“Blood,Guts, and Gore Galore:” Bodies,Moral Pollution,and Combat Trauma

This article is based on interviews with U.S. veterans diagnosed with combat‐related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In remembering war, the veterans consistently described grotesque death and injury. These stories of “blood, guts, and gore” were often closely associated with negative moral evaluations of war, which included outright moral claims, moralistic allusions, and expressions of moral emotions. I argue that memories of grotesque death and injury “code” combat as moral pollution, and as these veterans present it, combat pollutes every soldier who passes through it. Furthermore, this classification represents a modern moral culture in which the body is sacred, subject to sustained ritual cleanliness and to strict prohibitions against encroachment by others. A mutilated body is severely disordered and filthy, and when a product of human design, it represents an extremely cruel trespass. Consequently, mutilated bodies are doubly polluted and can code combat as negative in the extreme. This article illustrates that personal traumatic memories are sociologically and historically organized, that the traditional religious ideas of purity and pollution still order moral life, and that autobiographical memory can be approached as a classificatory structure.     

Heuristics for Base‐Stock Levels in Multi‐Echelon Distribution Networks

We study inventory optimization for locally controlled, continuous‐review distribution systems with stochastic customer demands. Each node follows a base‐stock policy and a first‐come, first‐served allocation policy. We develop two heuristics, the recursive optimization (RO) heuristic and the decomposition‐aggregation (DA) heuristic, to approximate the optimal base‐stock levels of all the locations in the system. The RO heuristic applies a bottom‐up approach that sequentially solves single‐variable, convex problems for each location. The DA heuristic decomposes the distribution system into multiple serial systems, solves for the base‐stock levels of these systems using the newsvendor heuristic of Shang and Song (2003), and then aggregates the serial systems back into the distribution system using a procedure we call “backorder matching.” A key advantage of the DA heuristic is that it does not require any evaluation of the cost function (a computationally costly operation that requires numerical convolution). We show that, for both RO and DA, changing some of the parameters, such as leadtime, unit backordering cost, and demand rate, of a location has an impact only on its own local base‐stock level and its upstream locations’ local base‐stock levels. An extensive numerical study shows that both heuristics perform well, with the RO heuristic providing more accurate results and the DA heuristic consuming less computation time. We show that both RO and DA are asymptotically optimal along multiple dimensions for two‐echelon distribution systems. Finally, we show that, with minor changes, both RO and DA are applicable to the balanced allocation policy.     

Economic Well-being and Cohabitation: Another Nonmetro Disadvantage?

Our study examines residential variability in the prevalence of cohabiting households, the extent to which children are present, characteristics of the household head, and multiple indicators of economic well-being. Despite a lower prevalence of cohabiting households in nonmetropolitan compared to other areas, a larger proportion contain children. For all measures considered, economic well-being is lowest for cohabiting households with children in nonmetropolitan areas, and compared to their metro counterparts a larger proportion receive all forms of public assistance. The higher likelihood of poverty among nonmetropolitan cohabiting households with children is not explained by the characteristics of the household heads in multivariate models predicting household poverty. Cohabitation clearly has different family and economic implications in nonmetropolitan than in other residential areas.     

One-cluster sampling designs for an autocorrelated population

The variance of the sampling distribution of the sample mean is derived for two sampling designs in which a single cluster is randomly drawn from an autocorrelated population. The derivations are motivated by potential applications to statistical quality control, where a "one-cluster" sampling design may often be used because of ease of implementation, and where it is likely that process output is autocorrelated Scenarios in statistical process control for which either non-overlapping or overlapping clusters are appropriate are described The sampling design variance under non-overlapping clusters is related to the sampling design variance under overlapping clusters through the use of a circular population.     

The underreporting gap in aggressive incidents from geriatric patients against certified nursing assistants

Staff in the health care industry experience workplace aggression at a much higher rate than the general workforce. However, a large proportion of aggressive incidents go unreported, and the source of many of these incidents is patients. This study investigates aggressive incidents from patients against certified nursing assistants (CNAs; n = 76) in a sample of six geriatric care facilities. The results indicate that CNAs experienced a median of 26 aggressive incidents over the course of the 2-week study and that approximately 95% of these incidents were not reported to the facility. The present study also empirically examines reasons why nursing staff decide to report incidents. Finally, this study reveals that the experience of aggression from patients is related to subsequent organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and intent to leave the job.     

Accumulation of deicing salts in soils in an urban environment

Examining rates of deicing salt accumulation and leaching in urban soils is important for understanding the distribution and movement of salt in the environment. We examined autumn concentrations of deicing salts in soils in a moderately dense urban landscape in eastern New York State. The study area contrasted to the isolated, rural highways examined in previous studies. While NaCl was the most abundantly applied salt, Mg²⁺ (apparently from MgCl₂, a secondary deicing salt) was the most abundant salt cation in soils. Moderate Na⁺ levels, and equivalent concentrations at depth and in surface samples, indicate that leaching of Na⁺ is rapid in this system. Leaching may ameliorate toxicity for land plants but accelerate inputs to aquatic systems. In contrast to rural highway studies, where salt levels declined rapidly with distance to pavement, Na⁺ remained elevated at the maximum distance measured. Airborne salt dispersal and dense networks of pavement likely contribute to widespread elevated salt levels. This semi-urban setting had salt levels high enough to be toxic to terrestrial plants and soil protozoa. Even moderate levels of development can have dramatic effects on salt inputs into soils and aquatic systems.

Trait Mindfulness and Anger in the Family: A Dyadic Analysis of Male Service Members and their Female Partners

Anger-related problems have been documented among post-deployed service members who returned home, posing risks to their well-being and increasing distress in their families. Trait mindfulness (acting with awareness, nonjudging, and nonreactivity) has been associated with lower self-reported anger. Using actor–partner interdependence models, we tested the association between trait mindfulness and parental anger observed in parent–child and couple interactions. The sample consisted of 155 dyads of male National Guard/Reserve members who had been recently deployed and returned, and their female non-deployed partners. Results showed that fathers’ and mothers’ nonreactivity was negatively associated with their own observed anger, indicating that parents who reported higher nonreactivity exhibited lower anger. Mothers’ nonreactivity was also negatively associated with observed fathers’ anger in the same family such that fathers exhibited lower anger when their female partner reported higher nonreactivity. Nonreactivity facilitates emotion regulation and its cultivation may reduce anger in post-deployed military families.     

Availability without access? Globalization and socio-political cleavages in emerging economies

Scholars argue that globalization is reconfiguring socio-political cleavages. No longer do class divisions dominate. Rather, the argument goes, societies are increasingly divided between ‘cosmopolitans’ (who welcome globalization) and ‘communitarians’ (who do not). While that may be the case, studies generally consider the impact of globalization on cleavages in advanced, rather than emerging, economies. Here, we address the latter context. By exploring the impact of liberalized healthcare and education on societal structures, we argue that globalization is encouraging social stratification that could underwrite the development of a cosmopolitan/communitarian cleavage in emerging economies. Specifically, we argue that an expansion of trade into new markets is increasing the availability of goods, services, and ideas, but the high cost of new products means that access is often restricted to local elites. Thus, while elites are connecting to global networks, non-elites are increasingly disconnected – which is an arrangement that could foster a cosmopolitan/communitarian cleavage.