bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Patient Care and Health Provider Attitudes in Alaska
Authors: Berg Lawrence , Miller Sheldon , Helmick Edward , Nutting Paul , Shorr Gregory 
Published: August 2007

As part of an overall evaluation of the Alaska Health System's response to the problem of alcoholism, the attitudes of all levels of health providers toward mental health problems were examined. The evaluation instrument was the Opinions About Mental Illness Scale developed by Cohen and Struening. Health workers from physicians to paraprofessional aides were tested and the results scored and compared. Results were examined in relation to geography, discipline and other factors. They were then considered in relation to such things as treatment outcome, selection of workers and possible training programmes. The rate of death due to alcoholism in the native population of Alaska has increased from 4.6 per 100,000 in 1960 to 41.4 per 100,000 in 1970.(1) This can be contrasted to a U.S. rate of 6.30 per 100,000 for the same period.(2) In 1972, the Alaska Native Health Board launched an in-depth evaluation of alcoholism treatment services in the state (3,4) as the first step toward the objective of evolving the current pattern of care services into a self-correcting integrated system designed to reduce the impact of alcoholism and mental illness on the native population. The definite linkage between health care workers' attitudes about mental illness and the impact of these attitudes in compliance to standards within the care process or the outcomes of the care process has not been established. However evidence has been presented that there is a relationship between professional judgment of health workers' performance and health workers' attitudes(5) and patient judgment of health workers' performance and health workers' attitudes(6). As a component of the baseline evaluation study, opinions about mental illness of the health workers were obtained for subsequent analysis and definition of the relationship between attitudes, process and outcomes.
Psychiatric Patients of Egyptian Culture in Alexandria
Authors: El-Fatatry Mohamed , El-Kashlan Khalil , El-Garem Omar , Ghazi Abdel-Monsif 
Published: August 2007

Some observations from a study of 2,745 patients with psychiatric disorders from the outpatients clinics at the Alexandria University Central Hospital have been presented. There are significantly more neurotics and fewer psychotics among women. Mental disorders were in general most prevalent in the 15 to 30 age group. No definite educational correlates with any group of mental disorders were recognized in this study.
An Exploratory Study On Depression in Iranian Addicts
Authors: Tarighati SH 
Published: August 2007

For the purpose of measuring the degree of depression among drug addicts in Iran, the Beck Depression Inventory was administered to 50 addicts, 46 depressed non-addicts, and 48 normal controls. Statistical comparison of the BDI for the three groups yielded a significant difference between the addicts and the controls, whereas the difference between the addicts and the depressed non-addicts was not significant; this indicates that depression is one of the clinical symptoms of drug addiction in Iran.
Effects of cultural schemata on students' test-taking processes for cloze tests: a multiple data source approach
Authors: Sasaki Miyuki 
Published: August 2007

The present study investigated how schemata activated by culturally familiar words might have influenced students’ cloze test-taking processes. Sixty Japanese EFL students were divided into two groups with equivalent English reading proficiency. They completed either a culturally familiar or an unfamiliar version of a cloze test. Partially replicating Chihara et al.’s (1989) experiment, several unfamiliar words in the original cloze test passage were changed to more familiar ones in the modified version. Unlike in Chihara et al. (1989), however, students were asked to give verbal reports of their test-taking processes, and to recall the passage after they had completed the tests. Thus, the two groups’ test-taking activities were compared in terms of: 1) item performance; 2) expressing correct understanding of the key terms while solving the items and recalling; 3) the amount of text information they used to complete the items; and 4) the quantities and qualities of the final recalls. Results demonstrated that those who read the culturally familiar cloze text tried to solve more items and generally understood the text better, which resulted in better performances than those of the students who read the original text. These results also support the claim that cloze tests can measure higher-order processing abilities.
Test fairness: a DIF analysis of an L2 vocabulary test
Authors: Takala Sauli , Kaftandjieva Felianka 
Published: August 2007

The purpose of this study is to analyse gender-uniform differential item functioning (DIF) in a second language (L2) vocabulary test with the tools of item response theory (the separate calibration t-method) and to study potential gender impact on the test performance measured by different item composites. The results of the study show that despite the fact that there are test items with indications of DIF in favour of either females or males, the test as a whole is not gender-biased. In spite of this, it was demonstrated that some item composites are gender-biased. In view of item bank building and use, it means that some of the tests constructed on the basis of an item bank might be biased if the item bank contains items with indication for DIF. Although the results of some empirical research suggest that the requirements for items with DIF to be excluded from the final test version may on the whole be too restrictive, this study demonstrated that the traditional advice of excluding biased items gains new significance in the light of item bank building and use since doing so will prevent possible biased item composites.
Sequencing as an item type
Authors: Alderson J. Charles , Percsich Richard , Szabo Gabor 
Published: August 2007

A text’s coherence clearly depends upon the way ideas are related within that text, both in terms of their logical relations, as well as the cohesive devices that show, or create, the links between ideas, across paragraphs and sentences. Thus, it would appear that part of the ability of a competent reader is to recognize the appropriate order of ideas in text, to identify cohesion and coherence in text in order to relate the ideas to each other, and to understand authorial intention with respect to the sequence of ideas. It follows from this that a potentially useful test method that might tap such abilities is to require candidates to inspect text in which the elements are out of order, and to reconstruct the original order. This, it might be supposed, would require candidates to detect the relationship among ideas, to identify cohesive devices and their interrelationships. Such test methods are, indeed, increasingly common in so-called reading tests. However, we know of no reports of research into, or even descriptions of the use of, this promising task type. In this article we report on potential problems in scoring responses to sequencing tests, the development of a computer program to overcome these difficulties, and an exploration of the value of various scoring procedures.
Assessing the language proficiency of teachers: are there any border controls?
Authors: Elder Catherine 
Published: August 2007

This article takes up some of the issues identified by Douglas (2000) as problematic for Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) testing, making reference to a number of performance-based instruments designed to assess the language proficiency of teachers or intending teachers. The instruments referred to include proficiency tests for teachers of Italian as a foreign language in Australia (Elder, 1994) and for trainee teachers using a foreign language (in this case English) as medium for teaching school subjects such as mathematics and science in Australian secondary schools (Elder, 1993b; Viete, 1998). The first problem addressed in the article has to do with specificity: how does one define the domain of teacher proficiency and is it distinguishable from other areas of professional competence or, indeed, from what is often referred to as ‘general’ language proficiency? The second problem has to do with the vexed issue of authenticity: what constitutes appropriate task design on a teacher-specific instrument and to what extent can ‘teacher-like’ language be elicited from candidates in the very artificial environment of a test? The third issue pertains to the role of nonlanguage factors (such as strategic competence or teaching skills) which may affect a candidate’s response to any appropriately contextualized test-task and whether these factors can or should be assessed independently of the purely linguistic qualities of the test performance. All of these problems are about blurred boundaries, between and within real world domains of language use, between the test and the nontest situation, and between the components of ability or knowledge measured by the test. It is argued that these blurred boundaries are an indication of the indeterminacy of LSP, as currently conceptualized, as an approach to test development.
Democratic assessment as an alternative
Authors: Shohamy Elana 
Published: August 2007

The article describes the strong power of tests and the fact that tests lead to far-reaching and high-stakes decisions and consequences about individuals and groups. Further, there is evidence that tests are often introduced by those in authority as disciplinary tools, often in covert ways for the purpose of manipulating educational systems and for imposing the agendas of those in authority. Yet, such uses of tests as instruments of power violate fundamental values and principles of democratic practices. The article proposes a number of assessment strategies which are based on democratic principles so that society can guard and protect itself from such undemocratic practices. The principles include the need: • for citizens in democratic societies to play a participatory and active role and transfer and share power from elites to and with local bodies; • for those who develop powerful tools to be responsible for their consequences; • to consider voices of diverse and different groups in multicultural societies; and • to protect the rights of citizens from powerful institutions. These lead to assessment practices which are aimed at monitoring and limiting the uses of tests, especially those that have the potential to exclude and discriminate against groups and individuals. Specifically, assessment practices include the need: • to examine the uses of tests through critical language testing (CLT); • to develop assessment models that are based on shared and collaborative models; • to assume a growing responsibility for those who are engaged in test development and use; • to examine the consequences of tests; • to include different voices in assessment, especially in multicultural societies; and • for test-takers to protect and guard their rights from the authority and misuses of tests.
Validating the revised Test of Spoken English against a criterion of communicative success
Authors: Powers Donald E. , Schedl Mary A. , Leung Susan Wilson , Butler Frances A. 
Published: August 2007

A communicative competence orientation was taken to study the validity of test-score inferences derived from the revised Test of Spoken English (TSE). To implement the approach, a sample of undergraduate students, primarily native speakers of English, provided a variety of reactions to, and judgements of, the test responses of a sample of TSE examinees. The TSE scores of these examinees, previously determined by official TSE raters, spanned the full range of TSE score levels. Undergraduate students were selected as ‘evaluators’ because they, more than most other groups, are likely to interact with TSE examinees, many of whom become teaching assistants. Student evaluations were captured by devising and administering a secondary listening test (SLT) to assess students’ understanding of TSE examinees’ speech, as represented by their taped responses to tasks on the TSE. The objective was to determine the degree to which official TSE scores are predictive of listeners’ ability to understand the messages conveyed by TSE examinees. Analyses revealed a strong association between TSE score levels and the judgements, reactions and understanding of listeners. This finding applied to all TSE tasks and to nearly all of the several different kinds of evaluations made by listeners. Along with other information, the evidence gathered here should help the TSE program meet professional standards for test validation. The procedures may also prove useful in future test-development efforts as a way of determining the difficulty of speaking tasks (and possibly writing tasks).
Developing Identities: Indigenous Mobilization, Rural Livelihoods, and Resource Access in Ecuadorian Amazonia
Authors: Perreault Thomas 
Published: August 2007

In the 30 years since Ecuador’s agrarian reform, indigenous organizations have had a major impact on the country’s institutional, political and natural landscapes. Originally formed largely in accordance with state-prescribed models, and with considerable guidance from external institutions, these organizations have worked to defend existing land claims; access institutional, financial and natural resources; and make civil rights claims against the state. Regional and national indigenous organizations have mobilized discourses of cultural identity in strategic ways in order to achieve these goals. This paper examines the scalar linkages between the processes of economic and social transformation in the Ecuadorian Amazon and the ways in which indigenous organizations have responded to these changes since the country’s agrarian reform. I argue that the material and discursive mobilization of identity has been central to the aims of accessing resources and claiming political rights. Through a comparative case study of a regional indigenous federation and one of its constituent base communities, I highlight the differences between organizational histories, capacities and aims. Most studies of indigenous movements in the Amazon Basin have considered only regional or national organizations, often giving a false impression of homogeneity within such movements. I contend that detailed analysis of the relations between regional secondary-level indigenous federations and local base communities, as well as the micro-level processes of production and resource mobilization at the community and household scales, is crucial in understanding indigenous organizing processes in Ecuador today.
John Buchan’s ‘Hesperides’: landscape rhetoric and the aesthetics of bodily experience on the South African Highveld, 1901-1903
Authors: Foster Jeremy 
Published: August 2007

The creation and use of landscapes... always emerges from biographical and place-specific historical and social contexts, at the same time that it contributes towards the uninterrupted becoming of biography and place.1 The thing is correlative to my body and, in more general terms, to my existence, of which my body is merely the stabilized structure.2
Lionel Wigram, Battle Drill and the British Army in the Second World War
Authors: Place Tim Harrison 
Published: August 2007

Like many thousands of his contemporaries, Lionel Wigram (1907-44), a London-based solicitor and property developer, joined the British army at the outbreak of the Second World War. Already commissioned in the Territorial Army, he joined the Colours as a captain. Battle drill, invented during the First World War and revived by the then Lieutenant-General Harold Alexander in I Corps after Dunkirk, was a method of teaching infantry minor tactics. Wigram played the leading part in spreading this training technique to the whole of the Home Army. Having founded and run 47th Division's School of Battle Drill in 1941, he was appointed chief instructor at the new GHQ Home Forces Battle School at Barnard Castle early in 1942. It was from here that battle drill swept through Home Forces. Later that year, the Barnard Castle school became a wing of the new War Office School of Infantry established on the same site, and battle drill gained War Office blessing. Battle drill was, however, a controversial training technique. Many officers, particularly those of the regular army, did not trust it. The War Office withheld its approval until battle drill's popularity with the troops threatened to make a mockery of official reservations. Although there were respectable pedagogical objections to battle drill, there were also other less honourable motives for the hostility battle drill aroused in some quarters. That Wigram was not a regular officer yet nonetheless presumed to teach the army its business was chief among them. Wigram reciprocated with a large measure of contempt for the regular army, which in his view had failed to maintain elementary infantry fighting skills. Dissenting from previous interpretations, this article contends that battle drill was a highly promising development that both rescued infantry morale and improved military efficiency. However, it proved not to be the panacea that many had hoped, although not for the pedagogical reasons that had prompted regular army doubts. The author explores the reasons for this situation, arguing that ultimately the regular army's failure to take Wigram into its confidence robbed British troops of their best chance of thorough training for the problems they would face in battle.
The Crusaders' `Fighting March' Revisited
Authors: Bennett Matthew 
Published: August 2007

The `fighting march' was first defined and explored by the great Crusades historian R.C. Smail. The history of the tactic is a long one, dating back to classical times, and the Byzantine armies possessed tactical pamphlets instructing their gnerals how to manage them. These texts envisaged a hollow-square formation with `ideal' numbers of infantry and cavalry required to man it, so they can be construed as over-theoretical. The crucial factors for the crusaders were the co-ordination of mounted knights (and other horsemen) with close-ordered foot-soldiers using spears and missile weapons to keep the enemy at bay. They formed a shield to protect the horses, and with their bows, and crossbows especially, were able inflict significant casualties on opposing horse-archers. Arab commentators compared the formation to a `moving city', strikingly paralleling Anna Komnena's description of her father's `unprecedented' march in 1116. The Military Orders provided instruction to crusaders new to eastern tactics, saving the French in Asia Minor in 1147 and contributing to good order on Richard the Lionheart's march from Acre to Jaffa in 1191. Guy de Lusignan, Regent and then King of Jerusalem, also proved competent in managing the formation. His 1183 `fighting march' kept Saladin's much superior forces at bay. Unfortunately, he is better remembered for the crushing defeat at Hattin, in 1187, when he set out into waterless terrain and allowed his horse and foot to be separated. Good leadership was essential to maintaining necessary discipline for the success of the manoeuvre. Alexios Komnenos and Richard the Lionheart excelled at it and many others employed it successfully. It is possible that there was dialogue between military men of different crusading nations and the Byzantines as to how the `fighting march' should best be put into operation.
Britain Gets Its Way: Power and Peace in Anglo-American Relations, 1838-1846
Authors: Matzke Rebecca Berens 
Published: August 2007

From the perspective of twenty-first-century America, it seems natural to assume that no other nation has ever been able seriously to threaten the continental states with its navy or military. The assumption that US geography has always deterred such pressure, however, ignores the early Victorian era. In the 1830s and 1840s, one nation could and did pose a credible threat to the United States: Great Britain. As the world's supreme naval and financial power, Britain had the means to protect and advance its interests in the face of American belligerence. Ultimately, Britain's strength deterred the United States from turning the tensions of 1838-46 into war. True, by this time Britain could never invade and reconquer its former American colonies. But it was never in its interest to go to war with the US. Anglo-American commercial relations were quite profitable, and peace kept them so. Furthermore, the British preferred a divided America, fighting over slavery and states' rights, to one united against an external enemy. Britain's goal was peace, but the methods it used to avoid war with the US in this period did not look particularly peaceful. Especially under Foreign Minister Lord Palmerston, preserving the peace did not equate with yielding in diplomatic battles. Rather, a `strong stance' warned the US away from confrontations of a more lethal kind. Interestingly, the prospect of a British invasion through Canada played only a relatively small part in this deterrence. More important was the ability of the Royal Navy, with new gunnery and steam vessels, to strike at the populous and prosperous cities of the eastern and southern coasts of the US. Britain knew the possibilities for mayhem, as did the US government and some, at least, of the American public. Besides Britain's technical advantages, its funding and political support for the navy were second to none. While the US struggled in vain to finance new ships and fortifications, the British cabinet could rest assured that if the Royal Navy required more funding, it would get it. The British government counted on the navy's strength to intimidate the Americans in controversies over the Caroline and McLeod affairs, the Maine boundary and the Oregon territory. Palmerston's personal style of `gunboat diplomacy' may have encouraged this course, but he and his colleagues did worry that the political system of the United States might lead it to start a war neither side really wanted: the fevered American press and people might push the government to some act the British could not tolerate. Britain used the Royal Navy to signal the dire consequences of such an act and forced the American government to resist popular pressure. Geography in these cases was not enough to shield the US; Britain's strong stance preserved its existing interests and maintained peace.
Germany and Coalition Warfare in the World Wars: A Comparative Study
Authors: DiNardo R. L. , Hughes Daniel J. 
Published: August 2007

While a great deal of attention has been paid to the conduct of coalition warfare by the Allies in both world wars, very little has been done regarding the German side of the equation. This article takes a long view of Germany and the conduct of coalition warfare in the world wars. It seeks to examine comparatively the German experience in both world wars in this regard, and to draw some general conclusions. The article examines four broad areas of coalition warfare: prewar planning and preparations, accommodation of goals and needs to those of one's allies, execution of plans and adaptation to wartime circumstance, and maintaining trust and balance in the relationship. In all of these areas the German experience in both world wars was remarkably similar. Some of this was due to ideological factors, but cultural, educational and military factors all played a part as well. In this case, unlike other levels of war, the Germans learned almost nothing from their experience in the First World War. In both cases, the failure to conduct coalition warfare from a sound basis led to catastrophic failure.