Community,Family, and Race/Ethnic Differences in Health Status in Rural Areas1

Abstract Many race-specific differences in health outcomes that have been observed in previous research have been attributed to class and racebased group differences which either facilitate or constrain health opportunities and behaviors. These include such variables as different rates of poverty, health insurance coverage, and access to medical care. However, these relationships have been inadequately examined in rural communities where minority status may be even more detrimental to health than in urban areas, due to various constraints on access to health care. We present an analysis that assesses the effects of community, family structure, sociodemographic, and medical care variables on self-reported health status among Hispanics, Mrican Americans, and non-Hispanic whites in six rural communities in Florida. Community structural characteristics had a significant effect on self-reported health, as did some of the measures of how respondents “experience” community. These relationships held even when other sets of variables were added to the models. Family/household characteristics and sociodemographic and medical care variables were less important in explaining self-reported health status. These findings suggest that community continues to be important in explaining differences in health status in rural areas.     

Attitudes of social work students towards older people

Demographic ageing is a challenge for many countries. Even though Turkey has a relatively younger demographic composition, the proportion of the older people (65+) within the population is rapidly increasing. Within this framework, older people are becoming more important clients for both social work students and social workers in Turkey. This study aims to reveal the attitudes of social work students towards older people and determine the various factors that affect their views on older persons. In the scope of the project, Kogan's Attitude Towards Old People Scale was applied to 419 social work undergraduate students at a university located in Central Anatolia. The findings showed that social work students scored a mean of 130.96 and they generally had positive attitudes towards older people. The correlation between year of study, gender and age was not statistically significant. However, having lived mostly in urban areas was positively correlated with the mean Kogan scores and this finding was found to be statistically significant. Exposure to personal contact with older people at both the personal and professional levels was influential in shaping attitudes about the older people.     

‘Notorious Beyond Any Other European Woman of Her Generation’: The Case of Count(ess) Sarolta/Sándor Vay

The paper investigates the curious case of the Hungarian Count(ess) Sarolta/Sándor Vay, journalist and writer, but, above all, a notorious gender bender in late nineteenth-century Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The article examines her case in the context of the history of European cross-dressing and of narrative transvestism. The author argues that nineteenth-century dandyism provided an effective cultural framework for Vay’s contemporaries to accept her unconventional presence in fin-de-siècle Hungarian society. Moreover, she claims that Vay’s narrative transvestism may also be construed within the cultural phenomenon of dandyism, as her writing practices prove to be further instruments for her self-fashioning. Finally, she concludes that Vay’s gender performance and narrative transvestism become illustrative examples of instances that both frame and confuse accepted cultural patterns, destabilize gender binarism, and participate in its maintenance.     

Estimation of geodesic tortuosity and constrictivity in stationary random closed sets

We investigate the problem of estimating geodesic tortuosity and constrictivity as two structural characteristics of stationary random closed sets. They are of central importance for the analysis of effective transport properties in porous or composite materials. Loosely speaking, geodesic tortuosity measures the windedness of paths, whereas the notion of constrictivity captures the appearance of bottlenecks resulting from narrow passages within a given materials phase. We first provide mathematically precise definitions of these quantities and introduce appropriate estimators. Then, we show strong consistency of these estimators for unboundedly growing sampling windows. In order to apply our estimators to real data sets, the extent of edge effects needs to be controlled. This is illustrated using a model for a multiphase material that is incorporated in solid oxide fuel cells.     

Internet Technology in Service of Personal Health Care Management: Patient Perspective

Internet technology has become an informational resource for most health care consumers. Online information, discussion, and support groups, in the form of message boards, listservs, and chat rooms are emerging as parts of virtual self-health-care network. This paper examines the extent to which participation in online health discussion groups was reported to be helpful in increasing medical knowledge and in enhancing the participatory patient role of health care consumers in interaction with health care service professionals. Data for this study was collected from 350 patients who participated in Internet discussion groups for cancer patients. The findings of the study indicated the important impact of Internet health discussion groups on health care management practices as perceived by health care consumers, including empowerment through knowledge and proactive participation in cancer care management. This research contributes to understanding the patient perspective and assesses the perceived importance of Internet groups by health care consumers.     

New bounds for locally irregular chromatic index of bipartite and subcubic graphs

A graph is locally irregular if the neighbors of every vertex v have degrees distinct from the degree of v. A locally irregular edge-coloring of a graph G is an (improper) edge-coloring such that the graph induced on the edges of any color class is locally irregular. It is conjectured that three colors suffice for a locally irregular edge-coloring. In the paper, we develop a method using which we prove four colors are enough for a locally irregular edge-coloring of any subcubic graph admiting such a coloring. We believe that our method can be further extended to prove the tight bound of three colors for such graphs. Furthermore, using a combination of existing results, we present an improvement of the bounds for bipartite graphs and general graphs, setting the best upper bounds to 7 and 220, respectively.     

The t-information and its use in multivariate problems and time-series analysis

The second moment of recently introduced scalar inference function can be viewed as generalized Fisher information of the continuous probability distributions. In this paper we call it the t-information and give some possible applications of the new concept.     

Profile of the Present Slovak Society and its Regional Differences

The article is the first attempt in assessment of the development and the present situation of social structure and stratification in Slovakia. Its principal aim is to develop the profile of the present society in Slovakia, which reflects the pace and complexity of the transformation process and its impact on society. Processing of Micro census data from 2003 led to creation of the profile of society in Slovakia at the national level based on income distribution but also knowledge on regional societies and differences between them were obtained. It was found out that the present profile of the society in Slovakia is pear-shaped which means strong representation of lower strata and weaker representation of higher middle and high strata. The profile disclosed some specific features and inconsistencies in the present society of Slovakia, which were, and still are determined by many non standard past and present phenomena and processes often disguised by reforms. The information drawn in regions has facilitated identification of the basic nature and structure of regional societies, some of their specific features and negative elements and to demonstrate their highly differentiated character.