bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Costs of Mergers and Acquisitions in the U.S. Health Care Sector
Authors: Bond Patrick , Weissman Robert
Published: May 2005

Important trends are emerging from evidence of health care industry concentration in the United States. Some of these are the durable consumer concerns—cost, choice, and access—which have received attention throughout the introduction of managed care. But with the intensified industry concentration, these have been joined by concerns about pricing power, control and quality, integrity of the health system and health policy-making, and clashing institutional mandates. Such trends are particularly evident in the hospital and pharmaceutical industries.
Alternative Methods for Determining Resource Requirements: The Chile Example
Authors: Reinke William A.
Published: May 2005

Many more or less attractive techniques have been proposed for statistical analyses involving multiple sources of variation, for example in examining the possible contributors to differential patterns of health services utilization and expenditure. A large scale investigation of such patterns among 10,000 households in Chile provided a useful basis for comparison of alternative analytical approaches. The multiple regression, Automatic Interaction Detection, and Multisort techniques were applied to the survey data separately and in combination and results were compared. The Multisort technique was found to be the single most useful and convenient approach, but the most meaningful results were obtained from the systematic application of the three approaches combined.
Improving Equity in Health: A Research Agenda
Authors: Starfield Barbara
Published: May 2005

Equity in health and health care have become important priorities for the world. If efforts at achieving equity are to have any basis in evidence concerning which strategies are likely to work, a research agenda is necessary. An adequate research agenda requires a knowledge of what the problem is, an understanding of the genesis and correlates of the problem, methods to measure these correlates, and rigorous testing of alternative explanations and interventions. This article presents a working definition of equity in health and health services, a conceptual framework in which to view the various types of influence on health and distribution of health in populations, a summary of evidence on the effects of some of these categories, and a research agenda for guiding efforts to improve knowledge on which to base interventions that enhance the attainment of equity. Because of their relative neglect in the existing literature on equity in health, the special roles of political forces and of primary care as a particularly key element of health services are stressed.
Competition and Primary Care in the United States: Separating Fact from Fancy
Authors: Siminoff Laura
Published: May 2005

Competitive strategies have been advocated as the solution for the economic ills of the U.S. economy. During the 1980s many economists and health care practitioners are arguing that a competitive strategy will bring down health care costs; these plans emphasize the existence of perverse incentives which reward cost reducing behavior with less revenue. Competitive strategies assume the existence of a “health care marketplace.” Historically, the United States health care sector has not conformed to the ideal of the competitive market because of the special characteristics involved in the production and consumption of health care. Consumers have the least power in the health care sector and yet most competitive proposals are explicitly directed at changing consumer behavior, especially in the area of primary care. Much evidence indicates that competitive plans inhibit consumers from using primary care services, increase long-term health care costs, and ultimately require more government regulatory action.
Introduction: Theoretical Developments in Psychosocial Work Environment Research
Authors: Johnson Jeffrey V.
Published: May 2005

This article introduces the fourth series of articles in the Special Section on work organization and health. The authors identify the theory of scientific management as one of the major obstacles to workplace democratization efforts. The application of this theory has led to the centralization of workplace knowledge and skill under managerial control. The articles in this issue criticize this conventional theory of job design and suggest new theoretical directions from psychological, sociological, and political-economic perspectives.
Training the Economically Disadvantaged via Computer-Assisted Instruction: An Experiment by Chrysler Learning, Inc.
Authors: Ntiri Daphne Williams
Published: May 2005

Computer-assisted instruction was utilized by Chrysler Learning, Inc. to study its impact on economically and educationally disadvantaged youth subjects in basic but specific academic areas within a given time period. The program took the form of an experiment that involved two groups: 1) an experimental group that participated in an educational training sequence with an interactive computerized learning system coupled with traditional classroom instruction and work experience; and 2) a control group that received no structured instruction in basic skills but was exposed to counseling, hands-on industrial experience and job search skills.

Comparison of the pre- and post-test scores indicated that the experimental group had made significantly higher gains than the control group in reading and mathematics. Reading in general was more indicative of growth but math was also positively affected.
Conducting Psychoeducational Interventions with Drug Abusing Clients: The Lifestyle Model
Authors: Elliott William N. , Walters Glenn D.
Published: May 2005

A psychoeducational model of intervention is proposed for use with drug abusing clients. This model may be particularly helpful during the early stages of intervention in reducing resistance to change because it addresses the eight thinking styles (mollification, cutoff, entitlement, power orientation, sentimentality, superoptimism, cognitive indolence, discontinuity) believed to shield the drug “lifestyle” from forces that would otherwise bring about change. Practical suggestions are offered as to how this information might be shared with clients.
Social Austerity versus Structural Reform in European Health Systems: A Four-Country Comparison of Health Reforms
Authors: Wendt Claus , Thompson Theresa
Published: May 2005

Cost containment has captured the attention of health policymakers in most OECD countries, and deliberations about creating powerful financial incentives dominate health care politics. Some European health systems are now implementing hospital payment schemes that mirror the U.S. model of diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) and are raising premiums and copayment levels in an effort to limit public expenditures. Though financial incentives may indeed help rein in health expenditures, focusing predominantly on financial incentives hinders due consideration of needed structural reforms that improve the continuity, quality, and appropriateness of health care service delivery. This article focuses on the structural specifics of two legally enacted health insurance systems (Germany and Austria) and two national health systems (Great Britain and Denmark) to discuss the influence of structural characteristics on cost-containment efforts. Structural reform strategies discussed include increasing reliance on general practitioners, improving coordination of community and hospital-based specialty care, addressing the stark divide between ambulatory and hospital-based care that exists in some European health systems, and improving continuity of care by better integrating medical and social care sectors. Also discussed is the relative focus on financial incentives versus structural deficits in recent European health care reform strategies.
Questions and Answers about Managed Competition
Authors: Clancy Carolyn M. , Himmelstein David U. , Woolhandler Steffie
Published: May 2005

The Managed Competition strategy for health care financing reform would push most people into cut-rate versions of health maintenance organizations chosen for them by their employer and owned by an insurance company. Many of those who currently enjoy good coverage would be forced into bare bones plans, and would forfeit the right to choose their health care provider. There is little evidence that the rigidly multi-tiered system created by Managed Competition would be more efficient or less expensive than the current U.S. system, and administrative costs would likely rise. Promises to expand coverage for the uninsured are likely to fall by the wayside if cost containment fails, and no current Managed Competition proposals address long-term care. In rural areas including at least 30 percent of the U.S. population, price competition central to the Managed Competition strategy is untenable since a lone hospital or other provider cannot compete with itself. Managed Competition would empower vertically integrated corporate health care insurer/providers and disempower patients and the clinical work force.
Who Decides? The Connecting Thread of Euthanasia, Eugenics, and Doctor-Assisted Suicide
Authors: Cheyfitz Kirk
Published: May 2005

Throughout recorded history, a series of seemingly unrelated ideas have been consistently intertwined: suicide, euthanasia, infanticide, eugenics, genocide and, most recently, the practice termed physician-assisted suicide. From Plato and Hippocrates to a pair of twentieth-century American physicians named Haiselden and Kevorkian, an examination of history shows these disparate notions always involve two troublesome questions: Which lives are not worth living? And who will decide? The same examination of history teaches that separating the worthy from the not worthy is a very dangerous proposition, especially for those whose lives are deemed marginal.
The Training of Medical Staff in Health Planning in the Soviet Union
Authors: Pustovoj I. V.
Published: May 2005

In a field in which there is now increasing interest in the many facets of public health planning and a real necessity for training suitable personnel, an attempt is made to summarize the available data on the training of medical workers in the U.S.S.R. in the planning and economics of public health.

Considered here are the following questions: what level of medical personnel must be specially trained in public health planning, and, what is the role of the public health administrator in drawing up complex plans?

An examination is made of those functional features of the health system structure which influence public health planning locally, regionally, and nationally, and the relationship to these in terms of requirements for specialized knowledge in public health planning on the part of medical personnel.

In conclusion the importance of the system of training medical personnel in public health planning in the U.S.S.R. is stated.
Norplant® Implant Use-Dynamics Diagnostic Study: Indonesia 1991
Authors: Kasidi Heru , Miller Peter C.
Published: May 2005

Indonesia's national family planning program constitutes the largest introduction of the NORPLANT® implant in the world. With the first five-year removals occurring in late 1991, the program was at a critical stage. In Fall 1991, the ANEORTA Project conducted a Use-Dynamics Study to look systematically at NORPLANT® implant use in the field. To prepare for that study, and to get early information on program functioning, BKKBN and the Population Council, in conjunction with Andalas University in West Sumatra and BKS-PENFIN in West Java, undertook a diagnostic study of six clinics in each of two provinces, interviewing service providers and examining records. A total of 120 acceptors were visited to determine the feasibility of locating them and whether they were still using implants. About 70 percent of the acceptors had accepted from non-clinical sources, either “safaris” or mobile team visits. The four-year life-table continuation rate was 78 percent. No written information specifically devoted to the NORPLANT® implant was available either to providers or to clients. Available records generally matched official records, although significant gaps were found. All physicians and nurse-midwives, as well as many nurses, had some training, formal or informal in NORPLANT® implant insertion and removal. Contrary to expectation, clinical staff, records, and logistics all seemed generally adequate for five-year removal, although some problems were anticipated.
Various Attempts to Establish a Basic Form of Beauty: Experimental Aesthetics, Golden Section, and Square
Authors: Fechner Gustav Theodor , Höge Holger
Published: May 2005

Several aspects of proportionality and non-empirical investigations of proportions are discussed. Most of these studies intended to establish a general type of pleasant forms of beauty. Objections against the empirical method are refuted although it is admitted that the feeling of the artist may be the best way to find the most beautiful solution. The major part of the article reports the empirical proof on the pleasantness of proportions based on the selections among ten different quadrangles (proportions from 1:1 to 5:2). The peak of pleasingness was found with the golden section rectangle (35%), based on the choices of 347 Ss. Data on preference for and rejection of rectangles, as well as details of Ss' reactions are reported. Musically defined proportions did not show any superiority over other kinds of proportion. The preference for the golden section, however, was not found in a task of dividing a vertical line. It is concluded that the importance of the golden section has been overemphasized.
Designing Ethnographic Research in Technical Communication: Case Study Theory into Application
Authors: Moorhead Alice E.
Published: May 2005

Field study, using an ethnographic approach, offers a potentially powerful methodology for the technical communication researcher, a methodology that provides a useful balance to the strengths and weaknesses of experiments and surveys. Technical communication studies, however, exhibit not only the typical constraints of field research but several additional constraints inherent to research conducted on-the-job in business, industry, and government, which deserve consideration when designing research.
Commentary: Little Words
Authors: Guthrie James
Published: May 2005

Because they may interpret writing too narrowly as a means of displaying data, rather than as communication, some technical professionals produce documents exhibiting particular writing faults. For example, they may not write with a full consciousness of words' meanings in context, or they may fail to assess readers' knowledge levels accurately. Additionally, they may write too sequentially, forget to include clear references, or fail to use vivid language in their reports. Although all these errors derive from shared underlying attitudes towards language, the first evidence a reader is likely to encounter that something has gone wrong in a document is a misuse of such little words as “the,” “this,” “with,” “is,” “have,” and “then.”
Revolutionary War Archaeology at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
Authors: Parrington Michael
Published: May 2005

The Revolutionary War encampment at Valley Forge has been subjected to a number of excavations since the creation of the park in the late nineteenth century. This paper describes the important excavations conducted in 1972 and 1973 along the Outer Line Drive by the William Penn Memorial Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Seventeen huts and a number of artifacts dating from the Revolutionary War period were recorded and excavated. This information is discussed in relation to its importance for Revolutionary War studies.
Meaning and Purpose in Life of Bereaved Parents whose Son Fell during Active Military Service
Authors: Florian Victor
Published: May 2005

The aim of the present study was to investigate the meaning and purpose of life in fifty-two bereaved parents whose sons fell during active military service two or eleven years after their loss, compared to fifty non-bereaved parents, who served as a control group. Participants individually completed the Purpose-in-Life Test and the Meaning-in-Life Scale. Analysis of the results indicated that both bereaved parents received lower scores on both measures compared to the control group. No significant differences were found between parents whose son fell two or eleven years previous to the study. Clinical implications for treating this “at risk” population are discussed.
The Return of ‘The Subliminal’
Authors: Kunzendorf Robert G. , McGlinchey-Berroth Regina
Published: May 2005

Across forty blocks of trials, words were alternately imaged and apperceived on trials 1–6 and subliminally perceived on trial 7. Thereafter, one word from trial 1–7 was paired with a distractor, and forty-five subjects selected either the word “perceived” during trials 1–7 or the word “experienced (imaged or perceived)” during trials 1–7. The probability of recognizing subliminal words as “perceived” was chance; the probability of recognizing subliminal words as “experienced” was above chance. This result is consistent with Fechner's definition of “the subliminal” as conscious sensation below the limen for apperception or self-consciousness that one is perceiving.
Changing the Technical Writing Paradigm
Authors: McCarron William E.
Published: May 2005

Although teachers of technical writing have long considered themselves as the vanguard, they too have shown considerable resistance to change, despite recent theoretical advances in composition theory. This author proposes that the technical writing community review its traditional views and attitudes toward the teaching of writing to incorporate insight derived from cross-disciplinary research.
Linking Urban Latino Families to School Using the Web
Authors: Fishman Barry , Kupperman Jeff , Marx Ron , Soloway Elliot
Published: May 2005

What happens when a community that has previously had very little or no exposure to the Internet receives Internet access at home? This paper describes a project that provided television set-top Internet access devices to Latino families as part of a project to link the school and home in an inquiry-based science curriculum. The early phases of adoption of the Internet and “NetTV” devices by families are described, with special attention paid to different ways families appropriate and make educational use of the Internet.
Your Interim Report—Did You Time it Rightly?
Authors: Broer J. W.
Published: May 2005

A scientist working on a research project of planned duration T—which includes a publication at the end—benefits from describing his work in an interim report. To obtain maximum verbal self-stimulation from his writing act, he should choose a time at approx 0.4T after the start of the project. A mathematical model of the situation leads to this rule of thumb. The description involves an assumed two-stage nature of research (stage I: defining the problem; stage II: solving it). The stages consist of random (Poisson) time sequences of thought flashes—“why-pulses” and “therefore-pulses.” The model fits a problem in nuclear physics, whose solution when translated back produces the timing fraction 0.4. The assumed statistical nature of brain activity is supported by evidence from other fields.
The Irreversible Welfare State: Its Recent Maturation, its Encounter with the Economic Crisis, and its Future Prospects
Authors: Therborn Göran , Roebroek Joop
Published: May 2005

The rise of the welfare state in the 1960s and 1970s meant important changes within the Western states: apparatuses of armed forces, bureaucratic ordering, and public transport and communication became institutions of transfer payments to households, and public education, caring and social services. In this article we describe the influence of the current economic crisis on the welfare state. Average yearly growth of social security expenditure continues, but has declined since 1981. Generous systems of social security clearly provide no security against the consequences of the economic crisis, especially unemployment. Public commitment to social security and full employment are largely independent of each other.

We describe how, under the surface of welfare state growth, the political relations of force have changed in favor of those social forces advocating fundamental reappraisal of the welfare state over those supporting its maintenance or extension. The resistance to significant changes is so strong, however, that fundamental reconstruction of the welfare state is as yet excluded.

We hold that the welfare state is an irreversible major institution of advanced capitalist countries, as long as democracy prevails. The building of a majoritarian anti-welfare state coalition seems impossible for the foreseeable future, but in some countries significant cuts must be expected; we end by specifying some economic and political preconditions for such cuts.
Digitalis Delirium: Psychiatric Considerations
Authors: Shear M. Katherine , Sacks Michael
Published: May 2005

Digitalis is a ubiquitous drug in modern clinical medicine and digitoxicity is one of the more common iatrogenic disorders. Psychiatric problems are often overlooked as manifestations of digitalis excess and may range from mild disorientation, lethargy, or restlessness to full blown delirium. In this paper we discuss two patients who presented to a psychiatric inpatient unit and were later found to be digitoxic. Psychiatrists are advised to consider digitalis as a possible cause of mental abnormalities and are reminded that psychiatric signs may be the first indication of a potentially lethal drug toxicity. Psychiatric patients may also be at special risk for the development of digitoxicity because of erratic drug taking, electrolyte imbalance or increased autonomic tone.
Feeling the Heat: Displaced Tobacco Workers in North Carolina
Authors: Barbeau Elizabeth M. , Levenstein Charles
Published: May 2005

Tobacco control is a successful public health movement, but little attention is being paid to what this success means for workers and communities who are economically dependent on tobacco. The social context of job loss for these workers remains largely unstudied. We conducted a case study of a cigarette manufacturing facility closure in Reidsville, North Carolina and report on the effects of the closure for workers and the community. Results suggest the need for: 1) worker education directed toward developing skills for jobs that pay family-supporting wages, and 2) community-driven strategies to attract new businesses that offer such jobs. Public health organizations, labor unions, community development groups, business representatives, civic leaders, academic institutions, and others should unite in efforts to assist tobacco- dependent workers and communities to transition to other economic bases. These efforts should be funded by the tobacco industry.
Death Discomfort Differential
Authors: Triplett George , Cohen David , Reimer Wilbert , Rinaldi Sharon , Hill Curtis , Roshdieh Simin , Stanczak Elizabeth M. , Siscoe Karen , Templer Donald I.
Published: May 2005

The differential correlations of death depression and death anxiety were explored. Death anxiety was more highly correlated with general anxiety, the four subscales of the Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale, female gender, and less religiosity. Death depression was more associated with general depression. Such differentiation could not be made with the raw scores of the Death Depression Scale and the Death Anxiety Scale. A differentiation was made, however, using a new ten-item scale based upon factor scores of the two above scales.
Maternal Sexuality during Pregnancy and after Childbirth in Kuwait
Authors: El-Tomi N. F. , Al Bustan M. , Abokhadour N.
Published: May 2005

Although pregnancy had an adverse effect on sexuality, many women improved at the mid-trimester and early postpartum period. Sociocultural attitudes and pre-pregnancy sexuality level are important determinants. A study of sexual adjustment of 160 pregnant Muslim women of Kuwait revealed that pregnant women showed a decline in sexual activity soon after the diagnosis of pregnancy that continued throughout the whole pregnancy with a second trimester and early third trimester increase in sexuality, but continued to be below the pre-pregnancy base line. Resumption of sexual activities was not problematic for many of our patients at eight or twelve weeks postpartum, except for those with marital disharmony. For some women, pregnancy and labor improved their sexuality in general. But the majority of our subjects had a consistent pattern of sexuality during pregnancy that reflects their pre-pregnancy level of sexuality. This study shows clearly the important influence of the father-to-be on the sexuality of his wife. Sociocultural taboos influence sexual adjustment during pregnancy, as this highly important topic is always ignored during discussion between patients and doctors at ante- and post-natal clinics. It is recommended for obstetricians to counsel patients about sexual activity, keeping in mind the prevailing sociocultural attitudes.
The Health Security Partnership: An Equitable, Pragmatic, and Passable National Health Program
Authors: Glasser Melvin A.
Published: May 2005

The Health Security Partnership is an equitable, pragmatic, and legislatively passable health program. The proposed reform of the health care system is based on realistic principles designed to promote access and produce changes that will restrain costs while delivering quality health services. Among the principles on which the program is built are full and equitable access to health care, along with abolition of the “separate but less equal” system called Medicaid, and a national–state administration that requires uniform standards of core benefits across state lines combined with differing patterns of state administration. States will be able to expand benefits as appropriate. Enforceable cost-containment measures are seen as essential corollaries to universal access. Biennial state and national budgets, prospective global hospital and other institutional budgets, relative-value physician fee schedules, and controls on prescription drug prices are essential parts of the program. The plan provides for evolutionary change and orderly transition to a reformed delivery system. The retention of free choice of physicians and simplified administration with substantial consumer choice in decision-making offer the hope of sharply reduced financing cost increases combined with the growth in delivery of quality medical care.
Memorializing Loved Ones on the World Wide Web
Authors: de Vries Brian , Rutherford Judy
Published: May 2005

Creating and visiting Web memorials represent new opportunities for post-death ritual. A content analysis was conducted on a sample of 244 of the memorials found on the largest Web Cemetery: Virtual Memorial Gardens (catless.ncl.ac.uk/Obituary/memorial.html). Analyses revealed that memorials were written, in descending order of prevalence, by children (33%), friends (15%), grandchildren (11%), parents (10%), siblings (8%), spouses (4%), and various other family members. This pattern favoring younger authors may reflect the newness of this venue and facility with computer technology. The content of such memorials often contained reference to missing the deceased, rarely spoke of the cause of death, or made mention of God or religion. Memorials were more likely to be written to the deceased (e.g., in the form of a letter) rather than about or for the deceased (e.g., eulogy/obituary or tribute). Parents, family groups, and other relatives more frequently made religious references in their memorials than did other authors. In addition to the Web as a novel, untapped data source, these memorials offer intriguing opportunities for theoretical refinement (i.e., the ongoing connection between the bereaved and the deceased).
Anti-Sterilization Abuse Organizing: A Retrospective Examination
Authors: McDonald Marian
Published: May 2005

November 1988 marks the tenth anniversary of the U.S. Government's adoption of guidelines for federally-funded sterilizations. This action was the result of years of organizing by the anti-sterilization abuse movement which grew in the early 1970s in response to the alarming increase in numbers of coercive sterilizations, particularly among poor and minority women. This retrospective examination looks at the strengths and weaknesses of anti-sterilization abuse organizing in the United States, and draws out lessons for other areas of work. It begins by exploring the problem of sterilization abuse and the history of the movement against it. The movement is analyzed using key theoretical concepts of community organizing. An evaluation indicates that the anti-abuse efforts were successful and rich with lessons for reproductive rights and other popular health struggles today.
Psychosocial Correlates of Suicide Ideation: A Comparison of Chinese and U.S. Rural Women
Authors: Domino George , Su Annie , Lee Johnson Sandra
Published: May 2005

China is the only country in the world where the suicide rate for women is higher than that for men. In particular there is current concern about a high suicide rate for women living in rural areas. In this study, two samples of young women ages 20 to 35, one from rural China ( n=52) and one from rural United States ( n=52) were interviewed as to suicide ideation and suicide risk, as related to psychosocial variables of self-esteem, coping, social support, and attitudes toward suicide. Significant mean differences were obtained between samples on all eleven variables. The pattern of intercorrelations between variables showed both similarities and differences in the two samples. A stepwise multiple-regression analysis indicated that the same four variables, albeit in different order, were predictive of suicide: these variables were self-esteem, instrumental support, the attitude that suicide is morally bad, and an overall rating of coping.
A Study of the Effectiveness of a Multimedia Intelligent Tutoring System
Authors: Livergood Norman D.
Published: May 2005

In this study, college undergraduate students were presented identical material on the domain of intelligent tutoring systems. The author designed his research to isolate the key variables, disallow for the effect of some of those variables, and determine in a precise way what effects are produced by a multimedia delivery system, repetition of instructional and testing material, and an intelligent tutoring system delivery system. The first phase of this study, comparing test scores of students who were presented material in two delivery systems: 1) hard-copy (printed material), and 2) a computer-based multimedia program, indicated no statistically significant difference in scores. A second part of that phase, comparing test scores and re-test scores of students studying the computer-based multimedia program, indicated no statistically significant difference in scores. The second phase of this study, comparing scores of the two initial delivery systems and scores on a multimedia modified intelligent tutoring system, resulted in a statistically significant difference in scores.
Further Investigation of Popular Misconceptions about Suicide
Authors: Cruikshanks Daniel R. , Slavich Susan P.
Published: May 2005

This study encompasses a replication of the study “Popular Misconceptions About Suicide: How Popular Are They?”, conducted by George Domino in 1990, as well as further analyses of the data obtained in our study. Ninety-seven undergraduate students were administered the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ). The twenty SOQ items concerning misconceptions were analyzed for the percentage of endorsement by the students. Like Domino, we found that these misconceptions may not exist as texts indicate. A 2 × 2 ANOVA using each respondent's total number of endorsed misconceptions, with gender (male/female) and ethnicity (white/non-white) as quasi-independent variables, showed no significant main effects. Next, chi-square analyses conducted on the individual items (frequency of subject endorsement on each) revealed differences among ethnic groups but not among gender groups. Finally, a one-way ANOVA comparing people's knowledge of suicide between those who have known versus those who have not known a suicide victim showed no significant differences.
John White: Renaissance England's First Important Ethnographic Illustrator
Authors: Moran Michael G.
Published: May 2005

John White was England's first important ethnographic illustrator. Collaborating with one of the Renaissance's most innovative scientists, Thomas Hariot, while working as an expedition artist on Sir Walter Raleigh's 1585 attempt to colonize Virginia, White produced influential illustrations of American Indians that were published as etchings and widely distributed in Theodor de Bry's America (1590). Apprenticed as an artist in Elizabethan England, White redirected this traditional training as a limnist and a costume painter to scientific, ethnographic purposes.
Response to Critique by John Bukowski
Authors: Mangano Joseph J.
Published: May 2005

A recent study documenting rising childhood cancer incidence in the United States was critiqued based on various methodological issues alleged to “cast doubt” on the findings. Many of the criticisms are not supported and are contradicted by empirical data, presented in this article. For example, the assertion that long-term incidence increases were due only to improved diagnostic techniques in 1983–1986 is not supported by available data on cancer incidence and supply of computerized scanning machines. Understanding the characteristics and causes of childhood cancer is a complex undertaking, and researchers should objectively consider multiple analytical methods.
Suicidal Themes in Visual Art
Authors: Cutter Fred
Published: May 2005

Suicide in art, as in life, occurs rarely but when it does the viewers react to the special poignancy of this theme. In looking at examples of visual works representing the last two thousand years, differences become apparent in the way self-termination is portrayed. While some of these changes reflect an expansion of aesthetic knowledge, other trends are connected with the history of self-injury in western civilization. Modern concepts of suicide prevention are directly illustrated by these visual themes.
From Chronic Emergency to Development: An Analysis of the Health of the Urban Poor in Luanda, Angola
Authors: Kanji Najmi , Harpham Trudy
Published: May 2005

There is a dearth of published literature on health care systems in Angola. Like many sub-Saharan African countries, Angola is experiencing rapid urbanization. The authors provide an analysis of the health status, environmental health conditions, and health-related behavior of the urban poor in Luanda, Angola. Although data are patchy and rarely disaggregated to reveal severe conditions in the shanty towns, a grave picture emerges. An average infant mortality rate of 104/1,000, with malaria and intestinal infections the main causes of death in children under 1 year old, reflects the poor environmental conditions, which are worsening as urbanization continues at a rapid rate. Use of health services is limited; for example, 50 percent of women give birth at home, mainly unassisted, and only 28 percent of children are covered by measles immunization (as validated by card). A discussion of existing health strategies, programs, and their constraints is set in the context of the future possibilities of the ending of the 15-year war and the introduction of structural adjustment policies.
Predictors of Attitudes Towards Physician-Assisted Suicide
Authors: Butt Zeeshan A. , Overholser James C. , Danielson Carla Kmett
Published: May 2005

Psychological factors may influence an individual's acceptance of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS). The purpose of the present investigation was to evaluate predictors of attitudes towards PAS. Data were collected from 136 college students at a private Midwestern university. In addition to demographic and family history information, respondents completed measures of attitudes towards seeking mental health services, depression, hopelessness, and PAS attitudes. Respondent age, race, and hopelessness scores emerged as the only significant predictors ( R2 = .20) in a multiple regression model used to identify potential predictors of PAS attitudes. Younger, non-minority respondents, and those endorsing more hopelessness reported more accepting attitudes towards PAS. Data from a three month follow-up assessment supported the stability of this pattern. The findings highlight the important role that mental health professionals should play in PAS decision making. Implications for the evaluation of medically ill considering PAS and their caregivers are discussed.
Student Opinions regarding the Mandatory Use and Ownership of Personal Computers
Authors: Malaney Gary D. , Thurman Quint
Published: May 2005

Several institutions of higher education recently have adopted policies requiring students to take computer courses and/or own personal computers. Typically, these decisions have been made by faculty and administrators without input from students. The purpose of this study was to analyze student opinion regarding such policies. To this end, the Student Affairs Research and Evaluation Office at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst conducted a telephone survey of a random sample of 308 undergraduates. The results show that students generally favor mandatory computer instruction but not mandatory computer ownership. Subsequent regression analyses of these data indicate that whether or not computer proficiency is seen as a salient skill for future employment is a key explanatory variable that determines support for either computer policy.
The Deterioration of the Food Situation in the Third World and the Capitalist System
Authors: Feder Ernest
Published: May 2005

Hunger and malnutrition are today associated with the capitalist system. The evidence points to a further deterioration of the food situation in the Third World in the foreseeable future, as a result of massive capital and technology transfers from the rich capitalist countries to the underdeveloped agricultures operated by transnational concerns or private investors, with the active support of development assistance agencies such as the World Bank. Contrary to the superficial predictions of the World Bank, for example, poverty is bound to increase and the purchasing power of the masses must decline. Particular attention must be paid to the supply of staple foods and the proletariat. This is threatened by a variety of factors, attributable to the operation of the capitalist system. Among them are the senseless waste of Third World resources caused by the foreign investors' insatiable thirst for the quick repatriation of super-profits and the increasing orientation of Third World agricultures toward high-value or export crops (which are usually the same), an orientation which is imposed upon them by the industrial countries' agricultural development strategies. Even self-sufficiency programs for more staple foods, such as the ill-reputed Green Revolution, predictably cannot be of long duration.
Private Health Care in South Africa: Should the Unions Intervene?
Authors: Broomberg Jonathan , de Beer Cedric , Price Max
Published: May 2005

The South African state's policy of privatization of health services has led to deterioration of public-sector health care and increased costs of access to this sector. This has generated an increasing demand for private health insurance among the predominantly black organized working class. These demands pose a dilemma for the progressive trade unions; negotiation of private-sector health insurance will have deleterious consequences for the equity and efficiency of the health services in general. Current trends in the private health sector also indicate that rapid cost increases will make most regular insurance packages unaffordable to the majority of workers within a few years. On the other hand, trade unions are obliged to meet the material demands of their members, and to intervene to stem the flow of individual workers to the private health sector. This article describes these trends, and the authors argue the case for intervention in this process by trade unions, in the form of union-negotiated and union-controlled “managed care” schemes. Such schemes will allow for the delivery of an adequate and appropriate package of health services at affordable rates. Union control will also allow for such structures to become the building blocks of a future national health service, and for incorporation into that service. Finally, the political implications of such interventions are addressed. The authors argue that the potential for undermining broader political campaigns and for creating divisions within the working class are important problems, but that many of these may be overcome through appropriate interventions.
Computer Networks as a New Data Base
Authors: Beals Diane E.
Published: May 2005

Because most communication on computer networks is stored on disk, a permanent record of all conversations can be reconstructed. Data collection and transcription, typically one of the most difficult problems in psychological and linguistic research, is greatly simplified. This record of communication provides a new data source for psychological, social, and linguistic research. This article outlines the features of computer communication that make networks a rich data base for research. Examples of findings are reported from three different studies of one computer network. These include the existence of a greater rate of response to personal event narratives than to more general descriptions, the effect of members' purposes and social roles on the style of communication, and a greater understanding of the needs of beginning teachers.
Behavioral Rehearsal: A Way of Talking about the Dying Process
Authors: Coffman Victoria T. , Coffman Stephen L.
Published: May 2005

The authors suggest that theater activities can be used as a helpful approach to initiating more complex reflection about death among university students as well as hospice volunteers. Included in the article is an activity description and accompanying texts from a death-contemplation exercise which support this advocation. This performance skills activity produced serious student responses which were varied, articulate, and rich. Imagining and rehearsing death allows people to “act as if” and fantasize the circumstances surrounding one's death in a removed and relatively safe manner. These presentations can make the performance of life more meaningful, and the drama of death perhaps softer and more acceptable.
Visual Literacy: A Perceptual Discipline
Authors: Hammet B. F. , Illick Peter M.
Published: May 2005

Education in the discipline of literacy has not provided individuals with the basic quality of mind and knowledge with which to meaningfully control and order perceptual experience. Visual literacy is based on the discipline, the knowledge, of visual codes. A sophisticated literacy is necessary today in order to understand visual analogies and to avoid the consequences of visual illiteracy, random perception, and escapism through self-deception. The thesis of the present article is that a disciplined knowledge of visual analogies and to avoid the consequences of visual illiteracy: random perception and escapism through self-deception. The concern of communicators in all fields.
Predictors of Alcohol Abuse Behaviors of Undergraduates
Authors: Smith Roy H. , McCauley Clark R.
Published: May 2005

A representative sample of 713 Mary Washington College undergraduates responded to questions about alcohol effects, their own alcohol use, and their beliefs about the risks associated with alcohol use for college students in general and for themselves in particular. Item correlations suggested four indexes: personal risk of abuse, personal risk of alcohol-related misfortune, alcohol consumption, and alcohol abuse. Knowledge did not predict reduced use or abuse patterns, nor did perceived risk of abuse for students in general. Abuse, consumption and personal risk of abuse were all positively intercorrelated. However, personal risk of alcohol-related misfortune was negatively correlated with all other indexes. These findings have important implications for programs to reduce alcohol abuse among young people.
Community Response to Social Marketing: Filters for Guineaworm Control
Authors: Brieger William R. , Ramakrishna Jayashree , Adeniyi Joshua D.
Published: May 2005

Guineaworm is a tropical helminthic disease which is responsible for much disability in rural areas from African to South Asia. Control interventions focus mainly on improving the quality of water supply at the health promotion level of prevention. This includes such technologies as dug wells, cloth filters, and chemicals added to pond water. Each technology has an appropriate health education strategy to aid in its promotion. The community of Idere in rural Nigeria was chosen to test the social acceptability of a new monofilament nylon cloth water filter. A social marketing strategy was used that built upon an existing primary health care program that utilized volunteer primary health workers (PHWs). The PHWs proved effective in marketing the filters in Idere as one-third of households in monitored areas purchased a filter during the six-month sales period in 1985–86. Those who bought filters were more likely to live in hamlets/family compounds where PHWs resided, belong to a modern religion, and have a preventive orientation toward health. Those who did not buy complained mostly of lack of money, but other overt and inferred reasons included attitudes that filters were inferior to wells, traditional beliefs that guineaworm cannot be prevented and availability of cheaper but ineffective alternatives. Filters were found to be a particularly useful technology in the smaller, isolated farm hamlets surrounding the main town. Recommendations are made to improve the marketing strategy through modifications in filter design, price, distribution, and promotion.
Family-Embedded vs. Family-Deprived Oldest-Old: A Study of Contrasts
Authors: Troll Lillian E.
Published: May 2005

Most of the white oldest-old in San Francisco have at least one surviving relative, but only one-half have relatives available to them if they need help. The primary family resources are children, especially for women. They are closer to children than to grandchildren or other relatives. The respondents themselves are more passive and unemotional family members, however, rather than being active kinkeepers. They also seem to derive satisfaction from thinking about relatives now dead—men usually about their dead wives and women about their mothers and siblings. There is a sharp contrast in life style and feelings between those who are most embedded in their families and those at the other extreme, the “family deprived,” with the embedded being much better off.
Absorption and Trance-Inductive Poetry
Authors: Gucksohn Joseph , Tsur Reuven , Goodblatt Chanita
Published: May 2005

This is an empirical study of trance-inductive poetry. Forty-one readers, classified as low- and high-absorption by median split, were asked to read a trance-inductive poem characterized by high metric regularity, and rate the latter on seven 7-point evaluative scales (e.g., boring-interesting). While low-absorption subjects found the poem to be boring and unpleasant, high-absorption subjects found the poem to be interesting and pleasant. We discuss how the low-absorption subjects respond to a flat sequence of monotonously rhyming lines, finding the text to be boring, while the high-absorption subjects detect a hierarchic structure in the poetic text, finding the latter to be pleasing.