Attitudes of high school students and teachers towards Muslims and Islam in a southeastern Australian community

This study investigated attitudes of Australian high school students and teachers towards Muslims and Islam in two suburban high schools in the Logan/Brisbane area of southeastern Australia. Subjects (N = 156) responded to a questionnaire consisting of 24 survey items. Frequency, percentage distribution, and content analysis were performed. It was found that, generally, more respondents disagree with the negative stereotypes of Muslims as the media tend to present them. A majority of the respondents demonstrated positive attitudes towards Muslims and Islam, and strongly support the idea of multicultural coexistence in Australia. Recommendations are given in light of the research findings.     

Potential Airborne Asbestos Exposure and Risk Associated with the Historical Use of Cosmetic Talcum Powder Products

Over time, concerns have been raised regarding the potential for human exposure and risk from asbestos in cosmetic‐talc–containing consumer products. In 1985, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted a risk assessment evaluating the potential inhalation asbestos exposure associated with the cosmetic talc consumer use scenario of powdering an infant during diapering, and found that risks were below levels associated with background asbestos exposures and risk. However, given the scope and age of the FDA's assessment, it was unknown whether the agency's conclusions remained relevant to current risk assessment practices, talc application scenarios, and exposure data. This analysis updates the previous FDA assessment by incorporating the current published exposure literature associated with consumer use of talcum powder and using the current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) nonoccupational asbestos risk assessment approach to estimate potential cumulative asbestos exposure and risk for four use scenarios: (1) infant exposure during diapering; (2) adult exposure from infant diapering; (3) adult exposure from face powdering; and (4) adult exposure from body powdering. The estimated range of cumulative asbestos exposure potential for all scenarios (assuming an asbestos content of 0.1%) ranged from 0.0000021 to 0.0096 f/cc‐yr and resulted in risk estimates that were within or below EPA's acceptable target risk levels. Consistent with the original FDA findings, exposure and corresponding health risk in this range were orders of magnitude below upper‐bound estimates of cumulative asbestos exposure and risk at ambient levels, which have not been associated with increased incidence of asbestos‐related disease.     

What do we know about drug-endangered children when they are first placed into care?

Although the methamphetamine epidemic in the United States has caught the attention of law enforcement and the media, the needs of the children living in so-called "meth homes" have not yet been addressed. These children are endangered from not only the chemicals involved, but also parental abuse and/or neglect. Little is known, however, about how drug-endangered children are faring. This article summarizes the levels of health and well-being of drug-endangered children at the time they were removed from meth homes. Differences between children whose parents use meth and whose parents use other drugs are noted. Overall, the subjects are a highly traumatized, troubled, developmentally delayed group of very young children.     

Teaching a Child With Autism to Mand for Information Using “How”

Children with autism often do not learn to mand for information without structured teaching. Studies have demonstrated that manipulation of establishing operations (EOs), prompts, prompt fading, and differential reinforcement are effective in teaching children with autism to ask "wh" questions such as "what," "who," and "where." To date, no studies have evaluated procedures to teach children with autism to mand for information using "how." Teaching the mand, "how" is uniquely challenging because once the information regarding how to do something is provided, the EO may no longer be present. The following study evaluated a procedure to teach one child with autism to mand for information using "how" to obtain information to complete multiple activities. The results have implications for clinical application and future research on contriving EOs to teach the mand, "how."     

AMBIGUOUS IDENTITY IN AN UNAMBIGUOUS SEX/GENDER STRUCTURE:

This article explores bisexual identity as an ambiguous social category within the dominant dualistic sex/gender structure. The article documents the stigmatization of the bisexual category in the discourse of both the Religious Right and lesbian feminist communities, then examines the impact of dual stigmatization on bisexual women, who often see bi identity as disrupting the dominant sexual binary. Drawing from interviews with bisexual women, the article argues that bisexual women's discourse on sexual subjectivity does not escape the influence of binary structures, although it does at times reconfigure the binary along the queer/nonqueer and bisexual/monosexual axes. While the bisexual identity category may work as a discursive stabilizing device during the sex/gender crisis provoked by the AIDS epidemic, its politicization by bi feminists also allows the category to be strategically deployed for feminist and queer political projects.
At the present time, the regions where the grid is tightest, where the black squares are most numerous, are those of sexuality and politics; as if discourse, far from being that transparent or neutral element in which sexuality is disarmed and politics pacified, is in fact one of the places where sexuality and politics exercise in a privileged way some of their most formidable powers.
-Michel Foucault
No wonder people think we [bisexual women] are all sleazy.
-Bisexual woman     

Human Interindividual Variability–A Major Source of Uncertainty in Assessing Risks for Noncancer Health Effects

For noncancer effects, the degree of human interindividual variability plays a central role in determining the risk that can be expected at low exposures. This discussion reviews available data on observations of interindividual variability in (a) breathing rates, based on observations in British coal miners; (b) systemic pharmacokinetic parameters, based on studies of a number of drugs; (c) susceptibility to neurological effects from fetal exposure to methyl mercury, based on observations of the incidence of effects in relation to hair mercury levels; and (d) chronic lung function changes in relation to long-term exposure to cigarette smoke. The quantitative ranges of predictions that follow from uncertainties in estimates of interindividual variability in susceptibility are illustrated.     

The Association of Sexual Experience with Attitudes,Beliefs, and Risk Behaviors of Inner‐City Adolescents

We compared knowledge, attitudes, and demographic characteristics of 630 sexually experienced and 422 inexperienced inner‐city adolescents aged 14–17 years. Sexual experience was associated with indicators of risk previously reported in the literature: male gender, older age, single‐family home, smoking, drinking, and poorer academic performance. We found lower HIV knowledge in sexually inexperienced youth, which suggested an area of vulnerability compared with sexually active teens. However, most inexperienced adolescents intended to remain virgins for the next 6 months, most had peer groups they also perceived to be virgins, and they were more positive and confident about remaining abstinent. Differences between the groups suggest there may be benefits to developing intervention programs targeted to their different strengths and weaknesses.