US public universities' compliance with recommended tobacco-control policies

To address the rise in tobacco use among college students, several national health organizations, including the American College Health Association, recommend that colleges enact smoking bans in and around all campus buildings, including student housing, and prohibit the sale, advertisement, and promotion of tobacco products on campus. Key informants at 50 US public universities, one from each state, were interviewed during the 2001/2002 academic year to assess the prevalence of these recommended policies. More than half (54%) of the colleges banned smoking in all campus buildings and student residences, 68% had no tobacco sales on campus, and 32% of the schools' newspapers did not accept tobacco advertising. Regional differences in adoption of these campus tobacco-control policies were present. Although this national sample of public universities had implemented some of the recommended policies, they must take further actions to comply fully with campus tobacco-control guidelines.     

Perceptions of drinking and related findings from the Nationwide Campuses Study

Proponents of social norms approaches maintain that correcting misperceptions of alcohol use among college students may reduce drinking and its consequences. The author used aggregate campus-level data from the Nationwide Campuses Study to test this hypothesis. He defined the misperceptions ratio as the ratio of the frequency of the "average student's" perceived alcohol use to the frequency of self-use at each campus. Each of the 57 colleges reported misperceptions ratios greater than unity. At campuses where students had more accurate perceptions of alcohol use, students were more likely to desire alcohol availability at campus events and to drink on more days throughout the year than at campuses where students had greater misperceptions of alcohol use. The author found no data to support the preferential use of social norms programming on campuses with high levels of self-reported alcohol use or binge drinking. These findings raise questions about potentially unexpected and unintended effects of social norms approaches.     

Cultural perspectives of death,grief, and bereavement

The cultural makeup of the United States continues to change rapidly, and as minority groups continue to grow, these groups' beliefs and customs must be taken into account when examining death, grief, and bereavement. This article discusses the beliefs, customs, and rituals of Latino, African American, Navajo, Jewish, and Hindu groups to raise awareness of the differences health care professionals may encounter among their grieving clients. Discussion of this small sample of minority groups in the United States is not intended to cover all of the degrees of acculturation within each group. Cultural groups are not homogeneous, and individual variation must always be considered in situations of death, grief, and bereavement. However, because the customs, rituals, and beliefs of the groups to which they belong affect individuals' experiences of death, grief, and bereavement, health care professionals need to be open to learning about them to better understand and help.     

Partnering with the 21st century workplace: leveraging workplace ecology

The 'accessible' job market of the 1990's has given way to a challenging job market in a climate of economic uncertainty in the early Twenty-First Century. For vocational rehabilitation professionals this change requires the strategic use of workplace supports to increase the value and sustainability of work performed by people with disabilities in competitive jobs. An analytical framework for leveraging the natural supports of the workplace is provided by the workplace ecology as a bounded environment in which relationships between workers and supervisors promote learning and enhanced performance. The dynamics of the workplace ecology are explored with particular reference to workers with disabilities receiving supported employment services. Recommendations are made for leveraging the workplace ecology to the benefit of the supported worker. Implications for supported employment services in the new millennium are discussed.     

Treatment of incarcerated, sexually-abused adolescent females: an outcome study

This study examined the psychosocial functioning of 100 adolescent females (ages 12-17) sentenced to secure care in a southeastern state and the impact of gender-specific, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention on the psychosocial functioning of subjects who reported a history of sexual abuse. The Multidimensional Adolescent Assessment Scale (MAAS) was used to assess psychosocial functioning. Pre-test scores on the MAAS revealed significantly higher scores on 12 of 16 dimensions of psychosocial functioning and higher rates of serious criminal behavior for youth who subsequently disclosed sexual abuse histories as compared to those without such histories. At post-test, statistically significant improvements in psychosocial functioning were observed on 14 of 16 MAAS subscales for those who received the CBT intervention. Thus, incarcerated female adolescents who reported a history of sexual abuse demonstrated more impairment in their functioning as compared to those without a reported history of sexual abuse and responded positively to gender-specific, CBT-based intervention.     

Emotional closeness with perpetrators and amnesia for child sexual abuse

Over the past decade, a contentious debate regarding delayed memories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) has existed. In order to address this debate, 240 female participants completed questions about CSA, the Dissociative Experience Scale (Bernstein & Putnam, 1986), Perceived Emotional Closeness with Perpetrator Scale (Schultz, Passmore, & Yoder, 2000), and the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale 2 (GSS 2) (Gudjonsson, 1987). Eighty-two (36%) reported CSA and 37% of these indicated memory disturbances for the CSA. Participants reporting memory disturbances also reported significantly higher numbers of perpetrators, chemical abuse in their families, and closer relationships with the perpetrator(s) than participants reporting no memory disturbances. Implications for clinicians working with clients reporting CSA are discussed.     

The effects of a continuous passive motion device on myoelectric activity of the erector spinae during prolonged sitting at a computer workstation

Continuous passive motion (CPM) has been proposed as a method to help individuals with low back pain cope with prolonged sitting. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects that a commercially available CPM device had on lumbar and thoracic erector spinae (ES) muscle activation (using surface electromyography, "EMG"), and on subjective discomfort during prolonged seated computer work with and without the use of the CPM device. There were no significant differences in average ES muscle activation levels, amplitude probability distribution functions, and EMG gaps number and length when sitting with the CPM device was compared to sitting normally. Subjective ratings of discomfort were also not significantly different between the two sitting conditions. The results indicated that there were no clear mechanisms by which the CPM device may reduce ES muscle pain and fatigue for the tasks and pain-free individuals studied.     

Does Intercultural Education Lead to More Cultural Homogeneity and Tolerance?

Intercultural education is often assumed to lead to more tolerance towards other cultures. It may also entail an acculturation process that will lead to more cultural homogeneity. The European School system provides an interesting experiment in intercultural and multilingual education, which can help us answer these questions. A value survey among European Schools alumni showed that a "European School effect" does indeed seem to exist. Students staying longer at a European School and entering the European Schools system at a younger age form a somewhat more culturally homogenous group. There are also strong indications that European Schools' alumni are much more tolerant towards people from other nations and cultures than their average compatriots. However, it is not completely possible to rule out the possibility that this is caused by a sampling effect.     

Alzheimer's disease,neuropeptides, neuropeptidase,and amyloid-beta peptide metabolism

Amyloid-beta peptide (Abeta), the pathogenic agent of Alzheimer's disease (AD), is a physiological metabolite in the brain. We have focused our attention and effort on elucidating the unresolved aspect of Abeta metabolism: proteolytic degradation. Among a number of Abeta-degrading enzyme candidates, we used a novel in vivo paradigm to identify a member of the neutral endopeptidase family, neprilysin, as the major Abeta catabolic enzyme. Neprilysin deficiency results in defects in the metabolism of endogenous Abeta 40 and 42 in a gene dose-dependent manner. Our observations suggest that even partial down-regulation of neprilysin activity, which could be caused by aging, can contribute to AD development by promoting Abeta accumulation. Moreover, we discuss the fact that an aging-dependent decline of neprilysin activity, which leads to elevation of Abeta concentrations in the brain, is a natural process that precedes AD pathology. In this Perspective, we hypothesize that neprilysin down-regulation has a role in sporadic AD (SAD) pathogenesis, and we propose that this knowledge be used for developing preventive and therapeutic strategies through use of a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR).