A comparative survey of job prospects for the period 1991-1996

How discouraging is the job market for young scientists these days? It seems that most scientists who have tried to land a job in· recent years can tell you, unambiguously, Very. Are prospects bleaker for some experimental psychologists than for others? To us, it subjectively seemed so. In an effort to answer this question more rigorously. we analyzed issues of the APS Observer Employment Bulletin, published by the American Psychological Society, from 1991-1996. Admittedly, the number of classified ads for jobs in a specific category is only one index of the job prospects for that category, but it is a start

Environmental Sociology and the Legal Calculation of Uncertainty and Precaution

In the face of perceived environmental threats, especially from climate change, environmental sociology has become increasingly focused on uncertainty and precaution. Various contributors to the sociological literature (for example, Furedi, Ewald, and Shaw) offer useful insights into the way uncertainty and precaution are being formulated in regard to environmental risk, particularly the risk of climate change. Their insights can be complemented by a different set of insights, into the nitty-gritty of the complex legal mechanisms being forged in common-law countries to guide institutional and individual actors as to how the law calculates risk, particularly by formulating a technical legal device, ‘the precautionary principle’. This paper, in addressing a small element of this lacuna in the impressive sociological literature about environmental risks, focuses on legal deliberations of the risks of climate change in one region of Australia, the Gippsland coast in Victoria

Does the use of ‘the public’ in some debates about environmental decision making properly reflect the different publics involved in the decision making process?

The focus of this paper is a distinction between the public-in-general and publics-in- particular. It first considers Mike Michael’s (2009) argument, focused on the practice of science, that the public-in-general is far too blunt an instrument, then it adopts Michael’s schema to the analysis of debates about environmental decision making, in order to argue that the different publics involved in this decision making might be better analysed and described in terms of their particularity. Secondly, it criticises some contributions to debates about the role of lay legal advocates in environmental decision making for relying too heavily upon a notion of the public-in-general. And thirdly, by way of enhancing their approach, it discusses the advantages of focusing upon particular publics of environmental governance

Insights into How HIAs are Characterized in the Press: Findings from a Media Analysis of Widely Circulated United States Newspapers

Background: Health impact assessments (HIAs) are burgeoning tools in the policy arena, where media plays an important role by focusing attention on issues, informing the public, and influencing positions. Examining how media portrays HIAs is critical to understanding HIAs in the policy context. Methods: This study considered how widely circulated, U.S. newspapers represent HIAs. After searching newspaper databases, we used a qualitative document analysis method consisting of open and axial coding to examine specific phrases of HIA depictions. Results: In coding over 1,000 unique phrases from the 62 documents generated in our search, we found an uptick in HIA-related publications since 2010. Coding these documents identified 46 distinct codes across 10 different themes. The two most prominent HIA-centered themes focused on HIA engagement and the HIA setting. While themes of policy and science, health determinants, and explanations of HIAs were also frequently featured, specific mentions of projected impacts, HIA processes, HIA values, and health outcomes were less prevalent. Conclusion: HIA media portrayals warrant further inquiry by researchers and practitioners. Focusing on how media portrays HIAs is consistent with several HIA steps. It is also important for a broader strategy to educate stakeholders about HIAs and to understand HIAs’ utility. HIA practitioners should develop and implement guidelines for media interaction and tracking that encourage practitioners to seek additional media attention and to focus such attention on health impacts and outcomes, HIA recommendations, and HIA values. Building on our work, researchers should examine HIA media portrayals beyond the context of this study

Transfer of heart rate feedback training to reduce heart rate response to laboratory tasks

Researchers have demonstrated that individuals can successfully reduce their heart rate (HR) response to a stressor when provided with heart rate feedback. However, it is unclear whether individuals can transfer HR reduction skills to stressors not used during HR feedback training. The present study used a multiple baseline, single subject design to examine the transfer of HR feedback training among six individuals. Participants were provided with HR feedback training during the presentation of a videogame, a mental arithmetic challenge, and a hand grip task until the participants reduced their HR to within 4 bpm of their resting HR or until they completed three 2-hour training sessions. The participants\u27 ability to reduce HR responses to the three training tasks with no HR feedback was assessed during an immediate post-training period, which followed training on each task. The participants\u27 ability to reduce HR responses to the training tasks and a speech task was assessed during short delay (i.e., 1--2 days) and long delay (1--2 weeks) post-training sessions. Overall, participants demonstrated that during HR feedback training, they could successfully reduce their HR and generally could maintain this reduction in HR to the training task during an immediate post-training assessment when HR was not present. However, individuals were not able to reduce their HR responses to tasks during the short delay and long delay post training sessions and they were unable to transfer HR reduction skills to a novel task (i.e., the speech task). In general, blood pressure responses to the tasks during the post-training sessions were equivalent to pre-training blood pressure levels. Individuals demonstrated consistent performance levels during the videogame and hand grip tasks, and increasing performance levels during the mental arithmetic task. Additional research is needed to examine whether providing motivation (e.g., monetary rewards) during post-training sessions or teaching specific HR reducing skills (e.g., diaphragmatic breathing) might enhance the transfer of HR feedback training and the reduction of HR responses to any number of tasks

Insights into How HIAs are Characterized in the Press: Findings from a Media Analysis of Widely Circulated United States Newspapers

Background: Health impact assessments (HIAs) are burgeoning tools in the policy process, where the media plays a critical role by focusing attention on issues, informing consumers, and influencing positions. Examining how media portrays HIAs is critical to understanding HIAs in the policy context. Methods: This study considered how widely circulated, U.S. newspapers represent HIAs. After searching newspaper databases, we used a qualitative document analysis method consisting of open and axial coding to examine specific phrases of HIA depictions. Results: In coding over 1,000 unique phrases from the 62 documents generated in our search, we found an uptick in HIA-related publications since 2010. Coding these documents identified 46 distinct codes across 10 different themes. The two most prominent HIA-centered themes focused on HIA engagement and the HIA setting. While themes of policy and science, health determinants, and explanations of HIAs were also frequently featured, specific mentions of projected impacts, HIA processes, HIA values, and health outcomes were less prevalent. Conclusions: HIA media portrayals warrant further inquiry from researchers and practitioners. Focusing on how media portrays HIAs is consistent with several HIA steps. It is also important for a broader strategy to educate stakeholders about HIAs and to understand HIAs’ utility. HIA practitioners should develop and implement guidelines for media interaction and tracking that encourage practitioners to seek additional media attention and to focus such attention on health impacts and outcomes, HIA recommendations, and HIA values. Building on our work, researchers should examine HIA media portrayals beyond the context of this study

The determination of bioactives using multidimensional separation and detection systems

This project was focused on the development of platform technology for the separation and detection of complex samples. The samples investigated included roasted coffee beans, opiate alkaloids and amino acids

Overcoming Marginalization and Discovering Identity through Literacy in Representative Works of Multi-Ethnic Literature

In a study of multicultural literature, the dominance of ignorance and prejudice in propagating and perpetuating oppression and marginalization of others is all too common, as is the denial or suppression of the identity of decolonized peoples. We even see the rewriting of history in favor of those in power; whereas the ideas of the oppressed are suppressed, as is the truth. Furthermore, the African writer Chinua Achebe "has spoken of the imperative need for writers to help change the way the colonized world was seen, to tell their own stories, to wage 'a battle for the mind with colonialism' by 're-educating' readers" (qtd. in Boehmer 189). From the perspective of this thesis, there is far too much in common in the negative treatment of the oppressed, whether by slavery or colonialism and its after-effects. In both, however, we see literature as a common and important tool in coping with and overcoming the abuse and oppression faced by the marginalized. Examples abound of the power of literacy and literature in overcoming oppression from the American slave autobiography, post-slavery literary depictions of racism in the Jim Crow era, and the postcolonialism of India. This thesis examines three seemingly disparate postcolonial scenarios from the common angle of the power of the word as revealed in examining this literature from multicultural and transnational views

Disparities in Administrative Pediatric Asthma Prevalence in Clark County

Objective: Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases affecting young children nationally and globally. Asthma affects more than 25 million people in the nation, of which 6 million are children. Lifetime asthma prevalence for children in Nevada is 11.5% (CDC, 2016). This is likely an underestimate due to a large undocumented Hispanic population. In Clark County School District (CCSD) during the 2016-2017 school year, 20,235 students (8%) listed asthma in school records as a health concern. Asthma burden varies by sociodemographic group with highest rates documented among Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, and pediatric populations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers a National Asthma Control Plan that provides statewide recommendations, yet Nevada is not included due to federal funding limitations for the inclusion of new states. There have been few studies in the state of Nevada that specifically address asthma prevalence and the impact of the condition on school achievement measures in Clark County. The literature is conflicting regarding the disease impact on school GPA and other standardized school test measures. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of self or proxy reported health status on school absenteeism and GPA measures among Clark County School District (CCSD) students enrolled during the 2016-2017 academic school year. Methods: Administrative and health record data were acquired from Clark County School District for the 2016-2017 school year. The relationship between health status, school achievement measures, and absenteeism in Clark County will be assessed using linear models. Results: Significant relationships between health status and gender, grade level, and race/ethnicity were found (p management of the condition among school aged children