Official Admission Research Articles

“We wish we had the option”: a qualitative study of women’s perspectives and experiences with contraception in a provincial prison in Ontario, Canada

BackgroundEvidence suggests that women who are incarcerated desire access to contraception while incarcerated, and that this need is not currently being met. Our objective in this study was to explore the perspectives and experiences of women in prisons regarding contraception and contraception access using data from focus groups with women in a provincial prison. We analyzed focus group data collected in a provincial prison in Ontario, Canada using content analysis and a constructivist epistemology.ResultsWe conducted three focus groups, each approximately one hour in length. Discussions revolved around (1) knowledge and decision making about contraception, (2) accessing contraception, and (3) ideas for increasing access to contraception in the prison setting. Decision making about contraception was mainly related to concerns about side effects, consistent access to care, impacts on future fertility, and autonomy around decision-making. Participants discussed a wide range of experiences with contraception. Ideas for increasing access to contraception included information sessions, inclusion of discussions about contraception as a component of admission and release planning, and time spent in prison as a crucial juncture for decision-making about contraception.ConclusionsMore qualitative research is needed to better understand the needs of women in prisons related to contraception. The findings of this study suggest that programs should focus on consistency and continuity of access to care, education opportunities, and integration of discussions about contraception into official admission and release procedures.

When a dream comes true: birth of the African Crystallographic Association (AfCA)

This paper summarizes brief perspectives on the historic process of establishing an African Crystallographic Association (AfCA) and includes representative references. It covers activities within four arbitrarily selected, approximate time slots, i.e., 1890s–1999, 2000–2013, 2014–2019 and 2020–2023. A genuine attempt is made to include appropriate role players, organizations and accompanying events within these periods. It concludes with the official admission of AfCA as the fifth Regional Associate of the IUCr at the 26th Congress and General Assembly of the IUCr in Melbourne, Australia in 2023.

Current Pediatric Tertiary Care Practices Following Adenotonsillectomy: An Update.

Adenotonsillectomy is a common procedure performed in children, and the practice patterns at academic centers have been evolving with the publication of updated societal guidelines. In this study, we assess perioperative practice patterns at tertiary care children's hospitals for children undergoing adenotonsillectomy. A cross-sectional 18-question survey distributed in July of 2022 recruited responses through August 25, 2022. The division chiefs of 70 pediatric otolaryngology groups at tertiary care children's hospitals across the United States and Canada were surveyed. Division chiefs submitted survey responses on behalf of the group practice patterns for children undergoing adenotonsillectomy. The main measure was survey responses from the division chiefs of pediatric otolaryngology reporting group practice. The survey response rate was 46%. Eighty-eight percent of groups reported an official adenotonsillectomy admission policy. Commonly reported admission criteria included age (93%) and obesity (59%). Eighty-eight percent of groups defined severe obstructive sleep apnea as apnea-hypopnea index ≥10. Only 41% of groups required a child to be observed sleeping on room air prior to ambulatory discharge. Ninety-seven percent of groups reported routinely obtaining preoperative polysomnography in a variety of clinical settings. Many children's hospitals report an official admission policy following adenotonsillectomy. Despite a decade passing since the initial publication of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery clinical practice guidelines, there remains great variability in the practice patterns for both preoperative polysomnography and postoperative monitoring and admission. These results highlight an opportunity for an improved unified approach to perioperative pediatric adenotonsillectomy practice. 5 Laryngoscope, 134:2931-2936, 2024.

TRANSFORMATION OF THE JAPANESE MEMORY POLITIC IN THE II HALF OF XX-XXI CENTURIES IN THE CONTEXTS OF PAN-ASIAN AMBITIONS

The article is devoted to the analyses of the role of Pan-Asianism in the formation of the Japanese policy of memory in the period after World War II. Since the Meiji period, Japan has had a dual relationship with Asia: on the one hand, as a region of high spirituality and culture, on the other, as a region lagging behind the West or Europe in terms of economic, political and technological development. In the 1950s, when Japan was experiencing a period of economic crisis caused by the defeat of the war, the occupation regime, and the formation of military memory, we see a trend of Japanese intellectuals classifying Japan as "Asia". If during World War I Pan-Asian ideology was used to correct imperial ideology and colonialism, modern Pan-Asian concepts tend to create a union of Southeast Asian countries for support and mutual development. The further development of these sentiments depends on the implementation of existing ASEAN projects and the specifics of the adopted political and economic strategies of the Asian Commonwealth.
 The articles provide the first comprehensive analysis of the constitutional documents, editions and speeches of Japanese politicians, which show the transformations of Japanese memory politic. The main terms of development of this policy, which consist in patient orientation and gradual formation of new Asianism, are separated. Discussions around Yasukuni-jinja and Japanese history textbooks as examples of these trends in Japanese politics are analyzed.
 Provided that Japan's pacifist position is enshrined in the constitution, there are conservative and nationalist views on the Japanese war in Asia. As part of Japan's policy of remembrance, Pan-Asianism fosters an ambivalent attitude toward Japanese expansion in Asia. Subject to Japan's official admission of guilt to neighbouring countries, condemnation of expansionism and colonialism, and the transition to pacifism, there are conservative and nationalist views on the Japanese war in Asia. Within the conservative position, Japanese guilt is questioned and the need to recognize the heroic participants in the war is proclaimed, the "Great East Asian War" is interpreted as a war of self-defence, or the correctness and truth of Pan-Asian ideals of Taisho and Showa Japan are recognized.

NEU-chatbot: Chatbot for admission of National Economics University

In the last few years, intelligent chatbot systems have been prevalent in various application fields, especially in education. Therefore, the demand for such online consulting services like chatbots is getting higher respectively. However, most communications between potential students and universities are performed manually, which is very time-consuming procedure, becoming a burden on the head of admissions. In this paper, we introduce an AI-based chatbot where students can instantly get daily updates of curriculum, admission for new students, tuition fees, IELTS writing task II score, etc. Our chatbot was developed by Deep Learning models, which are already integrated into the Rasa framework. We also proposed a rational pipeline for Vietnamese chatbots with our data preprocessing to obtain optimal accuracy and to avoid the overfitting of the model. Our model can detect more than fifty types of questions from users' input with an accuracy of 97.1% on test set. The chatbot was applied for National Economics University's official admission Fanpage on the Facebook platform, which is the most famous social network in Vietnam. This research shows detailed guidelines on how to build an AI chatbot from scratch, and the techniques we used, which can be applied to any language globally.

Genetic Parameters of Linear Type Traits Scored at 30 Months in Italian Heavy Draught Horse.

Simple SummaryCurrent selection in the Italian Heavy Draught Horse (IHDH) is based on linear type traits scored on foals, but the studbook admission of candidate mares and stallion requires an additional evaluation of linear type traits at adult age, about 30 months. The study intended estimating the genetic parameters of these traits to evaluate the possible shift from type scored on foals to adult. Results showed a moderate heritability of traits, and a positive genetic trend was observed in the traits of selection interest. This suggests the feasibility of using linear type traits scored at adult age for genetic improvement of the IHDH.The Italian Heavy Draught Horse (IHDH) breed is selected based on linear type traits (LTT) evaluated at young age on six-month-old foals. However, animals retained for reproduction are scored also at adults age (about 30 months), and the evaluation is mandatory for the final official admission to the stud book of candidate mares and stallions. This study aimed to estimate genetic parameters of LTT scored at 30 months to consider if they are feasible for selection instead of using foal data and to reduce costs of selection plan. Data included 19 years of evaluation for 14 LTT and an overall score. Analyses were performed on 5835 females and 856 males via animal model. The heritability ranged from 0.03 (upper line length) to 0.40 (frame size). Traits of selection interest (head size and expression; temperament/movement; fleshiness; fore diameter; rear diameter) reported heritability between 0.21 and 0.31. High genetic correlations were obtained among traits related to muscular development, 0.73 on average. Positive genetic trends were found in traits of selection interest, already selected from foal type trait data. Accounting for genetic parameters estimated in adult animals instead in foals is feasible in IHDH selection.

Silence from the brands: message control, brand ambassadorship, and the public interest

PurposeInternal aspects of public sector branding have received limited attention in existing research. The purpose is to examine, firstly, how public managers experience and handle the tension between empowering employees to be dedicated brand ambassadors while at the same time regulating their voice, and secondly, to outline some implications of aligning employee voice with the organization's brand, especially for the public interest.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on two sources of data. The first includes official admission statistics for high schools in Oslo, Norway, for 2018/2019. Schools in Oslo, a city which has introduced a competitive secondary education market, fall into three admission levels based on points necessary for entry. The second source is semi-structured interviews with principals in 15 high schools on different admission levels.FindingsMost of the principals were concerned about how marketization of the high schools leads to a skewed distribution of students and an increasing divide between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ schools, but signalled market adaptation through their handling of employee voice. Due to reputation and branding concerns in the competition for students and funding, voice restrictions, not brand ambassadorship, was the preferred strategy to ensure brand alignment. The consequence of this strategy, the paper argues, is public silence at the expense of the public interest.Research limitations/implicationsNot interviewing teachers or middle managers may be seen as a limitation, but principals were chosen as they are the main decision makers and strategists in high schools. Using a qualitative research design may be a limitation, but this design was chosen as it seems appropriate in order to uncover the school executives' perceptions, experiences and thoughts.Practical implicationsSelling the brand to employees and enabling them to further sell it to external stakeholders is an enticing ideal but perhaps less possible to implement in reality for public sector organizations facing strong market mechanisms because the concern for the brand image takes precedence. Public sector managers should exercise care when managing employee voice so as to not negatively influence employees’ commitment to the brand. They should also be aware of the implications of voice restrictions for the public interest. Public silence may cause a less informed public with limited possibilities to make informed school choices and knowing how money is spent.Originality/valueThe present study is among the first to explore internal aspects of public sector branding. Researching the position of employee voice in brand alignment strategies is a novel contribution. The study is unique in its focus on the implications of branding for the public interest.

Human-Tiger (Re)Negotiations

Abstract This case study explores the reintroduction of tigers to Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, India, highlighting how the (re)negotiation between people and tigers is a struggle rooted in place and territory, with boundaries co-constructed by human and nonhuman actors. While the reintroduction came only three years after the official admission of complete species loss, tigers as a dominant force on the landscape were absent for more than a decade in some places. Accordingly, the people of Sariska see the reintroduced tigers as foreigners without place-knowledge and as disturbers of the interspecies boundaries created by the interactions of Sariska’s original tigers and many generations of local people. This study speaks to conservation sciences and animal geography to contribute to the scientific knowledge of the human dimensions of rewilding, still a nascent area of restoration ecology specifically in the case of apex predators in the global south.

Fractured Femininity and "Fellow Feeling": Professional Identity in the Magazine of the London School of Medicine for Women, 1895–1914

After the official admission of women to the British medical profession in 1876, critics in popular and professional journals often depicted female physicians as being inept or dangerous. Until 1895, women doctors lacked a centralized print space where they could respond to such accusations. The founding of the Magazine of the London School of Medicine for Women provided women with a space in which to define their collective identity, even if these definitions were sometimes contradictory. As they crafted the magazine, the editors allowed for disagreement, which enabled contributors to articulate a variety of new and diverse subjectivities.

Current Pediatric Tertiary Care Admission Practices Following Adenotonsillectomy.

Pediatric adenotonsillectomy is a frequently performed procedure. Few studies have examined perioperative practice patterns for children undergoing adenotonsillectomy. To assess current group practice patterns associated with the perioperative care of children undergoing adenotonsillectomy for sleep-disordered breathing at tertiary care children's hospitals following the release of the 2011 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) clinical practice guidelines. A cross-sectional survey was distributed to the chiefs of 72 pediatric otolaryngology divisions at tertiary care children's hospitals in the United States and Canada from March 25 to April 16, 2014. Internet-based survey responses from the chiefs of pediatric otolaryngology at tertiary care children's hospitals in the United States and Canada, who responded regarding group, rather than individual, practices. Of the 72 surveys sent, 48 responses (67%) were received. Twenty-one respondents (44%) reported that their group has no official admission policy for children with sleep-disordered breathing. Seventy-three percent (29 of 40) reported using some measure of obesity as a criterion for postoperative admission. The AAO-HNS polysomnography criteria for severe obstructive sleep apnea were used by 40% of respondents (16 of 40) as admission criteria, whereas 15% (6 of 40) used the American Academy of Pediatrics criteria for severe obstructive sleep apnea. Seventy-three percent (29 of 40) reported requiring a child to be asleep while breathing room air without oxygen desaturation before discharge to home. An established minimum time for observation was reported by 43 of the respondents (90%). Institution size or volume of adenotonsillectomies performed did not affect the results. Many tertiary care children's hospitals in the United States do not have an official admission policy to guide adenotonsillectomy care. Even for institutions that do have an official admission policy, the policies are not universally aligned with the AAO-HNS clinical practice guidelines. These survey results demonstrate an opportunity to improve quality and safety regarding admission policy practice patterns after pediatric adenotonsillectomy.

Germany’s Genocide of the Herero: Kaiser Wilhelm II, His General, His Settlers, His Soldiers by Jeremy Sarkin (review)

Reviewed by: Germany’s Genocide of the Herero: Kaiser Wilhelm II, His General, His Settlers, His Soldiers by Jeremy Sarkin Henning Melber Germany’s Genocide of the Herero: Kaiser Wilhelm II, His General, His Settlers, His Soldiers. By Jeremy Sarkin. Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press, 2011. Pp. xi + 276. Cloth $80.00. ISBN 978-1919895475. The initial return of twenty skulls from Germany to Namibia in September and October 2011 recalled a dark chapter in the history of both countries. Descendants of the Herero and the Nama (as well as the Damara) brought back the remains of their forefathers killed during what they refer to as the Namibian-German war of 1904–1908. For them, this was an act of genocide committed by the German Schutztruppe, as the colonial army was euphemistically called. For German governments since then, this was a colonial war just like many others. While Germany has supported Namibia since independence with generous bilateral aid in explicit recognition of historical responsibility, it has never made an official admission of genocide or an apology. This contentious issue remains a political hot iron, with the Namibian government reluctant to support the demands for reparations advanced mainly by the Herero since Namibia’s independence in 1990. Jeremy Sarkin, a professor of law at the South African University of the Western Cape and an attorney in the United States and South Africa, represented the Herero in a hitherto unsuccessful reparation claim initiated in an American court against Germany, and has already published several articles as well as a monograph in support of that claim. Controversy about the extent to which the charge of genocide is indeed supported by historical evidence fiercely resurfaced in Germany after a public discussion in 2004 marking the centennial anniversary of the outbreak of the war—and even more so in Namibia following the repatriation of the skulls. Many more remains are still expected to be discovered in the basements of German universities, where they were used a century ago to measure alleged biological differences. For this purpose, female Herero and Nama prisoners of war held in concentration camps had to clean the decapitated heads, which were then transported to Germany for so-called research purposes in the field of human anthropology. Not surprisingly, this very emotional issue has resurfaced with unabated verve and keeps the German parliament busy in an exchange between government and opposition about how best to deal with this history. A considerable number among the local group of German speakers in Namibia (and, most likely, in Germany, too) vigorously maintain a culture of denial and object to any suggestion that German colonial practices were in any way morally despicable, given the Zeitgeist. Sarkin’s book presents little new evidence regarding the conflicts that took place in the German colony then called South West Africa. He explores the extent to which the German emperor Wilhelm II knowingly endorsed and supported the extermination order given by the commander of the colonial troops, General Lothar von Trotha. In this way, Sarkin tries to substantiate the claim that von Trotha’s order was not the [End Page 200] result of an individual maniacal mind spinning out of control but rather a conscious and deliberate decision approved by German army headquarters in Berlin with the knowledge of the highest levels of military command and government. After presenting an etiology of genocide in the first chapter, and after placing the Herero genocide of 1904–1908 into the overall context of violent German colonial practices in the second, Sarkin’s third and main chapter seeks to implicate the German Kaiser directly in the decision to “exterminate the brutes”—a slogan the emperor had coined in his infamous “Hun speech” (Hunnenrede) that led to the dispatching of soldiers to northern China to suppress mercilessly the insurrection of 1901. Sarkin’s arguments are largely based on speculation. They focus mainly on the personality and mindset of the emperor as well as on his general role in the power and decision-making structures of imperial Germany. While all of this supports the idea that it is not too far-fetched to suggest that he might have been directly implicated by personally...

Re-cinema: Hauntology of 1968

Re-cinema: Hauntology of 1968 Samuel Steinberg (bio) On 2 October 1968, only ten days before Mexico City was to host the Summer Olympics, military and paramilitary forces opened fire on several thousand participants in the Mexican student-popular movement assembled at the Nonoalco-Tlatelolco apartments, killing a still-uncounted number of people. Because the movement did not fizzle out—or, more cynically, because it did not live long enough to betray itself—2 October 1968 marks both a tragic act of state-sponsored terror and a moment of unrealized possibility for the birth of a new world. This possibility lives on in the refusal to mourn in advance of the official admission of what happened, in advance of the tallying of the dead. From the very beginning of his 1991 memoir on 1968, the activist and detective novelist Paco Ignacio Taibo II intimates that such a settling of accounts forms the both impossible and necessary demand that organizes the legacy of 1968. Early in the memoir, Taibo offers a list of questions regarding the historical record, a list that concerns not merely discrepancies of fact, but the powerful irruption of the very secret that the narration of 1968 has been unable to disclose. Taibo writes, “Where did they throw our dead? Where did they toss our dead? Where, for fuck’s sake, did they throw our dead?”1 Here Taibo refers to the material body of the movement’s spirit, gone missing in some hidden crypt (in the ocean’s depths, it is sometimes said), another secret archive yet to be divulged. The desire for such (impossible) disclosure organizes the duration of the movement, the persistence of its specters. Indeed, [End Page 3] toward the end of the memoir, in a final chapter “In Which We Return to the Idea of Ghosts and Their Persistence in Time,” Taibo speaks of 1968’s peculiar, unexpected duration—how 123 days of summertime rebellion became the model for “popular resistance” for more than twenty years.2 For, even so many years later, in the now of Taibo’s narration, the remaining militants of 1968 continue to see one another in encounters that sometimes inspire hope and sometimes recall defeat. Thus Taibo concludes the memoir: But then there are days when I see myself and don’t recognize myself. Bad times, when the night prolongs a rainy day, when sleep won’t come, and I wrestle vainly with the computer keyboard. I realize then that we seem doomed to be ghosts of ’68. Well, what’s so bad about that? I ask myself: better to be Draculas of resistance than PRI-ist monsters of Frankenstein. And then the keys produce graceless sparks, weak flares, memories that are sometimes painful but most of the time raise a slight smile; and I long for that old spirit of laughter; I mourn, growing fearful of the dark, for an intensity now lost, for that feeling of immortality, for that other me of that never-ending year.3 Taibo wishes to be a ghost, a specter, but also a Count Dracula: undead, immortal, lost in the interminability of a year. But what of those Frankenstein’s monsters? What of the monstrous creations of the mad scientists (or technocrats) against whom, according to Taibo, the interminability of the year must be protected? In other words, what is the end of this duration against which Taibo—in 1991—is at pains to protect the legacy of 1968? Until the late 1980s, Tlatelolco and 1968 had been represented almost exclusively through photojournalism and journalistic or testimonial writing.4 With the production of Rojo amanecer (Red Dawn) in 1989, Jorge Fons’s low-budget, independently produced, and once-banned fictionalized reenactment of the massacre, the representation of Tlatelolco gives way to moving images.5 For readers unfamiliar with the work, Fons’s film takes place entirely within the walls of the Chihuahua building of the Tlatelolco apartments, which faces the Plaza de las Tres Culturas (Plaza of the Three Cultures). It “recounts” the story of 2 October from one morning to the next, as lived by a middle-class family. Apart from the two teenage sons, university students who are active...

Priam's Gold: the Full Story

“I have seen Priam's Treasure … I have held these vessels in my own hands.” This claim by Yevgenii Sidorov, the Russian Minister of Culture, in an interview in Literaturnaya Gazeta on 25th August 1993, was the first official admission that Priam's Treasure, thought lost since 1945, is now in Russia. It helps us to complete the story of this famous find, from the day of its discovery to the present. Research by David Traill, Reinhard Witte, and myself has clarified the earliest parts. Correspondence published by Joachim Herrmann, Gustav Mahr and Leslie Fitton helps illuminate the late 1870s and the 1880s. For the turbulent years of World War II we have an important publication by Mechthilde Unverzagt and intensive research by Klaus Goldmann. And finally from Russia comes documentation unearthed by Konstantin Akinsha and Grigorii Kozlov. The full story can now be told, and that is what I should like to attempt in this paper. There remains, however, the question, to whom does the Treasure properly belong?—to which I hope the outline of an answer will emerge.

A comparison of private and public methadone maintenance patients

A study was undertaken to examine claims that unsuitable individuals were being admitted into private methadone maintenance programs in New South Wales in late 1985, early 1986. A comparison was made of interview data collected by an independent team of researchers from 457 private and 91 public patients. Exhaustive attempts were made to identify individuals who failed current official admission criteria. While there were statistically and clinically significant differences between private and public methadone patients, there was no evidence that unsuitable individuals were being admitted into maintenance. The data and a review of the literature suggest that the rapid expansion of private sector methadone programs allowed suitable individuals more immediate and more equitable access to maintenance treatment.

The Short Stories of Thomas Hardy by Kristin Brady

book, original and provocative, but usually remote and abstract. One is grateful for the occasional flash of wit, for the occasional relief from analysis and speculative argument. a n n e m g w h ir / University of Calgary Kristin Brady, The Short Stories of Thomas Hardy (New York: St. Mar­ tin’s Press, 1982). xii, 235. $65.65 Hardy’s short stories have received scant attention from critics, and the reasons for this are not hard to discover. The recognition of Hardy by the critical and academic establishments as a major writer is relatively recent, though we may be forgiven for forgetting this when confronted with the spate of published Hardyana that the last few years have seen (bibliog­ raphies suggest that, among Victorian authors, he now stands second only to Dickens as an object of academic attention). It is only since about 1970 that the major novels have received their due, and even more recently that Hardy’s poetry has begun to come into its own. The short stories, like the minor novels (the subject of a study by Richard H. Taylor also published in 1982), have naturally had to wait their turn. Another reason is that critics, especially British critics, have never felt at ease with the short story as a genre: commenting on the critical neglect it has suffered, Ian Reid points out that it was not until the OED Supplement of 1933 that the term “short story” even gained official admission to the English vocabulary. As a result, some outstanding practitioners of this form — Kipling is a striking case in point — have been grossly undervalued. Most of Hardy’s critics have ignored his short stories or have dismissed them in an aside: J. I. M. Stewart, for instance, described them as “pot­ boilers,” and Irving Howe said that most of them are “not worth salvag­ ing.” Yet perhaps Kristin Brady exaggerates a shade in saying that “Until recently, Thomas Hardy’s short stories have been ignored by critics and readers alike.” Selections of the stories were published — and presumably bought and read — in 1966, 1970, and 1976, and all the volumes of stories were included in the New Wessex Edition, together with a half-volume devoted to the uncollected stories. It would be interesting to know, indeed, whether they have ever been out of print. So this may be one more instance of a significant gap between the bookshop or public library and the classroom or scholarly journal, between popular recognition and official, institutional acceptance. 97 Arguing that Hardy, who wrote short stories over a period of some thirtyfive years, took the form seriously, and that “many of the best short stories are products of his maturity,” Brady makes a convincing case for redressing the long critical neglect. As she shows, Hardy took considerable pains over the arrangement of the stories in his various collections — hardly the be­ haviour of an author cynically turning out reach-me-down commodities for the market. Her book contains four long chapters, the first three of which deal with Hardy’s first three collections: Wessex Tales, A Group of Noble Dames, and Life’s Little Ironies. One can readily think of other ways of organizing a book on this subject, but the decision is justified by her contention that these three volumes are “artistic wholes in their own right” and that each adds up to something more than the sum of the individual stories. The final chapter examines Hardy’s last collection, A Changed Man, which lacks a “coherent unifying principle” and “is uninteresting when considered as a volume,” together with seven uncollected stories, including the engaging “Old Mrs. Chundle,” which was never published in Hardy’s lifetime. With­ in this framework are analyses of individual stories which, if occasionally a trifle pedestrian, usually throw light on Hardy’s art and make telling crossreferences to his novels and poems. Brady’s consideration of a single story, “The Waiting Supper,” will serve to illustrate her method. In five pages she deals with the circumstances of publication (including differences between the periodical and volume ver­ sions) and the relationship of this story to others written at about the same time and...

Preadmission to a children's residential program

The prospect of a child's admission to a psychiatric residential unit represents a crisis for the entire family. It also represents a change in the equilibrium established within the present population of children and staff of the residential program. A preadmission program is a response to the needs of the family, needs of the child, and needs of the program. It is an attempt to minimize anxiety, clarify distortions, and provide a model for future therapeutic endeavors. The preadmission phase is the first of three separate and over-lapping phases of treatment that comprise a children's residential program, the other phases being the admission or inpatient phase, and the aftercare or follow-up phase. In practice one cannot distinctly separate these three treatment phases, just as one cannot separate diagnosis and treatment. However, for the purpose of this paper the preadmission phase will be examined alone. Preadmission begins following the referral and a tentative acceptance of the referral based on objective criteria such as vacancy, age range, appropriate sex for segregated programs, and any other specific requirements. In general, children who are being considered for psychiatric residential treatment should have had an outpatient experience prior to their referral. This follows a heirarchy of treatment approaches and supports the idea that almost regardless of pathology, a child should be in therapy within his current life situation to determine if therapeutic modification can occur before residential treatment is initiated. Preadmission ends with the official admission of the child to the treatment program, and the child being physically admitted to the facility.

The Uniate churches in Czechoslovakia

The position of the Uniate, or Eastern-rite Catholic, Church was among the issues which enjoyed a brief period of public discussion during the Prague Spring of 1968 in Czechoslovakia. The lifting of censorship under Dubcek was the only occasion when the Uniate question was raised in any East European country since the inauguration of the communist regimes. Suppressed since 1950, the existence of the Czechoslovak~ Uniate Church was renewed in 1968, and weathered the Soviet invasion to become perhaps the most remarkable surviving fruit of the suppressed democratic movement. In 1948 there was just one Uniate diocese, that of Presov in Slovakia. There were, however, 305,000 adherents massed in this one area, in contrast to the scattered and small Orthodox Church, numbering only 35,000 divided into three dioceses. On 28 April 1950 the union with Rome was abolished and all the Uniates of Czechoslovakia were declared Orthodox. With the outlawing of the Uniate Church, persecution of those who remained faithful to it began, but many continued to attend Latin-rite churches or to hold Uniate meetings in secret. After eighteen years of silence, in 1968 Slovak Uniates began to petition for the re-establishment of their Church. A number of former Uniate priests signed a six-point request for the restoration of privileges and complete freedom of belief. A flood of letters from believers and a debate on the issue in the press led to an official admission of the State's guilt. The government permitted an open gathering of Uniate representatives to reconstitute their Church. 135 priests and 66 laymen met on 10 April at Kosice, and, in the prevailing mood in Czechoslovakia, were able to go ahead rapidly with their programme. Public opinion in the affected areas was on their side, and even some members of the Orthodox Church recognized the justice of their claims. The government intervened with the decision that each parish should hold an election to decide whether to remain Orthodox or to return to the Uniate Church. It was Gustav Husak, later the Party leader in Czechoslovakia, who approved this measure. There was to be a joint commission of State administrators and representatives of both the Orthodox and the Uniate Churches, whose duty would be to supervise the parish elections within six months. For

Reviving Lake Texcoco

Mexico City may soon have a new and giant lake-Lake Texcoco-on the city's eastern perimeter. A joint commission involving the Nuclear Energy Commission, the Ministry of Hydraulic Resources and the Federal Electrical Commission is working in the now usually dry Texcoco lakebed. A total of 90 wells, each 90 meters or more deep, have already been drilled as the first step in an ambitious project. Hydraulics engineer Roberto Graue will not make any estimate of actual costs, but says preliminary geological and other studies and drilling have already cost $800,000. Lake Texcoco is rumored to have been dried up in a search for the fabulous treasure of Moctezuma, last Emperor of the Aztecs. No official admission was ever made that the lake was drained to find a hoard of gold and jewels, however, nor is there any knowledge as to whether the treasure hunters, allegedly high officials, found anything. But whether the lake was drained by man or destroyed by nature, for more than a decade and a half the Mexican capital has been punished by dust storms swirling out of the dry lakebed. Officials feel that a renovated lake will not only turn the vast area into a tourist attraction, but will also supply water for Mexico City. system to be used to form the lake will simultaneously pump water from the subsoil and cause the lakebed to settle. This principle has been inadvertently proven by the sinking of a statue at the intersection of ReformaJuarez and Bucareli-Rosales in Mexico City. monument has sunk 9 meters as a result of extraction of subsoil water for the city's needs. A good deal of the sinking-city phenomenon has been attributed to the extraction of subsoil water, now strictly controlled. The Texcoco project would be more or less the same thing, only on an accelerated rate, says Graue, who is head of the operation. In addition to water pumped from the subsoil, the lake would be filled from rivers in the eastern part of the Valley of Mexico. lake may cover up to 500 hectares (1,250 acres). project may also be instrumental in finding a remedy for the steadily Statue already has sunk 9 meters.

Group Persistence Among Air Wardens

T HIS paper presents some of conclusions drawn from a study in persistence of a social group, much of whose original rationale has been dissipated. The specific organization is that of Air Wardens in a New York City sector', and time of study is winter of 1943-44. The lies in mid-Manhattan. It is rather cleanly dichotomized by one of city's broad avenues: to west lie large wholesale firms; to east, a section of apartment houses and private homes-mainly converted brickfronts and brownstones-with a number of retail stores, several schools, and a few office buildings. The inhabitants are predominantly middle class, by any of usual criteria. Most of them are clericaland professional people; others are small merchants and artisans. The wardens provide a fairly representative sample of local population, slightly weighted in favor of professional group. The exact size of group is difficult to determine, since there is no formal distinction between active'wardens and those whQ, once enrolled, have never resigned but who seldom or never participate. The number' of nominal Air Wardens is between seventy-five and eighty. Of these, thirty or forty can be counted on for regular attendance at meetings and for two hours a week of sector duty at headquarters. At least this number may be expected to turn out for a test blackout; in event of a real attack, entire membership would probably be at their posts. Systematic observations of group were begun in October 1943 and continued until February 1944. This period of study was, however, preceded by a year of participation in group's activities, and some of impressions arising out of that experience were used as guides for later research. During months of study, careful notes on behavior as expressed in word and action were recorded along with whatever background material suggested itself. As artfully as it could be done, conversations were steered in pertinent directions, but care was taken to leave structuring of response in hands of informants. If at any time they showed a disinclination to pursue subject, it was allowed to drop until a better opportunity presented itself. At length, when it became evident that, owing to current low rate of interaction between members, this technique was producing diminishing returns, six representative wardens were subjected to interviews, lasting on average hour or hour and a half. The small number of interviews may be excused on two grounds: long period of participation and observation which had preceded interviewing, and homogeneity of group in question. The point of departure for study of this group is its original rationale-at time of its organization in June 1941. The concept of rationale is fundamental to our discussion. By it is meant an emotionally meaningful basis for activity. The original rationale for group (and for whole network of protective services) rested on expectation that New York, along with other cities of American mainland, would be subjected to aerial bombardment. This expectation could not, in nature of case, be based on knowledge derived from direct experience. The technical possibility of long-range air attack had been established, but beyond that lay unstructured field in which no one possessed sure knowledge. Strictly speaking, this is, of course, always case; we cannot be certain today, nor can citizens of London, that bombs either will or will not fall. But Londoners can reckon probabilities on basis of last night's raid; we cannot and could not in 1940 and '41. In absence of this kind of knowledge, a statement that air attack was to be expected, therefore, could rest its claim for acceptance only on authority of those making it and on various sentiments and beliefs which could be called on to bolster official expectations. These expectations were only gradually aroused. The official admission that bombing of American * For his aid and suggestions I wish to acknowledge my gratitude to Dr. Robert K. Merton. 1 A covers area of city containing homes of about 500 people. It is officially regarded as the basic unit of Civilian Defense.