bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Malaria Treatment Seeking Practices among Mothers in Rural Refugee Villages in Belize, Central America: A Qualitative Study
Authors: Ches Lorelei Cropley Dph
Published: May 2005

Since early and appropriate treatment is an important determinant in the outcome of malaria infection in children, a study using qualitative data collection methods was conducted to investigate child malaria treatment-seeking practices among mothers in rural refugee villages in Belize, Central America. Qualitative methods, which included in-depth key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and rapid assessment interviews, were used to produce in-depth details on how mothers identified and defined fever and malaria and their behaviors relating to treatment practices. The use of multi-method qualitative data collection techniques provided important contributions that were used in designing a series of health education messages to impact child malaria treatment.
Medical Care and Health under State Socialism
Authors: Deacon Bob
Published: May 2005

This paper derives a conception of ideal socialist and communist medical care and health policy. This model is based on a review of Marxist and allied critiques of capitalist medical care policy and on theoretical work on socialist social policy. The ideal conception, operationalized in terms of 16 criteria, is then applied to a review of medical care and health policy in the Soviet Union, Hungary, and Poland. It is concluded that medical care policy in all three countries exhibits very few characteristics of socialist medical care. The possibility (for the moment repressed) provided by the Solidarity movement in Poland of a new development toward a more genuine socialist medical care and health policy is also described.
Revising the Seriousness of Illness Rating Scale: Modernization and Re-Standardization
Authors: Rosenberg Samuel J. , Hayes John R. , Peterson Rolf A.
Published: May 2005

The burgeoning research in psychosomatic medicine requires quantitative measures reflecting important biological, psychological, and social variables. The Seriousness of Illness Rating Scale (SIRS), although twenty years old, is currently utilized in psychosomatic research as an index of illness seriousness. In light of medical advances during the past two decades, an expansion and re-standardization of the SIRS appeared warranted. Forty-six medical students, residents, and faculty rated the seriousness of 137 disease items. High inter-rater reliability was demonstrated by a concordance coefficient of 0.716 and overwhelming agreement on relative disease item rankings between the three medical groups. Thus, the Seriousness of Illness Rating Scale-Revised (SIRS-R) is an ordinal level scale which reliably measures current views on illness seriousness and can be easily employed in multivariate psychosomatic research.
Teacher Knowledge of Educational Technology: A Case Study of Student/Mentor Teacher Pairs
Authors: Margerum-Leys Jon , Marx Ronald W.
Published: May 2005

This study had two purposes. The first was to explore the construct of teacher knowledge of educational technology through the lens of three components of Shulman's model of teachers' knowledge—content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge. A second purpose was to investigate the ways in which teacher knowledge is acquired, shared, and used by student teachers and their mentors in the context of the student teaching placement. The literature in educational technology takes, for the most part, a limited view of educational technology knowledge, reporting on teachers' awareness of technological applications and affordances. By using Shulman's model, this study constructed and considered a more comprehensive depiction of teacher knowledge. Teacher knowledge of educational technology as thus depicted was explored as it developed within a particular setting. Data were drawn from a three-month observation and interview period in the spring of 1999. Six participants—three student teachers and three mentor teachers—were observed and interviewed at a middle school in a working-class suburb of a large Midwestern city. From observations of teacher practice, inferences were made about the underlying body of knowledge evidenced by the participants. The perspective of student and mentor teacher participants was gained through a quasi-ethnographic interview process. Observation and interview data were analyzed using a shared coding system, allowing a rich description to be created. Results of the study indicated that employment of Shulman's model revealed a set of knowledge derived from and applicable to practice with educational technology. This knowledge could be considered a Pedagogical Content Knowledge of technology, corresponding to Shulman's identification of a particular understanding by teachers of content in service of teaching and teaming. Within the context of the mentor/student teacher pairs, both knowledge acquired in and brought to the setting was shared in a multi-year cycle from student teacher to mentor to subsequent student teacher. Impact on the field includes a broadening sense of the nature of knowledge of educational technology, as well as increased attention to the importance of the student teaching placement and student and mentor teachers' roles within that environment.
Breast-Feeding: The Role of Multinational Corporations in Latin America
Authors: Bader Michael B.
Published: May 2005

The decline in birthrates in the developed countries of the world has forced multinational corporations engaged in the production of infant formula to seek out new markets in the developing countries, where burgeoning population rates potentially guarantee the long-term profitability of these corporations. This development, ostensibly benign and nutritionally advantageous to infants in developing countries, has serious public health consequences, due to the high relative cost of purchased formula and the paucity of hygienic facilities essential to the sterile preparation of bottle formula. This paper delineates in detail economic and contraceptive advantages of breast-feeding, and examines the role of health personnel and multinational advertising techniques which have catalyzed the decline in breast-feeding. In addition, the paper focusses on the question of cultural imperialism and current efforts to regulate the multinational firms through both United Nations groups and stockholders' suits. Finally, some suggestions are made concerning ameliorative public policy approaches to the breast-feeding controversy.
Uneven Health Outcomes and Political Resistance under Residual Neoliberalism in Africa
Authors: Bond Patrick , Dor George
Published: May 2005

Africa has suffered two decades of policy implementation associated with the “neoliberal” macroeconomic as well as micro-development paradigm, and the health status of this continent has deteriorated markedly. Notwithstanding the discrediting of such policies since the late 1990s, they continue to be applied in Africa, especially by the World Bank and IMF, through Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and the Highly Indebted Poor Countries debt relief initiative. Evidence can be found in the inadequate fiscal allocations to the health sector; the inadequate conceptualization of health in relation to other sectors; insufficient consultation with civil society; ongoing implementation of cost-recovery and user-fee provisions; a failed strategy to access pharmaceutical products, by respecting unnecessary Trade in Intellectual Property Rights provisos; and, most importantly, glaring insufficiencies in reducing Africa's foreign debt. One reflection of the balance of forces between Washington financial agencies and African societies is the adoption of the New Partnership for Africa's Development at the urging of the South African and Nigerian governments. While the WHO has helped to research, publicize, and criticize the problems associated with durable neoliberalism in African health care, it also continues to make serious mistakes as it remains locked within the paradigm. A human rights perspective being developed by the African Social Forum is, in contrast, consistent with broader international trends in the opposition to corporate globalization.
Institutionalizing Retention Activity: Toward a Theory-Based Model
Authors: Saunders Martha Dunagin
Published: May 2005

This study examines Appreciative Inquiry, a relatively new approach to organizational change and growth, as a method for institutionalizing retention activity. Appreciative Inquiry looks for what works best in an organization in order to determine what might be possible. Its strength lies in the consensus building embedded in the process. The results of a case study in a college of arts and sciences suggest the method to be effective in creating a shared vision for the organization, energized participants, improved morale, and increased general awareness of retention issues.
School-Related Health—A Cross-Sectional Study among Young Boys and Girls
Authors: Gådin Katja Gillander , Hammarström Anne
Published: May 2005

The authors analyze the association between psychosocial factors in the school environment and pupils' health and self-worth in a sample of 538 pupils (264 girls and 274 boys) in the third and the sixth grades. High control in combination with low demand at school was associated with the best health status in relation to somatic problems, stress, tiredness, and feelings of self-worth. In a multiple regression analysis, problems in relations with classmates were the most recurrent psychosocial factor associated with ill-health. Some gender differences were found in school-related health. Lack of control at school affected self-worth among girls only. In the third grade and among boys in the sixth grade, high demands were an explanatory factor for the health outcome. Foreign background, divorced parents, high achievement, and low relational orientation, as well as disorderly and rowdy classes, were also of importance for somatic ill-health and stress among girls. Older girls became more relationally oriented, while boys became more achievement-oriented. The authors conclude that the pupils' somatic health and self-worth were affected by psychosocial factors at school, even when adjustment was made for social background.
Psychopathology in Medical Inpatients and its Relationship to Length of Hospital Stay: A Pilot Study
Authors: Levenson James L. , Hamer Robert , Silverman Joel J. , Rossiter Louis F.
Published: May 2005

A composite screening instrument measuring depression, anxiety, cognitive dysfunction, and pain identified 40 percent of a sample of general medical inpatients (30% of total patients before exclusions) as having significant psychopathology or pain, a reasonable number based on clinical incidence literature. These identified patients' hospital length of stay did not differ from the length of stay for other patients. The screen identified 21 percent as very depressed, 19 percent as very anxious, 15 percent as having cognitive dysfunction, and 11 percent with high pain levels. Depression, anxiety, and pain frequently occurred together. Further study is required to refine the instrument and assess its effectiveness at targeting patients for psychiatric intervention.
Life Scripts and Life Planning: The Role of Career Scripts in College Women's Career Choices
Authors: Frieze Irene Hanson , Bailey Scott , Mamula Patricia , Moss Mira
Published: May 2005

Script theory has been used to understand shared social norms for behavior in specific situations [1], and more broadly, to analyze individual life patterns by looking at highly personalized life scripts [2]. This article applies a methodology derived from script theory in an attempt to better understand life choices of women. Individual women's perceptions of daily life scripts for a successful woman lawyer, a secretary, and a full time homemaker are used as data for predicting these women's own career aspirations. Predicted relationships were strongest for the lawyer scenario data.
An Electronic Curriculum for Introductory Chemistry
Authors: Dix James A. , Allendoerfer Robert D. , Jones Wayne E. , Lacey Roy A. , Laurenzi Bernard J.
Published: May 2005

We are creating a World-Wide Web (WWW) introductory chemistry site that will incorporate many key features of an electronic chemistry curriculum, including flexibility, interactivity, extensibility, diversity, and self-assessment. The site will be accessible from browsers such as Mosaic and Netscape. Advantages of serving introductory chemistry from a WWW site include expanding access to chemistry instruction, platform independence, easing transitions between university units, and creating a curriculum responsive to diverse needs. Contributions and suggestions from the chemistry community can be incorporated easily and rapidly into the electronic curriculum. Since the WWW site could be used by any campus in the world having Internet access, we expect that our electronic curriculum will have a far-ranging impact on the way introductory chemistry is taught.
Problem Solving, Instructional Methods and Logo Programming
Authors: Au Wing K. , Leung John P.
Published: May 2005

A study was conducted to investigate the effects of learning Logo programming on the transfer of problem solving skills. Sixty children (of 8 to 12 years) were divided into three groups (Logo Process-Oriented Group, Logo Content-Oriented Group, and Typing Control Group). All children were assessed on a variety of problem solving tasks before and after training. All groups were given twenty-five hours of small-group instruction in either Logo programming or typing lessons with a computer. Significant group × prepost interaction was observed in one of the problem solving tasks used in measuring the transfer of problem solving skills from the Logo context to a noncomputing context, leading to the conclusion that learning Logo with a Process-oriented approach might enhance general problem solving skills. However, much more empirical work will be required before it can be established what conditions will foster the transfer of problem solving skills.
Antecedents of Substance Use among Mexican American School-Age Children
Authors: Zapata Jesse T. , Katims David S.
Published: May 2005

This article describes a study designed to examine the association of demographic, psychological, and environmental characteristics of a sample of low socioeconomic status, Mexican American students in elementary and middle school and their reported use of nine substances.

Students in grades four, five, and six ( N = 2295; males 52% and females 48%) located in a metropolitan school district in South Texas were surveyed in order to ascertain information pertaining to the initiation and/or ongoing use of substances. Regression analyses were employed to determine the relative contribution of variables measured to lifetime use of both minor and major substances. Results indicate that a specific combination of variables were predictive of both minor and major substance use for the subjects surveyed. Implications for future research and substance intervention are included.
Lay Theories of Emotion: 1. Conceptualization and Measurement
Authors: Ben-Artzi Elisheva , Mikulincer Mario
Published: May 2005

The eight studies reported on here examine the attributes lay persons attach to emotional experiences and develop a self-report scale for assessing individual differences in these attributes. Lay persons were asked to freely report attributes of emotions and their answers were content analyzed. Thus, a self-report scale was developed and its internal structure, reliability over time, and associations with meta-mood, Eysenck's personality dimensions, negative affectivity, and control and attentional focus variables were examined. Findings showed that persons spontaneously appraise emotions in terms of eight categorical attributes, which are structured around two orthogonal theories: a threat appraisal and a benefit appraisal of emotions. In addition, the self-report measure that was developed for assessing the superordinate theories, was found to be internally valid, reliable over time, concurrently valid, and significantly related to other affective and personality constructs.
Impact of Graphic CBI on English Mechanics for Written Communication
Authors: Lyons-Smith Carolena L.
Published: May 2005

The problem in this study was to determine if there is a relationship of graphic enhanced CBI on the performance and attitude of learners receiving English mechanic reinforcement for written communication. The treatment included two instructional CBI packages, one graphic enhanced and the other non-graphic enhanced. Pretest, posttest, and attitude questionnaire were analyzed to determine if there were significant differences. Results indicated that the graphic enhanced CBI did not make a significant difference in learner performance or attitude.
An International Study of Health and General Systems of Financing Health Care
Authors: Fraser R. D.
Published: May 2005

In a previous study the author explored the linear relationship between infant mortality and real gross domestic product per capita, the number of physicians per 10,000 persons, and the number of hospitals per 1,000 persons in 18 countries. That study is here expanded and updated to include the experience of 7 additional countries for a current total 25 countries. In addition, the present study extends the analysis to include several additional explanatory variables, and it includes data for 1965 so that the data set now covers 1955, 1960, and 1965. Following the methodology of the initial study, the relationship estimated between infant mortality and the several explanatory variables is used to calculate the level of infant mortality that one would expect to find in each country for each of the 3 years considered, given the values of the explanatory variables. The size and sign of the difference between the actual and expected levels is then used to approximate the effect of different general systems of providing and financing health care on overall health status, since infant mortality is an approximate index for the overall level of health. The results of the initial study are by and large confirmed. They show that the percentage of health services financed or directly controlled by governments, and information on the relative size of the health sector, are apparently not important determinants of levels of health. On the other hand, the proportion of health care resources devoted to the provision of nonpersonal public health care does appear to be a significant determinant and therefore the role of nonpersonal public health warrants further study.
Death and Grief as Experienced by Adults with Developmental Disabilities: Initial Explorations
Authors: Hoover John H. , Markell Marc A. , Wagner Paulette
Published: May 2005

The experiences of persons with developmental disabilities (DD) in two northern-tier states were studied on an exploratory basis. Overall, the analysis reveals that caregivers in residential facilities believed that persons with DD (primarily global cognitive disabilities) benefit from the same grief processing rituals as other individuals. Some conflicting attitudes were revealed, however. Specifically, many respondents expressed a sense that caregivers (or family members) “know best” when individuals with disabilities prove “ready” to experience the activities and ritual surrounding loved ones' deaths. In addition, many respondents argued that clients with cognitive disabilities ought to be educated ahead of time as to what happens during the death and dying process. Primary care providers reported very few overt behavioral changes, though four clients in 10 were observed to cry more frequently (for more than 1 month) and about one-fifth reportedly experienced changes in sleep/wake patterns. Initial evidence emerged that staff training patterns varied by facility, not with years of service.
Using the Internet as a Tool for Public Service: Creating a Community History Web Site
Authors: Henson Darold Leigh
Published: May 2005

Creating a community history Web site is a way for technical communication practitioners, students, and teachers to improve their expertise while performing a valuable public service. Developers of this kind of Web site combine personal interest in the history and culture of their chosen communities with professional interest in a wide range of skills: for example, online research, Web site design, creation of artwork, photography, graphics editing, collaboration, professional/technical writing, as well as site publication and promotion. Technical communicators working on community history Web sites enjoy creative freedom that makes these projects especially engaging and fun. While learning about subjects of particular interest and improving professional skills, developers gain the satisfaction of trying to help communities increase civic pride and heritage tourism. Also, the technical communication profession benefits when its members demonstrate good citizenship to employers, other constituencies, and the public.
The Pathology of Information
Authors: Knox William T.
Published: May 2005

The tremendous abundance of information being put forth in our communications-oriented society today has become a drug on the market, making Americans addicts to their communication machines, according to this leading spokesman and pioneer of the fledgling information industry. We must do more than simply make our machines turn out more information faster, he warns. We must develop a population that can handle information adeptly and discriminatingly, and we must develop information systems that do not overload people's capacities to absorb and use it.
An Outline of Technicisation Theory
Authors: Soheili A. , Barjasteh D. , Al Qadhi Laila
Published: May 2005

Teachers and researchers in the field of Technical English have always been concerned with the nature of this subject, its major characteristics, and its chief uses in Science and Technology. Obviously, less time and efforts have been spent on how technical English is learned, particularly in situations where foreign students have to relate their limited linguistic knowledge to meaningful realizations of the language system in technical texts of immediate concern to their specialist studies. This research is an early effort to show how technical English is learned and, more specifically, what relevant factors are involved in the overall learning process.
Attitudes of Young Men and Women toward Awareness of Death
Authors: Kahana Boaz , Kahana Eva
Published: May 2005

It has often been argued that American society denies death (Feifel, 1963; Gorer, 1965) as a strategy of dealing with a universal fear of death. The present investigation attempted to determine to what extent young men and women employ this technique in confronting the problems of imminent and distant death, and what attitudinal variables differentiate those confronting and those denying the potential existence of death. Parsons' (1963) notion that the inevitability of death determines the individual's ability for acceptance was also explored in this investigation.
The Need for Family Health Services in Africa
Authors: Williams Cicely D.
Published: May 2005

In much of Africa, family health and especially maternal and child health in its most comprehensive implications will meet with the greatest support and cooperation. While fertility control is necessary, it must be a part of family health if it is to be beneficial and economical. We should heed the expressed opinions of African leaders in evaluating the nature of their needs and should organize family health services that take into account all local characteristics and traditions.
Malapropism Becomes Commonplace
Authors: Foley Louis
Published: May 2005

This article is the latest in a series that the author has been writing for the Journal on usage in language.

He discusses briefly the misuse of words by Sheridan's Mrs. Malaprop, then goes on to demonstrate that malapropisms are found in contemporary writing, including writing for the various professions.
Dying at Home: Can Families Cope?
Authors: Hine Virginia H.
Published: May 2005

Surveys indicate that most people say they would like to die at home. With the increase in professional and popular acceptance of exploration into the needs of the dying, there is increasing interest in the practicability of families taking loved persons home to die. This article examines five considerations involved in the decision for a home death: (1) sources of the moral support necessary for the family to take the responsibility, (2) the kinds of professional aid available on a part-time basis, (3) the kinds of special equipment necessary, (4) ease with which family members can acquire the necessary nursing skills, and (5) certain basic information which used to be common knowledge until hospital deaths became the norm - how to tell when death is imminent, what actually happens at the moment of death, and what to do with a body after the death.
Anxiety and Poor Glycemic Control: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Literature
Authors: Anderson Ryan J. , Grigsby Allison B. , Freedland Kenneth E. , De Groot Mary , McGill Janet B. , Clouse Ray E. , Lustman Patrick J.
Published: May 2005

Objective:

To determine whether anxiety is associated with poor glycemic control in adults with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

Method:

MEDLINE, PubMed, and PsycINFO databases were used to locate studies that measured the association of anxiety with glycemic control. Meta-analytic procedures were used to convert the findings to a common metric, compute effect sizes (ES), and statistically analyze the collective data.

Results:

The search procedures identified 12 studies, 11 (92 percent) of which satisfied the criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis. In this overall group, anxiety was not associated with glycemic control ( p = 0.19), although the ES was marginally statistically significant (ES = .09, 95 percent CI = 0.04 to 0.14). In studies that determined anxiety from diagnostic interviews, anxiety was associated with hyperglycemia ( p = 0.003) and the ES was also statistically significant (ES: 0.25, 95 percent CI = 0.10 to 0.38).

Conclusions:

The existing literature suggests that anxiety disorders are associated with hyperglycemia in diabetic patients. Additional studies are required to confirm the magnitude of the relationship, to elucidate moderating and causal factors, and to determine whether successful treatment of anxiety improves glycemic control.
The Physician's Work and Marriage
Authors: Derdeyn Andre P.
Published: May 2005

Medicine and personality characteristics of its practitioners pose for physicians unique hazards to emotional health and marital satisfaction. The attempt to meet too many emotional needs in work may preclude adequate attention to personal and family problems. The physician should be more aware of his own and his family's emotional needs, and be less threatened by less-than-perfect adjustment in himself or other family members.

Suggestions include: teaching psychiatry on a developmental and adaptational model; offering marital groups in medical school; and encouraging the process of marital contracting and the use of marital therapy when emotional problems arise in either spouse. The understanding and resolution of emotional distress of one marital partner often requires the involvement of both, as people intimately attached to each other tend to have neither problems nor solutions in isolation.
Ideological Influences on Participatory Research in Occupational Health and Safety: A Review of the Literature
Authors: Moir Susan
Published: May 2005

Research and policy initiatives often cite the need for greater worker participation in reducing workplace hazards. However, the meaning and methods of participation are less clearly understood. To clarify the nature of worker participation in occupational health and safety (OHS), the various traditions are deconstructed in this review of the published literature. Three traditions influencing OHS emerged from larger social forces in the late 1950s and 1960s: the Scandinavian work environment movement, the Italian Workers' Model, and the Japanese model of participative management. The review is used to create a “genealogy” of worker participation in OHS, clarifying the effect of underlying political ideologies on management control, worker empowerment, and the levels and limits of participation in practice.
The Emotions of Apprentice Poets
Authors: Brand Alice G. , Chibnall John
Published: May 2005

Nineteen college poets completed a twenty-item check list that asked them how they felt about writing in general as well as before, at a pause, and after seven poetry writing sessions. The intensity with which they experienced positive, negative passive, and negative active emotions was assessed as was the frequency with which those emotions were experienced when writing in general. Results indicated that the positive emotions intensified during writing. Instructor-rated skilled poets experienced more positive emotions than their unskilled counterparts. But poets rating themselves as unskilled felt both more positive and negative active when writing than their skilled counterparts. Student poets unaccustomed to writing on their own experienced more intense emotions across the writing episodes than those with more years. Free writing was associated with more intense anxiety than structured poetry exercises. The rank orders of the emotion items suggested more emotional stability for poetry generated in an academic setting than generated at home.
Hypochondriasis: The Patient's Perspective
Authors: Persing J. Scott , Stuart Scott P. , Noyes Russell , Happel Rachel L.
Published: May 2005

Objective:

The purpose of this investigation was to learn how patients with hypochondriasis view their physicians and medical care.

Method:

To accomplish this, we identified 20 patients with DSM-III-R hypochondriasis and 26 nonhypochondriacal patients from a general medicine clinic. Using a semistructured interview, we obtained information from patients about their recent health problems and medical care. The investigators then reviewed transcribed interviews and assigned comments to a series of categories.

Results:

Hypochondriacal and non-hypochondriacal patients made equal numbers of positive comments, but hypochondriacal patients made significantly more negative comments about physicians' professional characteristics, characteristics of the patients themselves and total negative comments. Many viewed physicians they had seen as unskilled and uncaring. They indicated that, in many instances, their relationships with physicians had suffered from poor communication and collaboration.

Conclusion:

Since successful management of patients with hypochondriasis rests upon positive relationships, ways must be found to improve the frustrating and costly situation that currently exists.
The Pharmaceutical Market and Prescription Drugs in the Federal Republic of Germany: Cross-National Comparisons
Authors: Schicke R. K.
Published: May 2005

This paper examines the pharmaceutical market and prescription drug costs and consumption in the Federal Republic of Germany. Comparisons are made with the experience of other countries. It is argued that the pharmaceutical market in the Federal Republic is characterized by a relative abundance of pharmaceutical products and, as in other countries, is both limited by an inherently oligopolistic supply structure and modified by physician prescribing habits. The distribution system shows a tendency to supplier-administered prices owing to a noncompetitive retail structure, reinforced by the inclination of the statutory health insurance scheme toward price uniformity. Despite relatively higher promotional expenses than noted elsewhere, these factors are not conducive to the more meaningful price competition observed in some other countries with a more diversified distributive sector, such as the United States, or in other systems where tendencies toward oligopsony or near monopsony, e.g. Sweden and the United Kingdom, may provide some counterbalancing mechanisms aimed at the modification of retail prices. Recent per capita cost development is considered in the light of some cross-national comparisons. It is argued that in the countries studied, depending on the level of development, either a per prescription cost push or a cost increase pull due to increased utilization frequency is prevalent. This distinction would tend to refute the occasionally advocated view that cost increases are determined almost exclusively by increasing utilization, whether dynamically or as a function of time. In the Federal Republic, a relatively high level of utilization constitutes the main factor affecting the total per capita drug consumption cost. Nonetheless, owing to a comparatively lower per item cost, total costs are comparable to the outlay observed in some other countries. Both in the Federal Republic and in other countries with relatively stable utilization patterns, changes in the average per prescription cost may in the long run prove to be the dominant factor in the formation of total per capita costs for prescribed drugs.
Motorcycle Taxis and Road Safety in Southwestern Nigeria
Authors: Akinlade Olusanya C. , Brieger William R.
Published: May 2005

Motorcycles have become a major form of commercial transportation in Nigeria over the past decade, due in large part to the economic downturn which has placed the purchase and maintenance of new cars and minibuses beyond the grasp of most. The phenomenon began in the towns of Igbo-Ora and Eruwa in southwestern Oyo State, Nigeria around 1989, and has been observed to have important health risks while at the same time providing essential transportation. The study documented 81 road traffic accidents from hospital records in the town of Igbo-Ora in the six months preceding the survey. An observational component of the study documented that only one among 480 motorcyclists observed wore a helmet. Other safety problems included speed, failure to stop at a junction before entering a main road, wearing non-protective light clothing and slippers, carrying in excess of one passenger, and failure to make appropriate turn signals. Older drivers were observed to perform more safety behaviors than younger ones. A total of 267 commercial motorcycle (taxi) drivers (CMDs) were interviewed. Only 31% had some form of license (including learner permits), only 44.2% had seen a copy of the highway code, and 28.1% were reported to have consumed alcohol during short breaks from work. CMDs who had some form of license were older, owned their motorcycle, and had higher safety self-efficacy scores. Those who had seen the highway code, which is published in English, were more educated and had longer years of driving experience, higher safety self-efficacy scores, and greater road safety knowledge. Drinking alcohol during the workday was negatively associated with safety self-efficacy, safety opinion scores, and ownership of the motorcycle. Health education based in the CMD union, school health education, and public advocacy to make consumers/passengers aware of safety issues is recommended.
Attitudes toward Suicide Survivors as a Function of Survivors' Relationship to the Victim
Authors: Reynolds Francoise M. T. , Cimbolic Peter
Published: May 2005

This study examined attitudes toward suicide survivors. Two variables were assessed: the impact of information on attitudes toward suicide survivors and whether the survivor's relationship to the victim affects the attitudes of others towards the survivor. Sixty participants responded to one of three fictional case histories that described a child's suicide, a spouse's suicide, or a parent's suicide. Prior to reading case vignettes, thirty of the participants read an article about suicide; the other thirty read death-related but not suicide-related materials. Results indicated that suicide information did not affect attitudes toward survivors. Further results indicated that reactions to suicide survivors are generally negative and the relationship of survivors to victims affects these reactions. Children of victims were seen least negatively; parents of a child who died by suicide received the most negative reactions.
A Comparison of Visual versus Auditory Imagery in Predicting Word Recall
Authors: Tracy Robert J. , Barker Chris H.
Published: May 2005

A strong relationship exits between a word's capacity to evoke imagery and the word's recallability. Researchers have attributed this finding to visual imagery, generally neglecting to study other forms of imagery. This study examined the relationship between word imagery and recallability for both visual and auditory imagery. Introductory psychology students imagined a future trip to a beach and rated the visual imagery or the auditory imagery of various objects. For example, they rated, “How easy is it to see [or hear] the waves?” Subsequently, students free recalled the objects. Results showed that visual imagery and word recallability were positively related. In contrast, auditory imagery and recallability were curvilinearly related; objects rated as easy to hear (audible) or difficult to hear (nonaudible) were recalled better than objects of intermediate audibility. We concluded that when students tried to imagine hearing nonaudible objects, the objects became distinctive and consequently memorable. Further, a curvilinear relationship did not occur for visual imagery because the objects were visible. Other interpretations of mental imagery were also considered.
Burkean Invention in Technical Communication
Authors: Todd Jeff
Published: May 2005

This article supplements existing rhetorical scholarship by returning to the notion of invention as general preparation of the communicator. Although much scholarship about invention in technical communication exists, it consists mainly of heuristics, checklists, ethical considerations, and audience awareness. Part of invention is using basic strategies to prepare the communicator to assess any communication situation and its context and to generate the appropriate discourse. Rhetorician Kenneth Burke's theories of dialectic and rhetoric are a twentieth-century version of this; this article explains important Burkean strategies such as etymological extension, limits of agreement with the thesis, finding the complex in the simple, expanding the circumference, translation or alembication, the four master tropes, and the pentad, and it shows how to apply these in technical communication. The article closes with a classroom assignment that uses Burkean invention strategies.
Papers Show U.S. Role in Guatemalan Abuses
Authors: Farah Douglas , McMahon Jean
Published: May 2005

Recently declassified U.S. intelligence documents reveal the close ties between the United States and the Guatemalan military and security forces during Guatemala's 36-year civil war, even though U.S. officials were aware of the government's and army's massive human rights abuses.
Psychosomatic Research Today: A Clinician's Overview
Authors: Crisp Arthur H.
Published: May 2005

Emphasis is placed on the opportunities and importance, at this time, of continuing with clinically oriented psychosomatic research. For instance, the multidimensional studies of sleep and of depression are beginning to throw new light on psychosomatic processes, and so too are the studies of life events and illness. Short-term prospective clinical investigations provide an attractive framework for such work and they can be complementary to long-term survey studies investigating relationships between constitutional characteristics including personality, and social conditions and disease. There are some useful new tools for measuring psychological characteristics.
Gestalt Theory: A Foundation for Instructional Screen Design
Authors: Smith-Gratto Karen , Fisher Mercedes M.
Published: May 2005

The computer is used to present instruction more and more frequently. Computer-based instruction occurs via the stand-alone computer or workstation and via group presentations using LCD panels or digital projectors. It is important to consider how the screen presentation can be designed to help the learner. The Laws of Perception taken from Gestalt theory can inform how we can improve the screen design in order to make the presentation clearer and more helpful in the learning process. This article will give a poor screen example and then demonstrate how the Laws of Perception can be applied to improve the screen design. The laws discussed are figure-ground contrast, simplicity, proximity, similarity, symmetry, and closure.
Synthesizing Instructional Technologies and Educational Culture: Exploring Cognition and Metacognition in the Social Studies
Authors: Thornburg Devin G. , Pea Roy D.
Published: May 2005

This research was initiated to examine instructional technologies and educational cultures in relation to identified cognitive and metacognitive strategies used in school tasks. The project involved activities from the social studies curricula that were presented through two new software programs intended to support the development of problem-solving and reasoning strategies—IDEA [Interactive Decision Envisioning Aid, Pea (76)] and Notecards (34)—and through instructional approaches based upon “cognitive apprenticeship” views of learning [Collins, Brown, and Duguid (36)]. After piloting the project, ten high school juniors participated in instruction with these technologies and redesigned methods, composing essays about their selection of arguments about a candidate for U.S. President and about a “most important social issue.” Essays about these topics written prior, during and after the project were collected and analyzed for their reasoning, using the work of Toulmin (40) and Hillocks (46). In addition, the ongoing interactions of the students with the instructional technologies were recorded and analyzed to assess their cognitive and metacognitive strategies as they occurred. Quantitative analyses revealed significant ( p < .05) increases in the “breadth” and “depth” of students' reasoning in the “presidential candidate” essays as a result of the project (independently of the presented knowledge base), but little or no improvement in their reasoning in the “issue” essays (intended as transfer tasks). Data collected from students' ongoing use of the technologies is also analyzed and reported, including positive correlations (Rho = .68, Rho = .78) between written reasoning and interactions with the “executive control” functions of the software programs. These results, as well as qualitative findings, are discussed in relation to recent literature about cognition and learning with instructional technologies.
Death Concerns in Differential Levels of Consciousness as Functions of Defense Strategy and Religious Belief
Authors: Rosenheim Eliyahu , Muchnik Benjamin
Published: May 2005

This article explores the relationships between two independent variables, defensive style (repression-sensitization) and Jewish religiosity, and death concerns in the context of differential levels of awareness: conscious, preconscious and unconscious. The sample consisted of sixty-four Israeli students, ages nineteen to twenty-seven, of both sexes.

Methodologically, the study attempts to establish the usefulness of a multifaceted design, as compared to static, single variable relationships, in the study of death fear and anxiety. Empirically, it was found that the personality attribute of defensive style was linked systematically to death concern at all levels of consciousness, as predicted, in specific directions: sensitizers were more consciously fearful, while the opposite was true at nonconscious levels, in which repressors were more anxious about death. Religiosity was found to be less dominant in determining death concerns. Only unconsciously was there a difference between religious and nonreligious participants, the former being less anxious than the latter.
Tanning and Tanneries: An Introduction to Archaeology of the Leather Industry
Authors: Grobbel William B.
Published: May 2005

In his 1791 report on the state of manufactures and industries in the United States, Alexander Hamilton observed that there were “scarcely any manufactures of greater importance” (Welsh, 1964:13) than the leather tanning industry. The introduction and early history of this industry in North America was largely influenced by Old World traditions that developed during the medieval period. These traditions included methods of tanning, construction methods, and materials used to build tanneries, and even the places tanners chose to build their tanneries. Before these traditions can be explored, though, there needs to be an understanding of what tanning is, and how it is accomplished.
Science, Philosophy, and Society: Some Recent Books
Authors: Holtzman Eric
Published: May 2005

This essay discusses a number of issues developed in several recent books on philosophical and ethical problems in the natural sciences, both pure (especially biology) and applied (especially medicine). The scaffolding of the discussion can be outlined as follows: Science is most coherently portrayed as a set of activities through which societies deal with a distinctive, but continually evolving set of interwoven practical, empirical, and conceptual problems. Consequently, approaches which attempt to delineate universal features of “scientific methods” or to depict the sciences as providing an approximation to an “objective” view of reality are much less enlightening than are analyses rooted directly in concrete scientific history and in the actual interplay of science with other social configurations. However, scientists are granted some meaningful autonomy in exercising their “curiosity” and there is a real sense in which scientific ideas and activities do possess momentum of their own. In other words, as is also true for other spheres, such as the arts, it is important not to fall into mechanical viewpoints which treat the movement of science as simply a derivative of forces generated elsewhere.
Reweaving the Social Fabric: Antecedents of Social Support Facilitation
Authors: Pilisuk Marc , Chandler Susan , D'Onofrio Carole
Published: May 2005

Contemporary society leaves many individuals without a continuing support group. Continued integration into a network of supportive social relationships is demonstrably related to the prevention of breakdown in health in the widest variety of mental and physical forms. Yet the task of assuring continuity of supportive relationships has not been central to any professional discipline. The facilitation of social support is likely to become more central to community health education.

To address this issue we examine seven different forms of intervention which address the problem of augmenting supportive relationships. The goal is to extract the essence of the professional role in the provision of social support and to suggest its relevance to community health education.
Leadership, Teamwork, and the Professional Writing Class
Authors: Gellis Mark
Published: May 2005

This article argues that examining leaders and leadership techniques is a valid subject for technical and professional writing and communication classes. The article describes an assignment for studying leadership and provides related instructional materials.
Videodiscs, Videocassettes and Film Study
Authors: Porter Della
Published: May 2005

This paper describes the video equipment now available or soon to be available whereby feature films in a video format can be used for film study instruction. Equipment characteristics are compared and specific instructional applications are explained. Some advantages and some problems associated with the use of video copies are discussed.