Close For Comfort Research Articles

Too Close for Comfort: Relationship Quality, Procedural Justice and Managers’ Experiences of Layoffs

Too Close for Comfort: Relationship Quality, Procedural Justice and Managers’ Experiences of Layoffs

Too Close for Comfort: Stigma by Association in Family Members Who Live with Relatives with Mental Illness

Stigma by association is described in qualitative research of family members who have relatives diagnosed with mental illness, depicting their sense of public shame for having these relationship ties. However, there have been relatively few empirical studies thus far, in part due to the isolation of family members affecting research recruitment. In order to address this gap, an online survey was administered to 124 family members, comparing those who live in the same home with their ill relative (n = 81) and those who do not (n = 43). A remarkable incidence of one in three family members reported experiencing stigma by association. Those living with an ill relative reported comparatively higher levels of stigma by association using an adapted questionnaire measure. Both groups experienced loneliness (moderate levels), but importantly, the cohabiting relatives perceived themselves as lacking support from friends and other family members. Correlational analyses revealed that those with heightened stigma by association reported heightened anti-mattering: that is, feeling that other people treat them as if they are insignificant and invisible. Anti-mattering was also associated with more loneliness and reduced social support. Our discussion focuses on the theme that family members who actually live with mentally ill relatives experience heightened social isolation that is under-recognized due to public stigma concerns, compounded by feeling their own lives do not matter to others. Public health implications are considered for the stigmatized family members who appear to be particularly marginalized.

Too Close for Comfort? Impact of Pandemic Residential Environment on Women’s Life Satisfaction and Spousal Relationships during COVID-19

Too Close for Comfort? Impact of Pandemic Residential Environment on Women’s Life Satisfaction and Spousal Relationships during COVID-19

Too Close for Comfort? Attitudes of Gynecologic Oncologists Toward Caring for Dying Patients.

To assess gynecologic oncologists' attitudes relating to palliative care referrals among advanced cancer patients. Gynecologic oncologists were surveyed using validated measures to assess stigmatizing attitudes toward palliative care, anticipated stigma of palliative care, acceptance of palliative care, and willingness to refer to palliative care. Descriptive statistics were calculated. Analysis was performed using linear regression. 1200 physicians received the survey and 108 (9%) completed it. Most were female (69.4%) and white (82.4%). Most practiced in academics (64.8%) in urban environments (71.3%). Respondents did not have anticipated stigma surrounding palliative care referral (mean score 1.89, range 1-7, higher score indicating more stigma), were accepting of palliative care (mean score 1.45, range 1-7, higher score indicating less acceptance), and were willing to refer patients to palliative care (mean score 5.75, range 1-7, higher score indicating more willingness to refer). Linear regression demonstrated females had less anticipated stigma surrounding palliative care (B = -.213, P = .04) and higher acceptance of palliative care (B = -.244, P = .01). Most surveyed derived satisfaction from work with advanced cancer patients (83%). Nineteen percent were depressed by managing advanced cancer patients. One fourth felt emotionally burned out by dealing with too many deaths. Most gynecologic oncologists did not exhibit stigma surrounding palliative care and derive satisfaction from their work. Some gynecologic oncologists experience depression and burnout related to their profession. This close connection with patients as they transition to the end of life may take a toll on providers.

Too Close for Comfort? Isotopic Niche Segregation in New Zealand's Odontocetes.

Simple SummaryWe used carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes as ecological tracers to investigate isotopic niche overlap between 21 odontocete (toothed whale) species inhabiting neritic, mesopelagic, and bathypelagic waters. Results showed a clear niche separation for the bathypelagic Gray’s beaked whales (Mesoplodon grayi) and sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), but high isotopic niche overlap and potential interspecific competition for neritic and mesopelagic species. This study represents the first insights into the coexistence of odontocetes in a biodiverse hotspot and provides a critical baseline for a system already undergoing ecosystem changes via ocean warming and its subsequent effect on prey abundance and distribution.Species occurring in sympatry and relying on similar and limited resources may partition resource use to avoid overlap and interspecific competition. Aotearoa, New Zealand hosts an extraordinarily rich marine megafauna, including 50% of the world’s cetacean species. In this study, we used carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes as ecological tracers to investigate isotopic niche overlap between 21 odontocete (toothed whale) species inhabiting neritic, mesopelagic, and bathypelagic waters. Results showed a clear niche separation for the bathypelagic Gray’s beaked whales (Mesoplodon grayi) and sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), but high isotopic niche overlap and potential interspecific competition for neritic and mesopelagic species. For these species, competition could be reduced via temporal or finer-scale spatial segregation or differences in foraging behaviour. This study represents the first insights into the coexistence of odontocetes in a biodiverse hotspot. The data presented here provide a critical baseline to a system already ongoing ecosystem change via ocean warming and subsequent effects on prey abundance and distributions.

Kidney Cancer and Chronic Kidney Disease: Too Close for Comfort.

Kidney cancer and chronic kidney disease are two renal pathologies with very different clinical management strategies and therapeutical options. Nonetheless, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying both conditions are closely related. Renal physiology is adapted to operate with a limited oxygen supply, making the kidney remarkably equipped to respond to hypoxia. This tightly regulated response mechanism is at the heart of kidney cancer, leading to the onset of malignant cellular phenotypes. Although elusive, the role of hypoxia in chronic kidney diseases is emerging as related to fibrosis, a pivotal factor in decaying renal function. The present review offers a perspective on the common biological traits shared between kidney cancer and chronic kidney disease and the available and prospective therapies for both conditions.

Too Close for Comfort: Cyber Terrorism and Information Security across National Policies and International Diplomacy

This article analyses the evolution and interplay of national policies and international diplomacy on cyber terrorism within and across the UNSC’s permanent five members and the UN process on cyber norms (GGE and OEWG). First, it reveals how – through the extension of preemptive measures to low-impact cyber activities and online content – national policies progressively articulate cyber terrorism as an issue of information security. Second, it problematizes how – through the adoption of comprehensive and imprecise definitions – the diplomatic language on cyber terrorism might lend international support to those authoritarian regimes keen on leveraging counter-terrorism to persecute domestic oppositions and vulnerable groups. Third, it concludes that – with UN diplomatic efforts increasingly discussing countering (dis)information operations – combining normative debates on cyber terrorism with those on information security requires precision of language to safeguard human rights globally.

Too Close for Comfort: Morasses of (Anti-) Censorship in the Era of CDNs

Abstract Recent research claims that “powerful” nation-states may be hegemonic over significant web traffic of “underserved” nations (e.g., Brazil and India). Such traffic may be surveilled when transiting (or ending in) these powerful nations. On the other hand, content distribution networks (CDNs) are designed to bring web content closer to end-users. Thus it is natural to ask whether CDNs have led to the localization of Internet traffic within the country’s boundary, challenging the notion of nation-state hegemony. Further, such traffic localization may inadvertently enhance a country’s ability to coerce content providers to censor (or monitor) access within its boundary. On top of that, the obvious solution, i.e., anti-censorship approaches, may sadly face a new dilemma. Traditional ones, relying on proxies, are easily discoverable. Whereas newer ones (e.g., Decoy Routing, Cache-Browser, Domain Fronting and CovertCast etc.) might not work as they require accessing web content hosted outside the censors’ boundary. We thus quantitatively analyzed the impact of web content localization on various anti-censorship systems. Such analysis requires geolocating the websites. Thus we adapted a multilateration method, Constraint Based Geolocation (CBG), with additional heuristics. We call it as Region Specific CBG (R-CBG). In more than 89% cases, R-CBG correctly classifies hosts as inside (or outside) w.r.t. a nation. Our empirical study, involving five countries, shows that the majority (61%−92%) of popular country-specific websites are hosted within a client’s own country. Further, additional heuristics classify the majority of them to be on CDNs.

Too Close for Comfort? Understanding Peer Effects in Large Franchised Networks

Too Close for Comfort? Understanding Peer Effects in Large Franchised Networks

Too Close for Comfort: Creating Two TEM Samples From Areas Separated By 270 Nanometers

Too Close for Comfort: Creating Two TEM Samples From Areas Separated By 270 Nanometers

Too Close for Comfort: Canada, the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, and the North American Colo(u)r Line

Too Close for Comfort: Canada, the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, and the North American Colo(u)r Line

Too Close for Comfort: Canada, the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, and the North American Colo(u)r Line

Too Close for Comfort: Canada, the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, and the North American Colo(u)r Line

Too Close for Comfort: Canada, the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, and the North American Colo(u)r Line

Too Close for Comfort: Canada, the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, and the North American Colo(u)r Line

Too Close for Comfort: Direct Address and the Affective Pull of the Confessional Comic Woman in Chewing Gum and Fleabag

AbstractThe 2010s saw a boom in television comedies, created by, written, and starring women, that explored the bawdy and chaotic lives of protagonists who were experiencing some form of arrested development. These comedies sought to build intimate connections with their imagined audiences by crossing boundaries—social, bodily, and physical—to produce comedies of discomfort. Drawing in part on Rebecca Wanzo’s consideration of “precarious-girl comedy” (2016) I examine how two British television comedies intensified these intimate connections through the use of direct address, binding the audience tightly to the sexual and social misadventures of their twenty-something female protagonists. Michaela Coel’s Chewing Gum (E4, 2015–2017) follows naïve and desperately horny black working-class Londoner Tracey in her quest for sexual experience, and Phoebe-Waller Bridges’ Fleabag (BBC Three, 2016–) documents an unnamed upper-middle-class white woman’s sharply misanthropic journey through grief. In both programmes direct address serves to intensify the embrace of bodily affect and intimate access to interiority found in the “precarious-girl comedy” (Wanzo, 2016), producing moments of comic and emotional repulsion. Each program uses direct address’s blend of directness and distance to different ends, but both draw audiences at times uncomfortably close to the singular perspective of their protagonists, creating an intensely affective comic intimacy.

Too (Psychologically) Close for Comfort? Comparing Verbal Immediacy among Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOAs) and Non-ACOAs

Background: Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOAs) have shown poorer psychosocial outcomes compared to their counterparts (non-ACOAs). These poorer outcomes, however, are not consistently present between groups. Investigating psychological markers of such functioning can help to highlight nuances between ACOAs and non-ACOAs even when mean differences of psychosocial outcomes are not present. This is pertinent to the study of ACOAs to understand predictors of positive well-being trajectories. Objective: The aim of the present study was to compare the linguistic content of ACOAs and non-ACOAs in relation to psychological functioning. Method: A quasi-experimental design was employed; ACOAs (n = 53) and non-ACOAs (n = 80) were asked to write a significant memory in which they went through a change of some kind (i.e., turning point) regarding a parent. Participants were then asked to complete measures of psychological functioning. Using a word counting software, we identified verbal immediacy, a combination of words signifying psychological closeness, within participants’ memories. Results: Results indicated no mean differences in the amount of verbal immediacy amid ACOAs and non-ACOAs, but there were differences in its predictive ability between groups. Among ACOAs, verbal immediacy predicted better psychological functioning. Yet, there was no association found among non-ACOAs. Conclusions/Importance: These results show that psychological closeness, among ACOAs, is indicative of better psychological functioning, even though it is typically associated with worse outcomes. This suggests that vulnerable individuals may have nontraditional correlates between psychological markers, like verbal immediacy, and such functioning and should be assessed when comparing these populations.

Indo-Bangladesh Relationship: "Saath Saath" (Together) or Too Close for Comfort?

Indo-Bangladesh Relationship: "Saath Saath" (Together) or Too Close for Comfort?

Too Close for Comfort: Diminished Effectiveness of Ratio-Based Solvency Monitoring When Insurers Are Located Close to Their State Insurance Regulators

Prior research suggests that monitors (e.g., analysts, investors, auditors and regulators) perform better when they are located close to the companies they inspect. The improved performance is generally attributed to a greater availability of soft information about a company’s financial condition when companies and monitors are close. We identify a setting where proximity may result in diminished performance. We investigate the effect of proximity between insurers and regulators on insurer earnings management. Insurance regulators use a multistep process to monitor insurer solvency. In the initial phase, regulators compute ratios and prioritize financially weak insurers for more detailed scrutiny. Regulators are more likely to obtain and use soft information about insurers after the initial phase. The ratio-based initial phase gives insurers incentives to under-reserve to improve their financial ratios and potentially avoid prioritization for additional scrutiny. Consistent with prior research, we report that financially weak insurers tend to under-reserve. Incremental to prior research, we find that financially weak insurers located close to regulators under-reserve more than weak ones not located near regulators. Our results suggest that a multistep inspection process that begins with ratios may lead to more earnings management among financially weak companies, especially if they are close to their monitor.

Mobile Phone Electromagnetic Waves Causing Fatty Change in the Hepatocytes of the Developing Chick Embryo: Are Smart Phones too Close for Comfort?

Mobile Phone Electromagnetic Waves Causing Fatty Change in the Hepatocytes of the Developing Chick Embryo: Are Smart Phones too Close for Comfort?

Race, Place, and Suburban Policing Too Close for Comfort. Andrea S.Boyles, Oakland: University of California Press, 2015, 268 pp.

Race, Place, and Suburban Policing Too Close for Comfort. Andrea S.Boyles, Oakland: University of California Press, 2015, 268 pp.

Book Review | Race, Place, and Suburban Policing: Too Close for Comfort

Book Review | Race, Place, and Suburban Policing: Too Close for Comfort