Nano Risk Analysis: Advancing the Science for Nanomaterials Risk Management

Scientists, activists, industry, and governments have raised concerns about health and environmental risks of nanoscale materials. The Society for Risk Analysis convened experts in September 2008 in Washington, DC to deliberate on issues relating to the unique attributes of nanoscale materials that raise novel concerns about health risks. This article reports on the overall themes and findings of the workshop, uncovering the underlying issues for each of these topics that become recurring themes. The attributes of nanoscale particles and other nanomaterials that present novel issues for risk analysis are evaluated in a risk analysis framework, identifying challenges and opportunities for risk analysts and others seeking to assess and manage the risks from emerging nanoscale materials and nanotechnologies. Workshop deliberations and recommendations for advancing the risk analysis and management of nanotechnologies are presented.     

A Descriptive Study of Home Modifications for People with Dementia and Barriers to Implementation

This study describes home environmental features, safety issues, and health-related modifications in a community dwelling sample of 82 elderly people with dementia. Main barriers to the accessibility of the homes were steps both inside and outside the home. The majority of the caregivers had made home modifications that pertained mainly to physical limitations. Home modifications to support cognitive deficits were made to a lesser extent. The main barrier to the implementation of home modifications to accommodate the care recipient's memory loss was skepticism about their usefulness. Regarding the removal of physical barriers, financial constraints were most frequently mentioned.     

Energy propaganda: Channels for corporate hegemony

An approach is suggested to the study of corporate hegemony. By focusing on a single policy area (e.g., energy), selected elements of the hegemonic process can be examined in the concrete. The theoretical framework underlying this approach develops from Gramsci's (1971) concept of “ideological hegemony” (i.e., manufactured consent). To maintain their power positions in capitalist societies, dominant groups must disseminate and reinforce their views and prevent the spread of opposing perspectives. Propaganda campaigns by the energy industry are examined, focusing on corporate messages and their relationship to policy and on dissemination channels.     

Cycles of shame: Menstrual shame,body shame,and sexual decision‐making

Although numerous factors have been implicated in women's sexual decision‐making, less attention has been focused on how their feelings about their bodies and reproductive functions affect these processes. Recent findings link menstrual shame to lower levels of sexual activity and higher levels of sexual risk; however, the mechanisms behind these relations remain unexplored. Accordingly, this study investigates the contributions of menstrual shame and global body shame to sexual decision‐making among 199 undergraduate women. Using structural equation modeling, we evaluated a mediated model, whereby menstrual shame is indirectly associated with sexual decision‐making via body shame. As expected, women who reported feeling more comfort about menstruation also reported more body comfort and, in turn, more sexual assertiveness, more sexual experience, and less sexual risk.     

Job‐change and age: The experience of administrators in colleges and universities

Job‐change is widely regarded as the primary means of career advancement for professionals in bureaucratic organizations. However, while the relationship between mobility and age has been suggested, age differences, when they have been recognized at all, have been variously interpreted, but rarely related to organizational selection and career cycles.

In this paper we explore the relationship between job‐change and age for one kind of professional employed in bureaucratic organizations–academic administrators in colleges and universities. This is accomplished by determining job‐change rates for administrators in different age cohorts as a function of type of position held and gender. Analyzing mail questionnaires from academic administrators in one state, the research also tests the efficiency‐motivation model of mobility which suggests that job‐change serves two diverse and possibly conflicting functions of meeting an organization's need to select and advance persons to perform necessary tasks as well as serving as an important source of employee motivation. The results indicate the presence of several patterns of job‐change and suggest that the theory, with some modifications, offers a framework for conceptualizing and analyzing academic administrator mobility.     

Working parent friendly schools: the role of school instrumental support in work–family conflict

Instrumental support can foster or ameliorate parent experiences of work–family conflict. Based on theories relating social support to stress, a framework for considering how school support affects work–family conflict is proposed and tested. Parent experiences of instrumental support (school schedules, school service provision, and staff accessibility) and school demands on parents (volunteer and homework involvement) were investigated in relation to levels of work–family conflict. Work demands were related to both family-interference-with-work and work-interference-with family; family demands related only to time-based family-interference-with-work. Perceptions of school scheduling as supportive were related negatively to both time- and strain-based work-interference-with family, whereas perceptions of school transportation services were related to both time- and strain-based family-interference-with-work. No buffering effects of these types of support were found. Implications for how community organizations can play a role in ameliorating work–family conflict are discussed.