There’s more to us than this: A qualitative study of Black young adults’ perceptions of media portrayals of HIV

The extent to which the targeted group attends to and is engaged by HIV/STI prevention messages is one component of effective health communication. Through an empirical examination of the cumulative perceptions of HIV/STI prevention media messages targeted to Black youth and young adults, this qualitative study privileges the voices of Black/ African American young adults as a group that is frequently targeted in HIV prevention campaigns. Semi-structured interviews with 23 Black/African American young adults yielded key themes that suggest barriers to effective health communication. Traditionally, health promotion has advocated for targeted messages as a means to increase risk perception and promote behavior change. For some study participants, the unintended consequences of this approach with HIV prevention included a perception that cumulatively media messages (1) portrayed HIV as a “Black disease; (2) blamed Black people for the HIV epidemic; and (3) fostered negative judgments about Black people. Participants described mixed feelings because they perceived that the messages simultaneously increased awareness for HIV prevention in the Black community as well as perpetuated stigma of the Black community. The findings challenge existing notions about targeting health communication particularly when focusing on stigmatized illnesses

Resources for Evaluation of Summarization Techniques

We report on two corpora to be used in the evaluation of component systems for the tasks of (1) linear segmentation of text and (2) summary-directed sentence extraction. We present characteristics of the corpora, methods used in the collection of user judgments, and an overview of the application of the corpora to evaluating the component system. Finally, we discuss the problems and issues with construction of the test set which apply broadly to the construction of evaluation resources for language technologies.Comment: LaTeX source, 5 pages, US Letter, uses lrec98.st

SOCIAL SITUATION, AGE AND GENDER ASSIGNMENT TO ENGLISH NOUNS:. A STUDY OF SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE

A series of tests was developed for the purpose ofdetermining the likelihood that individuals would assign gender to: 1) norms when observed and heard individually as a part of a list of words; 2) sets of two norms which reflect definite contrast sets; and 3) groups of three norms which imply the existence ofa specific social situation in a particular social institution. Age of the respondent was a significant variable in the assignment of gender. The study was guided by the Whorfian Hypothesis, particularly the idea that grammatical characteristics of language facilitate or make more difficult· various nonlinguistic behaviors. Two hundred and fifty-six (256) students were chosen and tested in selected grades of a southwest Missouri school system including a community college. Two fifth grade, two seventh grade, two eleventh grade and two college classes were utilized

Infant Preferences for Two Properties of Infant-Directed Speech

This study examined preferences for prosodic and structural properties of infant-directed speech (IDS) in 20 infants, 11 girls and 9 boys, ages 0;11;3 to 0;13;0 (mean age 0;11;28). It was hypothesized that year-old infants would demonstrate a preference for infant-directed structure (IS) over adult-directed structure (AS) regardless of prosody, and that infants would demonstrate no preference for either infant-directed prosody (IP) or adult-directed prosody (AP) regardless of structure. Listening times to passages were compared across infants for four conditions: IS/IP; IS/AP; AS/IP; AS/AP. Results indicate a non-significant but noticeable trend toward a preference for infant-directed structure. In addition, weak correlations were found between vocabulary size and strength of preference for adult-directed prosody, and between age and strength of preference for adult-directed prosody. A non-significant but noticeable interaction was found between prosody and structure and vocabulary. Overall, infants appear to prefer listening to infant-directed structure to adult-directed structure; more advanced language learners show a stronger preference for adult-directed prosody than do their less advanced age-mates; older infants show a stronger preference for adult-directed prosody than do younger infants; and preference for infant-directed structure (but not infant-directed prosody) depends on vocabulary level

An evaluation of the care of displaced elderly evacuated during the San Bernardino mountain firestorms of Fall 2003

This project reflects on the observations and experiences that occurred during the firestorms in Southern California in October and November 2003. It specifically focused on elders during this disaster as a vulnerable population. Recommendations are made for the role of the nurse in preparation and planning for evacuation of the elderly

Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law

Examines the unique aspects and limitations of legal education, as part of a series of reports from the foundation's Preparation for the Professions Program