Differences in health-related quality of life among persons living with HIV/AIDS

We sought to identify differences in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among a sample of HIV positive individuals receiving case management services in northern Florida. Our study consisted of 97 individuals receiving HIV case management that included 56 males (57.7%) and 81 African Americans (83.5%) who were 47.05 years old (SD = 9.33). HRQoL was measured using the HIV/AIDS Targeted-Quality of Life scale (HAT-QOL). Results show significant group differences in HRQoL by race, income, tobacco use, alcohol use, drug use, and CD4 cell count, despite only 43% of this sample being able to recall their most recent CD4 count. Translating these findings to inform practice, HIV care providers need to provide continuing education to patients about their disease status, knowledge, and treatment as it relates to self-care. Also, HIV care providers should be especially cognizant of the impact that tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use has on HRQoL for persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) by working to assess social support, identify readiness for change, and make appropriate referrals for treatment.     

The Effects of Nursing Home Placement on the Perceived Levels of Caregiver Burden

Providing care for an aging parent can be one of the most fulfilling life experiences for an adult child. It can also be one of the most exhausting physically, emotionally, and financially. A caregiver experiences psychological and emotional changes when their dependent parent or spouse is placed into formal care. This research project uses the Montgomery Borgatta Caregiver Burden Scale, amended with a questionnaire, in a self-administered, anonymous survey to explore perceptions of caregiving burden before and after the nursing home placement periods. This research showed that numerous factors influence caregivers' perceptions of burden and the quality of relationships among family members.     

An Assessment of Three Procedures to Teach Echoic Responding

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - The research literature has revealed mixed outcomes on various procedures for increasing vocalizations and echoic responding in persons with disabilities (Miguel,...     

European‐American and African‐American Mothers' Emotion Socialization Practices Relate Differently to Their Children's Academic and Social‐emotional Competence

The current study examines whether the relation between mothers' responses to their children's negative emotions and teachers' reports of children's academic performance and social‐emotional competence are similar or different for European‐American and African‐American families. Two hundred mothers (137 European‐American, 63 African‐American) reported on their responses to their five‐year‐old children's negative emotions and 150 kindergarten teachers reported on these children's current academic standing and skillfulness with peers. Problem‐focused responses to children's negative emotions, which have traditionally been considered a supportive response, were positively associated with children's school competence for European‐American children, but expressive encouragement, another response considered supportive, was negatively associated with children's competence for African‐American children. The findings highlight the need to examine parental socialization practices from a culturally specific lens.     

The First (and Only) Year of the May 3 Constitution

Isaak Babel’ is the author of two stories, “Iisusov grekh” [The Sin of Jesus], 1921, and “Pan Apolek,” 1923, that are written in the tradition of menippean satire. These stories are filled with the kind of blasphemy, profanation, and desacrilization Mikhail Bakhtin describes as salient characteristics of menippean satire. “Sin” is a graphic example of the menippean sub-genre of “fantasticheskii rasskaz” [the fantastic tale], and “Apolek” has clear affinities with the ancient genre of “Cyprian’s Supper.”

“Sin” and “Apolek” highlight prominent menippean features that pervade Babel’’s fiction. His Odessa stories are filled with carnivalistic, scandalous, and grotesque motifs that are very much in the menippean spirit. Babel’’s contribution to the menippea is his creation of a multiplicity of different, even conflicting plausible texts within the body of a single story. For Babel’, heretic and blasphemer, menippean satire is the perfect vehicle for expressing his contradictory relationship with the culture he lived in.     

"I Think It More of a White Persons Sort of Awareness": Condoms and the Making of a White Nation in Media Representations of Safer (Hetero)sex

In recent years, both the media and the government in the UK have been increasingly preoccupied with the problem of rape involving alcohol. For example, in order to increase low conviction rates, the government proposed, yet eventually rejected, reforms equating drunkenness with incapacity to consent to sexual intercourse. Research evidence, for example studies by Benedict (1992) or Finch and Munro (2005, 2007), suggests that conviction rates are influenced by an interplay of cultural discourses and legal arrangements. This article uses discourse analysis to identify and critically examine the major discourses which are produced around rape involving alcohol in one major daily newspaper, the Daily Mail. This conservative paper disapproves of women's binge drinking and is unsympathetic to victims of rape involving alcohol. The analysis indicates that its discourses deprecate and delegitimise victims by a) reinvigorating and refashioning old rape myths, b) re-gendering rape involving alcohol as a problem of female drinking rather than male sexual violence, and c) masquerading women's responsibilities and risks as rights. These findings open up the possibility for research into the popularity of these discourses across contemporary culture and their impact on cultural consumers, including those involved in legal decision-making processes.     

A Law to Protect, a Law to Prevent: contextualising disability legislation in China

Disability-related legislation in the People's Republic of China has gone largely unrecognised in the North, with the exception of the Maternal and Infant Health Care Law. Failure to contextualise the law has resulted in a simplistic presentation of the Chinese government's response to disability and impairment. This paper takes a first step towards redressing that imbalance. Recent disability legislation is outlined. The emergence of eugenicstyle policies in China is then reconsidered, with reference to the history of Chinese eugenics, the national interests of the current Chinese government and the internationalisation of disability. The complexity of the Chinese government's response re-opens the debate on the place of prevention within a politics of disablement.     

Blurring the lines for learning: the role of out-of-school programs as complements to formal learning

As debates continue over the effectiveness of after-school programs, we need to create stronger links between schools and out-of-school activities. Where do such connections begin? How can we integrate skill-building and academic competence into the out-of-school-time context?     

The effects of eliminating alcohol in a college stadium: the Folsom Field beer ban

In fall 1996, the University of Colorado at Boulder instituted a ban on beer sales at football games. To evaluate the effects of the ban, the authors collected two types of data: first, they examined the effects of the ban on game-day security incidents; second, they looked at survey data from season ticket holders and students. They administered the surveys after the first two postban seasons to assess ticket holders' attitudes about the new policy. The incident data they found indicated dramatic decreases in arrests, assaults, ejections from the stadium, and student referrals to the judicial affairs office following the ban. Survey data also indicated moderately negative attitudes about the ban among students and some season ticket holders. However, all fans were likely to renew their tickets regardless of their attitudes toward the policy. The study illustrates what can be achieved when alcohol is eliminated from a setting that frequently fosters disorderly and aggressive behaviors.