bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Evaluating Linkages of Weather Patterns and Water Quality Responses in South Florida Using a Synoptic Climatological Approach
Authors: Sheridan Scott C. , Pirhalla Douglas E. , Lee Cameron C. , Ransibrahmanakul Varis
Published: September 2012

Coastal ocean ecosystems are impacted by atmospheric conditions and events, including episodic severe systems such as hurricanes as well as more regular seasonal events. The complexity of the atmosphere–ocean relationship makes establishing concrete connections difficult. In this paper, this relationship is assessed through synoptic climatological methods, a technique well established in applied climatological research but heretofore rarely used in assessing coastal ocean water quality and ecological status. Historical sea level pressure data are used to define 10 circulation patterns across the southeastern United States and adjacent Gulf of Mexico, based on the spatial pattern of sea level pressure, which can then be associated with the presence of cyclones, precipitation, and wind stress. The frequency of these patterns, and their deviation from climatological means, is then compared with Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) chlorophyll observations over the Florida Bay and south Florida shelf for the period 1997–2010. Several circulation patterns indicative of cyclonic activity over the broader region are associated with increased chlorophyll levels in the study area, while several other patterns, indicative of anticyclonic conditions, are associated with decreased chlorophyll levels. These relationships are spatially and temporally variable, generally with stronger correlations observed in winter and spring, and farther north in the study region when compared with more southern locations near the Florida Keys. The results here demonstrate the potential of using synoptic analysis and derived statistics for tracking and modeling changes in chlorophyll and other indicators related to water quality and biological health.
Large-Eddy Simulation of Roll Vortices in a Hurricane Boundary Layer
Authors: Nakanishi Mikio , Niino Hiroshi
Published: September 2012

For the last decade, horizontal roll vortices have been often observed in hurricane boundary layers (HBLs). In this study, a large-eddy simulation is performed to explore the formation mechanism of the horizontal roll vortices and their significance in a near-neutrally stratified HBL at 40 km (R40) and 100 km (R100) from the center of the hurricane. Results are examined through turbulence statistics and empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis. The EOF analysis and budgets of turbulent kinetic energy demonstrate that an inflection-point instability in the radial velocity profile is responsible for the roll vortices with horizontal wavelengths of 1.5–2.4 km in the HBL both for R40 and R100. The roll vortices for R40 are nearly aligned with the gradient wind, while those for R100 are oriented slightly to the left of that wind. Also the horizontal distributions of velocity fluctuations suggest the presence of streaklike structures at horizontal intervals of several hundred meters near the ground surface. Internal gravity waves, Kelvin–Helmholtz waves, and entrainments occur above the HBL and are partly coupled with the roll vortices in the HBL, implying an enhancement of vertical transports of momentum and other quantities between the HBL and the free atmosphere.
Zonal-Mean Dynamics of Extended Recoveries from Stratospheric Sudden Warmings
Authors: Hitchcock Peter , Shepherd Theodore G.
Published: September 2012

The recovery of the Arctic polar vortex following stratospheric sudden warmings is found to take upward of 3 months in a particular subset of cases, termed here polar-night jet oscillation (PJO) events. The anomalous zonal-mean circulation above the pole during this recovery is characterized by a persistently warm lower stratosphere, and above this a cold midstratosphere and anomalously high stratopause, which descends as the event unfolds. Composites of these events in the Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model show the persistence of the lower-stratospheric anomaly is a result of strongly suppressed wave driving and weak radiative cooling at these heights. The upper-stratospheric and lower-mesospheric anomalies are driven immediately following the warming by anomalous planetary-scale eddies, following which, anomalous parameterized nonorographic and orographic gravity waves play an important role. These details are found to be robust for PJO events (as opposed to sudden warmings in general) in that many details of individual PJO events match the composite mean.

A zonal-mean quasigeostrophic model on the sphere is shown to reproduce the response to the thermal and mechanical forcings produced during a PJO event. The former is well approximated by Newtonian cooling. The response can thus be considered as a transient approach to the steady-state, downward control limit. In this context, the time scale of the lower-stratospheric anomaly is determined by the transient, radiative response to the extended absence of wave driving. The extent to which the dynamics of the wave-driven descent of the stratopause can be considered analogous to the descending phases of the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) is also discussed.
The Troposphere-to-Stratosphere Transition in Kinetic Energy Spectra and Nonlinear Spectral Fluxes as Seen in ECMWF Analyses
Authors: Burgess B. H. , Erler Andre R. , Shepherd Theodore G.
Published: September 2012

Global horizontal wavenumber kinetic energy spectra and spectral fluxes of rotational kinetic energy and enstrophy are computed for a range of vertical levels using a T799 ECMWF operational analysis. Above 250 hPa, the kinetic energy spectra exhibit a distinct break between steep and shallow spectral ranges, reminiscent of dual power-law spectra seen in aircraft data and high-resolution general circulation models. The break separates a large-scale “balanced” regime in which rotational flow strongly dominates divergent flow and a mesoscale “unbalanced” regime where divergent energy is comparable to or larger than rotational energy. Between 230 and 100 hPa, the spectral break shifts to larger scales (from n = 60 to n = 20, where n is spherical harmonic index) as the balanced component of the flow preferentially decays. The location of the break remains fairly stable throughout the stratosphere. The spectral break in the analysis occurs at somewhat larger scales than the break seen in aircraft data. Nonlinear spectral fluxes defined for the rotational component of the flow maximize between about 300 and 200 hPa. Large-scale turbulence thus centers on the extratropical tropopause region, within which there are two distinct mechanisms of upscale energy transfer: eddy–eddy interactions sourcing the transient energy peak in synoptic scales, and zonal mean–eddy interactions forcing the zonal flow. A well-defined downscale enstrophy flux is clearly evident at these altitudes. In the stratosphere, the transient energy peak moves to planetary scales and zonal mean–eddy interactions become dominant.
Climatology of Non-Gaussian Atmospheric Statistics
Authors: Perron Maxime , Sura Philip
Published: September 2012

A common assumption in the earth sciences is the Gaussianity of data over time. However, several independent studies in the past few decades have shown this assumption to be mostly false. To be able to study non-Gaussian climate statistics, one must first compile a systematic climatology of the higher statistical moments (skewness and kurtosis; the third and fourth central statistical moments, respectively). Sixty-two years of daily data from the NCEP–NCAR Reanalysis I project are analyzed. The skewness and kurtosis of the data are found at each spatial grid point for the entire time domain. Nine atmospheric variables were chosen for their physical and dynamical relevance in the climate system: geopotential height, relative vorticity, quasigeostrophic potential vorticity, zonal wind, meridional wind, horizontal wind speed, vertical velocity in pressure coordinates, air temperature, and specific humidity. For each variable, plots of significant global skewness and kurtosis are shown for December–February and June–August at a specified pressure level. Additionally, the statistical moments are then zonally averaged to show the vertical dependence of the non-Gaussian statistics. This is a more comprehensive look at non-Gaussian atmospheric statistics than has been taken in previous studies on this topic.
The Relationship of Rainfall Variability in Western Equatorial Africa to the Tropical Oceans and Atmospheric Circulation. Part I: The Boreal Spring
Authors: Nicholson Sharon E. , Dezfuli Amin K.
Published: September 2012

This paper examines the factors governing rainfall variability in western equatorial Africa (WEA) during the April–June rainy season. In three of the five regions examined some degree of large-scale forcing is indicated, particularly in the region along the Atlantic coast. Interannual variability in this coastal sector also demonstrates a strong link to changes in local sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and the South Atlantic subtropical high.

To examine potential causal mechanisms, various atmospheric parameters are evaluated for wet and dry composites. The results suggest that the intensity of the zonal circulation in the global tropics is a crucial control on rainfall variability over WEA. A La Niña (El Niño)–like signal in both SSTs and zonal circulation over the Pacific is apparent in association with the wet (dry) conditions in the western sector. However, remote forcing from the Pacific modulates the circulation over Africa indirectly by way of synchronous changes in the entire Indian or Atlantic Ocean.

Anomalies in the local zonal winds are similar in all three regions: the wet (dry) composite is associated with an intensification (weakening) of the upper-tropospheric easterlies and low-level westerlies, but a weakening (intensification) of the midlevel easterlies. This work also suggests that, in most cases, the relationship between local SSTs and rainfall reflects a common remote forcing by the large-scale atmosphere–ocean system. This forcing is manifested via changes in the zonal circulation. Thus, the statistical associations between rainfall and SSTs do not indicate direct forcing by local SSTs. One point of evidence for this conclusion is the stronger association with atmospheric parameters than with SSTs.
Is There an Optimal ENSO Pattern That Enhances Large-Scale Atmospheric Processes Conducive to Tornado Outbreaks in the United States?
Authors: Lee Sang-Ki , Atlas Robert , Enfield David , Wang Chunzai , Liu Hailong
Published: September 2012

The record-breaking U.S. tornado outbreaks in the spring of 2011 prompt the need to identify long-term climate signals that could potentially provide seasonal predictability for U.S. tornado outbreaks. This study uses both observations and model experiments to show that a positive phase TransNiño may be one such climate signal. Among the top 10 extreme outbreak years during 1950–2010, seven years including the top three are identified with a strongly positive phase TransNiño. The number of intense tornadoes in April–May is nearly doubled during the top 10 positive TransNiño years from that during 10 neutral years. TransNiño represents the evolution of tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs) during the onset or decay phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation. A positive phase TransNiño is characterized by colder than normal SSTs in the central tropical Pacific and warmer than normal SSTs in the eastern tropical Pacific. Modeling experiments suggest that warmer than normal SSTs in the eastern tropical Pacific work constructively with colder than normal SSTs in the central tropical Pacific to force a strong and persistent teleconnection pattern that increases both the upper-level westerly and lower-level southwesterly over the central and eastern United States. These anomalous winds advect more cold and dry upper-level air from the high latitudes and more warm and moist lower-level air from the Gulf of Mexico converging into the east of the Rockies, and also increase both the lower-tropospheric (0–6 km) and lower-level (0–1 km) vertical wind shear values therein, thus providing large-scale atmospheric conditions conducive to intense tornado outbreaks over the United States.
A Radiative–Convective Equilibrium Perspective of Weakening of the Tropical Walker Circulation in Response to Global Warming
Authors: Huang Xianglei , Chuang Hui-Wen , Dessler Andrew , Chen Xiuhong , Minschwaner Kenneth , Ming Yi , Ramaswamy V.
Published: September 2012

Both observational analysis and GCM simulations indicate that the tropical Walker circulation is becoming weaker and may continue to weaken as a consequence of climate change. Here, the authors use a conceptual radiative–convective equilibrium (RCE) framework to interpret the weakening of the Walker circulation as simulated by the GFDL coupled GCM. Based on the modeled lapse rate and clear-sky cooling rate profiles, the RCE framework can directly compute the change of vertical velocity in the descending branch of the Walker circulation, which agrees with the counterpart simulated by the GFDL model. The results show that the vertical structure of clear-sky radiative cooling rate QR will change in response to the increased water vapor as the globe warms. The authors explain why the change of QR is positive in the uppermost part of the troposphere (<300 hPa) and is negative for the rest of the troposphere. As a result, both the change of clear-sky cooling rate and the change of tropospheric lapse rate contribute to the weakening of circulation. The vertical velocity changes due to the two factors are comparable to each other from the top of the planetary boundary layer to 600 hPa. From 600 to 300 hPa lapse rate changes are the dominant cause of the weakening circulation. Above 300 hPa, the change due to QR is opposite to the change due to lapse rate, which forces a slight increase in vertical velocity that is seen in the model simulation.
Simulation of Northern Eurasian Local Snow Depth, Mass, and Density Using a Detailed Snowpack Model and Meteorological Reanalyses
Authors: Brun Eric , Vionnet Vincent , Boone Aaron , Decharme Bertrand , Peings Yannick , Valette Rémi , Karbou Fatima , Morin Samuel
Published: September 2012

The Crocus snowpack model within the Interactions between Soil–Biosphere–Atmosphere (ISBA) land surface model was run over northern Eurasia from 1979 to 1993, using forcing data extracted from hydrometeorological datasets and meteorological reanalyses. Simulated snow depth, snow water equivalent, and density over open fields were compared with local observations from over 1000 monitoring sites, available either once a day or three times per month. The best performance is obtained with European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Interim Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim). Provided blowing snow sublimation is taken into account, the simulations show a small bias and high correlations in terms of snow depth, snow water equivalent, and density. Local snow cover durations as well as the onset and vanishing dates of continuous snow cover are also well reproduced. A major result is that the overall performance of the simulations is very similar to the performance of existing gridded snow products, which, in contrast, assimilate local snow depth observations. Soil temperature at 20-cm depth is reasonably well simulated. The methodology developed in this study is an efficient way to evaluate different meteorological datasets, especially in terms of snow precipitation. It reveals that the temporal disaggregation of monthly precipitation in the hydrometeorological dataset from Princeton University significantly impacts the rain–snow partitioning, deteriorating the simulation of the onset of snow cover as well as snow depth throughout the cold season.
Using a Gridded Global Dataset to Characterize Regional Hydroclimate in Central Chile
Authors: Demaria E. M. C. , Maurer E. P. , Sheffield J. , Bustos E. , Poblete D. , Vicuña S. , Meza F.
Published: September 2012

Central Chile is facing dramatic projections of climate change, with a consensus for declining precipitation, negatively affecting hydropower generation and irrigated agriculture. Rising from sea level to 6000 m within a distance of 200 km, precipitation characterization is difficult because of a lack of long-term observations, especially at higher elevations. For understanding current mean and extreme conditions and recent hydroclimatological change, as well as to provide a baseline for downscaling climate model projections, a temporally and spatially complete dataset of daily meteorology is essential. The authors use a gridded global daily meteorological dataset at 0.25° resolution for the period 1948–2008, adjusted by monthly precipitation observations interpolated to the same grid using a cokriging method with elevation as a covariate. For validation, daily statistics of the adjusted gridded precipitation are compared to station observations. For further validation, a hydrology model is driven with the gridded 0.25° meteorology and streamflow statistics are compared with observed flow. The high elevation precipitation is validated by comparing the simulated snow extent to Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images. Results show that the daily meteorology with the adjusted precipitation can accurately capture the statistical properties of extreme events as well as the sequence of wet and dry events, with hydrological model results displaying reasonable agreement with observed streamflow and snow extent. This demonstrates the successful use of a global gridded data product in a relatively data-sparse region to capture hydroclimatological characteristics and extremes.
Unforced Oscillation of Rip-Current Vortex Cells
Authors: Geiman Joseph D. , Kirby James T.
Published: September 2012

A numerical simulation of a monochromatic surface gravity wave–driven flow over an alongshore quasi-periodic rip-channeled beach using the wave-resolving model Funwave is used to investigate coherent, very low-frequency (VLF) motions with characteristic frequencies f < 4.0 mHz inside of the surf zone generated by wave breaking. These oscillations of the nearshore cellular vorticity pattern occur for shore-normal waves over a wide range of amplitudes of the incident wave field and occur despite the wave forcing being essentially constant. The oscillations occur at the lower end of the VLF spectrum or around fp = 0.55 mHz. For small incident wave amplitudes, an equilibrium state consisting of a staggered counterrotating vortex array generates a net weak alongshore current that is also seen in drifter trajectories observed in the field. Using a simpler pseudospectral vorticity model of a single dipole generated by a smooth, stationary in time forcing function sb, this study shows show that the Strouhal number of the vortex shedding process responsible for the oscillation is dependent on the circulation strength of the vortices in the dipole, as well as the bottom friction parameter. This process includes the pinching off, advection, and eventual regeneration of the vortex in the dipole. A simple scaling argument shows good agreement with the frequencies observed in the simulations.
Dynamics of Intensified Downwelling Circulation over a Widened Shelf in the Northeastern South China Sea
Authors: Gan Jianping , San Ho Ho , Liang Linlin
Published: September 2012

This study reveals the dynamics behind the intensified, downslope, cross-isobath transport over a widened shelf (narrowing downwave) in the northeastern South China Sea (NSCS) during a downwelling event. Utilizing a three-dimensional numerical model over an idealized NSCS shelf, this study identified the forcing process and derived an analytical understanding of the invoked dynamics for the intensified downslope cross-isobath transport. This study found that the transport was formed by an amplified geostrophic transport because of an increased positive along-isobath pressure gradient force (PGF), PY*, and by an enhanced bottom Ekman transport due to converging flow over the widened shelf. Based on the depth-integrated vorticity dynamics, PY* was linked with net frictional stress curl in the water column and the curl was primarily associated with the shear vorticity field induced by downwelling jet. The increased positive vorticity seaside of the jet provided positive PY* for the downslope geostrophic transport. The cross-isobath PGF, PX*, which was geostrophically formed and shaped by the spatially asymmetric isobaths of the widened shelf, determined the intensities of the jet and thus the associated shear vorticity that quantified the respective bottom friction transport and PY* for the intensified cross-isobath transport. It was found that the downslope transport over the widened shelf was strengthened in a stratified flow by the linked intensifications of barotropic PX* or the concurrent downwelling jet, shear vorticity field, PY*, and bottom friction because of an increase of volume flux upstream of the widened shelf.
Examining the Impact of Surface Currents on Satellite Scatterometer and Altimeter Ocean Winds
Authors: Plagge Amanda M. , Vandemark Douglas , Chapron Bertrand
Published: September 2012

A 5-yr dataset collected over two surface current and meteorological moorings allows rigorous evaluation of questions surrounding wave–current interaction and the scatterometer. Results demonstrate that scatterometer winds represent winds relative to the moving sea surface, affirming previous observational efforts that inferred the phenomenon using climatological approaches over larger time and space scales in equatorial and western boundary currents. Comparisons of wind residuals between Ku-band Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) and buoy measurements show nearly one-to-one correlations with ocean surface velocity for 5-, 12.5-, and 25-km resolution wind speed products, especially under conditions of moderate wind speed and near-neutral atmospheric stability. Scatterometer and buoy wind direction differences due to currents were observed to be negligible for the range of surface velocities encountered and the length scales observed by QuikSCAT. Similar analyses are applied to C-band Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) satellite wind measurements at the same sites, as well as to satellite altimeter winds, and overall confirm the results seen with QuikSCAT; differences are likely the combined result of sampling, satellite wind algorithms, and geophysical wind–wave coupling in the presence of currents. On the whole, this study affirms that at length scales of 10 km and longer the scatterometer wind can be considered to be current relative. Observed differences between earth-relative and current-relative winds of order 10%–20% of the wind velocity are not uncommon in this and other ocean regions and this study more fully validates that microwave remote sensing winds appear to respond to wind stress even in the presence of larger-scale currents.
Prevalence, correlates and comorbidity of DSM-IV Cannabis Use and Cannabis Use Disorders in Australia
Authors: Teesson Maree , Slade Tim , Swift Wendy , Mills Katherine , Memedovic Sonja , Mewton Louise , Grove Rachel , Newton Nicola , Hall Wayne
Published: September 2012

Objective:

To report nationally representative findings on the prevalence, correlates, psychiatric comorbidity and treatment of DSM-IV Cannabis Use and Cannabis Use Disorders in Australia.

Method:

The 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing was a nationally representative household survey of 8841 Australians (16–85 years) that assessed symptoms of the most prevalent DSM-IV mental disorders.

Results:

Prevalence of lifetime and 12-month cannabis use was 18% and 6%; prevalence of lifetime and 12-month cannabis use disorder was 6% and 1%. The conditional prevalence (proportion of ever users who met criteria for a disorder) of lifetime and 12-month cannabis use disorder was 32.2% and 14.3%. Current cannabis use disorders were more common in males (OR 2.0) and younger users (OR 4.6). Strong associations were observed between current cannabis use disorders and alcohol use disorders (OR 3.6) and current affective disorders (OR 3.0). Only 36.2% of those with current cannabis use disorders sought any treatment.

Conclusions:

The prevalence of cannabis use disorders in the Australian population is comparable with that in the USA. Current cannabis use disorders are highly concentrated in young Australians who have high levels of comorbidity. The low rates of treatment seeking warrant attention in treatment and prevention strategies.
Coping by Colluding
Authors: Slater Dan , Simmons Erica
Published: September 2012

Democracy forces political elites to compete for power in elections, but it also often presses them to share power after the electoral dust has settled. At times these powersharing arrangements prove so encompassing as to make a mockery of putative partisan differences, and even to wipe out political opposition entirely by bringing every significant party into a “party cartel.” Such promiscuous powersharing arrangements undermine representation by loosening parties’ commitments to their core constituents, and threaten accountability by limiting voters’ capacity to remove parties from power via the ballot box. In the otherwise deeply disparate cases of Indonesia and Bolivia, the origins of promiscuous powersharing can be traced to similar periods of high political uncertainty surrounding crisis-wracked transitions to democracy. Party elites coped with the uncertainties of transition and crisis by sharing executive power across the country’s most salient political cleavages. These arrangements forged an elitist equilibrium grounded in informal norms and networks, allowing collusive democracy to outlast the uncertain crisis conditions in which it was forged. Yet they have ultimately proven self-undermining by triggering distinctive popular backlashes, returning both countries to the political uncertainty that promiscuous powersharing was initially intended to alleviate.
Economic Performance and Democratic Support in Asia’s Emergent Democracies
Authors: Yap O. Fiona
Published: September 2012

How does economic performance affect support for democracy in emergent democracies? Government approval studies do not directly evaluate this. Recent literature suggests using separate assessments: Citizens in emergent democracies—through political trust—distinguish between government approval and democratic support. This article directly assesses the question for Asia’s democratizing nations of Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, and the Philippines. Two results are relevant: First, economic performance explains government approval over time and across these democratizing nations. This result accords with findings from other regions to lend to the accumulation of knowledge from extending study to Asia. Second, economic performance does not explain democratic support; instead, political trust is statistically related to democratic support. Specifically, although political trust and economic performance both explain government approval, political trust outweighs economic conditions in explaining democratic support. These results show that by building political trust in the democratizing system, citizens may hold officials accountable while remaining committed to democratic development. Theoretically, then, this article synthesizes diverse findings in the literature to enrich theory building.
The violence of order, orders of violence: Between Fanon and Bourdieu
Authors: von Holdt Karl
Published: September 2012

This article uses the high levels of collective violence associated with contentious politics in South Africa as a prism through which to explore the confrontation between a sociology of the West, represented by Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic violence, and a sociology of the colonial and postcolonial South, represented by Fanon’s theory of revolutionary violence. The article analyses cases of strike violence, community protests, vigilante violence and xenophobic attacks. It shows that collective violence has both emancipatory and corrosive dimensions, that the state cannot monopolise either symbolic or physical violence, that subalterns shape symbolic order from below in a process which may draw on the symbolic charge of collective violence, that subaltern collective violence is embedded in its own moral orders which challenge the symbolic authority of the law, and that subaltern democratic organisation may provide an alternative avenue for empowering the subordinated that neither Bourdieu nor Fanon considered. The article concludes that the interplay between symbolic and physical violence suggests not the separation of a sociology of the South from a sociology of the West, but an interplay between them, a sociology that brings Bourdieu and Fanon into play with each other.
Entering and leaving the tunnel of violence: Micro-sociological dynamics of emotional entrainment in violent interactions
Authors: Collins Randall
Published: September 2012

Evidence from close ethnographic observations, photos, videos, and interviews show that persons in violence-threatening situations experience the emotional state of confrontational tension/fear ( ct/f). This emotion constitutes a barrier that makes most violence abort. Given one of several interactional patterns that allow violence to proceed past this barrier, violence is largely clumsy, imprecise, and uncontrolled. Moments of violence are often experienced as perceptual distortions in the flow of time, vision, sound, and sense of self, an altered state of violent consciousness that the author refers to by the metaphor, the tunnel of violence. The latter part of the article extrapolates the theory to consider mechanisms by which this emotional tunnel is prolonged into episodes lasting longer than a few seconds. These mechanisms include: self-entrainment in one’s own bodily rhythms; reciprocal micro-coordination between attacker and victim; audience or team entrainment. Some experienced individuals learn techniques to manipulate the emotional processes of the tunnel of violence for their own advantage. Greater awareness of micro-sociological processes hold out the prospect of heading off violence in the local situation itself.
The sociological significance of domestic violence: Tensions, paradoxes and implications
Authors: Hearn Jeff
Published: September 2012

Sociology and sociological theory has been effective in analyzing societal and institutional conflict and violence, but less so the specifics of interpersonal violence. This article examines the sociological significance of domestic violence. This relationship, or sometimes its neglect, is underlain by several tensions and paradoxes, which in turn have broader implications for sociology and sociological theory. These matters are examined through: the possible paradox of violence and intimacy in the phenomenon of domestic violence; the importance of the naming and framing of such violence; explanation, responsibility and agency; and gender, hegemony and discourse in men’s violence to known women, as part of a multifaceted power approach.
Tackling violence in intimacy: Interacting power relations and policy change
Authors: Eriksson Maria
Published: September 2012

The aim of the article is to discuss interacting power relations and policy change. Children’s exposure to intimate partner violence and policy change in Sweden is the empirical case in point. It is argued that to understand the shift in Swedish policy as regards exposure to intimate partner violence it is important to recognize, on the one hand, the social order shaping policy and practice, and, on the other hand, the role of collective and individual actors in the field as well as the opportunity structure that enables social change. Furthermore, subordinating children to adults comes across as a particularly potent way of challenging gendered inequality in the form of men’s violence against women in intimate relationships. Possibilities for social change thus seem to be greater in relation to gender, than age. An empirically sensitive and actor-centred intersectional analysis must be sophisticated enough to grasp complexities such as these if we are to be able to fully understand agency and policy change within a complex social order.
Explaining spacio-cide in the Palestinian territory: Colonization, separation, and state of exception
Authors: Hanafi Sari
Published: September 2012

This article argues that the Israeli colonial project is ‘spacio-cidal’ (as opposed to genocidal) in that it targets land for the purpose of rendering inevitable the ‘voluntary’ transfer of the Palestinian population primarily by targeting the space upon which the Palestinian people live. The spacio-cide is a deliberate ideology with unified rational, albeit dynamic process because it is in constant interaction with the emerging context and the actions of the Palestinian resistance. By describing and questioning different aspects of the military-judicial-civil apparatuses, this article examines how the realization of the spacio-cidal project becomes possible through a regime that deploys three principles, namely: the principle of colonization, the principle of separation, and the state of exception that mediates between these two seemingly contradictory principles.
Undocumented Latino immigrant men in the United States: Policy and practice considerations
Authors: Furman Rich , Ackerman Alissa R. , Negi Nalini Junko
Published: September 2012

This article presents an exploration of undocumented, Latino male immigrants in the United States, and assesses the impact of new state policies and their implications for social work practice. To meet its aims, we describe the psychosocial risks that they face, and situated these risks within the context of new state policy realities. Implications for practice are presented.
She Decides
Authors: Anaebere Ann Kiki , Nyamathi Adeline , Maliski Sally , Ford Chandra , Hudson Angela , Koniak-Griffin Deborah
Published: September 2012

The number of HIV-AIDS cases among African American women (AAW) continues to rise. AAW currently account for about 65% of AIDS diagnoses among women in the United States. Furthermore, among AAW living with HIV-AIDS, heterosexual transmission remains the leading cause of HIV spread. Indeed, examining AAWs sex partner selection patterns will be a key step in understanding how to support HIV prevention for this population. A grounded-theory study was conducted to examine what factors influence AAW’s alternation between monogamous and nonmonogamous sexual relationships. To explore this phenomenon, we recruited 14 urban AAW between the ages of 18 and 30 for interviews. The findings revealed that AAW’s sex partner selection patterns in consensual sexual relationships were influenced by the “getting-to-know” process, the male’s relationship preference, a woman’s risk perception, and how the role of sex is defined. The results of this study can provide insights for future interventions seeking to curb HIV rates among AAW from urban communities.
Labouring bodies, labouring histories: The Malaysian-Indian estate girl
Authors: Jeyathurai Dashini
Published: September 2012

This article brings together three seemingly disparate texts, namely, K.S. Jomo and Josie Zaini’s Meena: A Plantation Child Worker, K.S. Maniam’s Between Lives and Preeta Samarasan’s Evening is the Whole Day. By placing these narratives into conversation with each other as well as situating them against the complex history of Malaysia’s Indian minority, this essay sets into relief the legacies of the colonial plantation industry in Malaysia and its implications for this community. In the process of doing so, this article focuses its attention upon the particularly gendered implications that are illuminated by the ways in which these three texts imagine Malaysian-Indian estate girls. These renderings of both Malaysian-Indian estate girls and estate women disrupt more commonplace narratives about the ever mobile and cosmopolitan Indian diasporic subject. These texts invite us to consider those diasporic subjects who crossed oceans under the aegis of the British Empire to work in unfamiliar lands before it became de rigueur for Indian professionals to move to New York, Tokyo, London, Singapore, and so on. Importantly, when read against each other, these texts force us to contemplate what happens with a community mired in the persistent debris of decolonization while the new nation marches on.
Domesticating the subaltern in the global novel in English
Authors: Erwin Lee
Published: September 2012

This essay analyses prizewinning postcolonial novels in English from the last two decades that render labourers legible by enfolding them in the domestic novels still dominant in metropolitan reading practices. The figures of Hassan in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, Triton in Romesh Gunesekera’s Reef, Velutha in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, and Ugwu in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, though they initially enter the novels as labourers, are ultimately transformed through their roles in these domestic novels into exceptional figures who transcend class. At the same time, the novels address forms of violence that would seem to challenge the domestic novel’s representational capacities. These novels then perform a double movement, gesturing toward class as a category in their inclusion of these domestic labourers, only to evacuate that category in rewriting the violence they portray as answerable by the personal relationships and identitarian transformations that constitute the genre’s meanings. That the novels thus raise questions of class and subalternity – of relations of domination and subordination – and then translate those relations into other categories posited as primary bearers of textual and social meaning renders the category of class itself subaltern in these texts.
The Overseas Indian and the political economy of the body in Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger and Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide
Authors: Goh Robbie B. H.
Published: September 2012

In the often highly-charged cultural politics of India, difference is played out in various ways, including in gendered, religious, and social terms. A newer and less obvious difference emerges as India struggles to attract foreign investment to the country, beginning with the cultural and economic campaign to engage Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) – or Overseas Indians, to use the term now growing in popularity – and to kindle their interest in the homeland. The cultural and ideological gap between the Overseas Indian and the local or resident Indian, ostentatiously noted in literary narratives, marks the gap between India’s ambitions to become a global socio-economy, and the reality of its present socio-economic state and its anxieties about globalization. In texts such as Adiga’s The White Tiger and Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide, this gap (despite the differences between the texts) ultimately appears to be persistent and insurmountable. The obduracy of the local Indian’s cultural corpus, its resistance to the seemingly more dependent and malleable condition of the Overseas Indian, speaks not only of the persistence of the local against the global in India (contra many discourses of a rampant globalization), but also of anxieties about local problematics (corruption, social injustice, reactionary culture) which are not easily remediable.
Questioning as utopian practice in Edward (Kamau) Brathwaite’s Rights of Passage
Authors: Kohli Amor
Published: September 2012

This essay examines the ways in which Edward (Kamau) Brathwaite’s first volume engages critique and questioning as an exemplification of a utopian impulse that results in an emergent critical consciousness. By looking at how interrogative and inquisitive moments might give form to potential resistance, the essay elaborates how Rights of Passage is the site of and vehicle for a variety of oppositional refusals, inquiries, and dreams that enact a utopian impulse. Written at an historical moment of widespread questioning and challenging, Rights of Passage offers through the characters who inhabit its pages, instances of subtly probing attempts to grapple with, understand, and potentially change their worlds.
Women, rivers, and serpents: Reifying the primordial link in Gita Mehta’s A River Sutra
Authors: Sankaran Chitra
Published: September 2012

Gita Mehta’s A River Sutra has been variously regarded as a philosophical treatise on the nature of love; as a description of the various sub-cultures within India, or sometimes even as mere entertainment – a light read. Few reviews or studies have ventured to examine the distinctively gendered nature of the narrative. This article attempts to uncover the subtle but persistent “sutra” that affirms the feminine principle throughout. The tales, beaded together in the frame narrative, connect rivers, serpents, the cult of the goddess, and the feminine principle in interesting and significant ways. It is noteworthy that this is accomplished despite the all-male coterie of characters who stud the frame narrative. The link between contemporary landscape, mythic patterns, and the feminine principle that is evidenced in the text, A River Sutra, brings to light its feminist context, one that has hitherto been overlooked.
Characterization of free edge effects: influence of mechanical properties, microstructure and structure effects
Authors: Lecomte-Grosbras Pauline , Paluch Bernard , Brieu Mathias
Published: September 2012

The elastic property mismatch between plies with different orientations induces stress concentrations near free edges. This free edge effect can cause early delamination of composite structures. Laminates with 15° and –15° plies are studied experimentally to highlight the free-edge effect and the induced micromechanism damage. Full field measurements under tensile loading are performed at macroscopic and mesoscopic scales on edges of the sample. Results show displacement gradients and strain concentrations near interlaminar interfaces. Residual displacement gradients are measured after unloading, which highlights local damage at interlaminar interfaces. Observations at the microscopic scale show that cracks appear at fibre/matrix interfaces and propagate between adjacent fibres along interlaminar interfaces. A comparison of the results obtained on different composites highlights the influence of mechanical properties and material microstructure on edge effects. The study of samples with dropped plies highlights the influence of the combination of both geometric and material singularities on edge effects.
Effectiveness of Maternal Counseling in Reducing Caries in Cree Children
Authors: Harrison R.L. , Veronneau J. , Leroux B.
Published: September 2012

This cluster-randomized pragmatic (effectiveness) trial tested maternal counseling based on Motivational Interviewing (MI) as an approach to control caries in indigenous children. Nine Cree communities in Quebec, Canada were randomly allocated to test or control. MI-style counseling was delivered in test communities to mothers during pregnancy and at well-baby visits. Data on outcomes were collected when children were 30 months old. Two hundred seventy-two mothers were recruited from the 5 test and 4 control communities. Baseline characteristics were comparable but not equivalent for both groups. At trial’s end, 241 children had follow-up. The primary analysis outcome was enamel caries with substance loss (d2); no statistically significant treatment effect was detected. Prevalence of treated and untreated caries at the d2 level was 76% in controls vs. 65% in test (p = 0.17). Exploratory analyses suggested a substantial preventive effect for untreated decay at or beyond the level of the dentin, d3 (prevalences: 60% controls vs. 35% test), and a particularly large treatment effect when mothers had 4 or more MI-style sessions. Overall, these results provide preliminary evidence that, for these young, indigenous children, an MI-style intervention has an impact on severity of caries (clinical trial registration ISRCTN41467632).
Construct Validity of Locker’s Global Oral Health Item
Authors: Thomson W.M. , Mejia G.C. , Broadbent J.M. , Poulton R.
Published: September 2012

With clinical oral examinations not always possible in health surveys, researchers may instead be invited to add questions to a wider health survey. In such situations, an item is needed which adequately represents both clinical and self-reported oral health. This study investigated the clinical validity of Locker’s global self-reported oral health item among young middle-aged adults in populations in New Zealand and Australia. Clinical examination and self-report data (including the OHIP-14) were obtained from recent national dental surveys in NZ and Australia, and from age-38 assessments in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. National dataset analyses involved 35- to 44-year-olds. Caries and tooth-loss experience showed mostly consistent, statistically significant gradients across the Locker item responses; those responding ‘Excellent’ had the lowest scores, and those responding ‘Poor’ the highest. Periodontitis experience gradients in the NZ national sample were mainly as hypothesized; those rating their oral health as ‘Poor’ had the highest disease experience. OHIP-14 gradients across the Locker item responses were consistent and as hypothesized. The proportion of disease in the population borne by those ‘Fair’ or ‘Poor’ ranged from 26% to 72%. These findings provide preliminary support for the measure’s validity as a global self-reported oral health measure in young middle-aged adults.
Effect of a Calcium-silicate-based Restorative Cement on Pulp Repair
Authors: Tran X.V. , Gorin C. , Willig C. , Baroukh B. , Pellat B. , Decup F. , Opsahl Vital S. , Chaussain C. , Boukpessi T.
Published: September 2012

In cases of pulp injury, capping materials are used to enhance tertiary dentin formation; Ca(OH)2 and MTA are the current gold standards. The aim of this study was to evaluate the capacity of a new calcium-silicate-based restorative cement to induce pulp healing in a rat pulp injury model. For that purpose, cavities with mechanical pulp exposure were prepared on maxillary first molars of 27 six-week-old male rats, and damaged pulps were capped with either the new calcium-silicate-based restorative cement (Biodentine), MTA, or Ca(OH)2. Cavities were sealed with glass-ionomer cement, and the repair process was assessed at several time-points. At day 7, our results showed that both the evaluated cement and MTA induced cell proliferation and formation of mineralization foci, which were strongly positive for osteopontin. At longer time-points, we observed the formation of a homogeneous dentin bridge at the injury site, secreted by cells displaying an odontoblastic phenotype. In contrast, the reparative tissue induced by Ca(OH)2 showed porous organization, suggesting a reparative process different from those induced by calcium silicate cements. Analysis of these data suggests that the evaluated cement can be used for direct pulp-capping.
Safe, Affirming, and Productive Spaces
Authors: Cooper Kristy S.
Published: September 2012

Responding to recent reports that Latina students often lack feelings of belonging at school and are dropping out in increasing numbers, this study explores how classroom environments influence engagement or disengagement among Latina students. Through case studies with five Latina 10th-grade students, this research examines how variations in the learning environment along three dimensions influence variations in classroom engagement as students travel from class to class in a given school day. Marshaling interview and observational data, the author demonstrates that Latina students experience the greatest levels of classroom engagement in learning spaces that are safe, affirming, and productive.