Probabilistic Health Risk Assessment for Exposures to Estuary Sediments and Biota Contaminated with Polychlorinated Biphenyls, Polychlorinated Terphenyls and Other Toxic Substances

A Latin Hypercube probabilistic risk assessment methodology was employed in the assessment of health risks associated with exposures to contaminated sediment and biota in an estuary in the Tidewater region of Virginia. The primary contaminants were polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polychlorinated terphenyls (PCTs), polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and metals released into the estuary from a storm sewer system. The exposure pathways associated with the highest contaminant intake and risks were dermal contact with contaminated sediment and ingestion of contaminated aquatic and terrestrial biota from the contaminated area. As expected, all of the output probability distributions of risk were highly skewed, and the ratios of the expected value (mean) to median risk estimates ranged from 1.4 to 14.8 for the various exposed populations. The 99th percentile risk estimates were as much as two orders of magnitude above the mean risk estimates. For the sediment exposure pathways, the stability of the median risk estimates was found to be much greater than the stability of the expected value risk estimates. The interrun variability in the median risk estimate was found to be +/-1.9% at 3000 iterations. The interrun stability of the mean risk estimates was found to be approximately equal to that of the 95th percentile estimates at any number of iterations. The variation in neither contaminant concentrations nor any other single input variable contributed disproportionately to the overall simulation variance. The inclusion or exclusion of spatial correlations among contaminant concentrations in the simulation model did not significantly effect either the magnitude or the variance of the simulation risk estimates for sediment exposures.     

Case management with borderline children: Theory and practice

Case management with borderline children requires collaborative work with parents and teachers in which the focus is on the child's needs and relationships with others. Understanding of borderline pathology from the perspectives of developmental psychology and object relations theory can be used implicitly in management planning and explicitly in enabling parents and teachers to comprehend the issues and goals of the child's therapy.     

Preschool children's ability to identify and label emotions

The present study examined preschoolers' and adults' ability to identify and label the emotions of happiness, sadness, and anger when presented through either the face channel alone, the voice channel alone, or the face and voice channels together. Subjects were also asked to rate the intensity of the expression. The results revealed that children aged 3 to 5 years are able to accurately identify and label emotions of happy, sad, and angry regardless of channel presentation. Similar results were obtained for the adult group. While younger children (33 to 53 months of age) were equally accurate in identifying the three emotions, older children (54 to 68 months of age) and adults made more incorrect responses when identifying expressions of sadness. Intensity ratings also differed according to the age of the subject and the emotion being rated.Support for this research was from a grant by the National Science Foundation (#BNS8317229) to Nathan A. Fox. The research was also supported by a grant awarded to Nathan Fox from the National Institutes of Health (#R01MH/HD17899). The authors would like to thank Professor A. Caron for providing the original videotape, Joyce Dinsmoor for help in data collection and the staff of the Center for Young Children for their cooperation.     

DEPRESSION AND THE SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF THE FULL-TIME HOUSEWIFE ROLE*

This article examines the determinants of depression among a sample of 528 married, white housewives residing in the southeastern U.S. The multiple regression analysis reveals that low total family income, dissatisfaction with family life and the housewife role, and few extra-familial social contacts are significantly associated with depression. A major finding is that the impact of social contacts in reducing depression is conditioned by the housewife's age and by children's residence in the home. Younger women and those with no children living at home benefit more from extra-familial social contacts than do older women and those who have children at home. The article concludes with a discussion of the impact of the social changes of the 1970s and early 1980s on the determinants of housewives' psychological well-being.     

The Lichtenberg Financial Decision Screening Scale (LFDSS): A new tool for assessing financial decision making and preventing financial exploitation

ABSTRACT

One of the challenges in preventing the financial exploitation of older adults is that neither criminal justice nor noncriminal justice professionals are equipped to detect capacity deficits. Because decision-making capacity is a cornerstone assessment in cases of financial exploitation, effective instruments for measuring this capacity are essential. We introduce a new screening scale for financial decision making that can be administered to older adults. To explore the scale’s implementation and assess construct validity, we conducted a pilot study of 29 older adults seen by APS (Adult Protective Services) workers and 79 seen by other professionals. Case examples are included.     

Chinese Families in Transition: Cultural Conflicts and Adjustment Problems

Challenged to cope with two different cultures, Chinese American immigrant families face many stressors and conflicts. Such difficulties faced by these individuals usually stem from language, religious, and value differences. Furthermore, family members are faced with role and status changes due to differing rates and levels of acculturation. As a result, there is a great need for mental health services. However, due to cultural barriers, mental health services are not accessible nor acceptable to many Chinese Americans. Effective intervention strategies which integrate the Chinese cultural values and norms with psychotherapy are recommended.     

Not without my sister(s)

Less than two months after 11 September 2001, and a few weeks after the beginning of the US bombing campaign in Afghanistan, President George W. Bush made an urgent plea to see Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Kandahar. Not only did the President want to see Kandahar; he encouraged US citizens to view it as well. This article offers two readings of Kandahar – the first suggestive of what its filmmaker Makhmalbaf saw in Afghanistan and the second suggestive of what Bush saw (or hoped to see) in Makhmalbaf's Afghanistan. In particular, this article focuses on how the Bush administration – against the intentions of Kandahar's director and star – propelled occidental subjects to ‘lift the veil’ on Afghanistan and on Afghan women by viewing Kandahar as if it positioned the feminine as a needy and willing object of US rescue. It was in part by laying this particular claim to the separated sisters of Kandahar that the Bush administration constructed a humanitarian US ‘we’ as among the foundations of its ‘moral grammar of war’ in the war on terror.