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Social justice counseling, like all humanistic models, recognizes the dignity of each human being, affirms the right of all people to choose and work toward their own goals, and asserts the importance of service to community. The social justice paradigm brings a special emphasis on the role of the environment. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

In 2003, the American Counseling Association (ACA) adopted the ACA Advocacy Competencies (J. A. Lewis, M. S. Arnold, R. House, & R. L. Toporek, 2002) to provide guidance to counselors and acknowledge advocacy as an ethical aspect of service to clients. This article provides a foundation for this special section by sharing a historical perspective on recent pivotal advocacy movements within the profession. An overview of the development and content of the Advocacy Competencies is provided followed by a case example to assist counselors in understanding and enhancing their application.

In this interview with Bernardine Dohrn, an advocate for the rights of children and families, Dohrn shares her outlook on the often hostile environment affecting today's families, allowing counselors to join her in amplifying "the voice of children and families who are voiceless." (MKA)

Drawing from interviews with advocates that addressed disaster recovery issues after Hurricane Katrina, the authors highlight three groups of women--domestic violence/sexual assault workers, advocates of federal postdisaster policy, and members of public housing resident councils. Women's efforts to mobilize networks and resist unfair policies, particularly in the context of a disaster, are discussed. Keywords: advocacy; disaster; Hurricane Katrina; women; community organizing

ACROSS THE CONTINENTS, countries are embracing distance education as a means of upgrading large cadres of nursing care providers--from aide to auxiliary, general or technical to professional, baccalaureate to master's, [...]

Fiducial markers are reference points used in the registration of image space(s) with physical (patient) space. As applied to interactive, image-guided surgery, the registration of image space with physical space allows the current location of a surgical tool to be indicated on a computer display of patient-specific preoperative images. This intrasurgical guidance information is particularly valuable in surgery within the brain, where visual feedback is limited. The accuracy of the mapping between physical and image space depends upon the accuracy with which the fiducial markers were located in each coordinate system. To effect accurate space registration for interactive, image-guided neurosurgery, the use of permanent fiducial markers implanted into the surface of the skull is proposed in this paper. These small cylindrical markers are composed of materials that make them visible in the image sets. The challenge lies in locating the subcutaneous markers in physical space. This paper presents an ultrasonic technique for transcutaneously detecting the location of these markers. The technique incorporates an algorithm based on detection of characteristic properties of the reflected A-mode ultrasonic waveform. The results demonstrate that ultrasound is an appropriate technique for accurate transcutaneous marker localization. The companion paper to this article describes an automatic, enhanced implementation of the marker-localization theory described in this article. Index Terms - A-mode ultrasound, computer-assisted surgery, detection and localization, fiducial markers, image-guided surgery, registration, stereotactic neurosurgery, ultrasound.

Registration of image space and physical space lies at the heart of any interactive, image-guided neurosurgery system. This paper, in conjunction with the previous companion paper [1], describes a localization technique that enables bone-implanted fiducial markers to be used for the registration of these spaces. The nature of these subcutaneous markers allows for their long-term use for registration which is desirable for surgical follow-up, monitoring of therapy efficacy, and performing fractionated stereotactic radiosurgery. The major challenge to using implanted markers is determining the location of the markers in physical space after implantation. The A-mode ultrasonic technique described here is capable of determining the three-dimensional (3-D) location of small implanted cylindrical markers. Accuracy tests were conducted on a phantom representing a human head. The accuracy of the system was characterized by comparing the location of a marker analogue as determined with an optically tracked pointer and the location as determined with the ultrasonic localization. Analyzing the phantom in several orientations revealed a mean system accuracy of 0.5 mm with a [+ or -]0.1-mm 95% confidence interval. These tests indicate that transcutaneous localization of implanted fiducial markers is possible with a high degree of accuracy. Index Terms - A-mode ultrasound, computer-assisted surgery, detection and localization, fiducial markers, image-guided surgery, registration, stereotactic neurosurgery, ultrasound.