Hard Choice Research Articles

If You Let Me Play: Young Girls’ Insider-Other Narratives of Sport

In this article we explore the narratives that 10 White, middle-class female athletes, ages 11–14, (co)produce around their sport experiences. Through interviews, observation, and participant observation, we argue that, consistent with the advertising rhetoric of such multinational corporations as Nike, these girls all advocate hard work, choice, opportunity, and personal responsibility in playing sport and in challenging gender discrimination. We argue this reflects the girls’ subscription to elements of liberal feminism and to their frequent positioning as “insider-others”—that is, outside the dominant gender norms of sport but simultaneously the beneficiaries of Whiteness and middle-class norms. In contrast to Nike and liberal feminists who frequently argue for equal opportunity in sport, these girls’ insider-other narratives suggest the need for critical interrogation of the multiple meanings and effects of sport experiences.

De Gramont schedule is a very low toxic and effective regimen in low performance status patients affected by metastatic gastric cancer: preliminary report.

Treatment of patients affected by metastatic gastric cancer with low performance status (PS) is a very hard choice. It is mandatory to define a very well-tolerated schedule to be employed in these subgroup of patients. From June 1999 to December 2001, 21 patients (pts) affected by metastatic gastric cancer with low performance status (> or = 2 ECOG) were treated with bimonthly "de Gramont" schedule. Treatment was planned to perform 6 courses of chemotherapy for each patient plus other 2-4 if a response had been documented. A total of 161 courses of de Gramont schedule was administered to the 21 pts enrolled. We observed 8 PD (38%), 8 SD (38%), 5 objective responses (24%--2 MR, 3 PR). Duration of objective responses (OR) was 5 months, 3 months for 3 PRs and 2 and 1 months for two MRs respectively. At time of observation (June 2002) median overall survival (OS) was 14 months, median survival from the starting de Gramont schedule was 8 months. Toxicity was very mild: grade 3 leukopenia in 1 pt, grade 1-2 anemia and piastrinopenia in 3 pts, grade 1-2 nausea vomiting in 5 pts, grade 1 diarrhea in 4 pts, grade 3 mucositis in 2 pts. No other side effect was renowned. PS ameliorated in 12 (57%) pts, even if a major response was not noted. de Gramont schedule can be safely and effectively employed in metastatic gastric cancer pts with very low performance status.

State of the Profession: A Hard Choice about Tenure

State of the Profession: A Hard Choice about Tenure

Children are hard choice for HIV positive women

Children are hard choice for HIV positive women

36] Kinetic models and simulation: Practical approaches and implementation notes

Publisher Summary Kinetic models of ion channel gating are used to predict behavior of channels without actually performing the measurements. Some of the parameters simulated by the models may be conventionally measurable quantities, such as whole-cell currents, or they may even be parameters that are not routinely measurable, such as gating charge movements associated with a single channel. Because of their desired abilities to predict the channel behavior, kinetic models of ion channel gating have several different uses. Quantitative kinetic models provide insights into the underlying physical molecular processes involved in ion channel gating. Kinetic models allow quantitative comparisons of various conceptual models of ion channel gating by providing experimentally testable predictions. Simulation using kinetic models is also necessary to verify new analysis methods. Models implemented on computers are valuable as a teaching tool in ion channel biophysics. Simulations using ion channel kinetic models critically test our understanding of the way ion channel proteins function. Many investigators face a hard choice between being scientists and software engineers. Even though the computational hardware has improved dramatically in recent years, much of the electrophysiological software in use today still has its roots in the days of 8-bit processors. A modern multipurpose scientific computing environment, capable of both text-based and icon-based operations, would benefit the field tremendously.

Risky Career Move Pays Off

I knew it was a risky career move, and my graduate adviser thought I was a little crazy. But a postdoc in Japan seemed like an interesting cultural experience and a chance to explore some unique career opportunities. Having majored in Japanese as an undergraduate at Earlham College in Indiana, I felt comfortable with the language. And two grants, both funded primarily by the Japanese government, paid my way. The initial problem was finding a good lab. I spent a lot of time searching scientific journals and writing to prospective hosts. My hard work paid off with an invitation to Tadatsugu Taniguchi's lab at Osaka University, internationally renowned for its work in studying the cellular responses to cytokines. ![Figure][1] Photo credit: Eiji Miyazawa/Black Star When I arrived in March 1991, the 20 or so members of the lab made a genuine effort to welcome me. However, because I was the only postdoc—of any nationality—it took time to fit in. Much of the research was organized in groups directed by the three assistant professors, and for several months I felt I wasn't consulted about research, nor given any real responsibilities. Fortunately, as the sole U.S.-born scientist in the lab, I was consulted extensively by colleagues writing up their results for publication. This interaction sparked ideas that led to new research, of which I became a part. Five years after I arrived in Japan, I'm surprised to find myself still here. I had intended to return to the United States after finishing my postdoc, but a generous 3-year grant from a government-funded research corporation has enabled me to pursue independent research into the regulation of cell growth by transcription factors. I'll face another hard choice next fall, when my grant expires. Although Japanese universities and companies seem eager to internationalize their staffs at the entry level, it is not clear if foreign scientists will be promoted to positions of genuine responsibility. Regardless of what I decide to do, I'm glad I came. Living in a different culture and working in a world-class lab, I've learned that doing research in Tokyo isn't much different from working anywhere else. [1]: pending:yes

Changing Views: Chinese Perceptions of the United States–South Korea Alliance

Although China appears to have quietly accepted the alliance between the United States and South Korea, Beijing may face a hard policy choice should Korea unite and remain a US ally.

Tibetan succession

China puts up its rural candidate for Panchen Lama and faces Tibet's religious leaders — with a hard choice

Democratization in Namibia: Soft state, hard choice

Independent Namibia’s struggles to create a functioning democracy have made great strides, including a successful regional and local election process in 1992. Soft state problems such as external dependence, weak state capacity for development, and penetration of the state by particularistic class and ethnic interests threaten at independence. In Namibia’s case the economic dominance and potential for military intervention by South Africa restricted the options available to the new SWAPO government. The intimidation and sabotage in the UNSCR 435 election left the government fragmented and weakened its effectiveness in redressing past injustices. Despite adopting moderate economic and progressive social policies, the rewards from trade and investment have been minimal. The independence honeymoon and modest improvements have bought the government time, but a soft state situation limits success and has created openings for new class formations.

The Beijing rules: Contradictions, ambiguities and controls

China forever captures the imagination, be it as a beacon of social revolution or a market of inexhaustible opportunities. As we plan for this country of 1.2 billion people, are we relentlessly optimistic, pessimistic, or realistic? Sometimes it's a hard choice.

Confronting the Past: Justice After Transitions

Confronting the PastJustice After Transitions Jamal Benomar (bio) In many ways, human rights have been at the center of the democratic revolution that has touched every part of the globe over the last few years. Although the democratic tide has run very strong, emerging democracies still face formidable challenges in establishing the rule of law and creating solid guarantees for human rights. These democratic governments often are successors to dictatorial regimes that practiced such gross human rights abuses as extrajudicial executions, "disappearances," systematic torture, and secret detention. The problem facing these newly democratized countries is how to treat those who were guilty of perpetrating such abuses under the old regime. The difficulty lies in achieving a just solution that is acceptable to a longsuffering population and that steers clear of both witchhunts and whitewashes. However poignant the victims' demand for justice might be, decision makers must still weigh the risks of starting a process that could frighten the military or other forces linked to the old order enough to jeopardize the democratic transition. The issue is an old one that haunts all emerging democracies. In January 1793, the French parliament spent three agonizing days debating how to punish King Louis XVI before deciding to send him to the guillotine. Two hundred years later, similar debates continue to rage in many places. The death penalty has been abolished in almost all democracies, but democratic leaders still agonize as the French did at the end of the eighteenth century over what to do with their former rulers. As we will see from surveying the experiences of various governments who have dealt with this issue, there are no easy answers. [End Page 3] In countries such as Haiti and the Philippines, a de facto impunity has been institutionalized; human rights violations mount as members of the security forces come to believe that they are immune from prosecution. In other countries like Chile, the transition to democratic rule has been marred by the military's continuing grip on power and the resulting amnesty laws. Situations like this can cause rifts between newly elected governments and a citizenry still outraged at those responsible for past acts of official terrorism and repression. Elected leaders must sometimes make a hard choice between the survival of the democratization process and the principles on which they had based their campaign for a return to democratic rule. Retribution versus Reconciliation Advocates of retribution believe that failure to punish the perpetrators of past human rights abuses automatically condones these atrocious crimes, and therefore both constitutes an invitation to their repetition and undermines the rule of law. Proponents of this view, who tend to be human rights activists, find sufficient arguments for their stance in key principles of international law.1 They also argue that focusing world attention on prosecutions of human rights violators may help to deter the forces of the old regime from attempting to retake power through violence. By highlighting and condemning the repressive policies of the old regime, the new government can help establish real standards for the protection of human rights. The prosecution of violators will also provide an opportunity to rid the armed and security forces of some of their worst elements. Perhaps most importantly, such an exercise can help to heal the wounds of those who suffered from official abuse, restore the lost sense of national dignity, and establish faith in the new government as it attempts to build a democratic system based on respect for rights and the rule of law. Punishing perpetrators of past abuses can thus serve not only as a symbolic break with the ugly legacy of authoritarian rule, but also as an affirmation of adherence to new democratic values. Failure to prosecute violators, the argument goes, could seriously undermine the legitimacy of a democratically elected government and generate widespread feelings of cynicism toward the new regime. Advocates of punishment for former military rulers also contend that any concession to the latters' demand for impunity opens the door to a more systematic build-up of military control over the new institutions and gives the military a potential veto over the new government's policies. On the other side, advocates of...

Styles and principles in archaeological publication: Chester reviewed

Big urban excavation campaigns are not easy to publish. The quantity of primary data is overwhelming and, even when only the essentials are published, a hard choice has to be made. By period? By area? By theme? In whole volumes? Or slice-by-slice in instalments or ‘fascicles’? The issues are here explored in reviewing a batch of publications from Chester, in the series, ‘Excavations at Chester: Grosvenor Museum Archaeological Excavation and Survey Reports’.

The Abuse Problem

The sexual abuse of children is not new, it's newly uncovered. The authorities are receiving more complaints. The media is showing interest. The public is becoming aware. Its details are not pretty, they can repel and disgust and bring on demands for retribution. The numbers are large, Patterns are beginning to take shape showing who the victims are and who the abusers, and why. The impact is becoming known and it is huge. What one father does to his three children can grow in geometric proportions as those children each do the same to their three children, and these to theirs. The impact on crime is just becoming known: sexually abused children are prone to criminal activities and may well be a major cause of crime. The impact of false reports is also becoming know. The Salem witch trials are always before us. The possibilities of false accusation out of revenge or on a dare, or in a pique are not new, accusations satisfy a child's need for attention and status, and other children may see the possibilities for themselves.But where the sexual abuse is within the family, a hard choice must be made: to punish the offender heavily or to work with the abuser and the family to prevent future abuse. You cannot do both.It appears that the courts can bring highly beneficial results: they can provide comfort for a child victim, but more, they can provide treatment for that child and reduce the pain and guilt and fears and for that child break the cycle of abused children abusing their children who abuse their children who abuse. The courts can provide comfort for a family, but more, they can provide rehabilitation for most families where there has been abuse, restoring their strength and security. The courts can prosecute the abuser and punish him, but more, they can instead often provide rehabilitation for the abuser which is a surer way of preventing a recurrence than the disgrace of a prison.Much needs to be discovered. But from what is now know, the courts and the police and the social agencies need to be sensitized to the problem in all of its aspects. The opportunities for positive accomplishment are great.

Art and Society in the Gifts of Montaigne

I SUSPECT THAT ON THIS PANEL I am emblematic of Society, and I feel as uneasy about that as an honest woman in her best pearls mistaken for a courtesan. I am not the Wicked World come to taint History, but just a particular historian working on sixteenth-century processes of and cultural exchange. You will notice that I say social and for it is hard for me to distinguish absolutely between parlements, plows, mortality rates, and the sexual division of labor on the one hand, and understandings and ideas on the other, whether they be found in royal decrees, woodcuts, or poems. The sixteenth century writes after all of the art of agriculture, the art of metallurgy, the art of war, and the art of the prince. Thus to our question Art or society: must we choose? I'd answer in a double way, no then yes, each answer referring to a different stage in the trajectory of our research and writing. It seems to me that while we are at the figuring-out stage we should reach for whatever evidence is relevant to our task: the art historian might find it quite far from the workshop, the book of myths, and the patron, while the historian might find it by looking at pictures rather than by confining herself to the usual contracts of sale, parish records, and popular tracts. But then finally we do choose in the sense that we each want to explain something different: the art historian, a picture or sculpture, an artist's oeuvre, a visual genre or its impact; the historian, a set of events, cultural, economic, or political connections, a genre or an actor in one of these settings. If an art historian and I are talking about gifts, he will want to end up interpreting Correggio's Three Graces and Jean Mignon's Judgment of Paris, and I sixteenthcentury rules for reciprocity and quarrels about the king's favor.' I may see these artistic and events as more firmly part of the same universe of discourse than does Michael Baxandall (as you will shortly read), but I agree with him that we start and end in different places. Along the way there can be much crossover, however, and the critical issue is that it be done in a way that advances understanding. The hard choice is not between and Society, but between the different modes for relating them. The art historian can move through the narrow channel of the patron's wishes or can open out to the wider range of concerns condensed in a picture. One can conceive of a body of painting as the passive reflection of the values and moods of, say, an urban oligarchy or an Italianizing court, or as an active engagement between them and the perception and images of artists. Rather than just talking about

The Role of International Firms in Latin American Automotive Industry

The desire of Latin American governments to promote social, economic, and political development can create the necessity for hard choice between sometimes conflicting subaspects of the general developmental goal. An illustration of this is the conflict between the objective of promoting a qualitative and quantitative change in the goods and services produced by their national economies, and the desire for increased national independence defined as the attainment of complete autonomy of decision-making with respect to each economic sector. Such conflict stems from the technological implications of producing “modern” goods and services. To produce these goods efficiently it is imperative that the basic technical relationships of their production not be violated. This often implies heavy capital investment in product development, production process development, and the establishment of extensive distribution networks. The key prerequisite, however, is the organizational ability to develop, accumulate and coordinate the myriad physical and human resources necessary for producing the desired final output. It is often the case that a very high production volume is often required to permit the effective utilization of these technical and organizational inputs in order to minimize the unit costs of final output.© 1972 JIBS. Journal of International Business Studies (1972) 3, 51–68

Climate Change, Population, and Justice: Hard Choices to Avoid Tragic Choices

However far we are from either in practice, basic global and intergenerational justice, including climate change mitigation, are taken to be theoretically compatible. If population grows as predicted, this could cease to be the case. This paper asks whether that tragic legacy can now be averted without hard or even tragic choices on population policy. Current generations must navigate between: a high-stakes gamble on undeveloped technology; violating human rights; demanding unbearable sacrifices of the already badly off; institutional unfairness across adults; institutional unfairness across children; failing to protect children’s basic interests; and threatening the autonomy of the family. We are not yet forced to choose between bequeathing a tragic choice and making one, by adopting basically unjust measures. However, even the remaining options present a morally hard choice. The fact we face it is yet another damning indictment on the combined actions and collective failures of the global elite.