Women without a Voice: The Paradox of Silence in the Works of Sandra Cisneros, Shashi Deshpande and Azar Nafisi

Women of every culture face a similar problem: loss of voice. Their lives are permeated with silence. Whether their silence results from a patriarchal society that prohibits women from asserting their identity or from a social expectation of gender roles that confine women to an expressive domain-submissive, nurturing, passive, and domestic-rather than an instrumental role where men are dominant, affective and aggressive-women share the common bond of a debilitating silence. Maria Racine, in her analysis of Janie in Zora Neale Hurston\u27s Their Eyes Were Watching God, reaffirms the pervasiveness of this bond: For women, silence has crossed every racial and cultural boundary (283). Indeed, Elaine Mar, a Chinese-American writer, in her memoir, Paper Daughter, elucidates the implications of silence for women, Like Mother I was learning to disappear. Frequently, I sought refuge with her in the basement room, in the silence of empty spaces. But I was also learning to vanish in full sight of others, retreating into myself when physical flight wasn\u27t possible. My voice withered. Silent desire parched my throat (48). Silence and loss of voice debilitate and stifle women, as they are forced to sublimate their identity in order to survive in their worlds

A Procedure for Sampling Nymphs of Saratoga Spittlebug, \u3ci\u3eAphrophora Saratogensis\u3c/i\u3e (Homoptera: Cercopidae), Using Percentage of Sample-Units Infested

A method is proposed for rapidly estimating the nymphal population of the Saratoga spittlebug on alternate host plants in young red pine plantations. The method is based on an assumption that the number of nymphs per sample unit is distributed within an infested plantation according to the negative binomial distribution. This method can be 1.1-11.0 times more efficient depending upon the density of plants and the nymphal population level

An untold story: African American women founders of private and charter high schools

The purpose of the study is to provide a leadership profile of selected African American (AA) women founders of private and charter high schools. To determine this profile, the research was designed to provide a defined exploration of the founders\u27 leadership style, background, career, religious and ethical influences, entrepreneurship, community involvement, and their experiences with mentoring and helping traditions. This study also provides a demographic description of the schools they founded. This study details the untold story of a group of AA women who have affected the lives of many children. A literature review and adaptation of Yael Hellman\u27s study on Jewish women executives were the sources of the research questions. Five qualified professionals in the field of education validated both instruments. A purposive sample of 10 AA women founders\u27 was obtained by snowball sampling and all consented to participate voluntarily. Data were from two sources, a larger primary written survey, and a smaller personal interview. A profile of the African American woman founder of a secondary private and charter high school emerged. The family backgrounds includes: (a) raised in the southern U.S. (as are her parents), (b) born between 1940 and 1960 into a family of 6 siblings in which she was the middle child, (c) attended a public high school. These leaders have received a master\u27s degree in education, carry the title CEO, and have been with her present company for 15 years. Research indicates this group of women leaders believes that her AA identity and her female gender affected her choice of career and career advancement. These founders influence to start a school derived from a family member or friend, and their discontent with the education children at the prior school at which they worked were receiving. They believe the best preparation for the position was in their work as a teacher. Of significance is the finding these founders of private and charter high schools have high religious commitment (attend church more than once a week and is actively involved in church activities), and the church influence began as a child

Time between Initial Screening Mammogram and Diagnostic Biopsy: Do Racial Disparities Exist?

Many factors contibute to health care disparities experience by racial/ethnic minority populations. Despite an increase in the number of screening tests such as mammograms, there are disparities in between White women and Black women in follow-up for abnormal results. More information is needed for health educators to be able to address this problem. Thus, the objective of this research is to determine if there is a difference in the number of days from initial positive breast cancer screening of women (with a BI-RAD of 4 or greater) to biopsy, between White women and Black women at a community hospital in southeast Michigan. Methods: Medical charts from Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan of n = 68 women, ages 40 to 60, who received a screening mammogram in 2012 at with a BI-RAD of 4 or greater and a follow-up biopsy, were reviewed. Of the n = 68 charts reviewed, n = 34 were from White female patients and n = 34 were from Black female patients. Results: Of 68 charts examined, the mean number of days from screening mammogram until diagnostic biopsy for Black women was 21. In White women, the mean number of days was 16. The difference in the number of days was highest for Black women over the age of 50. Conclusions: Differences between the average time interval between initial screening and follow-up for Black women and White women were found revealing a need for health educators to focus on follow-up initiations specifically for Black women.Master'sSchool of Health Professions and Studies: Health EducationUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/117769/1/WilsonS.pd

Increasing HPV Vaccination Rates Using Social Marketing Strategies

The human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually-transmitted infection (STI). Approximately 20 million Americans between the ages of 15 and 49 years currently have HPV with \u3e 6.2 million new HPV infections estimated to occur each year. Yet, HPV vaccination rates remain relatively low. More than 40 strains of HPV are transmitted through genital contact during vaginal, anal, or oral sex and can infect males and females. In addition to causing genital warts, HPV is associated with cervical, vulvar, vaginal, anus, penile, and oropharyngeal cancers. In women, the most prominent type of cancer is cervical with \u3e 12,000 diagnoses each year and 4,000 expected to die. In Mississippi, a total of 1,829 HPV-associated cancers were diagnosed between 2004 and 2008, with an average of 33,369 cases in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2012a). In 2000, the estimated cost of management of HPV for individuals between the age of 15 and 24 years totaled $2.9 billion. The aim of this study was to increase vaccination rates using social marketing strategies. The study was guided by an integrative approach using education sessions and pretest/posttest design to evaluate knowledge of HPV. Research data were obtained from 25 participants between the ages of 18 and 20 years. According to the CDC (2012c), males and females between the ages of 9 and 26 years should be offered the Gardasil® vaccine to achieve disease prevention. Research findings revealed increasing knowledge about HPV caused an increase in the number of students that received the vaccine after the intervention

Messages of Meaning: African American Ethnic-racial Socialization Practices of Fathers and Paternal Definitions of Academic Success

This research explores the unique experiences of African American fathers, their ethnic-racial socialization practices, definitions of academic success and the intersectionality of the three concepts. Through a semi-structured interview, the present study explored how African American fathers socialize their children to understand how being Black fits into the larger context of society. The primary focus is to explore what types of racial socialization messages are used, how they are delivered, and if/how the fathers’ academic expectations are a part of the conversations. Implications for how school systems can utilize African American fathers’ perspectives in supporting positive home-school collaboration and promoting culturally responsive experiences in the school setting are discussed

Identifying Transfer of Care Gaps: Electronic Health Record Capture of Perioperative Handoff Communications

Transitions in patient care are held together by interdisciplinary handoff communications intended to coordinate the patient\u27s ongoing care requirements. Patients with complexity in care encumber the transfer of care process requiring a higher level of care coordination between the interdisciplinary team (Coleman, 2003; Naylor et al., 2004). While the literature is abundant on the characteristics and quality of handoff communications, it is limited on the requirements of what data is necessary for ongoing care following transfer communications (Galatzan & Carrington, 2018). This dissertation explores the verbal information transferred during Operating Room (OR) to Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) nursing handoff communications and whether the data is captured in the electronic health record (EHR) to represent the information critical to ongoing patient care and care planning. the study builds on the Kennedy Integrated Theoretical Framework (KITF) (Kennedy, 2012) integrating cognition theory, patterns of knowledge theory, and clinical communication space theory to support the human-technology characteristics within perioperative handoffs. Evidence of wisdom was present in the KITF in addition to elements of non-verbal communication patterns emerging from shared common ground contributed to the framework\u27s expansion. to understand the contributions of the perioperative nursing interface terminology, the Perioperative Nursing Data Set (PNDS), makes to postsurgical care transitions, the study examines nursing diagnoses, interventions, interim outcomes and goals relationships to the handoff data communicated between OR and PACU Registered Nurses. Study findings revealed a complex fragmented process of verbal communications and electronic documentation for the handoff process. While the EHR is prominent in data procurement for the handoff process, the design of handoff artifacts (e.g., paper, electronic) significantly impact the value of information received. Incomplete handoff tools or missing EHR data adds to a cycle of information decay while contributing to increase cognitive load and potentiating opportunities for information and knowledge loss. the absence of nursing diagnoses in the automation of the PNDS challenges the integrity of the language within the documentation platform and raises considerations for hierarchical representation within interface terminologies. This study reinforces literature to reconsider user requirements in the design and functionality of healthcare information technology (HIT) to enable data and information flow and preserve knowledge development. the inclusion of mobile technology, cognitive support aids including clinical decision support tools, and other HIT will further enable the effectiveness of transfer communication, knowledge development, and the safety of ongoing patient care