Eventful events: local outcomes of G20 summit protests in Pittsburgh and Toronto

How do transnational summit protests affect local activists and the internal dynamics of organizations and movements in a host city? This paper uses Sewell’s concept of ‘eventful temporality’ to explore the impacts of the G20 summit protests in Pittsburgh (2009) and Toronto (2010) Interviews, and field notes are analyzed to show how the mobilizations enhanced the skills of local activists, increased connections between their movements, changed local tactical preferences, stirred emotions, and spawned and shaped new campaigns. The summit protests mobilized new activists, but also exhausted and demobilized some existing protesters. The findings suggest the need for a more nuanced and temporally sensitive framework for understanding outcomes.     

Recommendations for Hospice Care to Terminally Ill Cancer Patients: A Phenomenological Study of Oncologists' Experiences

The aim of this exploratory study was to better understand oncologists' experiences and their perceptions of hospice care as an end-of-life treatment choice for terminally ill cancer patients. To describe this experience, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted using phenomenological methods with nine oncologists. Four themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) feelings of discomfort and relief, (b) being different from others, (c) experience with nonhospice patients, and (d) factors influencing the decision to recommend hospice. Future research and a flexible interdisciplinary practice model are suggested to better assist with end-of-life care decision making and recommendations for hospice care with oncologists and their terminally ill cancer patients are presented.     

The Staff-Designed Medical Audit

Abstract

The presentation describes a cyclic process of patient-care evaluation especially suited for use in ambulatory care settings. The cycle is discussed in detail, beginning with topic selection and moving through all steps to the final activity, reevaluation. Rather than assessment of a single individual's competence, the development of a composite profile of performance for the group is made possible through examination of the four perspectives of prevention, investigation, management, and outcome. The standards, or criteria, are developed by those whose performance is to be evaluated, thus assuring a high degree of commitment to the process.

In the 2 1/2 years' experience with the use of such staff-designed audit at one health service, 10 of 11 re-audits, performed after intervals of 6 to 12 months, have demonstrated improvement in performance when measured against the same criteria. Each of 13 new topics considered during this period has provided subject matter for staff meetings, either through general discussions, review of pertinent literature, or presentations by invited speakers. Such data provide supporting evidence for the concept that a nonpersonalized, internally-developed assessment process can elicit significant commitment to improved patient care and to ongoing education.     

The relation of violence exposure and ethnicity to intelligence and verbal-performance discrepancies in incarcerated male adolescents

Incarcerated populations have an estimated incidence of intellectual disabilities (IDs) far higher than national norms, ranging as high as 10%. In the present study, the relation between ID and violence exposure in 115 incarcerated adolescents was examined. Interpersonal violence exposure (IPV-E) predicted an average decrease in full scale IQ of 4.5 points, explaining approximately 5% of the difference in IQ. Child maltreatment increased the odds of having a verbal disability by three folds and explained 17% of the variance in verbal disability. Hierarchical regression was used to examine the relative contribution of ethnicity, poverty, and violence exposure to intellectual functioning. The literature on racial bias in incarceration and the implications for the present study are discussed.     

Meaning of Home in Later Life as a Concept to Understand Older Adults’ Housing Needs: Results from the 7 Age-Friendly Cities Pilot Project in Québec

To support older adults’ desire to age in place, their housing needs must be well understood. However, little research has explored housing needs from older adults’ point of view. This article, based on the results of 49 focus groups (n = 392) and one case study from the Age-Friendly Cities Project in Québec, Canada, uses the concept of meaning of home in later life to explore older adults’ housing needs. An overview presents how older adults express meaning of home and what their needs are regarding housing and relocation. Finally, the implications for decision makers and stakeholders are discussed.     

Sexuality,Technology, and Sexual Scandal in The Good Wife

Inspired by the CBS drama The Good Wife, this article explores sexuality, new media, and scandal in contemporary American culture. Focusing on real life sex scandals as well as those fictionalized on the show, it argues that sexuality is lived and experienced in mediated terms. The Good Wife focalizes these understandings by concentrating on the experiences of the wronged wife, yet at the same time pushes back against the notion that sexual publicity can arrive at a “truth” of sex, using a literal language of negation and a visual language of barriers and blockages in order to make this case. By emphasizing the enigmatic qualities of personal desire and sexual exchange, The Good Wife reformulates silence as a strategy, transmuting it into an ethos of deliberate unknowability.     

The New “Bridge to Adulthood”: Searching for Meaning and Cohesion in the Nexus of “Hook-ups,” Internet Porn,and Instant Messages

The transition from adolescence to young adulthood has sometimes been referred to as the “bridge to young adulthood.” This period is critically important for consolidating identity and for developing a deeper capacity for sexual and nonsexual intimacy. However, widening reliance on cyber technology, social media websites, and instant text messaging, in combination with newly emerging patterns of sexual relations and recreational drug and alcohol use, has complicated the navigation of the developmental transition to young adulthood. We review psychoanalytic theory pertaining to the transition from adolescence to adulthood with a focus on Erikson’s theory of psychosexual/psychosocial epigenesis in order to explicate the developmental tasks specific to this transition. This developmental stage will also be examined through the lens of developmental neurobiology. Recent theorizing on Internet-mediated sexuality will be discussed as it relates to the case studies presented. Case material will demonstrate difficulties with the transition to adulthood, manifested in part-object relating, and the use of cyber-mediated and compulsive sexuality to resolve dysphoric self-states.     

Coresidence and Geographic Proximity of Mothers and Adult Children in Stepfamilies

Children who live with or near a parent provide more care and receive more help from parents than geographically distant children. Stepfamily ties may be weaker than ties between biological kin, but little is known about the geographic proximity of step‐ versus biological kin. The authors used data from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 13,239 mothers and 45,675 biological and stepchildren) to show that stepchildren and stepmothers are less likely to live together, less likely to live nearby, and less likely to move closer than biological children and mothers. When mothers have only stepchildren, they are less likely to have a coresident child or a child nearby than mothers with both step‐ and biological children. Coresidence and geographic proximity are lower in stepfamilies formed after divorce than after widowhood. The findings are consistent with a legacy of conflict and strain and the likely competing needs of biological and stepmothers.