Knowledge and Attitudes of University Health Service Clients about Genital Herpes: Implications for Patient Education and Counseling

Abstract

Genital herpes virus infection is an important target for health education efforts because of its apparently rising incidence in the college student population and because it can have potentially serious psychological as well as medical consequences. In order to better understand the health education and counseling needs of students, the present study surveyed knowledge and attitudes about genital herpes of 190 university students using a gynecology clinic and of 161 students using a general medical clinic. The students were found to have a high degree of familiarity with the disease, its cause, and mode of transmission, but tended to view the consequences of the disease as more severe than is actually warranted by the common medical complications. There was some degree of misinformation about prevention and treatment of the disease and some negative attitudes about patients suffering from it, but the survey respondents endorsed a high level of responsible behavior with regard to the disease and expressed some optimism about the possibility of adapting to it. These findings suggest specific misconceptions about genital herpes that might be amenable to a mass education approach. They also suggest the need for a counseling program that centers around reasonable reassurance and appropriately positive psychological and medical management for newly diagnosed patients.     

The Placement History Chart: A Tool for Understanding the Longitudinal Pattern of Foster Children's Placements

Despite growing concerns about foster placement instability, little information is available regarding the longitudinal patterns of placement histories among foster children. The purpose of the present study was to develop a charting system using child welfare records to facilitate a better understanding of longitudinal patterns of placement history for 117 foster children. The resulting Placement History Chart included all placements that occurred during the observed time period and accounted for various dimensions: number, length, type, and sequence of placements; timing of transitions; and total time in out-of-home care. The Placement History Chart is an effective tool for placing foster care experiences within a broader developmental context. As such, the Placement History Chart can be a valuable research tool for understanding various dimensions and variations of placement transitions among foster children by capturing sequences and cumulative risks over time. Furthermore, this chart can facilitate the development of intervention programs that are developmentally sensitive and effectively address particularly vulnerable subpopulations of foster children.     

Towards cosmopolitan citizenship? Women’s rights in divided Turkey

Identity politics and citizenship are often envisaged in dichotomous terms, but cosmopolitan theorists believe commitments to ??thin?? universal values can be generated from divergent ??thick?? positions. Yet, they often gloss over the ways in which the nexus of thick and thin is negotiated in practice??a weak link in the cosmopolitan argument. To understand this nexus better, we turn to women??s rights organizations (WROs) in polarized Turkey to show that women affiliated with rival camps (e.g., pro-religious/pro-secular, Turkish/Kurdish, liberal/leftist) can mobilize over issues like empowerment, violence against women, and education. However, thick readings of these issues inflect upon collaboration. This has spurred pro-religious and Kurdish women to develop strategies that flag their specific concerns. As such, mutual recognition along cosmopolitan lines appears possible??and is reinforced through iterative encounters??but is not necessarily negotiated between equally empowered agents and entails complex processes of contestation and concession-making.     

Disaster and deritualization: A re-interpretation of findings from early disaster research

This study investigates how ritual practices are disrupted in disasters and the ways people deal with those situations. We employ structural ritualization theory to conduct this investigation focusing on deritualization, which refers to the breakdown or loss of ritualized activities that occur in daily life. The thesis of this paper is that ritual practices are disrupted in a disaster leading to the breakdown of action and meaning. Data were collected from 19 seminal sociological studies from the National Academy of Sciences published first under the name of the Committee on Disaster Studies (1951–1957) and then under the rubric of the Disaster Research Group (1957–1962). A content analysis of these studies revealed many instances of deritualization. Deritualization is manifested or most evident through its effects on action and meaning in rituals. Examples were categorized according to the loss of action, meaning, or a combination of both.     

Energy and U.K. agriculture

This paper makes the point that although U.K. agriculture has become more efficient in many ways, it has become less efficient in its use of energy. Moreover, although farming utilises less than 3 per cent of national power energy consumption and produces over 40 per cent of the nation's food, there are no predominant users of energy in the U.K. Thus small savings in each individual industry, including agriculture, must be effected. How this can be achieved is discussed. But the paper concludes that it may well take another ‘energy crisis’ before farmers and growers respond by modifying their production systems accordingly.