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Civilians
Terms modified by Civilians Selected AbstractsINCIDENCE AND OUTCOMES OF KNEE AND HIP JOINT REPLACEMENT IN VETERANS AND CIVILIANSANZ JOURNAL OF SURGERY, Issue 5 2006Vanessa Wells Background: This article describes the incidence of total knee and hip replacement, and compares post-surgery health status outcomes in veterans and civilians. Methods: The numbers of male veterans and civilians who had a knee and/or a hip replacement in South Australia (1994,2002) were obtained. Standardized morbidity ratios, and odds ratios for age group by veteran/civilian interactions, were calculated. Presurgery and 1-year post-surgery Medical Outcomes Short Form (36) Health Survey, Knee Society and Harris hip scores were completed. Independent samples t -tests were used to compare presurgery scores. ancova models were used to determine any differences between veterans and civilians post-surgery. Results: For veterans, standardized morbidity ratios were 0.987 and 0.715 for knee and hip replacements, respectively (P < 0.0001). Veterans' odds ratios for knee and hip replacements were significantly lower in the 65- to 74-year age group (P < 0.001), similar in the 75- to 84-year and above 85-year age groups for hip replacement, but significantly higher in the above 85-year age group for knee replacement (P < 0.001). Presurgery, veterans reported significantly lower scores (P < 0.003) for knee function. After knee replacement, veterans reported significantly lower Medical Outcomes Short Form (36) Health Survey scores for bodily pain, physical functioning, role , physical, role , emotional, social functioning and physical component summary (P < 0.033). Significantly lower physical functioning, role , physical and physical component summary scores (P < 0.02) were reported by veterans post-surgery for hip replacement. Conclusion: Veterans are delaying joint replacement. Presurgical knee function is worse in veterans. Post-surgery, the veterans are worse off in a number of health status outcomes. [source] Civilian-based posttraumatic stress disorder and physical complaints: Evaluation of depression as a mediatorJOURNAL OF TRAUMATIC STRESS, Issue 4 2002Robert Miranda Jr. Abstract This study examined the role of comorbid depression in the somatic complaints of 32 individuals with civilian-based posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) while restricting the influence of detectable pathophysiology and additional psychiatric conditions. It was hypothesized that depressive symptomatology would mediate the relationship between PTSD and somatic symptom reporting. Participants were administered structured clinical interviews, a physical examination, and an electrocardiogram. Results of this study supported the hypothesis that depressive symptoms mediate the relationship between PTSD and physical complaints. These results add to a growing body of literature that suggests psychological factors play an influential role in the physical symptom reports of individuals with PTSD. [source] Civilians Versus Police: Mediation Can Help to Bridge the DivideNEGOTIATION JOURNAL, Issue 3 2000Vivian Berger The increasing frequency of notorious cases of conflicts between police officers and members of the general public (which in New York City has led to incidents of death, battery, and sexual assault) is cause for alarm. At the root of many police-community conflicts are an incomplete understanding of the work of the police, poor communication on the part of the police and the public, or simple misunderstanding. A number of communities, including New York City, are turning to mediation to provide a forum for the potential resolution of complaints made against police by citizens. After a brief survey of the work of such programs nationally, the author focuses on three New York cases in which she served as a mediator, using them to illustrate the pitfalls and special rewards of mediating in this context. The author believes that the mediation process itself can work in a transformative way, improving strained relations between police and the general population [source] Between Pinochet and Kropotkin: state terror, human rights and the geographersTHE CANADIAN GEOGRAPHER/LE GEOGRAPHE CANADIEN, Issue 3 2001John Wiley Lecture The lecture develops a civil perspective on states engaged in systematic but arbitrary armed violence against their home populations: what the Nürnberg Tribunal called ,government by terror. Civilians, or most of them, appear uniquely vulnerable to such violence and the gross violations of human rights accompanying it. Moreover, this, rather than wars as usually understood, involved the largest uses of armed force in the twentieth century. It was the main cause of violent death of civilians. Two geographical concerns are addressed: the ,geographic' nature of such violence, and its implications for the thought and practice of geographers. They are explored especially through the work of two geographers whose lives bracket the past ,century of violence, Peter Kropotkin and Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile fully illustrates the scope of state terror. Geographies of coercion are seen in the system of political prisons and torture, the making of a society and landscapes of fear, and the unmaking of civil life. The atrocities also violated Chile's former commitment to human rights initiatives. Pinochet's geographical work, especially the geopolitics, is in accord with, or offers no counter to, the repressive, authoritarian regime he headed, Kropotkin's descriptions of imperial Russia show many parallels to the Chilean case, and the kind of repressive state power that he rejected to dedicate his life to its vulnerable and innocent victims. Almost alone among geographers he developed a coherent, influential vision of violence, social justice and interpersonal ethics, based on geographical investigations as well as an anarchist perspective. These two may also seem to represent conceptual and lived extremes - respectively, an extreme deployment of state violence, and a total rejection of the state because of the facts and potential of violent repression. Unfortunately, enquiries into violence and the state, let alone terrorist states, are virtually absent from contemporary geographical scholarship. Its emergence as an essentially ,civil field' has reinforced this - when it should have had the opposite effect. In part this involves a failure to temper our long, and less-than-critical, service to the state in all areas, and a continuing governmental mind-set. It is suggested that the absence of critical reflection on the contested relations of civil society and the state, especially as they involve state violence, undermines the intellectual value and ethical standards of our work. [source] Daily Lives of Civilians in Wartime Modern America: From the Indian Wars to the Vietnam War , Edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. HeidlerTHE HISTORIAN, Issue 4 2008Eugenia Kaledin No abstract is available for this article. [source] "There Are No Civilians; We Are All at War": Nuclear War Shelter and Survival Narratives during the Early Cold WarTHE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE, Issue 4 2007Robert A. Jacobs First page of article [source] Success in Kashmir: a positive trend in civil,military integration during humanitarian assistance operationsDISASTERS, Issue 1 2010Wiley C. Thompson The modern cast of disaster relief actors includes host nations, non-governmental organisations, private volunteer organisations, military organisations and others. Each group, civilian or military, has valuable skills and experiences critical to disaster relief work. The goal of this paper is to supplement the study of civil,military relief efforts with contemporary anecdotal experience. The paper examines the interaction between US military forces and other disaster relief actors during the 2005 Kashmir earthquake relief effort. The author uses direct observations made while working in Pakistan to contrast the relationships and activities from that effort with other accounts in prevailing scholarly disaster literature and military doctrine. Finally, this paper suggests that the Kashmir model of integration, coordination and transparency of intent creates a framework in which future humanitarian assistance operations could be successfully executed. Recommendations to improve civil,military interaction in future relief efforts will also be addressed. [source] Disaster management and mitigation: the telecommunications infrastructureDISASTERS, Issue 1 2009Frédéric Patricelli Among the most typical consequences of disasters is the near or complete collapse of terrestrial telecommunications infrastructures (especially the distribution network,the ,last mile') and their concomitant unavailability to the rescuers and the higher echelons of mitigation teams. Even when such damage does not take place, the communications overload/congestion resulting from significantly elevated traffic generated by affected residents can be highly disturbing. The paper proposes innovative remedies to the telecommunications difficulties in disaster struck regions. The offered solutions are network-centric operations-cap able, and can be employed in management of disasters of any magnitude (local to national or international). Their implementation provide ground rescue teams (such as law enforcement, firemen, healthcare personnel, civilian authorities) with tactical connectivity among themselves, and, through the Next Generation Network backbone, ensure the essential bidirectional free flow of information and distribution of Actionable Knowledge among ground units, command/control centres, and civilian and military agencies participating in the rescue effort. [source] Substance use disorder among older adults in the United States in 2020ADDICTION, Issue 1 2009Beth Han ABSTRACT Aims This study aimed to project the number of people aged 50 years or older with substance use disorder (alcohol/illicit drug dependence or abuse) in the United States in 2020. Design Logistic regression models were applied to estimate parameters predicting past-year substance use disorder using the 2002,06 National Survey on Drug Use and Health data. We applied these parameters to the projected US 2020 population to estimate the number of adults aged 50 or older with substance use disorder in 2020. Setting Non-institutionalized US residences. Participants Representative sample of the US civilian, non-institutionalized population. Measurements Substance use disorder is classified based on criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition. Findings Due to the large population size and high substance use rate of the baby-boom cohort, the number of adults aged 50 or older with substance use disorder is projected to double from 2.8 million (annual average) in 2002,06 to 5.7 million in 2020. Increases are projected for all examined gender, race/ethnicity and age groups. Conclusions Our estimates provide critical information for policymakers to allocate resources and develop prevention and treatment approaches to address future needs of the US older adult population with substance use disorder. [source] The Within-Year Concentration of Medical Care: Implications for Family Out-of-Pocket Expenditure BurdensHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 3 2009Thomas M. Selden Objective. To examine the within-year concentration of family health care and the resulting exposure of families to short periods of high expenditure burdens. Data Source. Household data from the pooled 2003 and 2004 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) yielding nationally representative estimates for the nonelderly civilian noninstitutionalized population. Study Design. The paper examines the within-year concentration of family medical care use and the frequency with which family out-of-pocket expenditures exceeded 20 percent of family income, computed at the annual, quarterly, and monthly levels. Principal Findings. On average among families with medical care, 49 percent of all (charge-weighted) care occurred in a single month, and 63 percent occurred in a single quarter). Nationally, 27 percent of the study population experienced at least 1 month in which out-of-pocket expenditures exceeded 20 percent of income. Monthly 20 percent burden rates were highest among the poor, at 43 percent, and were close to or above 30 percent for all but the highest income group (families above four times the federal poverty line). Conclusions. Within-year spikes in health care utilization can create financial pressures missed by conventional annual burden analyses. Within-year health-related financial pressures may be especially acute among lower-income families due to low asset holdings. [source] Estimated drug use based on direct questioning and open-ended questions: responses in the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and HealthINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF METHODS IN PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH, Issue 2 2010Larry A. Kroutil Abstract Substance use surveys may use open-ended items to supplement questions about specific drugs and obtain more exhaustive information on illicit drug use. However these questions are likely to underestimate the prevalence of use of specific drugs. Little is known about the extent of such underestimation or the groups most prone to under-reporting. Using data from the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), a civilian, non-institutionalized population survey of persons aged 12 or older in the United States, we compared drug use estimates based on open-ended questions with estimates from a new set of direct questions that occurred later in the interview. For these drugs, estimates of lifetime drug use based on open-ended questions often were at least seven times lower than those based on direct questions. Among adults identified in direct questions as substance users, lower educational levels were consistently associated with non-reporting of use in the open-ended questions. Given NSDUH's large annual sample size (,67, 000 interviews), combining data across future survey years could increase our understanding of characteristics associated with non-reporting of use in open-ended questions and allow drug use trends to be extrapolated to survey years in which only open-ended question data are available. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] DNA Preservation in Skeletal Elements from the World Trade Center Disaster: Recommendations for Mass Fatality Management,JOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES, Issue 4 2009Amy Z. Mundorff M.A. Abstract:, The World Trade Center (WTC) victim identification effort highlights taphonomic influences on the degradation of DNA from victims of mass fatality incidents. This study uses a subset of the WTC-Human Remains Database to evaluate differential preservation of DNA by skeletal element. Recovery location, sex, and victim type (civilian, firefighter, or plane passenger) do not appear to influence DNA preservation. Results indicate that more intact elements, as well as elements encased in soft tissue, produced slightly higher identification rates than more fragmented remains. DNA identification rates by element type conform to previous findings, with higher rates generally found in denser, weight-bearing bones. However, smaller bones including patellae, metatarsals, and foot phalanges yielded rates comparable to both femora and tibiae. These elements can be easily sampled with a disposable scalpel, and thus reduce potential DNA contamination. These findings have implications for DNA sampling guidelines in future mass fatality incidents. [source] Selective Detection of Trace Nitroaromatic, Nitramine, and Nitrate Ester Explosive Residues Using a Three-Step Fluorimetric Sensing Process: A Tandem Turn-off, Turn-on Sensor,JOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES, Issue 6 2007Jason C. Sanchez M.S. Abstract:, Detection of trace quantities of explosive residues plays a key role in military, civilian, and counter-terrorism applications. To advance explosives sensor technology, current methods will need to become cheaper and portable while maintaining sensitivity and selectivity. The detection of common explosives including trinitrotoluene (TNT), cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine, cyclotetramethylene-tetranitramine, pentaerythritol tetranitrate, 2,4,6-trinitrophenyl-N-methylnitramine, and trinitroglycerin may be carried out using a three-step process combining "turn-off" and "turn-on" fluorimetric sensing. This process first detects nitroaromatic explosives by their quenching of green luminescence of polymetalloles (,em , 400,510 nm). The second step places down a thin film of 2,3-diaminonaphthalene (DAN) while "erasing" the polymetallole luminescence. The final step completes the reaction of the nitramines and/or nitrate esters with DAN resulting in the formation of a blue luminescent traizole complex (,em = 450 nm) providing a "turn-on" response for nitramine and nitrate ester-based explosives. Detection limits as low as 2 ng are observed. Solid-state detection of production line explosives demonstrates the applicability of this method to real world situations. This method offers a sensitive and selective detection process for a diverse group of the most common high explosives used in military and terrorist applications today. [source] The business cycle in postwar LebanonJOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2008Ghassan Dibeh Abstract The postwar business cycle in Lebanon was dominated by the exchange rate based stabilization (ERBS) program implemented by the successive postwar governments. In the early period 1993,2002, a boom-bust dynamics was generated during which the economy exhibited the well-documented stylised facts of ERBS programs. The paper develops a cyclical index (ci) for Lebanon during this period and a VAR model shows that real interest rates (rr) had a significant impact on the dynamics of the business cycle during the early ERBS period. The second period 2002,2005 was marked by a recovery generated by foreign aid given to Lebanon in the Paris II international donors' conference held in November 2002. The period ended in a recession in 2005 brought about by the assassination of Lebanon's ex-prime minister Rafic Hariri. The third phase of the business cycle was caused by the Israel,Lebanon war in the summer of 2006 which led to widespread civilian and infrastructure damage and ended a brief recovery in early 2006. Throughout the period 2002,2006, foreign aid was instrumental in the resilience of the ERBS program. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Civilian-based posttraumatic stress disorder and physical complaints: Evaluation of depression as a mediatorJOURNAL OF TRAUMATIC STRESS, Issue 4 2002Robert Miranda Jr. Abstract This study examined the role of comorbid depression in the somatic complaints of 32 individuals with civilian-based posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) while restricting the influence of detectable pathophysiology and additional psychiatric conditions. It was hypothesized that depressive symptomatology would mediate the relationship between PTSD and somatic symptom reporting. Participants were administered structured clinical interviews, a physical examination, and an electrocardiogram. Results of this study supported the hypothesis that depressive symptoms mediate the relationship between PTSD and physical complaints. These results add to a growing body of literature that suggests psychological factors play an influential role in the physical symptom reports of individuals with PTSD. [source] Law, Finance, and Politics: The Case of IndiaLAW & SOCIETY REVIEW, Issue 3 2009John Armour The liberalization of India's economy since 1991 has brought with it considerable development of its financial markets and supporting legal institutions. An influential body of economic scholarship asserts that a country's "legal origin",as a civilian or common law jurisdiction,plays an important part in determining the development of its investor protection regulations, and consequently its financial development. An alternative theory claims that the determinants of investor protection are political, rather than legal. We use the case of India to test these theories. We find little support for the idea that India's legal heritage as a common law country has been influential in speeding the path of regulatory reforms and financial development. Rather, we suggest there are complementarities between (1) India's relative success in services and software; (2) the relative strength of its financial markets for outside equity, as opposed to outside debt; and (3) the relative success of stock market regulation, as opposed to reforms of creditor rights. We conclude that political economy explanations have more traction in explaining the case of India than do theories based on "legal origins." [source] Traumatic brain injury in the United States: an epidemiologic overviewMOUNT SINAI JOURNAL OF MEDICINE: A JOURNAL OF PERSONALIZED AND TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE, Issue 2 2009Carl R. Summers PhD Abstract A basic description of severity and frequency is needed for planning healthcare delivery for any disease process. In the case of traumatic brain injury, severity is typically categorized into mild, moderate, and severe with information from a combination of clinical observation and self-report methodologies. Recent US civilian epidemiological findings measuring the frequency of mortality and morbidity of traumatic brain injury are presented, including demographic and etiological breakdowns of the data. Falls, motor vehicle accidents, and being struck by objects are the major etiologies of traumatic brain injury. US civilian and Army hospitalization trends are discussed and compared. Features of traumatic brain injuries from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom are discussed. Mt Sinai J Med 76:105,110, 2009. © 2009 Mount Sinai School of Medicine [source] Comparison of military and civilian reporting rates for smallpox vaccine adverse events,PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY AND DRUG SAFETY, Issue 6 2007A. W. McMahon MD Abstract Introduction US smallpox vaccination (SMA) started most recently in December 2002. Military and civilian personnel report adverse events (AEs) to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a surveillance system that relies on spontaneous reports. Although reported rates of probable myo/pericarditis after SMA in the literature are similar between military personnel and civilian healthcare workers, some civilian AE reporting rates after SMA appeared higher than those in the military. Objective Determine if SMA-associated reporting rates are different in civilians than in the military, considering age, sex, seriousness, and expectedness of the AE, as well as self-reporting. Methods Numerators were SMA reports in VAERS from 12/12/02 to 3/1/04. Limitations of VAERS include underreporting and lack of diagnostic confirmation. Denominators were number of military and civilian vaccinees. Results Reporting rates stratified by age and sex of serious and non-serious AEs were significantly higher in civilian than military personnel ages <55 years (rate ratios 4,27). These rate ratios decreased with increasing age. Conclusions Reporting rates in VAERS differed significantly and substantially in civilians compared to military personnel <55 years of age. Differences in stimulated passive surveillance systems, and AE reporting practices, including the ,threshold' for reporting most likely explain these findings. These results suggest that in the case of smallpox vaccine AEs, there may be systematic differences in reporting completeness between the civilian and military sectors, and that passive surveillance data should be interpreted with caution. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] QD technology and market prospects in the sectors of space exploration, biomedicine, defense, and securityPHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (C) - CURRENT TOPICS IN SOLID STATE PHYSICS, Issue 12 2008C. A. Charitidis Abstract Quantum dots (QD) are a unique subset of nanomaterials characterized by their extraordinary quantum confinement behaviour. Even though the quantum dot industry is still in its infancy with revenues now reaching $10 million, it is expected to surpass $500 million in 2009. However, in order to leverage the full potential of the QD technology, new fabrication processes must be developed to attain high detectivity and high operating temperature (HOT) photodetector devices. The Quantum Dot Infrared Photodetectors (QDIPs) possess an immense potential for civilian and military applications due to the distinct characteristics stemming from their dimensionality , which provides 3D carrier confinement and the capacity for normal-incidence detection , and their amenability to bandgap engineering , which allows tailoring the peak and cutoff wavelengths according to custom needs. The QDIPs, especially when optimized to operate at higher temperatures, can become critical components in space exploration, defence and security, optical communication, quantum computing and cryptography, and medical imaging applications. Robust and reliable solutions for these fields will command a premium position in the marketplace as by responding to the societal need for secure electronic transactions, exponentially faster data processing, and higher quality diagnostic tools. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] The Contemporary Presidency: The "Flying White House": A Travel Establishment within the Presidential BranchPRESIDENTIAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2006MICHAEL JOHN BURTON A conglomeration of civilian, military, and security offices works in concert to support presidential travel. Although domestic and international excursions are critical to a chief executive's efforts to "go public," scholars have yet to investigate the bureaucratic structure that makes travel possible. This article traces the growth and formalization of a presidential "travel establishment," from Washington's day to the present. In so doing, it challenges legalistic definitions of the "presidential branch" which focus on the Executive Office of the President (EOP), recommending instead a functional definition that would embrace a wider range of presidential personnel. The article further suggests that scholars regard the travel establishment as a partner to the EOP,the two operations maintaining institutional separation even as they coordinate parallel missions. [source] Regime change and nation building: can donors restore governance in post-conflict states?PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2005Dennis A. Rondinelli Foreign aid agencies and international assistance organisations are now heavily involved in nation building in post-conflict states. Their record of strengthening democratic governance in countries where civil war or military force replaced unpopular regimes is mixed. Experience suggests that a complex set of conditions must be created quickly in order to rebuild indigenous governance. Ensuring security, providing assistance through a transparent and coherent plan of action, coordinating donors' activities, establishing strong and legitimate national authority, strengthening democratic political processes, transferring responsibility and resources for development to a new government, stabilising the economy and strengthening social capital and human assets must all be done in quick succession. Achieving these goals requires a cadre of civilian and, sometimes, military personnel with expertise in post-conflict nation building. The frequency with which government aid programmes and international assistance organisations engage in post-conflict reconstruction also suggests the need for more explicit national and international policies and the creation of specialised nation-building agencies to undertake these difficult tasks. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The role of traumatic event history in non-medical use of prescription drugs among a nationally representative sample of US adolescentsTHE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 1 2010Jenna L. McCauley Background:, Building on previous research with adolescents that examined demographic variables and other forms of substance abuse in relation to non-medical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD), the current study examined potentially traumatic events, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), other substance use, and delinquent behavior as potential correlates of past-year non-medical use of prescription drugs. Method:, A nationally representative sample of 3,614 non-institutionalized, civilian, English-speaking adolescents (aged 12,17 years) residing in households with a telephone was selected. Demographic characteristics, traumatic event history, mental health, and substance abuse variables were assessed. NMUPD was assessed by asking if, in the past year, participants had used a prescription drug in a non-medical manner. Multivariable logistic regressions were conducted for each theoretically derived predictor set. Significant predictors from each set were then entered into a final multivariable logistic regression to determine significant predictors of past-year NMUPD. Results:, NMUPD was endorsed by 6.7% of the sample (n = 242). The final multivariable model showed that lifetime history of delinquent behavior, other forms of substance use/abuse, history of witnessed violence, and lifetime history of PTSD were significantly associated with increased likelihood of NMUPD. Conclusions: Risk reduction efforts targeting NMUPD among adolescents who have witnessed significant violence, endorsed abuse of other substances and delinquent behavior, and/or endorsed PTSD are warranted. Interventions for adolescents with history of violence exposure or PTSD, or those adjudicated for delinquent behavior, should include treatment or prevention modules that specifically address NMUPD. [source] Rural-Urban Differences in the Social Climate Surrounding Environmental Tobacco Smoke: A Report From the 2002 Social Climate Survey of Tobacco ControlTHE JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 1 2004Robert McMillen PhD ABSTRACT: Context: Although previous research has found smoking rates to be higher among residents of rural areas, few studies have investigated rural-urban differences in exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). Objective: This study contrasted the social climate surrounding ETS among Americans who resided in 5 levels of county urbanization. Design: Data were collected via telephone interviews administered to a representative sample of 3,009 civilian, noninstitutionalized adults over age 18 in the United States. Households were selected using random digit dialing procedures. Findings: Compared to residents of urban counties, rural residents reported fewer restrictions on smoking in the presence of children and lower incidences of smoking bans in households, family automobiles, work areas, convenience stores, fast-food restaurants, and restaurants. Interestingly, when rural-urban variations in knowledge and attitudes about ETS were examined, the magnitude of rural-urban differences was smaller or nonexistent for these indicators. Moreover, logistic regression models indicated that none of these rural-urban differences in knowledge and attitudes persisted after statistically controlling for region, smoking status, gender, race, age, and education factors. This suggests that the observed rural-urban differences in ETS bans could not be explained adequately by rural-urban differences in knowledge and attitudes about the dangers of ETS. Conclusions: The policy implications of this research point to a greater need in rural America for programs focusing on the restriction and elimination of ETS. They also suggest that programs focusing only on influencing the levels of ETS knowledge and attitudes among the general population may not be adequate in producing the desired change. [source] Intrinsic Toxicity of Hemoglobin: How to Counteract ItARTIFICIAL ORGANS, Issue 2 2009Jan Simoni Abstract The development of safe and effective blood substitutes is of great importance in both civilian and military medicine. The currently tested hemoglobin (Hb)-based oxygen carriers, however, have toxicity and efficacy problems. A number of unwanted effects have been observed in human trials, creating doubts about their clinical usefulness. In some subjects, vasoconstriction and decreased blood flow to the vital organs, heart attack, stroke, systemic inflammation, organ damage, and even death, have been attributed to the transfusion of these experimental products. Hb is a well-known pressor agent and strong oxidant, although the full understanding of its intrinsic toxicity is yet to be uncovered. In particular, the complete mechanism of Hb-induced vasoconstriction needs full elucidation. Knowledge of the biological events that trigger the induction of genes upon treatment with redox-active Hb, as well as its catabolism, is still incomplete. It seems that our limited knowledge of free Hb effects in vivo is the main reason for not yet having a viable substitute of human blood. The future for universal red cell substitutes is in the new-generation products that address all of Hb's intrinsic toxicity issues. [source] Social representations of democratic transition: Was the Philippine People Power a non-violent power shift or a military coup?ASIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2010Cristina Jayme MontielArticle first published online: 16 AUG 2010 This research looked at social representations of the 1986 People Power in the Philippines among Filipino civilians and the military. Using mixed qualitative,quantitative methods, the research collected military narratives, ran a survey of civilians and military personnel and reviewed newspaper accounts of People Power anniversary celebrations over 20 years. Civilians saw People Power as a strong and positive power shift, while the military viewed it as an aborted coup led by military officers that was weak and bad. The findings about the social representations of transition are linked to civilian,military social identities after 1986 and illuminate the subjective landscape of State power contests in a new democracy. [source] Recurrent herpes labialis in US children and youthCOMMUNITY DENTISTRY AND ORAL EPIDEMIOLOGY, Issue 6 2004Jay D. Shulman Abstract , Objective:, This study reports data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Study, 1988,1994 (NHANES III). Methods:, NHANES III was a complex, multistage sample of 33 994 civilian, non-institutional individuals from 19 528 households. Dentist examiners were trained to recognize, classify oral mucosal lesions to include recurrent herpes labialis (RHL). Subjects ,8 years of age were asked if they had cold sores in the past year and serologic tests for herpes virus type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2) were performed on blood of youth >12 years of age. Results:, Examinations were performed on 10 032 individuals 2,17 years of age. Overall point prevalence was 1.42% (0.69,2.15); annual prevalence in individuals 8,17 years of age was 14.77% (12.74,16.80); and serologic prevalence of HSV-1 in youth 12,17 years of age was 43.18% (38.88,47.48). When the data were subset to youth 12,17, annual prevalence for seropositives was 24.13% (20.44,27.82) compared with 16.87 (14.16,19.57) for all subjects. Approximately 25% of the seropositive youth had at least one recurrence in the past year. Conclusion:, As RHL is a recurrent infection, prevalence in a population will be related to the proportion of the population that has been infected with herpes simplex virus. When lesion-specific prevalences are cited in the literature, they should be stratified by covariates known to be associated with them. Future studies should examine RHL prevalence in infected individuals. [source] RIGHT-TO-CARRY CONCEALED HANDGUNS AND VIOLENT CRIME: CRIME CONTROL THROUGH GUN DECONTROL?,CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 3 2003TOMISLAV V. KOVANDZIC Research Summary: "Right-to-Carry" (RTC) concealed-handgun laws mandate that authorities issue concealed handgun permits to qualified applicants. The supposition by those supporting the laws is that allowing private citizens to carry concealed handguns in public can reduce violent crime by deterring prospective criminals afraid of encountering armed civilians. Critics of the laws argue that violent altercations are more likely to turn deadly when more people carry guns. Whether the laws cause violent crime to increase or to decrease has become an important public policy question, as most states have now adopted such legislation. The present study evaluates Florida's 1987 RTC law, which prior research suggests plays a key role in the RTC debate. Specifically, we use panel data for 58 Florida counties from 1980 to 2000 to examine the effects on violent crime from increases in the number of people with concealed-carry permits, rather than before-after dummy and time-trend variables used in prior research. We also address many of the methodological problems encountered in earlier RTC studies. We present numerous model specifications, and we find little evidence that increases in the number of citizens with concealed-handgun permits reduce or increase rates of violent crime. Policy Implications: The main policy implication of this research is that there appears to be little gained in the way of crime prevention by converting restrictive gun carrying laws to "shall-issue" laws, although the laws might still prove beneficial by (1) eliminating arbitrary decisions on gun permit applications, (2) encouraging gun safety, (3) making permit holders feel safer when out in public, (4) providing permit holders with a more effective means of self-defense, and (5) reducing the costs to police departments of enforcing laws prohibiting unlicensed gun carrying. [source] Psychological resilience and neurocognitive performance in a traumatized community sample,DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY, Issue 8 2010Aliza P. Wingo M.D. Abstract Background: Whether psychological resilience correlates with neurocognitive performance is largely unknown. Therefore, we assessed association between neurocognitive performance and resilience in individuals with a history of childhood abuse or trauma exposure. Methods: In this cross-sectional study of 226 highly traumatized civilians, we assessed neurocognitive performance, history of childhood abuse and other trauma exposure, and current depressive and PTSD symptoms. Resilience was defined as having ,1 trauma and no current depressive or PTSD symptoms; non-resilience as having ,1 trauma and current moderate/severe depressive or PTSD symptoms. Results: The non-resilient group had a higher percentage of unemployment (P=.006) and previous suicide attempts (P<.0001) than the resilient group. Both groups had comparable education and performance on verbal reasoning, nonverbal reasoning, and verbal memory. However, the resilient group performed better on nonverbal memory (P=.016) with an effect size of .35. Additionally, more severe childhood abuse or other trauma exposure was significantly associated with non-resilience. Better nonverbal memory was significantly associated with resilience even after adjusting for severity of childhood abuse, other trauma exposure, sex, and race using multiple logistic regression (adjusted OR=1.2; P=.017). Conclusions: We examined resilience as absence of psychopathology despite trauma exposure in a highly traumatized, low socioeconomic, urban population. Resilience was significantly associated with better nonverbal memory, a measure of ability to code, store, and visually recognize concrete and abstract pictorial stimuli. Nonverbal memory may be a proxy for emotional learning, which is often dysregulated in stress-related psychopathology, and may contribute to our understanding of resilience. Depression and Anxiety, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] War, Livelihoods and Vulnerability in Sri LankaDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2004Benedikt Korf As the number of de-stabilized regions of warfare or post-war conditions worldwide continues to grow, this article investigates how civilians survive in the context of a civil war. It analyses livelihood strategies of farmers in the war-torn areas of Sri Lanka, using an analytical framework based on a revised form of DFID's sustainable rural livelihoods approach, placing particular attention on the institutional reproduction of household capital assets in the war economy. The author delineates a three pillar model of household livelihood strategies focusing on how households (1) cope with the increased level of risk and uncertainty; (2) adjust their economic and social household assets for economic survival; and (3) use their social and political assets as livelihood strategies. Empirical evidence comes from four case study villages in the east of Sri Lanka. Although the four case studies were very close together geographically, their livelihood outcomes differed considerably depending on the very specific local political geography. The role of social and political assets is essential: while social assets (extended family networks) were important to absorb migrants, political assets (alliances with power holders) were instrumental in enabling individuals, households or economic actors to stabilize or even expand their livelihood options and opportunities. The author concludes that civilians in conflict situations are not all victims (some may also be culprits in the political economy of warfare), and that war can be both a threat and an opportunity, often at the same time. [source] Still falling short: protection and partnerships in the Lebanon emergency responseDISASTERS, Issue 4 2007David Shearer The Israeli,Hezbollah conflict in the summer of 2006, although brief, had a lasting impact on the region and prompted an intense humanitarian response. The conflict raised challenging questions for the United Nations (UN) about how to assist a middle-income yet extremely vulnerable population in a context where global and local relations are highly politicised. This paper focuses on two key questions that emerged from the humanitarian response. First, how can humanitarian agencies, and particularly the UN, improve the protection of civilians, and was what they did in Lebanon enough? Second, how can humanitarian agencies create partnerships with local actors and still remain true to core humanitarian principles when local actors are fiercely divided along confessional lines and influenced by external actors, and when some, such as Hezbollah, are parties to the conflict? This paper argues that despite the importance of protection and partnerships to the humanitarian response, their role in the UN emergency response still falls short. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||