Stress,strain, coping and social support for affected family members attending the National Problem Gambling Clinic,London

Aims were: to compare burden experienced by affected family members (AFMs) attending a problem gambling treatment clinic in London, England with that of AFMs affected by substance problems; to examine socio-demographic correlates of AFM burden; to evaluate change following an intervention designed for AFMs; and to test the assumption of the stress-strain-coping-support (SSCS) model that change in AFM coping is important. AFMs (N = 215) completed a gambling version of the short questionnaire for family members affected by addiction (SQFM-AA) which assesses stressful impact, symptoms of ill health, ways of coping, social support and overall burden. All received a 5-Step Method workbook, based on the SSCS model. The SQFM-AA was repeated three to six months later (n = 96). T-test analyses showed that baseline burden and related variables were comparable to those of family members affected by substance problems, were greater for wives and those living in the same household as the gambling relative, and were significantly reduced at follow-up. Regression modelling indicated the importance, for AFMs’ health, of reduced levels of engaged-emotional coping. Family members affected by gambling, some subgroups especially, experience high levels of burden. They can benefit from a model-based intervention, and coping change may be an important process.     

Rank and response: A field experiment on peer information and water use behavior

Perception of peer rank, or how we perform relative to our peers, can be a powerful motivator. While research exists on the effect of social information on decision making, there is less work on how ranked comparisons with our peers influence our behavior. This paper outlines a field experiment conducted with 3896 households in Castro Valley, California, which uses household mailers with various forms of social information and peer rank messaging to motivate water conservation. The experiment tests the effect of a visible peer rank on water use, and how the competitive framing of rank information influences behavioral response. The results show that households with relatively low or high water use in the pre-treatment period responded differently to how rank information was framed. I find that a neutrally-framed peer rank caused a small “boomerang effect” (i.e., an increase in average water use) for low water use households, but this effect was eliminated by competitive framing. At the same time, a competitively-framed peer rank demotivated high water use households, increasing their average water use over the full period of the experiment. This result is supported by evidence that the competitive frame on rank information increased water use for households who ranked “last” in the peer group – a detrimental “last place effect” from competitively-framed rankings.     

Attitude strength moderates adverse effects to questionnaire design

ABSTRACT

The presentation and visual design of the “don’t know” category in rating scales on respondents’ behavior may have ambivalent effects. The hypothesis is that attitude strength toward the topic influences the respondents’ sensitivity to the graphical design of the scale. A paper-and-pencil questionnaire conducted among 307 German university students contained an experimental variation of the presentation of a “don’t know” category and its visual design. A multinomial logistic regression shows that presenting a “don’t know” category drives respondents toward extreme categories. The visual design of the “don’t know” category influences the distribution of responses, all the more that the respondents’ attitudes toward the item topic are weak.     

共名状态下“母亲”的伦理困境——社会学视角

《母亲》是赛珍珠荣获诺贝尔文学奖的七部作品之一,也是赛珍珠作品中最为独特的一部.“母亲”的共名身份,是在特定生存环境所编织而就的伦理关系网中确立的;其身份危机与角色冲突导致了一系列伦理困境:“母亲”的生命冲动与生活其间的社会空间、物质空间、精神空间冲突产生的伦理困境,诚实与谎言、忠诚与背叛、珍视生命与对生命扼杀两难导致的罪与罚的伦理困境,女性身份认同与性别歧视观念的矛盾导致的伦理困境等.赛珍珠用“共名”身份塑造的母亲形象,使“母亲”成为中国劳动母亲们的典型形象,因而超越了个体意义而具有了普适性特征.     

Association between long-term erectile dysfunction and biochemical recurrence after permanent seed I125 implant brachytherapy for prostate cancer. A longitudinal study of a single-institution

We aimed to investigate the predictive factor of erectile dysfunction (ED) in prostate cancer (PCa) patients who underwent low-dose permanent I¹²⁵ seed implant brachytherapy and to investigate if ED could represent a patient’s reported outcome measures (PROMs) of efficacy of BT and indirectly associated with biochemical recurrence free survival (BRFS). From 2000 to 2012, 176 consecutive patients with low-risk PCa underwent BT. ED was evaluated with the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5). Cox regression analysis was performed to assess significant predictors of mild-to-severe ED and BRFS after BT, including covariates. The 10-year actuarial rate of ED was 66%. Subjects with severe ED had higher values of D90 (183.0 versus 177.0; p?p?p?p?=?0.20), while D90?≤?180?Gy independently predicted BCR (HR: 4.65; [95%CI: 1.25–17.34]; p?125 implant, but it is not associated with better BRFS.     

From salons to the native reserve: reformulating the “native question” through pictorial photography in 1950s South Africa

The article provides a critical reflection on the practice of photographic salon exhibitions in the 1950s. In South Africa and abroad, there was a resurgence of photographic societies from the early 1950s that encouraged amateur photographers to create images based on a distinct visual grammar, thereby offering them not only an opportunity to display their work but to compete amongst each other. Subsequently, salon exhibitions produced work that would be judged on its pictorial rather than strict representational value thereby depoliticising the exhibition space. On the other hand, this article seeks to place this practice in the realm of racial segregation under apartheid by considering the deployment of the “black subject” in the native rural reserve in Joseph Denfield’s (1911–1967) work. Through a study of his ethnographic photographs which were exhibited internationally in this period as pictorial work, as well as his intellectualisation of his practice as native photography, it argues that the space of the salon allowed him to pose the “native question” pictorially, that is, provided a discourse through which the “native” could be “known” and ordered.     

《儿女英雄传》中的副词“都”及其语法化

《儿女英雄传》是《红楼梦》通向现代北京话的中途站,通过它可以了解汉语在19世纪中期的基本面貌。当时,副词“都”已具备表示范围和表示语气等用法,其语气副词用法中有一类兼表已然义。根据《儿女英雄传》中反映的语言事实和语法化的一般规律,副词“都”的语法化路径应该为“范围副词→语气副词→兼表已然义的语气副词”。     

“无厘头”的影片观看及审美效果的形成

对于“无厘头”影片作为一种文化现象的研究很多,但却少有涉及穿插“无厘头”桥段如何对影片造成影响以及如何形成最终审美效果等观影过程的探讨。自电影符号学之后开始出现影片细读和精神分析取向,而德勒兹哲学则试图对传统的精神分析模式进行改造,将电影的观看视为强度流的物质实践活动。基于此,“无厘头”电影的观看可以看作镜头流与观看的观众身体流的汇合。把镜头流视为叙述文本,通过内在于文本的叙述逻辑（符号意指链的断裂／重组）之间张力的解读,在大量的镜头分析中总结出影片穿插“无厘头”桥段、形成审美效果的规律,并在三阶段的区分中分析张力强度与剧情认同程度关系所造成的影片整体审美效果变动。     

Pure Gold for Broken Bodies: Discursive Techniques Constructing Milk Banking and Peer Milk Sharing in U.S. News

Technological advances provide increased ability to transfer human tissues—blood, organs, milk—from one body to another. This article analyzes mechanisms of reality construction in U.S. news to construct shared human breast milk. Articles used typifications and human interest stories to convey participants as victims, lay heroes, and villains. Milk banking was portrayed as institutionally integrated through associations, expert testimonies, and formalized procedures, making banked milk “pure gold.” Peer sharing was portrayed as institutionally opposed through institutional warnings, expert testimonies, informal procedures, and hypothetical atrocities, making peer milk “fool's gold.” Findings suggest that “biovalue” of human milk is interconnected with institutional processing.