Historical Snapshots Research Articles

Visualising patient flow.

We describe the development of a method to distil routinely collected clinical data into patient flow information to aid hospital bed management. Using data from state-wide emergency department and inpatient clinical information systems, a user-friendly interface was developed to visualise patient flow conditions for a particular hospital. The historical snapshots employ a variable time scale, allowing flow to be visualised across a day, week, month or year. Flow information includes occupancy, arrival and departure rates, length-of-stay and access block observations, which can be filtered by age, departure status, diagnosis, elective status, triage category, and admission unit. The tool may be helpful in supporting hospital bed managers in their daily decision making.

Ifhaving child-centred policy is the answer, what's the question?

This paper argues that having child-centred policy is not the straightforward matter it might seem. After presenting some historical snap-shots to demonstrate that children have frequently been the victims of policies aimed at addressing needs or perceived problems which are not child-centred, the author argues that contemporary policies frequently leave out significant variables, and the impact of culture is one of these. Focusing on the Australian-Asian region, the author notes the dominance of family and community over individual rights in many countries in our region. The likelihood is that family and children's services in Asian countries will conceptualise services to families and children in non-western ways, in spite of the fact that the principles underlying child protection which they espouse are frequently western in orientation (that is, they have a child's rights focus). Using these insights as a lens through which to look back at Australia, it is possible to see Australia as having ‘cultural’ traditions which also value family and community over the rights of children. It is argued in conclusion that future policy needs to take such realities more firmly into account, and given the increasing presence of and influence of cultures with a family-centred focus in Australia, greater attention also is needed to our international context.

Russian hegemonies: historical snapshots, regional security and changing forms of Russia's role in the post-Soviet region

The broad purpose of this study is to exemplify changing forms of hierarchical rule manifested in post-Soviet Russia's varying provision of regional security related to military conflicts. Russia's regional role varies in form and in thickness. Although the endurance of Soviet legacy can be observed in four major areas (stabilising borders, economic interest, unification of fellow Slavs and fluctuating alliances), there is enough variance to suggest that over-deterministic theories about Russian regional foreign policy do not account for conjunctural factors that can contribute to change. Instead, we can view the Soviet and post-Soviet regional dynamic as one that is on a fluid anarchy–hierarchy spectrum.

Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle

This column discusses the 40th anniversary of Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle and the Situationist International group. The author juxtaposes a few brief historical snapshots with definitions of key terms and paraphrases some important ideas and events. The author also refers to selected texts and Internet sources by and about Debord and the situationists. Readers who subsequently engage with these texts and Internet sources should be able to discover the relevance of Debord and the SI to current discourses of critical media literacy.

Why Do We Drink? A History and Philosophy of Heredity and Alcoholism

During the 20th century, many researchers studying heredity sought to apply their findings in the arena of mental health and human (mis)behavior. Many of these have examined, from the perspective of heredity and genetics, the desire to drink and its consequences. In this paper, the author examines hereditary explanations of alcoholism in two historical snapshots: the early decades of the 20th century and in the 1990s. Two things come to light. First is the persistence of an“entrepreneurial spirit,”and second is a remarkable failure to take into account the many-leveled heterogeneity in causes of alcoholism. The author describes some sources of this heterogeneity and showshow epistemological problems that arise from it suggest the failure of genetic accounts to consider the social dimensions of disease classification, observation, and diagnosis that form the very basis of the designation “alcoholic.”

A Season in the Sun (review)

Reviewed by: A Season in the Sun Paul D. Staudohar (bio) Roger Kahn . A Season in the Sun. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000. 191 pp. Paper, $12.95. The phrase "boys of summer," first used by poet Dylan Thomas, was adopted by Roger Kahn as the title for his best-known book, in which he placed his literary stamp indelibly on the Brooklyn Dodgers of Pee Wee, Campanella, and the Duke. The book reviewed here, A Season in the Sun, was originally written six years after Kahn's masterpiece. It contains two addendum, one an epilogue and the other a current afterword by the author. Timing is important because 1976, which is Kahn's "season," was quite different from today, and few of the characters in the book are still active in the game. Free agency was just coming into existence, and baseball remained under the yoke of the reserve clause, which prevented players from moving voluntarily to other clubs. Nonetheless, the book has a timeless quality and, if nothing else, provides some interesting historical snapshots of the game at the end of an era. Coverage ranges from dusty sandlots in Puerto Rico to a small college campus in Arkansas, from Double A ball in Massachusetts to the Major Leagues. Kahn is a natural storyteller with a good eye for the ingredients of an appealing yarn. Fans of a certain age will remember Wally Moon, who came up with the St. Louis Cardinals to replace the legendary Enos Slaughter and later starred for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The author spent a few days with Moon, who was then coaching at John Brown University in Siloam, Arkansas. Kahn's charming anecdotes about Moon, his team, and the area give the reader a sense of having participated in the visit. The reader also vicariously shares Kahn's hanging out with Stan Musial, Johnny Bench, Walter O'Malley, Bill Veeck, and Early Wynn, plus some less recognizable people, such as John Felske, Artie Wilson, and Pat McKernan. In each case, the vignettes convey a graphic realism that extends beyond baseball to reveal the satisfactions and frustrations of everyday life. Although the book succeeds as a nostalgic trip back to 1976, it lacks the magic of The Boys of Summer. A Season in the Sun is a far shorter book, and its fragments don't fit together as well; the era isn't as attractive (at least to me), and the writing, while certainly good, is not as compelling. Kudos to the University of Nebraska Press for reissuing the books of Roger [End Page 115] Kahn, Mark Harris, and others in high-quality paperback at prices that do not strain the budget. [End Page 116] Paul D. Staudohar Paul D. Staudohar is a professor of business administration at California State University, Hayward. He is the author of Playing for Dollars: Labor Relations and the Sports Business (Cornell University Press, 1996), and the editor of Baseball's Best Short Stories (Chicago Review Press, 1995), and Diamond Mines: Baseball and Labor (Syracuse University Press, 2000). Copyright © 2000 University of Nebraska Press

Historical Snapshots of Ministry: The Changing Language of Case Studies

Historical Snapshots of Ministry: The Changing Language of Case Studies