Social Disruption and Physical Limitation Related to Quality of Life of Adolescents with Asthma

During adolescence, teenagers experience many physical, emotional, and social changes. Teenagers with chronic conditions, however, may face challenges in normal adolescent development because their illness can impact body image, independence, and peer socialization. Little is known about the effect of asthma on adolescent quality of life (QOL). In this paper, I review the existing literature on social disruption and physical limitations related to asthma and the subsequent impact on adolescent asthma QOL. In addition, adolescent issues leading to poor control of asthma symptoms and interventions to improve asthma QOL for adolescents are addressed

Ecologic Niche Modeling of Blastomyces dermatitidis in Wisconsin

Background: Blastomycosis is a potentially fatal mycosis that is acquired by inhaling infectious spores of Blastomyces dermatitidis present in the environment. The ecology of this pathogen is poorly understood, in part because it has been extremely difficult to identify the niche(s) it occupies based on culture isolation of the organism from environmental samples. Methodology/Principal Findings: We investigated the ecology of blastomycosis by performing maximum entropy modeling of exposure sites from 156 cases of human and canine blastomycosis to provide a regional-scale perspective of the geographic and ecologic distribution of B. dermatitidis in Wisconsin. Based on analysis with climatic, topographic, surface reflectance and other environmental variables, we predicted that ecologic conditions favorable for maintaining the fungus in nature occur predominantly within northern counties and counties along the western shoreline of Lake Michigan. Areas of highest predicted occurrence were often in proximity to waterways, especially in northcentral Wisconsin, where incidence of infection is highest. Ecologic conditions suitable for B. dermatitidis are present in urban and rural environments, and may differ at the extremes of distribution of the species in the state. Conclusions/Significance: Our results provide a framework for a more informed search for specific environmental factors modulating B. dermatitidis occurrence and transmission and will be useful for improving public health awareness of relativ

Why “intergenerational feminist media studies”?

Feminism and generation are live and ideologically freighted issues that are subject to a substantial amount of media engagement. The figure of the millennial and the baby boomer, for example, regularly circulate in mainstream media, often accompanied by hyperbolic and vitriolic discourses and affects of intergenerational feminist conflict. In addition, theories of feminist generation and waves have been and continue to be extensively critiqued within feminist theory. Given the compelling criticisms directed at these categories, we ask: why bother examining and foregrounding issues of generation, intergeneration, and transgeneration in feminist media studies? Whilst remaining sceptical of linearity and familial metaphors and of repeating reductive, heteronormative, and racist versions of feminist movements, we believe that the concept of generation does have critical purchase for feminist media scholars. Indeed, precisely because of the problematic ways that is it used, and the prevalence of it as a volatile, yet only too palpable, organizing category, generation is both in need of continual critical analysis, and is an important tool to be used—with care and nuance—when examining the multiple routes through which power functions in order to marginalize, reward, and oppress. Exploring both diachronic and synchronic understandings of generation, this article emphasizes the use of conjunctural analysis to excavate the specific historical conditions that impact upon and create generation. This special issue of Feminist Media Studies covers a range of media forms—film, games, digital media, television, print media, as well as practices of media production, intervention, and representation. The articles also explore how figures at particular lifestages—particularly the girl and the aging woman—are constructed relationally, and circulate, within media, with particular attention to sexuality. Throughout the issue there is an emphasis on exploring the ways in which the category of generation is mobilized in order to gloss sexism, racism, ageism, class oppression, and the effects of neoliberalism

Factors Related to Asthma Quality of Life for U.S. and Icelandic Adolescents

Purpose: Asthma affects 12% of American children and 9% of Icelandic children. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the demographic, personal, interpersonal, and illness factors that affect asthma quality of life for adolescents in the United States and Iceland. Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study included adolescents with asthma (N = 30; n = 15 U.S. adolescents; n = 15 Icelandic adolescents), ages 13-17 years, primarily recruited from pediatric practices in central Kentucky and Reykjavik, Iceland. The majority of the sample was Caucasian. U.S. adolescents (47% male; 53% female) had a mean age of 14.6 years (SD = 1.5); Icelandic adolescents (73% male; 27% female) had a mean age of 15.1 years (SD = 1.5). Seven pencil-and-paper questionnaires that measured variables including demographics, depressive symptoms, an asthma questionnaire, degree of asthma limitations, and quality of life were administered to the adolescents. Multiple regressions were used to determine predictors of asthma quality of life. Results: Higher depressive symptoms, a greater degree of social disruption due to asthma, and more frequent limitations of physical activity were predictive of a lower asthma quality of life. Although location (U.S. vs. Iceland) and gender were included in the regression model as controls, they were not significantly related to asthma quality of life. Discussion: Interventions designed to decrease depression, social disruption, and physical activity limitations may improve asthma quality of life for adolescents