bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Changing Clinical Practice through Research
Authors: Lacko Lisa , Bryan Yvonne , Dellasega Cheryl , Salerno Francis
Published: April 2009

Promoting application of study findings to the clinical setting is a constant challenge for nurse researchers. This project used change theory to include staff RNs in a research study on delirium and to use relevant findings. The research hypothesis was: Staff nurses who use a standardized protocol will have improved ability to identify delirium in elderly hospital patients. Staff nurses on the intervention unit used this protocol to screen for delirium on all consenting inpatients 75 years of age and over, and control unit nurses continued using their standard assessment practices. Intervention unit nurses demonstrated an improved ability to identify the presence and absence of delirium, and voluntarily requested to continue using the protocol after the study was terminated. Use of a theoretical model to include nurses in the study promoted the successful conduct of the research and subsequent use of findings.
Evolutionary Statistical Characters of Fatigue Damage of Smooth Surface Samples by an Effective Short Fatigue Crack Criterion
Authors: Bing Yang  , Ming Fei Feng  , Zhong Yan Zhai
Published: April 2009

Evolutionary statistical characters of fatigue damage are investigated on the smooth surface samples of 1Cr18Ni9Ti welded metal. Previous effective short fatigue crack (ESFC) criterion by Zhao et al. is employed with a local viewpoint of fatigue damage. Main attentions are paid to three kinds of ESFC data, i.e., density values of ESFCs, dominant ESFC (DESFC) lengths, and growth rates of DESFC. Six possible statistical models, i.e., normal, lognormal, extreme maximum value, extreme minimum value, two-parameter Weibull, and three-parameter Weibull, are compared to examine their validity for describing these three kinds of data. In the comparisons, three aspects of the statistical models are considered synthetically, i.e., total fit effect, consistency with fatigue physics, and safety of prediction in right tail region. Results reveal that there is a significant damage character of the microstructural short crack (MSC) stage and the physical short crack (PSC) stage. The variation coefficient of the data increases in MSC stage, and then decreases in PSC and long crack (LC) stages. Extreme minimum value distribution is the appropriate model for describing the density values of ESFCs and the DESFC lengths. While extreme maximum value distribution is the reasonable model for the growth rates of DESFC. Fatigue damage is subject to an evolutionary random process from an initially chaotic (nonordered) state, to an independent state, and finally to a loading history-dependent state.
Void Coalescence With and Without Prestrain History
Authors: Zhang Z.L. , Skallerud B.
Published: April 2009

In this study, void coalescence with and without a plastic prestrain history is studied using stress-controlled axisymmetric unit cell models. In addition to spherical voids, both oblate and prolate voids are considered. In the case with prestrain history a uniaxial prestrain up to 10% was applied and the material is thereafter subjected to loadings with constant stress triaxiality. It is found that the microscopic position of the maximum axial stress in void ligament can be taken as an indicator for void coalescence. In the beginning of plastic loading the maximum axial stress occurs at the edge close to the void. With the increase of plastic deformation, the position of maximum axial stress shifts from the void edge to cell boundary and coalescence starts when the position appears at the boundary. It is shown that a prestrain history significantly reduces the void coalescence strain. The prestrain effect on void coalescence depends strongly on the initial void shape. Prestrain history induces both strain hardening and void shape change. The effect of prestrain-induced void shape change on coalescence strain is relatively small while the effect of prestrain-induced local hardening is significant.
Effects of Cultural Tightness and Collectivism on Self-Concept and Causal Attributions
Authors: Carpenter Sandra
Published: April 2009

Previous research investigating the influence of cultural variables on the psychological constructs of self-concept and causal attributions has employed responses of individuals within cultures. In the present research, ethnographies of 16 cultures were examined using the CD-ROM version of the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF). As predicted, self-concept was related to both cultural tightness and collectivism. Specifically, interdependent self-concepts were more likely to occur in tight and collective cultures, whereas independent self-concepts occurred in individualistic and loose cultures. Causal attributions for failure were found to be more external for more collective cultures, but no relation between failure attributions and cultural tightness was obtained. Causal attributions for success were not systematically related to either cultural tightness or collectivism. Additional variables that are speculated to influence attributions, in conjunction with culture, are proposed for future research. The usefulness of the CD-ROM version of the HRAF for addressing psychological questions is discussed.
Role of Gender and Rumination in Suicide Ideation: A Comparison of College Samples From Ghana and the United States
Authors: Eshun Sussie
Published: April 2009

The role of ruminative coping and gender as potential moderators of cultural differences in suicide ideation among 194 college students from Ghana and the United States were studied. Participants completed the Adult Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire and the Rumination scale of the Response Style Questionnaire. Significant main effects for cultural group and gender were found for suicide ideation. Furthermore, gender and rumination together accounted for significant portions of the variance in suicide ideation scores. Implications for future research are discussed.
Does Culture Moderate the Relationship Between Sexual Orientation and Gender-Related Personality Traits?
Authors: Lippa Richard A. , Tan Francisco D.
Published: April 2009

Do cultural factors moderate the relationship between sexual orientation and gender-related personality traits? To answer this question, the authors assessed gender-related traits in 90 gay men, 82 lesbians, 71 heterosexual men, and 95 heterosexual women from three cultural groups: Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and White Americans. Among the gender-related traits measured were gender diagnosticity (GD), which assesses maleversus female-typicality of occupational and hobby preferences; self-ascribed masculinity and femininity; masculine instrumentality; and feminine expressiveness. We found strong homosexual-heterosexual differences on GD measures, moderate to strong differences in self-ascribed masculinity and femininity, and weak and inconsistent differences on instrumentality and expressiveness. Participants from traditional, gender-polarized cultures (Asians and Hispanics) tended to show larger heterosexual-homosexual differences in gender-related traits than participants from a nontraditional and gendernonpolarized culture (American Whites).
Consensus, Clines, and Edges in Celtic Cultures
Authors: Caulkins D. Douglas
Published: April 2009

Using data from four localities in peripheral areas of the British Isles, this article explores a conception of culture that emphasizes continuous variation, or clines, rather than boundaries. These localities are sites for the performance of cultural practices, many of which may be shared across socially constructed boundaries such as those of nation, ethnic group, and class. Consensus analysis provides a tool for exploring areas of greater or lesser sharing of cultural models indicated by responses to 21 brief narratives of everyday cultural practices. Informants were asked to judge on a 5-point scale whether the practices were characteristic of their location. With a high consensus in each site about typical practices, it was possible to compare the culturally correct profiles of responses between each of the sites, revealing incremental changes, or clines, from site to site. Edges, or the conjunction of clines, might be mapped using consensus analysis.
Reflections on the Nature of Cultural Distributions and the Units of Culture Problem
Authors: Gatewood John B.
Published: April 2009

Does culture have clearly identifiable, distributionally stable parts sufficient to justify the particulate mode of understanding? Is culture composed of elemental units, or is it merely convenient to think this way? And, if culture does not consist of discrete parts, then what? This article suggests that the quest for natural “units of culture” is pretty much a doomed undertaking. There will be no periodic chart for culture grounded in stable, essential properties whether at the level of culture traits and complexes or at the cognitive level of ideas and schemas. On the other hand, various methods of data elicitation can produce replicable and superficially discrete results, which gives some hope for the possibility of a methodological particulatism.
Submissiveness and Risk of Heart Disease
Authors: Conduit Edward
Published: April 2009

This study explored statistical relationships between work values and risk of heart disease. Hofstede assembled a database of 117,000 questionnaires from employees of a multinational company. Country means for these data were compared with Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) mortality data published by the World Health Organization. It was found that the probability of CHD is strongly predicted by work values of low power distance index (r = -.68,N = 29 countries), low uncertainty avoidance index (r = -.65,N = 33), and high individualism (r = .59,N= 33). Further analysis was used to identify factors at the individual level. Low probability of cardiac death over the next 20 years was found to be predictable from questions assessing tension at work, loyalty, deference, and high power-distance. The statistical factor that emerged might be called submissiveness, and its risky pole could be called in subordination. An individual-level study was designed to test for a relationship between work values and CHD risk factors. A cross-section of 62 healthy Japanese expatriates was compared with 53 British workers in the same employment. The two nationalities were remarkably similar, both in work values and probability of CHD. No protective CHD risk profile was found in the Japanese, contrary to the national base rates. Japanese men were unexpectedly found to be significantly more exhausted. The work values scales were found to be unreliable at the individual level. “Tension at work” and “fear of expressing disagreement” were found to predict several CHD risks.
Economy and Religion in the Neolithic Revolution: Material Surplus and the Proto-Religious Ethic
Authors: Fuller Jill E. , Grandjean Burke D.
Published: April 2009

Does economic change stimulate religious transformation, or do new religious ideas inspire economic innovation? Since Marx and Weber, social theorists have considered this question, most often in regard to modern societies. Here, the authors examine archaeological evidence from 40 ancient sites in the Near East, where horticulture and herding first arose. Results suggest that economic surplus preceded two types of religious artifacts. In the authors' data, utilitarian grave gifts never appeared without surplus—in herds or especially in grain. Although their timing is less conclusive, animal figurines rarely appeared without herding. These two types of artifact are more strongly related to surplus than artifacts tapping wealth or social complexity generally (decorative grave gifts and human figurines). Hence, although the data prohibit elaborate statistical controls, the hypothesized associations seem nonspurious. Apparently, religious ideas did not prompt new methods of economic production. Rather, economic facts were crucial in shaping Neolithic social institutions, including religion.
Analogical Reasoning and the Content of Creation Stories
Authors: Moor Nienke , Ultee Wout , Need Ariana
Published: April 2009

A long-standing question in sociology concerns preindustrial societies and the relationship between their subsistence technology and ideas about god. This article proposes a shift from questions regarding gods who now and then create to questions about creations that sometimes involve a god. For preindustrial societies, it addresses the relation between their subsistence technology and the content of their creation stories. This article's answer combines Hume's general hypothesis that people reason by analogy with Topitsch's specification that invokes vital, technical, and social analogies. This conjunction yields concrete hypotheses about the substance of creation stories in societies with varying levels of subsistence technology according to Lenski's typology. To test these hypotheses, the authors used Murdock's Standard Cross-Cultural Sample and the Human Relations Area Files. Field reports were coded for 116 preindustrial societies. The findings show that people use different thought models to explain the unknown, depending on the society's level of subsistence technology.
Mother Tongue Maintenance Among North American Ethnic Groups
Authors: Schrauf Robert W.
Published: April 2009

Research among groups of immigrants to the United States and Canada has isolated a number of possible factors for both loss and persistence of the mother tongue in subsequent generations. These include practice of the religion of the homeland, residential concentration, within-group marriage, occupational specialization, visits to the homeland, and others. The research reported in this article is based on data in theHumanRelations Area Files from 11 immigrant groups to North America. The research suggests that residential pattern and religious practice are the principal factors accounting for mother tongue maintenance into the third generation. Appeal is made to the childhood language socialization paradigm in explaining this finding.
Subsistence Strategies and the Division of Labor by Gender Among Clothes Makers in Nonindustrial Societies
Authors: Byrne Bryan
Published: April 2009

This article tests the proposition that the division of labor by gender among clothes makers in nonindustrial societies is associated with the relative dependence of the artisan’s family on commercial production. A cross-cultural test using the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) probability sample finds that a man is more likely to make clothes if his nuclear family depends on clothes making more than other forms of subsistence production. There are a variety of evolutionary paths that may lead to men’s participation in clothes making. The proximate causes include agricultural intensification and the encroachment of long-distance trade networks. Whatever the pathway or causal mechanisms, the division of labor by gender is sensitive to the contingencies that affect the relative value of one’s labor.
Scrap Tires in Ciudad Juárez and El Paso: Ranking the Risks
Authors: Blackman Allen , Palma Alejandra
Published: April 2009

According to conventional wisdom, rapidly growing stocks of scrap tires on the U.S.-Mexico border pose a variety of health and environmental risks. This article assesses these risks in Paso del Norte, the border's second largest metropolis comprising principally Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas. The authors find that air pollution from tire pile fires poses the greatest threat. Scrap tires in Paso del Norte do not contribute significantly to the propagation of mosquito-borne diseases or to shortages of space in solid waste disposal sites. The burning of scrap tires at industrial facilities is minimal and might not have significant adverse environmental impacts even if it were more common.
Trade and the Environment: A Critical Assessment and Some Suggestions for Reconciliation
Authors: Neumayer Eric
Published: April 2009

This article critically assesses three ways in which trade might harm the environment. First, trade liberalization might exacerbate existing levels of resource depletion and environmental pollution. Second, open borders might allow companies to migrate to “pollution havens,” thus undermining high environmental standards in host countries. Third, the dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organization (WTO) might favor trade over environmental interests in case of conflict. It is shown that although trade liberalization can lead to an increase in environmental degradation, pollution havens are not a statistically significant phenomenon. As concerns aimed measures at domestic environmental protection, the dispute settlement system in the WTO is not biased against environmental interests. The relationship is more complicated with respect to measures aimed at extrajurisdictional environmental protection and with respect to trade restrictions for health reasons under the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. The article concludes with some constructive suggestions on how trade and the environment can be reconciled in future trade negotiations.
Bringing Social Analysis Into a Multilateral Environmental Agreement: Social Impact Assessment and the Biosafety Protocol
Authors: Stabinsky Doreen
Published: April 2009

Negotiations under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity have recently concluded on a protocol governing the safe handling, transport, and use of living modified organisms (LMOs)—the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. One of the most contentious issues in these negotiations was the inclusion of socioeconomic considerations in the evaluation for import of an LMO. Many countries wanted the protocol to include provisions that enable an import ban or other trade-related measure to be taken if negative socioeconomic impacts are predicted that would have downstream consequences for the conservation and/or sustainable use of biological diversity. Other countries, principally the United States, believed such measures would run counter to national obligations under the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements. The author considers the rationale for inclusion of socioeconomic considerations in evaluation of LMOs for import and evaluates the arguments that such provisions would not be WTO legal.
Mexico's Environmental Performance Under NAFTA: The First 5 Years
Authors: Logsdon Jeanne M. , Husted Bryan W.
Published: April 2009

During the period when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was being negotiated, Mexico strengthened its environmental policies and practices. However, questions continue about whether the environmental improvements seen between 1990 and 1993 were diminished, maintained, or strengthened once NAFTA came into effect in 1994. This article examines available evidence for the years 1994 through 1998 on four criteria that address these questions. Taking into account significant economic and political events that influenced environmental policy and practice, the authors find that in the first 5 years of NAFTA, Mexico's environmental policy has been further improved, environmental enforcement was initially maintained but may have declined recently, business behavior has been improving, but information on environmental quality is mixed or not available for public scrutiny.
Natural Resource Exploitation in Cambodia: An Examination of Use, Appropriation, and Exclusion
Authors: De Lopez Thanakvaro Thyl
Published: April 2009

In the beginning of the 1990s, after a traumatic modern history of conflicts and genocides, the Kingdom of Cambodia, with the support of the international community, entered an era of relative peace. Cambodia is endowed with valuable natural resources and biodiversity. Over the past decade, however, economic development has relied primarily on the unsustainable exploitation of these resources. Current trends in the use of resources in forestry, fishery, and agricultural land are unsustainable. The central position of the article is that resource appropriation by the political, economic, and military elites has gradually excluded the majority of the population from the country's forests, fisheries, and arable areas. A common pattern of unsustainable extraction and inequitable access characterizes the exploitation of these resources. The article discusses policy implications for the government of Cambodia and the international donor community. Environmental reforms will face strong resistance from the elites, as institutional and social change may prove politically and economically onerous.
Income, Liberties, Idiosyncrasies, and the Decline of Leaded Gasoline, 1972 to 1992
Authors: Hilton F. G. Hank
Published: April 2009

Nations now stand at very different stages of the phaseout process. Some have completely removed lead from their gasoline supplies. Others still add significant amounts of lead. This article analyzes the differences in phaseout progress. It considers three factors that might encourage the reduction of gasoline lead levels. Those factors are income, liberties, and idiosyncrasies. This article reaches three conclusions. First, contrary to a good deal of theory, income appears not to be a very important determinant of gasoline lead levels. Second, there seems to be an important link between phaseout progress and liberties (political and civil). Conclusions concerning the lead/liberties link must, however, be regarded as preliminary. Third, idiosyncratic factors—factors that encourage phaseout but are unique to one nation or a small group of nations— can explain a good deal of phaseout progress.
The Triad of Sustainable Development: Promoting Sustainable Development in Developing Countries
Authors: Hecht Alan D.
Published: April 2009

Sustainable development was defined in 1987 in a report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (also known as the Brundtland Report) as development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The ability of developing countries to practice sustainable development is affected by many factors, three of which are defined in this article. When acting in harmony, these three factors can make sustainable development a more achievable goal: (a) domestic policy actions, including steps taken toward creating open and free market economies, sound and enforceable environmental policies, and public participation in decision making; (b) financing policies of the bilateral and multilateral lending institutions; and (c) private sector investment and clean technology development. The interaction of these factors forms a triad for sustainable development. This article discusses these factors and offers recommendations for furthering a positive relationship among them in promoting sustainable development in developing countries.
The Effect of Population and Migration on Forest Cover in Indonesia
Authors: Sunderlin William , Resosudarmo Ida Aju Pradnja
Published: April 2009

The massive loss of quantity and quality of natural forest cover in Indonesia threatens an important source of foreign exchange and employment. Several studies and government policies indicate that population growth, particularly among small landholders, is the principal cause of deforestation. Although there is an element of truth to these studies and policies, they greatly oversimplify and distort the issue of Indonesian deforestation. This article evaluates “population-centered” (neo-Malthusian) explanations of forest cover change in Indonesia in the light of non-population-centered (non-Malthusian) evidence. The conclusion is that although population growth is an important part of the explanation of Indonesian deforestation, it should be seen as an intermediate variable, and not as an independent variable. The policy implication is that nonpopulation factors should receive greater attention in policy measures directed at controlling inappropriate deforestation.
Hydroelectric Development and Road Paving in Brazil's Transamazon Area
Authors: Carvalho Georgia O.
Published: April 2009

There are renewed signs that the Brazilian government has retaken the path of large-scale development in the Amazon and that the strategy has been defined with practically no input from society. Among many other development projects for the region, the federal government recently announced two new projects that will profoundly affect the Transamazon Highway area around the town of Altamira. One of the projects is the development of a major hydroelectric power plant on the Xingú River (Belo Monte) and the other is the paving of the Transamazon between the towns of Marabá and Altamira in eastern Amazonia. The evidence suggests that although these projects are not outright environmental disasters, they will have considerable environmental and social consequences for the area. In addition, the decision-making process that has brought about these projects was practically devoid of public participation.
Diagnosis of Machinery Fault Status using Transient Vibration Signal Parameters
Authors: Chen Zhidong , Mechefske Chris K.
Published: April 2009

This paper reports the results of an investigation in which a Prony model based method is developed. The method shows potential for analysing transient vibration signals. An example is included that shows how the procedure was employed to analyse the transient vibration signals created from faulty low speed rolling element bearings. Spectral plots generated by applying the procedure to very short data samples, as well as trending parameters based on these spectral estimations and Prony parameters, are presented. An equation was also derived to quantitatively determine the fault status. It is shown that application of the Prony model based method has the potential to be an effective as well as efficient machine condition monitoring and diagnostic tool where short duration transient vibration signals are being generated.
On the Stability of a Tuned Vibration Absorber for Time Varying Multiple Frequencies
Authors: Olgac Nejat , Huang Chang
Published: April 2009

A class of actively tuned vibration absorbers is presented. The absorber substructure is controlled using an unconventional position feedback with multiple, unrelated time delays. This control sensitizes the absorber at a number of time-varying frequencies concurrently. It converts the absorber into a multi-frequency resonator (the Multiple Frequency Delayed Resonator or MFDR). The resonator, in turn, acts as a perfect absorber of vibration at its resonance frequencies when it is attached to a harmonically excited primary system. This tuning scheme offers some practical benefits. The highlight of the paper is on the stability analysis of such systems with multiple, unrelated time delays. A new strategy to achieve this, the Directional Stability Chart Method (DSCM), is presented, which is based on a one-dimensional search. A complementary method is also explained, the Local Stability Radius Method (LSRM), which results in a regional stability understanding. Examples are given to demonstrate the capabilities of these methods. Tunability feature to the time varying frequencies is also shown through simulations. A single degree of freedom (SDOF) primary system and a two-degrees-of-freedom (TDOF) absorber are considered for dual frequency suppression as a case study.
Stability Monitoring Using Voltage Perturbation for DC Distributed Power Systems
Authors: Liu Jinjun , Feng Xiaogang , Ye Zhihong , Lee Fred C. , Borojevich Dushan
Published: April 2009

The stability issues in nonlinear systems such as multi-module power electronics systems, especially DC distributed power systems, are often dealt with by employing the impedance criterion. However, for on-line system stability monitoring, to direct measure the impedance of the source and load subsystems and then making comparisons is complicated and difficult. This paper proposes a practical and simple method, which involves utilizing voltage perturbation, to monitor the stability margin of DC distributed power systems. A voltage perturbation source is applied to the DC side of the system and only the amplitude of two voltages needs to be measured, therefore this method can be easily used for on-line stability monitoring. An implementation approach of this method, which does not employ additional voltage perturbation source but utilizes the front-end subsystem, is also presented. Theoretical analysis and computer simulations are given to verify the effectiveness of both the monitoring method and the implementation approach. A comparative evaluation of the voltage perturbation method versus the current perturbation method for stability monitoring is provided.
A Variational Approach to Loaded Ply Structures
Authors: Van Der Heijden G. H.M. , Thompson J. M.T. , Neukirch S.
Published: April 2009

We show how an energy analysis can be used to derive the equilibrium equations and boundary conditions for an end-loaded variable ply much more efficiently than in previous works. Numerical results are then presented for a clamped balanced ply approaching lock-up. We also use the energy method to derive the equations for a more general ply made of imperfect anisotropic rods and we briefly consider their helical solutions.
Gain Scheduling Feedback Control for Tower Cranes
Authors: Omar Hanafy M. , Nayfeh Ali H.
Published: April 2009

The objective of crane control is to build an algorithm to move a load from point to point in the shortest time without inducing large swings. We assume that this objective cannot be accomplished in less than a single oscillation cycle of the load. Therefore, the controller is built to move the load such that it completes only one oscillation cycle at the end of the motion. Consequently, the settling time of the system should be equal to the period of oscillation of the load. This criterion enables the calculation of the controller feedback gains for varying load weight and cable length. The controller is built first for overhead cranes and then modified for tower cranes. Two controllers are used, one for the rotational motion of the tower and the other for the translational motion of the trolley. Numerical simulations show that the controller is effective in reducing the load oscillations and transferring the load in a reasonable time compared with that of optimal control.
Do Market-Level Hospital and Physician Resources Affect Small Area Variation in Hospital Use?
Authors: Alexander Jeffrey A. , Lee Shoou-Yih D. , Griffith John R. , Mick Stephen S. , Lin Xihong , Banaszak-Holl Jane
Published: April 2009

This study evaluates the effect of market-level physician and hospital resources on hospital use. It is anticipated that higher hospital discharges are associated with (1) greater hospital and physician resources, (2) more differentiated hospital and physician resources, and (3) higher levels of teaching intensity in the community. Data on 14 modified diagnostically related groups (DRGs) and 58 hospital market communities in Michigan are analyzed during a 7-year period. Findings indicate that physician resources, hospital resources, differentiation of hospital and physician resources, and teaching intensity contribute only modestly to discharges, holding constant the socioeconomic attributes of the community and adjusting for the variation in hospital use over time. With the inclusion of hospital and physician resource variables, socioeconomic factors remain important determinants of the variation across market communities. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for health care organizations, managed care programs, and cost control efforts in general.
Medicare Spending by Beneficiaries with Various Types of Supplemental Insurance
Authors: Khandker Rezaul K. , McCormack Lauren A.
Published: April 2009

The authors analyzed Medicare spending by elderly noninstitutionalized Medicare beneficiaries with and without supplemental insurance such as Medigap, employer-sponsored plans, and Medicaid. Use of a detailed survey of Medicare beneficiaries and their Medicare health insurance claims enabled the authors to control for health status, chronic conditions, functional limitations, and other factors that explain spending variations across supplemental insurance categories. The authors found that supplemental insurance was associated with a higher probability and level of Medicare spending, particularly for Part B services. Beneficiaries with both Medigap and employer plans had the highest levels of spending ceteris paribus, suggesting a possible moral hazard effect of insurance. Findings from this study are discussed in the context of the overall financing of health care for the elderly.
“Picking at the Scabs”: A Poststructural Feminist Writing Project
Authors: Gannon Susanne
Published: April 2009

This article takes up a number of autobiographical texts written at different times and in different styles about the same incident, the end of a marriage. The author traces discourses of femininity and romance as well as discourses about what it means to be “a writer” through fragments of these texts. In exploring the stultifying effects of the discourses that were taken up by the subject in each particular (con)text, the author struggles to open up alternative readings, writings, and possibilities.
Marking Boundaries: Culture as Category Work
Authors: Ryen Anne , Silverman David
Published: April 2009

Contemporary social science is acutely aware of what happens when we mark or police boundaries. Cross-cultural research highlights such issues. Face-to-face interviews and e-mail exchanges with Asian businessmen appeared to suggest clear boundaries between Tanzanian African and Asian “culture.” However, such ready understanding raises two further issues. First, boundary marking might fit with a colonial methodology used by the early anthropologists to fix a boundary around “native” populations. Second, the very concepts of “culture” and “identity” need deconstruction. Using Sacks’s insistence on the inescapably local and self-constituting character of social interaction, the authors examine what is involved when ethnographers (and laypersons) use categories to describe the world. They conclude with an assessment of what remains of anthropology’s and sociology’s concept of culture given their tendency to fudge the boundary between the descriptive abilities of lay and sociological members.
“We Did It for Pleasure Only”: Hearing Alternative Tales of Female Circumcision
Authors: Leonard Lori
Published: April 2009

This article is based on fieldwork conducted in southern Chad on the recent adoption of female circumcision. In Myabé, a village with a population of about 1,000, girls were first circumcised around 1980. Residents describe female circumcision and their experiences of it in ways that contrast sharply with popular notions of what female circumcision means and how it is practiced, and with the descriptions and interpretations available in the medical, public health, and anthropological literatures. In making sense of these findings, the author questions the reasons for the hegemony of the “standard tale” and argues for the need to allow a plurality of stories and experiences of female circumcision to emerge.
Aesthetics and the Practices of Qualitative Inquiry
Authors: Denzin Norman K.
Published: April 2009

This article proposes that qualitative, interpretive writing be assessed in terms of its ability to advance the promises of radical democractic racial justice embodied in the post-civil rights, Chicana/Chicano and Black Arts Aesthetic movements. A set of interpretive practices connected to an aesthetics of color is presented.
Criteria Against Ourselves
Authors: Bochner Arthur P.
Published: April 2009

In the social sciences, we usually think of criteria as culture-free standards that stand apart from human subjectivity and value. The author argues in this article, however, that conflicts over which criteria to apply usually boil down to differences in values that are contingent on humanchoices.Thedemandforcriteriareflectsthedesiretocontainfreedom, limit possibilities, and resist change. Ultimately, all standards of evaluation rest on a research community’s agreement to comply with their own humanly developed conventions. The author ends by considering the personal standards that he applies to works that fall under the new rubric of poetic social science.
Between Voice and Discourse: Quilting Interviews on Anorexia
Authors: Saukko Paula
Published: April 2009

This article asks, “How can we be true to and respect the inner experiences of people and at the same time critically assess the cultural discourses that form the very stuff from which our experiences are made?” To answer this question, the article proposes a quilting mode of doing and writing research that aims to be sensitive to the texture and nuance of personal stories or patches and, by stitching them together, points to discursive resonances between them. The quilting approach is used to make sense of interviews conducted with five anorexic women, listening closely to the voices of these women who are often silenced as disordered, and to illustrate how they complicate and are complicated by notions of anorexics as being too dependent and/or too good.
This I Know: An Exploration of Remembering Childhood and Knowing Now
Authors: Halley Jean
Published: April 2009

This article makes use of experimental writing to explore childhood trauma, and its subject. In it, I examine or tell myself within the gendered and raced context of my family history. However, this piece is also about ideologies and what it means to know something. Through experimental writing, I explore a nonlinear, repetitive kind of knowing and speaking the world that both challenges and compliments more traditional sociological ways of knowing society.
My Left Hand: Socialization and the Interrupted Life
Authors: Richardson Laurel
Published: April 2009

Because of a serious tear in the cartilage of the author’s left wrist, her life as she wants to live it has been seriously interrupted. To represent this experience of interruption, the author records the other interruptions of the day and week, structuring them as narrative interruptions. The author interrupts her text further by moving back in time to write of a horrendous interruption experienced as a young child: the denial to her of her left-handedness. Thus, the text links body trauma, emotional trauma, socialization practices, and the fluidity of self.
“The Management of Hunger”: Using Fiction in Writing Anthropology
Authors: Frank Katherine
Published: April 2009

This piece is a short story based on the author’s fieldwork in contemporary U.S. strip clubs. The story revolves around an ongoing relationship between an exotic dancer and a married customer—a relationship that only exists inside the club and that is based on the mutual construction of fantasy. It is followed by a brief discussion of the use of fiction in experimental ethnography and of the author’s own motivations for and experiences in writing short fiction.
Regimes of Trustworthiness in Qualitative Research: The Rigors of Reciprocity
Authors: Harrison Jane , MacGibbon Lesley , Morton Missy
Published: April 2009

In this article, the authors explore the relationships between trustworthiness and reciprocity in qualitative research: What new questions about trustworthiness arise when we view qualitative research through the lens of reciprocity? Every stage of the research process relies on our negotiating complex social situations. Participants are active in this process, and reciprocity occurs at many different levels. In this article, the authors problematize the relationship between trustworthiness and reciprocity in relation to the researcher, the research process, and the write-up. The authors consider the possibilities and the demands and obligations of reciprocity as they explore framing questions, access and rapport, insider-outsider status, passionate participation, data production, data analysis, and authorizing accounts. The authors’ experiences and interpretations and tales from and of the field shape and are shaped by our understandings of reciprocity.
What’s Race Got to Do With It? Critical Race Theory’s Conflicts With and Connections to Qualitative Research Methodology and Epistemology
Authors: Parker Laurence , Lynn Marvin
Published: April 2009

This article will provide the theoretical and conceptual grounding for forthcoming discussions regarding how critical race theory (CRT), as a discourse of liberation, can be used as a methodological and epistemological tool to expose the ways race and racism affect the education and lives of racial minorities in the United States. To that extent, the goal is threefold. First, the authors seek to adequately define CRT by situating it within a specific socio-historical context. Second, they seek to present an argument for why there is a need for CRT in educational and qualitative research. In doing so, they discuss the ways concerns regarding race and racism have or have not been addressed previously in educational research. Finally, they speculate about what lies ahead. In doing so, they fully assess the possible points of agreement and conflicts between CRT and qualitative research in education.
The Death of Ordinariness: Living, Learning, and Relating in the Age of Anxiety
Authors: Poulos Christopher N.
Published: April 2009

On September 11, 2001, ordinariness died. In its place, a new anxiety was born. In this personal story of anxiety and response, the author reflects on events as they have unfolded in the days following September 11. Focusing on the possibilities invoked by anxiety, the author also questions the limits of anxiety. Can anxiety be both a springboard and a ceiling of possibility? In the Age of Anxiety, we may need to rethink our relationships with anxiety, learning, and one another. Events such as those of September 11 may well force us to question how everyday life is changed by interruption, disruption, and anxiety and then to question how anxiety might be extended and used to spark our collective creativity.
The Psychoanalytic Interview as Qualitative Research
Authors: Kvale Steinar
Published: April 2009

The psychoanalytical interview is one innovative form of knowledge production that has remained outside the discussions of scientific method in psychology. Major parts of the knowledge presented in current textbooks of psychology stem from psychoanalytical interviews, a method that does not exist in textbooks of psychological methods. Some postulates and paradoxes about psychoanalytical knowledge production are posited and aspects of the psychoanalytical interview as a research method are outlined on the basis of Freud’s writings on therapy and technique. Drawing on postmodern conceptions of knowledge, the relational and constructive aspects of therapeutic knowledge production are emphasized. Characteristics of psychoanalytical knowledge production are then discussed, and it is concluded that therapeutic researchers may learn from current developments in social science interview research, and that social scientists may learn from the knowledge production in therapeutic interviews, a knowledge source that remains to be taken seriously by therapeutic researchers themselves.
Fingernails Painted Red: A Feminist, Semiotic Analysis of a “Hot” Text
Authors: Gilgun Jane F.
Published: April 2009

This article is a feminist, semiotic analysis of a narrative text provided by a man who killed his two toddler sons, his girlfriend, an unrelated woman, and possibly two other women, including his wife. The author’s purposes were (a) to do a close analysis of the text to link the narrator’s account to gendered cultural themes and practices and (b) to demonstrate that, in some cases, researchers cannot emerge unscathed from close analyses of “hot” text, that is, narrative material that most people would find deeply disturbing. The author found that her adaptation of Barthes’s methods of analyzing Sarrasine, a short story by Balzac, helped her to manage this hot text and her emotional reactions to it. This approach allowed her to slow down the flow of the narrative and perhaps detoxify its impact on readers. A Barthian semiotic analysis might be useful for other researchers encountering hot texts.
Torch
Authors: Jones Stacy Holman
Published: April 2009

A torch song is a song about unrequited love. The torch song originated in Tin Pan Alley music publishing houses and flourished on post-World War I vaudeville and speakeasy stages in the performances of Edith Piaf, Libby Holman, Billie Holiday, Lee Wiley, and countless others. But just who is the torch singer? What are her history and her place in history? Might her performance move beyond a blind and narcissistic obsession with doomed love affairs? Is her lament a feminist art, a cultural power play? What do her words and movements teach us about autobiography, performance, and culture? This article explores how the author’s experience—as a scholar, feminist, music lover, writer, and woman—burns with these questions. This article enacts a performance ignited by a history of torch singers. Put on your favorite sad song and join in. And by all means, sing along.
Unexpected Stories: Life History and the Limits of Representation
Authors: Cary Lisa J.
Published: April 2009

The author first used life history as a research method in her master of education thesis at a Canadian university. She now believes that the issues and questions that arose from that experience were mired in a critical perspective that reflected realist assumptions. Increasing dissatisfaction with her efforts to work through the life history data gathered in 1995 has led her to problematize the methodological implications of studying research participants’ lives this way. Main points discussed include questions and issues with voice and collaborative methodologies, the epistemological assumptions that frame life history research, and a discussion of victory narratives within the redemptive culture of the human and social sciences. And, just what do we do with “unexpected stories”?
Crises of Schooling and the “Crisis of Representation”: The Story of Rob
Authors: Clough Peter
Published: April 2009

This account exemplifies (rather than argues) the value of the “messy text”; its method/ology is embodied rather than explicit, and the story that it tells (read aloud) aims to be persuasive rather than demonstrative. A discussion then indicates the location of the story in its empirical and methodological contexts, some illustrative justification of “fictional” writing as legitimate inquiry in the social sciences, and some of the contiguity of the literary and ethnographic projects.
On Understanding Understanding
Authors: Schwandt Thomas A.
Published: April 2009

The phenomenon of understanding lies at the heart of the qualitative inquiry enterprise. Drawing on the tradition of philosophical hermeneutics, this article discusses the following four conditions under which understanding unfolds: (a) the difference between knowing and understanding; (b) understanding as learning rather than reading; (c) understanding as relational and hence requiring openness, dialogue, and listening; and (d) understanding as entailing the possibility for misunderstanding. The article closes with some brief comments on the implications of this investigation for what it means to be a qualitative inquirer.