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Contextual
Terms modified by Contextual Selected AbstractsAttachment in low-SES rural Appalachian infants: Contextual, infant, and maternal interaction risk and protective factorsINFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 6 2001Margaret Fish Attachment classifications were obtained for 95 low-socioeconomic-status (SES) rural Appalachian infants in the Strange Situation procedure at 15 months. The distribution of secure (B) and insecure (A, C, D) infants was similar to other low-SES samples and significantly different from low-risk samples. Levels of contextual and infant risk, together with maternal responsiveness to crying and pattern of sensitivity from 4 to 9 months, predicted attachment security. High social support, when examined as a protective factor, related to reduced contextual risk, but not to increased likelihood of security. Exploratory discriminant function analyses showed that infants in secure relationships differed in positive directions on contextual and maternal interactional factors. Insecure-organized (A and C) infants experienced contextual and maternal interaction risks, while insecure-disorganized (D) infants were best distinguished by infant characteristics, including greater likelihood of being male and low use of mother as a secure base at 9 months. ©2001 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health. [source] Accurate Pain Detection Is Not Enough: Contextual and Attributional Style as Biasing Factors in Patient Evaluations and Treatment Choice,JOURNAL OF APPLIED BIOBEHAVIORAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2002Linda M. Lundquist Ninety-six adults with a supportive or unsupportive attributional style participated in an experiment that examined the effects of contextual (i.e., coping and medical evidence) information on evaluations of pain severity, the pain sufferer, and treatment choice for shoulder pain patients. Respondents accurately detected a patient's pain level from the videotaped facial displays, but patients who were coping with the pain were evaluated more positively than noncoping pain patients. Furthermore, unsupportive attributional style predicted harsher treatment choices. Thus, accurate detection of pain does not guarantee unbiased reactions toward the pain patient. [source] Contextual fear-potentiated startle conditioning in humans: Replication and extensionPSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 3 2001Rezvan Ameli Contextual fear conditioning was examined using the startle reflex in two groups of participants over two sessions separated by 1/2 h. The conditioned stimulus (CS) was paired (paired group) or not (unpaired group) with an unpleasant shock during conditioning. The paired group showed conditioning to the CS that was well retained over the retention interval. Session 1 intertrial interval startles,a measure of contextual conditioning,were greater in the unpaired compared to the paired group. Context conditioning was retained in Session 2 and was present before the shock electrodes were attached. Self-rating of state anxiety, arousal, and pleasure indicated differential changes in mood from Session 1 to Session 2 in the two groups, with the unpaired group showing relatively greater negative affects compared to the paired group. These results indicate that unpredictable shocks lead to greater context conditioning as measured by startle and self-reports. [source] The Richness of Augustine: His Contextual and Pastoral Theology , Mark EllingsenRELIGIOUS STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 4 2006C. Thomas McCollough No abstract is available for this article. [source] THE DESIGN OF A STATISTICAL ALGORITHM FOR RESOLVING STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY IN "V NP1 usde NP0"COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, Issue 1 2003Wenjie Li The existence of structural ambiguity in modifying clauses renders noun phrase (NP) extraction from running Chinese texts complicated. It is shown from previous experiments that nearly 33% of the errors in an NP extractor were actually caused by the use of clause modifiers. For example, consider the sequence "V + NP1+ (of) + NP0." It can be interpreted as two alternatives, a verb phrase (i.e., [V[NP1++ NP0]NP]VP) or a noun phrase (i.e., [[V NP1]VP++ NP0]NP). To resolve this ambiguity, syntactical, contextual, and semantics-based approaches are investigated in this article. The conclusion is that the problem can be overcome only when the semantic knowledge about words is adopted. Therefore, a structural disambiguation algorithm based on lexical association is proposed. The algorithm uses the semantic class relation between a word pair derived from a standard Chinese thesaurus, , to work out whether a noun phrase or a verb phrase has a stronger lexical association within the collocation. This can, in turn, determine the intended phrase structure. With the proposed algorithm, the best accuracy and coverage are 79% and 100%, respectively. The experiment also shows that the backed-off model is more effective for this purpose. With this disambiguation algorithm, parsing performance can be significantly improved. [source] Journeys of Expansion and Synopsis: Tensions in Books That Shaped Curriculum Inquiry, 1968,PresentCURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 1 2010WILLIAM H. SCHUBERT In honor of the 40th volume of Curriculum Inquiry, I begin by claiming that pursuit of questions about what is worthwhile, why, and for whose benefit is a (perhaps the) central consideration of curriculum inquiry. Drawing autobiographically from my experience as an educator during the past 40 years, I sketch reflections on curriculum books published during that time span. I situate my comments within both the historical backdrop that preceded the beginning of Curriculum Inquiry and the emergence of new curricular languages or paradigms during the late 1960s and early 1970s. I suggest that two orientations of curriculum books have provided a lively tension in curriculum literature,one expansive and the other synoptic,while cautiously wondering if both may have evolved from different dimensions of John Dewey's work. I speculate about the place of expansion and synopsis in several categories of curriculum literature: historical and philosophical; policy, professional, and popular; aesthetic and artistic; practical and narrative; critical; inner and contextual; and indigenous and global. Finally, I reconsider expansive and synoptic tendencies in light of compendia, heuristics, and venues that portray evolving curriculum understandings without losing the purport of myriad expansions of the literature. [source] Beyond the Biblical Impasse: Homosexuality Through the Lens of Theological AnthropologyDIALOG, Issue 1 2005Gwen B. Sayler Abstract:, What does the Bible say about homosexuality? The argument developed in this article demonstrates that the five biblical texts often cited as "proof" that the Bible condemns homosexuality reflect a theological anthropology that is challenged within Scripture itself and that has been determined by the church to be contextual rather than binding in relation to other debated issues. By bringing the theological anthropology reflected in the five texts into conversation with contrasting biblical anthropologies, it becomes possible to re-frame the contemporary conversation on homosexuality in terms of discerning which biblical theological anthropology will be considered authoritative for the church in the 21st century. [source] Beyond the Single-Person, Single-Insight Attribution in Understanding Entrepreneurial OpportunitiesENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 5 2007Dimo Dimov This article helps develop the creativity perspective within entrepreneurship in two ways. First, it elaborates on the nature of opportunity as a creative product. Rather than viewing opportunities as single insights, it suggests that they are emerging through the continuous shaping and development of (raw) ideas that are acted upon. Second, rather than attributing them to a particular individual, it highlights the contextual and social influences that affect the generation and shaping of ideas. This helps move entrepreneurship research beyond the single-person, single-insight attribution that currently permeates it. [source] The Water Framework Directive and agricultural nitrate pollution: will great expectations in Brussels be dashed in Lower Saxony?ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2007Britta Kastens Abstract This paper discusses the opportunities and constraints regarding the effective implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) in the area of diffuse nitrate pollution. Owing to the subsidiarity principle and a new procedural mode of governance, the WFD only sets distinct environmental targets, leaving most decisions on how to operationalize and institutionalize the reduction of diffuse nitrate pollution to the member states. This is a particular challenge for Germany, where lower scale regions have become the main implementers of European water policy. Successful implementation of the WFD, i.e. the actual improvement of water quality, depends on a series of key contextual and contingent factors, operating at a regional scale. In a Northwest German region with intensive agriculture and severe nitrate pollution, we analyse the historical and economic context and actor network of the region as well as the influence of environmental groups on public participation, the potential of biogas technology and new financial options. Besides the specific influence of these factors on the implementation process, we explore the uncertainties and difficulties surrounding European legislation and its operationalization in Germany and on a regional scale. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] A cross-national meta-analysis of alcohol and injury: data from the Emergency Room Collaborative Alcohol Analysis Project (ERCAAP)ADDICTION, Issue 9 2003Cheryl J. Cherpitel ABSTRACT Aims, To examine the relationship of acute alcohol consumption with an injury compared to a non-injury event in the emergency room across ERs in five countries. Design, Meta-analysis was used to evaluate the consistency and magnitude of the association of a positive blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at the time of arrival in the ER and self-reported consumption within 6 hours prior to the event with admission to the ER for an injury compared to a non-injury, and the extent to which contextual (socio-cultural and organizational) variables explain effect sizes. Findings, When controlling for age, gender and drinking five or more drinks on an occasion at least monthly, pooled effect size was significant and of a similar magnitude for both BAC and self-reported consumption, with those positive on either measure over half as likely again to be admitted to the ER with an injury compared to a medical problem. Effect sizes were found to be homogeneous across ERs for BAC, but not for self-report. Trauma center status and legal level of intoxication were positively predictive of self-reported consumption effect size on injury. Conclusions, These data suggest a moderate, but robust association of a positive BAC and self-report with admission to the ER with an injury, and that contextual variables also appear to play a role in the alcohol,injury nexus. [source] Dissociated theta phase synchronization in amygdalo- hippocampal circuits during various stages of fear memoryEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, Issue 6 2007Rajeevan T. Narayanan Abstract The amygdala and the hippocampus are critically involved in the formation and retention of fear memories. However, their precise contribution to, and their interplay during, fear memory formation are not fully understood. In the present study we investigated network activities in the amygdalo-hippocampal system of freely behaving mice at different stages of fear memory consolidation and retention. Our data show enhanced theta phase synchronization in this pathway during the retrieval of fear memory at long-term (24 h post-training), but not short-term (2 min, 30 min and 2 h post-training) stages, following both contextual and auditory cued conditioning. However, retrieval of remotely conditioned fear (30 days post-training) failed to induce an increase in synchronization despite there still being memory retention. Thus, our data indicate that the amygdalo-hippocampal interaction reflects a dynamic interaction of ensemble activities related to various stages of fear memory consolidation and/or retention, and support the notion that recent and remote memories are organized through different network principles. [source] Family Predictors of Antisocial Behavior in AdolescenceFAMILY PROCESS, Issue 2 2003Maja Dekovi, Ph.D. The goal of the present study was to examine the combined and unique ability of different aspects of family functioning to predict involvement in antisocial behavior in a large nonclinical (community) sample of adolescents. Distinction was made between global (e.g., family socio-economic status), distal (dispositional characteristics of parents), contextual (family characteristics), and proximal (parent-child interaction) factors that operate within families. Results show that proximal factors were significant predictors of antisocial behavior, independent of their shared variance with other factors. Consistent with the hypothesized mediational model, the effects of distal and contextual factors appear to be mostly indirect: after their association with proximal factors was taken into account, these factors were no longer significantly related to antisocial behavior. The implications of these findings for planning of developmentally appropriate interventions for ado-lesents and their families are discussed. [source] Families and Communities: An Annotated BibliographyFAMILY RELATIONS, Issue 5 2005Nancy Brossoie Abstract: Connections between families and communities are dynamic and contextual, and their influences are reciprocal. We present a resource guide for family social scientists who are focusing on the nexus of families and communities by highlighting recent theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions. [source] Behavioral characterization of P311 knockout miceGENES, BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR, Issue 7 2008Gregory A. Taylor P311 is an 8-kDa protein that is expressed in many brain regions, particularly the hippocampus, cerebellum and olfactory lobes, and is under stringent regulation by developmental, mitogenic and other physiological stimuli. P311 is thought to be involved in the transformation and motility of neural cells; however, its role in normal brain physiology is undefined. To address this point, P311-deficient mice were developed through gene targeting and their behaviors were characterized. Mutants displayed no overt abnormalities, bred normally and had normal survival rates. Additionally, no deficiencies were noted in motor co-ordination, balance, hearing or olfactory discrimination. Nevertheless, P311-deficient mice showed altered behavioral responses in learning and memory. These included impaired responses in social transmission of food preference, Morris water maze and contextual fear conditioning. Additionally, mutants displayed altered emotional responses as indicated by decreased freezing in contextual and cued fear conditioning and reduced fear-potentiated startle. Together, these data establish P311 as playing an important role in learning and memory processes and emotional responses. [source] New archaeo-stratigraphic data for the TD6 level in relation to Homo antecessor (Lower Pleistocene) at the site of Atapuerca, north-central SpainGEOARCHAEOLOGY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 5 2003Antoni Canals The sediments of the TD6 level of Gran Dolina Cave at Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain, consist of a series of mud flows with angular clasts. The TD6 deposit has two parts: an upper part, known as the Aurora stratum, which yields Homo antecessor remains, and a lower part with rather homogeneous sediment. The excavation of TD6 level did not reveal a sequence of diachronic occupations. Instead, the contextual and stratigraphic studies permitted us to describe and delimit the micro-units forming the TD6 deposit. The study of the distribution of archaeological remains based on vertical archaeological profiles, using an archaeo-stratigraphic method, allowed us to document the occurrence of a series of archaeological levels within the apparent homogeneous deposit. Variations in the density of archaeological remains along the archaeo-stratigraphic levels permitted us to define two occupational cycles in TD6. These cycles seemingly show increased activities through time, culminating in the Aurora level with the presence of cannibalized Homo antecessor remains. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Why Do Governments Delegate Authority to Quasi-Autonomous Agencies?GOVERNANCE, Issue 2 2006The Case of Independent Administrative Authorities in France In recent years, there has been a considerable degree of delegation from governments to quasi-autonomous agencies. Various reasons have been put forward to explain why governments decide to delegate authority in this way. Some reasons are based on a transaction-cost approach, such as credible commitments. Other reasons are more contextual. For instance, governments may be responding to a process of cross-national policy transfer. In the literature on delegation some hypotheses have already been tested. Specifically, evidence has been found suggesting that governments create agencies to commit credibly to particular policy choices. However, other hypotheses, particularly ones based on contextual explanations, have proved much more difficult to operationalize. This article aims to help fill this gap. It does so by focusing on the creation of Independent Administrative Authorities in France. Does the qualitative evidence in this particular case corroborate the quantitative studies that have been undertaken elsewhere? [source] Dorsal hippocampus involvement in delay fear conditioning depends upon the strength of the tone-footshock associationHIPPOCAMPUS, Issue 7 2008Jennifer J. Quinn Abstract The hippocampus is important for the formation of spatial, contextual, and episodic memories. For instance, lesions of the dorsal hippocampus (DH) produce demonstrable deficits in contextual fear conditioning. By contrast, it is generally agreed that the DH is not important for conditioning to a discrete cue (such as a tone or light) that is paired with footshock in a temporally contiguous fashion (delay conditioning). There are, however, some reports of hippocampus involvement in delay conditioning. The present series of experiments was designed to assess the conditions under which the hippocampus-dependent component of delay fear conditioning performance may be revealed. Here, we manipulated the number of conditioning trials and the intensity of the footshock in order to vary the strength of conditioning. The results indicate that the DH contributes to freezing performance to a delay conditioned tone when the conditioning parameters are relatively weak (few trials or low footshock intensity), but not when strong parameters are used. The results are discussed in terms of two parallel memory systems: a direct tone-footshock association that is independent of the hippocampus and a hippocampus-dependent memory for the conditioning session. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Late postnatal maturation of excitatory synaptic transmission permits adult-like expression of hippocampal-dependent behaviorsHIPPOCAMPUS, Issue 5 2005Theodore C. Dumas Abstract Sensorimotor systems in altricial animals mature incrementally during early postnatal development, with complex cognitive abilities developing late. Of prominence are cognitive processes that depend on an intact hippocampus, such as contextual,configural learning, allocentric and idiocentric navigation, and certain forms of trace conditioning. The mechanisms that regulate the delayed maturation of the hippocampus are not well understood. However, there is support for the idea that these behaviors come "on line" with the final maturation of excitatory synaptic transmission. First, by providing a timeline for the first behavioral expression of various forms of learning and memory, this study illustrates the late maturation of hippocampal-dependent cognitive abilities. Then, functional development of the hippocampus is reviewed to establish the temporal relationship between maturation of excitatory synaptic transmission and the behavioral evidence of adult-like hippocampal processing. These data suggest that, in rats, mechanisms necessary for the expression of adult-like synaptic plasticity become available at around 2 postnatal weeks of age. However, presynaptic plasticity mechanisms, likely necessary for refinement of the hippocampal network, predominate and impede information processing until the third postnatal week. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] SUBJECTIVITY AS A NON-TEXTUAL STANDARD OF INTERPRETATION IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHICAL PSYCHOLOGYHISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 1 2010JARI KAUKUA ABSTRACT Contemporary caution against anachronism in intellectual history, and the currently momentous theoretical emphasis on subjectivity in the philosophy of mind, are two prevailing conditions that set puzzling constraints for studies in the history of philosophical psychology. The former urges against assuming ideas, motives, and concepts that are alien to the historical intellectual setting under study, and combined with the latter suggests caution in relying on our intuitions regarding subjectivity due to the historically contingent characterizations it has attained in contemporary philosophy of mind. In the face of these conditions, our paper raises a question of what we call non-textual (as opposed to contextual) standards of interpretation of historical texts, and proceeds to explore subjectivity as such a standard. Non-textual standards are defined as (heuristic) postulations of features of the world or our experience of it that we must suppose to be immune to historical variation in order to understand a historical text. Although the postulation of such standards is often so obvious that the fact of our doing so is not noticed at all, we argue that the problems in certain special cases, such as that of subjectivity, force us to pay attention to the methodological questions involved. Taking into account both recent methodological discussion and the problems inherent in two de facto denials of the relevance of subjectivity for historical theories, we argue that there are good grounds for the adoption of subjectivity as a nontextual standard for historical work in philosophical psychology. [source] Culture in the context of intercultural negotiation.HUMAN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH, Issue 4 2000Individualism-collectivism, paths to integrative agreements This study explores culture's effect on behaviors and outcomes in intercultural negotiation and examines how those effects are moderated by role. Eighty U.S. and international students took part in a previously developed negotiation task (Pruitt, 1981) and completed Hui and Triandis's (1986) individualism-collectivism (INDCOL) scale. Negotiation interactions were coded for information sharing, offers, and distributive tactics. Findings show that a negotiation dyad's collectivism is positively associated with higher joint profit. The effects of culture on both communication behaviors and joint outcomes, however, differ by role of the negotiator. In particular, seller collectivism has larger and more consistent effects on communication behavior and joint profit than buyer collectivism. Results support a ,culture in context' perspective of negotiation that takes into account negotiator qualities, contextual and structural features of the negotiation, and mediating processes in addition to cultural values. [source] What sources contribute to variance in observer ratings?INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2008Using generalizability theory to assess construct validity of psychological measures Abstract Cronbach and Meehl (Psychol. Bull. 1955; 52:281,302) stated that the key question to be addressed when assessing construct validity is ,What sources contribute to variance in test performance?' We illustrate the utility of generalizability theory (GT) as a conceptual framework that encourages psychological researchers to address this question and as a flexible set of analytic tools that can provide answers to inform both substantive theory and measurement practice. To illustrate these capabilities, we analyze observer ratings of 27 caregiver,child dyads, focusing on the importance of situational (contextual) factors as sources of variance in observer ratings of caregiver,child behaviors. Cross-situational consistency was relatively low for the categories of behavior analyzed, indicating that dyads vary greatly in their interactional patterns from one situation to the next, so that it is difficult to predict behavioral frequencies in one context from behaviors observed in a different context. Our findings suggest that single-situation behavioral measures may have limited generalizability, either to behavior in other contexts or as measures of global interaction tendencies. We discuss the implications of these findings for research and measurement design in developmental psychology. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Patterns of emotional availability among young mothers and their infants: A dydaic, contextual analysisINFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 4 2005M. Ann Easterbrooks The aim of this study was to examine patterns of emotional availability among 80 young mothers (under 21 years at their child's birth) and their infants, and to identify contextual and individual factors associated with different patterns of emotional availability. To operationalize the dyadic aspect of emotional availability, cluster analysis of the Emotional Availability Scales, third edition (EAS; Biringen, Robinson, & Emde, 1998) was conducted on mother and infant scales simultaneously. Four distinct groups of emotional availability patterns emerged, reflecting synchrony and asynchrony between maternal and child behavior: (a) low-functioning dyads, (b) average dyads, (c) average parenting/disengaged infants, and (d) high-functioning dyads. Further analyses revealed that mothers in different clusters differed on outcomes such as depressive symptomatology, social support, and relationships with their own mothers. The clusters and the variables related to them demonstrate the various challenges in integrating the dual tasks of adolescent and parenting development among young mothers. The clinical implications of these patterns of emotional availability and live context are discussed. [source] Attachment in low-SES rural Appalachian infants: Contextual, infant, and maternal interaction risk and protective factorsINFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 6 2001Margaret Fish Attachment classifications were obtained for 95 low-socioeconomic-status (SES) rural Appalachian infants in the Strange Situation procedure at 15 months. The distribution of secure (B) and insecure (A, C, D) infants was similar to other low-SES samples and significantly different from low-risk samples. Levels of contextual and infant risk, together with maternal responsiveness to crying and pattern of sensitivity from 4 to 9 months, predicted attachment security. High social support, when examined as a protective factor, related to reduced contextual risk, but not to increased likelihood of security. Exploratory discriminant function analyses showed that infants in secure relationships differed in positive directions on contextual and maternal interactional factors. Insecure-organized (A and C) infants experienced contextual and maternal interaction risks, while insecure-disorganized (D) infants were best distinguished by infant characteristics, including greater likelihood of being male and low use of mother as a secure base at 9 months. ©2001 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health. [source] Relationship-based e-commerce: theory and evidence from ChinaINFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 4 2008Maris G. Martinsons Abstract., Electronic commerce models and prescriptions from rule-based market economies like the United States have limited applicability in emerging markets. This paper adopts a strategic management perspective to examine the distinctive challenges facing e-commerce in China. A theory is developed to explain how the lack of dependable rules encourages guanxi and relationship-based commerce. It suggests that personal trust, contextual and informal information, and blurred boundaries between business and government have shaped e-commerce in mainland China. Case studies of online retailers in Beijing and Shanghai and a business-to-business (B2B) marketspace reveal how dynamic business relationships with complementary service providers and state agents can overcome institutional deficiencies. Short message service (SMS)-based mobile commerce (m-commerce) and other leapfrogging information technology (IT) applications could transform Chinese consumer behaviour and improve economic efficiency. The evidence from China helps to explain the influence of culture and institutions on different types of IT applications. Implications for e-commerce research and practice in China and other emerging markets are discussed. [source] The rhetoric of conference presentation introductions: context, argument and interactionINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS, Issue 1 2005Elizabeth Rowley-Jolivet The process of socialisation into the academic discourse community involves acquiring mastery of its established genres. While written academic genres have been intensively studied, spoken genres are relatively under-researched. This study focuses on one such spoken research genre, the scientific conference presentation (CP) in English, and specifically on the introduction section, a sub-genre which often poses particular problems for presenters. A move analysis of the CP introductions shows that their rhetorical structure is markedly different from that of the research article, and that these differences are closely related to the contextual and epistemological characteristics of the genre. The interpersonal relations set up by the allocation of speaker and addressee roles through the use of personal pronouns are also discussed. Through a contrastive analysis of the CP introductions and those of the corresponding proceedings papers, the article examines how speakers facilitate information processing and create rapport with the audience. The data comprise video recordings of 44 CPs from 3 scientific fields (geology, medicine, and physics) and a smaller corpus of 13 corresponding articles from the physics conference proceedings. [source] Regional planning implementation and its impact on integration of a mental health care networkINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEALTH PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2002Marie Josée Fleury Abstract This article questions the effectiveness of a managerial tool in changing a health-care system. The process of implementing regional planning and its impact on creating integrated service networks is examined, using a case study and a multi-dimensional analytic model. This model highlights the influence of contextual, structural, cultural and dynamic factors on forming networks. The regional planning developed in the province of Québec (Canada), aimed at a major transformation of the mental health-care system. In each district, organizations working with people who have serious mental disorders were mobilized to plan and implement a more coordinated, continuous and diversified supply of services, under the direction of a regional health body. This study outlines the limitations of regional planning as a tactic for transforming the system. It recommends instead developing more diversified integration strategies to further the process of forming integrated service networks within a complex system. In conclusion, a brief discussion deals with the difficulties related to the study of systemic change implementation. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Connecting what we do with what we know: building a community of research and practiceINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OLDER PEOPLE NURSING, Issue 3 2009Julianne Cheek PhD How to think about, develop, maintain and optimize connections between research and practice remains a vexed and contested area in the increasingly complex multidisciplinary and inter-professional practice that constitutes contemporary healthcare and service delivery. A body of literature challenging linear and passive notions of research uptake has emerged which views research uptake as a dynamic, contextualized and active process. This paper explores the development of a successful and exciting community of research and practice involving a university and an aged care organization in Australia. The community of research and practice is premised on dynamic, contextual and active interaction between research and practice; where the categories of research and practice are not mutually exclusive or static; and where community is more than just a structure to facilitate collaborative research projects. It is proposed that the idea of a community of research and practice is a useful one in terms of seeking to better understand and provide strategies for knowledge translation between researchers and practitioners and those who are both. [source] Students' ideals for nursing older people in practiceINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OLDER PEOPLE NURSING, Issue 2 2006Erica S. Alabaster MSc Aim., Drawing on research exploring nursing students' experiences of working with older people, this paper aims to demonstrate how context and culture can impact on the realization of their ideals. Background., The principles underpinning individualized and person-centred approaches to care resonate with those focal to gerontologic nursing. Restrictive contexts of care and pervasive workplace cultures render nurses unable to deliver care in accord with these. Design and method., This interpretive study was informed by phenomenological,hermeneutic theory. A purposive sample (n = 10) was recruited from a single educational institution. Data were generated in two phases using loosely structured interviews and supplementary activity. Themes explicating their experiences were identified via systematized detailed analysis and issues pertaining to nursing students' orientation towards older people cut across these. Findings and discussion., Students perceived that older people were prone to depersonalization and marginalization, so sought to show respect by coming to know individuals, form human connections with them and personalize care accordingly. Giving respect, promoting personhood, asserting reciprocal identity and maintaining dignity were prominent features of this but were often frustrated by practices and cultures encountered in mainstream settings. Conclusions., Nursing students' approaches to older people are contextual and reflect elements of person-centred ideology. Their attempts upholding their ideals are liable to be subverted by workplace norms. Preparatory education should address these, assist students to learn how to attend to personhood in restrictive environments and offer targeted placements in age-specific and non-acute services. Relevance to clinical practice., Demographic trends mean that working with older people has increased significance for nurses in most settings. Person-centredness is seen as beneficial for older people but contemporary service imperatives and enduring practices are inhibitory, preventing entrants to nursing from developing related skills. [source] Universal ideals and particular constraints of social citizenship: the Chinese experience of unifying rights and responsibilitiesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE, Issue 2 2004Chack Kie Wong This study looks at the perceptions of citizens in a modern Chinese society and explores whether social rights and responsibilities are unified at both ideal and practice levels. It finds that the conception that the Chinese have a weak image of social rights is no longer true. The Chinese are generally ,right-deficit' at the practice level. It is also found that there are wide gaps between ideal rights and practice rights, and between ideal responsibilities and practice responsibilities, except in components affected by cultural, contextual and institutional factors. The findings suggest that, for a full understanding of social citizenship, it is necessary to look at both ideal and practice levels of social citizenship. Cultural, contextual and institutional factors are identified as moderating people's behaviour and preferences in regard to social citizenship. [source] Trafficking: A Perspective from AsiaINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 3 2000Ronald Skeldon The main theme of this article is market development and trafficking as a business. It touches upon most of the aspects of the phenomenon, which have been encountered elsewhere, and translates them into the relatively unfamiliar context of many of the Asian and South-East Asian economies. Equally, the literature cited is also probably unfamiliar. Themes touched upon include democratization, inter-state relations, human rights, and scale and perspectives, together with the problems of definitions, theory, and the reliability of data. The directions and characteristics of trafficking flows together with routes and border control are also considered. Coordinated official responses to criminality and criminal organizations, as well as to trafficked individuals, are beginning to emerge. There is a note of caution sounded that contextual and cultural perspectives, particularly on sex workers, must be viewed somewhat differently to those in Western societies. The article concludes that as long as countries in Asia maintain their policies of restrictive immigration, trafficking can be expected to continue and almost certainly increase. This is because accelerating development creates demand for labour at various skill levels and because even in times of recession migrants and brokers will seek to side-step attempts to expel immigrants and restrict access to labour markets. The elimination of trafficking is unlikely to be realistically achieved through legislation and declarations of intent but by improvements in the socio-economic status of the population. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||