The Crush: A Proto-Romantic Relationship Across the Life Course

This presentation describes the “crush” experience as it occurs among older adults. A basic definition of a crush is a one-sided, proto-romantic relationship. The scholarly and commonsense understanding in American culture focuses on the crush as most commonly occurring during the developmental phases of adolescence and pre-adolescence. Symbolic interactionists view life course as a somewhat fluid process of adapting to changing situations in life. Experiences like the crush can potentially occur at almost any age at which romantic thoughts and feelings are possible. Our ethnographic research on older adults residing either in group facilities or in domiciliary locations indicates that crushes are fairly common. These crushes follow the same general narrative as crushes among younger people: a beginning, a middle and an end. There are two narrative styles among older adults: face-to-face and mediated. The crush in a group facility is encouraged by interaction during social hours, meals, entertainment, and religious/spiritual activities. Crushes are more observable among women who do not have to delve into their past for objects of their affection. Available paramours from the mass media include young celebrities such as Michael Buble and Josh Groban. These crushes differ from those among younger women in the denouement, to the degree affection generally fades away from memory rather than comes to a distinct end. Factors such as increased access to electronic media and music, and increased sociality in the community and in residential environments will create situations in which the security, excitement and rewards of a crush are plausible.

Shared Parenting after Separation and Divorce in New Zealand

<p>Shared parenting after separation or divorce is an intricate, fluid process in which gender, power and ideology are implicated. The dominant focus of the literature is on sharply polarised assessments of the value of joint custody or shared parenting, and on the elaboration of the individual moral qualities ideally required by each parent which will help ensure the arrangement's success or failure. This thesis, however, addresses the systemic (individual and social) isssues, and the processes of family life which facilitate or complicate the arrangement. The conclusions indicate that it it is inappropriate to view shared parenting as that form of custody which necessarily safeguards the child's best interests. Rather, it should be viewed as one among several possible modes of custody; and that the particular outcome for any family of a choice of shared parenting after separation depends largely on the ability of those parents to manage their relationship, in which systemic, as well as personal factors are significant. The value of detailed qualitative research as a means to explore and understand areas of family life and relationships is demonstrated, in particular because of its power to reveal the complexity of family process. The crucial material evidence is the transcription of the unstructured, intensive, longitudinal interviews which generates texts suitable for a close textual reading or deconstructive analysis. Such an analysis opens for inspection the way that experience and the respondents' and researcher's textual production is constructed from and by gender, power, ideology, ambivalence, and process. It highlights the way in which elements of experience are often divided from each other and held separate as a consequence of the research act" and their interrelatedness obscured and destroyed. The use of deconstructive qualitative analysis has facilitated a further redefinition of the researcher/respondent relationship. It has emphasised the importance of creating typologies which, within a specific category, can encompass a diversity of experiences and positions. It has challenged the usual mode of sociological writing in which only the authorial voice is present, and has indicated the significance of allowing a range of voices to enter the text, thus emphasising the uncentredness of the social world.</p>

Shared Parenting after Separation and Divorce in New Zealand

<p>Shared parenting after separation or divorce is an intricate, fluid process in which gender, power and ideology are implicated. The dominant focus of the literature is on sharply polarised assessments of the value of joint custody or shared parenting, and on the elaboration of the individual moral qualities ideally required by each parent which will help ensure the arrangement's success or failure. This thesis, however, addresses the systemic (individual and social) isssues, and the processes of family life which facilitate or complicate the arrangement. The conclusions indicate that it it is inappropriate to view shared parenting as that form of custody which necessarily safeguards the child's best interests. Rather, it should be viewed as one among several possible modes of custody; and that the particular outcome for any family of a choice of shared parenting after separation depends largely on the ability of those parents to manage their relationship, in which systemic, as well as personal factors are significant. The value of detailed qualitative research as a means to explore and understand areas of family life and relationships is demonstrated, in particular because of its power to reveal the complexity of family process. The crucial material evidence is the transcription of the unstructured, intensive, longitudinal interviews which generates texts suitable for a close textual reading or deconstructive analysis. Such an analysis opens for inspection the way that experience and the respondents' and researcher's textual production is constructed from and by gender, power, ideology, ambivalence, and process. It highlights the way in which elements of experience are often divided from each other and held separate as a consequence of the research act" and their interrelatedness obscured and destroyed. The use of deconstructive qualitative analysis has facilitated a further redefinition of the researcher/respondent relationship. It has emphasised the importance of creating typologies which, within a specific category, can encompass a diversity of experiences and positions. It has challenged the usual mode of sociological writing in which only the authorial voice is present, and has indicated the significance of allowing a range of voices to enter the text, thus emphasising the uncentredness of the social world.</p>

Asphaltenes: Fundamental Principles to Oilfield Applications

The sophisticated molecular imaging methods, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), have been utilized to image individual asphaltene molecules, both their atoms and bonds, and their electronic structure. The stunning images have confirmed previous results and have all but resolved the long-standing uncertainties regarding asphaltene molecular architecture. Asphaltenes are also known to have a strong propensity to aggregate. The dominante asphaltene molecular structure and hierarchical nanocolloidal structures have been resolved and codified in the Yen-Mullins model. Use of this model in a simple polymer solution theory has given the first equation of state (EoS) for asphaltene gradients in oilfield reservoirs, the Flory-Huggins-Zuo EoS. With this EoS it is now possible to address reservoir connectivity in new ways; equilibrated asphaltenes imply reservoir connectivity. For reservoirs with disequilibrium of contained fluids, there is often a fluid process occurring in geologic time that precludes equilibrium. The collection of processes leading to equilibrium and those that preclude equilibrium constitute a new technical discipline, reservoir fluid geodynamics (RFG). Several reservoirs are reviewed employing RFG evaluation of connectivity via asphaltene thermodynamics. RFG processes in reservoris often include diffusion, RFG models incorporating simple solution to the diffusion equation coupled with quasi-equilibrium with the FHZ EoS are shown to apply for timelines up to 50 million years, the age of charge in a reservoir. When gas (or condensates) diffuse into oil, the asphaltenes are destabilized and can convect to the base of the reservoir. Increasing asphaltene onset pressure as well as viscous oil and tar mats can be consequences. Depending on specifics of the process, either gooey tar or coal-like asphaltene deposits can form. In addition, the asphaltene structures illuminated by AFM are now being used to account for interfacial properties using simple thermodynamics. At long last, asphaltenes are no longer the enigmatic component of crude oil, instead the resolution of asphaltene structures and dynamics has led to new thermodynamic applications in reservoirs, the new discipline RFG, and a new understanding of tar mats.

Preparation of Solid Dispersions of Simvastatin and Soluplus Using a Single-Step Organic Solvent-Free Supercritical Fluid Process for the Drug Solubility and Dissolution Rate Enhancement

The study was designed to investigate the feasibility of supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) processing for the preparation of simvastatin (SIM) solid dispersions (SDs) in Soluplus® (SOL) at temperatures below polymer’s glass transition. The SIM content in the SDs experimental design was kept at 10, 20 and 30% to study the effect of the drug–polymer ratio on the successful preparation of SDs. The SIM–SOL formulations, physical mixtures (PMs) and SDs were evaluated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and dissolution studies. The scCO2 processing conditions and drug–polymer ratio were found to influence the physicochemical properties of the drug in formulated SDs. SIM is a highly crystalline drug; however, physicochemical characterisation carried out by SEM, DSC, and XRD demonstrated the presence of SIM in amorphous nature within the SDs. The SIM–SOL SDs showed enhanced drug dissolution rates, with 100% being released within 45 min. Moreover, the drug dissolution from SDs was faster and higher in comparison to PMs. In conclusion, this study shows that SIM–SOL dispersions can be successfully prepared using a solvent-free supercritical fluid process to enhance dissolution rate of the drug.

Stress and Resilience among Medical Students during Pandemic

Medical students who are future physicians are faced with a lot of uncertainties during this pandemic. It includes both academic as well as clinical difficulties. Previous literature has revealed that the stress among medical students is higher when compared to their peers. The stress has even been more during the pandemic as their role during the pandemic is not clear. The purpose of medical training is to produce good doctors but not at the cost of the integrity of the individuals.’Moral inquiry’ is a term used to represent the ethical dilemma faced by doctors during life-death situations. Helplessness faced by students during emergencies leads to moral inqury which in turn leads to more distress. Most of the Medical universities have responded to the pandemic rapidly, by switching to online mode in teaching. This unpatrolled response also has to lead to more stress among medical students. Resilience, by definition, is the capacity to bounce back productively during a stressful situation. Resilience can be viewed as a personality trait or as a fluid process that nurtures according to the situation and the individuals’ reservoir. In this article, we have tried to emphasise the importance of Resilience.

Van prins tot zwart schaap en terug

From prince to black sheep and back. Royal prince Pippin in Carolingian historiography This article investigates the rather fluid process of character assassination of Pippin, nicknamed “the Hunchback”. In 792 Pippin joined a conspiracy led by more than a few noblemen against his father, Charlemagne. However, the plot came out just in time and Pippin was confined to a monastery for the rest of his life. His memory was subsequently besmirched by quite a number of writers, who walked the line between blackening Pippin while at the same time ensuring that Pippin’s misstep was never presented as a stain on the reputation of the Carolingian dynasty as a whole. As a result, the character assassination had to be modified time and again to constantly fit the present-day needs of the dynasty. As long as the Carolingians were safe and sound, as a ruling dynasty, Pippin could be blackened. But when the Carolingian family found itself in trouble with regard to securing the family bloodline, the literary Pippin made a spectacular comeback in order to contribute to the preservation of the Carolingian royal dynasty.

The Politics of Time, Transition, and Justice in Transitional Justice

As transitional justice seeks to reckon with a violent past in order to build a more peaceful future, its practitioners tend to operate on the assumption that the past, present and future are distinct periods. Globally, however, as different regions and states undergo different phases of transitional justice, it is difficult to identify linear processes of transition and of justice. When understood as a fluid process, transitional justice elicits questions about how governments, judiciaries, civil society, and victims engage with it as a vehicle for political change, repression, and justice. This engagement constitutes a complex set of interactions, ebbs, and flows that take place across space and time. With the benefit of hindsight and a mosaic of transitions, this special issue aims to recognise and interrogate the centrality and complexity of time in transition, justice, and transitional justice. The authors discuss five overarching dimensions of time: the timing of transitional justice interventions, the institutionalisation of time, the compartmentalisation of time, the politicisation of time, and ways to reconcile the temporal dichotomies of various transitional justice mechanisms

“First Thing When I Walk Through the Door, I Am a Black Woman”: Pilot Study Examining Afro-Caribbean Women's Racial and Ethnic Identity

Hybrid identity theory was utilized to understand how race and ethnicity were perceived from the perspective of Afro-Caribbean women living in the U.S. Thematic analysis revealed four themes: (1) inability to understand African Americans’ experiences, (2) feelings of racial and gender bias, (3) racial pride in the Black community, and (4) ethnic pride in the Caribbean community as a protective factor. Findings indicate that women's observed racial role distancing was a fluid process where women moved freely between ethnic difference and racial togetherness depending on their perceptions of racial stereotypes among the African American community. Clinical implications are offered.

Producing Sacred Space in Secular Kitchens: South Asian Immigrant Women’s Hindu Shrines in American Domestic Architecture

This paper demonstrates the processes of spatial production achieved through the setup of a home shrine by newly arrived Hindu immigrant women inside American houses, particularly the kitchens. By focusing on the home shrine, the paper uses a gendered lens through which to understand vernacular architecture, since women often garner greater control over domestic objects and interiors than they do over construction of buildings. I propose that production of sacred space, achieved through domestic objects like home shrines, is a fluid process. Its location in the house can be more easily changed from one place to another. Compared to the permanent construction of buildings, this compliancy of form may appear less concrete for providing objective architectural analysis. However, I suggest that it is the opposite. The flexibility involved in women’s production process makes room for greater spatial negotiation and demonstrates the diversity of ways concrete domestic architecture is maneuvered to satisfy women’s religious needs over time. Further, the paper demonstrates the wide array of complex decisions that women have to make regarding body movements in the house and worship practices, achieved through material intervention, that speak of domestic architecture in less static and more dynamic ways. By tracing women’s experiences with domestic architecture as new arrivals in the country, and later, as permanent residents, the paper foregrounds women’s strong architectural contributions through the use of domestic objects that enable a gendered and consequently a more inclusive approach to the study of architectural space.