La escala «directiveness» de Ray y el autoritarismo

Resumen

La escala «directiveness» de Ray (1976) es uno de los instrumentos diseñados para la medición del autoritarismo. En este trabajo se estudia la relación de esta medida con el dogmatismo, orientación política, edad y sexo, variables de interés en el campo de las actitudes socio-políticas, los resultados obtenidos nos permiten concluir que la escala «directiveness» no es ütil para el fin pretendido. También se subraya la necesidad de proceder a un debate teórico más riguroso en torno al autoritarismo político.     

SPECTACLES OF ETHNICITY: FESTIVALS AND THE COMMODIFICATION OF ETHNIC CULTURE AMONG LOUISIANA CAJUNS

Drawing on the example of the Louisiana Cajuns, an ethnic group that has been enjoying a wave of popular revival in recent years, this study suggests that changes in the perception of an ethnic identity are related to socioeconomic transformation. We identify the festival as a key aspect of the Cajun revival since the 1960s. An examination of the history, activities, and contemporary spatiotemporal organization of festivals reveals similarities to other aspects of a society of mass consumption. Niche marketing , the structuring of recreation around the modern work week, and the establishment of personal identity through the purchase of symbolically rich commodities are all embodied in present - day Cajun festivals. At the same time, the consumption of ethnic commodities is linked by the consumers with a sense of tradition and descent from a mythic past. The festivals of southwestern Louisiana are, in this sense, invented traditions and, paradoxically, a measure of the assimilation of this particular ethnic group into American culture.     

Gonococcal Perihepatitis: Diagnosis and Management in a College Population

Abstract

Although gonococcal perihepatitis is not a common clinical problem, it should be in the differential diagnosis of patients who present with right upper quadrant pain and a subsequent positive gonorrhea culture. With the increasing incidence of venereal disease, more cases of gonococcal perihepatitis are anticipated, and an awareness of its protean manifestations should be known and considered by all health care providers. This is especially true for physicians treating college students, as the sequelae of pelvic infection can be severe tissue injury to the reproductive organs with resultant involuntary infertility.

This paper presents three cases of diagnosed gonococcal perihepatitis in a college population with a complete literature review of this disease entity.     

A National Comparison of Spousal Abuse in Mid- and Old Age

This exploratory study addresses whether there are similar or different risks and protective factors associated with spousal abuse among mid-age adults (persons aged 45–59) and old-age adults (persons aged 60 and over). The risk and protective factors of abuse are compared across these two age groups and situated within a life course framework. Cross-sectional data from the 1999 and 2004 General Social Surveys are merged to address the research questions. Overall, it was found that there are as many differences as there are similarities in risk/protective factors connected to individual, relationship, and community environments. The findings are discussed in terms of program development and future research.     

ON THE DEBATE AROUND IMMANENCE AND TRANSCENDENCE

There has been a profound debate about new ways of looking on emancipatory politics among progressive political theoreticians. One of the most important consequences of this contemporary debate has been the emergence of three related controversies: transcendence versus immanence, the people versus the multitude and negative ontology versus positive ontology. Our argumentative strategy will be to present these controversies first, through Hardt and Negri's point of view, and then through a Lacanian lecture of Laclau's perspective, author who places the psychoanalysis where philosophy traditionally located ontology.     

The last drag: an evaluation of an LGBT-specific smoking intervention

Many studies in the past 20 years have documented that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals smoke at rates that exceed the general population, yet, there have been few reports of smoking cessation interventions targeting this population. This study reports on data from 233 participants in The Last Drag, a seven-session, six-week group education and support intervention tailored for LGBT smokers. Data on smoking rates were collected during the first and last sessions, and at one, three, and six months post-intervention. As with many interventions over time, missing data is a challenge in determining success rates, but even using the most conservative estimates, nearly 60% were smoke-free at the end of the intervention, and 36% remained smoke-free by six months post-intervention. This success rate is comparable to, or better, than many mainstream smoking cessation interventions reported in the literature. The Last Drag is an effective, low-cost, LGBT-specific community intervention that can be replicated in other communities.     

Functional data analysis: estimation of the relative error in functional regression under random left-truncation model

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between a functional random covariable and a scalar response which is subject to left-truncation by another random variable. Precisely, we use the mean squared relative error as a loss function to construct a nonparametric estimator of the regression operator of these functional truncated data. Under some standard assumptions in functional data analysis, we establish the almost sure consistency, with rates, of the constructed estimator as well as its asymptotic normality. Then, a simulation study, on finite-sized samples, was carried out in order to show the efficiency of our estimation procedure and to highlight its superiority over the classical kernel estimation, for different levels of simulated truncated data.