bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Urinary VMA, dopamine and the likelihood of neuroblastoma: a preferred way of reporting laboratory results?
Authors: Sies C W , Florkowski C M , Sullivan M , Mackay R , George P M 
Published: June 2006

Background: Neuroblastoma patients may be classified as normal or abnormal depending on reference interval and decision points for urine catecholamine metabolites. We therefore evaluated the utility of positive likelihood ratios (LR+) based on data from patients in whom the diagnosis was suspected. Methods: Urine samples from 249 patients (122 male, 127 female) suspected of neuroblastoma were assayed for VMA by spectrophotometry and dopamine by HPLC. Ratios of VMA to creatinine (VMA/Cr) and dopamine to creatinine (DA/Cr) were calculated and age-related median scores derived relative to patients without neuroblastoma. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was undertaken for the ability of median scores to identify neuroblastoma. Results: Of the 249 patients, there were 20 confirmed cases of neuroblastoma, with ages ranging from 0 (congenital tumour) to 8.4 years. From ROC curves, VMA/Cr was found to have an area under the curve 0.96 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.92-0.98) compared with 0.72 (95% CI 0.66-0.77) for DA/Cr, P=0.001. At the optimal decision point for VMA/Cr, LR+ was 7.2, identifying cases with a sensitivity of 95% and a specificity of 86%, and comparing favourably with published intervals. Conclusions: VMA/Cr is more accurate than DA/Cr for the diagnosis of neuroblastoma. Reporting LR+ may also be more informative than using reference intervals and decision points.
Postoperative serum urea is associated with 30-day mortality in patients undergoing emergency abdominal surgery
Authors: Harten J , Hay A , McMillan D C , McArdle C S , O'Reilly D St J , Kinsella J 
Published: June 2006

Background: Emergency abdominal surgery carries considerable postoperative morbidity and mortality. Hypovolaemia is considered to be a cause of renal hypoperfusion, which is associated with a decreased clearance of serum urea and creatinine. This study examines whether the perioperative serum urea and creatinine concentrations are predictors of mortality in patients undergoing emergency abdominal surgery. Methods: Consecutive patients ( n=300) who underwent emergency abdominal surgery were studied. Age- and sex-specific reference intervals were used for the data analysis. Patients with incomplete biochemical ( n=51) or mortality data ( n=31) or with pre-existing renal failure ( n=9) were excluded from the analysis. Results: 209 patients were analysed, of whom 162 (78%) remained alive and 47 (22%) died following surgery. The non-survivors were older ( P<0.05), had undergone more extensive surgery ( P<0.001) and were more likely to have been admitted to the intensive care unit ( P<0.001). The serum urea concentration was higher preoperatively ( P<0.05) and on day one postoperatively ( P<0.001) in the non-survivors. On multivariate logistic regression analysis, age (odds ratio [OR] 3.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.43-7.47, P<0.005), severity of surgery (OR 2.21, 95% CI 1.14-4.29, P<0.019), admission to intensive care (OR 0.54, 95% CI 0.11-0.54, P<0.001), seniority of anaesthetist (OR 0.50, 95% CI 0.27-0.90, P<0.022) and day one urea (OR 3.33, 95% CI 1.39-7.99, P<0.007) were independently associated with 30-day mortality. Conclusions: These results indicate that an increased serum urea concentration, but not serum creatinine concentration, in the postoperative period is associated with an increase in 30-day mortality in patients undergoing emergency abdominal surgery.
Acting global – thinking local: balancing historic marginality and political change in a small island ‘state’
Authors: Mannin Michael 
Published: June 2006

English
This article focuses on the problems that one small island state has encountered in attempting to reform its political system. Jersey, an Offshore Financial Centre (OFC), has experienced considerable difficulty in responding to relatively modest reform proposals contained within the Clothier Report (States of Jersey, 2000). It is argued that these difficulties are shaped by tensions between regional and international regulatory pressures and domestic strategies to sustain autonomy to meet the perceived requirements of a globally responsive OFC economy. The management of these tensions is explained within the concept of historic marginality (Pizzorno, 1971), as well as the broader implications of political change for OFCs in general.
Employability and New Zealand welfare restructuring
Authors: Lunt Neil 
Published: June 2006

English
The article discusses employability within New Zealand. It outlines a series of initiatives around welfare reform that have targeted disabled people, unemployed groups, lone parents and women reentering jobs, youth, and ethnic groupings. A fourfold critique of employability is suggested around labour market outcomes, social exclusion, human resource development and broader citizenship concerns. Situating New Zealand within the broader welfare-to-work literature, the article identifies how employability constitutes a distinct electoral strategy, and outlines the future direction employability is likely to take.
Analysing policy processes as multiple governance: accountability in social policy
Authors: Hill Michael , Hupe Peter 
Published: June 2006

English
There is a need to develop appropriate ways to analyse issues about complexity in the governance process and about accountability. The preoccupation with policy ‘stages’ need to be replaced with a more complex model of the way in which policy decisions are inter-related or ‘nested’. It is argued that a ‘multiple governance framework’, influenced by Elinor Ostrom's ‘institutional analysis and development’ framework, offers a way to do this. The framework is illustrated using examples from English health and education policy, where there are opposed positions about professional autonomy and about local prerogatives, to show how this approach assists the analysis of issues like these.
Money, power and ideas: think tank development and state–business relations in Taiwan and Hong Kong
Authors: Yep Ray , Ngok Ma 
Published: June 2006

English
A comparative study of Taiwan and Hong Kong shows that the business response to political changes and changing state–business relations are crucial factors in determining think tank development. Amid rapid democratisation, business tycoons in Taiwan actively fund think tanks to pursue their own policy agenda and improve their political leverage. In contrast, institution of a state–corporatist framework and arrested democratisation have perpetuated a state–business alliance in Hong Kong since 1997, resulting in weak business support for policy in the former colony.
Welfare restructuring in Asian newly industrialised countries: a comparison of Hong Kong and Singapore
Authors: Lee Eliza W.Y. 
Published: June 2006

English
This article studies the patterns of welfare restructuring in Asian newly industrialised countries (NICs) in reaction to economic globalisation and socioeconomic change through a comparative study of Hong Kong and Singapore. It argues that Hong Kong has gone through a budget-driven restructuring resulting in the retrenchment of its residual welfare state, while Singapore has undergone a policy-driven restructuring that aims to consolidate the state regulation of the welfare society. The difference in the patterns of restructuring is found to be related to state strength, electoral politics, interest group politics, the production system and the pre-existing institutional arrangement of social programmes. The findings illustrate the characteristics of welfare restructuring in Asian authoritarian NICs.
Young people and political (in)activism: why don't young people vote?
Authors: Henn Matt , Weinstein Mark 
Published: June 2006

English
Continued experimentation with methods to make the process of voting easier signals a growing concern among politicians that the public is becoming increasingly disaffected from politics in Britain. However, these government initiatives may be failing to tackle the real problem – that the electorate appears to find the business of politics uninviting and irrelevant. In this article we examine the results from a nationwide survey of over 700 young people, and find that this generation, while supportive of these new electoral methods, are unlikely to be persuaded to turn out to vote while they continue to feel marginalised from the political process.
Building blocks for a new social architecture: the LEGOTM paradigm of an active society
Authors: Jenson Jane , Saint-Martin Denis 
Published: June 2006

English
Social policy communities now often focus on ‘new social risks’. Despite a clear preference for controlling state spending, they also consider that these risks call for ‘social investments’. Concentration on investments, activation and the future is considered an optimal anchor for redesigning their welfare systems. Convergence around three ideas prompt us to speak of a shift towards a LEGOTM paradigm: learning over the life-course; a future orientation; and the collective benefits of an active society. Just as when Keynesianism was paradigmatic, however, we recognise that divergences exist in the ways that the paradigm is implemented.
New policies for battered women: negotiating the local and the global in Blair's Britain
Authors: Howe Adrian 
Published: June 2006

English
After three decades of feminist campaigning on behalf of battered women, domestic violence is now a national policy priority in the UK. Yet the recent enactment of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Bill comes at a time when globalisation is exacerbating the deleterious effects of neoliberal economic policies on the more marginalised members of western societies. This article explores the changing context in which the British feminist movement has to negotiate its demands with the nation state today, and the prospects for buoyant advocacy work for battered women living in the UK in the era of globalisation.
The politics of public expenditure from Thatcher to Blair
Authors: Mullard Maurice , Swaray Raymond 
Published: June 2006

English
The central concerns of this study are twofold: first, to analyse the nature of the politics of public expenditure under both the Thatcher and Blair governments and to ask whether changes in government did make a difference. Second, to deal with the more general question on whether major differences exist between the Conservative and Labour governments in prioritising public expenditure programmes since 1948. The results confirm differences in public expenditure priorities between the two main parties. Labour governments are associated with increased spending on health, education, housing and the environment while Conservative governments are associated with increases in defence and law and order.
Mineralogy and Geochemistry of the Host-Rock Alterations Associated with the Shea Creek Unconformity-Type Uranium Deposits (Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, Canada). Part 1. Spatial Variation of Illite Properties
Authors: Laverret Emmanuel , Mas Patricia Patrier , Beaufort Daniel , Kister Philippe , Quirt David , Bruneton Patrice , Clauer Norbert 
Published: June 2006

AbstractUnconformity-related uranium deposits, which represent a significant high-grade uranium resource, are systematically surrounded by a host-rock alteration halo enriched in clay minerals. Illite is often the major clay mineral component of the halo and it displays a variable crystal structure. New data are provided on the crystal structure and the chemistry of illite encountered within and outside of the alteration halo surrounding the Shea Creek deposit. Two illite populations were distinguished using textural and structural criteria: samples rich in thetv-1Mpolytype display thin (sub-micrometer) and ‘hairy’ shapes, while samples richer in thecv-1Mpolytype contain illites with rigid lath-like shapes several micrometers wide. In barren ‘regional’ sandstone, the trends with depth of the textural and microstructural properties of illite particles are: (1) an increase of particle size, (2) an evolution to a more isometric form, and (3) a dominance of thecv-1Mpolytype over thetv-1Mpolytype. These trends record diagenetic processes under conditions of deep burial and differ from those observed in altered sandstone around the uranium mineralization. The altered sandstone is characterized by enrichment in thetv-1Mpolytype near the unconformity and/or brittle structural features. Thistv-1Millitization took place in response to structurally-controlled infiltration of basement rocks by diagenetic brines which were further recycled after interaction into the overlying basin. Variations of the illite structural and textural properties may result from nucleation/growth kinetics and may be indicative of a change in the flow regime, and/or a change of saturation state of the fluidvs.illite. Thetv-1Millite may be favored in environments characterized by a high fluid/rock ratio and a high supersaturation state of the fluids in proximity to mineralization.
Mineralogy and Geochemistry of the Host-Rock Alterations Associated with the Shea Creek Unconformity-Type Uranium Deposits (Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, Canada). Part 2. Regional-Scale Spatial Distribution of the Athabasca Group Sandstone Matrix Minerals
Authors: Kister Philippe , Laverret Emmanuel , Quirt David , Cuney Michel , Mas Patricia Patrier , Beaufort Daniel , Bruneton Patrice 
Published: June 2006

AbstractThe spatial distribution of the dominant matrix minerals present in the middle-Proterozoic Athabasca Group sandstone (kaolin, illite, sudoite, dravite, hematite) was studied at a regional scale in the Shea Creek region (Saskatchewan, Canada), in which two epigenetic unconformity-type uranium deposits have been discovered. 3D models of matrix mineral distribution were derived from normative mineral calculations and 3D interpolation using whole-rock geochemical analyses of sandstone samples collected from both mineralized and barren areas. The calculations were constrained by information obtained from petrographic and crystal-chemical clay mineralogical studies on representative samples. The 3D mineral distribution models were compared to the lithostratigraphy and structural features of the Athabasca Group sandstone to ascertain the source and mobility of the main elements involved in the sandstone host-rock alteration processes related to the U mineralization. The distribution of Al is conformable with the lithostratigraphy throughout the studied area, regardless of proximity to basement-rooted structures and U ore bodies. The distribution of illite displays similar features, but the intensity of the illitization of kaolin decreases with increasing distance from the structures and U ore bodies. Hematite bleaching and neoformation of sudoite and dravite were restricted to the vicinity of the fault zones above the U ore bodies. The spatial configurations of the mineral anomalies show that syn-ore fluids flowed from the basement towards the sandstone cover via the fault zones, as described in current metallogenic models. Although Al remained immobile (mass transfer), the anomalous K, B and Mg present in the host-rock alteration haloes were probably imported from the basement rocks (mass transport). Unlike B and Mg, K migrated laterally at least several kilometers from the basement-rooted faults. The mineral distribution models were used to quantify the volume of altered sandstone (10−2−10−1 km3) and the amounts of K, Mg and B which were imported to the alteration haloes above the Shea Creek U ore bodies: 186,000 t of K, 66,000 t of Mg, and 11,000 t of B above the Anne ore body, and 24,000 t of K, 185,000 t of Mg, and a similar 11,000 t of B above the Colette ore body.
Comparison of K-Ar Ages of Diagenetic Illite-Smectite to the Age of a Chemical Remanent Magnetization (CRM): An Example from the Isle of Skye, Scotland
Authors: Elliott W. Crawford , Basu Ankan , Wampler J. Marion , Elmore R. Douglas , Grathoff Georg H. 
Published: June 2006

AbstractThe clay fractions of Jurassic marls in the Great Estuarine Group in southern Isle of Skye are composed of mixed-layered illite-smectite (I-S) with large percentages (>85%) of illite layers, kaolinite, and generally smaller amounts of chlorite. These marls have not been buried to the depths normally required to convert smectite to illite-rich I-S, so it is possible that the conversion was in response to heat and hydrothermal fluids from nearby early Tertiary igneous activity ∼55 Ma ago. The large percentages of illite layers in I-S, the Środoń intensity ratios, and the Kübler index values appear to be consistent with the formation of diagenetic I-S as a result of relatively brief heating caused by igneous activity. The Jurassic rocks in southern Skye contain a secondary chemical remanent magnetization (CRM) that resides in magnetite and formed at approximately the same time as the Tertiary igneous rocks on Skye. K-Ar age values for I-S based on illite age analysis have been determined to test the hypothesis that the CRM was acquired coincidently with the smectite-to-illite conversion. However, linear extrapolation of K-Ar age vs. percentage of 2M1 polytype (detrital illite) from one marl (EL-6) yields an estimate for the age of diagenetic illite of 106 Ma, which is close to the measured age of the finest subfraction (108 Ma). These estimated and measured age values, however, could be substantially greater than the true age of the diagenetic illite in I-S because of the presence of detrital 1Md illite that was recycled from early Paleozoic shales and whose abundance relative to the diagenetic I-S may have been enhanced because the diagenetic fluid had a low K/Na ratio, limiting the amount of diagenetic illite formed. Nevertheless, most of the illite in the Elgol marls (80% or more in the finest fractions) must be diagenetic and probably formed in response to the early Tertiary magmatism.
Fault-Hosted Palygorskite from the Serrata De Níjar Deformation Zone (SE Spain)
Authors: García-Romero E. , Suárez M. , Oyarzun R. , López-García J. A. , Regueiro M. 
Published: June 2006

AbstractPalygorskite fibers growing along fault planes in the outcrops of a large fault zone in SE Spain (Carboneras Fault Zone: CFZ; Serrata de Níjar) were studied by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray analysis, and transmission electron microscopy-analytical electron microscopy. The structural formulae, calculated per half unit-cell, is: Si7.95Al0.05O20(Al1.93Fe0.08Mg1.92) (OH)2(OH2)4Na0.09K0.01Ca0.034(H2O). The samples have minor tetrahedral substitutions, with Mg/Al ratios close to one, and contain very small amounts of Fe3+. The number of octahedral cations per half unit-cell is 3.93. The fault-hosted palygorskite shows macroscopic ductile features including incipient foliation. Based on field and laboratory observations, as well as on regional geological evidence indicating the existence of widespread hydrothermal processes along the Serrata de Níjar and surrounding areas, we suggest that palygorskite may have formed during ongoing deformation in the CFZ, as a precipitate from Mg-rich hydrothermal fluids.
Mineralogy and Geochemistry of Paleocene Ultramafic- and Sedimentary-Hosted Talc Deposits in the Southern Part of the Sivas Basin, Turkey
Authors: Yalçin Hüseyin , Bozkaya Ömer 
Published: June 2006

AbstractTalc deposits, located mainly in three areas of north-central Turkey, are present in the ophiolitic series of the Cretaceous and in siliciclastic rocks of the Paleocene. Talc deposits related to ophiolites are between tectonite and cumulate occurring as beds and/or lenses and 0.1–3 cm thick fracture fillings within a 5 m brecciated zone with a vein-type bedding. Sedimentary-hosted talc beds and semi-rounded to angular talc grains (0.1–2 cm) range in thickness from 0.1 to 30 cm within marls and conglomerates. Talc veins form lenses (a few meters long) and spheroidal and/or ellipsoidal nodules (1–10 cm). Calcite, dolomite, serpentine and/or mixed-layered illite-smectite (I-S) minerals are encountered in the talc samples. Serpentine with positive U and Hf anomalies, and talc with positive Nb and Zr anomalies, and negative Ta and Ce anomalies are typically depleted in P and Ti, based on chondrite-normalized trace element patterns. The light rare earth element content of sedimentary-hosted talc with a negative Gd anomaly is richer than those of ultramafic-hosted talc with a negative anomaly for Eu as well as serpentine. Significantly, talc with a uniquely sedimentary origin tends to be the principal source of Nb, Hf, Zr, La, Ce, Pr and Nd with respect to serpentine. δ18O and δD values for talc range from +13.8 to +17.5‰ and −60 to −36‰, and those of serpentine are +9.4 and −88‰, indicating supergene conditions for sedimentary-hosted talc and hypogene for ultramafic-hosted talc. When compared with seawater, δ18O data indicate temperatures of 68°C and 80–98°C for the sedimentary- and ultramafic-hosted talc formations, respectively, and 100°C for serpentine, suggesting that talcification and serpentinization of ultramafic rocks both occurred at nearly the same time with various stages. All data show that the talc occurrences are divided into two types based on their mode of formation. The first corresponds to a serpentinization stage within the ophiolites. The others are the neoformation products of sedimentary deposition, diagenetic and post-diagenetic processes, respectively. Sedimentary-hosted talc also seems to have inherited trace element and isotopic compositions from the parent ultramafic rocks.
Clay Minerals in Early Amphibole Weathering: Tri- to Dioctahedral Sequence as a Function of Crystallization Sites in the Amphibole
Authors: Proust D. , Caillaud J. , Fontaine C. 
Published: June 2006

AbstractThe early stages of amphibole weathering result in the crystallization of several clay mineral species: tri- and dioctahedral smectites, interstratified dioctahedral kaolinite-smectite (K-S), and halloysite. Each clay mineral crystallizes into specific microsites which develop from etch pits along specific crystallographic directions in the host amphibole. Two types of microsites are recognized according to their location in the amphibole crystal and their clay mineral crystallizations. The first type is a plane surface related to the (110) amphibole cleavages where saponite particles crystallize in a characteristic honeycomb texture. The second type is a ‘sawtooth’ (001) fracture surface generated by etch-pit coalescence where (1) platy K-S particles crystallize directly in contact with the amphibole at the top of ‘teeth’, (2) halloysite particles with tubular habits crystallize directly in contact with the amphibole on the side of the ‘teeth’, and/or on the K-S particles, and (3) montmorillonite crystallizes in the central part of the (001) fracture as a layer with honeycomb texture in contact with the K-S platelets located at the top of ‘teeth’. The microtextural relationships between the clay minerals and their host mineral suggest the following crystallization sequence: (1) saponite and montmorillonite crystallize first on the (110) and (001) surfaces, respectively; (2) as amphibole dissolution proceeds perpendicular to the (001) fracture planes, montmorillonites continue to form in the middle part of the widening fracture whereas K-S crystallizes on the ‘sawtooth’ termination; (3) in the last stage of weathering, tubular halloysite crystallizes on the side of the ‘teeth’, and/or on the K-S.