Is migration an effective adaptation to climate-related agricultural distress in sub-Saharan Africa?

Population and Environment - Migration is often considered a form of climate change adaptation by which individuals, households, and communities seek to reduce the risks associated with climate...     

FAST TIMES DURING SPRING BREAKS: ARE TRAFFIC FATALITIES ANOTHER CONSEQUENCE?

Every year in the United States, millions of college students travel for spring break, spending billions of dollars. We examine a potential adverse consequence of spring break that has received little attention in the literature—traffic safety. In particular, we estimate the impact of spring break season on fatal passenger vehicle crashes. Using daily county‐level longitudinal data on traffic fatalities in popular spring break destinations from 1982 to 2011, we conduct separate analyses by age groups, license status, and alcohol involvement in the crash. Our findings indicate that passenger vehicle fatalities are significantly overrepresented during the spring break season. (JEL I12, I18, H73)     

Medical Complications of Female Genital Mutilation

Abstract

More than 130 million women are subjected to genital mutilation. Despite increasing efforts to reduce the practice, there are many obstacles to eliminating this 2,000-year-old practice, which is based on strong cultural traditions. As college health clinicians provide care to more international students from countries where female genital mutilation is performed, increased awareness and knowledge of the procedure will enable clinicians to understand and manage its complications. We report a case of obstructive uropathy resulting in hydronephrosis secondary to female genital mutilation and review the medical literature regarding this and other complications of genital mutilation “surgery.”     

Comparing Advice from Military Parents,Partners, and Veterans about How Families Can Encourage Service Members to Seek Behavioral Health care

This study compared advice that three groups—military parents, partners, and Veterans—gave regarding how military families can encourage service members (SMs) to seek professional help when needed. Based on identity implications theory and the normative model of social support, common themes regarding how families might pursue task, relational, and identity goals were expected (RQ₁). Based on their unique positions, we investigated whether the three groups stressed different themes (RQ₂). Military parents (n = 51), partners (n = 74), and Veterans (n = 112) read a scenario in which a SM was having difficulty reintegrating after deployment; all three groups offered advice about how military families should handle similar situations. Common themes regarding task, relational, and identity goals emerged in the advice from all three groups; however, parents, partners, and Veterans also differed significantly in how often they mentioned six themes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Toward a Sociology of Knowledge of Land Surveys: The Influences of Societies and States

Although land surveys can be viewed as accomplishments of strong states, this paper shows that they are successful not because of state power, but because of two social factors, lay knowledge and the alignment of social interests. Land surveyance is a strategic research site because it is technologically and labor intensive, so it is difficult to complete. The paper uses historical methodologies of comparison and narrative to show that a national land survey was never completed in the case with the strong state, England/Great Britain/the United Kingdom, while such surveys were completed in the cases with the weak states, the United States and Italy. Where the surveys were completed, there was widespread social knowledge about them and support for surveyance.     

Equal Learning Does Not Result in Equal Remembering: The Importance of Post‐Encoding Processes

Explanations of variability in long‐term recall typically appeal to encoding and/or retrieval processes. However, for well over a century, it has been apparent that for memory traces to be stored successfully, they must undergo a post‐encoding process of stabilization and integration. Variability in post‐encoding processes is thus a potential source of age‐related and individual variance in long‐term recall. We examined post‐encoding variability in each of two experiments. In each experiment, 20‐month‐old infants were exposed to novel three‐step sequences in each of three encoding conditions: watch only, imitate, and learn to criterion. They were tested for recall after 15 min (as a measure of the success of encoding) and either weeks (1, 2, or 3: Experiment 1) or days (1, 2, or 4: Experiment 2) later. In each experiment, differential relative levels of performance among the conditions were observed at the two tests. The results implicate post‐encoding processes are a source of variance in long‐term recall.     

Integrating Narrative Approaches into Clinical Curricula: Addressing Diversity through Understanding

Abstract

Academic programs in clinical social work often focus on either psychodynamic or systemic approaches. Narrative approaches grounded in postmodern theory also merit attention, as they are well suited for the diverse populations served by social workers. In narrative approaches, practitioners help clients to deconstruct and reconstruct their own life stories, and thereby to empower themselves. This paper compares narrative approaches with psychodynamic and systemic approaches, and suggests ways to integrate their coverage into curricula built around the dominant traditional approaches.