Mediated reunions in adoption: findings from an evaluation study

In Canada, there are long waiting lists of adopted persons and birthparents seeking information or actual reunions. In the province of Quebec, the government authorized a pilot project, involving a fee-for-service program and use of contract social workers to supplement agency staff as intermediaries in the reunion process. This article reports on the project's evaluation and provides birth-parents' and adoptees' responses to reunion. A survey of clients who used this service found a high level of satisfaction. There were, however, some significant differences between birthparents and adoptees as well as between those who were searching and those found.     

The Interplay of Science, Values, and Experiences Among Scientists Asked to Evaluate the Hazards of Dioxin, Radon, and Environmental Tobacco Smoke

To investigate the extent to which personal values and experiences among scientists might affect their assessment of risks from dioxin, radon, and environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), we conducted an experiment through a telephone survey of 1461 epidemiologists, toxicologists, physicians, and general scientists. Each participant was read a vignette designed to reflect the mainstream scientific thinking on one of the three substances. For half of the participants (group A) the substance was named. For the other half (group B), the substance was not named but was identified only as Substance X, Y, or Z. Knowing the name of the substance had little effect on the scientists' evaluation of dioxin, although those who knew the substance to be dioxin were more likely to rate the substance as a serious environmental health hazard (51% vs. 42%, p = 0.062). For radon, those who knew the substance by name were significantly more likely to consider it an environmental health hazard than were those who knew it as substance Z (91% vs. 78%, p less than 0.001). Participants who knew they were being asked about ETS rather than substance X were significantly more likely to consider the substance an environmental health hazard (88% vs. 66%, p less than 0.001), to consider the substance a serious environmental health hazard (70% vs. 33%, p less than 0.001), to believe that background exposure required public health intervention (85% vs. 41%, p less than 0.001), and to believe that above-background exposure required public health intervention (90% vs. 74%, p less than 0.001). These findings suggest that values and experiences may be influencing health risk assessments for these substances, and indicate the need for more study of this phenomenon.     

Nonverbal strategies for decoding deception

This study tested the hypothesis that judges who suspect deception would be less influenced by controllable channels (facial expresions) relative to leaky channels (voice and body) than judges who do not suspect deception. The Nonverbal Discrepancy Test, comprised of video (face or body) cues paired with audio cues, was administered to subjects with the information that the person shown in the test never lied, sometimes lied, or very often lied; in a fourth condition (control) there was no mention of deception. In some cases, the video and audio components of the discrepancy test depicted the same affect while in other cases they depicted different affects. Subjects who expected more deception were relatively less influenced by the facial component of the affectively discrepant video-audio pairings. These subjects were also less accurate at decoding affectively consistent videoaudio pairings, especially those involving facial cues. Finally, subjects who expected more deception became less accurate decoders of consistent video-audio pairings during the second half of the test but learned to recognize video-audio discrepancies better. The results suggest that suspicion of deception led subjects to discount facial cues. Results for the control group indicated that even in the absence of explicit information, discrepant messages create a suspicion of deception.Preparation of this paper was supported in part by the National Science Foundation.     

THE CHOICE OF EXCHANGE‐RATE REGIME AND SPECULATIVE ATTACKS

We develop a framework that makes it possible to study, for the first time, the strategic interaction between the ex ante choice of exchange‐rate regime and the likelihood of ex post currency attacks. The optimal regime is determined by a policymaker who trades off the loss from nominal exchange‐rate uncertainty against the cost of adopting a given regime. This cost increases, in turn, with the fraction of speculators who attack the local currency. Searching for the optimal regime within the class of exchange‐rate bands, we show that the optimal regime can be either a peg (a zero‐width band), a free float (an infinite‐width band), or a nondegenerate band of finite width. We study the effect of several factors on the optimal regime and on the probability of currency attacks. In particular, we show that a Tobin tax induces policymakers to set less flexible regimes. In our model, this generates an increase in the probability of currency attacks. (JEL: F31, D84)     

Dosvox Usability: recommendations for improving interaction of blind people with the web using the system

At present, it is recognized that the Internet plays key role in universalization of opportunities in society in which we live. For people with disabilities, the content must be accessible in all websites, but the assistive technologies used must be adequate to the specific needs of people with disabilities. Dosvox is a free system developed in the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) specially designed for blind people and used by them in the performance of their tasks with the use of computers. Previously, through exploratory research based on the observation of the interaction of blind students with the Web, usability problems were identified in the Dosvox interface and in the Webvox, the Web browser included in the system, and these problems were related to the fact that the interface is designed in accordance with the mental model of these Information Technology professionals. This study consolidate the problems in earlier phases of the research, link the results with usability heuristics of Nielsen and propose several improvements to Dosvox and its development process.     

Globalizing ‘Girl Power’: Corporate Social Responsibility and Transnational Business Initiatives for Gender Equality

The recent emergence of ‘transnational business feminism’ [Roberts, A. (2014). The political economy of ‘transnational business feminism’. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 17(2), 209–231] accompanied by numerous ‘transnational business initiatives for the governance of gender’ [Prügl, E., &; True, J. (2014). Equality means business? Governing gender through transnational public–private partnerships. Review of International Political Economy, 21(6), 1137–1169] constitutes a significant area of debate in the feminist political economy literature. In this paper I focus on the confluence of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda with the visibility of gender issues in development and the resultant corporate agenda for the promotion of women and girls’ empowerment. The paper draws on two gender-focused World Bank collaborations with private sector actors: the Global Private Sector Leaders Forum and the Girl Effect campaign. The paper argues that the dominant model of corporate citizenship inscribed within the discourse of transnational business initiatives is framed in terms of capitalizing on the potential power of girls and women, achieving an easy convergence between gender equality and corporate profit. I suggest that the construction of an unproblematic synergy between these goals serves to moralize corporate-led development interventions and therefore does not challenge corporate power in the development process, but instead allows corporations to subscribe to voluntary, non-binding codes and cultivate a socially conscious brand image.     

Unknown outcomes,no guarantees: Lawrence Grossberg and experimentation

This article explores notions of experimentation embedded in Lawrence Grossberg’s writings. It begins by proposing that experimentation is a particularly relevant expression of the stakes of Grossberg’s research, and also one that embodies the ‘unknownness’ characteristic of rigorous intellectual work more broadly. By embracing unknownness in its contextual specificity (the shorthand for which is the phrase ‘without guarantees’), one seeks to open the present to a range of potential futures – a process requiring interdisciplinary collaboration and institutional risk-taking. This article then moves on to consider how Grossberg’s work brings to light the relationship between popular imagination and experimentation; that is, he understands the popular as a territory where people can be won for experimentation in paradoxically unknown but knowable futures. Finally, the piece heeds Grossberg’s warning against the fetishization of experimentation in certain political and theoretical formations, notably his repeated cautions against experimentation divorced from the specificity and requirements of the conjuncture. The article concludes by calling for a rigorous mapping of the terrain of Cultural Studies in order to foster and sustain the interdisciplinary, well-grounded experimentation to which its future must be bound.     

男男性服务群体的性、性网络、艾滋风险——以东北地区为例

男男性服务者是近些年来地下性产业中的新兴群体,其在性身份认同、服务分层、组织类别等方面呈现出比女性性服务者更为复杂的生存样态。同时,艾滋病在男男性接触群体的迅猛传播,也使男男性服务者成为艾滋病防治工作的重点干预对象。文章采用参与观察、个案深入访谈和专题小组讨论的定性研究方法,对我国东北地区男男性服务网络进行调研和分析,对商业性网络的隐秘特征和运行机制、男男性服务者的多元性存在状态进行文化阐释,并在此基础上分析不同性取向群体、不同场所、不同服务种类的艾滋病风险因素并给予社会科学的干预建议。     

Consumer Protection for Prospective Assisted Living Facility Residents: Gordian Knot or Solvable Problem?

The consumer protection safety net for prospective assisted living facility residents and their caregivers is a work in progress and is filled with numerous potential pitfalls. Notwithstanding a recent deluge of recent state legislation, baselines in crucial areas remain erratic and confusing; in addition, useful factual information is hard to come by. Using a legal perspective, based on statutory and regulatory examples from different states and interviews with industry stakeholders, the author explores the causes of assisted living facilities choice problems, potential solutions, and the obstacles affecting these solutions.