bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Recent Bereavement and Registration for Death Studies Courses
Authors: Doka Kenneth J.
Published: May 2005

Two groups of students, those who had registered for a course entitled The Sociology of Death and those who had registered for another sociology class were compared as to their death related experiences. Students in the Sociology of Death class reported more deaths of friends and relatives over two five-year periods, and more work experiences in death related settings than students in the control group. The differences were significant at the .05 level. No significant differences were found between the two groups in terms of anticipated occupations in death related settings.
Dying and its Interpreters: A Review of Selected Literature and Some Comments on the State of the Field
Authors: Corr Charles A. , Doka Kenneth J. , Kastenbaum Robert
Published: May 2005

What have been the major theoretical approaches that have been useful in the study of dying to date? What theoretical approaches hold promise for the future? Selected literature on dying and coping with dying is reviewed in an effort to describe the present state of our knowledge in this field and to contribute to an overall theory of dying. Three central topics are 1) awareness of and communication about dying; 2) processes of illness; and 3) coping with dying. Reflections are offered on the kinds[s] of theory that might be desirable in this field, together with a number of lessons that can be drawn from the existing literature. A continued exploration of the ways that theoretical perspectives from psychology and sociology such as developmental theory, Symbolic lnteractionism, or Reconstructism can lead to greater understanding of the dying process.
Family Planning Operations Research and Program Evaluation Literature Review
Authors: Tahir Zaffar , Huschle-Delobel Grace , Lush Louisiana , Cernada George , Rob Ubaidur , Ahmad Muhammad Shafique
Published: May 2005

A selected annotated bibliography of operations research and program evaluation articles and reports on family planning program activities in Pakistan from 1968–1993. Some thirty references are summarized including study design, methodology, and major findings.
Student Teachers' Perception and Practice of the Teachers' Role When Teaching with Computers
Authors: Wang Yu-Mei
Published: May 2005

This study investigated the student teachers' perception and practice of the teacher's role teaching with computers. The teacher's role was measured as teacher-centeredness and student-centeredness. The result of the study showed that there was no significant difference between the student teacher's perception of teacher-centered roles and their perception of student-centered roles. The student teachers perceived that they would likely engage teacher-centered activities and student-centered activities on an equal basis while teaching in classrooms with computers. Nevertheless, the further test of the study showed that there was a significant difference between the student teachers' teacher-centered computer use and the student-centered computer use during the practicum. The student teachers used the computer significantly more as a teacher-centered tool than a student-centered tool.
Knowledge of Computer Ethics: Its Relationship to Computer Attitude and Sociomoral Reasoning
Authors: Bear George G.
Published: May 2005

Knowledge of computer ethics and its relationship to attitude toward computers and sociomoral reasoning was examined in a sample of sixty junior-high students. A measure of computer ethics was empirically derived via factor analysis of twenty-four items created by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. Both computer attitude and sociomoral reasoning correlated significantly with knowledge of computer ethics, r = .52, p < .01 and r = .29, p < .05, respectively. Computer attitude, but not sociomoral reasoning, continued to account for variance in computer ethics scores after both gender and verbal ability were statistically controlled.
Redesigning Technical Reports: A Rhetorical Editing Method
Authors: Cheney Patrick , Schleicher David
Published: May 2005

A rhetorical editing method can help the editor redesign technical reports, when necessary, to meet the needs of the intended audience. If the editor sees that the author has not selected and arranged the ideas to accord with the audience and purpose of the report, he or she must reselect the necessary and sufficient ideas and rearrange them. Rhetorical editing thus calls on the editor to edit at the scale of the entire report—not just at the scale of individual words and sentences. Although seemingly a bold departure from conventional editing, rhetorical editing merely applies the principles of rhetoric widely used in technical writing and composition.
The Effects of Preconscious Visual Symbolic and Linguistic Cues upon the Academic Achievement of College Students
Authors: Ledford Bruce R. , Robison Lloyd , Miller Tom , Wright C. Dan
Published: May 2005

This study tested the effects of a preconscious visual linguistic and symbolic cue upon the academic achievement of selected college students at a major university. The cue was presented via the medium of a specially prepared paper. Performance on a posttest constituted the dependent variable. The cues were found to have a statistically significant effect upon academic achievement when the main effects for group, sex, and class were analyzed. The two-way and three-way interactions did not prove to be of significance; however, the interaction of group with sex was significant.
Technical Report Writing in Victoria, Australia
Authors: Baxter J. E.
Published: May 2005

Formal training in technical report writing is virtually non-existent in Australia. The technical colleges in the State of Victoria are the only tertiary institutes which have provided this sort of training for their graduates. The courses provided at the Swinburne College of Technology incorporate an unusual feature, in that the classes are conducted by two lecturers; one from the appropriate technical faculty and one from the General Studies faculty, each having supervisory control over different aspects of the course, but working together in close cooperation. This system, which has now been used for about ten years, has been remarkably successful, not only in the quality of reports produced by the students, but in breaking down the barriers between the staffs of the technical faculties and the humanities lecturers.
Pre-College Technology Education and Instructional Technology: Preparing Students for the Workplace
Authors: Liao Thomas T.
Published: May 2005

Two technology education programs are reviewed to determine how well they are designed to prepare students for the workplace or engineering careers. A list of workplace related functional skills is used as evaluation criteria for the assessment. Another aspect of this review concerns how contextual learning has been implemented. Both programs were judged to contain instructional activities that use advanced technology effectively to prepare students for the workplace or college. These programs are also excellent models of how to help students learn concepts and skills via real-world problems and examples.
Comparing the Cost-Effectiveness of Tutoring and Computer-Based Instruction
Authors: Niemiec Richard P. , Sikorski Melanie F. , Walberg Herbert J.
Published: May 2005

This study combines meta-analytic and costing techniques to investigate the cost-effectiveness of CAI and tutoring. Using many estimates of costs and effects to yield widely generalizable cost-effectiveness ratios (CERs), it appears that CAI is considerably more cost-effective than tutoring. In fact, CAI may be as much as three times more cost-effective than tutoring.
From Ex-Patient Alternatives to Consumer Options: Consequences of Consumerism for Psychiatric Consumers and the Ex-Patient Movement
Authors: McLean Athena Helen
Published: May 2005

The psychiatric consumer movement in the United States evolved out of the political activism of a small group of antipsychiatry “ex-patients” (former patients) early in the 1970s. The shift in the movement from radical opposition to the medical model to viewing the latter as a possible choice in treatment occurred gradually under a series of social and political changes (e.g., deinstitutionalization), responses to those changes (e.g., the Community Support Program of the National Institute of Mental Health), and the involvement of new actors on the scene (e.g., the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, a family consumer movement). This article traces the evolution of the psychiatric consumer movement up to the early 1990s in the light of these larger social, political, and economic developments. The author then considers the consequences of that evolution for both consumers and the ex-patient movement in the context of the unique nature of consumerism in the United States and the more recent restructuring of mental health services under managed care.
Demographic Trends, Health, and Medical Care in Latin America
Authors: Behm H. , Gutiérrez H. , Requena M.
Published: May 2005

The relationship of changing demographic characteristics to health status and medical care in Latin America is examined in this article. The rapid demographic growth, high birth and death rates, although with a downward trend, the excessive expansion of the large cities, and the dispersion of the rural population are correlated with the unsatisfactory levels of health and living of the masses of the population, lack of medical care whose quality varies according to social class, and the limitations of the health systems. In the light of this analysis the authors discuss some of the tasks and prospects of the health sector. They contend that the situation described is basically due to inefficient social, economic, and political structures and an unhealthy dependence on external forces. Only radical structural changes will enable millions of Latin Americans to really have access to medical care, health, and life itself, an access which is their inalienable right and which today is denied them.
‘Safe’ Fantasy: The Self-Conscious Boundary between Wishing and Willing
Authors: Kunzendorf Robert , Carrabino Carlene , Capone Daniel
Published: May 2005

This experiment tested the hypothesis that a fantasy will impel people to “act out” only if they fail to distinguish the fantasy from the anticipated reality. In the experiment, one task obtained a baseline measure of how long subjects could resist eating popcorn, then measured how long subjects could resist popcorn while fantasizing its taste. Another task instructed subjects to merge three circular images with three circular percepts of equal vividness, then presented subjects unexpectedly with only two of the three circular percepts. Some subjects thought that there were three circular percepts during the merger, and for these subjects, the length of resistance to popcorn was significantly shorter during the popcorn fantasy. But for subjects who selfconsciously differentiated the two real circles from the three merging images, the normal “boundary” between wishful fantasy and willful eating was intact.
An Oblique Effect in the Selection of Line Orientation by Twentieth Century Painters
Authors: Latto Richard , Russell-Duff Kirsty
Published: May 2005

In 88 paintings from the Israel Museum, Jerusalem the proportions of horizontal, vertical, and oblique lines were determined in order to ascertain whether artists preferentially use lines orientated in the horizontal and vertical directions rather than the oblique. Frame orientations were also examined to determine their effect on these line orientations. The results showed a preference for the vertical and the horizontal over the oblique. This effect was very robust, occurring with both landscape and portrait formats and over a variety of different styles and categories of paintings. There was also an interaction between line orientation and frame orientation with an increased use of vertical lines with portrait format paintings and an increased use of horizontal lines with landscape format. It is suggested that the basic finding of an orientation anisotropy in line selection is related to the oblique effect in line perception, the finding that horizontal and vertical lines are more readily perceived than oblique lines in a wide variety of situations. This supports the idea that stimuli like horizontal and vertical lines, which are preferentially processed by the visual system, are also aesthetically more powerful.
Noncompliance with Post-Transplant Immunosuppression
Authors: Armstrong Stephen H. , Weiner Myron F.
Published: May 2005

Two cases from an adolescent dialysis group are presented to illustrate the limitations of the generally used models of patient compliance and noncompliance with medical treatment. Understanding the noncompliance of these two young men required awareness of their psychological development and of the interpersonal matrix in which they lived. Their noncompliance was the result of a failure to master a transition from dependence to autonomy which probably could not have been predicted in advance, but which might have been detected as it developed and might have been avoided through appropriate interventions with the patients and their families.
The Timeliness of New Drug Approvals in Canada
Authors: Rawson Nigel S. B.
Published: May 2005

In a recent article, Lexchin asks “who needs faster drug approval times in Canada?” and, on the basis of extremely limited and selective data, draws the conclusion that neither the public nor the pharmaceutical industry does. Whether the Canadian system is really slower is investigated by comparing Canadian and U.S. marketing approval dates and by using information on regulatory approval times from the two countries and elsewhere. Marketing approval dates in Canada are significantly later than those in the United States, although not consistently across all therapeutic categories; anti-cancer and gastrointestinal drugs have earlier approval dates in Canada. However, Canadian and U.S. regulatory approval times are not significantly different, indicating that marketing applications are submitted later in Canada, but both are considerably longer than those in the United Kingdom. The evidence shows that Canadians need faster drug approval times if individuals requiring the medications are not to suffer unnecessarily. A significant decrease in drug approval times and the establishment of comprehensive and effective postmarketing surveillance would reduce the time it takes for new drugs to be made available to Canadians while, at the same time, providing a high level of drug safety.
National Prescribing Patterns in the Management of Extrapyramidal Symptoms among Patients with Schizophrenia
Authors: Luo Roger D. , Belletti Daniel A. , Tran Dung , Arcona Stephen , Salen Philip N.
Published: May 2005

Purpose:

Antipsychotics, particularly typical agents, have been shown to cause extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS). We hypothesized a negative association between concomitant (at same visit) prescriptions for atypical antipsychotics and prescriptions for medications to manage EPS.

Method:

We combined National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) data from 1993 through 1999 for visits by patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (ICD-9 295.0–295.9), that included a prescription for either an atypical or typical antipsychotic (but not both). We also constructed two, scale-weighted logistic regression models to separately estimate the odds and probabilities of receiving prescriptions for an antipsychotic and for a medication used to treat EPS.

Results:

From 1993 through 1999, there were an estimated 10,475,507 office visits with schizophrenia as a diagnosis; 7,371,625 (70.4 percent) included a prescription for a conventional (typical) antipsychotic. Thirty-four percent of visits included a prescription for a medication used to treat EPS. Being in the older age group, having Medicaid as primary coverage, belonging to an HMO, and being female significantly reduced the probability of receiving an atypical antipsychotic by 12.6 percent, 10.9 percent, 15.1 percent, and 10.2 percent, respectively. Caucasian patients were 14 percent more likely to be prescribed an atypical. Antipsychotic type had a clinically and statistically significant effect on EPS management prescribing. A prescription for an atypical antipsychotic reduced the probability of receiving a concomitant prescription for EPS management by 26.8 percent.

Conclusion:

As expected, we observed the hypothesized joint prescribing pattern. The results of this study suggest that atypical antipsychotic prescriptions strongly predict fewer prescriptions for EPS treatment, and, by implication, reduced need for EPS treatment in actual ambulatory care practices throughout the nation.
Ethics and Technical Communication: The Past Quarter Century
Authors: Dombrowski Paul M.
Published: May 2005

Ethics as a topic in technical communication has grown in interest in the past quarter century as the field itself has matured. We now understand technical communication as involved in communicating not only technical information but also values, ethics, and tacit assumptions represented in goals. It also is involved in accommodating the values and ethics of its many audiences. This understanding is linked to an awareness of the social nature of all discourse and the root interconnectedness of rhetoric and ethics. This article presents an introduction and annotated bibliography of articles from technical writing and communication journals over this period, arranged in categories of professional, academic, and systematic approaches. Ethics is broadly conceived to include not only particular theories but also systems of values and principles.
Working Conditions in Home Care: Negotiating Race and Class Boundaries in Gendered Work
Authors: Neysmith Sheila M. , Aronson Jane
Published: May 2005

Home care work in metropolitan areas is a source of employment for immigrant women of color. Service work of this type intertwines domestic and caring labor in ways that reinforce the historically gendered and racialized nature of the work. Such macro level economic and political issues are played out at the micro level of daily service provided within elderly clients' homes. A study of these processes in home care work was carried out in urban southern Ontario in two nonprofit home care agencies. In-depth interviews and focus groups held with visible minority home care workers suggested that workers deal daily with racist attitudes and behaviors from clients and their families; agencies recognize these oppressive processes but usually handle them on a case-by-case basis through supervisors; and home care workers handle racism on the job as they do in their off-work hours—by avoidance, situating incidents within an analysis of the circumstances of elderly clients, setting boundaries on discussions, and occasionally, confrontation.
The Stiff Man Syndrome: A Psychiatric Disease?
Authors: Heiligman Robert , Paulson Morris J.
Published: May 2005

Although the Stiff Man Syndrome has been traditionally viewed as a neurologic disorder, a number of recent articles have documented a pattern of familial, interpersonal, and intrapsychic stress which suggests that this disease may be, to a considerable degree, psychosomatic in origin. The present paper reviews several recent articles and focuses on a single case study. Although the medical diagnosis was earlier confirmed, an in-depth psychiatric evaluation and extensive psychological assessment showed many psychopathological concomitants associated with the severe muscle spasm and stiffness. A follow-up after about a year of group and individual psychotherapy showed that the symptoms were still in remission, and that the patient was functioning personally and occupationally on a significantly improved level.
The Martis Complex Revisited
Authors: Elsasser Albert B. , Gortner Willis A.
Published: May 2005

In 1953 a prehistoric culture was first identified in the western Great Basin and the north-central Sierra Nevada and termed the “Martis Complex.” Since questions have been raised about the characterization of this Complex, this article is a review of research and adds new field data since its original description. Of nine traits originally proposed to identify the Martis Complex, two had been questioned at that time; they remain as questionable traits. The other seven have been reinforced by more recent data, and three new diagnostic traits are proposed on the basis of new information on the Complex. Recent dating by carbon-14 and obsidian hydration measurements affirm the existence of the Martis Complex between 2000 B.C. and 500 A.D.
Equity in School Computer Use: National Data and Neglected Considerations
Authors: Becker Henry Jay , Sterling Carleton W.
Published: May 2005

Since schools began using computers for instruction, social critics have questioned the equity of the apportionment of computer resources by sex, race, and social status. Data from our national survey of schools describe how computers are used with different groups of students. We find that the use of school computers differs most dramatically by student interest and ability. Boys and “better” students tend to dominate computer use. But the evidence is weak on the actual consequences of differential uses of computers. We raise, without resolving, the issue of whether schools should reallocate computer resources toward girls and less able students. A fair policy depends upon the relative value of computer-based instruction to fill the educational needs of all children. We need more experimental research to assess the relative value of computer applications in education.
Empathy and Imagination
Authors: Rabinowitz Aaron , Heinhorn Lea
Published: May 2005

This study examined the relationship between empathy and imagination. The hypotheses were: a) the greater an individual's imagination, the more empathy the individual will show, and b) individuals instructed to imagine themselves in another's unfortunate situation will show greater empathy than others not similarly instructed. The subjects were 141 tenth- and eleventh-grade Israeli boys and girls. Imagination was measured by the daydreaming and night-dreaming scales of the Imaginal Processes Inventory [1] and empathy was rated on the Israeli version of the Accurate Empathy Scale [2]. The data support the first hypothesis, but not the second.
Visual Imagery Processing in Japanese Abacus Experts
Authors: Hatta Takeshi , Miyazaki Mayumi
Published: May 2005

Two experiments were conducted to examine the ability of visual imagery processing in abacus experts. Abacus experts and normal control subjects (university students) with no abacus training were given word and picture matching tasks for Experiment 1, and digit sequence and abacus-picture matching tasks for Experiment 2. The pictures, comparison stimuli, were tachistoscopically presented in either the left or the right visual field. The results indicated that: 1) the abacus experts performed matching tasks under all conditions of both experiments faster than the control group; 2) the abacus experts showed a left visual field advantage regarding the imagery condition in both Experiments; and 3) the control group showed a right visual field advantage in the rehearsal conditions of both experiments and in the imagery condition of Experiment 2. The effects of abacus practice on imagery processing ability were discussed based upon the different patterns of visual field differences between the abacus experts and the control group.
Maternal Attachment and Child Death: On Adjustment, Relationship, and Resolution
Authors: Rubin Simon Shimshon
Published: May 2005

When an infant dies at the height of the mother-child attachment period, the experience is traumatic and shattering for the mother. Examining successful resolution of this loss requires a distinction between adjustment to the external reality of loss and the nature of the ongoing internal relationship to the representation of the deceased. Resolution may best describe and muted intrapsychic relationship characterized by a flexible and psychologically comfortable stance vis a vis the dynamic memories and representation of the deceased child.
1984 Update on the World Economic Crisis and the Children: A United States Case Study
Authors: Miller C. Arden , Coulter Elizabeth J. , Fine Amy , Adams-Taylor Sharon , Schorr Lisbeth B.
Published: May 2005

A previously published report by these authors on the impact in the United States of recession on children's health emphasized four points: 1) available monitoring systems are not adequate for reporting on the health of children in a timely fashion; 2) the monitoring of maternal and child health must emphasize data on population subgroups, i.e., minorities, the poor and those hardest hit by recession; 3) the health of poor children is adversely affected and their numbers dramatically increased during the recession of 1981–82; and 4) comparisons between the recession of 1974–75 and that of 1981–82 suggest that expansion of health services and social support systems during the recession of 1974–75 had a cushioning effect that protected the health of children, while the curtailment of many of these programs during the 1981–82 recession is associated with adverse health trends, especially among the most vulnerable population subgroups.

Data on these issues are appreciably better now than they were nine months ago, thus further validating the points made above. As with the previous report, officially released current data are abundant for economic indicators (even for early 1984), but are sparse for health status indicators. The previous report also observed that the health status of children is influenced by interdependent and interlocking factors that include economic well-being and access to health services and social supports. A new analysis attempts to unlock those relationships and measure the impact of lost welfare benefits, implemented as a result of the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1981 (OBRA), and the separate impact of the serious recession of 1981–82. That analysis shows the poverty rate for children increased by 7.6 percentage points between 1981 and 1982. Approximately 60 percent of the increase is attributable to the recession and 40 percent to social policy changes effected after 1981.
Posthypnotic Amnesia: Dissociation of Self-Concept or Self-Consciousness?
Authors: Kunzendorf Robert G.
Published: May 2005

Two studies of posthypnotic amnesia tested predictions derived from the ‘source’ monitoring theory of self-consciousness. Experiment 1 tested the prediction that posthypnotic source amnesia is irreversible, because hypnosis attenuates self-consciousness of whether one's sensations have an imaginal source or a perceptual source. In this initial study, recall amnesia was reversed by posthypnotic cuing with a prearranged signal, but source amnesia was not reversed by such cuing. Experiment 2 examined whether the cued reversal of recall amnesia is attributable, in part, to the hypnotic attenuation of self-conscious ‘source monitoring’ and, in part, to the reversal of recall criteria: from a criterion rejecting ‘seemingly imaginary’ or ‘sourceless’ memories, to a criterion accepting ‘sourceless but familiar’ memories. In this latter study, posthypnotic recall amnesia was breached when subjects were instructed to trust their seemingly imaginary memories, but not when they were instructed to try harder to remember.
Tuberculosis and Social Stratification in South Africa
Authors: Andersson Neil
Published: May 2005

Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a barometer of poverty, determined by racial classification, in both town and countryside in the Republic of South Africa. Despite the fact that whites with the disease stand a greater chance of being diagnosed than their black counterparts, because they have very much better access to health care, the risks of TB for people classified by the state as black and colored are 27 and 16 times, respectively, the risk for whites. Black gold miners, the nutritional elite of the workforce, have also experienced an increase in TB rates. Tuberculosis accounts for 50 percent of all black compensation cases and some 2.5 percent of white cases. The risks of TB have increased over recent years among coloreds and blacks. Rates of tuberculous meningitis have also increased over the past decade, and show the dramatically worse health care available to people classified as black and colored. Although about 60,000 new TB cases are reported in the country each year, there have been cutbacks in the resources available for TB control and treatment.
Generating Cultures for Mathematical Microworld Development in a Multi-Organizational Context
Authors: Kynigos Chronis
Published: May 2005

This article discusses methodological issues of mathematical microworld development integrated with generating innovation in the school setting. This is done by means of vignettes of key episodes in our eight-year-long experience of developing a component architecture for educational software based on Logo as a scripting language. The vignettes touch on the problems of collaboration between organizations and people of different expertise. They also address issues to do with the school and the classroom as social systems, with the method for implementing innovation and with curriculum design, teaching, and learning. A set of issues that emerged as problematic are outlined and discussed; the different priority systems involved, the amount of investment in collaboration, the differing discourses and epistemologies, the notion of a product, the interdependencies, and the contrast between reform and innovation versus instant fit. It is suggested that awareness needs to be raised as well as methods for dealing with these factors in order to generate cultures developing and using exploratory software.
Nurses' Professionalism in Canada: A Labor Process Analysis
Authors: Campbell Marie L.
Published: May 2005

This article draws on a body of research conducted by the author over the past ten years on the social organization of nursing work. It explores questions surrounding nurses' contemporary labor process control and its meaning for nurses' professionalization and proletarianization. Both are dynamic processes, changing as public administration of the Canadian health care system changes and as nurses are successful in winning more complete self-regulation. Nurses are currently being articulated more and more securely to dominant ideas of public sector management through textually mediated technologies. Nurses find new upwardly mobile careers and challenging, responsible, and more respected work. However, as the generation of objective information for professional accountability, cost-accounting, and managerial decision-making becomes unified in computerized patient information systems, producing and using such information becomes a central and determining core of everyday nursing work. It organizes nurses into a “managed” practice of patient care, contradictory for them in many ways. Outstanding among these contradictions is a new professionalized standpoint of cost-efficiency that subordinates nurses' traditional interests and grounding of their work in the standpoint of care.
The Dying Patient and the Double-Bind Hypothesis
Authors: Erickson Richard C. , Hyerstay Bobbie J.
Published: May 2005

The double-bind hypothesis is applied to the communication patterns surrounding the dying patient. Significant others emit incongruent verbal and nonverbal messages as they attempt to conceal the patient's impending death. Most attempts to conceal are misguided and futile not only because most dying patients suspect and/or want to know the truth, but also because the management of a host of verbal and nonverbal cues is virtually impossible. The potential for psychologically destructive social interactions is documented by drawing parallels with the schizophrenogenic double bind situation. Staff efforts should go into revealing rather than concealing the truth.
Industrial Risk Factors for Colorectal Cancer
Authors: Lashner Bret A. , Epstein Samuel S.
Published: May 2005

Colorectal cancer is the second most common malignancy in the United States, and its incidence rates have sharply increased recently, especially in males. Industrial exposures, both occupational and environmental, are important colorectal cancer risk factors that are generally unrecognized by clinicians. Migration studies have documented that colorectal cancer is strongly associated with environmental risk factors. The causal role of occupational exposures is evidenced by a substantial literature associating specific work practices with increased colorectal cancer risks. Industrially related environmental exposures, including polluted drinking water and ionizing radiation, have also been associated with excess risks. Currently, there is a tendency to attribute colorectal cancer, largely or exclusively, to dietary and other lifestyle factors, thus neglecting these industrially related effects. Concerted efforts are needed to recognize the causal role of industrial risk factors and to encourage government and industry to reduce carcinogenic exposures. Furthermore, cost-effective screening programs for high-risk population groups are critically needed to further reduce deaths from colorectal cancer.
People and Places: Contrasting Perspectives on the Association between Social Class and Health
Authors: Kaplan George A.
Published: May 2005

While a substantial body of evidence demonstrates a strong association between socioeconomic variables and health outcomes, most analyses conceptualize socioeconomic status as an individual characteristic. This article argues for an expanded view that focuses on the relationship between social class and characteristics of the neighborhood and communities in which people live, and illustrates how these characteristics can provide some new directions for research relating class and health. Using the Alameda County Study, the author presents three analyses that support this view. They indicate that socioenvironmental characteristics of areas are importantly related to the mortality experience of individuals, independent of characteristics of the individuals, and that personal and socioenvironmental risk factors cluster together in areas of low income and high mortality. Studying the balance of demands and resources in areas may help to unravel some of the pathways that link social class and health.
Attitudes toward Sex Education among Black, Hispanic and White Inner-City Residents
Authors: Namerow Pearila Brickner , Philliber Susan Gustavus
Published: May 2005

Telephone survey data gathered from residents of a New York City neighborhood indicate that Hispanics are significantly less likely to approve of sex education for adolescents than are either blacks and whites. Hispanics also perceive the appropriate ages for sex education to be older, and are more conservative about the topics and places for sex education than are the other ethnic groups. These differences remain after controls are introduced for sex, age, religion, education, number of children in the household, family income, or perception of teenage pregnancy as a problem. Age and education, however, are also important predictors of attitudes toward sex education.
Integrating the Use of Internet as an Instructional Tool: Examining the Process of Change
Authors: Gershner Vera T. , Snider Sharla L.
Published: May 2005

The integration of technology into curriculum delivery in one small Texas school district serving 1320 students began in the fall of 1998. Twelve technology proficient teachers were trained as trainers for the train-the-trainer model used to introduce the university resources. Forty-nine middle and high school teachers were evaluated under the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM). The Innovation Configuration for this study was the use of the Internet as an instructional tool. Pretest and posttest data on the Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ) were elicited electronically and Levels of Use (LoU) data were elicited in face-to-face interviews. The Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Tests showed significant differences on both the SoCQ and LoU. This study led to the development of online collection of LoU data as larger samples of preservice teachers, university instructors, and mentor teachers participate in training with similar Innovation Configurations.
Preferences For Prolonging Life: A Prospect Theory Approach
Authors: Winter Laraine , Lawton M. Powell , Ruckdeschel Katy
Published: May 2005

Kahneman and Tversky's (1979) Prospect theory was tested as a model of preferences for prolonging life under various hypothetical health statuses. A sample of 384 elderly people living in congregate housing (263 healthy, 131 frail) indicated how long (if at all) they would want to live under each of nine hypothetical health conditions (e.g., limited to bed or chair in a nursing home). Prospect theory, a decision model which takes into account the individual's point of reference, would predict that frail people would view prospective poorer health conditions as more tolerable and express preferences to live longer in worse health than would currently healthy people. In separate analyses of covariance, we evaluated preferences for continued life under four conditions of functional ability, four conditions of cognitive impairment, and three pain conditions—each as a function of participant's current health status (frail vs. healthy). The predicted interaction between frailty and declining prospective health status was obtained. Frail participants expressed preferences for longer life under more compromised health conditions than did healthy participants. The results imply that such preferences are malleable, changing as health deteriorates. They also help explain disparities between proxy decision-makers' and patients' own preferences as expressed in advance directives.
Cognitive Style and Perception: The Relationship of Boundary Thinness to Visual-Spatial Processing in Dreaming and Waking Thought
Authors: Levin Ross , Gilmartin Laura , Lamontanaro Laura
Published: May 2005

The present study investigated empirically whether individuals with thin boundaries as determined by high scores on the Hartmann Boundary Questionnaire (HBQ) [1] demonstrated heightened access to imagistic stimuli than thick boundary individuals. Two independent samples, visual art students and Wall Street brokers, were administered the Rorschach, a sleep and dreaming questionnaire, and a subliminal perception task which involved the presentation of both a subliminal and supraliminal stimulus. As expected, the majority of the visual artists scored thin boundaried and the majority of Wall Street brokers scored thick boundaried on the HBQ. Boundary thinness on the HBQ was positively correlated with Rorschach boundary disruption, higher dream recall, greater reported dream salience, and increased access to subliminal activation. These data are consistent with previous data [2] and support the contention that boundaries are a useful variable in conceptualizing how individuals process imagistically-based emotionally-toned information.
Learning Efficiency with Text, Pictures, and Animation in on-Line Help
Authors: Westendorp Piet
Published: May 2005

To test the relative efficiency and learning effect of text, pictures, and animation in on-line help systems, six versions of an on-line help system for telephones were designed. The operational information was presented in either text, pictures, or animation and presented either with or without spatial information (in pictures). Subjects were asked to perform thirteen tasks, using these six versions of the instructions and to do the same tasks again, using the same version of the instructions, one week later. The results show that only presenting the operational information via text is the most efficient. Subjects using instructions in animation needed significantly more time than those using the text or picture versions. Adding spatial information (in pictures) was counterproductive: without this information subjects performed better in all versions. Performing the same tasks with identical instructions one week later produced the same results, but the differences were much smaller. Therefore, it has been concluded that text remains the most efficient medium as long as users have to apply the instructions immediately. If the time needed to read/see the instructions is deducted, animation turns out to be the most efficient medium. It is therefore concluded that animation could be the best medium for learning how to operate a device.
Individual Difference Correlates and Measures of Predisposition to Obesity and to Anorexia
Authors: Mehrabian Albert , Nahum Ilana V. , Duke Vince
Published: May 2005

A questionnaire of eating and related habits was developed and factor analyzed to yield verbal report measures of predisposition to obesity, binge eating, physical activity, and predisposition to anorexia. The latter was composed of three intercorrelated components: food phobia, inability to eat, and abhorrence of full stomach (vomiting). Predisposition to obesity correlated .42 with binge eating and –.55 with the ponderal index (a measure of the elongated-rounded quality of body shape). Predisposition to anorexia correlated .14 with predisposition to obesity, showing that those predisposed to anorexia had a weak tendency to perceive themselves as prone to gain weight. However, contrary to clinical observations, predisposition to anorexia did not correlate significantly with binge eating or with physical activity. Across the entire sample, binge eating correlated .15 with abhorrence of full stomach (vomiting) showing that the incidence of bulimia is very low.

A three-dimensional temperament framework and its associated measures of trait pleasure-displeasure, arousability, and trait dominance-submissiveness was used to explore personality correlates of eating habits. Predisposition to obesity was associated with arousability, and secondarily, with submissiveness, indicating anxious or dependent temperament types to be prone to obesity. Both binge eaters and those predisposed to anorexia exhibited unpleasant, arousable, and submissive (i.e., anxious) temperament characteristics. Physical activity was associated with trait dominance and trait pleasure; that is, relaxed or exuberant temperament qualities. Compared with males, females were significantly more predisposed to obesity, binge eating, and anorexia.
Implementing Computer Technology in Educational Settings
Authors: Bishop-Clark Catherine , Grant Rebecca
Published: May 2005

The educational potential of computer technology will not be realized until schools successfully incorporate the technology into their daily activities. Often, the group encouraging the new technology is a third party with no direct control over the user group. The authors combined the literature on implementing new information systems and implementing educational innovations with the findings of a case study to produce five guidelines for such third parties. The guidelines recommend five major activities for groups involved in implementing new technology in an educational setting: understand resistance, educate and communicate, encourage positive attitudes, introduce change consistent with the environment, and encourage and support champions.
Decentralization of Health Services: The Kerala People's Campaign
Authors: Elamon Joy , Franke Richard W. , Ekbal B.
Published: May 2005

The 1996–2001 Kerala People's Campaign for Decentralized Planning has provided much new information about the possibilities and potential of decentralizing public health and health care services. Analysis of investment patterns of the various government levels involved in the campaign, supplemented with case study materials, allows for an evaluation of the decentralization project against its own stated goals. These included (1) creating a functional division among government levels appropriate to the health tasks each level can best perform; (2) generating projects that reflect the felt needs of the people, as voiced through local participatory assemblies; (3) maintaining or increasing levels of equality in health, especially with regard to income, caste, and gender; (4) stimulating communities to mobilize voluntary resources to supplement devolved public funds; (5) stimulating communities to create innovative programs that could become models for others; and (6) making the health services function more effectively overall. The analysis supports the conclusion that the campaign achieved each of the goals to a large degree. Shortcomings arose from the inexperience of many local communities in drafting effective projects as well as problems deriving from the fact that some sections of the health bureaucracy could not be decentralized. Lessons of the campaign are already being applied to new programs in Kerala.
INCEST: Some Neuropsychiatric Findings
Authors: Davies Robert K.
Published: May 2005

A review of the medical records of twenty-two patients who were the child or younger member of an incestuous relationship revealed a higher than expected incidence of abnormal neuropsychiatric findings. Seventeen patients had abnormal EEG's; six had clinical seizures; and eight of thirteen patients tested gave evidence of a low IQ or organicity. In addition, indications of impulsivity and depersonalization were frequently found in this group. It could be speculated that these neuropsychiatric handicaps create a vulnerability that enhances inappropriate relationships within a family and makes it more difficult for the person to resist an incestuous relationship.
The Evolution of the Speech Instinct in Silent Reading: Implications for Technical Communication
Authors: Connatser Bradford R.
Published: May 2005

When people read silently, they unconsciously translate what they read into a speech-like code that facilitates word identification and the creation of meaning, especially when they read scientific and technical texts. Many studies have explored how this “silent speech” affects the reading process. As a follow-up to a previous article about applying a phonological reading model to technical communication, this article proposes that educators and practitioners of technical communication would benefit greatly from a thorough understanding of the speech instinct. Therefore, the author explores the speech instinct, how humans developed it, and how it has been and still is fostered by reading behavior and pedagogy.
Traditions and Cultural Transformations: European Copper-Based Kettles and Jesuit Rings from 17th Century Amerindian Sites
Authors: Moreau Jean-Francois
Published: May 2005

The basic question posed by the establishment of the initial interaction between Amerindian populations and Europeans in America is that of understanding the importance of the transformation of the traditional cultural fabric of the former by the spread of cultural traits originating from the latter. Copper alloy kettles, as well as, so-called “Jesuit” rings discovered in archaeological sites of Northeastern North America (southern Ontario, central Quebec) dating from the 17th century permit us to suggest that the contribution of new material goods is inscribed more in a process of integration to existing tradition, rather than to a process of radical modification of the latter.
The Genocidal Mentality: Philip II of Spain and Sultan Abdul Hamid II
Authors: Kuttner Robert. E.
Published: May 2005

A brief historical comparison of Sultan Abdul Hamid of Turkey and King Philip II of Spain with Adolph Hitler revealed several similar personality traits that may be characteristic determinants of individuals prone to undertake genocidal measures. A commitment to bureaucratic detail coupled with an opportunistic belief in a Messianic destiny are key factors in these absolute rulers. The former attribute is considered to be so common in industrial democracies that psychological tests designed to eliminate such persons from holding high elective office are impractical. Further historical research on individuals implicated in unwarranted continuing massacres may uncover items in the behavioral profile that can serve as sorting criteria to identify latent inhumanity.