Disability and the Muslim Perspective: An Introduction for Rehabilitation and Health Care Providers

[Excerpt] This monograph offers an introduction to and overview of a broad spectrum and diversity of Muslims with disabilities and chronic health conditions who come from a variety of backgrounds and circumstances. The perspective provided here also highlights larger issues of human rights. Given the current immigration trends in the United States, it is critical that service providers work across cultures and systems to help Muslims access disability and health care services and resources in their communities. Over the years, service professionals and researchers have come to recognize that individuals with disabilities and health conditions do not always hold the same health beliefs, understandings, objectives, and priorities as the service providers they encounter. The result is an intercultural gap in understanding between clients and providers that may result in a poor treatment or rehabilitative outcome. This monograph will use the terms client, consumer, and patient interchangeably to denote those seeking disability services, medical services, or both. We emphasize that to bridge the gap between Muslim service users and mainstream U.S. service systems, service providers in disability and rehabilitation systems need to increase their sensitivity and ability to accommodate differences between their services and the needs of their clients

A goal programming methodology for multiobjective optimization of distributed energy hubs operation

This paper addresses the problem of optimal energy flow management in multicarrier energy networks in the presence of interconnected energy hubs. The overall problem is here formalized by a nonlinear constrained multiobjective optimization problem and solved by a goal attainment based methodology. The application of this solution approach allows the analyst to identify the optimal operation state of the distributed energy hubs which ensures an effective and reliable operation of the multicarrier energy network in spite of large variations of load demands and energy prices. Simulation results obtained on the 30 bus IEEE test network are presented and discussed in order to demonstrate the significance and the validity of the proposed method

Preserving Family: Themes from a Qualitative Study of Kin Caregivers

This article presents themes from a qualitative study of 58 African American female kinship caregivers in San Francisco. Core concepts that emerged describe various paths along which children move into kin homes, and caregivers\u27 mixed emotional reactions to becoming surrogate parents. Women also discussed multiple family roles they assumed after taking in children. Responses highlight three primary reasons for becoming caregivers that center on providing for and protecting these children—particularly from the perceived threat of the public foster care system—and ultimately preserving the family unit. Paradoxically, caregivers\u27 reasons mirror the stated goals of the public foster care system, which they view as a threat to family stability. We discuss the problems of implementing practice and policy recommendations for permanency and family preservation and how to bridge the gap between the deeply held negative beliefs of African American caregivers towards the public system and begin to build trust

Where the Rainbow Ends: Trying to Find a Pot of Gold for Same-Sex Couples in Pennsylvania

The article provides an overview of Pennsylvania law regarding same-sex couples, including an examination of domestic partner rights, adoption rights, and estate planning procedures

An exploratory case study of Olympiad students’ attitudes towards and passion for science

Much is known about high school students’ attitudes towards science but there is almost no research on what passion for science might look like and how it might be manifested. This exploratory case study took advantage of a unique group of highly gifted science students participating in the Australian Science Olympiad (n=69) to explore their attitudes towards school science and science as presented in the Olympiad summer camp. In particular the role the summer camp might play in igniting the students’ passion for science was a focus of the research. Data were collected through a two tiered survey of students’ attitudes towards school science, an evaluative survey of the Olympiad summer camp and in-depth interviews with six participants. Findings indicated that Olympiad students generally had positive attitudes towards school science with most selecting science as one of their favourite subjects. However, an underlying ambivalence about school science was noted in the data. In contrast, the Olympiad summer camp transformed students’ positive attitudes into passion for science. Seven themes emerged from the data providing a foundation for a model of what academic passion for science looks like