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Specific Instances (specific + instance)
Selected AbstractsORIGINAL RESEARCH,COUPLES' SEXUAL DYSFUNCTIONS: Erectile Dysfunction (ED) is a Shared Sexual Concern of Couples I: Couple Conceptions of EDTHE JOURNAL OF SEXUAL MEDICINE, Issue 10 2009William A. Fisher PhD ABSTRACT Introduction., Erectile dysfunction (ED) may be regarded as a shared sexual concern with a significant negative impact on both patients and their partners. Aim., The current research sought to explore the degree of concordance or divergence of couple members' perceptions of the specific functional impairments characterizing the man's ED, and the concordance or discordance of their attitudes, beliefs and experiences about the male partner's erectile difficulty. Methods., Questionnaires were sent to partners of men who participated in the Men's Attitudes to Life Events and Sexuality (MALES) 2004 study, who consented to their partner's involvement. A modified version of the questionnaire used in the MALES study was employed, adapted to reflect the female partner's perspective. Questionnaire responses were analyzed in relation to responses provided by male study participants. Main Outcome Measure., A 65-item questionnaire assessing women's perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes regarding aspects of ED. Results., High levels of concordance between couple members were observed across almost all items. Women's perceptions of both the specific functional impairments characterizing their partner's ED and the frequency of the partner's erection difficulty were strongly associated with assessments the men themselves had made. Significant associations were also observed between couple members' responses relating to their beliefs about the causes of ED, effects of ED on the relationship, communication about ED, finding a solution to ED, and attitudes toward medication. A number of specific male,female discordant perceptions and attitudes were also identified. Conclusions., Findings of this study demonstrate a high degree of concordance in couple members' perceptions of the male partner's ED, and in their attitudes and beliefs about ED. Specific instances of discordance between couple members may contribute to treatment avoidance or couple conflict. Fisher WA, Eardley I, McCabe M, and Sand M. Erectile Dysfunction (ED) is a shared sexual concern of couples I: Couple conceptions of ED. J Sex Med 2009;6:2746,2760. [source] Organizational Routines as Sources of Connections and UnderstandingsJOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 3 2002Martha S. Feldman Organizational routines are increasingly identified as an aspect of organizations that allows them to achieve the balance between adaptability and stability. We contribute to this discussion by showing that the connections that organizational routines make between people contribute to both stability and the ability to adapt. We argue that the connections between people that are formed as they engage together in organizational routines are important for developing understandings about both what needs to be done in a specific instance of performing a routine and about the goals of the organization that routines presumably help accomplish. Together the two sets of understandings influence organizational performance by affecting the ability of organizations to adapt to changing circumstances. These arguments lead to a general recognition of the importance to organizations of connections and the suggestion that the connections, themselves, may be an important outcome of organizational routines. [source] Diabetes control in pregnancy: who takes responsibility for what?PRACTICAL DIABETES INTERNATIONAL (INCORPORATING CARDIABETES), Issue 8 2003Dr J Josse FRCPsych Sessional Consultant Psychotherapist Abstract At our diabetes team meetings in Peterborough, which included a psychotherapist, the issues involved in who takes responsibility for the birth of a healthy baby from a diabetic mother were explored. Traditional prescriptive approaches were compared with the empowerment model in the specific instance of pregnancy, when the needs of the fetus have to be considered as well as those of the mother. Clinical examples are given to illustrate the dilemmas over who takes responsibility with different models, and questions are raised for debate. The empowerment model of diabetes care may not be entirely applicable to the pregnant diabetic woman. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Exotic plant invasions in an endemic-rich habitat: The spread of an introduced Australian grass, Agrostis avenacea J. F. Gmel., in California vernal poolsAUSTRAL ECOLOGY, Issue 5 2004PAUL H. ZEDLER Abstract The present abundance and historical spread of an exotic grass, Agrostis avenacea, is documented for California, USA, and for the vernal pools of San Diego County in particular. Agrostis avenacea is native to Australia where it is a common grass of ephemeral and fluctuating wetlands. California vernal pools, by reason of their extreme variability and high endemism, have been thought to be relatively resistant to invasion. The recent expansion of A. avenacea in San Diego County demonstrates, however, that the alleged resistance is probably a function of a relatively small pool of invaders and a low probability of targeted dispersal. Although A. avenacea is now abundant in pools with little current disturbance, human disturbance appears to have been a major factor that facilitated its initial establishment. This specific instance adds to the mounting evidence that there are probably few, if any, habitats immune to invasion. [source] SUICIDE, RISK, AND INVESTMENT IN THE HEART OF THE AFRICAN MIRACLECULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 4 2009JULIE LIVINGSTON ABSTRACT This essay considers new forms of investment, risk, and self-determination, among Botswana's middle and aspirant classes, as well as the loneliness and rage that are at stake when they fail. In it, I use specific instances and more widespread talk of suicides and murder,suicides contemplated, attempted, and accomplished as a vehicle for pondering the social dimensions of investment, and the perils of secrecy and the loneliness that shadow it. Amid a new regime of risk, investment, and self-determination brought by discontinuities of economic boom and widespread AIDS death over the past decade, Batswana are facing new questions about how to invest in relationships, selves, and futures. The essay concludes with a radically different context, a cancer ward, where Batswana seek to exile suicide and nihilism from the beds, minds, and hearts of patients through processes of socialization and paternalism that deny self-determination, while at the same time questing for and demanding investment in high-tech biomedicine. [source] State Collapse and Fresh Starts: Some Critical ReflectionsDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 5 2002Martin Doornbos In examining the incidence of state collapse, two central themes emerge, one concerned with the search for causalities and the other concerned with appropriate responses. There is often a misplaced tendency to look for single causes and explanations of state collapse, and similarly to propose single, preferably ,quick,fix' solutions. Instead, what seems to be called for is a more nuanced scrutiny which differentiates the factors leading to collapse in specific instances, and a reconsideration, in the light of this scrutiny, of responses and possible external actor involvement. This article addresses these two themes. Firstly, it takes a preliminary look into the complex web of conditioning and facilitating factors that may or may not set in motion a chain reaction eventually leading to state collapse, examining the extent to which any emerging patterns can be identified. Secondly, it looks more closely at the response side to incidences of state collapse, specifically external responses. Whilst external actors, notably the ,donor community', are trying to better prepare themselves for the eventualities of crises of governance and state collapse in various countries, and to design more effective strategies and instruments, it remains to be seen to what extent there is a ,fit' between the determinants and dynamics of state collapse and the responses and solutions for restoration which are offered. [source] Integrating physiological, ecological and evolutionary change: a Price equation approachECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 8 2009Sinéad Collins Abstract We use a general quantitative framework , the Price equation , to partition phenotypic responses to environmental change into separate physiological, evolutionary and ecological components. We demonstrate how these responses, which potentially occur over different timescales and are usually studied in isolation, can be combined in an additive way; and we discuss the main advantages of doing this. We illustrate our approach using two worked examples, concerning the emergence of toxin resistance within microbial communities, and the estimation of carbon uptake by marine phytoplankton in high-CO2 environments. We find that this approach allows us to exclude particular mechanistic hypotheses with regard to community-level transformations, and to identify specific instances where appropriate data are lacking. Thus Price's equation provides not only a powerful conceptual aid, but also a means for testing hypotheses and for directing empirical research programmes. [source] Reciprocal insights into adaptation from agricultural and evolutionary studies in tomatoEVOLUTIONARY APPLICATIONS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 5-6 2010Leonie C. Moyle Abstract Although traditionally separated by different aims and methodologies, research on agricultural and evolutionary problems shares a common goal of understanding the mechanisms underlying functionally important traits. As such, research in both fields offers potential complementary and reciprocal insights. Here, we discuss adaptive stress responses (specifically to water stress) as an example of potentially fruitful research reciprocity, where agricultural research has clearly produced advances that could benefit evolutionary studies, while evolutionary studies offer approaches and insights underexplored in crop studies. We focus on research on Solanum species that include the domesticated tomato and its wild relatives. Integrated approaches to understanding ecological adaptation are particularly attractive in tomato and its wild relatives: many presumptively adaptive phenotypic differences characterize wild species, and the physiological and mechanistic basis of many relevant traits and environmental responses has already been examined in the context of cultivated tomato and some wild species. We highlight four specific instances where these reciprocal insights can be combined to better address questions that are fundamental both to agriculture and evolution. [source] Ideas and Change in U.S. Foreign Aid: Inventing the Millennium Challenge CorporationFOREIGN POLICY ANALYSIS, Issue 2 2008Steven W. Hook Recent scholarship on foreign policy change focuses on the role of ideas in altering policies and related governing institutions. While a welcome antidote to the previous preoccupation with static analysis, this research has yet to provide adequate understanding of whether and how ideas produce change in specific instances. This study seeks to narrow this gap by examining a recent program change in U.S. foreign aid policy: the creation in 2004 of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent agency designed to reward the world's most impoverished countries that had previously undertaken neoliberal economic reforms and democratic political reforms. The study identifies a convergence of widely shared principled and causal beliefs which, mediated through U.S. domestic structures, produced the most significant change in U.S. aid strategy and structures in nearly half a century. In melding societal theories that emphasize the role of transnational norm diffusion with theories of domestic politics, the study answers the call for multilevel explanations of foreign policy change. And by applying constructivist notions of ideas and discursive framing with rationalist conceptions of power and interests, the study further responds to the need for theoretical synthesis in the study of foreign policy. [source] Incipient speciation of Catostylus mosaicus (Scyphozoa, Rhizostomeae, Catostylidae), comparative phylogeography and biogeography in south-east AustraliaJOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2005Michael N Dawson Abstract Aim, Phylogeography provides a framework to explain and integrate patterns of marine biodiversity at infra- and supra-specific levels. As originally expounded, the phylogeographic hypotheses are generalities that have limited discriminatory power; the goal of this study is to generate and test specific instances of the hypotheses, thereby better elucidating both local patterns of evolution and the conditions under which the generalities do or do not apply. Location, Coastal south-east Australia (New South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria), and south-west North America (California and Baja California). Methods, Phylogeographic hypotheses specific to coastal south-east Australia were generated a priori, principally from existing detailed distributional analyses of echinoderms and decapods. The hypotheses are tested using mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and nuclear internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) DNA sequence data describing population variation in the jellyfish Catostylus mosaicus, integrated with comparable data from the literature. Results, Mitochondrial COI distinguished two reciprocally monophyletic clades of C. mosaicus (mean ± SD: 3.61 ± 0.40% pairwise sequence divergence) that were also differentiated by ITS1 haplotype frequency differences; the boundary between the clades was geographically proximate to a provincial zoogeographic boundary in the vicinity of Bass Strait. There was also limited evidence of another genetic inhomogeneity, of considerably smaller magnitude, in close proximity to a second hypothesized zoogeographic discontinuity near Sydney. Other coastal marine species also show genetic divergences in the vicinity of Bass Strait, although they are not closely concordant with each other or with reported biogeographic discontinuities in the region, being up to several hundreds of kilometres apart. None of the species studied to date show a strong phylogeographic discontinuity across the biogeographic transition zone near Sydney. Main conclusions, Patterns of evolution in the Bass Strait and coastal New South Wales regions differ fundamentally because of long-term differences in extrinsic factors. Since the late Pliocene, periods of cold climate and low sea-level segregated warm temperate organisms east or west of an emergent Bassian Isthmus resulting in population divergence and speciation; during subsequent periods of warmer and higher seas, sister taxa expanded into the Bass Strait region leading to weakly correlated phylogeographic and biogeographic patterns. The Sydney region, by contrast, has been more consistently favourable to shifts in species' ranges and long-distance movement, resulting in a lack of intra-specific and species-level diversification. Comparisons between the Sydney and Bass Strait regions and prior studies in North America suggest that vicariance plays a key role in generating coastal biodiversity and that dispersal explains many of the deviations from the phylogeographic hypotheses. [source] Validation of Tool Mark Comparisons Obtained Using a Quantitative, Comparative, Statistical AlgorithmJOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES, Issue 4 2010L. Scott Chumbley Ph.D. Abstract:, A statistical analysis and computational algorithm for comparing pairs of tool marks via profilometry data is described. Empirical validation of the method is established through experiments based on tool marks made at selected fixed angles from 50 sequentially manufactured screwdriver tips. Results obtained from three different comparison scenarios are presented and are in agreement with experiential knowledge possessed by practicing examiners. Further comparisons between scores produced by the algorithm and visual assessments of the same tool mark pairs by professional tool mark examiners in a blind study in general show good agreement between the algorithm and human experts. In specific instances where the algorithm had difficulty in assessing a particular comparison pair, results obtained during the collaborative study with professional examiners suggest ways in which algorithm performance may be improved. It is concluded that the addition of contextual information when inputting data into the algorithm should result in better performance. [source] A qualitative investigation of school-aged children's answers to items from a generic quality of life measureCHILD: CARE, HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2007J. Cremeens Abstract Background, The development of instruments to measure child self-reported quality of life (QOL) is dependent on whether children can understand the concepts behind items. Researchers need more information on how children are interpreting and answering items. This paper aims to investigate the strategies school-aged children use to answer QOL items. Methods, A generic 30-item QOL measure (the TedQL) was administered to 266 healthy children (5,6, 7,9 years old). Children were asked to ,think aloud' while answering a selection of 10 TedQL items (n = 4 ability, n = 4 social, n = 2 mood items), and their responses were recorded verbatim. Results, The strategies children reported using when answering items were coded into five categories: (1) social comparisons; (2) stable character references; (3) concrete examples; (4) other reasons; or (5) no reason given. Concrete examples were used most frequently by children. Strategy type was dependent on age, with 7,9-year-olds reporting social comparisons and concrete examples more frequently than 5,6-year-olds. Five-to-six-year-olds gave no reasons for their response choices more frequently than 7,9-year-olds. Strategy type also differed by item type, with social comparisons used more frequently for ability items, and stable character references for social items. However, concrete examples were used consistently highly across ability and social items. Conclusions, Children aged 5,9 years most commonly report using concrete examples of specific instances when answering QOL items. However, strategy use varies as a function of age and types of items. Our results highlight the importance of keeping in mind children's developmental age when interpreting responses from child QOL instruments. [source] | ||||||||||||||||