Harm-reduction activism: a case study of an unsanctioned user-run safe injection site

Due to the ongoing health crisis among injection drug users in Vancouver, Canada, there have been repeated calls for the establishment of safe injection sites (SISs) since the early 1990s. In April 2003, in response to a large-scale police crackdown and government inaction, a group of activists opened an unsanctioned SIS in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES). The 327 Carrall Street SIS operated for 181 days despite considerable police harassment and limited financial support. During the operation of the SIS, volunteers supervised over 3000 injections and demonstrated the feasibility of a user-run low-threshold SIS. The experience of the SIS provides valuable lessons for those seeking to advance the interests of injection drug users through community mobilization and direct action approaches. In this article, Thomas Kerr, Megan Oleson, and Evan Wood describe the events surrounding the establishment, operation, and closing of the unsanctioned SIS, and outline the lessons learned.     

Associations Among Empathy,Social Competence, &; Reactive/Proactive Aggression Subtypes

Differences between proactive and reactive aggression subtypes on self-reported measures of empathy, social competence, and expectation for reward were examined among 433 middle school students (65.4% White, 33.9% Black). As hypothesized, males scored higher on proactive and reactive aggression scales and lower on empathy measures than females. K-means cluster analysis yielded the following four distinct groups: reactive, proactive, proactive/reactive aggressive, and uninvolved. Overall, uninvolved (nonaggressive youth) had higher empathy and social competence scores and lower expectation of reward for the use of aggression. The reactive and proactive groups did not differ significantly on study variables. Limitations and implications are discussed. Graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her M.S. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her main research interests are in youth aggression, specifically the influence of social cognitive factors and peer groups on adolescent aggression. Associate professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Indiana University. Her major research interests focus on several health related behavior, including bullying and youth aggression and disordered eating in adolescents.     

A methodology for predicting the effects of changes in civil commitment decision making

We review a three-step civil commitment model and formulas for calculating the probability of release from commitment and the relative importance of the three steps in determining the outcome. New formulas are developed which enable predictions to be made about the effects of changes on the outcome of the three steps on the release probability. With the use of data from Oregon's civil commitment process, we present an example of the application of the methodology and conclude with a discussion of its major administrative and research implications.     

Spanish-language print media in the USA: A social semiotic analysis of ideological representations in photojournalism

Although Spanish-language media in the USA have grown rapidly since the turn of the century, little scholarship has been dedicated to the semiotic characteristics of these media. This study examines the visual representation of ideologies in 15 news photographs published in Spanish-language print media in the Midwest of the USA with the goals of understanding how ideologies are expressed visually in a culture that has received little treatment in the previous literature and of determining the potential for these photographs to challenge the negative semiotic treatment of Latin@ immigrants in the USA. Following a critical social semiotic approach, the analysis demonstrates how ideologies pattern around the inclusion and exclusion of Latin@s. These ideologies challenge and perpetuate the hegemonic structure, respectively, and as such, indicate the potential for local Spanish-language print media to challenge the negative semiotic representation of Latin@s in the USA while pointing to the need for future research of minoritized media using the social semiotics framework.     

Differentiation of Twenty‐One Glitter Lip‐Glosses by Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectroscopy*

Abstract: Differentiation of 21 glitter lip‐glosses from seven manufacturers was attempted by pyrolysis gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy. Samples were pyrolyzed on a ribbon probe at 800°C for 20 sec and analyzed with an Agilent^® 6890N Network GC System and Agilent^® 5973 Network Mass Selective Detector with MSD Productivity ChemStation^® Data Analysis software. The total ion chromatograms obtained were examined and differences in the presence or absence of certain chromatographic peaks corresponding to certain pyrolysis products (e.g., styrene, cyclohexane) noted. In cases where the total ion chromatograms between lip‐glosses were similar, select ion profiling was performed. Of the 21 lip‐glosses, 15 were differentiated by either the total ion chromatograms alone or through select ion profiling. Considering that lip‐glosses are typically worn by young women (who are disproportionately victims of sexual assault), this study offers the potential of being able to provide investigative leads in sexual assault investigations with evidentiary samples of this kind.     

Material Feminism and Epigenetics: A ‘Critical Window’ for Engagement?

ABSTRACT

While there is increasing interest in gender and sex issues in the medical field, most research in medicine can still be defined as operating with a binary of sex/gender. Epigenetics presents a marked challenge to such binaries as it operates across many tightly held boundaries, blurring the lines between the biological and social. Feminist scholars are paying attention to this new field and reconsidering relationships between the politics of matter, biologies and the social in new ways. The aim of this article is to investigate how theoretical insights from material feminism might enhance epigenetic research. Rather than repeat important critical arguments that point to the dangers of reductionism and biological essentialism, we make a case for examining the ways that material feminism can engage with epigenetic research by broadening ideas of reproduction (beyond in-utero effects) to relational and political views of gender and sex within a materialist framework. In conclusion, we suggest that a focus on material-discursive co-formations has the potential to contribute to an established body of feminist theory and science work; increasing awareness of the intra-action of gender and sex in relation to exposures, and increasing political leverage in supporting health-enhancing environments.