Book Chapters

Muscarinic agonists and antagonists: Effects on the urinary bladder

Donna J. Sellers et al. — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 15:40:28 PST

Voiding of the bladder is the result of a parasympathetic muscarinic receptor activation of the detrusor smooth muscle. However, the maintenance of continence and a normal bladder micturition cycle involves a complex interaction of cholinergic, adrenergic, nitrergic and peptidergic systems that is currently little understood. The cholinergic component of bladder control involves two systems, acetylcholine (ACh) released from parasympathetic nerves and ACh from non-neuronal cells within the urothelium. The actions of ACh on the bladder depend on the presence of muscarinic receptors that are located on the detrusor smooth muscle, where they cause direct (M3) and indirect (M2) contraction; pre-junctional nerve terminals where they increase (M1) or decrease (M4) the release of ACh and noradrenaline (NA); sensory nerves where they influence afferent nerve activity; umbrella cells in the urothelium where they stimulate the release of ATP and NO; suburothelial interstitial cells with unknown function; and finally, other unidentified sites in the urothelium from where prostaglandins and inhibitory/relaxatory factors are released. Thus, the actions of muscarinic receptor agonists and antagonists on the bladder may be very complex even when considering only local muscarinic actions. Clinically, muscarinic antagonists remain the mainstay of treatment for the overactive bladder (OAB), while muscarinic agonists have been used to treat hypoactive bladder. The antagonists are effective in treating OAB, but their precise mechanisms and sites of action (detrusor, urothelium, and nerves) have yet to be established. Potentially more selective agents may be developed when the cholinergic systems within the bladder are more fully understood.

Promoting: Programs for and challenges of the knowledge-based small business

Joan K. Imukuka et al. — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:11:01 PDT

Improving the governance of superannuation funds in Australia

Kenneth Levy et al. — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 23:27:28 PDT

Extract:

Prior to 1945 superannuation was the exception rather than the rule. Individual pensions were uncommon and generally either self funded by the employer as in the case of banks and the public service or were effected through contractual arrangements such as insurance or purchased annuities. A national culture focussed on the availability of the Australian Government pension and a reluctance to embrace the concept of superannuation by many employers and employees. Limitations on trustee investment inhibited the growth of superannuation funds.¹

Stewardship behaviour as governance in family businesses

Justin B. Craig et al. — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 23:12:37 PDT

Extract:

To demonstrate the potential of stewardship behavior in the governance of family businesses, we introduce a statistically valid and reliable measure that captures the degree to which family leaders act to engender stewardship governance in their family's firm. Demonstrating nomological validity of our measure through significantly positive relationships with innovativeness and firm performance further links our scale to entrepreneutrial behaviors. We discuss the contribution to our research for practitioners and scholars.

Ethics and the criminal profiler

Brent E. Turvey — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 22:31:57 PDT

Extract:

The term ethics, as we use it, refers to roles or standards that have been established to govern the conduct of members of a profession. The problem here is that only a handful of criminal profilers have begun to professionalize.¹ Most criminal profilers operate outside of a specific or written code of professional ethics. Consequently, one could make an effective argument for the position that many criminal profilers are still allowed the luxury of giving expert opinions without having to worry about being held responsible for them.

Introduction to terrorism: understanding and interviewing terrorists

Brent E. Turvey et al. — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 22:23:29 PDT

Extract:

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the viability of profiling terrorists in the context of the global war on Islamic extremist terror groups, the inherent problems with current nomothetic approaches, and then finally to provide strategies for rapport-based interviewing of individual terrorists.

Serial cases: investigating pattern crimes

Brent E. Turvey — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 22:06:28 PDT

Extract:

Serial crime refers to any series of two or more related crimes (Petherick, 2005, pp. 143-149). Despite the limits set upon us by traditional nomothetic reasoning, this does not necessarily mean two or more related crimes of the same type (i.e., rape, homicide, burglary, stalking, etc.). Unfortunately, many investigators and researchers are stuck in a nomothetic mode--a function of how crime has been studied (chunked into similar groups), as opposed to how criminals actually behave and how crime must consequently be investigated. From a practical standpoint, it is not the type of crime that defines the existence of a series, but the inference that the same offender is committing them. Nomothetic research and study have worked very hard to blind us to the reality that many offenders are not just rapists, not just murderers, not just arsonists, not just stalkers, not just burglars, or not just bank robbers. In fact, many serial offenders (a.k.a. serialists) commit crimes of multiple types in the course of a criminal season or career. Keeping this criminal versatility in mind is one of the steps that can lead to offenders’ identification and apprehension.

Mass murder

Brent E. Turvey — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:51:48 PDT

Extract:

This chapter covers mass murder (mass killing), an all too common focus of the author’s casework. The phrase mass murder is commonly defined as the murder of multiple victims during a single event, at one or more associated locations. This construct is distinct from serial crime classifications, such as killing sprees and serial murder; which are discussed in Chapter 22.¹

The definition of mass murder appears straightforward, and it should be. For any event to be described thus, there must be multiple victims and they must all be victims of criminal homicide. This also means that they must all be dead. It is not permissible to refer to a case as a mass murder, or any related subtype, should there be doubt whether the alleged victims are dead or should there be doubt that their deaths were the result of a homicide.

Domestic homicide

Brent E. Turvey — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:42:59 PDT

Extract:

Domestic homicide occurs when one family member, household member, or intimate kills another. It is often the result of accumulated as opposed to situational rage, and therefore it is commonly associated with long-term fighting abuse, or betrayal. It also frequently occurs in associated with drug and alcohol use. Consequently, it involves some of the more violent and aberrant behaviors that criminal profilers will need to examine.

Sex crimes

Brent E. Turvey — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:33:23 PDT

Extract:

Criminal profilers have a duty to be fully versed in the prevalence, nature, and variety of sex crimes that may be encountered in research and casework. Those who enter the profession ignorant of the subject do it a disservice, and those who avoid study of the subject would do best to leave it immediately. One cannot be a competent criminal investigator or criminal profiler without significant exposure to, and a healthy appreciation of, human sexuality and its criminal manifestations.