Adopting Commodities: A Burkean Cluster Analysis of Adoption Rhetoric

Despite legal recognition of adoptive families as legitimate families, research suggests that adoptive families face societal stigma because of their adoptive status. Although the research clearly identifies this stigma, the interesting question involves why this stigma persists. Researchers acknowledge that language surrounding adoption is negative but do not pursue what that language is or where it appears. This article seeks to determine how the public discusses adoption. I analyzed 3 newspapers and 11 magazines published over 10 years using cluster analysis to uncover the clusters that infuse adoption meaning; this article addresses the cluster of the commodification of adoption.     

Problems in using birth-history analysis to estimate trends in fertility

Summary The problem investigated is the adequacy of birth-history analysis as a method for estimating fertility change. The analysis demonstrates that inaccurate reporting of the dates of birth of live-born children can, under reasonable assumptions, significantly distort cohort fertility schedules in such a way that estimates of change in fertility will be biased in the direction of exaggerating declines in fertility. This kind of bias is shown to exist in fertility estimates obtained from survey data in El Salvador and Bangladesh. An important implication is that birth history questionnaires should begin with the most recent, rather than the earliest, event in a respondent's experience.     

The contraceptive potential of early versus delayed insertion of the intrauterine device

One argument for a postpartum program of contraception is minimizing chances that the mother will conceive again before she can accept contraception. However early insertion increases the extent of overlap between retention of the device and anovulation when the woman is protected anyway while at the same time reducing the average span of wearing time coinciding with fecundable months when protection is needed. Thus it is not clear that early insertion yields the maximal postponement of next conception. Delaying insertion three or even six months might accomplish more. To investigate this matter, a model has been developed which incorporates the following factors: time of insertion, distribution of anovulatory length, natural fecundability and rates of effectiveness and continuation of IUD. It turns out that predicated upon the distribution of anovulatory length regarded as most realistic, the penalty of early insertion in terms of reduced postponement of next conception proves consistently small.     

Implementing Orlando's nursing theory: a pilot study

1. Implementing Orlando's Nursing Theory results in positive, patient-centered outcomes. 2. Orlando's Nursing Theory provides a "road map" for nursing staff to use when approaching patients. 3. Patients' levels of immediate distress decrease significantly when Orlando's Nursing Theory is used.     

Reviews and abstracts

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