The Economic Impact of Progressive Neurological Illness on Quality of Life in Australia

The current study examined the impact of financial costs and self-reported economic pressure on the quality of life of patients with progressive neurological illness. Participants were 423 people from four illness groups in Australia. Participants completed measures of (a) quality of life, (b) income, (c) expenses, (d) economic pressure, (e) social support, (f) relationship satisfaction, and (g) severity of illness. There was a strong negative association between quality of life and economic pressure (but not income or expenses) for all groups. Subjective assessment of economic pressure was strongly associated with quality of life for people with motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis. Implications of these results for assisting people with progressive neurological illnesses to cope with the financial changes that occur due to their illness are discussed.     

What's the problem? A problem-based approach to the reform of the Norwegian drug rehabilitation sector

This article explores how the scope of solutions to complex problems is determined by the way in which the problem is formulated. We inquire into this by means of a theory-driven case study of the reform in the Norwegian drug rehabilitation sector and the Tyrili facility. We analyze divergent approaches to drug rehabilitation by means of a problem formulation framework, which distinguishes between (1) the value dimensions of given problems, and (2) the phases of problem solving activities. Based on this inquiry, we arrive at a set of propositions, in which we propose that the two approaches differ in their inclusion of various value dimensions. Moreover, we suggest that the reform pursued increased efficiency as a solution to a reductionist formulation of the problem, which challenged Tyrili's opportunity to solve the problem in the multidimensional manner they conceive of it. This is an argument against a one-dimensional maximization of efficiency as a pursuit of quality in social services.     

Gaming–playing on social media: using the psychoanalytic concept of ‘playing’ to theorize user labour on Facebook

ABSTRACT

Political economists have argued that user activity on corporate social media is regarded as labour that appears playful and fun but is exploited and sold to advertisers for profit maximization. This article begins with the working assumption that such user labour on social media constitutes a form of playing. It is theorized through a psychoanalytic perspective on the term as developed by D. W. Winnicott and André Green. The notion of gaming–playing is put forward to account for set interface structures on Facebook that resemble a game as well as free-flowing dimensions more akin to playing. Some user discourses on Facebook are analysed through this prism. A psychoanalytic conceptualization of user labour as playing allows one to analyse both positive discourses that emphasize Facebook as a space for creativity, exploration and the unknown, as well as negative discourses that critique the platform with regard to lacking privacy controls or data ownership. Both discourses are conducted in a playful manner that creatively utilize a sense of user agency in relation to others and Facebook itself, but often remain without consequences.     

Investigating the Relationship Between Real Estate Agents,Segregation, and House Prices: Steering and Upselling in New York State

This article leverages a unique data set, recently developed regression methods, and qualitative interviews to investigate the multiple ways real estate agents produce housing inequality. We find that the clustering of agents in and around certain neighborhoods correlates positively with house prices. Our results also show a significant relationship between agent concentration and racial segregation. Our qualitative data reveal how agents engage in steering and upselling. The findings enhance our understanding of mechanisms in the housing market, and provide more empirical clarity on the role real estate agents play in asset and place inequality.     

‘I Eat the Vegetables because I Have Grown them with My Own Hands’: Children's Perspectives on School Gardening and Vegetable Consumption

Inadequate vegetable consumption is a global public health concern related to numerous health risks. A promising intervention to increase children's vegetable consumption is school gardening, although earlier studies have shown mixed results. This study explores how gardening might contribute to changed attitudes towards eating vegetables from a child's perspective. Findings are based on qualitative research with children in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. We reflect on how children enact agency regarding their vegetables. Results show that children report that changes occur in their attitudes towards vegetables as they not only eat more vegetables but also advocate the consumption of vegetables at home.     

Civil Society in ‘Politics’ and ‘Development’ in African Hybrid Regimes: The Kenyan Case

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Civil society in Gramscian conception is an arena of hegemonic contestations and therefore essentially political....     

Distributed sensemaking in network risk analysis

This article responds to the call advancing risk science as an independent research field, by introducing a conceptual model for risk analysis based on distributed sensemaking. Significant advances in recent decades have expanded the use of risk analysis to almost every organization globally. Continued improvements have been made to our understanding of risk, placing a wide range of contexts under organizational control. This article argues that four dimensions are central in how organizations make sense of uncertainty in their context and hence do risk analysis: the activities the organization engages in, their sensory systems, the role and competence of individuals, and the ability to coordinate information through organizational structures. The structure enables insight into the decision-making process and the dimensions contributing to how organizations perceive risks and uncertainty in a given context. Three examples from the Arctic context illustrate the network risk analysis model's practical application and how it will expose weaknesses in these organizations’ risk analysis and decision-making processes. Finally, the article discusses sensemaking in network risk analysis and how such an approach supports organizations’ ability to perceive, collect, process, and decide on changes in context.     

Notes and Comments the Amsterdam Auction

The Amsterdam auction has been used to sell real estate in the Dutch capital for centuries. By awarding a premium to the highest losing bidder, the Amsterdam auction favors weak bidders without having the implementation difficulties of Myerson's (1981) optimal auction. In a series of experiments, we compare the standard first‐price and English auctions, the optimal auction, and two variants of the Amsterdam auction. With strongly asymmetric bidders, the second‐price Amsterdam auction raises substantially more revenues than standard formats and only slightly less than the optimal auction.     

Fitting Curves to Human Respiratory Data

Records of gas flow during breathing are cyclical, with the cycles varying in duration. The shape of these cycles may change with the intensity of respiratory stimulation or the development of respiratory disease, but currently research is hampered by the lack of a fully satisfactory technique for determining the shape of a typical cycle. The approach adopted here is to replace the time series by a 'phase diagram', plotting the time integral of flow against flow itself. Principal curves are then fitted. These are curves `through the middle of the data' which were introduced by Hastie and Stuetzle. The shapes of these curves are compared, either directly or after reconstructing an average cycle corresponding to each fitted curve. This has the advantage that the shape of the waveform is separated from the amplitude, and from the duration of the breath. A disadvantage is that periods of zero flow are lost, and the reconstructed average cycle may show irregularities at points near zero flow as a result. In practice, the methodology showed clear differences in shape between the protocols, gave reasonable average cycles and ordered the waveform shapes according to the hardness of breathing induced by the protocols.