Short White Coats: Knowledge,Identity, and Status Negotiations of First‐Year Medical Students

This paper investigates the meanings medical students invest in their white coats and how these meanings shape students' strategic use of the white coat as a status symbol. During a four‐year ethnography of medical education, I found that the white coat signified knowledgeability and was used to assert status. In interactions students policed their own and each other's status displays, a process I identify as an instance of status management in medical training. An analysis of the meanings and conventional uses of the short white coat increases our understanding of how novice trainees negotiate their place in a new social order.     

Reaping the Benefits and Avoiding the Risks: Unrealistic Optimism in the Health Domain

People's perceptions of benefits and risks play a key role in their acceptance or rejection of medical interventions, yet these perceptions may be poorly calibrated. This online study with N = 373 adults aged 19–76 years focused on unrealistic optimism in the health domain. Participants indicated how likely they were to experience benefits and risks associated with medical conditions and completed objective and subjective numeracy scales. Participants exhibited optimistic views about the likelihood of experiencing the benefits and the side effects of treatment options described in the scenarios. Objective and subjective numeracy were not associated with more accurate ratings. Moreover, participants’ underestimation of the risks was significantly greater than their overestimation of the benefits. From an applied perspective, these results suggest that clinicians may need to ensure that patients do not underestimate risks of medical interventions, and that they convey realistic expectations about the benefits that can be obtained with certain procedures.     

An Interactionist Approach to the Social Construction of Deities

This paper examines the ways people construct and signify deities. Utilizing responses from an ethnographic study as well as analyses of existing studies of religion, we elaborate ways people construct the existence and characteristics of deities by engaging in “deity work,” which we define as the work people do to give meaning to deities as well as to themselves, others, or social phenomena related to deities. In so doing, we demonstrate how people may accomplish this in many settings by engaging in strategies of identity work including (1) defining, (2) coding, and (3) affirming the meanings of a given deity in social interaction. In conclusion, we draw out implications for understanding (1) the importance of examining deity work, and (2) some ways a focus on deity work processes may expand existing religious and interactionist studies.     

Totality from Interiority: The Nineteenth-Century Russian Novel as Epic in Georg Lukàcs’s The Theory of the Novel

In The Theory of the Novel, Georg Lukàcs’s (1885–1971) approach to the nineteenth-century Russian novel evidences underlying conflict: without presenting theoretical justification, Lukàcs continually refers to these works as ‘epic’. Yet according to the opposition he creates between novel and epic, the idea of a work’s belonging to both genres — even peripherally — appears paradoxical. This article explores the possibility that from Lukàcs’s approach within the Theory, the particular history and characteristics of the nineteenth-century Russian novel make it genuinely qualify for the seemingly-impossible classification of renewed epic; hence his continual implication that this is its true genre. Lukàcs’s treatments of nineteenth-century Russian novelists mentioned in the Theory are examined as support for this reading.     

Cognitive functions and health-related quality of life in men with benign prostatic hyperplasia and symptoms of overactive bladder when treated with a combination of tamsulosin and solifenacin in a higher dosage

Aim: To study the cognitive functions and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in individuals taking a combination of tamsulosin and solifenacin in a higher dosage.

Methods: All patients (n?=?262) were assigned to group A (N?=?93, tamsulosin 0.4?mg?+?solifenacin 10?mg per day), group B (N?=?83, tamsulosin 0.4?mg?+?solifenacin 20?mg), and control group C (N?=?86; tamsulosin 0.4?mg?+?placebo). The lower urinary tract (LUT) condition was assessed on the scales International Prostate Symptom Score, Over Active Bladder Awareness Tool and uroflowmetry. The state of cognitive status was assessed on the scales Mini-mental State Examination, Controlled Oral Word Association Test, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised, Wechsler III, Color Trails Test, California Verbal Learning Test.

Results: The values of cognitive function indicators in the individuals from all groups after treatment did not significantly differ from the respective values at the baseline (p?>?.05). The values of most HRQoL parameters of the functional state of the LUT significantly improved in groups A and B. A significant correlation between the state of cognitive status and HRQoL, as well as LUT was absent (r?<0.3).

Conclusion: The combination of solifenacin in a double dosage along with tamsulosin can be recommended for elderly benign prostatic hyperplasia patients with overactive bladder symptoms.     

The established and the outsiders: legitimacy and economic niches of the four generations of Saint Petersburg cultural organizations

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the post-Soviet evolution of the sector of cultural organizations in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The study relies on a combination of qualitative (semi-structured interviews with employees of 34 cultural organizations of St. Petersburg) and quantitative (pile sorting) methods of data treatment, as well as synthesizes approaches from theories of organizations (organizational ecology, neo-institutionalism) and cultural studies and sociology of culture (Bourdieu, DiMaggio) to analyse the successively emerging waves of organizations. We show that the organizations can be divided into four waves, with the oldest ones existing from Soviet (and sometimes Imperial) times and the newest emerging during the economic boom of the early 2000s. The waves differ primarily in the degree of legitimacy resulting from their abstaining from or participating in a wide range of market activities. The aristocratic establishment extracting resources from ‘pure’ sources enjoys much greater prestige and, ultimately, economic security, than those who have to use less approved sources. Our general conclusion is that the ‘birth order’ is primarily responsible for the ability of an organization to occupy a desirable economic niche. Thus, the oldest wave occupies the most favourable niche, possessing the greatest legitimacy and receiving generous support from public and private foundations, while later waves had either to restrict their economic activities to prove their belonging to artistic field (second and, partially, third waves) or to combine different artistic (exhibitions, performances, and film screening), academic (lectures and seminars) and commercial (café and shops) activities within one public space, which, however, greatly undermines their legitimacy and deprives them of most sources of public funding. Ironically, the newer organizations embrace and translate the opposition between ‘pure art’ and ‘commerce’, which dooms them to suffering in a vicious circle of illegitimacy.     

Efficiency versus fairness: The evaluation of labor market policies by economists and laypeople

The present study examines the criteria used by economic laypeople (N = 380 German citizens) and economists (N = 80 professors or postgraduates in economics) in judging reform measures as illustrated by policies of governmental labor market intervention policies. Results reveal substantial differences between economists and laypeople. Most laypersons favored labor market interventions and regarded them as both, efficient and fair. In contrast, most economists opposed labor market interventions and regarded them as both, inefficient and unfair. Using structural equation modelling we further show that the relative importance of efficiency and fairness differs between both groups. While economists base the acceptance of a certain reform measure mainly on its perceived efficiency, laypersons mainly focus on its perceived fairness. Theoretical and practical implications of our results are discussed.     

Occupational aspirations and ethnic school segregation: social contagion effects among native German and immigrant youths

In this study, I broaden the perspective on young immigrants’ aspirations by looking at their social embeddedness in the host society in terms of their institutionally predefined ties to school peers. In particular, I investigate the relationship between the aspirations of immigrant and native youths with special regard to the social mechanisms that may underlie peer influences. My analyses are based on multilevel data on ninth graders from the German National Educational Panel Study. The results show that a high ratio of immigrants in schools positively influences the aspirations of both immigrant and native German youths by way of school climate. However, the same context has different effects on different groups of origin. For those of Turkish descent, ‘ethnic schools’ are of twofold significance: first, the aspiration gap between Turks and native Germans decreases with increasing segregation, an effect that may be attributable to less perceived discriminatory experiences in school. Second, Turkish young people's stronger adaptation to the climate in ethnically segregated schools reinforces the protective effect of ethnic segregation and, additionally, lowers the aspirations of these youths. That is, immigrants’ stronger orientation towards their in-group seems to contribute to a buffer against discrimination.     

Prediction of Human Development from Environmental Indicators

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) list the objectives and targets that should be addressed to solve the global issues regarding sustainable development. They encompass the social, economic and environmental dimensions and search for solutions that are able not only to monitor but also to control the operational indicators attributed to each objective. It is expected that many of these indicators are associated to each other and the accurate understanding of these correlations allows to build predictive statistical models that can improve the monitoring and controlling of variables. It would increase the rate of success in achieving the SDG. This study tested a linear multivariate model able to predict the human development index based on environmental variables which are related to SDG 3 (health), 4 (education), 8 (sustainable economic growth and decent work) and 15 (protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems). We fitted the models using the Linear Discriminant Analysis and Best Subset Selection applied to a Linear Multivariate Regression. The model predictive ability was assessed by R² and cross-validation (CV). The results showed that exposure to unsafe sanitation, access to drinking water, tree cover loss, unsafe water quality, wastewater treatment level, and household air pollution are excellent predictors of human development index of a population, with R² = 0.94 and 10-fold CV Mean Squared Error equal to 0.0014. This tool can help stakeholders to monitor and control indicators attributed to good health and well-being, quality education, clean water and sanitation, decent work and economic growth, sustainable cities and communities and life on land sustainable development goals.