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Emerging Consensus (emerging + consensus)
Selected AbstractsEmerging consensus on biodiversity and ecosystem functioningGLOBAL ECOLOGY, Issue 5 2004Stuart Chapin III No abstract is available for this article. [source] Children and fighting forces: 10 years on from Cape TownDISASTERS, Issue 4 2009Lindsay Stark It is 10 years since the adoption of the Cape Town Principles and Best Practices on the Prevention of Recruitment of Children into the Armed Forces and on Demobilization and Social Reintegration of Child Soldiers in Africa. The field of programming for the reintegration of children associated with armed forces and armed groups has made significant strides in this period. However, important gaps in the knowledge base remain. This paper examines empirical evidence that supports lessons learned from work with children formerly connected with fighting forces. It evaluates what is known, where promising practice exists, and lacunae in five programming areas: psychosocial support and care; community acceptance; education, training and livelihoods; inclusive programming for all war-affected children; and follow-up and monitoring. While the 2007 Paris Commitments to Protect Children from Unlawful Recruitment or Use by Armed Forces or Groups mark an emerging consensus on many issues, there is still a critical need for more systematic studies to develop the evidence base supporting intervention in this area. [source] Alcohol screening and brief intervention: dissemination strategies for medical practice and public healthADDICTION, Issue 5 2000Thomas F. Babor This paper introduces the concept of risky drinking and considers the potential of alcohol screening and brief intervention (SBI) to reduce alcohol-related problems in medical practice and in organized systems of health care. The research evidence behind this approach is reviewed. Potential strategies for the dissemination of SBI to systems of health care are then discussed within the context of a public health model of clinical preventive services. There is an emerging consensus that SBI should be promoted in general healthcare settings, but further research is needed to determine the best ways to achieve widespread dissemination. In an attempt to provide an integrative model that is relevant to SBI, dissemination strategies are discussed for three target groups: (1) individual patients and practitioners; (2) health care settings and health systems; and (3) the communities and the general population. Dissemination strategies are considered from the fields of social change, social science, commercial marketing and education in terms of their potential for translating SBI innovations into routine clinical practice. One overarching strategy implicit in the approaches reviewed in this article is to embed alcohol SBI in the more general context of preventive health services, the utility of which is becoming increasingly recognized as a critical supplement to more traditional clinical medicine. [source] Effect of monovalent cations and G-quadruplex structures on the outcome of intramolecular homologous recombinationFEBS JOURNAL, Issue 11 2009Paula Barros Homologous recombination is a very important cellular process, as it provides a major pathway for the repair of DNA double-strand breaks. This complex process is affected by many factors within cells. Here, we have studied the effect of monovalent cations (K+, Na+, and NH4+) on the outcome of recombination events, as their presence affects the biochemical activities of the proteins involved in recombination as well as the structure of DNA. For this purpose, we used an in vitro recombination system that includes a protein nuclear extract, as a source of recombination machinery, and two plasmids as substrates for intramolecular homologous recombination, each with two copies of different alleles of the human minisatellite MsH43. We found that the presence of monovalent cations induced a decrease in the recombination frequency, accompanied by an increase in the fidelity of the recombination. Moreover, there is an emerging consensus that secondary structures of DNA have the potential to induce genomic instability. Therefore, we analyzed the effect of the sequences capable of forming G-quadruplex on the production of recombinant molecules, taking advantage of the capacity of some MsH43 alleles to generate these kinds of structure in the presence of K+. We observed that the MsH43 recombinants containing duplications, generated in the presence of K+, did not include the repeats located towards the 5,-side of the G-quadruplex motif, suggesting that this structure may be involved in the recombination events leading to duplications. Our results provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the recombination of repetitive sequences. [source] Evolution and homology of the astragalus in early amniotes: New fossils, new perspectivesJOURNAL OF MORPHOLOGY, Issue 4 2006F. Robin O'Keefe Abstract The reorganization of the ankle in basal amniotes has long been considered a key innovation allowing the evolution of more terrestrial and cursorial behavior. Understanding how this key innovation arose is a complex problem that largely concerns the homologizing of the amniote astragalus with the various ossifications in the anamniote tarsus. Over the last century, several hypotheses have been advanced homologizing the amniote astragalus with the many ossifications in the ankle of amphibian-grade tetrapods. There is an emerging consensus that the amniote astragalus is a complex structure emerging via the co-ossification of several originally separate elements, but the identities of these elements remain unclear. Here we present new fossil evidence bearing on this contentious question. A poorly ossified, juvenile astragalus of the large captorhinid Moradisaurus grandis shows clear evidence of four ossification centers, rather than of three centers or one center as posited in previous models of astragalus homology. Comparative material of the captorhinid Captorhinikos chozaensis is also interpretable as demonstrating four ossification centers. A new, four-center model for the homology of the amniote astragalus is advanced, and is discussed in the context of the phylogeny of the Captorhinidae in an attempt to identify the developmental transitions responsible for the observed pattern of ossification within this clade. Lastly, the broader implications for amniote phylogeny are discussed, concluding that the neomorphic pattern of astragalus ossification seen in all extant reptiles (including turtles) arose within the clade Diapsida. J. Morphol. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Symbolic interactionism and the concept of powerTHE BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2005Alex Dennis Abstract Symbolic interactionism is often represented as a perspective which is limited by its restriction to ,micro' aspects of social organization. As such, it is allegedly unable to adequately conceptualize ,macro' phenomena such as social structure, patterns of inequality, and power. Such a view is routinely presented in undergraduate textbooks. This paper contests such a view through a consideration of the concept of power. We argue that the interactionist research tradition does show a fundamental concern with power phenomena, and that a reconsideration of the concept is timely in light of theoretical developments in sociology more generally. An increasing concern with the analysis of culture, the continuing influence of Foucault, the development of feminist perspectives, and the emerging consensus around neo-Weberian thought have all contributed to a renewal of interest in themes long ago explored by interactionists. As examples we suggest that interactionist studies in the fields of deviance and education have been concerned above all with the authoritative imposition of consequential identities, i.e., with the social processes through which power is enacted and institutionalized in real situations. Such developments have led some to argue that interactionism has now been incorporated into the mainstream of sociology. We conclude, however, by arguing that such a view runs the risk of granting to orthodox sociological thought a legitimacy which is analytically unwarranted, and which fails to recognize the alternative theoretical and philosophical foundations of symbolic interactionist thought. [source] Congressional Response to Mandate ElectionsAMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2003David A. M. Peterson Elections from time to time are widely believed to carry a mandate, to express a message about changed policy preferences of the electorate. Whatever the accuracy of such beliefs,a matter about which we are skeptical,perceptions of a mandate should affect the behavior of actors in government. Politicians lack the scholarly luxury of waiting for careful analyses. They must act in the months following elections. We postulate that many will act as if the mandate perceptions were true, veering away from their normal voting patterns. This is driven by election results and interpretations that undermine old calculations about what voters want. As the flow of information gradually changes these perceptions, and the election becomes more distant, members of Congress return to their normal position. We first ask, how would members observe an emerging consensus of mandate? And then we model the duration of the change in behavior in an event-history framework. That permits a depiction of important movements of the median member and, from this, inferences about policy impact. [source] An emerging consensus for the structure of EmrEACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION D, Issue 2 2009Vladimir M. Korkhov The archetypical member of the small multidrug-resistance family is EmrE, a multidrug transporter that extrudes toxic polyaromatic cations from the cell coupled to the inward movement of protons down a concentration gradient. The architecture of EmrE was first defined from the analysis of two-dimensional crystals by cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM), which showed that EmrE was an unusual asymmetric dimer formed from a bundle of eight ,-helices. The most favoured interpretation of the structure was that the monomers were oriented in opposite orientations in the membrane in an antiparallel orientation. A model was subsequently built based upon the cryo-EM data and evolutionary constraints and this model was consistent with mutagenic data indicating which amino-acid residues were important for substrate binding and transport. Two X-ray structures that differed significantly from the cryo-EM structure were subsequently retracted owing to a data-analysis error. However, the revised X-ray structure with substrate bound is extremely similar to the model built from the cryo-EM structure (r.m.s.d. of 1.4,Å), suggesting that the proposed antiparallel orientation of the monomers is indeed correct; this represents a new structural paradigm in membrane-protein structures. The vast majority of mutagenic and biochemical data corroborate this structure, although cross-linking studies and recent EPR data apparently support a model of EmrE that contains parallel dimers. [source] | ||||||||||||||||