disclosure
Authors: Arribas‐Ayllon Michael , Sarangi Srikant , Clarke Angus 
Published: January 2009

AbstractGenetic testing and (non)disclosure of genetic information present ethical and moral dilemmas for the management of parental responsibility vis‐à‐vis the child's autonomy. Ethical guidelines aimed at professionals currently seek to defer childhood testing where there is no clear medical or psychosocial benefit. This version of autonomy is derived from a bioethical paradigm which brackets the individual rights and capacities of the child. In this paper we focus on situated parental accounts of responsibility/autonomy to understand the complex forms of relational work –i.e.the micropolitics of balancing rights and responsibilities – involving a range of inherited genetic disorders. Interviews (n= 20) were conducted with parents whose genetic condition may have had consequences for their children. Using rhetorical discourse analysis, we show how parents draw upon a number of rhetorical/discoursal devices to produce accounts where genetic responsibility is actually or potentially transmitted to the child. We identify three kinds of accounting practice: (1) aligned responsibility; (2) deferred responsibility; and (3) misaligned responsibility. Each of these practices demonstrates how parents position themselves responsibly by foregrounding figures and events onto which the child's autonomy is selectively mapped. Rather than simple representations, we regard these accounts as complex moral performances that seek alignment with broader bioethical discourses.
Long‐term health conditions and Disability Living Allowance: exploring ethnic differences and similarities in access
Authors: Salway Sarah , Platt Lucinda , Harriss Kaveri , Chowbey Punita 
Published: January 2009

AbstractLong‐term health conditions affect a substantial proportion of working‐age adults, often reducing their employment chances and their incomes. As a result, welfare benefits including those intended to off‐set additional expenditure (primarily Disability Living Allowance [DLA]) can make an essential contribution towards maintaining living standards. Given the differences in rates of long‐term health conditions for different ethnic groups, issues of access to relevant benefits may be particularly salient for certain communities. We lack, however, detailed examination of the factors that influence take‐up of DLA across ethnic groups. In this paper, secondary analysis of Labour Force Survey data is combined with detailed new qualitative work, to examine patterns of receipt and issues of access to DLA across four ethnic groups. DLA receipt among individuals reporting long‐term health conditions is low; but Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Black African individuals have significantly lower levels of receipt than White British respondents with comparable health and socioeconomic characteristics. Common factors that appeared to discourage DLA claims across the ethnic groups considered included: a desire to conceal impairment and a reluctance to assume a ‘disabled’ identity; limited benefit knowledge or specialist support; perceptions that the benefits system is complex and stressful; and concerns about the legitimacy of claiming. But our findings also suggest differences between the groups. For example, ‘being’ Ghanaian appeared to place particular constraints upon the assumption of a disabled identity. Ethnic identity also implied processes of inclusion and exclusion in social networks resulting in differential access to information and ‘know‐how’ in relation to the benefits system. Policy clearly has a role in legitimising claiming and improving accurate information flows and thereby improving take‐up of benefit among those in great need.
Hospice or home? Expectations of end‐of‐life care among white and Chinese older people in the UK
Authors: Seymour Jane , Payne Sheila , Chapman Alice , Holloway Margaret 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis paper presents findings from two linked studies of white (n = 77) and Chinese (n = 92) older adults living in the UK, which sought their views about end‐of‐life care. We focus particularly on experiences and expectations in relation to the provision of end‐of‐life care at home and in hospices. White elders perceived hospices in idealised terms which resonate with a ‘revivalist’ discourse of the ‘good death’. In marked comparison, for those Chinese elders who had heard of them, hospices were regarded as repositories of ‘inauspicious’ care in which opportunities for achieving an appropriate or good death were limited. They instead expressed preference for the medicalised environment of the hospital. Among both groups these different preferences for instututional death seemed to be related to shared concerns about the demands on the family that may flow from having to manage pain, suffering and the dying body within the domestic space. These concerns, which appeared to be based on largely practical considerations among the white elders, were expressed by Chinese elders as beliefs about ‘contamination’ of the domestic home (and, by implication, of the family) by the dying and dead body.
Describing depression: ethnicity and the use of somatic imagery in accounts of mental distress
Authors: Mallinson Sara , Popay Jennie 
Published: January 2009

AbstractPast research has suggested that there are significant differences in the prevalence and progress of anxiety and depression in different ethnic groups in England and that patterns of help seeking also differ. In parallel, research has also reported distinctive differences in the language and representations of mental distress across different ethnic groups. Differences both in the expression of depression and underlying conceptual models of mental health and illness may be part of the explanation for different patterns of help seeking, as the accounts people give of their experience of health and illness, including the meaning they attach to symptoms and signs for example, have been shown to be an important mediator of the action they take to protect their health or to respond to ill health. In this paper we will use evidence from recent mixed‐method research with people of Pakistani origin and white people living in a locality in northwest England to explore the constructions and representations of mental distress, and in particular the physical imagery and ‘somatic metaphors’ of narratives used by our respondents, and consider how these data might illuminate debates about the experience of mental ill health and help‐seeking practices.
The ‘loss of community’ and other problems for sexual citizenship in recent HIV prevention
Authors: Davis Mark 
Published: January 2009

AbstractIncreases in reported unsafe sex among gay men have been explained as resistance to HIV prevention, or most recently, with the idea that a hyper‐individualisation of sexual action contributes to the loss of sexual community. This turning in HIV prevention has come to focus on the sexual action of gay men with HIV through the frames of: sexual transgression, sometimes called ‘barebacking’; and altruism. Adopting the perspective of sexual citizenship in connection with qualitative interviews, this paper considers how gay men with HIV account for their sexual practice in light of the dual discourse of transgression/altruism. The paper will argue that gay men with HIV are deeply aware of what transgression/altruism implies for their identities and sexual relations, indicating the continued salience of community for sexual practice. Further, in the circumstances of blaming in relation to the moral labour of safer sex, gay men with HIV are trying to work out a co‐operative practice for HIV prevention based on self‐care, a moderated altruism and the voluntary action of sexual partners.
Professional legitimacy claims in the multidisciplinary workplace: the case of heart failure care
Authors: Sanders Tom , Harrison Stephen 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThe pattern of occupations engaged in the care of patients has grown steadily more complex, and is characterised by the creation of new occupations, additional specialisation within existing occupations, and extensions to existing occupational roles. This paper presents empirical data from a study of professionals working with heart failure patients in the English National Health Service, focusing on the discourses employed by nurses and by three different specialties within medicine to legitimise their occupational boundaries. We identify four themes that characterise such discourses, specialised expertise, competence, organisational efficiency and patient‐centredness, though these are deployed to different degrees by the different professions. The findings point to a theory of ‘occupational legitimation talk’ in which newer occupations utilise a wider set of legitimacy claims as a means of strengthening their role and credibility within an increasingly complex and fluid healthcare environment.
External shock waves therapy in dystonia: preliminary results
Authors: Trompetto C. , Avanzino L. , Bove M. , Marinelli L. , Molfetta L. , Trentini R. , Abbruzzese G. 
Published: January 2009

Background and purpose:  Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) has been shown to reduce hypertonia in patients with upper motor neuron syndrome without any side effect. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether ESWT could be useful also in patients with dystonia.Methods:  We evaluated three patients with secondary dystonia and three patients with idiopathic writer’s cramp. Placebo treatment was performed in each patient. ESWT was administered during four sessions (once weekly) to the target muscles of hand and forearm using an electromagnetic lithotripter (Modulith SLK – Storz Medical). Clinical evaluation was performed using the Unified Dystonia Rating Scale in patients with secondary dystonia and the Arm Dystonia Disability Scale in patients with writer’s cramp.Results:  After treatment, the three patients with secondary dystonia showed a marked improvement which lasted at least until 1 month after the last session. In the patients with writer’s cramp, the improvement after ESWT was less consistent being effective only in two subjects. There were no associated adverse effects.Conclusions:  Extracorporeal shock wave therapy is probably an effective and safe treatment for upper limb dystonia, particularly for the secondary forms. Larger randomized studies are needed to confirm these preliminary results.
EU Integration & Emigration Consequences: The Case of Lithuania
Authors: Thaut Laura 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis paper analyses the causes, consequences, and policy implications of Lithuanian emigration following the country’s European Union (EU) accession in May 2004. After placing Lithuanian emigration in its historical context, the study assesses the recent dynamics, including the driving forces and characteristics of Lithuanian emigration at both the international and domestic level. The study finds that the primary determinants of this movement are both demand‐ and supply‐side factors. On the demand side, the labour shortages, decline in the working age population, and desire for cheaper labour in Western European countries function to attract Lithuanian labour. Concurrently, lower wages, higher unemployment, and the generally less developed economic conditions in Lithuania are encouraging Lithuanians to take advantage of the greater mobility that came with EU accession. The expanding networks linking migrants and potential migrants are facilitating this out‐migration, as well as the social mind‐set by which emigration is a perceived solution to socio‐economic difficulties. This study concludes that the consequences of this new emigration reality are mixed. The free movement of workers has helped to relieve pressure on the domestic labour market, drive down unemployment, place upward pressure on wages, and increase the remittances rate to Lithuania. However, concern is not ill‐founded; recent emigration has introduced labour market shortages, placed greater demographic pressure on the country, and increased the likelihood of brain drain. This study argues, therefore, that while Lithuanian emigration cannot and should not be stopped, Lithuania does have policy alternatives as a sending‐country that will help to mitigate the costs of emigration and maximize the benefits for the country’s long‐term development.
Exploring biophysical potential and sustainability of wheat cultivation in Uruguay at the national level
Authors: Mantel S. , Van Engelen V.W.P. , Molfino J.H. , Resink J.W. 
Published: January 2009

Abstract. A methodology is presented that explores soil survey information at the national level (1:1 M), generating sustainability indicators for wheat cultivation in Uruguay. Potential yields were calculated for simplified crop production situations under several constraints, such as limitation of water availability calculated from soil physical properties and climatic conditions, and limitation of nutrient availability calculated from soil fertility and climatic conditions. Land quality sufficiency was examined by comparing these yields with the constraint‐free yield conditioned only by solar radiation, temperature and the crop's photosynthetic properties. Crop growth was simulated only for areas suitable for the defined agricultural use. Model runs were repeated with inclusion of a topsoil loss scenario over 20 years as defined from an erosion risk analysis. Comparison between crop growth simulations for the two situations, gives an indication of the changes in land quality status, which supplies an indicator for agroecological sustainability.On the basis of crop growth simulation it is concluded that wheat production constraints in Uruguay appear to be mainly related to water availability limitations, while nutrient availability is near optimal for the suitable soils. The simulated loss of topsoil impacts most on soil physical properties, expressed in reduced water‐limited yields. Soil fertility status, evaluated by change in nutrient‐limited yields, was little affected by the scenario.
Constructing a Narrative: The History of Science and Technology in Latin America
Authors: Portuondo María 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis article provides a general introduction to the historiography of the history of science and technology in Latin America and presents an overview of the field's principal themes, with especial focus on how these have been addressed in English‐language historical works. It engages the problems associated with constructing synthetic historical narratives and suggests ways of addressing these by using micro‐histories to explain the relationship between the local, the national, and the transnational within the analytical framework afforded by intellectual history, history of science and of technology.
Family, the State, and Law in Early Modern and Revolutionary France
Authors: Gerber Matthew 
Published: January 2009

AbstractOver the past two decades, feminist historians of early modern and revolutionary France have succeeded in pushing the history of the family in a political direction. They have achieved this not only by highlighting the centrality of the family to early modern and revolutionary political culture, but also by elucidating the ways that families and the state have reshaped one another over time through the medium of law and legal culture. Although the most prominent political histories of the family concern the abrupt shifts wrought by the French Revolution, specialists in early modern France have also charted important if less dramatic changes in the relationship between families and state. Comparing early modern and revolutionary changes to family law reveals that the Revolution not only offered a new but contested republican model of the family, it also changed the practical negotiations through which law is made and remade.
Reflections on Writing Comparative and Transnational Labour History
Authors: Bennett James 
Published: January 2009

AbstractCalls to reposition both Australian and New Zealand history in a broader regional and global context are not new, but have intensified in more recent times. The turn toward transnational narratives in the contemporary academy is a valuable complement to comparative analysis, and both are important in thinking beyond traditional notions of bounded local space. Two areas in which transnational methodology has been particularly to the fore are the ‘new’ imperial history and American history that looks beyond the conventional paradigm of national exceptionalism. The networks of mobility and exchange sketched out by scholars working in these fields offer some useful insights for the transnational labour history project which is still at an early phase of development. This paper highlights the possibilities and potential problems attending the writing of transnational and comparative labour history, and in so doing offers some reflections on the broader question of knowledge production.
Normas del trabajo y complementariedad de los ordenamientos nacionales con el derecho internacional
Authors: Gravel Eric , Delpech Quentin 
Published: January 2009

Resumen.Los ordenamientos laborales nacionales y el derecho internacional del trabajo no son ni de lejos antagónicos, pues se encuentran muy entreverados. Prueba de ello es que algunos tribunales superiores nacionales han aplicado las normas de la OIT en varias sentencias recientes. Los autores averiguan las circunstancias en que han acaecido hechos de esta índole, así como sus consecuencias. Para ello estudian dos sentencias del Tribunal Supremo del Canadá sobre la libertad sindical y otra del Tribunal de Apelación de París sobre el contrato de trabajo, todas relativas a asuntos que fueron tratados también en el plano internacional por la OIT. Escogen países con tradiciones jurídicas distintas, lo cual propicia el análisis de la «apropiación» del derecho internacional del trabajo por las jurisdicciones nacionales.
Desigualdad y globalización financiera, en un informe que llega justo a tiempo
Authors: Bollé Patrick 
Published: January 2009

Resumen.Presentamos una nueva publicación anual del Instituto Internacional de Estudios Laborales de la OIT, el Informe mundial del trabajo, cuyaprimera entrega versa sobre las desigualdades de renta. Su aparición en plena tormenta financiera, a finales de octubre de 2008, no podía ser más oportuna: todo el planeta estaba pendiente de la crisis y preguntándose, con temor, cuáles serían su alcance, duración y consecuencias económicas y sociales. El estudio trata de los factores causantes de las desigualdades de renta, que no dejan de agravarse en el mundo. Sitúa el problema de la desigualdad en el marco de la globalización de las finanzas, el funcionamiento del mercado de trabajo, las características de los nuevos empleos y las políticas de redistribución de la riqueza.