Review of \u3cem\u3eSandinista Narratives: Religion, Sandinismo, and Emotions in the Making of the Nicaraguan Insurrection and Revolution\u3c/em\u3e

A review of Jean-Pierre Reed\u27s Sandinista Narratives: Religion, Sandinismo, and Emotions in the Making of the Nicaraguan Insurrection and Revolution

Minnesota: Individual State Report - State Level Field Network Study of the Implementation of the Affordable Care Act

This report is part of a series of 21 state and regional studies examining the rollout of the ACA. The national network -- with 36 states and 61 researchers -- is led by the Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York, the Brookings Institution, and the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania.By the end of the second enrollment period in 2015, MNsure (the insurance marketplace) reported that more than 300,000 individuals had enrolled in health insurance coverage through the marketplace since its launch. Eighty percent of this new coverage is due to growth in public program enrollment, with the remaining coverage due to QHP (qualified health plans) enrollment. Between September 30, 2013, and May 1, 2014, the number of uninsured Minnesotans fell by 180,500 -- a reduction of 40.6 percent. Minnesotans saved $30 million on their insurance premiums through tax credits in 2014.While the increase in health insurance coverage was driven particularly by an increase in the number of Minnesotans enrolled in public health insurance programs, enrollment in private health insurance plans has also increased. As MNsure moves forward, it is important to maintain a strong private QHP market, as those premiums significantly contribute to the marketplace's revenues

Appropriate Care for Veterans Who Suffer from Military Sexual Trauma

The Veteran’s Administration is committed to providing care for veterans and giving them access to programs to help them recover from trauma. Military sexual trauma (MST) has been defined as the harassment and physical assault of a sexual nature while serving in the military. The complex nature of trauma and health concerns that result from sexual assault may not be successful in treating veterans with MST. This study was designed to understand the lived experience of a veteran who had suffered MST and sought mental health treatment to support them to live a fulfilling life. Through semi-structured interviews, the study used a generic qualitative approach to gain insight into participants’ perceptions, perspectives, and experiences with the Warrior Renew Program. The study’s theoretical framework was based on Bandura’s self-efficacy theory. The data collected were analyzed using thematic analysis. All 18 participants reported experiencing societal or personal shame as a barrier to seeking help, with some also mentioning life-changing experiences and satisfaction. The analysis revealed both empowering and self-destructive themes related to seeking help, coping, and improving relationships, physical health, and anxiety. The findings could inform the development of training and programs for healthcare providers and military personnel, and ultimately minimize the occurrence of MST

Family Portraits: Contemporary Women Novelists and the Nuclear Family.

A society whose economy becomes increasingly dependent on commodity fetishism cultivates obsessive materialistic desire in its subjects. The demand for mass consumerism buoys reification, a mania wherein human beings are analogous to goods and vice versa. Successful reification depends upon hegemonic apparatuses: social, legal, and political agencies of dominant ideology. Reification is perhaps most fully realized in the form of fetishized human relationships. In the United States today, the most coercive and unassailable hegemonic apparatus is the institutionalized nuclear family, a social and legal affiliation between individuals so dogmatically fetishized as to have become compulsory. Contemporary American women writers are asserting opposition to this institution. I begin by suggesting that Leslie Marmon Silko\u27s use of magical realism in the novel Almanac of the Dead serves as a narrative device meant to disrupt the continuity of contemporary rationalization and resist the forces of assimilation, including the fetishization of the nuclear family. I proceed to examine Gloria Naylor\u27s Linden Hills and Toni Cade Bombara\u27s The Salt Eaters, suggesting that both entreat readers to recognize the impending desecration of the African American community that will come of allowing cultural ideals to be displaced by capitalist values and the myth of individualism. I suggest that each novel utilizes the disembodied female voice to demonstrate that the persistence of patriarchy will undermine efforts to resist reification, and that the nuclear family, completely naturalized within capitalistic hegemony, is the means by which patriarchy is perpetuated. Finally, I conclude with an analysis of Carolyn Chute\u27s Merry Men, suggesting that Chute draws explicit connections between disenfranchisement, heterosexism and the tradition of the nuclear family. Within their novels, these writers critique our compulsion to fetishize the nuclear family. They conclude that the idealized nuclear family is an oppressive and ultimately unattainable archetype staunchly preserved primarily for its serviceability to capitalism. All four writers suggest that just as capitalism reifies human beings, so too the hegemonic operation of herding them into nuclear families alienates and estranges them. Thus it is that each of their novels concludes with the self-destruction of the community depicted within its pages

Foundations to Algebraic Mastery

Realizing that Algebra 1 is a gatekeeper to not only higher mathematics, but STEM careers in general (Blanchard & Muller, 2015; Stoelinga & Lynn, 2013), it is imperative that our students master the content matter. To this end, four essential components to ensuring success for Algebra 1 students have been identified: (a) basic skill development, (b) computational ease, (c) step-by-step scaffolding, and (d) the extensive use of the Explain-Practice-Assess (EPA) Strategy (Holmes, Spence, Finn, & Ingram, 2017). In this article, each of these four components is described in detail with accompanying examples. These examples model evidenced-based practices and provide a very useful guide for algebra teachers in their own classrooms

Conquering Worrisome Word Problems – Algebra Success

High school students can struggle with word problems in upper level math classes. Causes for this struggle could include lower reading comprehension, limited mathematic vocabulary, and difficulty changing words to algebraic expressions. This article proposes three techniques to help teachers instruct these struggling students that include (a) organization by difficulty of comprehension and computation (b) scaffolding and (c) utilizing the Explain, Practice and Assess (EPA) strategy

Factors that Influence the Sociological Construct of Adulthood in Adults with Moderate Intellectual Disabilities (ID): An ID Case Study

The most common criteria used to evaluate successful transition into adulthood for young adults have included obtaining employment and establishing autonomous non-relative social support networks (correlate to community involvement). Hence, employment and community involvement are critical in the transition to adulthood for all young adults, including those with intellectual disabilities (ID). However, with respect to those with ID, the construct of Adulthood is multi-faceted and murky. Hence, this exploratory study seeks to determine factors (measured by the Transition Planning Inventory-2) that impact the sociological construct of Adulthood in young adults with ID and to model pictorially the relationship between them. Results indicate for adults with ID, vocational purpose, community involvement, and wellness explain 47% of the variance in the sociological construct of Adulthood. Factor analysis reveals that vocational purpose is characterized by employment and self determination; community involvement by leisure activity, community participation, and interpersonal relationships; and wellness by health and daily living

University academic writing for international students: A usage-based approach

This resource is designed specifically to meet the academic writing needs of international students studying at universities in the United States. The materials in the book can be covered within a 14-week semester, but each chapter or section may also be used independently.Based on a series of needs analysis projects, this resource provides an overview of major rhetorical patterns of writing that are commonly used in university settings in the United States. These commonly required genres include descriptive and evaluative summaries, short essays, comparison and contrast assignments, literature reviews, descriptive reports, and proposals. The resource includes chapters that address the structure and purpose of these more common genres, including an awareness of the ways that the target audience and situation should shape the writing of each

Effectiveness of different databases in identifying studies for systematic reviews: experience from the WHO systematic review of maternal morbidity and mortality

BACKGROUND: Failure to be comprehensive can distort the results of a systematic review. Conversely, extensive searches may yield unmanageable number of citations of which only few may be relevant. Knowledge of usefulness of each source of information may help to tailor search strategies in systematic reviews. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of prevalence/incidence of maternal mortality and morbidities from 1997 to 2002. The search strategy included electronic databases, hand searching, screening of reference lists, congress abstract books, contacting experts active in the field and web sites from less developed countries. We evaluated the effectiveness of each source of data and discuss limitations and implications for future research on this topic. RESULTS: Electronic databases identified 64098 different citations of which 2093 were included. Additionally 487 citations were included from other sources. MEDLINE had the highest yield identifying about 62% of the included citations. BIOSIS was the most precise with 13.2% of screened citations included. Considering electronic citations alone (2093), almost 20% were identified uniquely by MEDLINE (400), 7.4% uniquely by EMBASE (154), and 5.6% uniquely by LILACS (117). About 60% of the electronic citations included were identified by two or more databases. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis confirms the need for extending the search to other sources beyond well-known electronic databases in systematic reviews of maternal mortality and morbidity prevalence/incidence. These include regional databases such as LILACS and other topic specific sources such as hand searching of relevant journals not indexed in electronic databases. Guidelines for search strategies for prevalence/incidence studies need to be developed

Bridging Alone: Religious Conservatism, Marital Homogamy, and Voluntary Association Membership

This study characterizes social insularity of religiously conservative American married couples by examining patterns of voluntary associationmembership. Constructing a dataset of 3938 marital dyads from the second wave of the National Survey of Families and Households, the author investigates whether conservative religious homogamy encourages membership in religious voluntary groups and discourages membership in secular voluntary groups. Results indicate that couples’ shared affiliation with conservative denominations, paired with beliefs in biblical authority and inerrancy, increases the likelihood of religious group membership for husbands and wives and reduces the likelihood of secular group membership for wives, but not for husbands. The social insularity of conservative religious groups appears to be reinforced by homogamy—particularly by wives who share faith with husbands