How Hospice Social Workers Make Sense of Religious and Cultural Diversity as it Relates to Death and Dying

Hospice care has become a popular care concept among medical fields and with patients and family members who are terminally ill or have entered into the final stages of their life. Cultural competency is important to the social work profession and it is especially crucial to respecting the culture of a client and his/her loved ones at the end of life. Within the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro, local hospice social workers encounter the culture and religions of various Asian, African, Middle-Eastern and Latino clients. I specifically sought to analyze data from qualitative, semi-structured interviews with six local hospice social workers with the intent of evaluating the education and trainings that local hospice social workers receive in order to best equip them to assist their clients of diverse cultures and religions in relation to death and dying. I found that most of the education and training that the six local hospice social workers that were interviewed have received has been from interpreters, the clients or the internet. The following sections will explain the study and explore the themes in which the hospice social workers were educated; themes include: what is defined as best practice in hospice; clients as teachers of cultural competence; barriers, challenges and opportunities; and recommendations for education and training on religions and cultures

The window, the mirror, and the stone: A reassessment of the roles of mimesis and opsis in critical theory

This thesis develops three interpretive classifications based on mimetic and opsitic verbal structures. First, the classification of the window is described. Second, the aspects of the mirror are discussed and illustrated. Third, the features of the stone are analyzed and clarified; The theoretical description of mimetic discourse is based on M. H. Abrams\u27 pivotal book on romantic literature, The Mirror and the Lamp. This thesis expands upon his critical classifications for mimetic literature and adds an additional classification to deal with opsitic verbal structures, namely the stone. ; The window is shown to include discourse that depicts the world or universe in an objective manner; Next the classification of the mirror is discussed, showing the function of this discourse is to achieve persuasion through the process of identification. ; The final classification of the stone is shown to be that discourse that defies traditional methods of interpretation due to its opaque qualities; Finally, the concept of historicity is discussed as an intersection between the classifications. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

How Hospice Social Workers Make Sense of Religious and Cultural Diversity as it Relates to Death and Dying

Hospice care has become a popular care concept among medical fields and with patients and family members who are terminally ill or have entered into the final stages of their life. Cultural competency is important to the social work profession and it is especially crucial to respecting the culture of a client and his/her loved ones at the end of life. Within the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro, local hospice social workers encounter the culture and religions of various Asian, African, Middle-Eastern and Latino clients. I specifically sought to analyze data from qualitative, semi-structured interviews with six local hospice social workers with the intent of evaluating the education and trainings that local hospice social workers receive in order to best equip them to assist their clients of diverse cultures and religions in relation to death and dying. I found that most of the education and training that the six local hospice social workers that were interviewed have received has been from interpreters, the clients or the internet. The following sections will explain the study and explore the themes in which the hospice social workers were educated; themes include: what is defined as best practice in hospice; clients as teachers of cultural competence; barriers, challenges and opportunities; and recommendations for education and training on religions and cultures

Thrifty Food Plan, 2006

The Thrifty Food Plan (TFP), a fundamental part of the U.S. food guidance system and the basis for maximum food stamp allotments, has been revised by USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP), with assistance from USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), Economic Research Service (ERS), and Agricultural Research Service (ARS). The TFP provides a representative healthful and minimal cost meal plan that shows how a nutritious diet may be achieved with limited resources. The Plan assumes that all purchased food is consumed at home. The TFP was last revised in 1999. The newly revised (2006) TFP differs from, and improves upon, the previous TFP in a number of ways. The 2006 TFP: • Is based on the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans as well as the 2005 MyPyramid Food Guidance System. • Uses the prices low-income people paid for many foods. • Uses the latest data on food consumption, nutrient content, and food prices: the 2001- 2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and 2001-2002 Food Price Database. • Offers a more realistic reflection of the time available for food preparation, especially with increased expectations for work in assistance programs. Hence, it allows more prepared foods and requires somewhat fewer preparations from scratch. Although different from the previous TFP, the revised TFP is similar in one important respect: It is set at the same inflation-adjusted cost as the previous TFP. CNPP determined it was possible, for the 2001-2002 period, to obtain a healthful diet meeting current nutritional standards at a cost equal to the previous TFP’s cost.Thrifty Food Plan, USDA Food Plans, Diet Quality, Food Stamps, Cost of Food, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty,

The Division of Childcare, Sexual Intimacy, and Relationship Quality in Couples

Increasingly, both mothers and fathers are expected to play an equal role in child rearing. Nonetheless, we know little about how childcare arrangements affect couples’ sexual intimacy and relationship quality. Research has focused on the effect of the division of paid labor and housework on couples’ relationships - finding that egalitarianism is problematic for sexual intimacy, relationship quality, and relationship stability. These findings, nonetheless, come almost universally from studies utilizing decades old data and which fail to examine the division of childcare. In this study we update this work by utilizing data from the 2006 Marital and Relationship Study (MARS) (N = 974) to examine how the division of childcare affects the relationship quality and sexual intimacy of heterosexual couples in the United States. Results indicate that men’s performance of childcare is generally associated with more satisfaction with the division of childcare, more satisfying sexual relationships, and higher quality relationships. Importantly, we find that egalitarian childcare arrangements have positive consequences for both men and women. These findings contribute to a growing body of research that challenges the costs of egalitarianism and indicates instead that egalitarianism is associated with higher quality, more intimate relationships than gender traditional arrangements

Full Body Loading for Small Exercise Devices Project

Protecting astronauts' spine, hip, and lower body musculoskeletal strength will be critical to safely and efficiently perform physically demanding vehicle egress, exploration, and habitat building activities necessary to expand human presence in the solar system. Functionally limiting decrements in musculoskeletal health are likely during Mars proving-ground and Earth-independent missions given extended transit times and the vehicle limitations for exercise devices (low-mass, small volume). Most small exercise device concepts are designed with single-cable loading, which inhibits the ability to perform full body exercises requiring two-point loading at the shoulders. Shoulder loading is critical to protect spine, hip, and lower body musculoskeletal strength. We propose a novel low-mass, low-maintenance, and rapid deploy pulley-based system that can attach to a single-cable small exercise device to enable two-point loading at the shoulders. This attachment could protect astronauts' health and save cost, space, and energy during all phases of the Journey to Mars