"To rid oneself of the uninvited guest": Robert Koch, Sergei Winogradsky and competing styles of practice in medical microbiology

Does an infectious disease have one, singular pathogenic cause, or many interacting causes? In the discipline of medical microbiology, there is no definitive theoretical answer to this question: there, the conditions of aetiological possibility exist in a curious tension. Ever since the late 19^th century, the “germ theory of disease”–“one disease, one cause”– has co‐existed with a much less well known theory of “multifactorality”–“one disease, many interacting causes”. And yet, in practice, it is always a singular and never a multifactorial aetiology that emerges once the pathogenic world is brought into the field of medical perception. This paper seeks to understand why. Performing a detailed, genealogical reading of the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, it foregrounds a set of links that connect the practical diagnostic tools at work within contemporary, 21^st century laboratories to the philosophical assumptions at work within late‐19^th century understandings of the “germ theory of disease”.     

Contributions of Family Factors to Career Readiness: A Cross‐Cultural Comparison

The authors examined the contributions of perceived family intrusiveness to career decision‐making difficulties (CDMD) and the mediating effect of family orientation as a personality trait in different cultural settings. In Study 1, a web‐based survey of 1,563 Hong Kong college students showed that perceived family intrusiveness significantly contributed to CDMD. This relationship was mediated by the relational personality trait emphasizing family orientation. Study 2 compared this pattern of relationship between a Hong Kong sample of 392 college students and a U.S. sample of 367 college students. The mediation model was only supported in the Hong Kong sample. Specifically, although the contributions of family intrusiveness to CDMD were demonstrated across the 2 cultural settings, the significant influences of family orientation were only supported in the Hong Kong sample. Implications for career development and counseling with college students from different cultural backgrounds are discussed.     

The problems of Indian history

Most historians write Indian history from a Euro-American perspective. Two great historians illustrate the problem. Francis Parkman wrote the story of the Euro-Americans' victory over the Indians. Bernard Bailyn describes the social process of settlement neutrally, but ignores the Indians. So long as scholars define the American past in this way, Indian history has no significance on its own terms. If they focus only on “intersections” of Europeans and native “obstacles,” Indians are merely symbols. The many problems fall into three categories: structural, methodological, and conceptual.     

Linking Changes in Parenting to Parent–Child Relationship Quality and Youth Self‐Control: The Strong African American Families Program

A randomized prevention trial was conducted contrasting families who took part in the Strong African American Families Program (SAAF), a preventive intervention for rural African American mothers and their 11‐year‐olds, with control families. SAAF is based on a conceptual model positing that changes in intervention‐targeted parenting behaviors would enhance responsive‐supportive parent–child relationships and youths' self‐control, which protect rural African American youths from substance use and early sexual activity. Parenting variables included involvement‐vigilance, racial socialization, communication about sex, and clear expectations for alcohol use. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that intervention‐induced changes in parenting were linked with changes in responsive–supportive parent–child relationships and youth self‐control.     

Exploring the relationship between poverty,childhood adversity and child abuse from the perspective of adulthood

A recent Australian study of people experiencing poverty, involving in‐depth interviews with 20 participants, suggests that a complex process leading to poverty in adult life can stem from abusive and adverse experiences in childhood. It is considered that these experiences of abuse and adversity may begin a process of ‘negative chain effects’ (Rutter, 2000) resulting in a pathway into poverty caused by ‘accumulated adversity’ (Seth‐Purdie, 2000). The development and maintenance of human capital, defined as the sum of a person's physical, psychological and economic capabilities, are strongly influenced by the extent of adversity experienced over a person's life course, particularly experiences of adversity in early childhood (Seth‐Purdie, 2000). In this paper, the experiences of childhood abuse and adversity reported by the interviewees will be outlined and discussed in the light of theory and research related to development during childhood and adolescence. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Urban human ecology

Cities are human ecosystems. Eight primary concepts assist us in understanding human ecosystems in terms of variability, time, and complexity. These concepts include: systems thinking; language, culture, and technology; structure, function, and change; edges, boundaries, and ecotones; interaction, integration, and institution; diversity; adaptation; and holism. Hierarchy theory presents a framework for organizing these concepts. Human settlements can be viewed hierarchically, that is, from a more immediate scale to the global. In this paper, the eight concepts will be explored and applied to the urban context. The exploration of human ecology is useful to design and plan the built environment. The ability to respond to change and to adjust actions positively helps to determine the resilience of cities     

HETEROGENOUS COUPLES IN HETEROSEXUAL MARRIAGES: GAY MEN AND STRAIGHT WOMEN*

This article, which is based on in-depth interviews of gay men who had been married, focuses on the nature of the spousal relationship and the almost inevitable marital disruption. It describes the conditions which bring about the man's disclosure of his homosexuality, the means of disclosure he uses, the wife's response, and the interactional effects the disclosure and response have on the marriage relationship. Most of the marriages ended in divorce. Regardless of whether the wife was accepting or rejecting of her husband as a homosexual, she appeared to be an enabler of his transition to a homosexual lifestyle. Implications for counseling are discussed.     

Management of Night-Waking in Young Children

Regular waking at night is one of the most common problems encountered by parents of young children. In a family counselling programme in Auckland, a night-waking programme has been used with 208 children referred during a two year period. The programme involved organized bed-time routines, procedures for settling the child and non-reward of crying, calling out and getting out of bed. Programme introduction was followed by daily phone calls to parents in which appropriate parent behaviours were prompted and reinforced. Further face to face sessions were held after one week and then if needed. Parent reports show high rates of parent implementation of procedures and rapid change of child sleep behaviour with improvements being maintained at follow up. In a survey of 48 of the parents, positive changes in the daytime behaviour of children were reported as coinciding with improved sleep habits. Also there was an absence of negative side effects, and generally, parent satisfaction with the programme was high.