ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY, Issue 10 2007
Kimberly B. Ulett B.S
Doppler estimation of pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) from tricuspid regurgitation velocity is a simple approach to the detection of pulmonary hypertension but may be influenced by right ventricular stroke volume. We sought the clinical utility of incorporating Doppler calculation of pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) into determination of pulmonary hypertension in 578 consecutive patients with tricuspid regurgitation. Right atrial pressure was estimated from vena caval dimensions and collapsibility. Pulmonary hypertension was classified on the basis of a) PASP >35mmHg, b) age-/gender normalized PASP, c) PVR >2 Wood units. The mean PASP was 40 ± 13 mmHg and PVR was 1.9 ± 0.8 Wood units. Standard PASP identified pulmonary hypertension in 58%, compared with 36% by age-/gender normalized PASP (P < 0.0001), and 31% by PVR (P < 0.0001). Of patients who had pulmonary hypertension by PASP, 33% were reclassified as normal on the basis of PVR and 6% were reclassified from normal to pulmonary hypertension. PVR is easy to incorporate into a standard echo exam, and identifies a small group with normal PASP as having PAH, and a larger group of apparently increased PASP as normal. [source]

SIZE OF HOUSEHOLD FIREARM COLLECTIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUBCULTURES AND GENDER,

CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 3 2007
BRIAN R. WYANT
Recent work (Cook and Ludwig, 2003) has linked local firearm density to increased burglary victimization risk. The current work investigates within-household gun density or household firearm collection size. Previous work has suggested two subcultures of gun owners: protection-minded and sport- or hunting-minded. It also has identified gender gaps in reporting any household guns and in the number reported. None of the earlier work, however, has controlled for selection into gun-owning household status. This limitation raises potential questions about earlier findings. The current research controls for selection. If the two subcultures thesis is correct, protection-minded owners should report smaller household firearm collections. The expected impact is observed in one national survey and is partially replicated in a second. Gender gaps seemed more independent than previously suggested. This study is the first to provide evidence of two partially overlapping subcultures of gun owners even after controlling for selection into gun-owning household status. Practical implications for burglary risk may exist. [source]

THE CONTEXT OF MARRIAGE AND CRIME: GENDER, THE PROPENSITY TO MARRY, AND OFFENDING IN EARLY ADULTHOOD,

CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 1 2007
RYAN D. KING
Marriage is central to theoretical debates over stability and change in criminal offending over the life course. Yet, unlike other social ties such as employment, marriage is distinct in that it cannot be randomly assigned in survey research to more definitively assess causal effects of marriage on offending. As a result, key questions remain as to whether different individual propensities toward marriage shape its salience as a deterrent institution. Building on these issues, the current research has three objectives. First, we use a propensity score matching approach to estimate causal effects of marriage on crime in early adulthood. Second, we assess sex differences in the effects of marriage on offending. Although both marriage and offending are highly gendered phenomena, prior work typically focuses on males. Third, we examine whether one's propensity to marry conditions the deterrent capacity of marriage. Results show that marriage suppresses offending for males, even when accounting for their likelihood to marry. Furthermore, males who are least likely to marry seem to benefit most from this institution. The influence of marriage on crime is less robust for females, where marriage reduces crime only for those with moderate propensities to marry. We discuss these findings in the context of recent debates concerning gender, criminal offending, and the life course. [source]

GENDER, STREETLIFE AND CRIMINAL RETALIATION,

CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 4 2004
CHRISTOPHER W. MULLINS
Recent work in criminology has highlighted the central role of retaliation in shaping criminal violence in America's inner cities. Most of this work, however, has been based on male offenders. It has also failed to consider whether and how gender structures payback in real-life settings and circumstances. In this paper, we analyze in-depth, semi-structured interviews with forty men and twelve women who recently engaged in one or more episodes of retaliatory violence to examine the ways in which gender shapes vengeance. We hope to provide an insider's view of how gender frames the context and dynamics of retaliatory events for both men and women. [source]

GENDER, STRUCTURAL DISADVANTAGE, AND URBAN CRIME: DO MACROSOCIAL VARIABLES ALSO EXPLAIN FEMALE OFFENDING RATES?,

CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 2 2000
DARRELL STEFFENSMEIER
Building on prior macrosocial-crime research that sought to explain either total crime rates or male rates, this study links female offending rates to structural characteristics of U.S. cities. Specifically, we go beyond previous research by: (1) gender disaggregating the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) index-crime rates (homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft) across U.S. cities; (2) focusing explicitly on the effects of structural disadvantage variables on the index-offending rates of females; and (3) comparing the effects of the structural variables on female rates with those for male rates. Alternative measures of structural disadvantage are used to provide more theoretically appropriate indicators, such as gender-specific poverty and joblessness, and controls are included for age structure and structural variables related to offending. The main finding is consistent and powerful: The structural sources of high levels of female offending resemble closely those influencing male offending, but the effects tend to be stronger on male offending rates. [source]

PUTTING VIOLENCE IN ITS PLACE: THE INFLUENCE OF RACE, ETHNICITY, GENDER, AND PLACE ON THE RISK FOR VIOLENCE,

CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 1 2001
JANET L. LAURITSEN
Research Summary: This research shows that non-Latino black, non-Latino white, and Latino males and females in the U.S. experience significantly different levels of stranger and non-stranger violence, and that these forms of non-lethal violence are especially pronounced in areas with high levels of socioeconomic disadvantage. Many of the differences between these groups are eliminated once community and other individual characteristics are taken into account. Policy Implications: The results suggest that victimization resources should be geographically targeted at places with high levels of poverty and single-parent families, and that the most stable institutions within these communities be drawn upon to deliver information about victimization prevention and services. [source]

GENDER-BASED RISK AVERSION AND RETIREMENT ASSET ALLOCATION

ECONOMIC INQUIRY, Issue 1 2010
KATHLEEN ARANO
This research examines whether women have higher risk aversion than men as demonstrated by their retirement asset allocation. The analysis is extended to investigate how retirement asset investment decisions are made in married households. Initial results suggest controlling for demographic, income, and wealth differences lead to no significant difference in the proportion of retirement assets held in stocks between women and male faculty. For married households with joint investment decision making, results indicate that gender differences are a significant factor in explaining individual retirement asset allocation. Our estimates imply that women faculty are more risk averse than their male spouse. (JEL J16, G11, D10) [source]

GENDER AND THE AMERICAN TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

ADDICTION, Issue 11 2008
JESSICA WARNER
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

THE INTERSECTIONS OF GENDER AND GENERATION IN ALBANIAN MIGRATION, REMITTANCES AND TRANSNATIONAL CARE

GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 1 2009
Russell King
ABSTRACT. The Albanian case represents the most dramatic instance of post-communist migration: about one million Albanians, a quarter of the country's total population, are now living abroad, most of them in Greece and Italy, with the UK becoming increasingly popular since the late 1990s. This paper draws on three research projects based on fieldwork in Italy, Greece, the UK and Albania. These projects have involved in-depth interviews with Albanian migrants in several cities, as well as with migrant-sending households in different parts of Albania. In this paper we draw out those findings which shed light on the intersections of gender and generations in three aspects of the migration process: the emigration itself, the sending and receiving of remittances, and the care of family members (mainly the migrants' elderly parents) who remain in Albania. Theoretically, we draw on the notion of ,gendered geographies of power' and on how spatial change and separation through migration reshapes gender and generational relations. We find that, at all stages of the migration, Albanian migrants are faced with conflicting and confusing models of gender, behavioural and generational norms, as well as unresolved questions about their legal status and the likely economic, social and political developments in Albania, which make their future life plans uncertain. Legal barriers often prevent migrants and their families from enjoying the kinds of transnational family lives they would like. [source]

THE POWER EQUITY GUIDE: ATTENDING TO GENDER IN FAMILY THERAPY

JOURNAL OF MARITAL AND FAMILY THERAPY, Issue 2 2000
Shelley A. Haddock
In the past two decades, feminist scholars have challenged the field of family therapy to incorporate the organizing principle of gender in its theory, practice, and training. In this paper, we introduce a training, research, and therapeutic tool that provides guidance for addressing or observing gender and power differentials in the practic of family therapy. As a training tool, the Power Equity Guide helps trainees to translate their theoretical understanding of feminist principles into specific behaviors in therapy. Researchers and supervisors can use the Power Equity Guide to evaluate the practice of gender-informed family therapy. We also provide specific suggestions for its use by trainers, supervisors, therapists, and researchers. [source]

GENDER AND PSYCHOANALYTIC METHOD

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 4 2002
JOAN RAPHAEL-LEFF
First page of article [source]

ARCHITECTURE, GENDER AND POLITICS: THE VILLA IMPERIALE AT PESARO

ART HISTORY, Issue 5 2006
CATHERINE KING
Factors addressed by art historians in interpreting and explaining the unconventional design of the new Villa Imperiale at Pesaro by Girolamo Genga (c1529-38) have included functional questions of topography and aspect, the court year, court ceremonies and theatre, and its relation to the older villa beside it, as well as stylistic explanations associated with ,Mannerism.' However the new villa was inscribed on its façade as having been built by Leonora Gonzaga Duchess of Urbino for her husband Duke Francesco Maria I. This essay discusses gender decorum to understand more about the interplay of factors underlying the choice of its peculiar design. The evidence of contemporary texts addressing the proper feminine appearance and behaviour of the Duchess and other noblewomen is considered in relation to the unusually enclosed and private themes characterising the plan and elevation of this villa. [source]

GENDER AND ETHICS COMMITTEES: WHERE'S THE ,DIFFERENT VOICE'?

BIOETHICS, Issue 3 2006
DONNA DICKENSON
ABSTRACT Prominent international and national ethics commissions such as the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee rarely achieve anything remotely resembling gender equality, although local research and clinical ethics committees are somewhat more egalitarian. Under-representation of women is particularly troubling when the subject matter of modern bioethics so disproportionately concerns women's bodies, and when such committees claim to derive ,universal' standards. Are women missing from many ethics committees because of relatively straightforward, if discriminatory, demographic factors? Or are the methods of analysis and styles of ethics to which these bodies are committed somehow ,anti-female'? It has been argued, for example, that there is a ,different voice' in ethical reasoning, not confined to women but more representative of female experience. Similarly, some feminist writers, such as Evelyn Fox Keller and Donna Haraway, have asked difficult epistemological questions about the dominant ,masculine paradigm' in science. Perhaps the dominant paradigm in ethics committee deliberation is similarly gendered? This article provides a preliminary survey of women's representation on ethics committees in eastern and western Europe, a critical analysis of the supposed ,masculinism' of the principlist approach, and a case example in which a ,different voice' did indeed make a difference. [source]

FEMININITY AND ITS UNCONSCIOUS ,SHADOWS': GENDER AND GENERATIVE IDENTITY IN THE AGE OF BIOTECHNOLOGY

BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY, Issue 4 2007
Joan Raphael-Leff
abstract This paper locates contemporary conceptualizations of ,femininity' in the context of current sociocultural changes. It is argued that today's biotechnological opportunities have immense significance for both psychic interiority and the lived experience of gender, in that they invalidate ,eternal' limitations of sex, procreation and embodiment. An explanatory concept, generative identity, is postulated, to account psychologically for the increasing diversity of reproductive patterns. This concept is proposed as a fourth constituent of gender, alongside the reformulated constituents of embodiment, representation and desire. Derived from this is a further concept of generative agency, the expression of the psychic construction of the self as potential pro-creator, shaped in childhood by the negotiation of reproductive restrictions of sex, generation, genesis and generativity, and the ,genitive' issues of arbitrariness, finitude and irreversibility of time. Disturbances in generative identity manifest as unconscious ,shadows' expressed as inhibitions to creative agency, compulsively driven preoccupations with the lived sexed body, and/or concrete enactments which may utilize biotechnological innovations to actualize unconscious fantasies in reality. [source]

Female Gender and the Risk of Rupture of Congenital Aneurysmal Fistula in Adults

CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE, Issue 1 2008
Salah A.M. Said MD
ABSTRACT Aims., To delineate the risk factors for rupture of congenital aneurysmal fistulas in adult patients. Methods., We conducted a literature search of the Medline database using Pubmed search interface to identify reports dealing with rupture of congenital aneurysmal fistulas in an adult population. The search included the English and non-English languages between 1963 and 2005. Results., Fourteen adult patients (12 females) with serious and life-threatening complications secondary to aneurysmal fistulas were reported. Mean age was 62.9 years. The ethnic origins of these 14 patients were 9 Asian and 5 Caucasian. Most patients have had no other cardiac malformations. Five patients had a history of hypertension. One patient was asymptomatic. In 13 symptomatic patients, the clinical presentation was cardiac tamponade, pericardial effusion, syncope, heart failure, chest pain, dyspnea, fatigue, distal thromboembolic events with infarction, shock, and/or sudden death. Aneurysmal fistulas were identified in 10 patients; of these 6 were of the saccular type. Rupture occurred in 9 patients (8 females and 1 male). Eleven patients were treated surgically with 1 late death. Two male subjects experienced sudden unexpected cardiac death. Conclusion., Rupture of congenital aneurysmal fistulas occurred more often in females. Identified risk factors for rupture, hemopericardium, tamponade, and death were among others saccular aneurysm, Asian ethnic race, origin of the aneurysmal fistulas from the left coronary artery and a history of hypertension may play a role. In this article, we present a literature review of congenital aneurysmal fistulas associated with or without rupture and a case report of a woman with unruptured aneurysmal fistula. [source]

Brain Natriuretic Peptide and Diastolic Dysfunction in the Elderly: Influence of Gender

CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE, Issue 2 2005
Chanwit Roongsritong MD
Diastolic heart failure is common in the elderly, particularly women. Previous studies on the value of brain natriuretic peptide in diastolic dysfunction have been largely limited to male subjects. The authors found that female gender, in addition to diastolic function, is an independent predictor of brain natriuretic peptide levels in the elderly without systolic ventricular dysfunction. The authors' data indicate that an optimal threshold of brain natriuretic peptide for detecting diastolic dysfunction should be qender-specific. [source]

P02 Analysis of coupled patch test reactions to nickel, cobalt and chromate

CONTACT DERMATITIS, Issue 3 2004
Janice Hegewald
Concomitant sensitizations to Nickel, Cobalt and Chromate are often observed among patch test patients. However, the reasons for being sensitized to two or more of these substances are not completely understood. Examination of IVDK (http://www.ivdk.org) patch test results with multivariate procedures has been conducted to further elucidate the mechanisms involved with these sensitizations and potential exposure factors that may have led to the concomitant sensitizations. Gender, age, occupational dermatitis, and construction work were considered and examined with multivariate logistic regression models with the dependent response variable being concurrent reactions to a metal pair versus no reactions. In addition to the aforementioned anamnestic data, examination of a poly-sensitizations variable (reactions to 1, 2, or 3 standard series allergens other than Nickel, Cobalt or Chromate) provided information regarding general susceptibility to positive patch test reactions. Combined reactions to Cobalt and Chromate were strongly linked to construction work (OR = 11.23 (7.46, 16.90)) and occupational dermatitis. Female patch test patients had a higher odds of a positive patch test reaction to both Nickel and Cobalt (OR = 4.73 (3.81, 5.87)). Sensitization to other, unrelated standard series substances was associated with concurrent reactions to all of the metal pairs. The association between construction work and Cobalt-Chromate reactions corresponds with the hypothesis that cement exposures lead to cobalt-chromate sensitizations. Individual susceptibility to delayed-type sensitizations, as represented by the poly-sensitization variable, also appears to be associated with coupled sensitizations to metals and warrants further examination. [source]

Gender and Ethnic Diversity Among UK Corporate Boards

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, Issue 2 2007
Stephen Brammer
This paper investigates the ethnic and gender diversity of the corporate board of UK companies, placing particular emphasis on links to board size and industry characteristics. We employ a novel dataset that covers a large sample of UK PLCs and describes a director's gender, ethnicity and position held. We find both ethnic and gender diversity to be very limited, and that diversity is somewhat less pronounced among executive positions. We find significant cross-sector variation in gender diversity, with an above average prevalence of women in Retail, Utilities, Media and Banking, while such variation in ethnic diversity is considerably less pronounced. Our evidence suggests that a close proximity to final consumers plays a more significant role in shaping board diversity than does the female presence among the industry's workforce. We argue that this shows that board diversity is influenced by a firm's external business environment and particularly an imperative to reflect corresponding diversity among its customers. [source]

Longing for the Kollektiv: Gender, Power, and Residential Schools in Central Siberia

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 4 2005
Alexia Bloch
Interpretations of post-Soviet subjectivities have tended to emphasize the ways in which subjects experience these with a sense of liberation from a monolithic socialist state; however, local responses to post-Soviet forms of power have varied widely. In the case of indigenous Siberians in the 1990s, an older generation of Evenk women expressed positive feelings about their experience as students in the Soviet-era residential schools that continue to shape their subjectivity in the post-Soviet present. Evenk subjectivities, as with those of other indigenous Siberians, have been significantly formed through the institution of the residential school and, by extension, through a range of interactions with state power as it has been locally remade and interpreted in the 1990s. In this article, I explore the widespread nostalgia associated with the residential school. Drawing on the narratives of elderly Evenk women, I argue that such expressions of Evenk nostalgia for the socialist era are a form of critique of the neoliberal logics emerging in Russia today. In this respect, Evenk women's accounts allow us to explore negotiations of power in a post-Soviet era and to examine how ideologies shape conceptions of self and the social order more broadly. [source]

Gender and the Politics of Voice: Colonial Modernity and Classical Music in South India

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2003
Amanda Weidman
First page of article [source]

Gender and Agricultural Imagery: Pesticide Advertisements in the 21st Century Agricultural Transition

CULTURE, AGRICULTURE, FOOD & ENVIRONMENT, Issue 1 2002
Assistant Professor Margaret Kroma
First page of article [source]

Caring in Context: Four Feminist Theories on Gender and Education

CURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 1 2003
Audrey Thompson
The purpose of this article is to put the problematic claims made for educational caring in context by indicating how three competing feminist analyses have addressed the question of gender inequity. Neither from the liberal perspective offered by socialization theory nor from the leftist perspectives offered by structural and deconstructive analyses can caring be considered an adequate solution to educational inequity. Indeed, because "caring" as theorized in gender difference theory turns upon specifically Western, white, middle,class, and heterosexual assumptions about gender and femininity, it risks contributing to patterns of educational exclusion. To understand both the promise and the limitations of gender difference theory, it is necessary to evaluate that theory in the context of other influential educational feminist theories. [source]

Prevalence and predictors of recurrence of major depressive disorder in the adult population

ACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 3 2010
F. Hardeveld
Hardeveld F, Spijker J, De Graaf R, Nolen WA, Beekman ATF. Prevalence and predictors of recurrence of major depressive disorder in the adult population. Objective:, Knowledge of the risk of recurrence after recovery of a major depressive disorder (MDD) is of clinical and scientific importance. The purpose of this paper was to provide a systematic review of the prevalence and predictors of recurrence of MDD. Method:, Studies were searched in Medline en PsychINFO using the search terms ,recur*', ,relaps*', ,depress*', ,predict*' and course. Results:, Recurrence of MDD in specialised mental healthcare settings is high (60% after 5 years, 67% after 10 years and 85% after 15 years) and seems lower in the general population (35% after 15 years). Number of previous episodes and subclinical residual symptoms appear to be the most important predictors. Gender, civil status and socioeconomic status seem not related to the recurrence of MDD. Conclusion:, Clinical factors seem the most important predictors of recurrence. Data from studies performed in the general population and primary care on the recurrent course of MDD are scarce. [source]

Gender differences in obsessive,compulsive symptom dimensions

DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY, Issue 10 2008
Javier Labad M.D.
Abstract The aim of our study was to assess the role of gender in OCD symptom dimensions with a multivariate analysis while controlling for history of tic disorders and age at onset of OCD. One hundred and eighty-six consecutive outpatients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of OCD were interviewed. Yale-Brown Obsessive,Compulsive Scale (YBOC-S), YBOC-S Symptom Checklist, and Hamilton Depression and Anxiety Scales were administered to all patients. Lifetime history of tic disorders was assessed with the tic inventory section of the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale. Age at onset of OCD was assessed by direct interview. Statistical analysis was carried out through logistic regression to calculate adjusted female:male odds ratios (OR) for each dimension. A relationship was found between gender and two main OCD dimensions: contamination/cleaning (higher in females; female:male OR=2.02, P=0.03) and sexual/religious (lower in females; female:male OR=0.41, P=0.03). We did not find gender differences in the aggressive/checking, symmetry/ordering, or hoarding dimensions. We also found a greater history of tic disorders in those patients with symptoms from the symmetry/ordering, dimension (P<0.01). Both symmetry/ordering and sexual/religious dimensions were associated with an earlier age at onset of OCD (P<0.05). Gender is a variable that plays a role in the expression of OCD, particularly the contamination/cleaning and sexual/religious dimensions. Our results underscore the need to examine the relationship between OCD dimensions and clinical variables such as gender, tics, age at onset and severity of the disorder to improve the identification of OCD subtypes. Depression and Anxiety 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

The relationship between quality of life and levels of hopelessness and depression in palliative care

DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY, Issue 9 2008
Kyriaki Mystakidou M.D., Ph.D.
Abstract There is growing interest in the psychological distress and quality of life of cancer patients. The aim of this study was to compare the responses of 102 advanced cancer patients on a quality of life scale (as measured by the SF12) with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), as well as the impact of depression and hopelessness on quality of life. Significant associations were found between gender (P=.027), performance status (P=.003), opioids (P=.002), depression (P<.0005), and hopelessness (P<.0005) with the SF12-Mental Component Score (MCS). Gender (P=.07), metastasis (P=.001), opioids (P=.0005), and education (P=.045) correlated significantly with SF12-Physical Component Score (PCS). In the prediction of MCS, the dimensions of age, hopelessness, gender, and performance status were statistically significantly high (P<.0005), explaining 48% of variance. For PCS, the predictor variables were education, metastasis, and opioids (25% of variance). Quality of life, in this patient population, was predicted by the level of hopelessness and patients' demographic and clinical characteristics. Depression and Anxiety. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Recent time trends in levels of self-reported anxiety, mental health service use and suicidal behaviour in Stockholm

ACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 1 2010
K. Kosidou
Kosidou K, Magnusson C, Mittendorfer-Rutz E, Hallqvist J, Gumpert CH, Idrizbegovic S, Dal H, Dalman C. Recent time trends in levels of self-reported anxiety, mental health service use and suicidal behaviour in Stockholm. Objective:, To investigate recent time trends in several indicators of mental ill-health and the patterning of these indicators between genders and younger vs. older individuals in Stockholm County. Method:, Several indicators were used; self-reported anxiety from the Swedish Survey of Living Conditions, information on psychiatric in-patient and out-patient care, attempted and completed suicides from national and regional registers. Gender- and age-specific trends were compared for the time period of 1997,2006. Results:, Self-reported anxiety and psychiatric service use increased among young individuals of both genders, while attempted suicides increased only among young women. By contrast, these indicators decreased or remained stable in the older age group from year 2001 and onwards. Conclusion:, Our data indicate a rising, and highly prevalent, mental ill-health among the young in Stockholm County, a region representative of urbanized, secular Western societies. [source]

Interferon Alfa-2b or Not 2b?

DERMATOLOGIC SURGERY, Issue 1 2007
Significant Differences Exist in the Decision-Making Process between Melanoma Patients Who Accept or Decline High-Dose Adjuvant Interferon Alfa-2b Treatment
BACKGROUND Patients with thick (Breslow >4 mm) primary melanoma and/or regional nodal metastasis have a high risk of tumor recurrence. High-dose adjuvant interferon (IFN) alfa-2b offers ,10% improvement in relapse-free survival and overall survival with significant toxicity. OBJECTIVE The objective was to determine which prognostic factors and patient characteristics are significant in the decision to undergo IFN therapy. METHODS Of 781 patients who underwent sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy, 135 of 781 (17.3%) had positive SLN or thick melanomas and were informed of a ,50% risk of recurrence/disease-related mortality and offered IFN. Telephone surveys delineated reasons behind patients' decisions to accept IFN. RESULTS Acceptors, 60 of 135 (45%), decided to take IFN alfa-2b whereas 75 of 135 (55%) declined. Being female (OR, 2.4; 95% CI, 1.17,5.03; p=.017) and positive SLN status (OR, 2.2; 95% CI, 1.01,4.97; p=.048) were strongly associated with patients who chose IFN. Acceptors of IFN were younger, more influenced by physicians, and less affected by depression and side effect profile (p<.05 for all). Decliners were more concerned by strained relationships with family and social life (p<.05). CONCLUSIONS Gender and positive SLN were predictive of high-risk melanoma patients' acceptance of IFN treatment. Physician insight into melanoma patients' therapeutic decision-making process can guide patients through this difficult disease. [source]

Gender, Caste and Matchmaking in Kerala: A Rationale for Dowry

DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2008
Praveena Kodoth
ABSTRACT The matrilineal castes of northern Kerala consider dowry demeaning and resort to it only in ,exceptional' circumstances. In local discourse, dowry is transacted when women are considered ,old' by the standards of the marriage market, where over-age is a condition reached usually on account of what is considered a deficit of a normative conception of femininity. Dowry is practised openly only by poor and socially vulnerable households, as the relatively affluent could mask dowry with hidden compensations. This article explores the ways in which gender mediates matchmaking and generates a residual category of women for whom dowry is openly negotiated. Open negotiation on the margins of the marriage market expose the terms of exchange in ,respectable' society, where matchmaking strategies reveal the emphasis placed on conjugality and on caste in the social construction of women's interests and identity. Up to the mid-twentieth century, matrilineal women derived their identity from their natal families. The political economy of marriage in Kerala brought a new emphasis to bear on conjugality and on caste, which generated new restrictions on women and produced a rationale for dowry. [source]

Gender, Vulnerability, and the Experts: Responding to the Maldives Tsunami

DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 5 2007
Emma Fulu
ABSTRACT This article examines the initial response by national and international agencies to gender issues during the aftermath of the Maldives tsunami, arguing that it was, in general, inadequate. Some agencies took a gender blind approach, ignoring different impacts on men and women, as well as the effects of complex gender relations on relief and recovery efforts. Other agencies paid greater attention to gender relations in their response but tended to focus exclusively on the universal category of the ,vulnerable woman' requiring special assistance, whilst at the same time ignoring men's vulnerabilities. This article argues that such language entrenched women as victims, excluding them from leadership and decision-making roles and as such served to reinforce and re-inscribe women's trauma. It is suggested that it is partly because of the nature of international bureaucracies and the fact that this disaster drew foreign ,experts' from around the world that the response neglected or over-simplified gender issues. [source]

Gender, Traditional Authority, and the Politics of Rural Reform in South Africa

DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2002
Haripriya Rangan
The new South African Constitution, together with later policies and legislation, affirm a commitment to gender rights that is incompatible with the formal recognition afforded to unelected traditional authorities. This contradiction is particularly evident in the case of land reform in many rural areas, where women's right of access to land is denied through the practice of customary law. This article illustrates the ways in which these constitutional contradictions play out with particular intensity in the ,former homelands' through the example of a conflict over land use in Buffelspruit, Mpumalanga province. There, a number of women who had been granted informal access to communal land for the purposes of subsistence cultivation had their rights revoked by the traditional authority. Despite desperate protests, they continue to be marginalized in terms of access to land, while their male counterparts appropriate communal land for commercial farming and cattle grazing. Drawing on this protest, we argue that current South African practice in relation to the pressing issue of gender equity in land reform represents a politics of accommodation and evasion that tends to reinforce gender biases in rural development, and in so doing, undermines the prospects for genuinely radical transformation of the instituted geographies and institutionalized practices bequeathed by the apartheid regime. [source]