Relocation stress syndrome in older adults transitioning from home to a long-term care facility: myth or reality?

Relocation stress syndrome is a nursing diagnosis characterized by symptoms such as anxiety, confusion, hopelessness, and loneliness. It usually occurs in older adults shortly after moving from a private residence to a nursing home or assisted-living facility. The primary purpose of this study was to validate the symptoms of relocation stress syndrome. Eight nursing home residents and 8 assisted-living facility residents were interviewed 2 to 10 weeks after admission, when symptoms of relocation stress syndrome are most likely to appear. Results of this study indicate that the incidence of relocation stress syndrome may be overestimated. More accurate diagnosis and treatment of depression in older adults is needed.     

Book Review

Book reviewed in this article:
Daniel P. M oynihan , Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding: Community Action in the War on Poverty. N.Y.: Free Press, 1969. xxi, 218 pp. $5.95.     

How trade/GNP ratio decreases with country size

The ratio of a country's foreign trade (i.e., exports plus imports) to its GNP has a known tendency to decrease with country size. Previous studies have used a single year's data; but trade fluctuates greatly from year to year. This paper makes available a compilation of 1953–1972 export/GNP and import/GNP figures for 110 countries. The average import/GNP figure is found to correlate strongly with population size; the simple expression, Imports/GNP = 40 $\text{P}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>?1</mtext><mtext>3</mtext>}}$, applies, within a factor of 2, in 94% of cases. No correlation with development level can be seen. The United States data throughout its history (1799–1972) follow the same inverse cube root pattern, but with a constant of 20 instead of 40. Correlation is much poorer in the case of export/GNP ration. Export and import figures are only marginally correlated to each other.     

Size and duration of empires: Systematics of size

Areas of the world's three largest empires or states at any given time are listed at 100- or 50-year intervals, from 3000 b.c. on. Area measurement definitions and techniques are described. Major empire size has tended to increase, approaching the world's dry earth area in an approximately logistic way. This pattern suggests that a world state is still many centuries away. Sudden increases in empire size have occurred around 2800 b.c. due to emergence of cities, around 600 b.c. due to a power delegation breakthrough, and around 1600 a.d. due to a communication speed revolution. A graph of the world's largest empire areas throughout times offers somewhat novel perspectives on world history, making one realize the Western bias of many “world history” texts. Areas of 20 largest states that ever existed are listed. Subsequent papers will deal with historical periods in more detail.     

Group therapy for the elderly: One approach to coping

Weekly group therapy sessions for depressed older adults form the core of a project sponsored by four Aurora (Colorado) agencies. The concept evolved from a health clinic where clients requested more assistance with emotional problems than could be provided by existing personnel. The purpose is to enhance, or at least maintain, the individuals' capacities despite change and loss. Now in its fourth year, over 100 clients have been served. This article describes the project's longitudinal measurement of the severity of depression of the participants and a comparison sample at specific intervals.     

Evaluating and Visualizing the Economic Impact of Commercial Districts Due to an Electric Power Network Disruption

Critical infrastructure networks enable social behavior, economic productivity, and the way of life of communities. Disruptions to these cyber–physical–social networks highlight their importance. Recent disruptions caused by natural phenomena, including Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in 2017, have particularly demonstrated the importance of functioning electric power networks. Assessing the economic impact (EI) of electricity outages after a service disruption is a challenging task, particularly when interruption costs vary by the type of electric power use (e.g., residential, commercial, industrial). In contrast with most of the literature, this work proposes an approach to spatially evaluate EIs of disruptions to particular components of the electric power network, thus enabling resilience‐based preparedness planning from economic and community perspectives. Our contribution is a mix‐method approach that combines EI evaluation, component importance analysis, and GIS visualization for decision making. We integrate geographic information systems and an economic evaluation of sporadic electric power outages to provide a tool to assist with prioritizing restoration of power in commercial areas that have the largest impact. By making use of public data describing commercial market value, gross domestic product, and electric area distribution, this article proposes a method to evaluate the EI experienced by commercial districts. A geospatial visualization is presented to observe and compare the areas that are more vulnerable in terms of EI based on the areas covered by each distribution substation. Additionally, a heat map is developed to observe the behavior of disrupted substations to determine the important component exhibiting the highest EI. The proposed resilience analytics approach is applied to analyze outages of substations in the boroughs of New York City.