Human Mercury Toxicity and Ice Angler Fish Consumption: Are People Eating Enough to Cause Health Problems?

Mercury contamination of aquatic ecosystems is a global environmental concern. Bioaccumulation of mercury in fish exposes consumers to risk. We interviewed ice anglers on Monona Bay, Wisconsin during the 2001-2002 ice fishing season to determine risk associated with fish consumption and methyl mercury (MeHg) intake. The majority of anglers (95%) were not at risk of mercury toxicity because they ate less fish than would be required to create health problems. The remaining 5% of ice anglers barely exceeded the mercury toxicity threshold, with the exception of one angler who exceeded the threshold by 0.926 ppm. Anglers encountered were all male and predominantly Caucasian. Fish consumption by ice anglers was independent of awareness of consumption advisories, education, income, and age. This suggests that future awareness efforts should (1) identify groups of anglers most at risk and (2) create policies to effectively reach these audiences.     

Patterns of engagement and disengagement among the oldest old

In this article, we have proposed that some elements of Cumming and Henry's [1961] disengagement theory are relevant in understanding the social world of the very old. The findings indicate that both physical and social losses make it difficult to maintain an active social network. Almost one-half of the sample intentionally remains socially engaged by making new friends and attending senior centers. The remainder, who are generally older and in poorer health, modify their social world both psychologically and socially. First, these individuals redefine their optimal level of social integration and become content with a narrower, more constricted social world. Second, they are likely to reject those norms which place expectations on them incongruent with their capacities. Third, respondents tend to redefine their time orientation from the future to the present and become content to live day to day. Fourth, as they detach themselves from social involvement, increasing introspection occurs.     

Comment on Cross,Fine, Jones,and Walsh (2012): Do Mental Health Professionals Who Serve on/with Child Advocacy Centers Experience Role Conflict?

Cross, Fine, Jones, and Walsh's (2012 Cross, T. P., Fine, J. E., Jones, L. M. and Walsh, W. A. 2012. Mental health professionals in children's advocacy centers: Is there role conflict?. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 21(1): 91–108. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) article “Mental Health Professionals in Children's Advocacy Centers: Is There Role Conflict?” challenges two recent publications' criticisms that child advocacy centers create role conflict for mental health professionals and explains how child advocacy centers actually work, describing the different roles for mental health professionals who participate in them. This commentary points out that more precise data would have helped to specifically address the critics' concerns. Furthermore, professional ethics and licensure issues may have served as an additional but unacknowledged check on the “spillover effect” that the critics have alleged comes with being associated with prosecution. This commentary also highlights three main strengths of the Cross and colleagues' article.     

Corporate Associations Written on the Wall: Publics’ Responses to Fortune 500 Ability and Social Responsibility Facebook Posts

This is a quantitative content analysis of Fortune 500 companies’ Facebook profiles, wall posts, and wall comments. It confirms that a 3-part typology of message strategies—corporate ability (CA), corporate social responsibility (CSR), and hybrid—exists in corporate online social networking communication. As predicted, when corporations used CA strategies in wall posts, publics’ wall comments demonstrated greater CA associations and product evaluations than CSR associations and company evaluations. Likewise, when corporations used CSR strategies, publics showed greater CSR associations than CA associations. These corporate messages and publics’ responses in the real-world digital market support the synergistic model of corporate communication strategy.     

Using Concept Mapping to Promote Community Building: The African American Initiative at Roseland

ABSTRACT

While many organizations recognize the value of community building, they often encounter difficulty in actualizing projects and developing tangible results. This article presents how a planning and evaluation method known as concept mapping was used to drive a community building effort by a large not-for-profit organization in Chicago around the issue of at-risk African American male youth. This work grew out of a grant related to the needs of African American families, called the African American Initiative, which was funded by the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago. The article describes the first phase of the African American Initiative at Roseland, and lessons learned. Primarily, this study was able to generate a conceptual framework of problems facing African American male youth, which was used to revise previously defined outcomes and also create new ones. In addition, use of concept mapping to drive community building generated reflection on intended and unintended benefits. At the same time, challenges around this approach demonstrate the need for continued research.     

Predictors of father-son communication about sexuality

Examining the factors that influence adolescents' sexual behaviors is crucial for understanding why they often engage in risky sexual behaviors. Using social cognitive theory, we examined predictors of father-son communication about sexuality. Fathers (N=155) of adolescent sons completed a survey measuring 12 variables, including self-efficacy and outcome expectations. We found that (a) son's pubertal development, father's sex-based values, father's education; father's communication with his father, outcome expectations, and general communication accounted for 36% of the variance in information sharing communication and (b) son's pubertal development, outcome expectations, general communication, and father-son contact accounted for 20% of the variance in values sharing communication. Study findings can aid professionals in designing guidelines for programs to promote father-son general communication and sex-based communication.     

Making Kings

Due to a general lack of representation of female masculinities within the North American media, most urban drag king cultures have evolved in isolation from each other. As a result, drag kings tend to develop locally specific codes of dress, performance styles and forms of masculinity. This chapter describes the case of a group of Montreal drag king performers, The Mambo Drag Kings (MDKs). It is based on interviews that were conducted for Colleen Ayoup's film Kings (2001), a short documentary that explores kinging by examining the development of this specific group of performers. We present excerpts from our discussions regarding the relationships between everyday gender identities, lesbian sexuality, and performing as a king in a society that is fundamentally based on an asymmetrical sex-gender system. While the chapter does highlight these theoretical concerns, the focus is on how the participants of the group interpret and experience kinging and its impact on their own gendered and sexual identities.