bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Behavioral Genetics and School Readiness
Authors: Dickens William T
Published: January 2007

The author considers whether differences in genetic endowment may account for racial and ethnic differences in school readiness. While acknowledging an important role for genes in explaining differences within races, he nevertheless argues that environment explains most of the gap between blacks and whites, leaving little role for genetics.

Based on a wide range of direct and indirect evidence, particularly work by Klaus Eyferth and James Flynn, the author concludes that the black-white gap is not substantially genetic in orgin. In studies in 1959 and 1961, Eyferth first pointed to the near-disappearance of the black-white gap among children of black and white servicemen raised by German mothers after World War II. In the author's view, Flynn's exhaustive 1980 analysis of Eyferth's work provides close to definitive evidence that the black disadvantage is not genetic to any important degree.

But even studies showing an important role for genes in explaining within-group differences, he says, do not rule out the possibility of improving the school performance of disadvantaged children through interventions aimed at improving their school readiness. Such interventions, he argues, should stand or fall on their own costs and benefits. And behavioral genetics offers some lessons in designing and evaluating interventions. Because normal differences in preschool resources or parenting practices in working- and middle-class families have only limited effects on school readiness, interventions can have large effects only if they significantly change the allocation of resources or the nature of parenting practices.

The effects of most interventions on cognitive ability resemble the effect of exercise on physical conditioning: they are profound but short-lived. But if interventions make even small permanent changes in behavior that support improved cognitive ability, they can set off multiplier processes, with improved ability leading to more stimulating environments and still further improvements in ability. The best interventions, argues the author, would saturate a social group and reinforce individual multiplier effects by social multipliers and feedback effects. The aim of preschool programs, for example, should be to get students to continue to seek out the cognitive stimulation the program provides even after it ends.
Assessment Issues in the Testing of Children at School Entry
Authors: Rock Donald A , Stenner A. Jackson (Alfred Jackson)
Published: January 2007

The authors introduce readers to the research documenting racial and ethnic gaps in school readiness. They describe the key tests, including the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS), and several intelligence tests, and describe how they have been administered to several important national samples of children.

Next, the authors review the different estimates of the gaps and discuss how to interpret these differences. In interpreting test results, researchers use the statistical term "standard deviation" to compare scores across the tests. On average, the tests find a gap of about 1 standard deviation. The ECLS-K estimate is the lowest, about half a standard deviation. The PPVT estimate is the highest, sometimes more than 1 standard deviation. When researchers adjust those gaps statistically to take into account different outside factors that might affect children's test scores, such as family income or home environment, the gap narrows but does not disappear.

Why such different estimates of the gap? The authors consider explanations such as differences in the samples, racial or ethnic bias in the tests, and whether the tests reflect different aspects of school "readiness," and conclude that none is likely to explain the varying estimates. Another possible explanation is the Spearman Hypothesis—that all tests are imperfect measures of a general ability construct, g ; the more highly a given test correlates with g , the larger the gap will be. But the Spearman Hypothesis, too, leaves questions to be investigated.

A gap of 1 standard deviation may not seem large, but the authors show clearly how it results in striking disparities in the performance of black and white students and why it should be of serious concern to policymakers.
"Framed and Wired": Teaching "In the Cage" at the Intersection of Literature and Media
Authors: Menke Richard
Published: January 2007

This essay outlines strategies for teaching "In the Cage" (1898), James's tale of a young, female telegraphist who becomes obsessed with an affair between two customers, in relation to the theory and history of media--not only a topic of increasing critical interest but also one that resonates with students' encounters with new technologies. The article includes a capsule history of the telegraph, a comparison between "In the Cage" and Anthony Trollope's "The Telegraph Girl" (1877), sample discussion topics and writing assignments, and a bibliography of related books and articles.
Henry James, (Post)Modernist?
Authors: McWhirter David Bruce
Published: January 2007

An examination of the kinds of critical and cultural capital we have invested, and continue to invest, in "Henry James," "Henry James, (Post)Modernist?" traces a history of twentieth-century James criticism in order to speculate about the future of James studies in the twenty-first century. Reconsidering long-standing assumptions about James's status as a precursor of literary modernism, I argue that the "postmodern turn" in contemporary James studies has allowed us to locate and explore a more convincingly--and more convincingly historicized--modernist James. The essay concludes by considering the fate of James's work and figure in a globalized, digitalized, and post-literary postmodern culture.
The Disease of Temporality; or, Forgetful Reading in James and Lubbock
Authors: Dames Nicholas
Published: January 2007

A characteristic moment in Henry James's criticism--the attack on amnesiac novel readers who want nothing more than to follow absorbing plot sequences--points us to James's key differences from earlier physiological Victorian novel theory, which was largely based on investigating, and treating as standard, such reader responses. James therefore initiates the tradition of spatializing the novel rather than treating it as a temporal form, a procedure carried on by Percy Lubbock, whose version of James's criticism paradoxically reinvents a forgetful reader who needs the novel to perform acts of prosthetic remembrance.
The Master's Ring
Authors: Epstein Joseph
Published: January 2007

A short story reprinted from Fabulous Small Jews by Joseph Epstein.
Rereading Gertrude Stein Rereading Henry James (After a Fashion)
Authors: Haralson Eric L
Published: January 2007

Characterizing, in turn, Gertrude Stein's loose relations with her American literary predecessor, this essay finds in Four in America evidence that Stein constructed a "queer solidarity" with James's earlier example. "Rereading Gertrude Stein Rereading Henry James (After a Fashion)" proposes that Stein's interested reading of "general" James's life in works looks to both his gender-crossing and his literary aspirations to--and refusals of--popularity.
Henry James @ Ground Zero: Remembering the Future
Authors: Haviland Beverly
Published: January 2007

What makes a memorial to a national catastrophe succeed for present and future generations? For Henry James, looking at two memorials to Civil War heroes--Saint-Gaudens's statue of General Sherman and General/President Grant's Tomb--it was the "clean, clear meaning" of the latter that made it the ground of a powerful commemorative experience that would continue to have meaning for U. S. citizens. Drawing on the theories of phenomenologist Edward S. Casey on remembering and commemoration, Beverly Haviland analyzes James's response to these two memorials to provide a way to think about the work of memorialization in process at Ground Zero.
Stalking the Biracial Hidden Self in Henry James's The Sense of the Past and "The Jolly Corner"
Authors: Hawkins Stephanie L
Published: January 2007

This essay argues that, for James, the visible face and body conceal some genetic "reality" or heritage, which he figures in both The Sense of the Past and "The Jolly Corner" as the specter of unacknowledged racial difference. In both works, James fuses evolutionary biology and the ghostly, thematizing turn-of-the-century anxieties regarding miscegenation. By transforming a narrative of time travel into one of racial passing, James both literalizes the psychological phenomenon of a "hidden self" and exposes the central paradox of double-consciousness: the simultaneous recognition and rejection of one's "hidden" racial differences and sense of estrangement from the national family.
The Appalling Mrs. Luna: Sibling Love, Queer Attachment, and Henry James's The Bostonians
Authors: Flannery Denis
Published: January 2007

Flannery's article situates Mrs. Luna of The Bostonians in a number of contexts, most notably the novel's critical reception, the relationship between sibling love and queer subjectivity in contemporary theory and narratives of the lost, returned and over-embodied sibling in US culture. It argues that sibling love, jealousy and insight are utterly crucial to James's writing and protection of lesbian desire.
Osmond's Complaint: Gilbert Osmond's Mother and the Cultural Context of James's The Portrait of a Lady
Authors: Lawrence Kathleen Ann
Published: January 2007

By referring to Gilbert Osmond's mother in The Portrait of a Lady as "the American Corinne," Henry James alludes not only to the eponymous heroine of Madame de Stael's high-Romantic novel but also to the well-known epithet of Margaret Fuller, thus foregrounding his novel in an antebellum transcendental America far removed from the novel's actual place and time of Gilded Age America and post-Risorgimento Italy. In likening Portrait's heroine Isabel Archer to Osmond's mother in her spirit of inquiry and individualism, James provides a motive for Osmond's inscrutable hatred of Isabel and ties Isabel to the antebellum intellectual and spiritual fervor of transcendentalism, thus adding an additional historical, aesthetic, and philosophical layer to his novel.
"To suffer like chopped limbs": The Dispossessions of The Spoils of Poynton
Authors: Mitchell Lee Clark
Published: January 2007

James everywhere explores the implications of possession and possessions, of treating others as things even as things are granted sovereign value. Yet The Spoils of Poynton holds a special place in his career as a novel that pursues "possession" so persistently as to rethink all the word's implications--legal, spiritual, psychological, sexual--even as its meaning seems increasingly obscure in conventional terms. Anticipating the moral conundrums of the late novels, James for the first time elaborates an ethos that commends our treatment of others as things, valuing our mutual possession of each other as a necessary, even beneficent, process. This essay explores the novel's elusive central ethical issue: how do we possess one another, and what might a marriage of equals require from one to preclude being simply possessed?
Overhearing Testimony: James in the Shadow of Sentimentalism
Authors: Artese Brian
Published: January 2007

This essay examines issues of intrusion and disclosure in Henry James's work and their relation to the sentimental novel. I argue that sympathetic penetration in the novel has always been torn in a battle between the implications of confession and testimony. Although James rejects testimonial narration in the novel because it lacks "authority," his fiction vigorously argues that one has a right, socially, to maintain the non-transparent diplomatic "front" that is the testimonial condition. In terms of his "international theme," James sees this right as taken for granted in Europe, whereas American culture is more likely to demand from an individual the perpetual "transparency" championed by the eighteenth-century sentimentalists.
"The novel is older, and so are the young": On the Queerness of Style
Authors: Ohi Kevin
Published: January 2007

Seeking to bring together two strands in criticism of Henry James—readings pursuing the anti-mimetic and anti-psychological implications of his style and readings exploring questions of sexuality—this essay asserts that the daunting complexity of James's writing is its queerness: the erotic in his work can be most fully understood when it is considered in linguistic rather than representational terms. The queer potential of the interruptions of intelligibility presented by the late style are brought out by detailed readings of James's anti-mimetic theorization of the novel form in "The Art of Fiction" (1884) and "The Future of the Novel" (1899).
Augustine, Epicurus, and External World Skepticism
Authors: Bolyard Charles
Published: January 2007

In Contra Academicos 3.11.24, Augustine responds to skepticism about the existence of the external world by arguing that what appears to be the world Ñ as he terms things, the "quasi-earth" and "quasi-sky" Ñ cannot be doubted. While some (e.g., M. Burnyeat and G. Matthews) interpret this passage as a subjectivist response to global skepticism, it is here argued that Augustine's debt to Epicurean epistemology and theology, especially as presented in Cicero's De Natura Deorum 1.25.69 Ð 1.26.74, provides the basis for a much more plausible, realist interpretation of Augustine's argument.
Hegel's Doppelsatz : A Neutral Reading
Authors: Stern Robert
Published: January 2007

This paper offers a distinctive interpretation of Hegel's Doppelsatz from the Preface to the Philosophy of Right: ÔWhat is rational is actual; and what is actual is rational'. This has usually been interpreted either conservatively (as claiming that everything that is, is right or good) or progressively (that if the world were actual, it would be right or good, but that there is a distinction that can be drawn between existence and actuality). My aim in this paper is to argue against both interpretations, so that the position I offer is neutral between the two. My claim is that when Hegel identifies what is actual with what is rational in the Doppelsatz, his intention is not to offer a normative assessment of what is actual; rather, it is to suggest that genuine philosophy must be committed to reason in its methods of inquiry, if it is to properly undertake an investigation into the "spiritual universe" as well as the "natural" one. The Doppelsatz is thus a defence of philosophical rationalism, rather than a normative claim about "was ist wirklich".
Berkeley's Immaterialist Account of Action
Authors: Fleming Patrick
Published: January 2007

A number of critics have argued that Berkeley's metaphysics can offer no tenable account of human agency. In this paper I argue that Berkeley does have a coherent account of action. The paper addresses arguments by C.C. W. Taylor, Robert Imlay, and Jonathan Bennett. The paper attempts to show that Berkeley can offer a theory of action, maintain many of our common intuitions about action, and provide a defensible solution to the problem of evil.
The Rediscovery of Peter Abelard's Philosophy
Authors: Marenbon John
Published: January 2007

My article surveys philosophical discussions of Abelard over the last twenty years. Although Abelard has been a well-known figure for centuries, his most
important logical works were published only in the twentieth century and, so I argue, the rediscovery of him as an important philosopher is recent and continuing. I concentrate especially on work that shows Abelard as the re-discoverer of propositional logic (Chris Martin); as a subtle explorer of problems about modality (Simo Knuuttila, Herbert Weidemann) and semantics (Klaus Jacobi); as a metaphysician before the reception of Aristotle's Metaphysics (Peter King); and as an ethical thinker who echoes the Stoics (Calvin Normore) and anticipates Kant (Peter King).
Prevalence and Detection of Urinary Incontinence among Older Medicaid Recipients
Authors: Adelmann Pamela K
Published: January 2007

Low-income older adults have higher rates of many medical disorders than those with higher income, but rates of urinary incontinence have not been examined in this population. A random sample of older Medicaid recipients was interviewed (n=910) and medical records examined for the subset with urinary incontinence (n=236). Nursing home residents were randomly selected from Medicaid enrollment files (n=480). Forty-two percent of community residents reported urinary incontinence, with higher rates among women, older respondents, and whites. The medical records for only 22% of community-dwellers contained a diagnosis of urinary incontinence, compared with 77% for nursing home residents. Type of urinary incontinence was specified for 65% of diagnosed community dwellers and 7% of diagnosed nursing home residents. Urinary incontinence rates are high among Medicaid recipients compared with estimates from general population studies, but detection rates are lower for community-dwellers. Physicians may need to do more among low-income older adults in order to detect urinary incontinence.
Churning in Medicaid Managed Care and Its Effect on Accountability
Authors: Fairbrother Gerry , Jain Aparna , Park Heidi L , Massoudi Mehran S , Haidery Arfana , Gray Bradford H.
Published: January 2007

There is concern that churning in Medicaid excludes children from the accountability system for managed care because they may not meet the one-year continuous enrollment requirement. This study explores the effect of churning in measuring childhood immunization coverage rates under the current accountability system. Data were collected from administrative databases at the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services and 12 states with high Medicaid managed care penetration. On average in the 12 states only 39% of the children enrolled in one specific managed care plan met the continuous enrollment requirement. However, Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services data showed that 78% of children were enrolled in Medicaid (but not the same plan) continuously for 12 months. Both plan-specific rates and overall Medicaid rates varied greatly across the states. Policies that result in churning mean that many vulnerable children fall outside of the accountability structure intended to assure that they receive necessary services.
Reducing Unintentional Injuries on the Nation's Highways: Research and Program Policy to Increase Seat Belt Use
Authors: Maupin John E , Schlundt David G , Warren Rueben C , Miller Stephania , Goldzweig Irwin , Warren Hershell
Published: January 2007

Death, disability, and injury from motor vehicle accidents constitute a public health crisis. The goal of this paper is to describe how Meharry Medical College's Center for Community Based Research plans to address this problem. A model of how high-risk groups are influenced to engage in behaviors that increase risk for traffic crashes is articulated. Five strategies for reducing risk for motor vehicle morbidity and mortality are identified: 1) influencing the individual at the point of decision; 2) mobilizing communities and coalitions to support individual and systems changes; 3) modifying environmental factors to modify behaviors; 4) changing laws and public policy; and 5) working towards the elimination of underlying causes. The Center for Community Based Research's promotion of seat belt use, based on each of these five strategies, is described. Addressing the public health crisis resulting from death and injury on the nation's roads and the excess risk faced by minority groups in this country will require the coordinated efforts of many groups. This work must be driven by research, the outcome of which will be a reduction in preventable injury, disability and premature death.
Free Clinics Helping to Patch the Safety Net
Authors: Geller Stephanie , Taylor Buck M , Scott H. Denman
Published: January 2007

For the uninsured and underinsured with few funds, there are a limited number of health care options. To assist in filling this hole in the safety net, hundreds of free or volunteer-based clinics have been established across the country. Although these clinics have existed for years, little data on them exist. In 1999, a mail survey was sent to free clinics in seven Midwestern states. Findings from this survey show that, in a single year, these 106 clinics provided medical, dental, and pharmaceutical services to over 200,000 patients, suggesting that free clinics nationwide are caring for a substantial number of our nation's uninsured. The survey paints a picture of free clinics, the populations they serve, and the services they provide. Given the lack of options for the uninsured and underinsured, free clinics deserve continued recognition, support, and assistance from policy makers, health care providers, and the philanthropic community.
Improving the Immunization and Health Status of Children in the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program
Authors: Shefer Abigail , Smith Philip J. (Philip James)
Published: January 2007

Maintaining enrollment in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and continued exposure of these children to immunization-promoting and nutritional benefits within the program is essential to improve the health status of this vulnerable population. Logistic regression was used to determine characteristics of 2 groups of children: those who dropped out of the program despite being eligible and those who remained in the program but were underimmunized. Of over 20,000 children 19-35 months old, 49% had participated in WIC but only 50% were still enrolled. Factors most strongly associated with dropping out of the program were older age of child; white, black, or American Indian race; living in an urban or suburban area; higher socioeconomic status but still eligible for the program; having only 1 child at home; and having mothers who were unmarried or less than 30 years old (p<0.05). Among current participants, factors most strongly associated with under-vaccination included younger age of the child; black or Asian race; moving from another state since birth; mother with less than a high-school education; and having 2 or more children under 18 years old living in the household (p<0.05). Routinely collected child/family information can be used to target outreach and immunization-promoting interventions toward children most likely to drop out of the program or to be underimmunized.
Can Community Health Center Funding Enhance Health Services for Native American Tribes and Organizations?
Authors: Allison Michael , Rivers Patrick A , Fottler Myron D
Published: January 2007

This paper reports on the applicability of the Public Health Service Act (42 USC, 254b) Section 330 Community Health Center program to Arizona Native American tribes and organizations. Data review and analysis consisted of a review of two federal government documents concerning the funding of Community Health Center applications and a review of questionnaire responses received from the Arizona Native American health care community. Findings indicate a general lack of knowledge among the Arizona Native American health care community about the program as well as a need for capacity building among Arizona Native American tribes and organizations. As currently designed, the program has built-in barriers that prevent Native American tribes and organizations from applying for funding. Changes must be made to the existing program and local-level seminars must be offered to make this program and funding more readily available to Arizona Native American tribes and organizations.
Low-Income Women's Use of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Authors: Rosen Daniel , Tolman Richard M , Warner Lynn A
Published: January 2007

This paper examines the utilization of mental health, alcohol, and drug treatment in a sample of low-income women. We analyze data from the Women's Employments Study, a study examining the barriers to employment for welfare recipients, and compare prevalence rates of mental health disorders and service utilization with the National Comorbidity Survey. Fewer than one in five of the respondents with a current mental health and/or substance dependence problem in the Women's Employment Study (WES) received treatment in the past 12 months. A logistic regression model of the association among demographic variables, risk factors, and service utilization in the WES found that having a co-occurring substance dependence and mental health disorder was significantly associated with receiving treatment. Those respondents with an increased number of barriers were significantly less likely to receive treatment. The authors argue that the success of welfare reform may hinge on low-income women's access to and utilization of appropriate services.
Providers' Perspectives and Beliefs Regarding Transition to Adult Care for Adolescents with Sickle Cell Disease
Authors: Telfair Joseph , Alexander Leah R , Loosier Penny S , Alleman-Velez Patty L , Simmons Julie
Published: January 2007

Until recently, few children with chronic illnesses such as sickle cell disease (SCD) lived past late adolescence. Substantial reductions in mortality mean a growing number of adolescents with SCD reach adulthood. Consensus among researchers and health care providers (HCP) from multiple disciplines is that critical attention to and more empirical research on the transition from pediatric to adult care is needed. We address the following questions: (1) How do pediatric and adult providers demonstrate involvement in transition? (2) What is expected of adolescents when they move to adult care? and (3) Do providers think there is a need for a systematic transition program? A cross-sectional, multi-format survey research study utilizing open-ended and forced-choice questions was conducted to compare responses between pediatric and adult providers from multiple disciplines. Data were collected from 227 HCP in three waves. Significant bivariate results (p < 0.05) reflected differing opinions regarding transition expectations and program need, especially among female providers, those practicing in urban areas, and providers who treat both adolescent and adult clients in comparison with their counterparts. Discussion includes implications for program development, social service and public health practice, and future research.
Patterns of Hospital-Based Pediatric Care Across Diverse Ethnicities: The Case of Pneumonia
Authors: Washington Elmer L , Shen Jay J , Bell Ralph , Coleman Clementine , Shi Liping
Published: January 2007

Few studies have evaluated racial disparities with respect to process and outcome measures for pneumonia. We evaluated disparities with respect to process measures in addition to clinical and financial outcome measures in a pediatric population from 0 to 18 years of age. The data showed that minority populations were admitted at younger ages and were more likely to be admitted through the emergency department than their white counterparts. Substantial variation exists with respect to patterns of care and outcomes for pneumonia in pediatric patients among different ethnic/racial groups. Differences in outcomes may be associated with several factors, including variations in quality of care across different hospital settings, characteristics related to disease severity among different ethnic groups, and other unidentified factors. Further research is needed to clearly define how differences with respect to quality of care, access to care, disease severity, and care-seeking behaviors contribute to differences in outcomes across different ethnic groups.
Socioeconomic Differences in Health: How Much Do Health Behaviors and Health Insurance Coverage Account For?
Authors: Lu Ning , Samuels Michael E , Wilson Richard
Published: January 2007

As evidence accumulates that both unhealthy behaviors and inadequate access to health care are responsible in part for poor health, there is a tendency to attribute the differences in health status between the poor and the affluent to the higher prevalence of unhealthy behaviors and inadequate access to health care among people of low socioeconomic status (SES). The purpose of this study is to determine quantitatively how much health behaviors and health insurance coverage account for the SES disparity in health. The study employed secondary analysis of data collected through the Kentucky Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for 2000. After adjusting for health behaviors and health insurance coverage, the differences in health among different levels of SES (measured by education and income) remained strong and significant. Health behaviors and health insurance coverage accounted for 10-16% of the socioeconomic differences in health.
How do Urban African Americans and Latinos View the Influence of Diet on Hypertension?
Authors: Horowitz Carol R , Tuzzio Leah , Rojas Mary , Monteith Sharifa A , Sisk Jane E
Published: January 2007

Uncontrolled hypertension and its complications continue to be major health problems that disproportionately affect poor minority communities. Although dietary modification is an effective treatment for hypertension, it is not clear how hypertensive minority patients view diet as part of their treatment, and what barriers affect their abilities to eat healthy diets. We conducted nine focus groups with 88 African American and Latino patients treated for hypertension to assess their knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs concerning hypertension. Participants generally agreed that certain foods and food additives play an important role in the cause and treatment of hypertension. However, they found clinician-recommended diets difficult to follow in the context of their family lives, social situations, and cultures. These diets were often considered expensive, an unwelcome departure from traditional and preferred diets, socially isolating, and not effective enough to obviate the need for medications. These findings suggest the importance of culturally sensitive approaches to dietary improvements.
Medicaid Coverage and Utilization of Adult Dental Services
Authors: Mullins C. Daniel , Cohen Leonard A , Magder Laurence S , Manski R. (Richard)
Published: January 2007

This study evaluated the economic impact of a policy change in adult Maryland Medicaid dental benefits that eliminated reimbursements to dentists. We examined all claims for 2 years before and after the change. Reimbursements to dentists fell to zero from their preenactment period annual rate of $7.6 million; other care settings simultaneously generated an additional $232,470 savings during the postenactment period. Medicaid's goal to reduce costs was achieved; however, disadvantaged patients may have been confused by the policy change and likely suffered poorer health outcomes and paid for treatment out of pocket, found free clinics, or received free care from generous dentists.
Jane Dent Home: The Rise and Fall of Homes for the Aged in Low-Income Communities
Authors: Reed Susan C , Davis Nancy
Published: January 2007

The Jane Dent Home was established in 1898 (as the Home for Aged and Infirm Colored People) to serve African American elderly barred from admission to most homes for the aged. Sustained by community leadership through difficult times, the Home finally closed in 1975 after growing and persistent racial and economic segregation of Chicago's low-income neighborhoods combined with pressure from state government to ensure fire safety. This history illustrates the decline of not-for-profit homes for the aged while for-profit nursing homes were capturing market share. In Chicago this trend is strongest in low-income communities of color, which may lead to lower quality of care for such communities. Support for indigenous not-for-profit long-term care may promote the goals of health care equity articulated by Healthy People 2010.
Neighborhood Poverty, Mortality Rates, and Excess Deaths Among African Americans: Philadelphia 1999-2001
Authors: Robbins Jessica M , Webb David A
Published: January 2007

We usedvital statistics and census data to determine whether mortality rates in Philadelphia were associated with neighborhood poverty, and to what extent excess mortality among African Americans was associated with neighborhood poverty.Gender-specific, age-adjusted mortality rates for 1999-2001 were strongly associated with neighborhood poverty among both women and men overall, and among both African Americans and non-Hispanic whites. The actual number of deaths among African Americans was 5,305 higher than it would have been if African Americans had had the same gender- and age-specific mortality rates as the average for non-Hispanic whites in Philadelphia, and 1,944 higher than if African Americans had had the same gender- and age-specific rates as non-Hispanic whites in the same neighborhood poverty categories. The excess mortality associated with neighborhood poverty and the socioeconomic factors that force large numbers of African Americans into poverty and high-poverty neighborhoods appear to be major factors in excess mortality among African Americans.
An Evaluation of a Medical Outreach Program Targeting Unstably Housed HIV-Infected Individuals
Authors: Cunningham Chinazo O , Shapiro Scott , Berg Karina M , Sacajiu Galit , Paccione Gerald , Goulet Joseph L
Published: January 2007

The objective of this study was to evaluate a medical outreach program that targets unstably housed human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals. One hundred sixty-one cross-sectional interviews were conducted prior to and after establishing a medical outreach program in single room occupancy hotels. Participants' mean age was 42 years; 58% were men, 95% minority, and 59% active substance users. The postintervention group was more likely to have a regular health care provider (p = 0.02), and take Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia prophylaxis (p = 0.03) and antiretroviral medication (p = 0.02) than the pre-intervention group. Quality of care was more positively perceived in the postintervention group (p = 0.001). On multivariate analysis the postintervention group remained more likely to have a regular provider (OR = 5.3, p = 0.02), take antiretroviral medication (OR = 5.7, p = 0.02), and have a better perception of quality of care (OR = 4.9, p = 0.003). A medical outreach program targeting unstably housed HIV-infected individuals was associated with increased use of regular medical care and improved perceived quality of care.
UN Human Rights Field Presence as Proactive Instrument of Peace and Social Change: Lessons from Angola
Authors: Howland Todd
Published: January 2007

This article examines tentative developments in the area of human rights
field operations, outlining the challenges which faced the recent UN peace
keeping/building experience in Angola, and analyzing the opportunities,
successes, and failures of the UN human rights mission to contribute
concretely to improving the human rights situations in Angola. The article
provides both a set of recommendations designed to overcome the present
limitations of human rights field operations and possible tools to improve
the present human rights situation. This improvement is not simply about
short term ad hoc visible actions, but, more importantly, how such field
operations can contribute to building the foundation for the development
of a human rights culture, both on the governmental and individual levels.
An Appraisal of Amnesty International's Work at the United Nations: Established Areas of Activities and Shifting Priorities Since the 1990s
Authors: Martens Kerstin
Published: January 2007

The aim of this paper is to explore Amnesty International's relationship with the United Nations over time, whereby particular attention is paid to the period since the mid-1990s. The proposition of this study is that the NGO changed its pattern of activity with the United Nations depending on the prospects it perceived to advance human rights. Most significantly, over the last decade, Amnesty International has broadened its spectrum of activities with the United Nations, and today, it is basically involved in all stages of the political process; from agenda setting to policy formulation and project implementation.
The Paradox of Transition in Conflicted Democracies
Authors: Ni Aolain Fionnuala , Campbell Colm
Published: January 2007

Transitional Justice discourses have largely focused on "paradigmatic transitions." Such analyses emphasize dealing with the human rights abuses committed by prior authoritarian or illegitimate regimes. But, authoritarian entities may not be the only kind of states with a legacy of serious and systematic rights-violations. A similar legacy may manifest in broadly democratic states that have experienced prolonged political violence. These "conflicted democracies" present a number of paradoxes, which come to the fore when peace and transitional political process are agreed, thereby providing unique challenges in political and legal transformation. This article explores these paradoxes and challenges. It further draws out a more nuanced understand of the transitional process by conceptually separating war/peace transitions from illiberal polity/democracy transitions.
The Second Great Transformation: Human Rights Leapfrogging in the Era of Globalization
Authors: Howard-Hassmann Rhoda E.
Published: January 2007

Whether globalization improves or undermines human rights is not a matter that can be observed in the short term. Globalization is the second "great transformation" spreading capitalism over the entire world. Many of its short-term effects will be negative. Nevertheless, its medium and long-term effects may well be positive, as it impels social changes that will result in greater moves to democracy, economic redistribution, the rule of law, and promotion of civil and political rights. Capitalism is a necessary, though hardly sufficient condition for democracy: democracy is the best political system to protect human rights.

This does not mean that the non-Western world will follow the exact same path to protection of human rights that the Western world followed. No international law obliged the West to protect human rights during its own era of economic expansion. Thus, the West could practice slavery, expel surplus populations, and colonize other parts of the world. Genocide and ethnic cleaning were not prohibited.
The Protective Environment: Development Support for Child Protection
Authors: Landgren Karin
Published: January 2007

Children's protection from violence, exploitation, and abuse is weak in much of the world, despite near universal ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Often, improved legislation is not accompanied by significant changes in state or private practices and capacity. The types of programmatic response supported have tended to be curative rather than preventative in nature, addressing symptoms rather than the underlying systems that have failed to protect children. This article proposes a conceptual framework for programming, identifying elements key to protecting children in any environment as well as the factors that strengthen or undermine the protection available. Using this shared platform for analysis, human rights and development actors can bring greater coherence to activities that strengthen child protection.
The Special Rapporteur on Prisons and Conditions of Detention in Africa: Achievements and Possibilities
Authors: Viljoen Frans
Published: January 2007

The Special Rapporteur on Prisons and Conditions of Detention in Africa (SRP), established by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in 1996, is an innovative procedure aimed at addressing the dire position of detainees in Africa. Its greatest achievement so far has been the impact through visits to places of detention in eleven African Union member states; particularly the three to which follow up visits have been undertaken. It has also played an important promotional role, but has been less successful in dealing with individual complaints. Consideration is given to aspects arising from the coexistence of the SRP with numerous related UN procedures, including the possibility of greater collaboration with respect to urgent appeals.
Conflicts over Human Rights between China and the US
Authors: Zhou Qi
Published: January 2007

There is no doubt that different political systems are the essential reason for the conflicts between the United States and China. However, more profound causes of the disagreement between the United States and China on human rights issues lie in the different levels of economic development and the divergent cultures and basic values of the two countries. The notion of the responsibility of the state for individuals, the lack of the concept of rights in traditional Chinese thought, and humiliation in recent history and corresponding sensitivity to sovereignty, count for the ordinary Chinese attitudes toward US policies on human rights towards China.
Placing Access to Energy Services within a Human Rights Framework
Authors: Bradbrook Adrian J , Gardam Judith Gail
Published: January 2007

The relevance of energy to resolving environmental degradation and poverty has only recently been recognized by the world community. While energy is a multifaceted issue, the issue that has attracted the most attention has been the need to provide universal access to modern energy services. Without access to energy services, people are destined to live in poverty. The provision of such services is a key ingredient to providing a sustainable way of living for all the world's population. This article first outlines the significance of access to energy services in the poverty debate. Secondly, this article considers what strategies have so far been adopted by states to confront this issue and the difficulties that such initiatives have encountered. Against this background, the final section makes the case for access to energy services as a human right and commences the task of providing a content for such a right.
United States Policy toward Enemy Detainees in the "War on Terrorism"
Authors: Forsythe David P.
Published: January 2007

The democratic government of France in the Algerian war engaged in torture and summary execution of enemy detainees. In so doing, it generated increased opposition at home and abroad. Torture may have helped the French win the battle of Algiers, but France lost the war for Algeria. French abuses of human rights in that war also cost the French dearly in terms of loss of self respect and reputation in the world. The Bush Administration, in fighting its "war on terrorism," runs the danger of repeating much of the French experience. It has intentionally abused many detainees in many places and has failed to ensure that this abuse is limited to persons truly presenting a dire threat to the security of US democracy. It has also tried to minimize authoritative review of its interrogation policies. Whether this broad policy of abuse can be sustained, and whether it can avoid the many negatives that the French experienced, merits careful analysis.
"If Only They Would Do Their Homework:" Promoting Self-Regulation in High School English Classes
Authors: Cooper Jewell E , Horn Suzanne , Strahan David B
Published: January 2007

This study examined ways that seven high school English teachers attempted to promote higher levels of self-regulation and students' responses to their efforts. Researchers met with teachers once a week for three months to design higher-order reasoning questions for assignments and quizzes, review student responses and plan instructional strategies. They functioned as participant observers in these sessions examined student homework logs, and interviewed students and teachers. Teachers' responses emphasized the value of collaboration and asking higher-order reasoning questions. Although students continued to articulate performance goals that focused on grades and rewards, their responses demonstrated greater awareness of self-regulation and goal setting. Most students were able to use the language of self-regulation to describe relations among goals, effort, and outcomes. Results of this case study suggest that efforts to promote self-regulation more explicitly within the fabric of lessons might be productive, especially if offered for an extended amount of time.
Secondary Mathematics Teachers' Perceptions of the Achievement Gap
Authors: Bol Linda , Berry Robert Quinlyn
Published: January 2007

The purpose of this study was to survey the perceptions of secondary mathematics teachers on factors contributing to the achievement gap and ways to reduce this gap. National Council of the Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) members were surveyed, and a total of 379 secondary teachers responded. Overall, respondents were most likely to attribute the achievement gap to student characteristics, such as differences in motivational levels, work ethic, and family support. Furthermore, teachers from schools with a higher population of White students were more likely to attribute the gap to student characteristics than were teachers in schools with higher percentages of minority students. Mathematics supervisors and university faculty were less likely to attribute the achievement gap to student characteristics than were middle and high school teachers. Instead, the supervisors and university faculty were more likely to endorse explanations related to curriculum and instruction than were secondary teachers. In terms of attributing the achievement gap to factors related to language, we found that the higher the percentage of Hispanic or Latino students in the respondents' schools, the more likely they were to endorse Language items. Suggestions for reducing the achievement gap centered on professional development for teachers, curricular changes, community building, and policies that included more funding equity and a reduction in class size.
Legacies of the "Innocent" Frontier: Failed Memory and the Infantilized Filipina Expatriate in Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters
Authors: Werrlein Debra T
Published: January 2007

This article focuses on the ways that Jessica Hagedorn uses the trope of childhood innocence to appropriate President William McKinley's infantilizing rhetoric of colonialism. Through her expatriate narrator's nostalgia for an innocent Philippines populated by childlike characters, Hagedorn cedes authentic history to the corrosive powers of assimilationism and consumerism. Along with the possibilities for a knowable history, however, Dogeaters also forsakes the comforts innocent "memories." The novel ends by accepting multiple stories of history's loss instead.
"Law as Self-Defense": An Interview on Teaching and Asian American Jurisprudence with Jerry Kang
Authors: Kang Jerry , Torok John Hayakawa
Published: January 2007

The inaugural "Teaching Texts" column appears in this issue. As JAAS readers will know, we wanted to create a space in the journal for starting and circulating conversations on pedagogy in the recognition that "a defining feature of Asian American studies has been and continues to be the attention we pay to our pedagogical practices," to quote from the "Teaching Texts" call for papers. We wrote in that cfp, "From class formats to assignment types, we know that the choices we make in our work as teachers matters a great deal in the enthusiasm and intensity with which students engage Asian American studies. The Journal of Asian American Studies intends to foster this interest in pedagogy, specifically by circulating work that promotes the scholarship of teaching -- here, by focusing on text selection and its consequences. What text(s) are you teaching in your Asian American studies or affiliated courses? What issues and/or objectives motivate your text selections?" The interview by John Torok of Jerry Kang, a law professor who has taught at UCLA and Harvard, which appears as our inaugural column, addresses these and other matters in ways that are sure to prompt further thinking and to help all of us in our development of Asian American studies curricula. We hope that this will be only the first in a series of interviews as well as other pedagogically-focused pieces that, briefly stated, make us better teachers.