Southern Connecticut Research Articles

Computer-delivered, parent-involvement intervention to prevent substance use among adolescent girls

Objective To test a computer-delivered program for preventing substance use among adolescent girls. Methods Randomly, 916 girls aged 12.76 ± 1.0 years and their mothers were assigned to an intervention arm or to a test-only control arm. Intervention-arm dyads engaged in exercises to improve the mother–daughter relationship, build girls' substance use prevention skills, and reduce associated risk factors. Study outcomes were girls' and mothers' substance use and mediator variables related to girls' substance use risk and protective factors. The study was conducted between September 2006 and February 2009 with participants from greater New York City, including southern Connecticut and eastern New Jersey. Results At 2-year follow-up and relative to control-arm girls, intervention-arm girls reported lower relevant risk factors and higher protective factors as well as less past 30-day use of alcohol ( p < 0.006), marijuana ( p < 0.016), illicit prescription drugs ( p < 0.03), and inhalants ( p < 0.024). Intervention-arm mothers showed more positive 2-year outcomes than control-arm mothers on variables linked with reduced risks of substance use among their daughters, and mothers reported lower rates of weekly alcohol consumption ( p < 0.0001). Conclusions A computer-delivered prevention program for adolescent girls and their mothers was effective in changing girls' risk and protective factors and girls' and mothers' substance use behavior.

Violence in the City of Women: Police and Batterers in Bahia, Brazil. By Sarah J. Hautzinger. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007. Pp. ix+342.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewViolence in the City of Women: Police and Batterers in Bahia, Brazil. By Sarah J. Hautzinger. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007. Pp. ix+342.Shirley A. JacksonShirley A. JacksonSouthern Connecticut State University Search for more articles by this author Southern Connecticut State UniversityPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Sociology Volume 114, Number 5March 2009 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/600020 Views: 38Total views on this site © 2009 by The University of Chicago Press. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Research Grade Instrumentation for Nanotechnology and MSE Education

AbstractThe Center for Research on Interface Structures and Phenomena (CRISP) is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC). CRISP is a partnership between Yale University, Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) and Brookhaven National Laboratory. A main focus of CRISP research is complex oxide interfaces that are prepared using epitaxial techniques, including molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Complex oxides exhibit a wealth of electronic, magnetic and chemical behaviors, and the surfaces and interfaces of complex oxides can have properties that differ substantially from those of the corresponding bulk materials. CRISP employs this research program in a concerted way to educate students at all levels. CRISP has constructed a robust MBE apparatus specifically designed for safe and productive use by undergraduates. Students can grow their own samples and then characterize them with facilities at both Yale and SCSU, providing a complete research and educational experience. This paper will focus on the implementation of the CRISP Teaching MBE facility and its use in the study of the synthesis and properties of the crystalline oxide-silicon interface.

Run: A Novel

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book ReviewFull AccessRun: A NovelJaak Rakfeldt Ph.D.Jaak Rakfeldt Ph.D.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:13 Jan 2015https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.2008.59.12.1482AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail An accident, on a snowy night in Boston, mysteriously draws together fragments of a family that are detailed over the course of 24 hours."There were three separate hits. They were so close together that someone who was not directly involved might not have been able to see them distinctly, but for Kenya time slowed down and gave her the chance to think of each one as its own act of a play. In the first, her mother left her on the sidewalk and ran to the older boy, Tip. She blindsided him with the full force of her body, the momentum of the blow knocking him very nearly clear of the car. The second one was the car hitting her mother, and this hit was made up of many smaller hits: her hip against the high front fender—BANG—her chest against the hood—BANG—and then she rolled up until her head struck the windshield with a single crack, just in the moment when the car slid to a stop. … Her mother's head leaves the windshield, her body rolls backwards across the hood, and then she falls to the ground with a wet, heavy thump and lies there, facedown in the snow in front of the tires of a light-colored SUV."The accident occurred while Tip had been walking with his father after having been dragged to a political speech by Jesse Jackson at the Kennedy Center. Tip might well have been killed had it not been for this woman, a stranger, who had leaped out of the darkness and had shoved him away to safety. She is African American. She is taken to the hospital, leaving her 11-year-old daughter, Kenya, alone.Ex-mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle, has nurtured his three sons—the prodigal son Sullivan, 33, and adopted African Americans, Tip, 21, and Teddy, 20—since the death over 15 years earlier of his wife, Bernadette. Then, on that snowy evening, Tip, distracted and angry at Doyle, steps out in front of a car only to be pushed out of the way by this African-American woman, who turns out to be the adopted boys' birth mother. Moreover, she had been surreptitiously watching the boys for years, along with her own daughter, Kenya. They live very near Doyle's stately home in a public housing project. Doyle allows Kenya to stay with them and she is reunited with her two biological brothers. The story revolves around the intricate dynamics that ensue. Run is about family and the infinitely complex ways in which family members weave into and intersect with each other. Patchett describes interesting and compelling people: Doyle, who is sentimental, tough, willful, and generous; Tip, who is purposeful and inflexible; Teddy, who is warm and kind; and Kenya, a talented runner, blessed with "strength, grace, concentration"; and Sullivan, impudent and eccentric, the prodigal son who comes home and, despite his father's qualms and misgivings, provides his own kind of strength and vigor during this time of familial upheaval and uncertainty. Dealing as it does with convoluted and intense family relationships, as well as with class, race, privilege, and poverty within contemporary American society, Run would be of interest to the readers of Psychiatric Services . Dr. Rakfeldt is professor in the Social Work Department, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven. FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited byNone Volume 59Issue 12 December, 2008Pages 1482-1482PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES December 2008 Volume 59 Number 12 Metrics PDF download History Published online 13 January 2015 Published in print 1 December 2008

Run: A Novel

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book ReviewFull AccessRun: A NovelJaak Rakfeldt Ph.D.Jaak Rakfeldt Ph.D.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:13 Jan 2015https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.2008.59.12.1482AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail An accident, on a snowy night in Boston, mysteriously draws together fragments of a family that are detailed over the course of 24 hours."There were three separate hits. They were so close together that someone who was not directly involved might not have been able to see them distinctly, but for Kenya time slowed down and gave her the chance to think of each one as its own act of a play. In the first, her mother left her on the sidewalk and ran to the older boy, Tip. She blindsided him with the full force of her body, the momentum of the blow knocking him very nearly clear of the car. The second one was the car hitting her mother, and this hit was made up of many smaller hits: her hip against the high front fender—BANG—her chest against the hood—BANG—and then she rolled up until her head struck the windshield with a single crack, just in the moment when the car slid to a stop. … Her mother's head leaves the windshield, her body rolls backwards across the hood, and then she falls to the ground with a wet, heavy thump and lies there, facedown in the snow in front of the tires of a light-colored SUV."The accident occurred while Tip had been walking with his father after having been dragged to a political speech by Jesse Jackson at the Kennedy Center. Tip might well have been killed had it not been for this woman, a stranger, who had leaped out of the darkness and had shoved him away to safety. She is African American. She is taken to the hospital, leaving her 11-year-old daughter, Kenya, alone.Ex-mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle, has nurtured his three sons—the prodigal son Sullivan, 33, and adopted African Americans, Tip, 21, and Teddy, 20—since the death over 15 years earlier of his wife, Bernadette. Then, on that snowy evening, Tip, distracted and angry at Doyle, steps out in front of a car only to be pushed out of the way by this African-American woman, who turns out to be the adopted boys' birth mother. Moreover, she had been surreptitiously watching the boys for years, along with her own daughter, Kenya. They live very near Doyle's stately home in a public housing project. Doyle allows Kenya to stay with them and she is reunited with her two biological brothers. The story revolves around the intricate dynamics that ensue. Run is about family and the infinitely complex ways in which family members weave into and intersect with each other. Patchett describes interesting and compelling people: Doyle, who is sentimental, tough, willful, and generous; Tip, who is purposeful and inflexible; Teddy, who is warm and kind; and Kenya, a talented runner, blessed with "strength, grace, concentration"; and Sullivan, impudent and eccentric, the prodigal son who comes home and, despite his father's qualms and misgivings, provides his own kind of strength and vigor during this time of familial upheaval and uncertainty. Dealing as it does with convoluted and intense family relationships, as well as with class, race, privilege, and poverty within contemporary American society, Run would be of interest to the readers of Psychiatric Services . Dr. Rakfeldt is professor in the Social Work Department, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven. FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByNone Volume 59Issue 12 December, 2008Pages 1482-1482PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES December 2008 Volume 59 Number 12 Metrics PDF download History Published online 13 January 2015 Published in print 1 December 2008

Synchronous peak Barrovian metamorphism driven by syn‐orogenic magmatism and fluid flow in southern Connecticut, USA

AbstractRecent work in Barrovian metamorphic terranes has found that rocks experience peak metamorphic temperatures across several grades at similar times. This result is inconsistent with most geodynamic models of crustal over‐thickening and conductive heating, wherein rocks which reach different metamorphic grades generally reach peak temperatures at different times. Instead, the presence of additional sources of heat and/or focusing mechanisms for heat transport, such as magmatic intrusions and/or advection by metamorphic fluids, may have contributed to the contemporaneous development of several different metamorphic zones. Here, we test the hypothesis of temporally focussed heating for the Wepawaug Schist, a Barrovian terrane in Connecticut, USA, using Sm–Nd ages of prograde garnet growth and U–Pb zircon crystallization ages of associated igneous rocks. Peak temperature in the biotite–garnet zone was dated (via Sm–Nd on garnet) at 378.9 ± 1.6 Ma (2σ), whereas peak temperature in the highest grade staurolite–kyanite zone was dated (via Sm–Nd on garnet rims) at 379.9 ± 6.8 Ma (2σ). These garnet ages suggest that peak metamorphism was pene‐contemporaneous (within error) across these metamorphic grades. Ion microprobe U–Pb ages for zircon from igneous rocks hosted by the metapelites also indicate a period of syn‐metamorphic peak igneous activity at 380.6 ± 4.7 Ma (2σ), indistinguishable from the peak ages recorded by garnet. A 388.6 ± 2.1 Ma (2σ) garnet core age from the staurolite–kyanite zone indicates an earlier episode of growth (coincident with ages from texturally early zircon and a previously published monazite age) along the prograde regional metamorphic T–t path. The timing of peak metamorphism and igneous activity, as well as the occurrence of extensive syn‐metamorphic quartz vein systems and pegmatites, best supports the hypothesis that advective heating driven by magmas and fluids focussed major mineral growth into two distinct episodes: the first at c. 389 Ma, and the second, corresponding to the regionally synchronous peak metamorphism, at c. 380 Ma.

Emergence, Trapping, and Seasonal Abundance of Adult Cerambycidae (Coleoptera) Associated with Cupressaceae in Connecticut

Emergence, attraction to traps, and seasonal abundance of cerambycids (Coleoptera) whose larvae injure Cupressaceae were studied under natural conditions in southern Connecticut between 1999 and 2005. Adults of the Asian cerambycid Callidiellum rufipenne (Motschulsky) emerged from trunk sections of Thuja occidentalis L. between late March and mid-May. In contrast, the native Atimia confusa confusa (Say) emerged from trunk sections of Juniperus virginiana L. between late August and mid-October. Emerged adults of both cerambycids had a 1:1 sex ratio, and the emergence of Callidiellum rufipenne showed protandry. In a comparison of four trapping methods, sticky bands stapled to trap logs and dead trees of J. virginiana had the highest density of adults of A. confusa confusa and Callidiellum rufipenne. Based on adults trapped on sticky bands on trap logs, dead trees, or girdled trees of J. virginiana or T. occidentalis at different locations, Callidiellum rufipenne was active on hosts for 5–8 wk between April and June; Semanotus ligneus ligneus (Say) for 4 wk in April; Callidium frigidum Casey for 5 wk between early May and early June; and A. confusa confusa for ≈12 wk between April and early July and again for 2–5 wk between September and late October. Catches of A. confusa confusa were significantly female-biased. Number of beetles captured usually was not correlated with the size of the sticky band on trap logs, cut trees, or girdled trees. This is the first quantitative study on emergence, trapping, and seasonal abundance of cerambycids associated with Cupressaceae in northeastern North America.

Emergence, Trapping, and Seasonal Abundance of Adult Cerambycidae (Coleoptera) Associated with Cupressaceae in Connecticut

Emergence, attraction to traps, and seasonal abundance of cerambycids (Coleoptera) whose larvae injure Cupressaceae were studied under natural conditions in southern Connecticut between 1999 and 2005. Adults of the Asian cerambycid Callidiellum rufipenne (Motschulsky) emerged from trunk sections of Thuja occidentalis L. between late March and mid-May. In contrast, the native Atimia confusa confusa (Say) emerged from trunk sections of Juniperus virginiana L. between late August and mid-October. Emerged adults of both cerambycids had a 1:1 sex ratio, and the emergence of Callidiellum rufipenne showed protandry. In a comparison of four trapping methods, sticky bands stapled to trap logs and dead trees of J. virginiana had the highest density of adults of A. confusa confusa and Callidiellum rufipenne. Based on adults trapped on sticky bands on trap logs, dead trees, or girdled trees of J. virginiana or T. occidentalis at different locations, Callidiellum rufipenne was active on hosts for 5-8 wk between April and June; Semanotus ligneus ligneus (Say) for 4 wk in April; Callidium frigidum Casey for 5 wk between early May and early June; and A. confusa confusa for approximately 12 wk between April and early July and again for 2-5 wk between September and late October. Catches of A. confusa confusa were significantly female-biased. Number of beetles captured usually was not correlated with the size of the sticky band on trap logs, cut trees, or girdled trees. This is the first quantitative study on emergence, trapping, and seasonal abundance of cerambycids associated with Cupressaceae in northeastern North America.

Endozoochory by white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus) across a suburban/woodland interface

We examined the role of white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus) in the dispersal of viable seeds in an intact forest bordered by medium-density housing in southern Connecticut. Estimated deer density on site was 23 deer/km 2 with higher local densities along the suburban/woodland interface. A total of 566 pellet groups were gathered in summers through early winters of 2002–2005. After vernalization at 5 °C for 60 days, pellet groups were placed in a growing medium in a temperature controlled greenhouse for 6 months. A total of 11,512 seedlings germinated from 61% of pellet groups, which included 86 taxa. Seeds of 40 species confirmed not native to the United States germinated from pellet groups. Given mean germination data of more than 20 germinants/pellet group and deer population estimate, each deer on site during the sampling interval had the potential to disperse over 500 viable seeds/day, which included approximately 350 seeds of exotic species. Median maximum travel distance of does for a 24-h period was 568 m with a maximum distance of 5932 m. Deer were likely consuming seeds in disturbed and/or edge habitats, which are often adjacent to residential housing, and transporting them into forested areas where exotic plants are not as prevalent. Birds, small mammals, and abiotic factors are known dispersal agents for plants. These results indicate that white-tailed deer are another important dispersal agent of seeds, particularly exotics. Thus, white-tailed deer may not only alter vegetation structure through direct browse damage of established plants, but also indirectly by lowering reproductive output of native plants and simultaneously distributing seeds of exotic species.

The Impact of Coastal Boundaries and Small Hills on the Precipitation Distribution across Southern Connecticut and Long Island, New York

Abstract The modification of precipitation by the coastal land areas of Long Island (LI), New York, and southern Connecticut (CT) is examined for an extratropical cyclone over the northeast United States on 1 December 2004, which produced strong southerly flow (15–30 m s−1) below 900 mb and heavy precipitation over LI. The differential surface roughness at the coast and the hills of LI (30–80 m) and southern CT (100–250 m) enhanced the surface precipitation by 30%–50% over these regions compared with the nearby water region of LI Sound. The three-dimensional precipitation structures are shown using composite Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler radar data interpolated to a Cartesian grid, which is compared with a 4-km simulation using the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model (MM5). As the low-level stratification and flow increased at low levels, the MM5 produced a terrain-forced gravity wave over LI and CT upward through 6 km MSL. Precipitation enhancement (2–3 dBZ) occurred from the surface upward to around the freezing level (3 km MSL) across central LI and southern CT, while there was a localized precipitation minimum over LI Sound. A factor separation on a few sensitivity MM5 runs was performed to isolate the impact of small hills and differential friction across the LI coastline. Both the hills and frictional effects have similar contributions to the total precipitation enhancement and the vertical circulations below 3 km. The hills of LI enhanced the gravity wave circulations slightly more than the differential friction above 3 km, while there was little flow and precipitation interaction between the hills and differential friction. A sensitivity simulation without an ice/snow cloud above 3 km MSL revealed that the seeder-feeder process enhanced surface precipitation by about a factor of 4.

Year One, and: The Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year One, and: The Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Marsha Rabe (bio) Year One Griefe brought to numbers cannot be so fierce,For he tames it, that fetters it in verse. —John Donne This is my mother's first yeardead. The poppies she cheer-led into bloomlast June now rupture the groundwithout her, their shrill colors as conceitedas popes on the Vatican balcony, bobbingand waving, a line of splendidLeos, Pius one through twelve,fat Johns, gaunt Johns, seeminglyinterchangeable, seemingly eternal.This is her first Christmas Eve—no Santa.This is her first Easter—no eggs, no resurrection—Her first Mother's Day—no guilt. Ha!Her first birthday. But who's counting?She is rhododendron now as much as wind chime,squirrel as much as green garden hose,grass grub, trowel. I love my new calendar, [End Page 178] how its days repeat and rhyme, amassing her absence.Today I will put my shovel into the earth, feel the dirtyield like flesh, hear the clang of metal on rockas if the rock were bone. I will extract the rockand in the void the rock leaves I will plantthis thing called goat's beard, fanning outits gauzy roots, composting, watering, tending it.She will be goat's beard for now, and laterblack-eyed Susan on the hill.True gardeners work by the phases of the moon.Foxes return on time. I possess her now as never.I summon her. She rises on command.The dead can learn to obey. The Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time The priest at St. Mary's is miked,so the Body of Christ sounds crisp as a snack.I'm sorry for him, his Holy Communionbroadcast like a song. At the Sign of Peace, my mother says sheloves me—now, at last. She says so urgently,as if she's just remembered an unpaid bill. I wish I were small enough to fit inside her—in her hand—or better yet, to ridelike Christ's white corpse in the shallowspoon of her tongue. [End Page 179] Marsha Rabe Marsha Rabe is the director of publications at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Connecticut. She has published a short story in the Atlantic Monthly and a personal essay on the op-ed page of the New York Times. Copyright © 2007 University of Nebraska Press

Origin of the Lyme Dome and implications for the timing of multiple Alleghanian deformational and intrusive events in southern Connecticut

Geologic mapping, structural analysis, and geochronology in the area of the Lyme dome, southern Connecticut provides constraints on the origin of the rocks in the core of the dome, the absolute timing of the principal deformational and thermal events attributed to Alleghanian orogenesis, and the processes that generated the dome. Detrital zircon geochronology in combination with ages on intrusive rocks brackets the deposition of quartzite in the core of the dome sometime between ca. 925 and 620 Ma. Granite and granodiorite intruded the Neoproteorozic metasedimentary rocks in the core of the dome at ca. 620 to 610 Ma. Four major early Permian events associated with the Alleghanian orogeny affected the rocks in the Lyme dome area. Syn-tectonic migmatization and widespread penetrative deformation (D1, ca. 300 –290 Ma) included emplacement of alaskite at 290 ± 4 Ma during regional foliation development and aluminosilicate-orthoclase metamorphic conditions. Rocks of the Avalon terrane may have wedged between Gander cover rocks and Gander basement in the core of the Lyme during D1. Limited structural evidence for diapiric uplift of the Lyme dome indicates that diapirism started late in D1 and was completed by D2 (ca. 290 –280 Ma) when horizontal WNW contractional stresses dominated over vertical stresses. Second sillimanite metamorphism continued and syn-tectonic D2 granite pegmatite (288 ± 4 Ma) and the Joshua Rock Granite Gniess (284 ± 3 Ma) intruded at this time. North-northwest extension during D3 (ca. 280 –275 Ma) led to granitic pegmatite intrusion along S3 cleavage planes and in extensional zones in boudin necks during hydraulic failure and decompression melting. Intrusion of a Westerly Granite dike at 275 ± 4 Ma suggests that D3 extension was active, and perhaps concluding, by ca. 275 Ma. Late randomly oriented but gently dipping pegmatite dikes record a final stage of intrusion during D4 (ca. 275 –260 Ma), and a switch from NNW extension to vertical unloading and exhumation. Monazite and metamorphic zircon rim ages record this event at ca. 259 Ma. The evolution of the Lyme dome involved D1 mylonitization, intrusion, and migmatization during north-directed contraction, limited late D1 diapirism, D2 migmatization during WNW contraction with associated flexural flow and fold interference, D3 NNW horizontal extension and decompression melting, and final D4 vertical extension and rapid exhumation. Late regional uplift, extension, and normal faulting at higher crustal levels may have been caused by diapiric rise of the lower crust, below the structural level of the Lyme dome. The rocks record no evidence of Acadian metamorphism or deformation, suggesting that the Gander zone here was not tectonically juxtaposed with Avalon until the Alleghanian orogeny.

Origin of the Lyme Dome and implications for the timing of multiple Alleghanian deformational and intrusive events in southern Connecticut

Origin of the Lyme Dome and implications for the timing of multiple Alleghanian deformational and intrusive events in southern Connecticut

A Partnership Inspiring Interest in MSE Careers: The Center for Research on Interface Structures and Phenomena (CRISP)

AbstractThe intent of the CRISP education and outreach effort is to use materials science as a vehicle for enhancing the scientific literacy and knowledge of kindergarten through post-graduate level students. A challenging part of our mission has been inspiring students to take the next step and consider further study (or a career) in the field of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE). The CRISP educational programs were developed through a partnership between Yale University, Southern Connecticut State University and the urban school district of New Haven, CT. An overview of the methods and results of both formal and informal educational program components will be presented for years one and two of the CRISP MRSEC. This paper will focus on two CRISP programs: 1) MRSEC Initiative for Multidisciplinary Education &amp; Research (MIMER) and 2) “Exploring Materials Science” mobile kits. The evaluation data indicates that the approach used in developing these educational programs is important. Specifically, the impact of these programs is influenced by the students' ability to relate the acquired knowledge to real life applications and technologies. In particular, emphasizing career opportunities rather than just presenting content-based programs is a key element to increasing interest towards further study in Materials Science and Engineering.

The Good Life

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book ReviewFull AccessThe Good LifeJaak Rakfeldt Ph.D.Jaak Rakfeldt Ph.D.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:1 Dec 2006https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.2006.57.12.1824aAboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail In his latest novel, Jay McInerney details the impact of September 11, 2001, by portraying the overwhelming tragedy while showing its effects upon people who survived and must in some way get on with their lives. The Good Life focuses on two couples: Corrine and Russell, and Luke and Sasha, who are wealthy, privileged members of the Manhattan demographic, whom McInerney has described in other novels. As the story begins, both marriages are emotionally empty and strained by past affairs, mistrust, and indifference. Corrine and Russell lead distant lives. She focuses on the children and he on his work as a literary editor. Luke's feelings for his exmodel, socialite wife have devolved into viewing her as a vapid courtesan. But the tragic events of September 11, 2001, move these couples toward reassessing their situations and seeking more meaning in their lives. For Corrine and Luke, this means volunteering in a soup kitchen for rescue workers at Ground Zero, where they slowly come together in a torrid adulterous affair.The Good Life provides horrific descriptions of the events of September 11 itself, particularly about the people who jumped from the World Trade Center. It also captures the atmosphere of New York following the attacks, describing the sidewalk picture galleries and the firefighters working at Ground Zero. The book is not, however, about the terrorist attacks. It is about yearning for intimacy and finding life-affirming human contact, even in the midst of such a horrific calamity. While making love to Luke, Corrine relinquishes herself: "She thought she had lost this desire—no, it was more that she'd never even found it until now. She'd never felt such craving, such desire to be possessed and filled, never known she had so much desire inside of her, so urgent a need."Corrine and Luke aren't just looking for emotional and physical catharses but seek deep, almost spiritual, communion in their lovemaking. And although much has undoubtedly changed because of the attacks, their lives return to normal. Ultimately, Corrine and Luke are drawn back into their commitments to their families, particularly to their children, and to the routines of their largely empty domestic lives. In Civilization and Its Discontents , Freud described our core conflict as one between our innate yearnings and our desire for pleasure with the demands of society and our responsibilities toward others. This is the central theme of Jay McInerney's The Good Life . Because the book peels back the multilayered ambiguities, lays bare the contradictions and complexities of intimate human relationships, and serves as a compelling case study for Freud's assertion that civilization itself leads to our discontents, it would be of interest to the readers of Psychiatric Services . It also thwarts our deepest, most intimate, aspirations for joy and fulfillment. Dr. Rakfeldt is professor in the Department of Social Work, Southern Connecticut State University, and a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByNone Volume 57Issue 12 December, 2006Pages 1824-1825PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES December 2006 Volume 57 Number 12 Metrics PDF download History Published online 1 December 2006 Published in print 1 December 2006

The Good Life

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book ReviewFull AccessThe Good LifeJaak Rakfeldt Ph.D.Jaak Rakfeldt Ph.D.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:1 Dec 2006https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.2006.57.12.1824aAboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail In his latest novel, Jay McInerney details the impact of September 11, 2001, by portraying the overwhelming tragedy while showing its effects upon people who survived and must in some way get on with their lives. The Good Life focuses on two couples: Corrine and Russell, and Luke and Sasha, who are wealthy, privileged members of the Manhattan demographic, whom McInerney has described in other novels. As the story begins, both marriages are emotionally empty and strained by past affairs, mistrust, and indifference. Corrine and Russell lead distant lives. She focuses on the children and he on his work as a literary editor. Luke's feelings for his exmodel, socialite wife have devolved into viewing her as a vapid courtesan. But the tragic events of September 11, 2001, move these couples toward reassessing their situations and seeking more meaning in their lives. For Corrine and Luke, this means volunteering in a soup kitchen for rescue workers at Ground Zero, where they slowly come together in a torrid adulterous affair.The Good Life provides horrific descriptions of the events of September 11 itself, particularly about the people who jumped from the World Trade Center. It also captures the atmosphere of New York following the attacks, describing the sidewalk picture galleries and the firefighters working at Ground Zero. The book is not, however, about the terrorist attacks. It is about yearning for intimacy and finding life-affirming human contact, even in the midst of such a horrific calamity. While making love to Luke, Corrine relinquishes herself: "She thought she had lost this desire—no, it was more that she'd never even found it until now. She'd never felt such craving, such desire to be possessed and filled, never known she had so much desire inside of her, so urgent a need."Corrine and Luke aren't just looking for emotional and physical catharses but seek deep, almost spiritual, communion in their lovemaking. And although much has undoubtedly changed because of the attacks, their lives return to normal. Ultimately, Corrine and Luke are drawn back into their commitments to their families, particularly to their children, and to the routines of their largely empty domestic lives. In Civilization and Its Discontents , Freud described our core conflict as one between our innate yearnings and our desire for pleasure with the demands of society and our responsibilities toward others. This is the central theme of Jay McInerney's The Good Life . Because the book peels back the multilayered ambiguities, lays bare the contradictions and complexities of intimate human relationships, and serves as a compelling case study for Freud's assertion that civilization itself leads to our discontents, it would be of interest to the readers of Psychiatric Services . It also thwarts our deepest, most intimate, aspirations for joy and fulfillment. Dr. Rakfeldt is professor in the Department of Social Work, Southern Connecticut State University, and a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited byNone Volume 57Issue 12 December, 2006Pages 1824-1825PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES December 2006 Volume 57 Number 12 Metrics PDF download History Published online 1 December 2006 Published in print 1 December 2006

Exotic Seed Dispersal by White-tailed Deer in Southern Connecticut

We examined the role of suburban white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus Zimmerman) in dispersal of exotic plants in forests bordered by medium-density housing in southern Connecticut. Estimated deer density on the research site was 23 deer/km2 with higher local densities along the suburban/woodland interface. In 2002, 90 pellet groups were gathered periodically from September through December. In 2003, eight pellet groups were collected weekly from early June through late December for a total of 236. All pellet groups were vernalized at 5°C for 60 days. Pellet groups were placed in a growing medium in trays in a temperature controlled greenhouse for six months. Seeds germinated from 47% of pellet groups, which included 656 seedlings of 57 species. Seeds (n = 326) of 32 species not native to Connecticut germinated in 23% of pellet groups. We estimated that the deer herd on site had the potential to disperse 586-1046 viable exotic seeds/day/km2 during the 2002 sampling period and 390-696 viable exotic seeds/day/km2 during the 2003 sampling period. Birds, small mammals, and abiotic factors are known dispersal agents for exotic plants, some of which are invasive. Our results indicate that white-tailed deer are another important dispersal agent of exotic species. Thus, white-tailed deer may not only alter vegetation structure through direct browse damage of established plants, but also indirectly by lowering reproductive output of native plants and simultaneously distributing seeds of exotic species.

Intact forests provide only weak resistance to a shade‐tolerant invasive Norway maple (Acer platanoides L.)

Summary Intact, closed canopied forests appear highly resistant to exotic plant invasions, but there are few experimental studies of this observation. To test this issue and explore the conditions that foster resistance, we experimentally added Norway maple (Acer platanoides L.) seeds to intact forests for 3 years and monitored emergence, survivorship and height growth for 5 years. Seed additions (250 seeds−1 m2) were replicated in situ in combinations of light (deep shade vs. small gaps), soil fertility (NO3 and pH), and variation in soil moisture as influenced by topography (hill slopes vs. flat areas at slope bases) in five eastern deciduous forests in central New York and southern Connecticut. We then parameterized a model with this data to project long‐term rates of sapling recruitment. Seedlings had high survival and low growth rates in the deep shade, suggesting that this species readily forms a seedling bank in intact forests. By age 5, annual survivorship reached 93% in deep shade and 98% in small gaps. Median seedling heights were ≤ 10 cm in all treatments after 5 years, though the largest seedlings were markedly taller in gaps. Mean year 5 densities of all experimental seedlings (ages 3–5 years) were 14 seedlings−1 m2 (± 2.4 SE) in the shade and 19 seedlings−1 m2 (± 3.5 SE) in small gaps. While seedlings colonized in all conditions, resistance to invasion varied markedly; resistance was highest in deeply shaded, acidic conditions (pH &lt; 4.5). Small gaps initially promoted invasion, but by age 4 shade survivorship rates were equivalent to gaps. Higher soil pH (especially &gt; 6) also significantly increased survivorship, particularly in deep shade. Shading's main effect was to suppress height growth. Overall, the model predicted impressive sapling recruitment; even in deeply shaded, acidic conditions, approximately 1% of seeds emerge and survive to become saplings. Intact forests only weakly resisted A. platanoides colonization, but strongly suppressed its rate of invasion. As such, the frequency of disturbance, though ultimately unnecessary for A. platanoides invasions, will strongly influence its near‐term invasiveness. Dispersal limitation and slow stand dynamics appear to be the primary constraints on its current distribution.

Picturing France in the Fifteenth Century: The Map in BNF MS Fr. 4991

A map of France is included in a manuscript, dated to around 1460, entitled A tous nobles, which contains a historical account and genealogy of the French kings. The map was produced in the wake of the Hundred Years War, when conflict with the English challenged both French identity and territory. The map, however, smooths over a century of war to reveal a nation both strong and independent. Through the mapmaker's selection of places, and his use of fluvial boundaries to define the area concerned, he has created an image of France shaped by ideology and history that is wholly in keeping with its location in the manuscript, where the renaming of Gaul as France is described. The map reveals the territory of France to be a critical link between the mythical past and the political present. This connection between history and territory, also reiterated in the text itself, is presented in a graphic format that may be related to contemporary practice of using maps along with legal documents in the resolution of territorial disputes. Seen in the light of the king's claim to the lands ruled by his ancestors, the map thus constitutes a rare medieval example of French national identity expressed in relation to French territory. Dr Camille Serchuk is professor of art history at Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

My Father the Spy: An Investigative Memoir

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book ReviewsFull AccessMy Father the Spy: An Investigative MemoirJaak Rakfeldt Ph.D.Jaak Rakfeldt Ph.D.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:1 May 2006https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.2006.57.5.738AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail Mom calls. Dad's in the hospital, on oxygen. It's his heart. I fly down." Thus begins Richardson's My Father the Spy: An Investigative Memoir about his father the sleuth. The book ends with, "One last trip to the bathroom…. The toilet paper roll is almost empty and that's when he says his last words: 'Another roll.'" The book's almost universal theme is searching for who we really are as people, and one way of doing so is by understanding our parents more fully. Richardson leads us through this odyssey in his carefully researched, often compelling, sometimes funny quest to learn about his CIA station-chief father, also John H. Richardson, who served in Vienna, Manila, Saigon, and Seoul. As a top CIA officer, John H. Richardson, Sr., stonewalls when his son asks him about his job, his life, or anything else by saying, "You know, son, I took an oath of silence." When Richardson contacts the CIA regarding his father's career he receives the official response: "Not only no, but hell no—and if you pursue this, we must contact John Richardson, Sr. and remind him of his secrecy oath."Richardson begins and ends his book when his father is dying in Mexico. He uses old letters that his father had written to a friend, diary entries, and interviews with former colleagues as his source material. Richardson Sr. grew up in Whittier, California, and attended Whittier College (Nixon was one year ahead of him). The most surprising thing he learns is that his stiff, straightlaced father, who built a career fighting Communism, had once been a devout romantic, a poet, a wanderer, a dreamer, and a soul-searching, agonized idealist who read voraciously while searching painfully for some kind of spiritual and intellectual deliverance.His father joins the Army during World War II and is selected for a new, top-secret wartime intelligence unit, the Counter Intelligence Service, the precursor to the CIA. Through the Cold War decades, the family moves from post to post. His father is a workaholic, totally absorbed by his mission. Growing up in this family, Richardson and his older sister rebel as teenagers during the tumult of the 1960s. Their acting out, with sex, drugs, rock and roll, and all is an effort to evoke some sort of human reaction from their distant father. They yearn for a relationship with him. The young Richardson details his abuse of alcohol and drugs. One time he got arrested for giving the finger to the military police in Korea. Another time he was escorted in handcuffs out of Hawaii and placed on an airplane. In response to the Hawaii incident Richardson Sr. writes a note to his daughter and states that her brother had arrived unexpectedly from Honolulu on the evening of Christmas Day, that he's in good health, has put on weight, and so on.A major turning point comes when CIA station chief Richardson is abruptly removed from his post in Vietnam after the coup in Saigon. Realizing that his career is essentially over, Richardson Sr. descends into brooding, chain smoking, drinking too much, and popping sleeping pills. All the while he remains aloof, remote, and stoic. About the same time, the younger Richardson experiences an emotional breakdown while in college. Interestingly, this occurs at about the same age that his father had had a "nervous breakdown" years earlier, also while in college. It is during Richardson's breakdown that his father begins to relent, and finally responds to his son's imploring, "I know nothing about you!" His father reluctantly begins writing on "a thin sheet of paper.""Well, to begin the saga at the beginning, with origins…." All is not settled; however, son and father reconcile to some extent and even share a drunken embrace. But his father the spy remains enigmatic, as his final words reveal, dealing merely with needing more toilet paper: "Another roll." This book would be of interest to the readers of Psychiatric Services . It forcefully chronicles the vicissitudes of a complex family's life that unfolds during the last half of the 20th century, with major historical events such as the Cold War and Vietnam framing the contexts. Dr. Rakfeldt is professor in the social work department at Southern Connecticut State University and clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale University, both in New Haven, Connecticut. FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByNone Volume 57Issue 5 May, 2006Pages 738-738PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES May 2006 Volume 57 Number 5 Metrics PDF download History Published online 1 May 2006 Published in print 1 May 2006