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The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a field experiment designed to test the effects of manipulating several elements of an operative level performance appraisal system. (Author)

This paper compares two types of cycling strategies possible in citation index searching. This is done using a class of pseudo-randomly generated citation digraphs whose elements have bounded bibliography size. An attempt is made to explain the results obtained using a combinatorial formula of general application to digraphs. (10 references) (Author)

BACKGROUND: We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify common risk variants for schizophrenia. METHODS: The discovery scan included 1606 patients and 1794 controls from Ireland, using 6,212,339 directly genotyped or imputed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). A subset of this sample (270 cases and 860 controls) was subsequently included in the Psychiatric GWAS Consortium-schizophrenia GWAS meta-analysis. RESULTS: One hundred eight SNPs were taken forward for replication in an independent sample of 13,195 cases and 31,021 control subjects. The most significant associations in discovery, corrected for genomic inflation, were (rs204999, p combined = 1.34 × 10(-9) and in combined samples (rs2523722 p combined = 2.88 × 10(-16)) mapped to the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region. We imputed classical human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles at the locus; the most significant finding was with HLA-C*01:02. This association was distinct from the top SNP signal. The HLA alleles DRB1*03:01 and B*08:01 were protective, replicating a previous study. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides further support for involvement of MHC class I molecules in schizophrenia. We found evidence of association with previously reported risk alleles at the TCF4, VRK2, and ZNF804A loci.

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In this paper, I tackle what appears to be a rather simple question: can there ever be a theory of utterance interpretation? It will be contended that a theory of utterance interpretation is not beyond the intellectual grasp of present-day pragmatists so much as it is a construct which lacks sense and is unintelligible. Although many of our most successful theories exhibit desiderata such as simplicity, completeness and explanatory power, it will be argued that these same desiderata are problematic when it is utterance interpretation that is the focus of theoretical efforts. The case in support of this claim sets out from a detailed analysis of the rational, intentional, holistic character of utterance interpretation and draws on the insights of the American philosopher Hilary Putnam. To the extent that a theory of utterance interpretation is not a difficult empirical possibility to realize so much as it is an endeavour which leads to an unintelligible outcome, we consider where this situation leaves pragmatists who have a substantial appetite for theory construction.

The public has a pact with the experts who deliver public health. That pact can be characterized as a relationship of trust in which the public trusts health experts to act in its best interests in return for its adherence to recommendations and other advice. This relationship clearly has emotional elements, as evidenced by strong feelings of anger and betrayal when public health recommendations are shown to be wrong. But it also has rational or logical components which are less often acknowledged by commentators. In this paper, these components are examined with special emphasis on the role of authority arguments in mediating the trust relationship between health experts and the public. It is contended that these arguments function as cognitive heuristics in that they facilitate decision-making in the absence of expert knowledge. A questionnaire study of public health reasoning was conducted in 879 members of the public. Participants were asked to consider a number of public health scenarios in which various arguments from authority were employed. Epistemic conditions, known to be associated with the rational warrant of these arguments, were systematically varied across these scenarios. Quantitative and qualitative data analyses revealed that subjects are adept at recognizing the conditions under which arguments from authority are more or less rationally warranted. The trust relationship at the heart of public health has logical components which lay people are capable of rationally evaluating during public health deliberations. This rational capacity should be exploited by experts during public health communication.

After creation of an arteriovenous fistula or placement of an arteriovenous graft, several weeks are required for maturation prior to first cannulation. Patients need an alternative way to receive hemodialysis during this time, frequently a catheter. After multiple failed access attempts, patients can run out of options and become catheter dependent. At our institution, we place HeRO grafts in eligible patients who have otherwise been told they would be catheter dependent for life. By combining the HeRO graft system with a Flixene graft, patients are able to remove catheters sooner or avoid placement as they can undergo cannulation for hemodialysis the next day. Utilizing this novel technique, twenty-one patients over a two-year period with various forms of central venous stenosis, catheter dependence, or failing existing arteriovenous access have been successfully converted to stable long term noncatheter based upper extremity access.

Systematic asymptotic methods are used to formulate a model for the extensional flow of a thin sheet of nematic liquid crystal. With no external body forces applied, the model is found to be equivalent to the so-called Trouton model for Newtonian sheets (and fi bers), albeit with a modi fied "Trouton ratio". However, with a symmetry-breaking electric field gradient applied, behavior deviates from the Newtonian case, and the sheet can undergo fi nite-time breakup if a suitable destabilizing field is applied. Some simple exact solutions are presented to illustrate the results in certain idealized limits, as well as sample numerical results to the full model equations.

This paper presents a case for the non-fallaciousness of petitio principii in the context where the only evidence which can confirm the conclusion of an argument has a content which is identical to the content of the conclusion. The more usual rhetorical and dialectical frameworks for the analysis off allacies are challenged for what I describe as their proscriptive stance. As an alternative to proscription, I recommend an analysis of the context in which petitio arguments occur. Such an analysis, I argue, suggests the relaxation of a priority condition described by Waiton (1985) and the relevance to the present case of Sorensen's (1991) analysis ofthe non-circularity of certain 'P, therefore, P' arguments.