Reducing avian mortality from noise barrier collisions along an urban roadway

Urban Ecosystems - Anthropogenic changes, including road network, have strongly influenced biodiversity of Europe. For the past 100 years road networks have become a conspicuous part of...     

The Effects of Housing Costs on Nursing Home Diversion

Abstract

This article examines the effect of the housing market on nursing home diversion and/or transition. Prior evaluations of federally funded diversion/transition efforts indicate that lack of housing may be a significant impediment to diversion policy efforts. We test this charge by examining the transition rates in all 351 municipalities in Massachusetts, using a data set of over 15,000 individuals seeking to remain or transition home between 2010 and 2014 through Massachusetts' Options Counseling program and their relation to key indicators of housing quality and affordability, including housing burden, crowding, and incomplete kitchen and plumbing facilities. We also control for demographic indicators identified in previous findings, which are age, level of frailty, and whether seniors live alone. We do not find a significant relationship between housing affordability or quality and successful nursing home diversion. This fact suggests that consumers are not as sensitive to housing costs and conditions as previously expected. Future research should continue to investigate the economic and social conditions behind this fact in the context of home value appreciation, incidence of home ownership, and the ability of seniors to offset nursing home costs through accumulated home equity.     

Are there Reasons for Optimism in the Battle against Sexual Assault?

Rape and sexual assault remain major criminological problems in the United States. However, there are a number of reasons for future optimism. American society appears to be gradually evolving in important ways, and changing attitudes reflect more appreciation for human rights, human equality, and support for victims of sexual violence. In addition, advances in technology offer new ways for the justice system to catch and prosecute sex offenders, and the scholars researching these crimes continue to make important strides in critical areas. Furthermore, several data sources suggest that the prevalence of rape and sexual assault has decreased over the past 40 years. As long as Americans continue to demand more progress and more justice, they may have a chance to make that happen.     

AN EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF INDIVIDUAL ITEM FORECASTING MODELS

A computer simulation experiment was replicated to correct errors in an earlier paper and to compare seven individual item forecasting models across five different demand patterns. Results confirm previous findings that the better forecasting model depends upon the demand pattern and the forecast horizon, as well as the noise level. Nevertheless, exponential double smoothing emerged as the most robust model.     

Navigating Islam and same-sex liaisons among men in Turkey

This study reports the experiences of 20 Turkish men in having sex with men in an Islamic society. As part of a broader study on Turkish homosexualities, the article analyzes responses to the question, "What joys and difficulties have you experienced regarding your sexual orientation in relation to Islam?" to elicit responses on how Islam and homosexuality might coexist in everyday life.     

More Unequal in Income,More Unequal in Wellbeing

This study focuses on the long-term trend in happiness by income level in the United States. General Social Survey data suggest that in the past, rich and poor Americans were not only more equal in terms of income, but also in terms of their subjective wellbeing: the happiness gap between the poor and the rich has been increasing. Today’s poor suffer greater relative unhappiness than the poor of past decades. The gap between the poor and the rich is substantial, approximately 0.4 on a 1–3 happiness scale. The increase in the happiness gap is striking: comparing the 1970s to the 2000s, the gap has widened by about 40 % between the poor and the rich, and by about 50 % between the middle class and the rich.     

How a Therapist Responds to Cultural Versus Noncultural Dialogue in Cross-Cultural Clinical Practice

A therapist's capacity to respond appropriately to a client is crucial in fostering positive therapeutic relationships and outcomes in general but it is even more important in cross-cultural therapy. Given the clinical significance of the dyad-specific and dynamic nature of the therapist's responsiveness, our study explores one white female therapist's responsiveness with three racial/ethnic minority clients in the beginning phase of therapy sessions. Using the structural analysis of social behavior and conversation analysis, the turn-by-turn intensive analysis of culturally relevant and nonrelevant talk in therapy illustrates how a therapist, who is appropriately and positively responsive to clients in other contexts, becomes disengaged and even negatively oriented during culturally relevant talk. This finding illustrates the challenges involved in maintaining positive engagement and responsiveness in cross-cultural therapeutic communication. Our findings also highlight the usefulness of focusing on moment-to-moment interactions in cross-cultural clinical practice.     

A message-focused measurement of the communication dimension of social capital: Revealing shared meaning in a network of relationships

This study integrates two theoretically driven methods—network analysis and fantasy theme analysis—to present a message-focused operationalization for the communication dimension of social capital. The results find empirical support for scholars’ theorizing that public relations-facilitated messages cultivate shared meaning and foster social capital. The relationship between shared meaning and social capital was especially evident in network subgroups (cliques). This article contributes to social capital theory building by focusing on the meaning making process that strengthens social capital in networks. Public relations practitioners’ communicative roles in social capital cultivation are made evident with a message-focused measurement.     

Maisie’s Spasms: Transferential Poetics in Henry James and Wilfred Bion

ABSTRACT

This essay offers a reading of Henry James’s midcareer novel What Maisie Knew (1897) as a study in group psychology. Maisie, James’s child heroine, is at the center of an expanding and transforming family group that includes various governesses as well as her divorced parents’ multiple new partners. I set James’s novel beside Bion’s Experiences in Groups and Other Papers (1961) and its Kleinian approach to the continuities and discontinuities between individual and group experience. Rather than insisting (as Freud tends to) only on a narrative of individuation and adaptation, Bion emphasizes the necessity and difficulty an individual inevitably experiences in making contact with the emotional life of the group in which she lives. James casts the frustrating necessity of group experience in entirely theatrical terms, figuring Maisie from the start as a spectator to, and eventually an active participant in, the affective circuits of those around her. In my reading the transferential poetics of James and Bion make available the affective, transindividual nature of knowing as a contingent activity that takes place between persons and other objects. The essay concludes by unfolding some of the surprising televisual aspects of James’s late style.     

Neighborhood Crime Rate,Weight‐Related Behaviors,and Obesity: A Systematic Review of the Literature

A growing body of literature has focused on the link between objectively‐measured neighborhood crime rates, obesity, and weight‐related behaviors including physical activity and diet. Through a systematic search of this literature, the current review evaluates these relationships and stratifies by type of crime (violent or property). Searches on PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar retrieved 24 articles on physical activity/inactivity and 19 articles on obesity or diet. Evidence points to neighborhood crime as being positively associated with obesity and physical inactivity. Studies differentiating these associations by type of crime were lacking, although findings suggest that the link between neighborhood crime and physical activity is stronger for females versus males. Fear of victimization is one explanation for this pattern. Limitations of extant studies are explored, and suggestions for future research are outlined.