The Wounded Bricoleur: Adversity, Artifice and the Becoming of Street-Involved Youth in London, Ontario, Canada

This is an ethnography of the everyday lives of street-involved youth in London, Ontario, Canada. Fieldwork was conducted throughout downtown London over the course of one year. I argue that the subjective experience of my informants, all of whom are “participants” in Ontario’s workfare programme, Ontario Works (OW), has been riven by some form of existential trauma (i.e., problems with anxiety and depression due to difficult personal histories of abandonment, substance abuse, etc.), which has led to an alternative process of being and becoming at odds with the hegemonic moral economy of the province of Ontario—specifically its rules and regulations regarding the provision of OW. This hegemonic moral economy is based on neoliberal regulatory logics of self-development, self-sufficiency and self-entrepreneurialism, which seeks to domesticate the “economic potentialities” of the self. In reaction, the alternative process of being and becoming of my informants can be characterised by: 1) a tactical posture of débrouillardise (“social manipulation” with partial accommodation) regarding everyday life; and, 2) an approach to healing as a broadly conceived and processual existential project; a precarious project wherein the focus is on the reconciliation of one’s past with one’s present through a creative enterprise of becoming (existential transformation through poetry, drawing and performing as raconteurs), and not on simply overcoming obstacles (lack of skills, motivation), or overcoming impediments of the self (addiction, psychiatric disorders, etc.) that may block one from reaching OW’s rehabilitative goal of acquiring a base-level of cultural capital (skills, training, education). As such, my informants get by day to day as wounded bricoleurs. Left little room to maneuver the “disconnect of becomings” between state and self, they are forced to creatively re-invent their lives in the face of haunting and destructive personal histories. The dissertation closes with a re-conceived understanding of agency regarding the possibility “to act rationally” according to one’s own “self-interest”. I argue that my informants’ agentive capacity is marked by the contradictory striations of “zones of awkward engagement”: the refractory lines of disconnection between the moral imperatives of the state and the existential imperatives to heal and “make do”

Limited Liability Companies in Kentucky, Second Edition

The Kentucky Limited Liability Company Act, KRS Chapter 275, went into effect July 15, 1994, allowing Kentuckians to conduct business under the LLC form. With over 10,000 LLCs formed in the Commonwealth since the Act\u27s inception, this flexible business entity has become the most popular way to conduct business in Kentucky. The LLC has become so pervasive that business law practitioners, accountants, tax advisors and estate planners must all be well-versed in the myriad of issues and creative applications that accompany this business entity. With flexible tax-treatment and the liability protection of a traditional corporation this entity is utilized not only for business formation and practice but also for business succession and estate planning, the structuring of joint ventures and strategic alliances, as venture capital vehicles, and as tax planning tools. The goal of this monograph is to provide the practitioner with a concise and comprehensive approach to the tools necessary for lawyers to counsel and advise clients on this complex and efficient business entity form. Succinct chapters take the reader through an overview of the LLC entity and the Kentucky LLC Act; choice of entity considerations (both tax and non-tax); the formation, operation and statutory transaction issues which arise for the entity; as well as the new single-member LLC; the professional LLC; the use of the LLC in tax-exempt organizations; wealth transfer planning with LLCs; and securities law, commercial law and benefit issues arising under the LLC entity. Each chapter is set forth in separately numbered paragraphs, present running headers for easy access, and are cross-referenced to other relevant chapters and paragraphs contained in the monograph. Summary and comparative charts, a table of authorities and a statutory appendix are also presented. Finally, a comprehensive index has been created to aid the user in finding relevant subject treatments

Complex and sustained quantum beating patterns in a classic IVR system: the 3¹5¹ Level in S₁ p-difluorobenzene

Using picosecond time-resolved photoelectron imaging we have studied the intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR) dynamics that occur following the excitation of the 3151 level which lies 2068 cm-1 above the S1 origin in p difluorobenzene. Our technique, which has superior time resolution to that of earlier studies but retains sufficient energy resolution to identify the behavior of individual vibrational states, enables us to determine six distinct beating periods in photoelectron intensity, only one of which has been observed previously. Analysis shows that the IVR dynamics are restricted among only a handful of vibrational levels, despite the relatively high excitation energy. This is deduced to be a consequence of the high symmetry and rigid structure of p-difluorobenzene

Haemodynamic consequences of changing potassium concentrations in haemodialysis fluids

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A rapid decrease of serum potassium concentrations during haemodialysis produces a significant increase in blood pressure parameters at the end of the session, even if effects on intra-dialysis pressure are not seen. Paradoxically, in animal models potassium is a vasodilator and decreases myocardial contractility. The purpose of this trial is to study the precise haemodynamic consequences induced by acute changes in potassium concentration during haemodialysis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In 24 patients, 288 dialysis sessions, using a randomised single blind crossover design, we compared six dialysate sequences with different potassium profiles. The dialysis sessions were divided into 3 tertiles, casually modulating potassium concentration in the dialysate between the value normally used K and the two cut-off points K+1 and K-1 mmol/l. Haemodynamics were evaluated in a non-invasive manner using a finger beat-to-beat monitor.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Comparing K-1 and K+1, differences were found within the tertiles regarding systolic (+5.3, +6.6, +2.3 mmHg, p < 0.05, < 0.05, ns) and mean blood pressure (+4.3, +6.4, -0.5 mmHg, p < 0.01, < 0.01, ns), as well as peripheral resistance (+212, +253, -4 dyne.sec.cm^-5, p < 0.05, < 0.05, ns). The stroke volume showed a non-statistically-significant inverse trend (-3.1, -5.2, -0.2 ml). 18 hypotension episodes were recorded during the course of the study. 72% with K-1, 11% with K and 17% with K+1 (p < 0.01 for comparison K-1 vs. K and K-1 vs. K+1).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A rapid decrease in the concentration of serum potassium during the initial stage of the dialysis-obtained by reducing the concentration of potassium in the dialysate-translated into a decrease of systolic and mean blood pressure mediated by a decrease in peripheral resistance. The risk of intra-dialysis hypotension inversely correlates to the potassium concentration in the dialysate.</p> <p>Trial Registration Number</p> <p><a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01224314">NCT01224314</a></p

From Nuevo León to the USA and Back Again: Transnational Students in Mexico

The movement of Mexicans to the United States is both longstanding and long studied and from that study we know that for many newcomers the attachment to the receiving community is fraught and tentative. The experience of immigrant children in U.S. schools is also relatively well studied and reveals challenges of intercultural communication as well as concurrent and contradictory features of welcome and unwelcome. What is less well known, in the study of migration generally and of transnational students in particular, is how students moving in a less common direction — from the U.S. to Mexico — experience that movement. Based on visits to 173 randomly selected classrooms in the state of Nuevo León Mexico, this study shares survey and interview data from 208 of the 242 students encountered who had previous experience attending school in the United States

Cross-language differences in fundamental frequency range: a comparison of English and German

This paper presents a systematic comparison of various measures of f0 range in female speakers of English and German. F0 range was analysed along two dimensions, level (i.e. overall f0 height) and span (extent of f0 modulation within a given speech sample). These were examined using two types of measures, one based on 'long-term distributional' (LTD) methods, and the other based on specific landmarks in speech that are linguistic in nature ('linguistic' measures). The various methods were used to identify whether and on what basis or bases speakers of these two languages differ in f0 range. Findings yielded significant cross-language differences in both dimensions of f0 range, but effect sizes were found to be larger for span than for level, and for linguistic than for LTD measures. The linguistic measures also uncovered some differences between the two languages in how f0 range varies through an intonation contour. 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Micromechanical Properties of Injection-Molded Starch–Wood Particle Composites

The micromechanical properties of injection molded starch–wood particle composites were investigated as a function of particle content and humidity conditions. The composite materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction methods. The microhardness of the composites was shown to increase notably with the concentration of the wood particles. In addition,creep behavior under the indenter and temperature dependence were evaluated in terms of the independent contribution of the starch matrix and the wood microparticles to the hardness value. The influence of drying time on the density and weight uptake of the injection-molded composites was highlighted. The results revealed the role of the mechanism of water evaporation, showing that the dependence of water uptake and temperature was greater for the starch–wood composites than for the pure starch sample. Experiments performed during the drying process at 70°C indicated that the wood in the starch composites did not prevent water loss from the samples.Peer reviewe

Expanding the epistemological horizons of insight in psychosis : toward an anthropological and phenomenological re-framing

By re-examining the epistemological foundations upon which the ego-centric clinical construct of insight in psychosis rests, research conducted with the narratives of patients who participated in the clinical project, Psychosis and Culture: The Role of Spaces of Negotiation (Between Patients, Families, and Practitioners) During Consultation was aimed to explore and formulate a socio-centric model of insight construction more sensitive to patients' intersubjective and cultural milieus. Collected interviews---conducted with recently diagnosed psychotic patients using the Turning Point Interview (TPI) grid---were approached from a phenomenological and hermeneutical perspective in order to illustrate the processual manner in which patients' insight (into the cause and reason of illness) was the cognitive and epistemic derivative of dialogical relations with other persons set within a socio-cultural matrix. The results of this research indicate that the production of patients' insight in psychosis is an inherently intersubjective and dialogic phenomenon which, in the clinical context, occurs at two points of juncture: (1) a synchronic juncture where the patient is interpellated by the clinician and hence positioned as a speaking subject, and (2) a diachronic juncture where the patient, as a result of having been called into a speaking position, constructs and authors a narrative account of significant events related to his/her illness experience based on biographical memory. Insight was shown to consist of 3 stages: (1) Detection of alteration of lived experience, (2) Causal attribution, and (3) Global construction of meaning . Each stage was shown to form the intersubjective and dialogic basis for the production of a subjectively meaningful account of insight, using the lifeworid of the patients and the patients' entourage as subjective frames of reference

Methanol Cannon Demonstrations Revisited

The methanol cannon is a popular demonstration where emphasis is placed on a vapor-phase explosive mixture simulating the explosions occurring in a car engine when a cylinder is filled with a fuel mixture from a carburetor. Here we describe two interesting variations to the demonstration. The first is a chain reaction using real metal chains. The second involves using easily available components to produce sequential explosions that can be musical in nature