Search

In Lorestan province, one of the phenomena that endangers the health and development of children is child marriage. According to evidence, about twenty percent of girls in this province are married at a childhood age, which is a remarkable rate. Child marriage is common while many other countries have outlawed it because of its harms. The question is why this phenomenon still remains despite the changes that the society has experienced. In this research, the answer to the above question is sought by using grounded theory. The study population is all women who have experience of marriage in childhood in Lorestan province. Forty cases from five cities of the province were interviewed using the purposeful sampling method. The findings show that legal legitimacy, traditions, disruption in the family, the norm of chastity and dropping out of school are the main causes of these marriages. Community residents arrange these marriages by applying pressure and families by forcing their daughters. Child marriage is not only a violation of children's rights, but also endangers the health of mothers and their babies. As a result of the child marriage of these women, their rights in the field of education, choosing a husband and a safe life with relative welfare have been jeopardized. Their set of strategies in the face of this phenomenon and its events consists of confronting each other, surrendering, Request for support and leaving the relationship, all of which are ineffective except for Request for support.

At Saltburn Folk Festival 2021 in the North of England our folk group Patchwork performed S.J. Tucker's song, Witch's Rune, in tribute to 'witches' killed or mistreated. The performance and tribute inspired me to find out about the 'witches' of the North York Moors where I live: their names and lives, how they were treated, their legacy and how to fairly present them today in educational and artistic projects. Records consulted ranged from books of local folklore to unpublished handwritten historical documents. Two firsthand accounts in particular - George Calvert's (1823) and Rev. J.C. Atkinson's (1891) - provided names, locations, living conditions and stories of some of the women who were branded as 'witches' during the nineteenth century. 'Wise men' ('wizards') from those times were also named and recorded; wise men were believed to have supernatural powers that could counter the witches' influence. Healing potions and magical practices of North York Moors 'witches' recorded in the nineteenth-century were found to be similar in kind to those recorded from much earlier Anglo-Saxon communities (fifth to eleventh centuries), indicating a continuity and adaptation of traditional practices handed down over 1,000 years or so. Resistance to change in this remote moorland area is presented as one reason for the practice of witchcraft surviving so long despite the rise of science and modern medicine. Fear of witches and belief in magic was rife in the local community in the mid-nineteenth century. The witch stereotypes passed down to us today were initiated through the demonisation of witches by the medieval Christian Church in an effort to stamp out paganism. The isolation of the North York Moors helped to insulate the area from the famous witch hunts and witch trials happening elsewhere, but close reading of collected local witch stories hint at ostracisation and violence at a village level towards powerless, generally older women branded locally as 'witches', who had few alternatives for making a living. A legacy of the healing practices of local historic 'witches' is found in the herbal and alternative health practitioners in the area today, and spiritually in modern nature-based philosophies and religions, including modern Paganism. This paper strips away witch stereotypes to reveal real people practising witchcraft in the North York Moors well into the nineteenth century and their prolonged persecution. It supports fleshing out their historical records, bringing justice to the 'witches' by representing them through educational and artistic initiatives, and re-education to stop witch-hunts within local communities around the world today. 'Patchwork' will continue to sing S.J. Tucker's song together with a tribute, informed by this paper, to the local witches of Blackamoor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finding power within femininity, typically through masculinised dimensions of femininity, has long been a mechanism through which to recuperate feminised identities, experiences, and aesthetics within feminism. However, privileging powerfulness to the exclusion of dimensions of powerlessness, such as vulnerability, pathologizes femininity and maintains masculinism within feminism. Using queer femme autoethnography alongside intersectional feminist, femme, queer, and critical race theories, I demonstrate this tension surrounding how feminist feminine-of-centre folx negotiate masculinist pressures related to powerfulness and powerlessness in order to be considered properly feminist. I argue that continuing to prioritise powerfulness exclusively within feminism leaves little space for valuing femininized experiences, affects, and qualities, which are concomitant components of femininity. Ultimately, I conclude that the one-dimensional assertion that femininity is powerful, and only acceptable or potentially feminist when powerful, serves as a re-instantiation of a masculinist recuperation framework within feminism's relationship to femininity. I assert that moving forward critical femininity studies should advocate for moving towards an acceptance framework regarding feminism and femininity in order to move beyond individualistic debates surrounding acceptable feminist femininities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article demonstrates that Paul's use of Ps 68.10b OG in Rom 15.3 makes sense of the psalm's context, fits with the parenetic rhetoric of Paul's argument in 14.1–15.6 and necessitates Paul's justification in 15.4 of his use of Scripture. Citing Ps 68.10b because the δυνατοί (15.1) face actual reproaches for accommodating to the ἀδύνατοι's convictions, Paul grounds the call to bear these reproaches in emulating Christ's devotion to God, not his vicarious suffering. The focus on allegiance to God orients the δυνατοί towards the one who can then enable them to counter-culturally endure shame with fellow members of God's household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sketches the broad outlines of Matthew’s ironic portrayal of children, examining first the ‘lower level’ of the narrative (i.e. the way things appear to be in the everyday world) and then the ‘upper level’ of the narrative (i.e. the way things truly are from the ‘God’s-eye’ perspective). When viewed from the ‘lower level’ of Matthew’s narrative, the everyday circumstances of children reflect the nurture of their parents as well as significant challenges: debilitating physical conditions, serious illnesses, military violence and premature childhood death. In addition, children occupy the lowest rung on the 1st-century Mediterranean social ladder, a status they share with slaves. But on the ‘upper level’ of his narrative, from the ‘God’s-eye’ perspective, Matthew turns everyday reality for children on its head in ironic fashion. Emmanuel, the ‘God who is with us’, appears as a ‘child’ who has just ‘been born’ and who exhibits all the powerlessness and vulnerability of such a ‘child’. In a violent showdown between ‘King Herod’ and the one ‘who has been born king of the Jews’, it is Herod, the powerful ruler, who dies, while the vulnerable ‘child’ ends up safely in Nazareth. Throughout his ministry, Jesus heals children along with adults. To the apparent chagrin of his disciples, Jesus lays hands on children in an act of blessing. He commends the messianic praises of children, in contrast to the outrage of the Jewish leadership. Moreover, Jesus proclaims that it is ‘to such as these [children] that the kingdom of heaven belongs’.

Two ways of reading Havel's classic essay are proposed. According to the first, the focus is on the peculiarities of the post-totalitarian system, inhabited by the famous greengrocer, where slogans, ritual communication, pervasive manipulation, and arbitrariness prevail and power operates as if automatic and anonymous. The lines of conflict run though each person: everyone is both victim and supporter. Comparison is made with Michel Foucault's (early) view of power, which similarly rejected seeing power as exercised by some over others, stressing power's anonymity and pervasiveness. For Foucault, at that stage of his thinking, however, power constitutes "regimes of truth," whereas for Havel the "power of truth" is a force that has the potential successfully to resist and subvert domination. The power of truth is that of the greengrocer and others "living within the lie" to expose and shatter the world of appearances. Havel calls on them to end their complicity. This might seem moralistic, but Havel's view was that under post-totalitarian conditions, morality would prove the best strategy. The second reading suggests that the post-totalitarian system is the "extreme version of technological civilization and the industrial-consumer society." But this account of power is at odds with the first, since in this view the powerless would have no prospects of resisting and overcoming domination. Havel's account is thus political and relevant to other political contexts, raising several empirical questions concerning the dynamics of power and the conditions for the success of morally fueled protest and normative questions concerning power and responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the meaning of dependency on care as experienced by intensive care patients. Literature on the subject is sparse, but research from nonintensive settings shows that dependency is often experienced negatively. The study is based on in-depth qualitative semistructured interviews with three former patients characterized as narratives. The analysis is inspired by a phenomenological hermeneutical method. The study has found that dependency is experienced as difficult and that the experience seems to be attached to the relationship to oneself. Patients feel powerless and experience shame, their understanding of self is threatened, and they fight for independence in the course after intensive care. The findings might be influenced by the study being conducted in a Western country setting, where independence is valued. They can be used as means of reflection on nursing practice and matters such as communication and patient participation.

Does gratitude mediate the relationship between power and prosociality? To answer this question, two studies were conducted to investigate the effects of social power on both reciprocal and non-reciprocal prosociality through gratitude. Study 1 (n = 193), utilizing a cross-sectional design, found that sense of power was positively associated with both reciprocal and non-reciprocal prosociality, with feelings of gratitude serving as a mediator in these associations. Study 2 (n = 199) manipulated power and demonstrated that holding power, as compared to lacking it, increased feelings of gratitude, which subsequently enhanced reciprocal prosociality. Through two studies, the current research addressed whether and why power influences prosocial behavior. The findings contribute to the theories of gratitude, power, and prosociality. Our study also sheds light on the practices within both positive and social psychology.

We present the design of an image contrast based fluid pressure sensing scheme that employs a powerless, low-cost, pressure sensor. The sensor consists of a sealed pressure microchamber whose top surface consists of a deformable, semi-transparent, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane and its bottom surface consists of a rigid glass substrate. When the microchamber is pressurized, the membrane is deflected but the position of the glass substrate remains fixed and therefore the distance between them changes with applied pressure. Using a precision z-scanning module, the distance between the top and bottom surfaces is measured using a custom-made image contrast algorithm and the applied pressure is extracted. The image contrast is enhanced by adding food color during the fabrication of the membrane and by patterning the glass substrate with photoresist. The sensor operates over a pressure range of 0–100 mbar, with a ∼2 mbar resolution in the 0–20 mbar pressure range and ∼10 mbar resolution in the 20–100 mbar pressure range. The maximum error was measured to be less than 7% throughout its dynamic range. The novel pressure monitoring concept presented here can be used in various biomedical applications as well as in the consumer electronics industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are complex systems, but they are incomplete systems. All cities are becoming the same, but all cities are competing with each other. Here actors from different worlds meet, but there are no clear rules of engagement. It is in this context that the complex global city becomes a frontier space with political consequences. Here we can find new hybrid bases from which to act, spaces where the powerless can make history even when they do not get empowered.

Contemporary twin-engine airliners are more vulnerable to total loss of thrust than yesterday's three and four engine airliners, due to reduced engine redundancy. In the event of a total loss of thrust, flight crews have only one chance for landing, because the aircraft cannot gain altitude. Therefore, there is a pressing need to explore the idea of an engines-out landing trajectory optimization for commercial jets. A few past studies addressed this safety issue for general aviation aircraft and fighter jets but not commercial jets, primarily because the essential aircraft-specific aero-dynamic data are not publicly available. To fill in this gap, this study adopts a kinematic approach to aircraft trajectory optimization. Unlike conventional trajectory optimization methods, the kinematic algorithm requires minimal amount of aircraft-specific aerodynamic data that can be effortlessly collected in a full flight simulator. The paper describes the kinematic algorithm and applies it to a realistic bird strike scenario. Flight simulation tests are conducted in a full flight simulator to verify the accuracy of the algorithm. The results demonstrate that the algorithm can compute the optimum trajectory with a less than 3.0 percent error. Since the algorithm is accurate and computationally-undemanding, it is promising for real-world applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the meaning of dependency on care as experienced by intensive care patients. Literature on the subject is sparse, but research from nonintensive settings shows that dependency is often experienced negatively. The study is based on in-depth qualitative semistructured interviews with three former patients characterized as narratives. The analysis is inspired by a phenomenological hermeneutical method. The study has found that dependency is experienced as difficult and that the experience seems to be attached to the relationship to oneself. Patients feel powerless and experience shame, their understanding of self is threatened, and they fight for independence in the course after intensive care. The findings might be influenced by the study being conducted in a Western country setting, where independence is valued. They can be used as means of reflection on nursing practice and matters such as communication and patient participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares two kinds of socio-technical formations: electronic financial networks and local social activist movements that are globally networked. Both cut across the global/national duality and each has altered the economic and political landscapes for, respectively, financial elites and social activists. Using these two cases helps illuminate the very diverse ways in which the growth of electronic networks partially transforms existing politico-economic orderings. They are extreme cases, one marked by hypermobility and the other by physical immobility. But they show us that each is only partly so: financial electronic networks are subject to particular types of embeddedness and local activist organizations can benefit from novel electronic potentials for global operation. Financial electronic networks and electronic activism not only reveal two parallel developments associated with particular technical properties of the new interactive digital technologies, but also reveal a third, radically divergent outcome, which is interpreted as signalling the weight of the specific social logics of users in each case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts an insight into the power of the powerless people which they employ for their survival where their lifeways have been threatened by the dominant cultures. Based on several ethnographic studies, it shows that the powerless people who do not take arms against the dominant cultures employ cultural resistance. In light of this view, the article focuses on the ethnographic work of the author, where the Toungsa Pahari, powerless indigenous people, employ several strategies for their survival. Juxtaposed with reluctant disposition, they employ cultural resistance in order to survive in the hard environment of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, endangered by the outsiders (Bangali settlers). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost annually, natural hazards such as floods and landslides cause a great deal of financial loss and human suffering in Taiwan. In order to gain a better understanding of disaster preparedness, this paper examines several factors in relation to hazard mitigation behavior: social economic status (education, income), psychological vulnerability (sense of powerless and helpless), risk perception (perceived impact and control) and social trust. The statistical analysis reported here is based on the “2004 National Risk Perception Survey of Floods and Landslides in Taiwan”. The main findings include: (1) in comparison with general public, victims are less willing to adopt risk mitigation measures than the public, even though they perceive larger impacts, worry more about the hazard, and pay more attention to hazard information; (2) trust, risk perception and social economic status are positive predictors for mitigation intentions, whereas psychological vulnerability is a negative predictor; and (3) psychological variables are stronger predictors for mitigation intentions than that of socio-economic variables. In light of these findings, the policy implications and intervention strategy are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the challenges of being young and black in America. In the United States, African Americans have historically suffered from systemic discrimination. Such discrimination deprived them of fundamental rights such as the right to vote. Although African Americans are no longer denied the right to vote based solely on race, the future of the black vote remains threatened by the criminalization of African American youth. African American youths are increasing alienated from systems that are supposed to help them. They are excessively disciplined in schools and disproportionately incarcerated, resulting in the New Jim Crow. This article recounts some of the reasons why and what can be done to address these problems., Competing Interests: Author’s Note The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors alone. They do not reflect the official opinion of any institutions that the authors serve. The authors have no financial conflicts of interest.

Background: For parents, having a child admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) is a very stressful experience filled with anxiety. Parents are often scared and traumatised. This stress can lead to PTSD., Aim: The aim was to describe parents' experiences and the effect on the family two years after their child was admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit., Material and Methods: Ten parents were interviewed according to a semi-structured interview guide. An inductive approach was applied for the study and qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data., Findings: The parents carried vivid memories and they were still strongly affected by the experience of having their child admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit. They could clearly recall the environment, feelings that affected them and how they felt powerless. The relationship between the parents had been strengthened., Conclusion: Parents, siblings and the ill child could all show symptoms of anxiety, stress and sleeping disorders. The parents valued life differently., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)