George's County Research Articles

Risk assessment to improve targeting of HIV counseling and testing services for STD clinic patients.

To determine whether self-administered risk assessment could improve targeting of HIV counseling and testing in an STD clinic. Computerized records from the Prince George's County, Maryland, STD clinic from 1993 through 1996 were used to develop and test models for predicting a positive HIV test. In 1996, a self-administered risk assessment was compared with a counselor's risk assessment of the same patient. Testing the 10% of patients at highest risk would identify 39% of those who were HIV-positive; testing 70% of the patients could identify 92% of those who were HIV-positive. In 1996, 2,288 patients completed the self-administered HIV risk assessment. The same number of HIV-positive persons (7 [28%]) were identified using either self-assessment or face-to-face interview. Selectively offering voluntary HIV testing based on risk assessment would not be useful because it would miss many infected persons. If prevention counseling cannot be offered to everyone, it could be targeted to those who report a risk by self-assessment.

Collaborative Observation: Putting Classroom Instruction at the Center of School Reform

Collaborative Observation: Putting Classroom Instruction at the Center of School Reform, by Karen H. Peters and Judith K. March. Thousand Oaks, Ca: Corwin Press, 1997. 144 pp. $18.95 /cloth. Reviewed by Marian White-Hood, Prince George's County (MD) Public Schools. The fundamental purpose of Collaborative Observation: Putting Classroom Instruction at the Center of School Reform is to show how collaborative observation can be used as an influential strategy for school reform. Additionally, it helps readers gain the necessary perspectives with which to debate urgent issues concerning classroom instruction and school reform. As the book unfolds, one senses the passion, and conviction of authors Peters and March in communicating their viewpoint. Indeed, their credentials are reputable, and their book is credible. Peters is assistant director of the Center for Educational Leadership Services and the Ohio Satellite for Effective Schools at Kent State University, while March serves as the director of the Center. Both have had school system experience and have expertise in curriculum design, clinical supervision, strategic planning for school-based decision making, and staff development. The authors commence by making a poignant distinction between successful and unsuccessful reform initiatives. They argue that four notions undergird successful reform: (a) changes in classroom instruction, (b) districtwide commitment, (c) the quality of professional development programming anchored by the initiative, and (d) a collaborative observation process that allows for peer assistance, feedback, and planning. These four points serve as the catalysts for the creation of their COMPASS model, a collaborative process and metaphor for finding oneself as a teacher, setting a direction, following a course by observing significant signs, and noting transformations of the teacher and observer which leads to student achievement. Four powerful steps regulate this model: a pre-observation conference, in-class data collection and analysis, a post-observation conference, and the development of a collaborative action plan. In simple, clearly written prose, Peters and March introduce the COMPASS model. Their work builds upon adult learning theories while supporting the growth of teachers, observers, and students. Each chapter takes readers through a step in the model's program. In chapter two, Collecting Data: Prior to and During Classroom Observation, the authors contrast their method of data collection with others described in the school reform literature. They also present the format for the pre-observation conference and outline the skills needed by both observer and teacher. Several pre-observation conference forms reflecting best practices research and connections to experiential learning theory are provided. The chapter further explains how the observer and teacher, working as partners, should discuss unit objectives, motivation, and the integration of the lesson. Clarifying questions, which extend and refine the teachers' thinking about the lesson, are also provided. Peters and March also present scripting as a major skill to be learned by observers as part of the in-class data collection process. Readers learn how script pages coupled with classroom diagrams become the springboard for further dialogue and for building academic trust between partners. Chapter three is devoted to the post-observation conference. It outlines the data analysis steps and is rich with examples of analysis statements, scenarios, and techniques. The power of the post-observation conference is illuminated as the authors describe its two phases: planning and delivery. If readers desire additional information, research notes on the lesson analysis and post-observation conference are found at the conclusion of the chapter. Chapter four covers the development of the collaborative action plan and is the most critical chapter of the book. …

Land-use planning to conserve habitat for area-sensitive forest birds

Models predicting the occurrence of area-sensitive bird species in forests were developed from bird survey data from 499 forests in Prince George's County, Maryland. The predicted probabilities of occurrence for species were integrated with forest cover data for the County in a Geographic Information System (GIS). This information was used in combination with local zoning and forest conservation requirements to develop a preliminary forest conservation plan for the watershed of the Western Branch of the Patuxent River. We identify forests patches most likely to support breeding populations of area-sensitive birds, and use the GIS to devise ways to consolidate and link them. Forests that do not contribute significantly to the integrity of these priority forests are designated as sites in which development could occur. The resulting conservation plan will maintain and enhance breeding habitat for area-sensitive forest birds, while still allowing for additional development as human populations increase.

Right turns only: an evaluation of a video-based, multicultural drug education series for seventh graders.

This study assessed the effectiveness of a video-based, multicultural drug education series for seventh graders. Right Turns Only (RTO) was produced by the Prince George's County Public School System in Maryland and funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. Knowledge, attitude, and behavioral intentions of 1,036 seventh-grade students who received the RTO curriculum alone or as a supplement to a traditional drug education curriculum (SMART) were measured to test the effects of this video series and its collateral print materials.

Where Do Tenants Come From?: Using a Geographic Information System to Study the Demand for New Office Space

This paper traces the inter- and intra-regional moves of office tenants and demonstrates how Geographic Information Systems can be used to address substantive research questions. The research tracks the origin of office tenants in new buildings over 10,000 square feet and the destination of tenants from older buildings larger than 10,000 square feet, during 1980 to 1986. For data from Prince George's County, Maryland, the results show that in a new office building, 76 percent of establishments and 50 percent of employees were in firms that were either startups or in-migrants to the Washington metropolitan statistical area. Four percent of establishments but 22 percent of employment in new office space came from older office buildings in Prince George's county. Seven percent of establishments and 22 percent of employment were relocations from small or non-office locations, and the remaining share came from other counties in the region. Nine percent of establishments and of employment had relocated from the District of Columbia. We conclude that the new office space did not draw primarily tenants from older area buildings; rather, the majority of its tenants came from new startups and in-migrants to the Washington, D.C. region.

April 15, 1865

April 15, 1865 William A. Tidwell On April 15, 1865, nearly a week after the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, Confederate and Union cavalry had a skirmish in St. Mary's County, Maryland. The skirmish occurred the day after John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln, and it has been largely ignored—obscured by a dispute between two Union officers and overwhelmed by the many activities concerned with the pursuit of the assassins. Yet this skirmish played an important part in the way in which the pursuit unfolded and may help to explain some of the actions of Booth and the individuals who assisted him in his escape. While it provides no certain answer to the role played by Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd, it adds one more possible item to those linking Dr. Mudd and Booth in a common enterprise. According to the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C, April 15, 1865, was a cloudy day with rain beginning at 7:30 a.m., shortly after the death of Abraham Lincoln. The technician recording the weather added a note at the bottom of the page: "the building was draped in mourning for the death of the President of the United States." At the end ofthe day he recorded the minimum and maximum temperatures as 47° and 67° Fahrenheit. The Nautical Almanac shows that at that date and latitude the sun rises shortly after 5:30 a.m. and sets at about 6:30 p.m. It was a cold, wet day, but the weather was not bad enough to prevent movement.' John Wilkes Booth, who thought of himself as an American Brutus, and his companion, David Herold, had reached the home of Dr. Mudd in southern Maryland about four o'clock in the early hours of April 15th, before the rain began. Dr. Mudd lived four miles north of Bryantown in Charles County, Maryland, on a peninsula of roughly thirty by one hundred miles, bounded by the Potomac and Patuxent Rivers. This peninsula included the southern part of Prince George's County and all of Charles and St. Mary's Counties.2 1 Photostat copy oflocal weather observations for April 1 865, U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington . D.C. 2 Statements of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, Apr. 21, 1865, M-599, reel 5, frames 0212-25, 0226-39, Civil War History, Vol. xlii. No. 3 © 1996 by The Kent State University Press APRIL 15, I865 221 -Si Surratt's Tavern Beantown Bryantown Canter) (Swart) Government Farms ,,*.,„; Charlotte Hall -¦ Aliens Fresh ftChaptico Leonarotown SOUTHERN MARYLAND 1865 - Towns/homes ?/. Government farms --. Probabte area of skirmish — Roads Streams Southern Maryland, 1 865 In spite of its proximity to Washington, this southern Maryland peninsula was largely isolated from the contemporary world. It held many tobacco farms and produced some corn, wheat, and vegetables. There were a few small villages and isolated country stores, but on the whole the area was sparsely populated and heavily forested. There were no railroads or major turnpikes. Several estuaries of the Potomac cut deeply into the southern coast, and the Wicomico River, the largest of the estuaries, was fed by streams that flowed through two long, narrow swamps that formed obstacles to ground travel. These National Archives; Jack D. Brown et al., Charles County, Maryland (Charles County Bicentennial Committee, 1976). 222CIVIL WAR HISTORY were Zekiah Swamp, about twelve miles long, which passed Dr. Mudd's residence and reached its upper end a short distance away, and Gilbert's Swamp, shorter than Zekiah Swamp but nonetheless a substantial barrier for several miles.3 The people of southern Maryland were strongly anti-Union and provided substantial numbers ofsoldiers to the Confederate army. In addition, the remoteness of the area provided many opportunities for exploitation as a route for the smuggling of items needed in the Confederacy and for the movement of secret agents. The Union also exploited the remoteness of the area by establishing the Hammond Hospital for convalescing Union wounded and Camp Hoffman, one of its major prisons for captured Confederates, at Point Lookout, the extreme terminus ofthe peninsula where the Potomacjoins Chesapeake Bay. There were also small Union facilities in the area; a supply depot at...

Home Range and Seasonal Movements of the Turtle Graptemys flavimaculata

Home Range and Seasonal Movements of the Turtle Graptemys flavimaculata

Benign Neglect of Racism in the Criminal Justice System

In October 1995, two black male teenagers were shopping in a clothing store in Prince George's County, Maryland. A white security guard, who was also an off-duty police officer, approached one of the teens and questioned him about the shirt that he was wearing. The youth explained that he had bought the shirt in that same store the previous week. Even though a black cashier in the store tried to convince the guard that she remembered the teen buying the shirt the previous week, the guard demanded to see the receipt. After the youth told the officer that the receipt was at home, the guard insisted that the boy remove the shirt, leave it in the store, and go home to retrieve the receipt. The humiliated teen removed his shirt in the store, went home without a shirt, and found the receipt. The shirt was eventually returned to him.1 Just two months later, in December 1995, members of the same Prince George's County Police Department observed three adults sitting in a car smoking crack cocaine. The scene would not have been particularly unusual but for the presence of an infant in the car. However, the response of the police officers proved even more shocking than the presence of the baby. The officers went over to the car, escorted the adults and the child to a local substation, talked with them, and allowed them to go home. No arrest was

Where Do We Stand on the A-Bomb?

Where Do We Stand on the A-Bomb? Michael S. Henry Michael S. Henry Michael S. Henry is a history teacher at Bowie High School in Prince George's County, Maryland. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar OAH Magazine of History, Volume 10, Issue 3, Spring 1996, Pages 51–52, https://doi.org/10.1093/maghis/10.3.51 Published: 01 March 1996

An Evaluation of HIV Education Messengers in a Black Low Income Housing Complex

Abstract The purpose of this article is to describe results of a quasi-experimental study of HIV education messengers in a Black low income housing complex in Prince George's County, Maryland. AIDS is increasingly exacting a disproportionate toll on lower income, Black communities. Although Whites still constitute the majority of the AIDS cases overall, Blacks are affected by AIDS in numbers far greater than their relative percentage in the population. Community-based organizations have been funded by the federal government and private foundations to mount culturally sensitive HIV education and prevention programs in order to reach those Blacks whose behavior places them at greatest risk for HIV infection. Advocates for AIDS prevention in minority communities often assume that in order for AIDS educators to have trust and credibility, they must be of the same racial/ethnic background as participants. Results from this study demonstrated that the intuitive rationale for matching the racial identity of the ...

Implementing Pretrial Drug-Testing Programs in Two Experimental Sites: Some Deterrence and Jail Bed Implications

As overcrowding has accelerated the search for more, and more effective, ways of reducing jail populations without unduly jeopardizing public safety and court processes, one of the programmatic responses to the problem of drug-related crime has been the introduction, in several jurisdictions, of systematic drug testing at the pretrial release decision stage. The Bureau of Justice Assistance sponsored evaluations of drug-testing experiments in several demonstration sites. A fundamental objective of the demonstration projects was to test the assumption that intensive monitoring of drug use during pretrial release would reduce levels of pretrial flight and crime. To enforce defendant compliance with the monitoring program, which required frequent drug testing, a system of graduated sanctions was devised for the implementation of the drug-testing programs in each of the sites. The proposed sanctioning systems represented a formal set of agency responses of incremental severity to noncompliance by defendants (positive test results or nonattendance at testing appointments), which ranged from counseling to short-term pretrial detention. This article briefly describes experimental evaluations of pretrial drug-testing programs in two sites—Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Prince George's County, Maryland—examines the problems faced in implementing the sanctioning systems, and speculates on the jail resource implications of such sanctions if fully enforced.

Pretrial Drug-Testing Experiments in Milwaukee and Prince George's County: The Context of Implementation

This article describes the results of field experiments involving pretrial drug-testing demonstration projects undertaken in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Prince George's County, Maryland, in 1988 and 1989. As part of a six-site effort sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Assistance of the U. S. Department of Justice, the demonstration projects in these two sites sought to implement drug-testing programs at the pre-bail and pretrial release stages of the criminal process to serve as a means for deterring pretrial misconduct (i.e., failure to appear in court and rearrest for crimes during pretrial release). The underlying hypotheses of the projects tested by the field experiments were (a) that pre-bail drug testing would contribute more powerful predictive data that would allow pretrial release decisionmakers better to assess the risks posed by defendants being considered for release (over and above the power of other existing information) and (b) that pretrial drug monitoring during pretrial release would deter defendants from crime and flight better than release without drug monitoring. The experimental results reported found no evidence to support either claim. However, the article argues that experimental findings cannot be meaningfully interpreted in isolation from knowledge of the implementation context in the sites. In fact, the demonstration programs in each site experienced challenging obstacles in implementing the programs as envisaged. The need to take into account the difficulties posed by the challenges of implementing new programs in demonstration sites does not, however, undermine the strength of the findings reported. Rather, the implementation difficulties should, in themselves, be seen as important findings concerning the feasibility of such programs.

Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission Implements GIS

The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) recently completed a cooperative pilot project with Montgomery and Prince George's counties, Md., in which a complete 59‐layer geographic information system (GIS) data base was developed for a portion of its service area. During the pilot project described in this article, planimetric and parcel data were developed, and water and sewer facility maps were digitzed. The procedures and approach defined during the pilot project will be used to develop a full‐scale data base. This article describes and evaluates the design process, the conversion methods, and the application developed.

Organochlorines and heavy metals in 17-year cicadas pose no apparent dietary threat to birds

Organochlorine and heavy metal concentrations in 17-year cicadas from Prince Georges and Anne Arundel Counties, Maryland, were well below levels known to be harmful to birds. Cicadas contained concentrations of metals similar to or less than other local invertebrates except they contained more copper than did earthworms. Copper and lead concentrations in cicadas from one site may have been elevated by sewage plant effluent deposited during river floodings. Cicadas from the median of a major highway did not contain more lead than cicadas from non-traffic sites.

Drug Abuse Risk among Pregnant Adolescents Attending Public Health Clinics

The drug abuse risk status and characteristics of pregnant adolescents (under 21 years) were evaluated at public maternal health clinics in Prince George's County, Maryland. During the project period (March 1988 to September 1989), 403 young women were interviewed. Based on those interviews, one of four risk judgments, scaled for increasing severity of risk, was assigned. Twenty percent of the sample was found to be either at high risk or current abusers of alcohol or other drugs. Risk was equally represented across both the age range (14-20 years) and marital status of the sample, but Whites were overall at significantly higher risk than Blacks (P less than .0001). Post-hoc examination of risk correlates identified drug use in the home and past or current cigarette smoking to be strongly predictive of risk (gamma = .92). While parental drug use was the most frequently reported social environment drug influence factor, as risk status of the young women increased in severity, the parental influence factor declined and the significant-other influence factor increased. A separate sample of adult women (21 years and older) was interviewed for comparison to the youth sample.

Hospital Viability and Closures

96 Presentation HOSPITAL VIABILITY AND CLOSURES THOMAS W. CHAPMAN President Greater Southeast Community Hospital Washington, D.C. During the last several years, the debate over hospital closures continues to plague those concerned with assuring adequate medical care for the underserved, even as little concrete evidence is available about the impact of hospital closures on access to and outcome of medical care. The emphasis we place upon hospitals in contributing to human well-being is natural; hospitals are great temples of mysticism. The two greatest human events in life occur there—birth and death. This reality alone gives hospitals tremendous societal power and responsibility. During the past decade, demands and needs increased for hospitals to render primary care to the poor and uninsured. But over time, the hospital's role in providing primary care to low-income populations has become too exclusive in many communities. The fact that hospital closures have received so much professional interest and are so important to low-income populations reflects a great distortion of misplaced attention. Hospital closures are distressing symptoms of a health care delivery disease that is causing widespread debilitation in the provision of health services. My vision is that there are three phases of health care development: 1. Anarchy—the era of cottage industries, which are unsystematic and highly individualistic; 2. Competition—the era of adolescence, characterized by duplication, waste, elaborate resources, and tremendous inequities; 3. Collaboration—a period when continued limitation and reduction in resources creates a great equalizer and forces providers of health, education, social, and other human services to work together. This new combination of skills and idea will produce significant progress. When will this era of collaboration begin? After the 1990s. The 1990s will be a decade of destruction and disassembling of the current system. Signs and indicators already point in that direction. Our health care delivery system represents vast waste that we as a society can no longer afford. It makes no sense Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, Vol. 1, No. 1, Summer 1990 Chapman 97 that in any given city, one hospital makes huge profits and another ten blocks away goes bankrupt. People receiving complex life-saving procedures costing megabucks reside in communities where others have no access to $25 primarycare visits. There must be massive pain, pressure, and crisis in the 1990s to gain the attention, ethical awakening, and creativity of public and private leadership to help us take the great leap into the era of collaboration in the year 2000. A personal perspective Before I venture too far on this topic, I would like to share some background on the service area of my hospital, so you will have a better understanding of my perspective. Greater Southeast Community Hospital (GSCH) is a 450-bed, full-service community hospital located in southeast Washington, D.C. The hospital lies in the heart of Ward 8 in Anacostia, adjacent to Prince George's County, Maryland. We have a wide range of community programs available to the population in our service area. The Ward 8 neighborhood is known to television viewers throughout the nation, through the recent feature on the ABC television program Nightline and other programs, as the center of the drug and murder epidemic in Washington, D.C. The ward also has the highest levels of teenage pregnancy, school dropouts, and drug abuse in Washington. In 1986,20 Washington hospitals reported 1,521 cocaine-related emergency room admissions. One year later, in 1987, the same hospitals reported 3,380 such admissions, a 122 percent increase. PCP-related admissions climbed from 2,216 in 1986 to 4,241 in 1987, a 91 percent increase, and heroin admissions jumped from 1,199 to 1,647.* Statistics from the two police precincts that serve Ward 8 show a 107 percent increase in murder and other crimes against people in 1988.2 In addition, Ward 8 has the distinction of having: • the lowest median household income in the District of Columbia— 117,00O3; • the highest concentration of households in poverty—22 percent4; • the most subsidized housing—22 percent5; • the highest unemployment—22 percent.6 In 1987, Ward 8 had a population of 75,000, half of whom...

Meeting the Challenge: Working Together on Transportation Infrastructure

Engineers, transportation leaders, businessmen, and financiers are exploring and developing new fiscal strategies in response to the drying up of traditional sources for the funding of transportation infrastructure. Encouraging trends are emerging, however, including: creative variations of traditional sources such as user fees and dedicated parts of taxes; use of new cost‐cutting technologies; sharing of information about promising approaches; laws that permit innovative financing; and private or private/public partnerships. Examples of three foreign projects are given (the Hong Kong and Caracas transit systems, and the English Channel crossing) and three domestic projects are discussed (the E‐470 Beltway in Denver, Colorado; the Dulles Toll Road Extension in Virginia; and tax increment financing in Prince George's County, Maryland). The writer points out that much has been done, but much remains to be done. Imagination and creativity are needed from every field of expertise to adapt new funding concepts to the political realities and challenges of large, complex projects, especially those within the municipal boundaries of older, larger cities. The first steps toward meeting those challenges, defining the needs, and solving the problems have been taken in the prototype projects described in this paper.

CLIC! The Community Library Information Center:

The late '60s saw public libraries moving toward the establishment of information an a referral service through the creation of neighborhood information centers. The Prince George's County Memorial Library System, in Maryland, was one of those systems, establishing CLIC, the Community Library Information Center, in 1971. CLIC was housed in a neighborhood branch library, located within the Model Cities Area. Funded by the federal Model Cities (MNA) program, the service was designed to serve residents and human service providers in the Model Cities Area. Whcn the CLIC proposal was initially conceived, certain basic questions were generated: 1. Can an Information, Referral and Follow-Up (I. R & F.) service be established in a neighborhood branch library, dealing with a limited(geographically) clientele and a limited range of agency services? 2. Can the techniques of an I.R. & F. begun in a decentralized way (i.e. in a neighborhood branch library) be made applicable to and/or serve as a base for a subsequent ...

Control of Green June Beetle Grubs on a Golf Course, 1986

Abstract The test was conducted on a golf course fairway near Bowie, Prince George's County, Md. Damage to the turf on 19 Aug was moderate. Plots were 8 × 8 ft, arranged in a randomized complete block design, and replicated 3 times. Granular formulations were applied with a hand-held shaker can. Liquid formulations were applied with a 2-gal sprinkling can. All applications were made in 2 directions across each plot. Treatments were watered into the thatch with 0.5 inches of water with the golf course irrigation system. The number of dead grubs on the surface of the plots was counted on 20 Aug.

Corn Earworm Control on Soybean, 1986

Abstract The test was conducted at 2 locations in Maryland. Site 1 was located near Beltsville in Prince George's County, where 'Williams 82' beans were planted on 8 July in 30-inch rows. At Site 2, located near Preston in Dorchester County, 'Douglas' beans were planted on 13 Aug in 14-inch rows. The 'Williams 82' soybeans were flowering at time of treatment on 4 Sep and 'Douglas' beans were also flowering at time of treatment on 9 Sep. Treatment plots were 30 × 30 ft, replicated 3 times, and arranged in a randomized complete block design. Sprays were applied by CO2 backpack sprayer calibrated to deliver 20.4 gal/acre at 40 psi. Posttreatment counts were taken on 11 and 17 Sep at Site 1 by recording the number of worms found in 18 ft of row/plot. At Site 2 posttreatment counts were taken 17 and 24 Sep by recording the number of worms found in 20 random 180-degree sweeps/plot.