Like straight people do : an exploration of issues lesbian women encounter during their coming out process

A qualitative, flexible research method design was used to obtain data from a focus group, to investigate how lesbians experience a change in internal self and object relations in the process of coming out. More specifically, the research investigated: 1) what internal/external object representations are affected by coming out as a lesbian; 2) what are the internal issues of identity change; 3) what are the interpersonal issues of support; 4) what internal/interpersonal issues of losses/gains exist while coming out? Five adult lesbian women between the ages of 25 and 29 participated in this focus group study in Northern California. The major findings of this study suggest that coming out is a complex internal and interpersonal process. The narrative responses from these five women indicated a process of first recognizing homosexual feelings as a child, suppressing these feelings, and having these feelings resurface as a young adult. Several of the women stated that the coming out process resulted in pain/hurt for their mothers, which in turn, seemed to cause shame/guilt related to integrating their lesbian sexual orientation. In developing an identity the participants described working through homophobia embedded from important internalized objects. In this process, a new consciousness allows them to come to terms with their own internal homophobia and their important object\u27s homophobia, by being true to the self. The internal world of self and object can interact iv synergistically to support the transition to an expressible and expressed lesbian identity. It may be critical for clinicians to recognize the importance of internalized object representations that contribute to conflict in developing a cohesive sense of internal as well as interpersonal self. It might also be essential for clinicians to be attuned to the joy and process of being true to the self, since the participants in this focus group discussion indicated this as a crucial part of coming out as a lesbian woman

Bounty in the Bering Strait: a case for proactive regulation in the world's next chokepoint

Thesis (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015This thesis analyzes trends in waterborne trade throughout history to demonstrate that the Bering Strait will soon become a chokepoint of international trade. Scientific studies suggest that the accelerating effects of global warming in the Arctic will result in ice-free routes in the coming decades. Given the likelihood that vessel traffic through the Bering Strait will rise, this thesis assesses the region's ecological vulnerability, along with its significant commercial and cultural values. The history of shipping regulation worldwide and commercial regulation in the Bering Sea reveals a tendency to enact regulation in response to a major oil spill or species depletion. To ensure the food security of Native coastal communities and the productivity of commercial fisheries in the Bering Sea, this thesis argues for a proactive approach to vessel traffic regulation in the Bering Strait. It examines several current regulatory regimes to identify which could be enacted to protect the region's resources. This thesis concludes that, despite barriers to cooperation between Russia and the U.S., a cross-border management regime that promotes safe shipping through the Bering Strait would further both nations' economic interests and safeguard the Bering Sea's valuable yet vulnerable marine resources.Introduction -- Literature Review -- The History of Maritime Trade -- Chokepoints of Trade -- Analyses of Arctic Shipping -- Bounty in the Bering Sea -- Regulation in the Bering Strait -- Methodology -- Chapter One: A brief history of maritime trade, the importance of chokepoints and the inevitable rise of vessel traffic through the Bering Strait -- Introduction -- Waterborne Trade -- The Growth of Civilizations -- The First Maritime Empires -- The Spread of Transoceanic Trade -- The Importance of Geography -- Advantages of Ocean vs. Land Transport -- Geography and Power -- Chokepoints to Maritime Trade -- Chokepoints at Risk -- Arctic Alternatives -- Northeast and Northwest Passages -- Global Warming and Thawing Shipping Lanes -- The Allure of the Northeast Passage -- The Bering Strait as a Future Chokepoint -- International Interest in the Arctic -- Commercial Viability of the Arctic -- Oil and Gas Arctic Shipping -- Discussion -- Conclusion -- Chapter Two: Assessing present values in the Bering Sea and past regulatory trends worldwide to make the case for proactive regulation in the Bering Strait -- Introduction -- The Bering Sea Ecosystem -- Historical Value -- Land Bridge Migrations, First Settlements, and Subsistence Trends -- Current Value -- Subsistence Habits and Food Security in Coastal Communities -- Subsistence Species Threatened by Global Warming -- Introduction of Cash Economies and Store-Bought Foods -- Bering Sea Fishery -- History of Commercial Endeavors in the Bering Sea -- Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: Marine Mammal Harvesting -- Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: Bering Sea Fisheries -- Threats to the Bering Sea Fisheries and Subsistence Resources Posed by Shipping -- Oil and Gas Spills -- Ship Strikes -- Noise -- Pollution -- Discussion -- Overharvesting of Marine Resources -- Oil Spills and Subsequent Regulations -- Conclusion -- Chapter Three: Proposed solutions, regulatory options, and economic incentives for cooperation between Russia and the U.S. in the Bering Strait -- Introduction -- Local Concerns and Recommended Regulations -- Mandatory vs. Voluntary Regulations -- Legal Frameworks for the Arctic Ocean -- United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) -- International Maritime Organization (IMO) -- The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) -- Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas -- Polar Code -- Regulatory Gap -- Potential for Cross-Border U.S.-Russia Collaboration -- The Redistribution of State Power and the Rise of NGOs -- Russia-Norway Collaboration -- U.S.-Canada Collaboration -- Past and Present U.S.-Russia Relations -- Arctic Ambitions -- Russia -- United States -- Discussion -- Conclusion -- Bibliography

Book Reviews, Book Notes, Announcements

* Garber, Marjorie. Dog Love. 341 pp. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996). * DeGrazia, David, Taking Animals Seriously: Mental Life and Moral Status, x + 302pp. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996. * Linzey, Andrew, Animal Theology, vii +214pp., Illinois Press, 1995. Beck, Alan and Katcher, Aaron, Between Pets and People: The Importance of Animal Companionship, revised edition, xiii + 316pp., Purdu University Press, Indiana, 1996. * Bavidge, Michael and Ground, Ian, Can we understand animal minds? vii + 176pp., Bristol Classical Press, London, 1994. Groves, Julian McAllister, Hearts and Minds: The controversy over laboratory animals viii + 230pp., Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1997

Treatment and Prevention of Injuries: Content Analysis Running Magazines

Runners often self-diagnose and treat injuries (Russell & Wiese-Bjornstal, under review), and report beliefs about injuries unsubstantiated by research (Saragiotto et al., 2014a). Scheufele and Tewskbury (2007) suggest the way media sources frame a story can influence consumers’ interpretation, for example, what runners read in magazines can influence their beliefs about injury. This study’s purpose was to determine what running magazines present as strategies for injury prevention and treatment. Results of a content analysis revealed summaries of research and advice from coaches as the most common sources of evidence. The most frequent prevention and treatment strategy was stretching. Rarely were avoiding overtraining or seeking medical care/advice suggested. Consistent with framing theory, information in running magazines is similar to what runners have identified as the common causes of injury (Saragiotto et al., 2014a), yet some of these injury treatment and prevention beliefs are unsupported by research (Saragiotto et al., 2014b)

Resistance values under transformations in regular triangular grids

In [Evans, Francis 2022; Hendel] the authors investigated resistance distance in triangular grid graphs and observed several types of asymptotic behavior. This paper extends this work by studying the initial, non-asymptotic, behavior found when equivalent circuit transformations are performed, thus reducing the rows in the triangular grid graph one row at a time. The main conjecture characterizes when edge resistance values are less than, equal to, or greater than one after reducing an arbitrary number of times a triangular grid all of whose edge resistances are identically one. A special case of the conjecture is shown. The main theorem identifies patterns of repeating edge labels arising in diagonals of a triangular grid reduced $s$ times provided the original grid had at least $4s$ rows of triangles. This paper also improves upon the notation and concepts introduced by the authors previously, and provides improved proof techniques.Comment: Intent to submit to Discrete Applied Mathematic

The ‘Scottish approach’ to policy and policymaking: what issues are territorial and what are universal?

The ‘Scottish approach' refers to its distinctive way to make and implement policy. Its reputation suggests that it is relatively comfortable with local discretion and variations in policy outcomes. Yet, policymakers are subject to ‘universal' processes - limited knowledge, attention and coordinative capacity, and high levels of ambiguity, discretion and complexity in policy processes - which already undermine central control and produce variation. If policy is a mix of deliberate and unintended outcomes, a focus on policy styles may exaggerate a government's ability to do things differently. We demonstrate these issues in two ‘cross cutting' policies: ‘prevention' and ‘transition'. complexity ; devolution; prevention; transitionThis article was among the most highly cited articles published in Policy & Politics 2016 and 2017: http://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/journals/policy-and-politics/highly-cite

Realist trials and the testing of context-mechanism-outcome configurations: a response to Van Belle et al.

BACKGROUND: Van Belle et al. argue that our attempt to pursue realist evaluation via a randomised trial will be fruitless because we misunderstand realist ontology (confusing intervention mechanisms with intervention activities and with statistical mediation analyses) and because RCTs cannot comprehensively examine how and why outcome patterns are caused by mechanisms triggered in specific contexts. METHODS: Through further consideration of our trial methods, we explain more fully how we believe complex social interventions work and what realist evaluation should aim to do within a trial. RESULTS: Like other realists, those undertaking realist trials assume that: social interventions provide resources which local actors may draw on in actions that can trigger mechanisms; these mechanisms may interact with contextual factors to generate outcomes; and data in the 'empirical' realm can be used to test hypotheses about mechanisms in the 'real' realm. Whether or not there is sufficient contextual diversity to test such hypotheses is a contingent not a necessary feature of trials. Previous exemplars of realist evaluation have compared empirical data from intervention and control groups to test hypotheses about real mechanisms. There is no inevitable reason why randomised trials should not also be able to do so. Random allocation merely ensures the comparability of such groups without necessarily causing evaluation to lapse from a realist into a 'positivist' or 'post-positivist' paradigm. CONCLUSIONS: Realist trials are ontologically and epistemologically plausible. Further work is required to assess whether they are feasible and useful but such work should not be halted on spurious philosophical grounds