Regulating Madness in a Mental Health Court

This article explores the regulation of people with mental illness who are accused of committing minor crimes (e.g. mischief, minor theft, assault, uttering threats, etc.) and viewed as disturbing the public order. The results are drawn from a study of a Mental Health Court (MHC) in Montréal (Canada), illuminating the perceptions and experiences of MHC actors who are involved in its operation. Deploying a multi-method design inspired by institutional ethnographic methods, this study sought to explore the inherent tensions in regulatory penal practices that oscillate at varying degrees between prevention, punishment and therapeutic intentions. It is argued that MHCs symbolize a new form of governmentality, in an eff ort to create disciplined subjects by reigning in madness and controlling marginality.This article explores the regulation of people with mental illness who are accused of committing minor crimes (e.g. mischief, minor theft, assault, uttering threats, etc.) and viewed as disturbing the public order. The results are drawn from a study of a Mental Health Court (MHC) in Montréal (Canada), illuminating the perceptions and experiences of MHC actors who are involved in its operation. Deploying a multi-method design inspired by institutional ethnographic methods, this study sought to explore the inherent tensions in regulatory penal practices that oscillate at varying degrees between prevention, punishment and therapeutic intentions. It is argued that MHCs symbolize a new form of governmentality, in an eff ort to create disciplined subjects by reigning in madness and controlling marginality.This article explores the regulation of people with mental illness who are accused of committing minor crimes (e.g. mischief, minor theft, assault, uttering threats, etc.) and viewed as disturbing the public order. The results are drawn from a study of a Mental Health Court (MHC) in Montréal (Canada), illuminating the perceptions and experiences of MHC actors who are involved in its operation. Deploying a multi-method design inspired by institutional ethnographic methods, this study sought to explore the inherent tensions in regulatory penal practices that oscillate at varying degrees between prevention, punishment and therapeutic intentions. It is argued that MHCs symbolize a new form of governmentality, in an eff ort to create disciplined subjects by reigning in madness and controlling marginality

"Staying Alive" while "Living the Life" : conceptualizations of risk among homeless youth

Le but de cette thèse est de comprendre les représentations du risque chez les jeunes de la rue. Plus précisément, elle s’intéresse à appréhender les constructions du risque que font les jeunes de la rue eux-mêmes, d’autant plus que ces jeunes sont définis comme un groupe à risque. Si le risque est plus souvent défini de manière stricte comme le mal éventuel, dans cette étude, il est défini plus largement intégrant l’idée des opportunités et prises de risque. Ancrée dans une perspective double du constructionnisme social et de l’interactionnisme symbolique, cette recherche a exploré les savoirs des jeunes sur les risques qu’ils vivaient dans les contextes observés et la manière dont ils les appréhendaient. Pour y parvenir, cette recherche s’inscrit dans une approche ethnographique pour mieux comprendre le monde des jeunes de la rue, utilisant des méthodes d'observation participante et dévoilée et des entrevues informelles variées. Cette approche globale permet de saisir comment les jeunes définissent leur capacité à estimer, gérer, éviter ou prendre des risques. L’utilisation d’une perspective longitudinale (de un à deux ans) et les relations de confiance bâties avec ces jeunes, ont permis de suivre comment la construction identitaire des jeunes observés a influencé leurs perception du risque et leurs pratiques de débrouillardise. En outre, les liens établis ont permis de révéler les points de vue singuliers des jeunes mais aussi leurs savoirs expérientiels relatifs aux risques. Il s’agit dans cette étude de montrer à partir des théories générales qui définissent nos sociétés comme des sociétés du risque, comment des individus, identifiés comme appartenant à un groupe à risque, définissent et gèrent leurs risques à partir de leur propre expérience et point de vue afin de révéler la diversité et la complexité des expériences et savoirs des jeunes de la rue à l’endroit du risque. En effet, cette thèse montre qu’un ancrage dans une sociologie du risque permet de sortir de l’image de victime ou de déviance associée généralement aux jeunes de la rue mais qu’elle demeure marquée par la promotion de la sécurité légitimant intervention et régulation de la situation des jeunes de la rue tout en ignorant l’expérience même des jeunes. Les discours sur les risques associés à la rue sont alors inscrits dans une logique d’expertise. Cette étude vise à sortir de ces préconceptions des risques pris par les jeunes de la rue pour au contraire s’attarder à comprendre comment se définit le risque à partir du sens que les jeunes accordent et les expériences qu’ils en ont. Mots clés: jeunes itinérants, jeunes de la rue, le risque, à risque, victimisation, déviance, identité.The goal of this dissertation is to understand conceptualizations of risk among homeless youth. In particular, it strived to examine an identified "at-risk" group's understanding of risk. Risk in this study encompassed all notions of risk, and was not limited to a narrow definition of perceived harm, but also embraced references of opportunities or chances taken. In this light, this study employed an ethnographic approach to better understand the worlds of homeless youth, relying on participant observation and informal interviewing methods. This ontological approach hoped to capture how youth conceptualize their personal power in estimating, managing, and avoiding or embracing risk. Coupling social constructionism with symbolic interactionism, this study explored participant's understandings of risk in the contexts in which they found and understood themselves. Participant's evolving identities greatly impacted their perceptions of risk and subsequently, their management strategies. Utilizing a longitudinal perspective (one to two years) and building relationships with participants allowed for an unfolding of their unique frames of reference and their local knowledges. One of the goals of this study was to disembody grand socio-cultural theories of risk, such as: the risk society, cultural/symbolic, and governmentality approaches, to uncover their cogency for an identified "at-risk" group. Exploring the phenomenological meanings of participant's individual experiences of risk in an identified risk-laden group revealed the heterogeneity of their experiences and understandings. Indeed, this dissertation argues that a sociology of risk has largely subsumed a sociology of victimization and deviance in regards to homeless youth. A sociology of risk has supplanted these earlier underpinnings and rests on this binary of victimization and deviancy to push for intervention and regulation (i.e. normalization) and endorses a "safety at all cost" approach, ignoring the wide array of youth's experiences. However, the insidious risk discourses that are so pervasive in the literature on homeless youth are not deconstructed for the meanings that are imbued, and are presented in a de-contextualized, rational, apolitical fashion; presented in a manner that seems indisputable, as they are nestled in expert logic. This study attempted to re-contextualize conceptualizations of risk by deconstructing such meanings and giving voice to the complexity of youth's experiences that are too frequently portrayed as homogenously victimizing or deviant. Keywords: homeless youth, street youth, risk, at-risk, victimization, deviance, identity

Fostering Durable Skills Development: Leveraging Student Worker Programs

The past half century has witnessed exponential increases in the cost of a college degree paralleled by an increase of undergraduate students who are employed during matriculation. While the impact on learning outcomes due to off-campus employment continues to receive much attention, there has been little attention paid to students employed on-campus through student worker programs and their benefits, especially in developing durable skills and improving retention. Research has demonstrated that engagement in oncampus activities improves retention and persistence in students. Additionally, employers desire power or durable skills (formerly known as “soft skills”), and that student worker programs are suited to meet this demand. This study proposes to investigate the way student worker programs across institutions support the development of durable skills, how these can be leveraged to improve persistence and completion rates in undergraduates, and how those differ by program. Results indicate that library services represent a model for other functional areas to adopt for student workers in order to improve retention and graduation rates, along with employable skills

Which oral nonopioid agents are most effective for OA pain?

Q Which oral nonopioid agents are most effective for OA pain? Evidence-based answer: nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (nsaids), when used at the maximum clinically effective dose, reduce osteoarthritis (OA) pain in large joints more effectively than either placebo or acetaminophen (strength of recommendation [SOR]: A, network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials [RCTs]). When ranked for efficacy, diclofenac 150 mg/d was the most effective (SOR: A, network meta-analysis of RCTs). The selective COX-2 inhibitors, such as celecoxib, are not more effective at reducing pain than the nonselective NSAIDs (SOR: A, metaanalysis of RCTs). Meloxicam is superior to placebo but marginally inferior to other NSAIDs (SOR: A, systematic review of RCTs). Acetaminophen is no more effective than placebo (SOR: A, meta-analysis of RCTs).Benjamin Gilmer, MD, MS; Stephen Hulkower, MD, UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC, Asheville, NC ; Courtenay Gilmore Wilson, PharmD, BCPS, BCACP, CDE, CPP, UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC, Asheville, NC; Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill ; Brittney Macdonald, MD, MAHEC Family Medicine Residency Program, Asheville, NC ; Jonathan Pozner, MS4, University of North Carolina School of Medicine-Asheville ; Sue Stigleman, MLS, Mountain Area Health Education Center, Asheville, NC.Includes bibliographical reference

Bridge Building in Higher Education: Multi-Modal Mentoring Programs to Support Retention & Career Preparedness

Despite the limitations on time for career preparedness and shrinking professional development budgets, mentoring remains as important as ever due to the interconnectedness in a global society and the changing demographics of postsecondary education students. The traditional-age population in college that lives on campus and does not work has been declining for over three decades. The majorities of current students that are now non-traditional, and work at least part-time are first-generation, and are pursuing degrees via distance or online learning. The importance of providing a diverse mentoring strategy for this new population is borne out in research in order to improve retention, persistence, and completion rates, as well as future professional success. As such, this study sheds light on the need to develop a multi-modal mentoring program to support different student populations through a flexible combination of faculty-student, student-student, alumni-student, and supervisor-student mentoring programs applied in different contexts and modalities. While results indicate that overall faculty-initiated mentoring is preferred by both populations and the most impactful method for mentoring is face-to-face with a faculty member with non-academic experience in the field of their discipline, other approaches are more effective for populations, such as first-generation, minority, and online and graduate students

Species Traits Predict Assemblage Dynamics at Ephemeral Resource Patches Created by Carrion

Carrion is an ephemeral and spatially patchy resource that supports a diverse subset of species linked to nutrient cycling and the decomposition process. A number of studies have separately documented changes in the diversity of plants, arthropods and vertebrates at individual carcasses, but there are few studies that have examined how functional traits of different groups of organisms underpin their responses to carrion patches. We used a carrion addition experiment to compare changes in composition and functional traits of insect and plant assemblages at carcasses compared with control sites. We found that significant changes in insect assemblage evenness and heterogeneity was associated with species' dispersal traits, and that plant assemblage responses to subsequent soil nitrogen changes was most apparent among graminoids and exotic species. Beetles at carcasses were twice as large as their counterparts at control sites during the first week of carrion decomposition, and also had higher wing loadings. Plants with high specific leaf area responded faster to the carcass addition, and twice as many species recolonised the centre of carcasses in exotic-dominated grassland compared with carcasses in native-dominated grassland. These results provide an example of how traits of opportunist species enable them to exploit patchy and dynamic resources. This increases our understanding of how carcasses can drive biodiversity dynamics, and has implications for the way carrion might be managed in ecosystems, such as appropriate consideration of spatial and temporal continuity in carrion resources to promote heterogeneity in nutrient cycling and species diversity within landscapes.This research was supported by the Mulligans Flat – Goorooyarroo Woodland Experiment (Australian Research Council Linkage Grants LP0561817 and LP110100126). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Open Educational Resources and Institutional Repositories: Roles, Challenges, and Opportunities for Libraries

The adoption of digital-born, Open Educational Resources (OER) has been proven to improve student retention and learning outcomes, and OER has the flexibly to support multiple modalities of instruction. Institutional Repositories are uniquely situated to act as a platform to support and distribute content that can be created collaboratively between faculty researchers as well as students. However, faculty are still largely hesitant to adopt OER sources for a variety of reasons, not least among them being a lack of exposure and understanding of the potential benefits for both faculty and students in keeping curriculum affordable, up-to-date, and nimble through media-rich, annotated platforms. This study seeks to provide a model for institutions to adopt in using their open-institutional repositories to support broader OER adoption and use across institutions. A mixed-method case study will present results from faculty-student surveys and institutional data to provide a framework for the best practices in raising awareness among faculty, in outlining the benefits for students, and in supporting programs via library services

Effects of digging by a native and introduced ecosystem engineer on soil physical and chemical properties in temperate grassy woodland

Temperate grasslands and woodlands are the focus of extensive restoration efforts worldwide. Reintroduction of locally extinct soil-foraging and burrowing animals has been suggested as a means to restore soil function in these ecosystems. Yet little is known about the physical and chemical effects of digging on soil over time and how these effects differ between species of digging animal, vegetation types or ecosystems. We compared foraging pits of a native reintroduced marsupial, the eastern bettong (Bettongia gaimardi) and that of the exotic European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). We simulated pits of these animals and measured pit dimensions and soil chemical properties over a period of 2 years. We showed that bettong and rabbit pits differed in their morphology and longevity, and that pits had a strong moderating effect on soil surface temperatures. Over 75% of the simulated pits were still visible after 2 years, and bettong pits infilled faster than rabbit pits. Bettong pits reduced diurnal temperature range by up to 25 C compared to the soil surface. We did not find any effects of digging on soil chemistry that were consistent across vegetation types, between bettong and rabbit pits, and with time since digging, which is contrary to studies conducted in arid biomes. Our findings show that animal foraging pits in temperate ecosystems cause physical alteration of the soil surface and microclimatic conditions rather than nutrient changes often observed in arid areas.This work was supported by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP0561817, LP110100126, LP140100209). Catherine Ross was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship, and an additional scholarship top-up from the ARC (LP140100209)

The incidence of scarring on the dorsum of the hand

When undertaking image comparison of the hand between accused and perpetrator, it is not unusual for scars to be identified on the back of the hand. To investigate the occurrence of scarring in a discreet sample, a database of 238 individuals was examined, and the dorsum of the right and left hands was gridded for each individual. The position, size and type of scar were recorded within each grid. It was found that, in general, males exhibited a higher incidence of scarring than females. However, males were more likely to show scarring on their left hand whereas females were more likely to exhibit scarring on their right hand. Contrary to the literature, scarring was not most prevalent along the borders of the hand but occurred more frequently in association with the index and middle finger corridor regions. Surgical scars were rare as were large scars whereas linear scars smaller than 6 mm were the most frequently identified. Close to half of the sample did not exhibit scarring on one hand. The importance of understanding the pattern of scarring on the back of the hand is discussed in the light of forensic image comparison analysis