Search

A community structure analysis compared cross-national coverage of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) with variations in national-level demographics from 19 newspapers worldwide, yielding combined article “prominence” and “direction” “Media Vector” newspaper scores emphasizing either “favorable” (42%) or “unfavorable” (58%) coverage of GMOs. Regression analysis revealed “poverty level” (24.2% of variance) and “percent of agricultural land” (4.7%) totaled 28.9% of the variance, confirming that “vulnerability” indicators are associated with favorable media coverage of GMOs. Contrary to conventional “guard dog” assumptions that media mirror elite interests, systematic research on demographics and GMO coverage reveals that media can mirror the interests of society’s most “vulnerable.”

Background. The Neuromuscular Recovery Scale (NRS) was developed by researchers and clinicians to functionally classify people with spinal cord injury (SCI) by measuring functionally relevant motor tasks without compensation. Previous studies established strong interrater and test-retest reliability and validity of the scale. Objective. To determine responsiveness of the NRS, a version including newly added upper-extremity items, in an outpatient rehabilitation setting. Methods. Assessments using the NRS and 6 other instruments were conducted at enrollment and discharge from a locomotor training program for 72 outpatients with SCI classified as American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale grades A to D (International Standards for Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury). Mixed-model t statistics for instruments were calculated and adjusted for confounding factors (eg, sample size, demographic variables) for all patients and subgroups stratified by injury level and/or severity. The resulting adjusted response means (ARMs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to determine responsiveness, and significant differences between instruments were identified with pairwise comparisons. Results. The NRS was significantly responsive for SCI outpatients (ARM = 1.05; CI = 0.75-1.35). Changes in motor function were detected across heterogeneous groups. Regardless of injury level or severity, the responsiveness of the NRS was equal to, and often significantly exceeded, the responsiveness of other instruments. Conclusions. The NRS is a responsive measure that detects change in motor function during outpatient neurorehabilitation for SCI. There is potential utility for its application in randomized controlled trials and as a measure of clinical recovery across diverse SCI populations.

Objective: This study sought to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of a tool designed to assess social work students’ knowledge of and perceptions and attitudes toward human trafficking. To achieve this aim, the Perceptions, Knowledge, and Attitudes toward Human Trafficking Questionnaire (PKA-HTQ) was developed and its psychometric properties were evaluated. Specifically, the factor structure and the internal consistency of the PKA-HTQ were evaluated. Methods: Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a replication EFA were conducted on two independent samples of university students, an initial validation ( n = 325), and cross-validation ( n = 212) sample. Findings: The EFA revealed a three-factor structure, that is, self-appraisal of knowledge/skills (α = .89), worldview (α =.78), and help-seeking behavior (α =.66); this three-factor structure was supported by replication EFA. Conclusion: The PKA-HTQ questionnaire shows promise as a meaningful, potentially reliable and valid measure.

In recent years, a new type of determinist environmental thinking has emerged. It can be understood to be one strand in a much broader realm of ‘environment talk’. Many human geographers have expressed a combination of scepticism and surprise at the apparently inexorable rise of the neo-environmentalist arguments which differ from early twentieth-century environmental determinism yet continue to draw upon biologistic accounts of human culture. Although geography has in recent years been at the forefront of the academic discussions of environmental change in relation to science, institutional context, political costs and human impacts, the discipline nevertheless has to contend with a widespread misperception of the place of environment in human affairs and the world’s future. This Forum discusses the context for the rise of, and consequences of, determinist accounts.

There has been no large scale study of the effects of bereavement on parents who have experienced an unexpected infant death (cot death). Three hundred and eight such families were studied in nine area health authorities in Great Britain. Each family was visited by two suitably qualified members of the Community Health Services to assess the effect of the bereavement on the family and to identify their sources of support. Results of this study indicate the profoundly disruptive effect of the tragedy on the majority of these families. It has highlighted the importance of skilled interviewing to help parents verbalize their fears and assuage guilt feelings. Guidance and training in counselling is recommended for all health care professionals likely to have contact with such families.

Three groups of subjects were administered a redefinition strategy which asked them to focus on sensations during noxious stimulation. Those in one group were informed that the strategy would reduce pain (positive expectancy), those in a second were informed that it would augment pain (negative expectancy), and those in a third were given no information on expectancy. Subjects in a fourth group received neither redefinition nor instructions on expectancy. The four groups did not differ either in expectancy of pain reduction or in reduction of reported pain. Subjects in all groups expected more pain than they reported, and expectations for pain reduction showed only a small correlation with degree of reported pain reduction. In all groups, men reported less pain than women.

Similar histories of illness were recorded in the three weeks prior to death for children who died unexpectedly in infancy and for live controls in the three weeks prior to interview. Symptom analysis showed that the main difference between the two groups of children was the non-specific behavioural changes manifested in the case infants shortly before death. Underestimation of the severity of symptoms by parents or medical attendants was indicated in a proportion of the cases in all areas. Use of medical services was shown to vary widely between areas with a marked tendency to use hospital rather than general practitioner services in the inner city. The investigation into sudden infant death in one area included periodic progress meetings where possible preventable causes of the deaths were examined and future child health service planning decided in the light of the knowledge gained. Since the study began, the number of sudden infant deaths in this area has dropped significantly. It is suggested that such an enquiry into the circumstances at each death would be a simple method of undertaking a study of sudden death in a locality and possibly lowering the incidence.