bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Report from the Barricades of the Multimedia Revolution
Authors: Pence Harry E.
Published: May 2005

Often those on the front lines of the revolution see things differently from those who are in charge. This article reports on the experiences of one individual, who has been working for four years to include multimedia in a general chemistry lecture course involving 60–100 students. From this perspective, it is clear that there are some very positive outcomes, as well as some concerns. The new technology not only offers exciting educational possibilities but also poses serious challenges for both faculty and students. This article represents a personal viewpoint, but it is hoped that the comments may be generally helpful for those who are planning to use multimedia in their classes.
Public Support for Social Financing of Health Care in Switzerland
Authors: Perneger Thomas V. , Hudelson Patricia M.
Published: May 2005

The purpose of this study was to identify factors associated with the public's preference for financing health care according to people's ability to pay. The authors compared voters' support in 26 Swiss cantons for a legislative proposal to replace regionally rated health insurance premiums (current system) with premiums proportional to income and wealth, and co-financed through the value added tax. The vote took place in May 2003, and the initiative was rejected, with only 27 percent of support nationwide. However, support varied more than threefold, from 13 to 44 percent, among cantons. In multivariate analysis, support was most strongly correlated with the approval rate of the 1994 law on health insurance, which strengthened solidarity between the sick and the healthy. More modest associations were seen between support for the initiative and the health insurance premium of 2003, and proportions of elderly and urban residents in the population. Hence support for more social financing of health care was best explained by past preference for a social health insurance system in the local community.
Primary Medical Care in Developing Countries
Authors: Fendall N. R. E.
Published: May 2005

Common to all developing nations are lack of financial resources and of trained manpower, illiteracy, high fertility, a traditional society based on the soil, and diseases related to undernutrition, infections, and vector–borne illnesses. Most diseases are not of the exotic, tropical kind but common diseases of the respiratory and digestive tracts. There is much less self–treatment than in industrialized nations, but many complaints could be treated by nonphysicians. The distribution of scarce physician resources is poor. Most seek to live and work in capital cities and not in the rural areas where most of the people live. There are too few paramedical workers to support the physicians. The growth of the population constantly exceeds the growth of new physicians, some of whom are lost through the brain drain to more developed countries. While there is no lack of knowledge or understanding of what to do about these problems, there is insufficient application of such knowledge toward practicable solutions. More realistic planning for primary care is necessary in the future. The only hope lies in greater use of nonprofessional workers operating from planned centers. Among the priorities are screening for early major abnormalities, better emergency care and transport services, and birth control. More emphasis must be given to child care in rural areas, where children under 15 account for more than half of the population.
A Comparison of Recurrent Dreams Reported from Childhood and Recent Recurrent Dreams
Authors: Robbins Paul R. , Tanck Roland H.
Published: May 2005

Ninety-one undergraduate students were asked to describe recurrent dreams experienced in childhood and recurrent dreams of recent years. A content analysis indicated that the dreams reported from childhood were more likely to be threatening. The dreams from childhood more often included a threatening agent which pursued or menaced the dreamer or other characters in the dream. The threatening agents were most frequently folkloric or fictional characters such as monsters or witches. Such folkloric characters were absent in the sample of recent recurring dreams.
The Differential Perception of Anxiety in Medical Patients: Sociodemographic Aspects
Authors: Schwap John J. , McGinnis Nancy A. , Warheit George J.
Published: May 2005

An investigation of anxiety in 100 general medical inpatients showed that the attending physicians rated about one-third of the patients as highly anxious. Comparisons between the physician's and nurses' ratings and the patients' scores on four standardized anxiety scales revealed that there was differential perception of the patients' anxiety levels. An analysis of the physicians' ratings, nurses' ratings, and the scores on the anxiety scales, in terms of the patients' sociodemographic characteristics, pointed to factors associated with the differential perception of anxiety. Physicians tended to overrate young patients and high SES patients as having greater anxiety than the scales indicated and both physicians and nurses consistently underrated the blacks' and the lower SES patients' anxiety levels. The results demonstrated clinicians' problems with the identification of anxious patients and indicate some factors associated with differential perception of patients' anxiety levels. We suggest social distance and counter-transference as partial explanations for the difficulties in identification and with differential perception.
Effectiveness of Stress Management Training for Nurses Working in a Burn Treatment Unit
Authors: Von Baeyer Carl , Krause Lily
Published: May 2005

All fourteen nurses working in a burn unit were given three hours of individual training in cognitive behavioral stress management skills. Anxiety measures were obtained before, during, and after training by weekly administration of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and by daily administration of a nurses' stress scale constructed for this study. Nurses were randomly assigned to two groups which were treated using a successive-groups time-series design. Results suggested that stress management training was effective in reducing work-related anxiety among inexperienced nurses but not among experienced nurses. The gains made by the inexperienced nurses may have been more associated with increases in their understanding of stress and their feelings of control over stress than with changes in their actual stress management behavior.
Patterns of Psychiatric Consultation in Two General Hospitals
Authors: Kligerman Martin J. , McKegney F. Patrick
Published: May 2005

The data presented in this paper reflect five years' experience of the Psychiatric Consultation-Liaison Service in two general hospitals of a large medical teaching center. The frequency of consultations shows that the more liaison time spent teaching on the wards, the more consultations generated. The decrease in consultations observed over the course of the academic year may indicate that the nonpsychiatric house staff which has a liaison with psychiatry becomes more competent in handling cases with psychiatric problems. Liaison psychiatry provides the most varied training experience possible for the psychiatric resident, making him more conscious of the interrelationships between psychiatry and other clinical specialties.
Computer Attitudes of Teachers and Students in Relationship to Gender and Grade Level
Authors: Smith Sara Dawn
Published: May 2005

The two studies reported here examined teachers' and students' Efficacy and Sex-typing attitudes toward computers in schools from contrasting settings. The first study analyzed computer attitudes of 491 participants (318 students, 173 teachers) in a district with an across-the-grades educational computing curriculum in place for almost two years. The second study assessed attitudes of 421 students and teachers (331 students, 90 teachers) in schools which were in the early stages of computer implementation. In the first study, there were significant differences in sense of Efficacy between teachers and students. Both studies found significant differences in Efficacy attitudes by grade level, with the second study showing differential effects by gender and group (teacher/student). Sex-typing attitudes were found to be significantly different for males and females in both studies, with females showing stronger feelings for equity in computer use and careers than males did. Teachers in Study 2 showed significantly higher attitudes of equity than students.
Physicians and the Terminal Patient: Some Selected Attitudes and Behavior
Authors: Rea M. Priscilla , Greenspoon Shirley , Spilka Bernard
Published: May 2005

This study examined the attitudes and reported behaviors of one hundred and fifty one physicians in ten medical specialties toward terminally ill patients. Most feel the patient must be told of terminal illness, regardless of patient physical status, age, and life expectancy. Few drugs are employed to ease pain and opposition is strong to the use of heroic measures. Older physicians are most negative to offering prognostic information, while experience with dying patients relates to telling the patient of his/her condition, disregarding the family's desires, and spending extra time with the patient. The evidence is that doctors do not perceive terminality as personal failure.
The Logic Model in Action against Tobacco Use: A Case Study
Authors: Reinert Bonita , Carver Vivien , Range Lillian , Bobrycki Lori A.
Published: May 2005

Mississippi, an early player in tobacco prevention efforts, used a logic model based in CDC's Best Practices that had seven levels: inputs (community leaders, statewide partners, state Health Department, Attorney General's office), activities (cessation, chronic disease, media/marketing, youth programs, school programs, community/state programs, law enforcement), outputs (nicotine cessation and treatment programs, exposure to no-tobacco, pro-health media and other programs, smoking bans, ordinances, and policies), initial outcomes (awareness of programs, changes in youth knowledge and attitudes, increased enforcement efforts), intermediate outcomes (increased program utilization, reduced youth initiation of tobacco use, improved community culture regarding tobacco), long-term outcomes (reduced youth tobacco use, reduced exposure to secondhand smoke), and impact (reduced tobacco-related sickness and death). With enough simplicity to be clear, enough detail to offer guidance, and sufficient grounding in CDC's Best Practices to provide a persuasive rationale for each component, the present logic model had immediate applications and helped with program evaluation.
Policy and Ideology: The Politics of Post-Reform Health Policy in the United Kingdom
Authors: Fierlbeck Katherine
Published: May 2005

While it is commonly accepted that the broader political and economic climate directly influences the nature of any major changes in the provision of health care (witness the 1991 National Health Service reforms in the United Kingdom), there is less consideration of the effect of paradigm changes in health care and health care management themselves on wider political and ideological strategies. This article examines the recent health policy initiatives presented by Britain's Labour Party. The author argues that while the Conservatives' market-oriented reforms reflected the perceived political and economic realities of the 1980s, the rapidly increasing credibility of strategies of prevention within the health care sector (including an emphasis on the social determinants of ill-health, the need to plan a shift from acute to community care, and the desire for greater lay participation in policy-making) allows Labour to highlight the limitations of a strongly market-oriented system in the health care sector more so than in any other policy area.
Accepting the Timing of One's Death: An Experience of Chinese Hospice Patients
Authors: Mak Mui Hing June
Published: May 2005

It is recently that studies began to investigate the features of Good Death. However, work in eastern cultures, such as Chinese, remains scarce. The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of what it means to die a “good death” from the perspective of Chinese patients. Thirty-three Chinese hospice patients with terminal cancer were interviewed. Grounded in the analysis of qualitative data, seven elements that contribute to dying a good death emerged. These seven elements were: being aware of dying (death awareness); maintaining hope (hope); being free from pain and suffering (comfort); experiencing personal control (control); maintaining social relationships (connectedness); preparing to depart (preparations); and accepting the timing of one's death (completion). Accepting the timing of one's death was identified as an essential element. The findings indicate that patients would show better acceptance to the timing of their death under four circumstances. First, they had completed their social roles, which often represented their emphasis in maintaining family connectedness. Accomplishment of these obligations could also mean substantiation of a meaningful and responsible life. Second, they died at an old age because their deaths were perceived as good and natural. Third, respondents had religious faiths. Their faiths or beliefs facilitated them to maintain an eternal hope of a better life after death. Fourth, respondents experienced meaningful lives that further sustained their hope and control for a better future. In this way, respondents may also feel spiritual comfort and acceptance.
Psychological Assessment of Adults with Cystic Fibrosis
Authors: Strauss Gordon D. , Wellisch David K.
Published: May 2005

We administered a battery of self-rated objective and quantitative psychometric tests, including the MMPI, to a group of adult cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Important findings were related to the age but not the sex of the patients. We found that older patients (i.e., over the median age of twenty-three) were more likely than younger patients to: 1) express emotional conflicts through physical symptoms, 2) be anxious or uncomfortable in social situations, and 3) have self-doubt. We could not confirm a previous report of increased depression or anxiety in adult CF patients. We discuss implications of these results for health professionals.
Couples' Reactions and Adjustment to Mastectomy: A Preliminary Report
Authors: Baider Lea , De-Nour Atara Kaplan
Published: May 2005

In this preliminary study, twenty post-mastectomy women and their husbands were examined for adjustment and family relations. Adjustment was assessed by the Psychosocial Adjustment to Physical Illness Scale and by the Brief Symptom Inventory. Family relations were assessed by the Family Environment Scale. The main finding was that a high correlation was found between the adjustment of the women and their husbands. Furthermore it was noticed that there was a tendency of the husbands' adjustment to get worse with time and/or with addition of treatment. The findings strongly suggest the need for further study of the adjustment of the family unit.
The Golden Section and the Aesthetics of Form and Composition: A Cognitive Model
Authors: McManus I. C. , Weatherby P.
Published: May 2005

Previous work on the aesthetics of simple figures such as rectangles and triangles, as well as on the aesthetics of color, suggests that although there are clear population level preferences, there are also large individual differences which are temporally stable, and which any adequate theoretical analysis must take into account. Data presented here show similar phenomena in a related problem in composition—where to place an object within the frame of a picture to produce the optimal aesthetic effect. A novel and powerful “method of randomized paired comparisons” first showed that there are overall population level preferences, with objects being placed preferentially at the two golden sections horizontally, and between the two golden sections vertically. As in the studies of simple figures and colors, there are large individual differences. A cognitive model of “sensory aesthetics” is proposed in which continua of any type (space, geometric objects, colors, or whatever), are described categorically, usually in terms of words such as “square,” “rectangle,” “line,” etc., each of which is a fuzzy set. Preference functions are then derived from the union and intersection of the fuzzy set functions, which differ between individuals as their categories differ or as they prefer objects which are prototypical, or are at the boundaries between prototypes. There is therefore wide inter-individual variability.
GRAMR1: A Computer Program for Instruction in Formal Syntax
Authors: Smith William H. , Pearson Olen R.
Published: May 2005

This paper presents GRAMR1, a program (in COBOL and BASIC) intended for instructional use in introductory courses in formal syntax. GRAMR1 accepts as input a string of up to five words and determines whether the string forms a grammatical sentence in Gramr1, a simplified English-like language. Gramr1 has a lexicon of five nouns, eight verbs, and two function words, and is capable of generating affirmative and negative statements and questions. By the use of strict subcategorization and selectional restrictions, the 1,048,576 possible input strings are reduced to 161 acceptable sentences.

This paper provides a description of Gramrl followed by a line-by-line explanation of the COBOL version of GRAMR1, the latter being directed toward readers who are not familiar with computer programming. The final section offers suggestions for classroom applications of the program.
Using Visual Mnemonics to Make Instructions Easier to Remember
Authors: Hirst Russel Keith
Published: May 2005

Instructions should be illustrated so as to help users memorize steps as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Classical mnemonic theory provides an excellent description of how to create such illustrations. The most detailed description of how to form memorable images that function as cues to subject matter is contained in the ancient Roman treatise Rhetorica Ad Herennium. The basic principle is that one must form bizarre, striking pictures combining cue images with images representing the words or concepts that are to be remembered. Much modern research on memory and imagery bears out the ancient wisdom on this topic. Gordon Bower, Allan Paivio, and others have shown that subjects remember lists of items far better when they use paired associate methods of visual memorization that are based on the classical theories. Other researchers, such as Margaret Hagen, have found that the mind processes information faster and remembers it longer when it has to deal with only minimal cues (for example, a simple line drawing as opposed to a photograph or a detailed drawing). Combining insights from ancient theory and practice with those from modern research, I suggest that technical communicators use, where possible, a particular kind of image to illustrate instructions.
The Class Analysis of Poverty
Authors: Wright Erik Olin
Published: May 2005

To understand more fully the nature of poverty it must be viewed as the result, in part, of inherent features of the social system. The author describes four general approaches to explaining poverty: poverty as a result of inherent individual attributes, as the by-product of contingent individual characteristics, as a by-product of social causes, and as a result of inherent properties of the social system. He then elaborates a class exploitation analysis of poverty by explaining how economic oppression, economic exploitation, and class generate a social system in which poverty plays a crucial functional role. The general problem of poverty must be broken down into two subproblems: poverty generated inside exploitative relations (the working poor) and poverty generated by nonexploitative oppression (the underclass). A class analysis of poverty argues that significant numbers of privileged people have a strong, positive material interest in maintaining poverty. Poverty can be reduced in the United States only through popular mobilization of pressure that challenges the power of the dominant classes.
Language Impairment in Dementia of the Alzheimer Type: A Hierarchical Decline?
Authors: Emery V. Olga B.
Published: May 2005

Objective:

Progressive memory impairment is the primary cognitive feature of Alzheimer's disease. Systematic attention to progressive language impairment is under-appreciated. The purpose of this article is to apply the semiotic language framework to organize the disparate findings on language impairment in DAT.

Method:

The semiotic system is hierarchical, going from simple to more complex units of language, with the hierarchical ranks of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics. This language hierarchy is used as an organizing tool to provide a context for the discrete data on language decline in DAT. Studies relating to language impairment in DAT were identified through an exhaustive computerized search (Medline and Psych Info Database) of available literature spanning the last forty years in which 615 references were examined. Papers were selected for review if reference were made to any one or more of the language parameters of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, or to any components or indicators of these parameters, such as sound production, naming, grammar, sentence processing, verbal comprehension in Alzheimer patients.

Results:

There appears to be an overall relation between language decline and complexity of language both across and within the hierarchical ranks. There also appears to be an associated negative relation between sequence in language development and language decline. Language forms learned last in the sequence of language development are the most complex and appear to be first to deteriorate.

Conclusions:

The decline of language in DAT appears to be hierarchical in nature. Further understanding of this hierarchical language decline depends in part on nosologic clarification and subtyping of DAT.
Medical Metaphors of Women's Bodies: Menstruation and Menopause
Authors: Martin Emily
Published: May 2005

Implicit, underlying imagery in medical descriptions of menstruation and menopause is exposed, beginning with 19th century views. Contemporary medical texts and teaching reveal two fundamental assumptions about women's bodies. First, they assume that female reproductive organs are organized as if they form a hierarchical, bureaucratic organization under centralized control. Given this assumption, menopause comes to be described negatively, as a process involving breakdown of central control. Second, they assume that women's bodies are predominantly for the purpose of production of desirable substances, primarily babies. Given this assumption, menstruation comes to be seen negatively, as a process involving failed production, waste products, and debris. Alternative imagery that works from our current understanding of physiology, but avoids denigration of women's bodies, is suggested.
Loss of Life and Loss of Bodily Integrity: Two Different Sources of Threat for People who are Ill
Authors: Viney Linda L.
Published: May 2005

Personal construct theory was used to generate some questions about the meanings that different types of threat–loss of life and loss of bodily integrity–hold for people who are severely ill. Content analyses of the responses of ill people and healthy people indicated that ill people expressed more concern with both types of threat than healthy people. Ill people who were suffering from acute rather than chronic illness, who were scheduled for surgery and who were hospitalized rather than being cared for at home expressed more concern about loss of life but not about loss of bodily integrity than other ill people. Each type of threatened loss was found to be associated with a different set of psychological states for people who were ill. Threat of loss of life was associated with indirectly expressed anger and uncertainty but also with the expression of many positive feelings. Threat of loss of bodily integrity was also associated with indirectly expressed anger, but with direct expression of it too, together with hopelessness and helplessness. Patients facing the first threat saw themselves as actively engaged in relationships with others, while those facing the second viewed themselves more often as passive participants. The value of this information about the meanings of threats of loss of life and loss of bodily integrity for the counseling of ill people dealing with these threats was illustrated by two case studies.
Observed Responses of Medical Students in a Sex Education Seminar on Obstetrics and Gynecology
Authors: Friedman Richard C. , Vosburgh Gilbert J. , Stern Lenore O.
Published: May 2005

This article describes the typology of negative responses in a medical student sex education seminar. Seventy medical students were observed during participation in sex education seminars during a seven month period. Their behavior in class was generally appropriate. Negative responses sometimes did occur, however. These were manifested more frequently in men than in women students and were characterized by hostility or withdrawal in males, and subgroup formation in females.
Breast Cancer: Has the Time Come for a Less Mutilating Treatment?
Authors: Cope Oliver
Published: May 2005

The emotional turmoil which may be induced by the threat of mastectomy was forcefully brought to Dr. Cope's attention by a patient in 1958. He opens his article with the report of the patient; she was treated by irradiation instead of mastectomy. He then goes on to weigh the value of irradiation without mastectomy as a cancer therapy vis-à-vis that of the traditional radical mastectomy. He concludes from the evidence recorded in the literature and from his own experience that for the majority of patients modern high voltage irradiation is a reasonable alternative to surgery, that women should be informed of the alternative and that for psychological reasons “they don't need to be railroaded into having their breast removed.”
Comparison of Symptom Profiles between Postmastectomy Patients and Normally Healthy Middle-Aged Women
Authors: Silverman-Dresner Toby , Restaino-Baumann Lillian
Published: May 2005

The symptom profiles of eighty-five women with no history of mastectomy or breast cancer were compared to those of seventy-three mastectomy patients in self-help groups, fifty mastectomy patients who had undergone breast reconstruction and 166 mastectomy patients who were neither in self-help nor reconstructed. There were no significant differences on the major symptom scales of the SCL-90 between any of the groups. The authors conclude that women distant in time from the cancer experience are no different from their normally healthy peers.
Anxiety and Depression in an Outpatient Clinic in Lesotho, Africa
Authors: Hollifield Michael , Katon Wayne , Morojele Neo
Published: May 2005

Objective:

Past studies of psychiatric disorders in primary care in developing countries have utilized measures to determine conspicuous psychiatric morbidity (CPM) rather than diagnoses. Our goal was to determine the prevalence of DSM-III major depression (DEP), panic disorder (PD), and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) in an outpatient clinic in Lesotho, Africa.

Methods:

As part of a larger community study, we utilized a translated version of the N.I.M.H. Diagnostic Interview Schedule to determine the prevalence of DEP, PD, and GAD in 126 randomly selected outpatients (response rate = 77%) attending a general hospital clinic. We compared these data to information about demographics and symptom presentation.

Results:

We found twenty-nine (23%) patients with DEP, thirty (24%) with PD, and thirty-six (29%) with GAD. Forty-six (36%) had either DEP or PD, with thirteen (45%) having concurrent illness. Patients with DEP and/or PD presented with a significantly higher number of physical symptoms, and a higher percentage of symptoms that were pain or autonomic nervous system related than patients with no disorder ever.

Conclusion:

There is significant psychiatric morbidity of common diagnoses in outpatient clinic in Lesotho, and patients present primarily with somatic symptoms, as in developed countries. There is a need for better elucidation of cross-cultural phenomenology, medical co-morbidity as a con-founder, and help-seeking and treatment patterns in the developing world.
System and Crisis: A Psychosomatic Model of Human Development
Authors: Von Uexküll Thure
Published: May 2005

The concept of the system is a fruitful one for psychosomatic medicine, since it is a model capable of representing psychological and physiological observations in a common framework. The psychosomatic development of the human “system” is seen as the passage through crises, development of new qualities, and transformation of simpler systems into more complex ones. Also relevant here are the concepts of the game as an important means of crisis management and the physician as participant observer in the patient's system. Case examples demonstrate the doctor's ability to recognize the disturbances in a patient's development, so that he may help him translate emotional symbols back into rational symbols.
Primary Health Care and Donor Dependency: A Case Study of Nongovernment Assistance in Burkina Faso
Authors: Maclure Richard
Published: May 2005

Primary health care assistance has become prominent in the rural development programs of many nongovernment organizations throughout sub-Saharan Africa. By emphasizing education and the promotion of new participatory health systems, most such programs aim to enhance the conditions of women as principal community care givers. Yet village-level health assistance in Africa is not without shortcomings. This is exemplified in a case study of two nongovernment programs in Burkina Faso's Namentenga Province. Although both programs have contributed to maternal health and infant survival, they have also induced new ties of donor dependency. This appears to present a conundrum for the sponsoring agencies which espouse self-reliance as a development assistance goal. In fact, however, where the intervention of nongovernment organizations helps to improve rural health, new dimensions of dependency may prove to be a positive first stage in the mobilization of women and the development of locally managed health systems. For this to be so, much is contingent on the capacity of these organizations to integrate local participation in their own planning and management processes, and to augment the professional status of indigenous health workers.
Using Multiple Representations to Improve Conceptions of Average Speed
Authors: Reed Stephen K. , Jazo Linda
Published: May 2005

We evaluated a computer-based learning environment that uses multiple representations to improve students' conception of the average speed of a round trip. The instruction explained that average speed is a weighted average of the component speeds in which the weights reflect the amount of time spent traveling at each speed. Students then improved their estimates of average speed by using visual feedback provided by a simulation. Correct answers and estimates were plotted on a graph to encourage students to discover the principle that average speed cannot be greater than twice the slower speed. A conceptual explanation (average speed as the ratio of total distance to total time) and an algebraic explanation (the limit of a function) helped integrate the multiple representations of the concept. Students' responses during the instruction and to a questionnaire provided useful information for improving the program, which was then reevaluated in a second study. The concluding discussion summarizes how the multiple representations were used in the instruction and examines the different functions of the representations based on Ainsworth's (1999) taxonomy.
Videodiscs and Medical Education
Authors: Pomeroy Eleanor M. , Toothman J. P.
Published: May 2005

Videodisc has been slow in developing its potential as an influential force in medical education. There are still relatively few medical videodiscs available for public purchase. The most prolific producer of videodiscs in medical education continues to be Miles Pharmaceuticals Company, although a handful of universities have produced a number of discs in the past few years. Recent software innovations affecting the videodisc technology, and the demonstration and implementation of a statewide medical education program in Florida based on videodisc technology have engendered interest among videodisc producers that videodisc has a future in medicine.
The Science Journalist and Early Popular Magazine Coverage of Nuclear Energy
Authors: Del Sesto Steven L.
Published: May 2005

This article is a sample of science and technology stories about the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, drawn principally from popular magazines which reported nuclear news in the 1940s and 1950s. It shows that many of the accounts were widely optimistic and sensational in their claims about the potential uses of nuclear power, and suggests the reasons for the sensationalism and overconfidence in science and technology. The concluding section discusses the general implications for the present and future popularization of science and technology journalism and communication.
Computer Managed Instruction: Present Activities and Future Directions
Authors: Scanlon Robert G. , Connolly John A.
Published: May 2005

A number of Computer Managed Instruction (CMI) systems are currently under development for use in elementary and secondary schools. The present article describes the major activities in CMI and indicates some trends which are suggested by these activities. It concludes with some speculations about the role CMI might play in meeting the future needs of schools.
Clonazepam Treatment of Panic Disorder in Patients with Recurrent Chest Pain and Normal Coronary Arteries
Authors: Wulsin Lawson R. , Maddock Richard , Beitman Bernard , Dawaher Rula , Wells Victoria E.
Published: May 2005

Objective:

To examine the efficacy of clonazepam in chest pain patients with panic disorder and normal coronary arteries.

Method:

We conducted a placebo controlled, double blind, flexible dose (1–4 mg/d), six-week trial of clonazepam. All subjects ( N = 27) had current panic disorder and a negative coronary angiogram or thallium exercise tolerance test within the previous year.

Results:

Analyses show modest improvements in the clonazepam and placebo groups over the first four weeks in both primary outcome measures. Eight of twelve (67%) clonazepam treated patients responded with reduction of panic attacks by week four to zero per week or half of initial frequency, while seven of fifteen (47%) placebo treated patients responded (not significant). When response was measured by 50 percent reduction in Hamilton Anxiety total score, however, seven of twelve (58%) clonazepam treated patients responded, while two of fifteen (14%) placebo treated patients responded, ( p = .038) by Fisher's exact test. Within-subject improvements over the first four weeks were not significantly greater for the clonazepam group than for the placebo group on either outcome measure.

Conclusions:

These results show a generally good outcome in chest pain patients with panic disorder, and they provide suggestive evidence for the efficacy of clonazepam compared to placebo. This study points to the need for larger, well-funded treatment studies of chest pain patients with panic disorder.
The Rhetoric of Geology: Ethos in the Writing of North American Geologists, 1823–1988
Authors: Runquist Mark
Published: May 2005

This analysis is a specific study that investigates the role ethos plays in the scientific papers of American glacial geologists. Five articles, spanning the time period 1839–1988, a time period which saw the tentative beginnings, development, and maturation of glacial research and theory, were analyzed to determine the rhetorical strategies the writers used to establish their particular research and writing as being good science worthy of recognition and acceptance by their communities of glacial geologists. Early articles were written to portray the author's notion of good science as a strict attention to personal observation and analogy. Articles in the middle period continued to stress personal observation, but also appealed to the observations of other workers. The most contemporary articles favored quantified relationships and precise measurement.
Plain Style and Scientific Style: The Influence of the Puritan Plain Style Sermon on Early American Science Writers
Authors: Batschelet Margaret W.
Published: May 2005

Early American science writers used the Puritan plain style sermon as a readily available prose model. From the sermon they derived an organization divided into doctrine and uses, a format using sectional divisions and heads, the use of simple language, and a concern for the needs of their audiences. Essays on comets by two early American scientists, Samuel Danforth and John Winthrop, illustrate the sermon's influence. The doctrine and uses organization employed in these essays may be seen as analogous, in some senses, to the Results and Discussion organization of the modern research report.
Commercial Influences in Popular Literature: An Empirical Study of Brand Name Usage in American and British Hit Plays in the Postwar Era
Authors: Friedman Monroe
Published: May 2005

This article examines the impact of commercial practices on popular American and British literature by analyzing the usage made since World War II of brand names and generic names in the scripts of a selected set of hit plays performed on the New York stage and the London stage. Taken together with the results of an earlier study on popular American novels, the findings lend support to the charges of increasing commercial influence in the popular literature of the postwar era. The findings also underscore the significance of earlier conceptualizations such as “word-of-author advertising” as well as commercial and non-commercial forms of materialism.
Automated Scoring of Paper-and-Pencil Figural Responses
Authors: Martinez Michael E. , Ferris John J. , Kraft William , Manning Winton H.
Published: May 2005

Large-scale testing is dominated by the multiple-choice question format. Widespread use of the format is explained, in part, by the ease with which multiple-choice items can be scored automatically. This article examines automated scoring procedures for an alternative item type: figural response. Figural response items call for the completion or modification of figural material, including illustrations, diagrams, and graphs. Nineteen science items were written in cooperation with the National Assessment of Educational Progress and printed with a special ink, invisible to scanning equipment. The items were answered with pencils; response sheets were then scanned and the resulting data were processed by computer-based scoring algorithms. Implications of this technology for the future of large-scale testing are discussed.
The Effects of Mental Practice on Motor Skill Performance: Critical Evaluation and Meta-Analysis
Authors: Hinshaw Karin E.
Published: May 2005

Empirical research suggests that mental practice may enhance the performance of motor skills. Many variables have been shown to mediate the size and direction of the mental practice effects. The purpose of the present study is to provide an overview of research examining the role played by these variables in mediating the effectiveness of mental practice. In order to integrate the findings in the literature and to further analyze the relative contributions of each of these variables, a meta-analysis was performed according to the procedure outlined by Smith, Glass, and Miller. Twenty-one studies that met the criteria of having both an adequate control and a mental practice alone group were included in the meta-analysis. The forty-four separate effect sizes resulted in an overall average effect size of .68, (SD = .11) indicating that there is a significant benefit to performance of using mental practice over no practice. A series of General Linear Models revealed that the use of “internal” imagery produced a larger average effect size than the use of “external” imagery, and that mental practice sessions of less than one minute or between ten and fifteen minutes in length produced a larger average effect size than sessions of three to five minutes in length. These findings suggest the complexity of the relationship between variables that influence mental practice.
Refuse Disposal and Military Behavior at Fort Meigs, a War of 1812 Military Site in Northern Ohio: An Intrasite Analysis
Authors: Nass John P.
Published: May 2005

Schiffer (1972, 1976) and South (1977) have discussed the interpretative implications of various types of cultural refuse which are created during the occupation and abandonment of a site. Excavation at Fort Meigs has allowed the investigation of refuse disposal practices associated with the occupation of the main fortified camp and a smaller supply fort which was built within the larger fort after its deactivation. The material record at Fort Meigs is quantified and compared against South's Frontier and Carolina Artifact patterns and the Brunswick Pattern of Refuse Disposal. An attempt is made to show how the various types of discard, loss, and abandonment activities condition the archaeological record and influence South's artifact and disposal patterns.
Health, Family Planning and Population Growth
Authors: Kessler Alexander , Standley C. C.
Published: May 2005

This paper examines the extent to which health objectives of large-scale family planning programs coincide, reinforce or run counter to national policies aimed at reducing population growth. Several variables have been found to be associated with higher rates of maternal and infant mortality: maternal age over 35, parities of over 4, close spacing of births, and unwanted pregnancy. The health objectives of family planning are directed toward avoiding such births. This paper suggests that, at least in countries with high levels of mortality, avoidance of such pregnancies would result in considerably increased infant survival, and in reduction of maternal deaths. In population terms, however, the resultant growth would be more than offset by the simultaneous lowering of the birth rate. The indirect effects of providing family planning care in the health services are discussed in relation to policies aimed at limiting population growth.
A Theory of Intraorganization Communication
Authors: Thompson Billy E. , White Charles W.
Published: May 2005

With the advent of new information processing systems, managers are faced with decisions which must be made immediately. These managers most often are faced with problems of identifying those communications within the organization that take precedence in their decision-making activities. Because of the ever-expanding need for effective communications within organizations, management cannot afford to ignore the need for developing some classification system to distinguish between types of communications used by firms.

This article outlines a system of classifying communications whereby such factors as retention time of the material, value of the communication, and distribution policy within the organization are discussed. Communications are received by management. They are properly classified by the appropriate color code to allow management to know which is most important and needs a more immediate response. With the implementation of the system, management should begin to realize a savings in time and cost as well as removal of any embarrassment from delays in answering important communications.
Community Health Education Literature from the Seventies: A Field Practitioner Survey
Authors: Chen Ted T. L. , Cernada George P.
Published: May 2005

A national sample of community health education practitioners in the United States was surveyed by mail and asked to select five articles published during the 1970's they would recommend that their colleagues read. The study was conducted in late 1979 after a comparable national survey of university health education faculty by Cernada and Chen ( International Quarterly of Community Health Education, 1:2 and 2:1). The recommended readings were collected and abstracted, and are presented in annotated bibliographic form. A comparison of practitioner and academic selections is in preparation.
Links between Family Relationships and Best Friendships in the United States and Japan
Authors: Lansford Jennifer E.
Published: May 2005

This study was designed to examine associations between family relationship quality and friendship quality in the United States and Japan using surveys of representative samples of individuals ranging in age from 13 to 93 in the United States ( n = 1498) and Japan ( n = 1641). Associations between family relationships and friendships were stronger and more pervasive in Japan than in the United States. In the United States, there was some evidence that having higher quality family relationships was associated with having higher quality friendships; in Japan, there was similar evidence for consistency in quality across relationships, as well as evidence that qualities lacking in one relationship were sometimes present in another. Gender and age did not moderate the associations between family relationship and friendship quality in either country. These findings extend into adulthood work that has previously focused on family relationships and friendships of children and suggest cultural differences in patterns of association between family relationships and friendships.
Using Social Learning Theory to Reduce Small Business Breakdown along the Internet Superhighway: An Exploratory Model
Authors: Barker Randolph T. , Sturm Philip R. , Camarata Michael
Published: May 2005

As the speed of travel on the “Information Superhighway” accelerates, many small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) do not effectively keep pace. SME computer resistors include 1) the slow-plodding neophyte computer users in the far right hand lane, 2) the firms curious about computerization but who are yet to make a purchase decision, idling in neutral on the access ramps, and 3) the business that purchases improper equipment and/or software and ventures onto the “road” without proper training and support, being run over by the speeding industry. In the information high-tech world of the 1990s it seems amazing that an estimated quarter of all small businesses still do not have their first personal computer. This article calls upon the innovators of the communications field to look in the rear view mirror to see the businesses left behind in the information expansion race. A model utilizing social learning theory defines a framework for road service [1], getting the small business “resister” up to the information superhighway speed limit.
Grief and Mourning from the Perspective of the Person with a Dementing Illness: Beginning the Dialogue
Authors: Rentz Clarissa , Krikorian Robert , Keys Michael
Published: May 2005

While working with individuals with Alzheimer's disease and other dementing disorders presents many challenges for clinicians, none is more difficult than watching an individual who is cognitively impaired mourn the losses of life and those imposed by the dementing illness. There now is a body of literature on grief in caregivers, but little has been written to help clinicians understand or better support affected individuals who are experiencing multiple losses and yet whose insight, autobiographical memory, and connectedness to others is beginning to blur and fade. This article addresses current models of grief, examines the ability or inability of affected individuals to experience and resolve grief, and attempts to formulate questions that may ultimately allow clinicians and caregivers to better recognize and address the difficult issues of the grief response and mourning process in the person with dementing illness.