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Intimate partner violence (IPV) is woven into the very fabric of all levels of society. Although there is now a growing body of literature on IPV toward men, the experiences of male victimization remain particularly underresearched. More research is needed to contribute to our understanding of men's experiences. A constructivist grounded theory study was conducted in Aotearoa (New Zealand) in which men's experiences of IPV victimization in heterosexual relationships were explored. Underpinned by an interpretivist theoretical perspective, constructivist grounded theory (CGT) methodology acknowledges the active role of researchers to generate knowledge from an interpretive stance. The findings highlight the perpetuating cycle of silence and invisibility in societies that uphold hegemonic discourses and underlying assumptions and stereotypes that frame men as perpetrators of IPV and women as its victims. The theoretical framework developed from the findings provides an important and original contribution to the literature on men's experiences of abuse from their female intimate partners, showing how and why men's victimization experiences are silenced. The article argues that education is needed to raise awareness of the elements presented in the theoretical framework and to inform the development of policies and practices so that the perpetuating cycle of silence and invisibility does not continue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concern at widening health and wealth inequities between communities accompanying processes of globalization in recent years are reflected in contemporary definitions of health promotion, premised on the stratagem of individuals and communities increasing control over factors that determine health, thereby improving their health status. Such community empowerment practice is commonly accepted within the health promotion literature as encompassing intrapersonal, interpersonal and socio-political elements. Less articulated and understood, however, are the processes whereby the identities and cultures of marginalized communities intersect with and reverberate through these levels of action. The potential of identity and culture as important individual and community resources within social action takes on further significance within global-ized contexts, which simultaneously expose marginalized communities to dominant cultural power relations while affording members new avenues for cultural expression. In this paper we highlight culture and identity as important aspects of the empowerment process, drawing on the experiences of migrant Tongan and Samoan women throughout a social action process in Aotearoa/New Zealand. In particular, narratives of identity and culture within storytelling as an empowerment practice are explicated, as is the articulation of identity and culture within more structurally orientated power relations throughout subsequent activities related to policy advocacy.

Purpose: This report updates local control and survival experience and focuses on treatment toxicity in 294 patients with esophageal cancer who have been treated at six Australasian centers using three prospective unrandomized protocols that used concurrent radiation, cisplatin, and modest dose infusional fluorouracil., Methods and Materials: Protocol 1--"definitive" chemoradiation. One hundred and thirty-seven patients have been treated with "definitive" radiation to 60 Gy in 6 weeks plus two courses of cisplatin (80 mg/m2) and infusional fluorouracil (800 mg/m2/day over 4 days) during the first and fourth weeks of radiation. Protocol 2--"preoperative" chemoradiation and surgery. Seventy-eight patients received chemoradiation using the same chemotherapy, but 30-35 Gy in 3-4 weeks prior to surgery. Protocol 3--"palliative" chemoradiation. Seventy-nine patients deemed incurable were treated "palliatively" with the same chemoradiation protocol without surgery. Follow-up ranges from 6 months to 7 years (mean 22 months) in live patients., Results: Durable palliation of dysphagia in all three treatment groups has been reflected by encouraging 3-year survival expectations of 43.2 +/- 5% in definitively treated patients, 40.3 +/- 7.65% in surgically treated patients, and 8.5% +/- 3.9% in the palliatively treated patients. There are early indications that female patients have fared better than males. Toxicity levels were modest in all three groups. Following definitive treatment, severe myelotoxicity (World Health Organization grades 3 and 4) occurred in 19%, severe esophagitis (World Health Organization grade 3) in 11%, and moderate or severe benign stricture in 17%, depending upon age and sex of the patient (being worse in female patients)., Conclusions: These studies demonstrate that the concurrent addition of modest dose cisplatin and infusional dose fluorouracil to radiation in the definitive, preoperative, and palliative settings contribute to high rates of durable dysphagia-free survival, with overall survival comparable to (and possibly better than) the chemoradiation arm of the recently reported Intergroup Study, but at the cost of less morbidity.