Group and intergroup parameters of gang activities: An introduction and research agenda.

In introducing this Special Issue on gangs, we overview the thrust of its papers, demonstrating how they assist in plugging research gaps from the dearth of psychological attention to gangs. The papers therein raise important theoretical considerations of group process effects, social identity, and communication influences in gangs. Also included are empirical examinations of how attitudes to formal organized crime groups may nurture progang views, how social networks bridge gang divides, the dehumanization and social dominance association with gang membership, and how membership longevity associates with gang members’ attitudes to their group. We conclude with theoretical prospects and empirical vistas for future work. For instance, vitality theory may help explain members’ immersion in gangs, discursive strategies could explain how youth are enticed into gangs, and examinations of community and law enforcement attitudes to gangs may provide insight into how oppositional attitudes are fostered on both sides of the gang divide

The phenomenal meaning of romantic Love

The phenomenal meaning of romantic love is sought, using the descriptions of co-researchers. A brief discussion of the theoretical underpinnings of phenomenology is provided, and the methods of phenomenological psychology are outlined. The specific methods for arriving at the phenomenal meaning of romantic love are chosen. Six coresearchers were interviewed to elucidate lived-experiences they had with romantic Love The interviews were transcribed into six protocols. The six protocols are phenomenologically reduced into meaning units and their essences. The essences are presented within the context of the protocols. Twenty essential structures are presented in five meaningful groups, including Descriptions, Events, Temporal Grounding, Emotions and Elements. The essential structures, Marriage, Sex and Physical Attraction, are common to the co-researchers\u27 lived-romantic-love-experiences and are documented in the literature, while Anticipation and Cry are not found in the literature, yet they are equally essential to understanding the meaning of the co-researchers\u27 romantic love experiences

Communication Accommodation Theory

Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) provides a wide-ranging framework aimed at predicting and explaining many of the adjustments individuals make to create, maintain,or decrease social distance in interaction. It explores the different ways in which we accommodate our communication, our motivations for doing so, and the consequences. CAT addresses interpersonal communication issues, yet also links it with the larger context of the intergroup stakes of an encounter. In other words, sometimes our communications are driven by our personal identities as Janet or Richard while at others—and sometimes within the very same interaction—our words, nonverbals, and demeanor are fueled, instead and almost entirely, by our social identities as members of groups; that is Janet now speaks not so much as the individual Janet but as someone who represents communication scholars to groups of chemists, biologists, and physicists

Automata-based Pattern Mining from Imperfect Traces

This paper considers automata-based pattern mining techniques for ex-tracting specifications from runtime traces and suggests a novel extension that allows these techniques to work with so-called imperfect traces i.e. traces that do not exactly satisfy the intended specification of the system that produced them. We show that by taking a so-called edit-distance between an input trace and the language of a pattern we can extract speci-fications from imperfect traces and identify the parts of an input trace that do not satisfy the mined specification, thus aiding the identification and location of errors in programs

Officer Accommodation in Police-Civilian Encounters: Reported Compliance with Police in Mongolia and the United States

Recent research has demonstrated that, for young adults, officers' communicative practices are potent predictors of civilians’ attributed trust in police, and their perceived likelihood of compliance with police requests. This line of work has important applied implications for ameliorating police-civilian relations on the one hand and promoting a joint law enforcement/community response to crime prevention on the other. The present study continued this line of work in Mongolia and the USA. Mongolia is not only intriguing as little communication research has been conducted in this setting, but is significant as its government (and the law enforcement arm of it) is currently experiencing significant social upheavals. Besides differences between nations, results revealed that, for American participants, officer accommodativeness indirectly predicted civilian compliance through trust. This also emerged for the Mongolian counterparts, although a direct relationship was evident between officer accommodation and compliance as well. The latter finding is unique in that it is the first cultural context where both direct and indirect paths have been identified. The practical significance of these findings is discussed. Keywords: Mongolia; United States; America; Police; Law Enforcement; Civilian; Intercultural; Cross-Cultural; Intergroup; Accommodation; Trust; Compliance. DOI: 10.5564/mjia.v0i15-16.35Mongolian Journal of International Affairs No.15-16 2008-2009 pp.176-20

The Management of Osteoarthritis in Movement Disorders: A Case Discussion

Background: A 37‐year‐old female with a hyperkinetic movement disorder due to chorea‐acanthocytosis developed severe painful degenerative arthritis of her left knee as a consequence of repetitive involuntary flexion and extension dystonic and ballistic movements. Case Report: Despite profound limitation in her mobility a total knee replacement was successfully undertaken. Discussion: The case emphasizes that patients with progressive neurodegenerative disorders may derive relief or resolution of pain by joint replacement even if mobility does not improve following surgery. A multidisciplinary approach to care is essential

Intergenerational Communication Satisfaction and Age Boundaries in Bulgaria and the United States

This paper examines Bulgarian and American young adults’ perceptions of prior experiences of intergenerational communication. Irrespective of culture, as age of target increased from young adult to middle-aged and elderly adult, so did attributions of benevolence, norms of politeness and deference, and communicative respect and avoidance; conversely, attributions of personal vitality and communication satisfaction decreased linearly. However, American youth reported more of a tendency to avoid, but expressed more respect when communicating with, older adults than their Bulgarian counterparts. In both settings, young adults’ avoidant communication with older people negatively, and the norm of politeness positively, predicted intergenerational communication satisfaction. In Bulgaria only, age stereotypes also predicted communication satisfaction whereas only in the USA was communicative respect a predictor