Quantifying urban forest structure,function, and value: the Chicago Urban Forest Climate Project

This paper is a review of research in Chicago that linked analyses of vegetation structure with forest functions and values. During 1991, the regions trees removed an estimated 5575 metric tons of air pollutants, providing air cleansing worth 9.2 million. Each year they sequester an estimated 315 800 metric tons of carbon. Increasing tree cover 10% or planting about three trees per building lot saves annual heating and cooling costs by an estimated 50 to 90 per dwelling unit because of increased shade, lower summertime air temperatures, and reduced neighborhood wind speeds once the trees mature. The net present value of the services trees provide is estimated as 402 per planted tree. The present value of long-term benefits is more than twice the present value of costs.     

Public hospitals: an assessment and plan for the future.

We are currently living in very difficult times for most health care providers. Even though we have always known it, the fact that resources for health care are limited is now abundantly apparent to consumers, health care providers, fiscal intermediaries, government (local, state, and federal), health care planners, and policy makers. Hospitals, especially, are being severely pressured to reduce resource consumption and costs. Conditions that are difficult for nonpublic hospitals are critical for public hospitals in general and nearly fatal for rural public hospitals. Fortunately, nonpublic hospitals are beginning to realize for the first time that their future depends, to a significant degree, on a strong and financially healthy public hospital system. If the public hospital, the hospital of last resort, closes, medically indigent patients will have to be treated in nonpublic hospitals, with the resultant medical, financial, economic, political, and social consequences. Therefore, the importance of public hospitals has to be even better recognized and appreciated and these institutions actively supported in order for the private and total health care systems to be successful.     

Recent challenges to traditional assumptions about homosexuality: some implications for practice

During the last decade there has been a change in professional attitudes toward homosexuality reflected in the development of new models of treatment. Rather than offering a cure the aim is to help homosexuals adjust positively to their orientation. Such attitudinal change on the part of the practitioners has not, in the main, questioned the fundamental assumptions of theories which seek to explain homosexuality. Recent theoretical inquiry into homosexuality, however, has done this, posing an important challenge to the traditionally held view that people have an essential sexuality that is either homosexual or heterosexual and which remains fixed and unchanging throughout their lives. This paper addresses some of the more important clinical implications of these recent developments, in particular, the suggestion that "the homosexual" as a certain type of person is an "invention." In addition, the therapeutic value and difficulties associated with an acknowledgement that sexual preference and identity may change over time are considered. Finally, there is consideration of what the goals should be in the case of the person who seeks professional help in changing from a homosexual to a heterosexual orientation.     

Female Adoptees’ Experiences Balancing Relationships With Biological and Adoptive Mothers Post‐Reunification

Using a feminist postmodern perspective and the sensitizing concept of split loyalties from Contextual Theory, the primary purpose of this qualitative study was to develop a better understanding of how adult female adoptees from closed adoptions negotiate relationships with their adoptive and biological mothers post‐reunion. We conducted semi‐structured individual interviews with nine adult female adoptees, ages 28–52, who were adopted prior to the age of two. Six were Caucasian, three were African American, and the average age at reunion was 29. Grounded theory techniques were used to code the qualitative data, in particular the constant comparative method of analysis. Four main categories emerged: (a) Negotiating Mother–Daughter Relationships, (b) Relating to Mothers Equitably, (c) Loyalty, and (d) Adoptees’ Emotional Needs. Our findings suggest the adoptive mother–daughter relationship has a salient effect on adoptees’ relationships with biological mothers post‐reunion. Loyalty to the adoptive mother seems to influence the evolving relationship and closeness displayed toward the birth mother. Adult female adoptees from closed adoptions described struggling with managing their two mother–daughter relationships and need clinical help addressing their own emotional needs.     

Tools of the Serials Trade

Abstract

Trina Nolen reviews Rethinking Information Literacy; Elizabeth Parang, Fundamentals of Managing Reference Collections; Ann Roll reviews Building and Managing E-Book Collections; and Sarah Tusa reviews HR: A Human Resources Handbook for Academic Library Staff.     

The personalisation agenda: the case of the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme

As part of the international trend towards personalisation, in 2013 Australia launched a major disability scheme aiming to give participants greater choice and control over services. The scheme aims to cover a wide diversity of disabilities, services and significant geographical area – resulting in a highly complex system of local overlapping markets. At four years into implementation a range of challenges have emerged. In this paper we firstly describe the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme, then explore a range of implementation challenges it currently faces as a large-scale personalisation scheme. Based on these experiences we pose a range of questions for similar schemes internationally.