Community Ecology and Capacity: Advancing Environmental Communication Strategies among Diverse Stakeholders

1. Introduction Many socioeconomically and geographically diverse communities in the United States have been challenged by occurrences of environmental contamination and the related complex public health issues. The investigations associated with such concerns have traditionally been the responsibility of governmental agencies. Communities facing potential environmental exposures often believe that government-based environmental agencies are not adequately addressing their concerns regarding risk, thus resulting in their misunderstanding and distrust of the regulatory process. A schism develops whereby the community perceives that government is either not doing enough to address their concerns and/or are being influenced by the relevant industry. The governmental agencies involved perceive that the community possesses an inaccurate or irrational perception of the potential risks. As a result, a stressful relationship often arises. Recommendations for effective risk communication have been developed and published (Covello & Sandman, 2001; Hance et al., 1989; Sandman, 1989). Research has also demonstrated the importance of developing relationships among stakeholders and its impact on information delivery and reception (ATSDR, 2004). Given that stakeholder groups perceive risk differently, it is imperative for each group to appreciate the viewpoints of all involved to engage in effective dialog (Park et al., 2001; Tinker et al., 2001). Cox (2006) defines environmental communication as “…the pragmatic and constitutive vehicle for our understanding of the environment as well as our relationships to the natural world; it is the symbolic medium that we use in constructing environmental problems and negotiating society’s different responses to them.” Although opportunities for public participation in environmental assessments have greatly increased, the environmental communication process among key stakeholders needs further evaluation (Charnley & Engelbert, 2005; McKinney & Harmon, 2002). The purpose of this chapter is to describe an evaluative process to develop and propose recommendations that could improve the environmental communication that occurs among diverse stakeholders, such as an environmental regulation and protection agency, waste disposal and energy producing facilities, community activists and the general public. Two case studies will be presented; the first describes the management of environmental permitting decisions in several disparate communities; and the second describes the management and perception of health risks from a single-owner waste-to-energy facility in two distinct communities. To accomplish this goal, this chapter will: 1.) examine how a state environmental agency and waste disposal and energy producing facilities describe their environmental communication experiences regarding various permitting operations and the risk perceptions of the impacted communities; 2.) identify effective communication methods; 3.) discuss the strengths and limitations of these activities; and 4.) propose recommendations for practitioners to advance environmental communication strategies among these key stakeholders

The mysterious case of Aafia Siddiqui : Gothic intertextual analysis of neo-Orientalist narratives

When Aafia Siddiqui ‘disappeared’ from her upper-middle class life in Boston in 2003 due to accusations that she was involved in al Qaeda, competing narratives from the US government, media, and her family emerged striving to convince the American public of her guilt or innocence. These narratives were rooted in a gendered form of neo-Orientalism that informed and structured the War on Terror. The narratives, of innocent Soccer Mom, nefarious Lady al Qaeda, and mentally fragile Grey lady, sought to explain how a well-educated woman could possibly be involved with a terrorist organisation. This article uses intertextual analysis to draw parallels between Gothic literature and the Siddiqui narratives. Gothic literature’s dependency upon gendered unease is particularly evident in the Siddiqui narratives, which then reveal the uncertainties within the War on Terror, particularly those related to American exceptionalism.PostprintPeer reviewe

Two-sample Bayesian Nonparametric Hypothesis Testing

In this article we describe Bayesian nonparametric procedures for two-sample hypothesis testing. Namely, given two sets of samples $\mathbf{y}^{\scriptscriptstyle(1)}\;$\stackrel{\scriptscriptstyle{iid}}{\s im}$\;F^{\scriptscriptstyle(1)}$ and $\mathbf{y}^{\scriptscriptstyle(2 )}\;$\stackrel{\scriptscriptstyle{iid}}{\sim}$\;F^{\scriptscriptstyle( 2)}$, with $F^{\scriptscriptstyle(1)},F^{\scriptscriptstyle(2)}$ unknown, we wish to evaluate the evidence for the null hypothesis $H_0:F^{\scriptscriptstyle(1)}\equiv F^{\scriptscriptstyle(2)}$ versus the alternative $H_1:F^{\scriptscriptstyle(1)}\neq F^{\scriptscriptstyle(2)}$. Our method is based upon a nonparametric P\'{o}lya tree prior centered either subjectively or using an empirical procedure. We show that the P\'{o}lya tree prior leads to an analytic expression for the marginal likelihood under the two hypotheses and hence an explicit measure of the probability of the null $\mathrm{Pr}(H_0|\{\mathbf {y}^{\scriptscriptstyle(1)},\mathbf{y}^{\scriptscriptstyle(2)}\}\mathbf{)}$.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/14-BA914 in the Bayesian Analysis (http://projecteuclid.org/euclid.ba) by the International Society of Bayesian Analysis (http://bayesian.org/

Alien Registration- Caron, Charles E. (Lewiston, Androscoggin County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/29847/thumbnail.jp

The politics of hope : privilege, despair and political theology

Situated within feminist Christian Realism, this article looks at what political theology is and its relevance to International Relations. Hope is a central theme to political theology, underpinning the necessity to be witness to and to work against oppressive structures. Simply put, hope is the desire to make life better. For Christians, this hope stems from a belief in resurrection of Christ and the faith that such redemption is offered to all of humanity. Hope, however, is not limited to Christianity and, therefore, Christian theology. Thus, taking an intersectional approach, the article looks for similarities in how hope is articulated in three personal narratives: theologian Jürgen Moltmann, UK Muslim advocate Asim Qureshi, and Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors. Across all three personal narratives, the need for hope begins in a place of despair, signalling a need to recognize that hope and privilege are in tension with one another. Feminist Christian Realism acknowledges and embraces this tension, recognizing that hope cannot function if the pain, oppression and harm caused by privilege are erased or minimized.PostprintPeer reviewe

Dissimulation of mental retardation and traumatic brain injury on the Wais -Ii

Since Atkins v. Virginia (2002), there has been increased concern that inmates will feign mental retardation (MR) to avoid the death penalty. However, very little research on malingering diction for mental retardation has been conducted, forcing most clinicians to rely on methods derived for malingered traumatic brain injury (TBI). This lack of research may lead to increased false positive rates. Limited research suggests that intelligence tests may hold promise for identifying malingered MR and malingered TBI. Therefore, developing malingering scales for most popular measure of intelligence, the WAIS-III, should provide the most effective and efficient measure for identifying persons feigning cognitive deficits. The current study investigated several research questions related to the factors just described. First, does malingering change based on the clinical group to be feigned? Second, will participants change their malingering performance based on type of secondary gain? Can malingering detection methods developed on the WAIS-R generalize to the WAIS-III, and will these methods be effective for identifying malingered MR. Finally, can the theory behind the Digit Span=s effectiveness as a malingering indicator be supported empirically? The results suggest that malingerers will use similar malingering strategy regardless of clinical group or malingering motivation. New discriminate function equations were developed to identify malingerers based on the clinical group being feigned and malingering motivation. Using unique combinations of malingering measures and subtest scores produced correct classification rates ranging from 91 to 80% with low false positive rates. Most of the established malingering measures developed and validated with the WAIS-R and TBI malingerers did not meet statistic significance when applied to the current group malingering participants regardless of clinical population being feigned or malingering motivation. Finally, malingerer=s perception of the Digit Span test was empirically shown to moderate malingering performance. Clinical recommendations, study limitations, and the direction for future research are discussed

Qualitative scoring procedures for the detection of malingering using the Wechsler Memory Scale - Third Edition

Individuals undergoing neuropsychological evaluation are often involved in litigation for compensation. Consequently, much incentive to perform poorly on neuropsychological assessments exists. Thus, sophisticated detection methods are desirable. One promising approach may be to utilize qualitative scoring that provides information regarding the test taking strategy. Many current methods use a single quantitative score to discriminate people who malinger cognitive deficits, which may overlook sensitive information and be less accurate. This study developed and applied qualitative scoring procedures for the WMS-III and evaluated them using four experimental groups: sophisticated malingerer, naive malingerer, normal control, and brain damage. Results were mixed. When added to quantitative methods, qualitative variables were able to improve the classification rate when discriminating all experimental groups, but were ineffective toward improving classification rates when discriminating two groups (simulated malingerers and brain injured participants). Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed

Alien Registration- Caron, Valeda E. (Brunswick, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/31431/thumbnail.jp