“Not like everyone else”? Transnational families’ relationship in their home society – between stigma and dialogue

The study discusses whether and how Ukrainian and Moldovan migrant parents, some of whom had to leave their children behind in the care of other adults, are faced with a disapproving public discourse while also facing strong pressure both in their relationship with the public authorities and at the level of society, community, and family. Through this approach, we aim to answer the following question: Are Ukrainian and Moldavian transnational family members subjected to a process of stigmatization at the level of society and their immediate social environment? In this view, we develop a qualitative inquiry based on in-depth interviews with respondents from Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova. Our main research objective is to examine the attitudes encountered by members of transnational families in society, their relations with the representatives of the authorities, as well as in their close social environment, community, and family. Specific research topics are explored, such as reasons for migration, trust in public authorities, local community, migrants’ community, trust in the host country’s state and society, the attitudes towards the most important key stakeholders involved in the migration process, as well as the support measures proposed by migrants and their families. The findings concerning the attitudes, level of trust, and proposals suggest the presence of a certain degree of stigmatization of parents from transnational families. Our study underlines the need for transnational transfer of good practices and real-life experiences, such as those of migrants, to not remain an empty imitation. This experience can only be transferred through dialogue, trust, and acceptance – which is not the case at the time of our research. Therefore, it is imperative to continue dialogue-based fieldwork with primary stakeholders, the families themselves, to deconstruct and prospectively avoid the structural construction of stigma

Factors driving collaboration in natural resource conflict management: Evidence from Romania

Abstract A critical challenge in natural resource management is to bring all stakeholders together to negotiate solutions to critical problems. However, various collaborative approaches to heading off conflicts and resolving natural resource management disputes have been used. What drives these efforts, however, still needs further research. Our study provides a systematic look at the drivers likely to initiate collaborative problem-solving efforts in four cases in Romania. We use Emerson’s et al. (2012) framework for collaborative governance and multi-value qualitative comparative analysis (mvQCA) to analyze cases involving endangered species, restrictions on forest harvest, conflicts associated with infrastructure development projects, and disputes over the management of environmentally sensitive areas. Our findings contribute to the already existing collaborative governance literature indicating which of the four factors: uncertainty, interdependence, consequential incentives, and leadership, in which combination, are necessary and sufficient to spur collaborative resource management efforts. Our results showed that in Romania the initiation of collaboration is best explained by positive consequential incentives (i.e., financial opportunities) which has determined leaders to take initiative. This study provides additional information for the complicated process of natural resource management which is often overriding collaboration by investigating what enables and constrains collaborative efforts in a country where natural resources were managed and used according to the principles of central planning

Protocol optimization of sacroiliac joint MR Imaging at 3 Tesla: Impact of coil design and motion resistant sequences on image quality

International audiencePurpose: To evaluate the impact of coil design and motion-resistant sequences on the quality of sacroiliac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination in patients with spondyloarthropathy.Patients and methods: One hundred and twenty-one patients with suspected sacroiliitis and referred for MRI of the sacroiliac joints were retrospectively evaluated with MRI at 3-Tesla. There were 78 women and 43 men with a mean age of 36.7±11.5 (SD) years (range: 15.8-78.4 years). Conventional and motion-resistant fat-saturated fast-spin echo T2-weighted sequences were performed with two different coils. Image quality was subjectively evaluated by two independent readers (R1 and R2) using a four-point scale. Confidence in the identification of bone marrow edema pattern (BMEP) was also evaluated subjectively using a three-point scale.Results: Phased array body coil yielded improved image quality compared to surface coil (14.1 to 30.4% for R1 and 14.6 to 25.7% for R2; P<0.0001). The impact of the sequence type on quality was also statistically significant (P=0.0046). BMEP was identified in 40 patients and best inter-reader agreement was obtained using the combination of phased-array body coil with motion-resistant T2-weighted sequence (kappa 0.990). The smallest number of indeterminate BMEP zones was seen on MRI set acquired with the phased-array body coil and motion-resistant T2-weighted sequence.Conclusion: Phased array body coil and motion-resistant T2-weighted sequences perform better than surface coil and conventional T2-weighted sequences for the evaluation of sacroiliac joints, increasing confidence in the identification of BMEP