Systematic review of primary prevention human papillomavirus interventions targeting college students

ABSTRACT. Objectives: The purpose of this research was to systematically analyze human papillomavirus (HPV) interventions targeting college students. Methods: Completed interventions targeting general HPV prevention, HPV vaccine uptake, or antecedents of HPV vaccination uptake that used any quantitative design, published from January 2000 to January 2014 in the English language, were reviewed. Results: Twelve interventions met the criteria. Ten interventions produced 1 or more significant outcomes on primary or secondary variables of interest. Conclusions: Efficacy of interventions can be enhanced through tailoring materials and pretesting by sex, operationalizing theories, incorporating process evaluations, employing HPV vaccine uptake outcome measures, and utilizing Web-based delivery of programs.     

Minority Stress in the Lives of Men Who Have Sex With Men in Cape Town,South Africa

The mental health outcomes of men who have sex with men (MSM) living in sub-Saharan Africa are understudied, despite evidence that discrimination and stigma are widespread. This article examines the occurrence and mental health effects of minority stress in a sample of diverse South African MSM. Twenty-two MSM living in Cape Town took part in exploratory qualitative in-depth interviews and completed mental health questionnaires. Results indicate that the majority of participants experienced minority stress, which affected their sexual relationships and coping strategies. Concealment behaviors and perceived discrimination levels were high and were associated with race, religion, SES, and geographical location.     

Energy Policy and Environmental Possibilities: Biofuels and Key Protagonists of Ecological Change*

While a growing body of research indicates the severe ecological and social costs of biofuel production worldwide, the U.S. government continues to promote the expansion of this fuel sector. Recent congressional testimony regarding the promotion of biofuels via the renewable fuel standard (RFS) offers a strategic research site for sociological investigation into the practices of key political actors and their roles in promoting and discouraging ecologically oriented change. Congressional hearings provide a window into the political process of energy policy formation, thus informing environmental sociological theory and debates. The ecological modernization perspective and its assumptions provide the analytical frame of this empirical analysis of congressional hearings during the peak legislative period concerning biofuels. This research is intended to contribute to alternative energy debates, add to our understanding of the role of various actors in energy policy formation, and further theoretical developments within sociology.     

Governing the Circular Economy in the City: Local Planning Practice in London

ABSTRACT

There is interest in the circular economy as a framework for transition from a linear take-make-dispose model of production and consumption, to a circular model which decouples economic growth from resource consumption. However, there is limited understanding of how that applies to the city through governance lens. This paper examines evidence from 28 municipalities in London to unpack the ‘government’ and ‘governance’ of circular economy in the city. It examines the ‘governmentality’ of circular economy in planning practice and reflects on what austerity localism and scalar politics might mean for the planning and governance of circular economy in cities.     

Do actions reduce perceived risk? A longitudinal analysis of the relationship between risk perception and actions in response to forest disturbance in Colorado

As residents living in hazard-prone areas face on-going environmental threats, the actions they take to mitigate such risks are likely motivated by various factors. Whereas risk perception has been considered a key determinant of related behavioral responses, little is known about how risk mitigation actions influence subsequent perceived risk. In other words, do actions to prevent or mitigate risk reduce risk perception? This longitudinal study considers the dynamic relationships between risk perception and risk-mitigating behavior in the context of forest disturbance in north-central Colorado. Based on panel survey data collected in 2007 and 2018, the results provide a first look at changes in perceived forest risks as they relate to individual and community actions in response to an extensive mountain pine beetle outbreak. Analysis revealed that the perception of direct forest risks (forest fire and falling trees) increased, whereas indirect forest risk perception (concern on broader threats to local community) decreased across the two study phases. Higher individual or community activeness (level of actions) was associated with subsequent reductions in perceived forest fire risk, smaller increases in direct risk perception, and larger decreases in indirect risk perception. These findings contribute insights into the complex risk reappraisal process in forest hazard contexts, with direct implications for risk communication and management strategies.     

The journey from pain to power: A meta-ethnography on women’s experiences of vaginal birth after caesarean

Background

Vaginal birth after caesarean can be a safe and satisfying option for many women who have had a previous caesarean, yet rates of vaginal birth after caesarean remain low in the majority of countries. Exploring women’s experiences of vaginal birth after caesarean can improve health practitioners’ understanding of the factors that facilitate or hinder women in the journey to have a vaginal birth after caesarean.

The experiences of carers in using shared activities to communicate with looked‐after young people about alcohol,tobacco, and drug use

Parental conversations with their teenage children about alcohol, tobacco, and drugs are associated with lower rates of use. Looked‐after young people are at greater risk of early initiation, higher rates of use, and more problematic use. However, there is no evidence regarding whether these conversations occur in settings where the parental role is assumed by someone other than the biological parent. The aim of the study was to examine how carers communicate with looked‐after young people about alcohol, tobacco, and drug use. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 16 residential care staff and foster carers in Scotland. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis approach. Participants talked about “shared doing” as a way of building relationships and communicating about substance use. Shared doing encompassed particular activities that carers and young people would do together, such as driving in the car, cooking, watching TV, and going for a walk. Shared doing provided an opportunity to spend time together and to create an environment in which communication could be facilitated. These environments were shaped by space, time, and context. Carers should be encouraged to take advantage of the time‐limited occasions they are with young people to have conversations about substance use.     

US foreign aid and economic policy concessions*

Why do donors continue to provide foreign aid despite its failure to help poor countries over the past several decades? While some scholars argue that foreign aid is purely for humanitarian purposes, others assert that such aid serves as a tool to pressure recipient countries into accepting policy concessions. In this study, we subject these arguments to empirical testing using a dataset that integrates the amount of US aid and economic policies of recipient countries for 1995–2012. The findings suggest that aid decisions correspond to the interests of the United States, such as policy concessions in economic and business liberalization. However, an increase in US aid is not directly associated with further economic reforms in recipient countries. We conclude that US foreign aid programmes are strategic in nature and successful not in alleviating economic problems in recipient countries but, at the very least, in buying their policy compliance.     

Effects of Exogenous and Endogenous Distracters on Immediate and Long‐Term Recall in Toddlers

We explored the role that exogenous and endogenous competitors for attention play in infants’ abilities to encode and retain information over a 6‐month period. Sixty‐six children visited the laboratory at 15 months, and 32 returned for a second visit at 21 months. Children observed models of conventional‐ relation and enabling‐relation action sequences. Half the children were distracted by a “Mister Monkey” mechanical toy during the conventional‐relation sequence, while the other half was distracted during the enabling‐relation sequence. The Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire indexed endogenous factors at both ages. Immediate postmodel production of target actions indexed encoding efficiency, and 6‐month production of target actions indexed long‐term recall. The exogenous distracter impacted encoding efficiency (i.e., immediate recall), but not long‐term recall. Endogenous factors (i.e., temperament) were primarily associated with long‐term recall. Of special interest was our finding that endogenous factors, especially surgency, moderated the effect of the exogenous distracter. It appears that when learning conventional‐relation sequences in the presence of exogenous distracters, surgency mobilizes attentional resources toward the learning objective; however, when learning enabling‐relation sequences under the same conditions, surgency either boosts the saliency of the distracters or boosts children’s susceptibility to them.