Goals Of Association Research Articles

Physical Therapist Practice and the Role of Diagnostic Imaging

For healthcare providers involved in the management of patients with musculoskeletal disorders, the ability to order diagnostic imaging is a beneficial adjunct to screening for medical referral and differential diagnosis. A trial of conservative treatment, such as physical therapy, is often recommended prior to the use of imaging in many treatment guidelines for the management of musculoskeletal conditions. In the United States, physical therapists are becoming more autonomous and can practice some degree of direct access in 48 states and Washington, DC. Referral for imaging privileges could increase the effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare delivery, particularly in combination with direct access management. This clinical commentary proposes that, given the American Physical Therapy Association's goal to have physical therapists as primary care musculoskeletal specialists of choice, it would be beneficial for physical therapists to have imaging privileges in their practice. The purpose of this commentary is 3-fold: (1) to make a case for the use of imaging privileges by physical therapists, using a historical perspective; (2) to discuss the barriers preventing physical therapists from having this privilege; and (3) to offer suggestions on strategies and guidelines to facilitate the appropriate inclusion of referral for imaging privileges in physical therapist practice. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2011;41(11):829-837. doi:10.2519/jospt.2011.3556.

Glucose control in korean immigrants with type 2 diabetes.

Despite the rising incidence of type 2 diabetes in Korean immigrants, little is known about glucose control in these individuals. This descriptive study examined factors influencing glucose control in Korean immigrants with type 2 diabetes. Participants were 143 Korean immigrants with type 2 diabetes who completed questionnaires, a finger stick blood test for glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), and anthropometric measures. The mean HbA1c level was 7.6 % (SD = 1.5; range = 5.6 to 12.5). Less than half of the participants (41.3%) met the American Diabetes Association's goal of less than 7%. After adjusting for demographic and health variables, family diet support, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), the duration of diabetes, the number of diabetic medications, and age significantly influenced glucose control. Findings support the positive role of family involvement in diabetes management. Patients with long-standing diabetes, higher WHR, and more diabetic medications deserve special attention because they tend to have higher HbA1c levels.

Apple Growers' Associations in Northwestern India: Emergence, Success, and Limitations in the Context of State-Society Interactions

Apple growers' associations in northwestern Himalayas have played an important role in the transition from subsistence agriculture to commercial horticulture, experienced by the state of Himachal Pradesh in the last three decades. This paper is a case study of an association, explaining its emergence and successful functioning in terms of the historically specific and privileged relationship with the state. Furthermore, the convergence between the association's goals and the state's imperatives can only be understood in light of the sociopolitical and geographic reality of the region, which have made horticulture, particularly apple production, an economically and culturally viable development option. Finally, the paper analyzes both the successes of the association in overcoming entrenched problems long faced by apple growers, as well as its not-so successful record in promoting broader social and environmental goals, the key to the sustainability of horticulture in the region.

Alberta making strides in mixedwood management

Driven by issues of economics, productivity, biodiversity and climate change, mixedwood management is becoming increasingly attractive. For silviculture to embrace and capitalize on natural stand dynamics, complex processes and interactions must be understood. To facilitate focused, applied research, ten Alberta forest companies have joined forces to cooperatively advance the science and management of boreal aspen/white spruce mixedwood forests. Members of the Mixedwood Management Association have committed collective research funds to develop and test practices that will sustain fibre supply, biodiversity, social and ecological values in Alberta's mixedwood forests. Forest industry members include Ainsworth Engineered Canada LP., Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc., Canadian Forest Products Ltd., Daishowa-Marubeni International Ltd., Footner Forest Products Ltd., Millar Western Forest Products Ltd., Tolko Industries Ltd., Slave Lake Pulp/Alberta Plywood Ltd., Vanderwell Contractors (1971) Ltd. and Weyerhaeuser Company Ltd. The Alberta government and the University of Alberta are supporting partners in the Association. The Association's goals are to increase knowledge of aspen/white spruce mixed forests in the areas of growth and yield, crop planning, monitoring, understory protection and decision support tools. This paper highlights some of the Association-sponsored research projects. Key words: Alberta, Mixedwood Management Association, research, growth and yield, crop plans

Using Data Analysis Exercises to Teach Research in Sociology of Aging Online: An Examination of Student Satisfaction

The present study represents an evaluation of the implementation of the integration of the American Sociological Association's (ASA) Integrating Data Analysis Project into 2 online offerings of an undergraduate sociology of aging course. This program was developed in response to concerns that students did not understand the complex relationships between theory, research, and substantive topics within the discipline. The association's goal was to encourage curricular change in sociology. Then it was to share the experiences in sociology with other social science disciplines that might also benefit from introducing quantitative literacy components into their curricula. Results of the analysis reveal that, contrary to the beliefs of many, the students in these 2 courses found these modules to be beneficial in helping them to better understand the empirical nature of sociology. Many students even expressed an interest in participating in future research projects in sociology and/or other disciplines. We concluded that the students were not overly anxious about the quantitative literacy components of the course. Also, including online data analysis strategies using publicly available data and the complimentary software available at the sites offering these data represent cost and time-effective methods of introducing quantitative literacy into the aging studies classroom.

Foster Parent Associations: Advocacy, Support, and Empowerment

Foster parenting in the United States dates back over 150 years, but it was not until the late 1960s that the National Foster Parent Association (NFPA) was created. This article describes the factors that led to its birth, and the subsequent internal and external influences on its development, intentions and accomplishments. This case example examines dilemmas for this and other foster parent associations regarding membership, funding, advocacy, and outcomes, and recommends approaches to strengthen congruence between a foster parent association's goals and impact.

The ADA Perspective

The American Dental Association (ADA) has long relied on available scientific evidence in its commitment to use credible scientific data and analyses in policy-making, and its communications with the dental profession and the public. The evidence-based dentistry (EBD) process is a systematic approach that reviews and publishes the evidence relevant to specific clinical questions. The goal of this process is to help practitioners provide patients with quality oral health care. The ADA has developed a strategic plan of EBD initiatives and activities in order to increase the knowledge base and improve educational programs; to encourage significant collaboration on EBD-related issues from interested organizations, specialty groups, and various outside agencies; and to increasingly derive the best scientific evidence for use in clinical practice in concert with professional judgment and patient treatment preferences. The ADA endeavors to provide relevant information that can assist dentists in translating systematic-review findings and implementing an evidence-based approach in everyday clinical practice. This supports the Association's goal to continue supporting the best available evidence to assist health care teams in the provision of quality patient care and preventive techniques that improve oral health care outcomes.

The Crisis Cover Girl: Lena Horne, the NAACP, and Representations of African American Femininity, 1941-1945

The Crisis Cover Girl: Lena Horne, the NAACP, and Representations of African American Femininity, 1941–1945 Megan E. Williams The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) first featured two-year-old Lena Horne in its October 1919 issue of the Branch Bulletin. 1 Touting her as one of the organization's youngest members, the Branch Bulletin photograph of light-skinned Lena Horne commenced a lifetime of visibility in the black press. During the war era, the Crisis, official organ of the NAACP, would attempt to construct an image of Horne that both empowered African American women to reject dominant images of black womanhood and reflected the association's goals of racial advancement and integration. Though it went unsaid, Horne felt that Walter White, Executive Secretary of the NAACP and a key member of the editorial advisory board for the Crisis, viewed her as "an interesting weapon" in his attempt to coerce Hollywood "to shake off its fears and taboos and to depict the Negro in films as a normal human being and an integral part of the life of America and the world." 2 Throughout the war years, the Crisis sought to infuse its image of Horne with White's notion of normality—a notion influenced by class status, skin color, and a desire for racial integration. Horne's light complexion, enduring relationship with the NAACP, familial ties to the black bourgeoisie in Brooklyn, mainstream success among white audiences, refusal to play stereotypical film roles, performance of popular music, and willingness to contest Jim Crowism in the entertainment industry all made her an ideal Crisis cover girl during World War II. Still, Horne did not passively accept this prescribed role as a bourgeois race woman. Throughout her career as a songstress and film star, Horne maintained, negotiated, and resisted the NAACP's construction of her as a model of acceptable African American femininity in order to achieve her "main motive" of "protecting [her] opportunity to sing," an opportunity [End Page 200] which afforded her the means, as a divorced mother, to provide for her children. 3 Lena Horne first appeared on the Crisis's cover in 1941 and again in 1943. Historically, editors of periodicals have employed images of women on their covers as a means of attracting the attention of potential buyers and announcing their magazine's persona and potential. According to historian Carolyn Kitch, cover girls "conveyed ideas about women's natures and roles, but they also stood for societal values." 4 Beginning in the early twentieth century, the Crisis, a monthly published in New York City by the NAACP, pictured well-dressed, educated, and primarily light-skinned African American women on its covers in an attempt to subvert dominant representations of black women. The Crisis, which achieved a circulation of forty-five thousand during the war years, published sixty issues between 1941 and 1945; thirty-eight featured cover photographs of women. 5 Of the thirty-eight cover girls chosen to represent respectable African American femininity, Horne was the only woman to appear twice on the cover of the Crisis within this five-year span. The Crisis is the official publication of the NAACP, an interracial group of northern elites founded in 1909. Since its inception, the NAACP has sought to attain the privileges guaranteed African Americans by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the Constitution but denied them under Jim Crow. Historically, the NAACP has worked to gain civil rights and achieve integration by exposing and rectifying injustices through the existing legal system and by adopting the dominant culture's values of middle-class respectability and morality. Many African Americans believed that by demonstrating middle-class mores and values they would, in the words of August Meier, "impress whites so favorably that they would be freely accorded their rights." 6 Originally viewed as radicals, especially when compared to the conciliatory...

Asean in 2003: Adversity and Response

Since the Asian economic crisis of 1997–78 the usefulness of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and, indeed, even the need for it to exist at all have been hotly debated. Both the Asian economic crisis and the expansion of ASEAN to include Vietnam in 1995, Myanmar and Laos in 1997, and Cambodia in 1999 exposed ASEAN's weaknesses and created tensions, which undermined ASEAN's credibility both within Southeast Asia and internationally. During the first few months of 2003, ASEAN's value to its members was further questioned as a series of events overtook the region. The fall-out from the 12 October 2002 Bali bombings was still being felt and there appeared to be limited regional co-operation in order to confront the terrorist threat. The attack on Iraq by the American and British forces further divided ASEAN. And then came the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which threatened to bring the economy of the region, which was already faltering because of problems with the U.S. and EU economies, to its knees. The year did not start well. However, by the end of 2003 ASEAN had once again proven of value to its members. The turnaround in ASEAN's fortunes owes much to the new Chinese leadership, which has given priority to cultivating links to its neighbours in Southeast Asia. But ASEAN members themselves also demonstrated that they are willing to develop policies aimed at strengthening the organization. The signing of the ASEAN Concord II, at the Bali summit in October 2003, paves the way for the ASEAN members not only to develop a more integrated regional community but also to encourage neighbouring countries to adopt many of the Association's goals and values. In light of all the challenges that preoccupied the ASEAN members during 2003, the year ended on a much more positive note than it began. Indeed, by the end of 2003, despite the problems that remained, ASEAN was once again starting to provide distinct benefits to its members.

Assessment of palatability attributes of the major beef muscles

One kilogram roasts from 33 muscles or muscle groups from 25 Canada AA steer carcasses were evaluated for palatability after roasting to 72 °C internal temperature in an electric convection oven preheated to 177 °C. Initial tenderness ranged from moderately tough to tender. All butt tender and tenderloin samples were tender on the first bite, but less than 10% of the rib cap (top and lower portions), deckle point, brisket, and eye of round samples were rated tender on the first bite. Overall tenderness also ranged from moderately tough to tender. All of the tenderloin, butt tender, rib-eye cap, and cross rib samples were rated tender overall, but none of the deckle point samples were rated tender overall. Perceptible connective tissue ranged from slight to moderately abundant. Juiciness ranged from slightly dry to moderately juicy. All of the tenderloin, cross rib cap, rib-eye cap, tri tip, flap meat, short rib, and skirt samples were rated juicy, but 40% or less of the shoulder, eye of round, and loss side samples were rated juicy. Beef flavor intensity ranged from slightly to moderately intense, and flavor desirability ranged from slightly undesirable to moderately desirable. All tenderloin, butt tender, striploin, rib-eye, and cross rib cap samples were rated desirable in overall palatability, but 25% or less of the rib cap (top and lower portions), shank meat, eye of round, brisket, and deckle point samples were rated desirable in overall palatability. To the extent desirability to the panel utilized is representative of consumer acceptance, only the tenderloin, butt tender, rib-eye cap, cross rib, cross rib cap, and rib-eye either met or came close to meeting the Canadian Cattlemen's Association's goal of 95% acceptance based upon palatability. Consequently, effective postmortem intervention techniques or alternative cooking methods must be developed and applied to improve the palatability of most beef muscles, if the aforementioned goal is to be achieved.

Physician-assisted dying: review of issues and roles for health psychologists.

The authors review the recent empirical and theoretical literature on physician-assisted dying (PAD) since implementation of the Oregon Death With Dignity Act (ODDA) in 1997. The authors provide a brief overview of end-of-life practices; consider ethical and practical issues regarding PAD; outline governments' acts and health care organizations' current codified principles regarding PAD, including the American Psychological Association's goal to increase the visibility of psychology in end-of-life issues; examine recent data pertinent to ODDA implementation and psychologists' attitudes regarding PAD; and outline potential roles for health psychologists responding to requests for PAD and implementing PAD (where it is legal). Health psychologists can assume at least 4 roles regarding PAD: (a) policy advocates, (b) educators, (c) practitioners, and (d) researchers.

Highlights of the 1998 Institute on Psychiatric Services. Issues in public-sector managed care.

Highlights of the 1998 Institute on Psychiatric Services. Issues in public-sector managed care.

Part 2—Fostering Collegial Relationships

Part 2—Fostering Collegial Relationships

Public Health and Health Care Reform: The American Public Health Association's Perspective

This paper discusses the American Public Health Association's goals with regards to the current health care reform debate. By outlining the organization's historical context with regards to health care reform as well as the parameters of the current medical care and public health crises, the paper explains why APHA's advocacy efforts focused on two major issues: the adoption of a national health program that features universal coverage with a comprehensive set of benefits for all our nation's residents, and the enhancement of the federal, state, and local public health infrastructure. The paper argues that both medical care services and public health programs must be expanded if we are to improve the nation's overall health status.

New approach to technical and clinical evaluation of devices for self-monitoring of blood glucose.

Despite the wide distribution of devices for self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG), there is no internationally accepted agreement on a standardized procedure for their evaluation. This is due to incomplete or even inappropriate technical evaluation and to inadequate evaluation criteria for their clinical acceptability. To provide adequate information on the performance of these devices over the whole clinically relevant range for SMBG (30-350 mg/dl), a standardized test procedure has been established for technical (accuracy, precision, and total deviation) and clinical (acceptance analysis) evaluation. To demonstrate the potency of this new approach, the following SMBG devices and test strips were evaluated: Chemstrip bG batch (n = 10), Glucostix batch (n = 2), Accu-Check II (n = 5), Diascan (n = 5), Diascan strip batch (n = 4), Glucocheck SC (n = 4), and Glucometer II (n = 4). The devices and test strips were examined by trained technicians, and in addition, 1 Chemstrip bG batch and 2 Accu-Check II meters were examined by 10 and 5 trained diabetic patients, respectively. Even the best-performing device did not achieve the American Diabetes Association's goal that SMBG measurements should be within 15% of the reference value. Instead, the maximal total deviation within the clinically relevant blood glucose range reached values that equalled deviations from the reference value between 16 and 108%. Three of 36 devices were classified as good, 29 as acceptable, and 4 as unacceptable for clinical use. In conclusion, this new approach to the technical and clinical evaluation of devices for SMBG is easy to perform and provides more realistic and comparable information for clinical use and approval than commonly used methods.