bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Development of the Nursing Labor Force in the United States: A Basic Analysis
Authors: Cannings Kathleen , Lazonick William
Published: May 2005

In this article, we draw together some basic material on the objective character of the nursing labor force in the United States. First, we present a statistical and descriptive picture of the nursing labor force as it exists today. Then we analyze the historical development of that labor force up to about 1950, stressing its general integration into a hierarchical and concentrated health industry. Finally, we look at the development of the nursing labor force over the past 25 years in terms of factors such as sex, race, age, educational credentials, labor force participation, place of work, and the hierarchical division of labor, discussing the general implications of the changes in these factors for worker organization in the health industry. Our main conclusion is that the nursing labor force is in a key position to lead a movement for the restructuring of the health industry to serve the health needs of the American people rather than the profit and power requirements of the health employers. The primary, and difficult, task ahead is to build labor organizations which will have the vision and unity to work toward this goal.
Book Reviews in Primary Journals
Authors: Manten A. A.
Published: May 2005

Some general rules are given that may be followed in the editorial policy concerning the publication of book reviews in primary scientific and technological journals and the writing of such reviews.
The HIV-Positive Psychiatric Patient and the Duty to Protect: Ethical and Legal Issues
Authors: Searight H. Russell , Pound Patricia
Published: May 2005

A small, yet significant, percentage of HIV-positive patients have a concomitant psychiatric or neurological disorder associated with impaired judgment. Clinical problems such as psychoses, certain personality disorders, and dementias are associated with disinhibition of impulses and diminished capacity for self-monitoring. These deficits in reasoning and judgment may prevent the patient from comprehending the significance of their HIV status and the consequences of sexual behavior or needle sharing. There are indications that the Tarasoff duty-to-protect may apply to this situation.

Method:

Available data about the prevalence of HIV risk behavior and HIV infection among psychiatric patients are reviewed. The applicability to these situations is described.

Results:

When an HIV patient engages in high risk sexual behavior with identifiable partners and refuses to notify them of their HIV status, physicians and mental health professionals may have a legal and ethical duty to warn.

Conclusion:

A decision model for this clinical dilemma is presented. Clinical strategies for these patients may include ongoing supervision and monitoring as well as possible quarantine.
Library Networks—A Technological System Whose Time Has Come
Authors: Moore David M.
Published: May 2005

Technology systems which have begun to make a tremendous impact in an area not noted for its technological background are library networks. Everyone is aware of the so-called “information explosion” and many if not most libraries are not able to afford or have space to store the new information. Users are finding it much more time consuming to locate needed materials. Thus, library sharing or its technological equivalent-computerized networks are becoming popular. This article is an overview of what they are, what they are not, their advantages and disadvantages. The time may be fast approaching when a library is judged, not by the number of books, but by its services to its users.
Explorations in Feminist Ideology: Surprising Consistencies and Unexamined Conflicts
Authors: Unger Rhoda K.
Published: May 2005

The world view of a sample of feminist leaders within psychology was investigated and compared to a sample of faculty members at a local state college and of students enrolled in courses on women at that college. Results indicated that feminists leaders differ most from other groups in terms of their beliefs about biological causality and the way in which science works. They are also more socially constructionist in their viewpoint than other groups. Data are consistent with other findings indicating differences in covert ideological assumptions in scholars differing in theoretical orientation. It is suggested that what information one accepts as confirming “reality” may be more a matter of interpretation than of conflicting evidence.
French and English Rhymes Compared
Authors: Scott Clive
Published: May 2005

The richness and complexity of rhyme has to a great extent been ignored. This article first examines the structural role of rhymes within metrics, illuminating its contrasted role in French and English verse. Linguistic differences and their consequences for the exploitation of various rhyme schemes in French and English are also examined—for example through a discussion of the role of rhyme in French classical drama as compared to English Restoration drama. The semantic and pragmatic consequences of rhyme are also addressed, with special emphasis on the comparative anatomy of rhyme words (morphemes, suffixes, endings) and the changed significance of rhyme with the advent of free verse.
A Web-Based Model for University Instruction
Authors: Duchastel Philip
Published: May 2005

The Web as a new phenomenon in the information landscape of the university is being used to support course instruction. In most cases, however, the Web is used in support of a traditional model of university instruction and much of the potential of the Web is lost. An innovative model of Web-based university instruction is presented that more fully expresses and uses the power of the Web in opening up the interaction between student and knowledge. The model is a generic 6-point process that involves a new approach to university teaching and learning.
Evaluation of Medical-Psychiatric Consultation
Authors: Sasser Michael , Kinzie J. David
Published: May 2005

This report describes four approaches to the evaluation of hospital psychiatric consultation. These are: 1) a survey of actual consultation use; 2) a house staff attitudinal survey; 3) a patient chart review; and 4) a patient questionnaire. The findings of this project and those previously reported are: 1) The psychiatric consultation is under-utilized and a large number of house staff find it not useful. 2) The psychiatric and non-psychiatric house staff view the functions of consultation in markedly different ways. 3) A high percentage of written consultation reports are too vague to determine if the needs of the referring physician were met. 4) Patients usually respond positively to psychiatric consultation. The implications of these findings are discussed in this report.
Antidepressant Drug Therapy in the Elderly: Enhancing Safety and Compliance
Authors: Halaris Angelos
Published: May 2005

This review article addresses some of the complex issues surrounding antidepressant drug usage among elderly depressives. While primarily geared toward the psychiatrist in general practice, the article provides useful information for the nonpsychiatric physician who is frequently called upon to evaluate and treat affective disorders in the geriatric population. Since tricyclic antidepressants and lithium are the most commonly used psychotropic drugs in the treatment of depression, their side effects and adverse reactions are discussed specifically as these relate to the elderly. Suggestions are offered on how to improve safety and enhance compliance. Brief mention is made of the monoamine oxidase inhibitors and the second generation antidepressants. Dose ranges are recommended for use of these agents in geriatric patients. Finally, a section of the article reviews the most commonly encountered drug interactions between tricyclic and a variety of other psychotropic and nonpsychotropic drugs.
What is the Lady Really Smiling About? Mona Lisa's Secret Admirers
Authors: Langerholc John
Published: May 2005

The world's most famous work of art owes its subtle fascination, usually held to be inexplicable, to the subliminal embedding of a large number and variety of male faces in the Mona Lisa's clothes and hair as well as in the surrounding land and cloudscape. This is not an isolated instance of an unconscious or accidental process, but shows all the wit, craftsmanship and sophistication we have by other means come to expect of Leonardo da Vinci. Although all the great masters seem to have clearly recognized and imitated this trick, it seems to have completely escaped the notice of academic art criticism, which generally begins recognizing facial alternatives in Arcimboldi and then skips over the centuries to Picasso or Dali. The father of modern art was impressed by a painting full of embedded faces and, realizing the extent to which practically all visual art owes its “ineffable” fascination to this simple technique, evolved the notion of “abstract art” by the simple expedient of gradually eliminating the main Gestalt. Having the key to artistic success within their grasp, Freudians vastly underestimated the extent of its use as well as its relevance to the impact of an art work. Their insistence on interpreting it as an automatic manifestation from the secret recesses of the artist's unconscious mind prevented them from seeing it as a calculated toying with one of the beholder's principal higher order feature detectors, the specialist face processor.
Mechanization, the Labor Process, and Injury Risks in the Canadian Meat Packing Industry
Authors: Novek Joel , Yassi Annalee , Spiegel Jerry
Published: May 2005

During the 1980s, Canada's major manufacturing industries experienced considerable financial restructuring and technological transformation, largely in response to recessionary pressures. At the same time, the rate of lost-time injuries in Canadian manufacturing rose steadily. This article explores the relationship between these sets of factors. The meat packing industry has been selected as a case study of the interaction between industrial organization, the labor process, and the risk of workplace injuries. The authors suggest that the following factors have contributed to high and rising injury rates in the meat industry during the 1980s: consolidation into a smaller number of large, highly specialized, and mechanized plants; deteriorating labor relations in the face of falling profits; and an intensified labor process stressing line speedups and a growing risk of repetitive strain injuries. These observations are supported by a detailed analysis of the relationship between the labor process and workplace injuries at one packing plant considered typical for the industry.
The Stream of Consciousness: XXIII. James Contra the Intellectualists (First Part)
Authors: Natsoulas Thomas
Published: May 2005

James distinguished the states of consciousness that successively constitute a stream of consciousness from how they appear to inner awareness. For one thing, the stream has a discrete temporal structure whereas its basic durational components inwardly seem continuous, each with the next one: partly because the stream never abruptly changes in all of the features of its content. States of consciousness that James called “transitive” apprehend objective relations existing between items apprehended successively. The Intellectualists claimed that states of the mundane Jamesian qualitative kind cannot provide awareness of relations and they introduced purely conceptualizing mental states to do the job from on high. James formulated a number of cogent opposing arguments: some of these are discussed in the present article. These arguments may well prove useful, too, against an understanding of consciousness that has been advanced recently in a neuro-psychological context. More extremely than the Intellectualists, the advocate of this conception maintains that any mental stream, whether animal or human, consists entirely of acts of commentary.
Stereotypes of Ageing: Messages Promoted by Age-Specific Paper Birthday Cards Available in Canada
Authors: Ellis Shannon R. , Morrison Todd G.
Published: May 2005

Birthday cards are a ceremonial token that may purposefully or unintentionally transmit stereotypes about the ageing process. In the current study, the authors examined 150 age-specific paper birthday cards sold in retail outlets located in a small metropolitan area. Results suggest that a greater proportion of the cards' textual messages represented ageing in a negative manner (66.7%). Further, the negativity of these written messages did not appear to vary as a function of the intended recipient's chronological age or sex. The findings are compared to those of previous studies conducted in this area. As well, limitations and directions for future research are outlined.
Dephrase: Use Verbs
Authors: Whittaker Della A.
Published: May 2005

Technical writers modify their main ideas with prepositional phrases. But their use of an abundance of phrases can result in overmodification and misplacement of modifiers, which can lead to obscuration of meanings and confusion to readers. The writers should reduce such phrasing, strengthen their verbs, and thus clarify their main ideas.
Validation of a Scale for Measuring Attitudes toward Psychiatry in Medicine
Authors: Klos D. M. , Dielman T. E. , Curtis G. C. , Krol R. A.
Published: May 2005

An 80-item scale for measuring attitudes toward psychiatry in medicine was developed and tested. Item selection from the initial 160 items was based on factor analysis and internal consistency of the eight resulting subscales, six subscales exhibiting Cronbach Alpha coefficients ranging from .79 to .95, with two showing coefficients of .57 and .59.

The subscales were sensitive to differences in medical specialty, with consultation-liaison psychiatrists exhibiting the most favorable attitudes and highly specialized physicians showing the least. The subscales correlated significantly with subscales of the Zimny Medical Specialties Preference Inventory related to preference for psychosocial and non-specialized medical activities.
Interactive Video: Integrating Design “Levels” and Hardware “Levels”
Authors: Gayeski Diane M.
Published: May 2005

As interactive video technologies become more widespread and diverse, it becomes more difficult for potential designers/users to categorize and select appropriate hardware/software systems. Until now, taxonomies have dealt exclusively with videodisc hardware “levels;” this article presents a model which integrates design and hardware attributes for both videotape and videodisc technologies and incorporates a wider range of equipment and presentation/testing strategies.
Post-Loss Adjustment and Funeral Perceptions of Parentally Bereaved Adolescents and Adults
Authors: Servaty-Seib Heather L. , Hayslip Bert
Published: May 2005

To explore the differential impact that a parent's death would have on persons who vary in age, 84 parentally bereaved adolescents and 79 parentally bereaved adults completed the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist, in addition to answering questions regarding their perceptions of the parent's funeral. Results suggested more intense grief reactions and more negative interpersonal perceptions among bereaved adolescents. Moreover, this younger group reported less positive perceptions of their parents' funerals. These findings point to greater sensitivity of adolescents to the death of a parent, and underscore the importance of investigating the availability, timeliness, and efficacy of social support and interventions designed to lessen loneliness and isolation from others when a parent dies during this life phase.
Reactions to Death as a Function of Perceived Similarity to the Deceased
Authors: Smith Robert J. , Lingle John H. , Brock Timothy C.
Published: May 2005

This study investigated reactions to the death of a similar or dissimilar person. Sixty females met and evaluated a confederate who was presented as similar or dissimilar to themselves. Participants returned for a second session and were informed of the confederate's fate (death, accident or no show). No differences were found in changes in perceptions of similarity and attractiveness of the victim. There were also no differences in verbal denial of the victim's misfortune. Results of a viewing time measure indicated that people spent less time viewing the victim's pictures when he was dead and similar. The limitations of the paradigm were discussed.
Paying the Hospital: American Problems and Foreign Solutions
Authors: Glaser William A.
Published: May 2005

Hospital financing in the United States suffers from many problems. Many persons lack access because they lack third-party coverage. Among those covered, benefits vary, and persons receive unequal services. Costs are high and are uncontrolled. The hospital is burdened by complicated relations with many payers. In order to cover their costs and earn extra cash, hospitals overcharge the more generous third parties, and recriminations result. All other developed countries have either statutory health insurance, national health services, or full public financing of privately managed hospitals. Whatever the financing method, all countries avoid the problems prevailing in the United States. All citizens are covered, all have access, and hospitals reject no one for financial reasons. All citizens have equal benefits and receive the same basic services. Regulation by government and negotiations with health insurance carriers guarantee the hospital's operating costs to service its catchment area adequately, but also prevent the hospital from installing excessive equipment and excessive staff. Each hospital is paid by all-payer standard rates, administration of reimbursement is simple, and shifting of costs among payers is both unnecessary and administratively impossible. Costs are contained by the total management of the system, not by fragmented efforts by separate insurance carriers. Considerable strategic thinking by government, the providers, and other interest groups sets guidelines for spending levels every year to meet the country's clinical needs but also to stay within its fiscal capacity. Capital investment for new treatments depends on government grants and evaluation of needs.
The Electronic Blackboard: Potential for the Developing World's Education
Authors: David Brother Austin
Published: May 2005

After briefly reviewing the history of computer technology used for instruction, the author introduces the concept of collectivized computer assisted instruction. Here the focus is on the use of the microcomputer as a tool for group instruction as opposed to the individualized instruction developed in early C.A.I. efforts.

Several possible scenarios of execution are examined and the potential use of microcomputer technology together with satellite communications is explored. The author then questions traditional instructional strategies which treat students as “single channel processors” while with instructional technology they could be instructed as “multi-channel processors” which indeed humans really are.
Educational Technology and Alternatives to Traditional Lecturing
Authors: Das Ishwar , Agrawal Namita , Pushkarna Anal
Published: May 2005

A large number of evidence has been accumulated regarding the effectiveness of audio-visual aids and Computer Assisted Instructions for teaching and learning, both in lectures and laboratories. Applications of videotape, videodisc, microcomputer, and TRS-80 are discussed and a few suggestions given.
Profile of Latino Health and Implications for Health Education
Authors: Alcalay Rina , Sabogal Fabio , Gribble Joanne R.
Published: May 2005

Latinos are the fastest growing population in the United States. Yet in spite of their growing numbers, the health needs of Latinos are not met, they lack adequate access to health care and lack appropriate health education interventions. This article discusses key factors to be considered in dealing effectively with the health education needs of Latinos. These factors include demographic characteristics of this population; acculturation and its relationship to health practices; major health issues among Latinos and beliefs and practices which influence Latino health. Communication strategies most widely used by Latinos and most credible sources of health information are discussed. Recommendations for effective communication strategies to reach Latinos with culturally appropriate health messages are presented.
Plastic Language for Plastic Science: The Rhetoric of Comrade Lysenko
Authors: Dombrowski Paul M.
Published: May 2005

Rhetoric of science reveals the role of rhetoric in the complex social enterprise that is standard science. Rhetoric plays a role in non-standard science too. The recent elucidation of the human genetic code calls to mind an earlier, tragic episode in the history of genetics, Lysenkoism in Stalinist Russia. It involved the repudiation of standard science in favor of an insular, intuitive, and anti-intellectual “science” called agrobiology which supposedly could shape agricultural productivity to political will. The tragedy is that careers were ruined and millions suffered starvation as the new “science” failed to bear its predicted fruit. Whether seen as a debased rhetoric of science or as a rhetoric of debased science, it assumed that language is plastic and can support a plastically reconceived “science” that reflected the plasticity of nature itself. This plastic rhetoric is strikingly similar to Plato's view of sophism, which of course differs considerably from contemporary views of sophism.
The Micropolitics of Medicine: A Contextual Analysis
Authors: Waitzkin Howard
Published: May 2005

Certain features of the doctor-patient encounter “medicalize,” and thereby depoliticize, the social structural roots of personal suffering. The critique of medicalization holds that medicine has become an institution of social control, that the health care system helps promulgate the dominant ideologies of a society, and that the doctor-patient relationship is a major site where these developments occur. This paper presents a contextual analysis of medical encounters, drawn from a sample of tape-recorded doctor-patient interaction in medical practice. The doctor-patient relationship manifests problems that arise despite the best conscious intents of well-motivated participants. Conveying the symbolism of scientific medicine, messages of ideology and social control reinforce current relations of economic production and reproduction in work, the family, leisure, pleasure, sexuality, and other areas of social life. Ambiguities within the doctor-patient relationship both reflect and help reproduce broader social contradictions and structures of oppression. The medical encounter is one arena where the dominant ideologies of a society are reinforced and where individuals' acquiescence is sought. A vision of a progressive doctor-patient relationship must include a conception of how that relationship contributes to fundamental social change.
The Right to Die: Healthcare Workers' Attitudes Compared with a National Public Poll
Authors: Walker Gail C.
Published: May 2005

Attitudes toward the right to die were investigated for hospital nurses and findings compared with a national poll. Both the general public and healthcare workers endorse an individual's right to self-determination. Nursing staff reported significant agreement that there are circumstances in which a person should be allowed to die, people have the right to make their own healthcare decisions, they would stop treatment if they were in great pain or unable to function, and the hospital or doctor should be held legally responsible if a patient's instruction to withhold life-sustaining treatment was ignored. Nurses reported significant disagreement that staff often disregard patient's instructions, that the killing of a spouse in pain can be justified, and people have a moral right to end their own lives if they have become a burden or life has become a burden.
From Equal Access to Health Care to Equitable Access to Health: A Review of Canadian Provincial Health Commissions and Reports
Authors: Mhatr Sharmila L. , Deber Raisa B.
Published: May 2005

Having achieved equality of access to health care, Canadian policymakers are setting new policy goals, within resource constraints, primarily to achieve equity of access to health. Across the country, provincial royal commissions have explored a number of policy options to achieve this goal. These options are reviewed and critically analyzed within the context of such challenges in health policy as insufficient access to high-technology care and the limits of medical care, and such external challenges as economic and demographic trends, federal-provincial disputes, and ideological beliefs. Particular attention is given to the implications of a broader definition of health and the concept of regional health authorities. Based on the provincial reviews, the authors conclude that Canada wants to achieve equitable access to health. With the shift of health policy away from the formerly protected arena of medical care, achieving equitable access to health will require both an alteration of priorities and values and considerable political will. Canada will be forced to meet these new challenges to maintain current achievements and to make its system even more successful.
Winners and Losers in Flexible Labor Markets: The Fate of Women with Chronic Illness in Contrasting Policy Environments—Sweden and Britain
Authors: Burström Bo , Holland Paula , Diderichsen Finn , Whitehead Margaret
Published: May 2005

This study compares employment rates among men and women with and without chronic illness in the contrasting policy environments of Britain and Sweden, through analysis of household surveys for 1979–1995. Professional and managerial groups were winners in both countries, including during recession. By the 1990s, employment rates for healthy Swedish women were uniformly high across the social groups and almost comparable with those of their male counterparts; rates for women and men with a chronic illness were also comparable, albeit at a lower overall rate. The greatest losers were male and female unskilled manual workers in Britain. British women with a chronic illness in the 1990s had less than half the employment rates of healthy women. Such social inequalities were much smaller and less consistent in Sweden, where the impact of illness was softened for all social groups. In Britain, workless men tended to be classed as unemployed or permanently sick, while workless women were more likely to be classed as looking after home/family. Lesser differences were seen in Sweden. No evidence was found to support the hypothesis that women in general, and the less skilled and sick in particular, would be the winners in a more flexible, less regulated labor market—quite the reverse.
Illustrating Caffeine's Pharmacological and Expectancy Effects Utilizing a Balanced Placebo Design
Authors: Lotshaw Sandra C. , Bradley John R. , Brooks Lisa R.
Published: May 2005

Caffeine consumption, a ubiquitous cultural phenomenon with significant health implications may be governed by some of the same principles which affect other drug use [1]. We hypothesized that pharmacological and expectancy effects may be two of those principles. A balanced placebo design was used with 100 male undergraduates to separate caffeine's active drug effects from the expectancy of having consumed caffeine on mood, performance, and physiological measures. The manipulation of expectancies was highly effective on subjects' judgments of caffeine dosage, regardless of actual caffeine content. As predicted, expectancy set and caffeine content appeared equally powerful, and worked additively, to affect subjects' ratings of how much the coffee influenced their mood and performance. Main effects on systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse rate, and a fatigue measure were found for caffeine vs. no caffeine groups only. Additional increases in diastolic blood pressure for smokers were noted within the caffeine-receiving conditions. Results are discussed with heuristic and health implications.
Death after Widow(er)hood: An Analysis of Mortality Rates up to 13 Years after Bereavement
Authors: Bowling Ann , Windsor Joy
Published: May 2005

The mortality rates of a national random sample of 503 elderly people who were widowed in 1979 were analyzed. Over the thirteen and a quarter year period analyzed, 62 percent of the sample had died. Although earlier analyses had indicated excess mortality in the first six months of bereavement for men aged 75+, there were no further significant excess mortality rates over the thirteen and a quarter year period analyzed. The data were analyzed by fitting Cox's proportional hazard regression model to the widowed's survival time for factors predicting survival time. The best fitting model for males and females indicated that risk of mortality at each period was associated with older age, male sex, and poorer functional ability (measured in 1979). Frequency of telephone contacts as a risk factor for survival period was only significant for the younger widowed.
International Comparison of Health Services Systems: An Annotated Bibliography
Authors: Kohn R. , Radius S.
Published: May 2005

This bibliography lists references to selected publications facilitating cross-national comparisons of health services systems. Originally assembled for a graduate-level seminar, the bibliography grew to its present scope through a series of literature searches, including the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (MEDLARS) search of the National Library of Medicine. Currently, this bibliography presents only English language sources. It consists of an annotated bibliography of selected books, including both national and cross-national studies. Because of limitations imposed by size, selectivity was necessarily exercised in choosing subject areas as well as individual entries within the bibliography. The bibliography will be kept up to date, and in the future it will be expanded to incorporate new publications, non-English sources, and suggestions from readers.
Who Engages in Health Protective Behaviors? A Replication
Authors: Kurz Richard S. , Wolinsky Fredric D.
Published: May 2005

The purpose of this article is to replicate Berkanovic's study suggesting that general health orientations are weak mediators of the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics and health protective behaviors, and thus, health education campaigns attempting to alter health orientations in target populations would have little effect on health protective behaviors. Our methodology is similar to that used by Berkanovic although additional sociodemographic factors as well as measures of general health orientations are included in the analysis of the three types of health protective behaviors (i.e., voluntary life style change, physician recommended life style change, and physician recommended treatment). Our results support Berkanovic's earlier view. The effect of attitudes toward physicians on asymptomatic life style change is also considered, and the implications for health education are discussed.
The Class Analysis of Poverty: A Response to Erik Olin Wright
Authors: Novak Tony
Published: May 2005

In Erik Olin Wright's recent essay “The Class Analysis of Poverty,” his principal argument was about the centrality of class for understanding and analyzing poverty. While agreeing with this central argument, the author of this article takes issue with Wright's analysis of class relations and in particular the position of the so-called underclass. The author offers instead an analysis that identifies poverty as a peculiar feature of capitalism and its class relationships, pointing to the need for a broader understanding of poverty and of the political forces that need to be mobilized for its eradication.
Online Course Delivery: Issues of Faculty Development
Authors: Lawrence Betty Hurley
Published: May 2005

An exciting option for distance education programs is to incorporate the use of computer conferencing. Yet, the adoption of this format has implications for course delivery. Two essential factors need to be taken into consideration: the increased flexibility provided by the format and the opportunity for student-student interaction. Increased flexibility comes from the ability to introduce new material through the conference that complements the contents of the accompanying text and course guide. Opportunity for increased interaction brings the challenge to make this interaction effective and beneficial. As more faculty move to use online delivery, they need assistance so they can make the most of the advantages of this environment. The Center for Distance Learning of SUNY Empire State College has been offering online courses for a number of years and has recently been developing workshops and materials to facilitate faculty development in this area.
Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors: Prescription and Patient Management
Authors: Sheehan David V. , Claycomb J. Barry , Kouretas Nicholas
Published: May 2005

The historical roots of the current avoidance of MAOIs are reviewed. A practical approach to the careful prescription of MAOIs is outlined. Medical contraindications, side effects and their management and drug and food interactions with MAOIs are discussed. With careful patient selection, adequate caution by the physician, and appropriate preparation of the patient, MAOIs are often uniquely effective (as in endogenous anxiety) and have an acceptably low potential for serious toxicity.
Thought Sampling after Mood Induction in Depressed vs. Non-Depressed College Students
Authors: Josephson Braden R. , Rose Raphael D. , Singer Jefferson A.
Published: May 2005

This study combines a mood induction procedure with a thought sampling strategy to assess the effect of mood on spontaneous cognition in a sample of depressed and non-depressed undergraduates. A total of eighty-five Hofstra University psychology students completed the Beck Depression Inventory and then returned for a second experimental session two weeks later. After assigning depressed (BDI > 10) and non-depressed (BDI < 4) participants in equal numbers to sad and neutral mood induction conditions, the experimenter measured baseline mood and then showed either a sad or neutral video clip. After mood induction, participants were buzzed randomly for a fifteen-minute period and asked to speak their thoughts aloud. Results showed that across both conditions, participants' mood correlated with thought content at the end of the sampling period. Thought content correlated with BDI scores from two weeks earlier and depressed individuals had more overall negative thought content. In contrast to previous findings of mood congruency, thought content sampled immediately after mood induction was not congruent. Non-depressed individuals did not show evidence of mood repair in spontaneous thought content. Implications for multi-modal assessment of mood congruency are discussed.
Maintenance of Community Change: Enforcing Youth Access to Tobacco Laws
Authors: Jason Leonard A. , Pokorny Steven B. , Kunz Charlotte , Adams Monica
Published: May 2005

Youth access to tobacco remains a significant problem for this nation. Methods have been developed to reduce youth access to commercial outlets and these involve enforcement efforts of monitoring and fining merchant offenders. In the present study, over a three year period of time, readiness to participate in these types of enforcement programs were assessed in 11 communities. Several years after the research study was completed, enforcement activities were re-assessed. Findings indicated that those communities that had made the largest changes in community readiness to enforce youth access laws during the three year intervention were the ones most likely to continue enforcement activities into the follow-up period. There is a need to better understand how youth access to tobacco community-based interventions can be maintained.
Toward a Student Workstation: Extensions to the Logo Environment
Authors: Heller Rachelle S.
Published: May 2005

Programming is seen as a worthwhile activity to include the school curriculum. The programming language often selected for this activity is LOGO. While children enjoy using LOGO, studies have indicated that children are often frustrated by their programming experience and though the children may understand the syntax of the LOGO commands, often they do not gather an understanding of the semantics of the same commands. This article describes the results of the testing of a workstation environment that was built to eliminate some of these frustrations. The results show that when students are provided with an online practice window they can deepen their understanding of the semantics of LOGO commands. In addition, the workstation seems to allow children more opportunities to explore LOGO as evidenced by the more complicated programming products produced by those students who used the workstation.
The Effects of Teacher Social Presence on Student Satisfaction, Engagement, and Learning
Authors: Wise Alyssa , Chang Juyu , Duffy Thomas , Del Valle Rodrigo
Published: May 2005

This research experimentally manipulated the social presence cues in instructor's messages to students. The context was an online professional development one-credit course with one-to-one mentoring of students. Additionally, student learning intentions and levels of trust were examined as factors that may mitigate the effects of social presence. Results indicate that social presence affects the learner's interactions and perception of the instructor but has no effect on perceived learning, satisfaction, engagement, or the quality of their final course product. These findings suggest social presence is a correlational rather than a causal variable associated with student learning. Exploratory analyses suggest that trust and learning intentions are potentially important factors impacting student perceptions of the learning environment and performance in the course respectively.
The Experimental Manipulation of Death Attitudes: A Preliminary Investigation
Authors: Bell Bill D.
Published: May 2005

This study utilized an experimental format to examine the influence of a course on death and dying on the death attitudes of college students in a mid-southern university. The experimental group (N = 24) consisted of those who had pre-enrolled for the course in question. The control group (N = 50) was chosen at random from the student population. The experimental group was exposed to an 18-week course on the social aspects of death and dying. Pre- and post-test measures of death attitudes were obtained. The data indicate significant changes in the cognitive attitudinal component of those in the experimental group. These individuals entertained more frequent thoughts of death and manifested a greater amount of interest in death-related discussions than was true of the control group. Items constituting the affective dimension, however, were not appreciably changed by experimental procedures. Both groups indicated approximately the same degree of fear in relation to death, and expressed similar feelings toward discussing their own or a close friend's death with other persons.
From Qualitative Community Data Collection to Program Design: Health Education Planning in Niger
Authors: Aubel Judi , Alzouma El Hadj Mamadou , Djabel Ibrahim , Ibrahim Sani , Coulibaly Boubacar
Published: May 2005

In order to develop health education programs which are adapted to specific sociocultural contexts, in-depth, qualitative data are necessary for program planning. For this purpose, informal data collection techniques are often more appropriate than conventional, formal research methods. In addition to the type of data collection used as a basis for program planning, three other aspects of the program planning process contribute to the quality of programs developed: who is involved in preliminary data collection and program planning; the degree of contact between program planners and target communities; whether program planning is viewed as a top-down, mechanical process or as a collaborative, problem-solving process. This article describes the methodology used to develop a diarrhoeal disease health education program in the Zinder region of Niger in which particular attention was given to these four aspects of the planning process.
What is Learned in an After-School Computer Club?
Authors: Mayer Richard E. , Quilici Jill L. , Moreno Roxana
Published: May 2005

An after-school computer club was developed in which language-minority children learned to master a series of educational computer games through reading instructions, interacting with peers, and interacting with adult mentors. Did twenty-five elementary school children who regularly participated in an after-school computer club during an academic year (treatment group) learn generalizable problem-solving skills as compared to twenty-five non-participating peers who were matched for grade level, gender, and English language proficiency (comparison group)? Based on a dynamic assessment given at the end of the academic year, treatment students were more successful than comparison students in learning how to play a new educational computer game that was presented as a paper-and-pencil mathematics puzzle learning task. This study shows how an informal educational environment can foster generalizable problem-solving skills that transfer to learning in a school environment.
Beechem Risk Inventory for Late-Onset Alcoholism
Authors: Beechem Michael
Published: May 2005

This group study features an at-risk inventory administered to ninety-six respondents. The principle purposes of this study were: 1) to design a “user-friendly” assessment tool to identify elderly persons who may be at risk for drinking problems and/or late-life alcoholism; and 2) to identify unresolved loss-grief issues that will need to be addressed in the treatment phase. For each of the loss items, the respondent indicates whether the loss occurred at “(A) Age Fifty-Four and Younger” or “(B) Age Fifty-Five and Older.” The respondent also subjectively indicates the extent to which he/she feels the intensity of the loss at the moment (i.e., in the “here and now”). An additional feature of the inventory illustrates a simplified procedure to compute the respondent's unresolved loss-grief level through use of a 5-point Likert scale.
Trends in Financial Satisfaction: Does Poverty Make a Difference?
Authors: Hsieh Chang-Ming
Published: May 2005

Gerontological studies on financial satisfaction have been limited by the dearth of longitudinal research and the lack of research that includes the concept of poverty. In order to bridge these gaps, this longitudinal study examines and compares the intracohort and intercohort effects on financial satisfaction trends by poverty status among Americans age 45 and above, using data from the General Social Surveys. The results suggest that for both the poor and the non-poor, changes in financial satisfaction trends are mostly due to strong negative intercohort effects, indicating that younger cohorts are less satisfied financially than the older ones. There appears to be a significant difference in the intercohort effects of financial satisfaction trends between the poor and the non-poor. However, such difference can be accounted for by the differences in the effects of education and social comparison (or relative deprivation) on financial satisfaction between the poor and the non-poor.
Style and the Effective Engineer
Authors: Borger David L.
Published: May 2005

Looking back to a time when he was a student in technical writing courses, the author discusses the importance to the practicing engineer of style and correctness in communication. He cites the characteristics of an effective style. This is followed by the problems of grammar and the ways to attain reader interest.
Satellite Technology for Education Distribution
Authors: Campbell Jack M.
Published: May 2005

A new delivery system for transmitting educational programs is discussed. The use of satellite technology to bring much needed information, such as career education messages to remote areas of Rocky Mountain States is the subject of this paper. Both software and hardware aspects of this demonstration project are discussed.
Technical Writing and the Recreation of Reality
Authors: Samuels Marilyn Schauer
Published: May 2005

Technical writing is one kind of creative writing. Using knowledge of facts, audience, and situation, the technical writer recreates reality in a technical report. Concepts of reality and creativity currently operative in philosophy, the physical sciences, cognitive and developmental psychology, history of science, rhetoric, and linguistics provide a theoretical basis for this creative approach to technical writing and confirm that imagining and reasoning are related rather than mutually exclusive thought processes.
Alternative Learning: A Self-Paced Microcomputer Application Course
Authors: Creighton Walter , Kilcoyne Margaret
Published: May 2005

In the Spring of 1996, a microcomputer applications course was offered using the self-paced method of instruction. It was implemented to allow more students to enroll in the course and to reduce the number of faculty necessary to teach the course. Of the 204 students enrolled at the beginning of the semester, 128 finished the assignments, 40 withdrew, 35 did not finish, and 1 audited. Fifty-two received a letter grade A and fifty-three received a letter grade B. Eighty-seven of the 204 students completed usable paired questionnaires before and after completion of the course. These findings of the students' self-reported perceived level of expertise in word processing and worksheet/spreadsheet skills before and after completing the self-paced course suggested that students' perceived levels of expertise in the twenty-five skills had increased. The researchers also analyzed the relationship between age, gender, race, and grades.
Evolution, the Invisible Artist
Authors: Katz Bruce F.
Published: May 2005

In recent times Darwin's original ideas have gathered strength, threatening less robust theories in many areas of human and animal behavior with extinction. In particular, they appear to reduce the perception of beauty of the opposite sex to just one more instance of adaptive behavior. This article argues, however, that there is an alternative reading of the Darwinian program that is both consistent with evolutionary theory and preserves the autonomy of aesthetic reasoning. This is that species evolve so as to attract the opposite sex by generating cognitive arousal, causing attention to be redirected to themselves. The methods for generating arousal are consistent with such aesthetic devices as prototypicality, harmony, and salience. A neural network model of face recognition is presented in which higher network activity results when these aesthetic goals are met. Data is then presented showing that arousal in this model when exposed to female faces is strongly correlated with male judgments of the same female faces. Furthermore, the proposed theory is consistent with the fact that women use a variety of makeup and adornment techniques to highlight their features. The article concludes by arguing that to be beautiful is a valid evolutionary goal in itself, because more beautiful organisms are more likely to attract the attention of the opposite sex and therefore mate.
EEG Activity during Relaxation and Food Imagery
Authors: Lorig Tyler S. , Schwartz Gary E.
Published: May 2005

EEG activity was recorded in nine volunteer subjects while they engaged in eight cognitive tasks. The tasks involved mental arithmetic, relaxation imagery, food imagery and imagery related to “neutral” stimuli (bicycle and automobile). Period analysis of the EEG indicated significant differences in EEG factor activity related to tension and anxiety for the subtraction, relaxation and food imagery trials. Imagery of heaviness and the subject's favorite dessert produced EEG factor activity most characteristic of relaxation. Results of this study are discussed in terms of the relation of odor to food imagery and the ecological validity of the use of food imagery in relaxation training.