Small Print Research Articles

Molecular Recognition in Self‐Assembled Integrated Circuits: Getting Smaller while under Control

Available in small print: Block copolymer lithography has great potential for reducing the size and fabrication time of integrated circuits. Hydrogen-bonding-mediated molecular recognition in self-assembly processes can be used to produce highly ordered square arrays of block copolymers on the surface of a silicon substrate (see picture).

The Irish Schoolboy Novel

The Irish Schoolboy Novel Ciaran O'Neill (bio) Some men never recover from education. Oliver St. John Gogarty1 In his 1965 autobiography, Vive Moi! Seán O'Faoláin recalled a Sunday morning ritual from his childhood in Cork City. His father, a member of the local Royal Irish Constabulary, would lead Seán and his brothers to Wellington Barracks, where they would join the loyal citizens of Edwardian Cork in saluting the church parade of the local British Army regiment. O'Faoláin remembered a connection he once had made, listening faithfully to "God Save the King" at his father's knee: When the drums rolled and the brass shook the air I could hear the sabre clash, the hoofbeats, the rifle fire of all the adventure books I had read—Mainly Henty's: The Dash for Khartoum, With Kitchener in the Soudan, One of the Twenty-eighth, Under Drake's Flag.2 [End Page 147] O'Faoláin was not alone among Irish writers in his exposure to G.A. Henty's many empire adventure stories.3 Generations of Irish boys and girls had by then sat enthralled, reading of the exploits of well-mannered wanderers fresh from public schools, as they colonize and civilize out among the farthest reaches of the British Empire. These adventure stories were the lineal descendants of the "schoolboy novel," a genre that owes its existence to the phenomenal popularity of an 1857 novel by Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's Schooldays, based on life at the famous English public school in Rugby. The passing of progressive legislation in the 1870s, the Forster Education Act of 1870 in Britain, and the Intermediate Education Act of 1878 in Ireland helped create over one million new places in schools across Britain and Ireland.4 An increasingly literate youth audience, in turn, was targeted by cheap periodicals, such as The Boy's Own Paper (1879–1967). By the close of the nineteenth century, this genre was firmly established and its formula had altered to reflect the expansionist rhetoric of British society, allowing offshoots based on young adulthood and imperial adventure, such as those contained in the Henty novels of Seán O'Faoláin's youth. For Irish nationalists of the revival period, such as Padraic Pearse and Douglas Hyde, the consumption of these distilled tales of imperial power by Irish youths was at best corrupting and at worst invidious and anti-Irish. Ireland has its own set of much neglected schoolboy novels. Aside from James Joyce's seminal work, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), few have received any critical attention, due in many cases to small print runs. This article is an attempt to rescue the Irish schoolboy novel from its relative obscurity. Although the quality of some of the novels may well be debatable, they nevertheless provide us with a rare and valuable glimpse at the reality of school life for Irish boys in the nineteenth century. The Irish form of this popular genre experienced three main phases from its birth in 1895 to its decline (along with that of the English schoolboy novel) in the 1930s. The earliest of the schoolboy novels, written while Ireland [End Page 148] was united with Britain, all reveal a distinct British cultural influence, the infamous "West Briton" tendency.5 In contrast, those written in the first decade of the Irish Free State mark the emergence of Cúchulainn as an important icon of heroic boyhood that provided an apparently ultra-Irish alternative to Tom Brown and his public school politesse. Finally, toward the end of what is considered the heyday of the schoolboy novel, a more critical and radical form emerged in the 1930s, hugely influenced by Joyce's A Portrait and best understood in relation to the Bildungsroman tradition in Ireland. All schoolboy novels are essentially novels of youth, of childhood, and of personal growth—providing authors with something of an ideological clean slate on which to forge a new national identity. As the Irish novels were published in a period often referred to as the "birth" of modern Ireland, it is possible to see them as a forgotten record of...

Quality of life in patients with leber hereditary optic neuropathy.

Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is an inherited mitochondrial optic neuropathy characterized by bilateral, severe loss of central vision. In this study, the first formal assessment was conducted of visual disability in affected and unaffected individuals from molecularly confirmed LHON pedigrees. Four hundred two LHON carriers--196 affected and 206 unaffected--from 125 genealogically distinct pedigrees were prospectively interviewed using the well-validated visual function index (VF-14) questionnaire: m.3460G>A (n = 71), m.11778G>A (n = 270), and m.14484T>C (n = 61). The mean age of onset of visual loss was 27.9 years (SD, 14.9) and mean disease duration was 15.5 years (SD, 15.4), with 74.5% of the affected subjects being men. The mean VF-14 score was 25.1 (SD, 20.8) in the affected patients, compared with 97.3 (SD, 7.1) in the unaffected carriers. Within the affected group, VF-14 score did not worsen with increasing disease duration and individuals with the m.14484T>C mutation had higher VF-14 scores compared with those in the m.3460G>A and m.11778G>A groups. Reading small print and reading a newspaper or book were the two VF-14 items that presented the greatest difficulty. LHON has a severe negative impact on quality of life and has the worst VF-14 score when compared with other previously studied ophthalmic disorders. However, affected LHON carriers can be reassured that their level of visual impairment is unlikely to progress with time. The VF-14 questionnaire will be a useful tool for assessing the natural history of LHON and measuring outcome in future treatment trials.

Double Extradition: What Edward Said Has to Tell Us Thirty Years on from Orientalism

If my assessment of Said’s contribution via Orientalism were to be proportioned solely to the immense admiration I have always had for him as a reader, whiter shades of gray and critical remarks would have to be relegated to a footnote in small print. Such an assessment would be devoted to spontaneous expressions of debt and admiration and to enumerating all the reasons Said became the pioneer he remains thirty years on, for the vast majority of us.

Russia's Empires, Their Rise and Fall: From Prehistory to Putin by Philip Longworth (review)

REVIEWS 127 Longworth, Philip. Russia's Empires, Their Rise and Fall: From Prehistory to Putin. John Murray, London, 2006. xvii + 398 pp. Maps. Illustrations. Chronology. Notes. Bibliography. Index. ?9.99 (paperback). This paperback edition puts the reviewer at a disadvantage. Its small print makes itdifficult to read, while itwill not stay open as notes are being taken from it.For his part, on the other hand, the author has been able not only to correct three errors and a typographical mistake noticed in the hardback but also to add a new preface. The book's last sentence ends as follows: 'as I write in September 2004, itwould be unwise towrite offRussia's chances of future power' (p. 326). The Preface to the Paperback Edition, dated February 2006, begins: 'A fifth Russian empire isnow under construction. Until a fewmonths ago thatprospect seemed most improbable ifnot impossible.' Indeed, Russian history isfullof sudden surprises:many a prediction has turned out tobe false; some eventualities have not been predicted. One can only agree with the author as he dismisses some of the more inaccurate forecasts in this Preface: 'A sober assessment of realities in the light of the past might have been a surer guide' (p. ix).One can also give him threemore errors (all concerning the seventeenth century) and another typographical mistake to correct in any future edition. The companion of Patrick Gordon inRiga was Walter Airth (not Ert) (p. 137); the emissary to the Pope was Paul (notRobert) Menzies (p. 148); and Peter returned toMoscow from theGreat Embassy in 1698 (not 1696) (p. 152).The misprint is on p. 329 ? 'Anna Iovanovna'. Philip Longworth isa practised writer as well as a thoughtful scholar. This, his eighth book, isboth readable and stimulating. It startswith a bang in the shape of a challenging chapter entitled 'The Russians: Who Are They?' which finds an answer in prehistory as itmakes use of thework of anthropologists, archaeologists and linguists.One of the desirable characteristics of historians is the ability to make a plausible narrative out of intractable material, and Longworth demonstrates this to the full not only in the opening chapter but also in the others as he describes the rise and fall of four empires. By no means everybody will be happy with the broad application of the concept 'empire'. Sticklers for constitutional niceties might want it applied exclusively to the Holy Roman in the medieval period, while even those of a more liberal disposition might well find it stretched in the case of theKievan. However, without at least some consideration of this early example of the phenomenon, the author would have found itdifficult to elaborate his overall exposition. To a lesser extent, the same arguments might apply to the second case, the Muscovite. The third empire, the Romanov, is most generally acceptable. As for the fourth, the Soviet, both proud imperialists and staunch anti-imperialists might well find cause to cavil. Wisely perhaps in these circumstances, Longworth disarms such critics by eschewing any extended discussion of the nature of empire as addressed by social scientists and political ideologists. The notes and bibliography include a wide range of sources, nevertheless. Inevitably in a work of this scale, there are strikingomissions: for example, on Peter theGreat, there is no mention of three leadingWestern specialists ? Bushkovitch, Cracraft and Hughes. But the overriding impression leftby this 128 SEER, 87, I, JANUARY 2OO9 book is of its informed insightson a goodly number of subjects, not least the arrival and departure ofGorbachev. In general, the treatment of the Soviet period ismore balanced than is stilloften to be found even inpost-Cold War years. The account of the arrival of theCold War itselfisa pertinent example. And excellent use ismade of the author's other work, especially his book The Making of EasternEurope. In his Preface to the Paperback Edition, 'in the lightof thepast' no doubt, Longworth makes a prediction: 'The new Russian Empire will not be like the last, but a sphere of influence, as is theAmerican' (p. ix).Here is an insight deserving further consideration in any future edition, well worth inclusion in the comparisons he has already made with earlier counterparts. For, gener ally speaking, we cannot fully understand the...

Science Warriors: The Battle against Invasive Species (review)

Reviewed by: Science Warriors: The Battle against Invasive Species Deborah Stevenson Collard, Sneed B., III Science Warriors: The Battle against Invasive Species. Houghton, 2008 48p illus. with photographs (Scientists in the Field) ISBN 978-0-618-75636-0 $17.00 R Gr. 5–8 While invader species rarely make headlines, they’re an ongoing threat to agriculture, budgets, and even safety all over the globe. For this new volume in the Scientists in the Field series, Collard focuses on four major invader species in the U.S.: the brown tree snake (which has killed off several native species on Guam and threatens Hawaii), the red imported fire ant (scourge of the South), the melaleuca tree (which has choked out much of the Everglades), and the zebra mussel (infiltrating waterways all over the Great Lakes area). Small print and more sophisticated writing puts this at the older end of the audience for this series, and the book could have offered a bit more of a background overview on the problem generally, but these are useful and thought-provoking case studies of a very large problem indeed. The book carefully lays out the ways invasion can occur, both initially and subsequently, and covers failed efforts at control as well as more successful ones. While not every curb involves scientists (sniffer dogs help keep snakes from sneaking rides in cargo, while education of boaters results in decreasing spread of zebra mussels), the scientific work in finding parasite species has been key with fighting both fire ants and melaleuca, and the point that problems often need to be addressed in different ways is clearly made. This would make solid background for a local field trip to an area with its own invader problem, and it would certainly open the eyes of kids who think that environmental threats only exist far, far away. End matter includes tips on helping to stop invasive species, a glossary of terms, websites for further research, and an index. [End Page 151] Copyright © 2008 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Impact of nurses' uniforms on patient and family perceptions of nurse professionalism

Background Patients and visitors may perceive nurses as professional based on uniform color and style. Nurse image may affect patient and visitor trust and satisfaction with nursing care. Fitted white dresses have been replaced by loose-fitting or scrub white, colored, or patterned pant sets. Objectives This study examines nurse professionalism by assessing the nurse image traits of eight pant uniforms as perceived by pediatric patients, adult patients, and adult visitors. We also examined if uniform preference is congruent with nurse image traits. Method A convenience sample of 499 patients and visitors were surveyed at a large Midwestern tertiary health care center. Subjects viewed photographs of the same registered nurse identically posed in eight uniforms and rated each by image traits. Kruskal–Wallis, Steel–Dwass multiple comparison method, and Wilcoxon signed-rank sum tests were used to test for differences in the Nurse Image Scale (NIS) score by uniform style and color and subject demographics. Results Subjects were 390 adult patients and visitors (78%) and 109 pediatric patients (21.4%); 66% were female, and 78% were Caucasian. In adults, NIS scores for white uniforms (two styles) were higher than NIS scores for uniforms with small print, bold print, or solid color (all p < .001). White uniform NIS score increased with subject age (all ≤ .007). In pediatric patients (7–17 years) and young adults (18–44 years), the highest uniform NIS scores did not differ significantly from the others. Uniform preference was different from NIS score in pediatric and adult subjects, reflecting noncongruence between the perception of nurse professionalism by uniform and uniform preference. Discussion With aging, adults create perceptions of nurse professionalism based on uniform color and style. Traits of nurse professionalism were highest in white uniforms. Future research is needed to determine if transition to white nurse uniforms improves patient and family satisfaction with nursing care.

Open Access Publishing: Hypocrisy and Confusion in Geography

Debates about the possibilities and importance of open access publishing in academia are reaching a crucial stage. British universities are implementing “author archiving”, electronically storing their staff’s outputs for online public access. At the same time, an increasing number of academics are calling for an overhaul of journal publishing processes—urging us to sign a petition to the European Commission in support of open access (EC Petition 2007). Journal publishers are fighting a rearguard action in response. This ranges from making some of their content freely available, to creating complicated licence forms allowing authors to only post articles online several months (in some cases years) after publication; the chief concern of publishers is the potentially dramatic loss of revenue (Shepherd 2007). The result for academics is a messy and confusing situation where even fine attention to the small print of such licences offers little clarity. Whether we are correctly abiding by these licences or not, there needs to be a more assertive discussion within academic geography about our outputs. Many geographers have critically engaged with our publishing practices, encouraging academics to write in more accessible styles and in nonacademic locations (Castree 2006; Mitchell 2006; Smith 2000). Condemnation of the negative consequences of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) on how we publish abounds; as does criticism of the Anglo-American hegemony in our conferences and publishing (Minca 2003). Moreover, the recent campaign to boycott Elsevier publications (including Political Geography, Geoforum, and Applied Geography) due to their support for arms trading has highlighted how “academic practices are increasingly enmeshed with capitalist social relations through their links with, and dependency on, multinational publishing companies” (Chatterton and Featherstone 2006:5). This move to be more critically aware of the commercialisation not just of our institutions, but also of our outputs, is necessary and

Patient with Macular Disease, Good Visual Acuity, and Central Visual Field Disruption and Significant Difficulties with Activities of Daily Living

It is generally appreciated that patients with macular disease frequently experience reduced visual acuity. It is not as widely appreciated that they often have significant central visual field disruption, which, by itself, can cause significant problems with activities of daily living, such as reading and driving, even when they maintain good visual acuity. Few patients who are referred for low vision rehabilitation are free of scotomas in their macular area. A scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO) macular perimetry study involving 1,339 eyes of 825 patients with low vision showed that 90.9% of the eyes had a dense scotoma somewhere within the area of the central 20 degrees (Fletcher & Schuchard, 1997). With SLO, perimetry is performed with direct observation of stimuli falling on the retina; the central visual field can be mapped onto an image of the macula. In testing for dense scotomas, a bright stimulus is flashed onto a macular location, and the patient indicates whether he or she is able to see it. This method of testing provides a more accurate map than do other techniques. In the large population of patients with low vision in the study conducted by two of the authors of this report (Fletcher & Schuchard, 1997), the method showed considerably complex scotoma patterns. Whereas some scotomas were round and centered on the fovea, many were not. Some patients maintained fixation at the fovea but had nearby scotomas on all four sides of fixation (right, left, superior, and inferior). When all four borders of fixation were scotomatous, we classified the pattern as a ring scotoma (like looking at the world through a doughnut hole). These patients could fixate in a small central island of vision and could see in their peripheral fields but had an area of scotoma in all directions immediately around the fixation. This ring scotoma pattern occurred in 17.4% of the patients (73.5% of the patients had some other type of scotoma pattern in their central field, and 9.1% did not have any scotomas). Patients with ring scotomas often maintain relatively good visual acuity but have significant functional problems on the basis of the disruption in their central field. In this report, we describe the case of a patient with macular disease whose relatively good visual acuity was maintained but whose fixation was surrounded by a ring scotoma. The patient experienced considerable difficulty maintaining an independent lifestyle, and many of the subject's activities of daily living were disrupted. REPORT OF THE CASE A 79-year-old retired physician with age-related macular degeneration had been told that he also had cataracts. At the evaluation, he wondered if his increasing visual difficulties were related to the cataracts. He was found to have cataracts in both eyes, which were mild and not thought to be a significant contributor to his complaints. There was severe macular degeneration in the right eye with a disciform scar and overlying hemorrhage. The macular degeneration in the left eye appeared to be atrophic, with a central island of intact macular area. This patient also complained of difficulty with several activities of daily living and was appropriately referred for low vision rehabilitation in spite of his relatively good visual acuity. He had stopped driving five years earlier even though he maintained sufficiently good visual acuity and peripheral fields to pass the vision testing at the department of motor vehicles. He did not feel confident driving and was happy to let his wife do all the driving for them. He reported difficulty with reading both small and large print and in writing. He was also a golfer, and his primary difficulty with the sport was in following the ball after a tee shot. He had reported these difficulties to his ophthalmologists in the state of his summer residence and was told on several occasions that his vision tested fine and that he should not be having any problems. …

Citation patterns of online and print journals in the digital age

The research assesses the impact of online journals on citation patterns by examining whether researchers were more likely to limit the resources they cited to those journals available online rather than those only in print. Publications from a large urban university with a medical college at an urban location and at a smaller regional location were examined. The number of online journals available to authors on either campus was the same. The number of print journals available on the large campus was much greater than the print journals available at the small campus. Searches by author affiliation from 1996 to 2005 were performed in the Web of Science to find all articles written by affiliated members in the college of medicine at the selected institution. Cited references from randomly selected articles were recorded, and the cited journals were coded into five categories based on their availability at the study institution: print only, print and online, online only, not owned, and dropped. Results were analyzed using SPSS. The age of articles cited for selected years as well as for 2006 and 2007 was also examined. The number of journals cited each year continued to increase. On the large urban campus, researchers were not more likely to cite journals available online or less likely to cite journals only in print. At the regional location, at which the number of print-only journals was minimal, use of print-only journals significantly decreased. The citation of print-only journals by researchers with access to a library with a large print and electronic collection appeared to continue, despite the availability of potential alternatives in the online collection. Journals available in electronic format were cited more frequently in publications from the campus whose library had a small print collection, and the citation of journals available in both print and electronic formats generally increased over the years studied.

PLoS Biology at 5: The Future Is Open Access

PLoS Biology at 5: The Future Is Open Access

The Bulletin at 60: from scientific organ to public health journal

The Bulletin of the World Health Organization is recognized as one of the world's pre-eminent public health journals, having maintained its role as the organization's principal scientific organ, This dual focus has not sprung up overnight but has been the result of an evolutionary process over its 60-year history. Several changes to both its content and format and, crucially, the publication of several landmark articles have helped forge the journal's unique identity. When it was launched in 1948, as a deliberate continuation of the earlier Bulletin of the League of Nations Health Organization, the Bulletin was expected to have an important influence on medical opinion in the widest sense, and especially on the opinions of those responsible for formulating and guiding medical theory and practice: that is, medical scientists and teachers, and public health administrators. The first few issues of the Bulletin were distributed free to national health and research institutes, medical schools and faculty libraries, often in exchange for medical journals. Subscriptions were soon offered; in June 1948, there were almost 600 paid subscribers, though few were private individuals. The work of WHO'S Expert Advisory Committees--external experts invited to advise WHO on specific subjects--was the main inspiration for much of the Bulletin's early content. The journal's main function at that time was also to publish studies relevant to the Expert Committees' work and to cover subjects for which there were experts within the WHO secretariat. The Executive Board believed the Bulletin should publish articles on the following six categories: * laboratory studies on topics such as biological standardization and communicable diseases, one of the main objectives being to encourage the use of uniform methods to obtain comparable results; * internationally significant studies of results achieved by specific disease control methods; * studies of the geographical distribution of diseases; * reports of surveys, especially those involving studies of relevant world literature and visits to countries; reports of original findings made in the course of field programmes; and * review articles based primarily on surveys of literature summarizing the present state of knowledge in different fields By October 1958, the Bulletin was mainly publishing articles on communicable diseases, especially malaria and tuberculosis. By this time, entire issues of the Bulletin dedicated to a specific topic had started to appear, ranging from plague control (1953) and environmental sanitation (1954) to occupational health (1955) and the serology of syphilis (1956). In 1963, the Bulletin started to publish supplements to the regular volumes, covering topics of interest to the public health community--often with a more public health than scientific focus. One of the first was devoted to meningitis in Africa. This balance between science and its application for public health purposes would continue to characterize the journal for decades to come. By the end of the 1950s, the Bulletin had established a clear character. A report delivered to the 25th session of the WHO Executive Board in 1959 noted that 67% of articles published since the journal's inception qualified as international or unrelated to a geographical area. The Bulletin's format was also evolving along with the content. In 1950, a bibliographical section (containing references relevant to the sanitary conventions) was included and the Executive Board authorized the publication of a single edition containing articles in French or English, with summaries in both these working languages. In 1959, the format and the cover were redesigned, with a larger page size and smaller print with a double-column layout, facilitating the inclusion of more tables, graphs, maps and other illustrative material. …

The Imago Dei and Election: Reading Genesis 1:26–28 and Old Testament Scholarship with Karl Barth

Abstract: Barth's treatment of the imago dei within his interpretation of the Genesis creation story (CD III/1) divides biblical scholars and dogmaticians. In an attempt to bridge the impasse Barth's relational interpretation is re‐examined. A narrow focus on the small print exegesis of Genesis 1:26–28 has often led to Barth being misread. In contrast, attention is given to Barth's hermeneutical principles and his exegesis is placed within the wider context of his understanding of the creation story. Even in terms of his own hermeneutic Barth's reading of the imago is shown to be problematic. This hermeneutic can, however, be applied to provide a reading of the imago as a relationship to God and the world analogous to Israel's election. Such a reading is exegetically defensible and theologically suggestive.

Do advertisements for antihypertensive drugs in Australia promote quality prescribing? A cross-sectional study

BackgroundAntihypertensive medications are widely prescribed by doctors and heavily promoted by the pharmaceutical industry. Despite strong evidence of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of thiazide diuretics, trends in both promotion and prescription of antihypertensive drugs favour newer, less cost-effective agents. Observational evidence shows correlations between exposure to pharmaceutical promotion and less ideal prescribing. Our study therefore aimed to determine whether print advertisements for antihypertensive medications promote quality prescribing in hypertension.MethodsWe performed a cross-sectional study of 113 advertisements for antihypertensive drugs from 4 general practice-oriented Australian medical publications in 2004. Advertisements were evaluated using a quality checklist based on a review of hypertension management guidelines. Main outcome measures included: frequency with which antihypertensive classes were advertised, promotion of thiazide class drugs as first line agents, use of statistical claims in advertisements, mention of harms and prices in the advertisements, promotion of assessment and treatment of cardiovascular risk, promotion of lifestyle modification, and targeting of particular patient subgroups.ResultsThiazides were the most frequently advertised drug class (48.7% of advertisements), but were largely promoted in combination preparations. The only thiazide advertised as a single agent was the most expensive, indapamide. No advertisement specifically promoted any thiazide as a better first-line drug. Statistics in the advertisements tended to be expressed in relative rather than absolute terms. Drug costs were often reported, but without cost comparisons between drugs. Adverse effects were usually reported but largely confined to the advertisements' small print. Other than mentioning drug interactions with alcohol and salt, no advertisements promoted lifestyle modification. Few advertisements (2.7%) promoted the assessment of cardiovascular risk.ConclusionPrint advertisements for antihypertensive medications in Australia provide some, but not all, of the key messages required for guideline-concordant care. These results have implications for the regulation of drug advertising and the continuing education of doctors.

Percepção de risco, atitudes e práticas no uso de agrotóxicos entre agricultores de Culturama, MS

To evaluate risk perception, practices and attitudes on pesticide use in a rural population. Qualitative study conducted in Midwestern Brazil in February 2005. Seven focal groups (N=40), comprising five to seven individuals each, discussed pesticide-related issues and included the presentation of a product container to support the discussion on labels. The discussions were tape recorded, transcribed and analyzed following the method for discourse analysis. The farmers studied were aware of the risks resulting from direct and indirect exposure to pesticides and many were concerned about potential environmental contamination. Interviewee's information on pesticides was limited to product dosage and was mostly conveyed by product retailers. They complained about the small print and technical language used in product labels but many were able to understand the pictograms and color toxicity codes. The farmers studied not always converted their risk perception and personal experiences into safer practices for pesticide use such as use of personal protective devices. They feel hopeless to face risky situations, mainly because of unmanageable environmental factors and their vulnerable financial condition. This community needs to be involved in targeted governmental extension programs that stress alternative pest managements and safe use of pesticides.

Caregivers with Visual Impairments: A Preliminary Study

Persons who are elderly, visually impaired, and primary caregivers for ailing or disabled spouses or significant others are a unique population that has not been studied previously. By definition, informal caregivers are family members or friends who provide unpaid day-to-day assistance with activities of daily living and are familiar with the medical and social states of the recipients of care (Ankri, Andrieu, Beaufils, Grand, & Henrard, 2005). Traditionally, persons with visual impairments have been thought of as recipients of care. However, as the U.S. population ages, many persons who are elderly and visually impaired may be providing care for others. Decreased visual acuity reduces the ability of individuals to care for themselves and others (Stevenson, Hart, Montgomery, McCulloch, & Chakravarthy, 2004). Approximately 3.4 million Americans have some type of visual impairment, and 1 in 28 Americans aged 40 and older is affected by low vision (Gohdes, Balamurugan, Larsen, & Maylahn, 2005). That number is expected to increase significantly as the U.S. population ages because the prevalence of ocular diseases that cause visual impairment increases significantly with age (Gohdes et al., 2005). About 125 million persons in the United States were living with chronic health conditions in 2000, a number that is expected to increase to about 157 million by 2020 (Anderson & Knickman, 2001; Rundall et al., 2002). Pandya (2005) estimated that approximately 44.4 million persons provided informal care to adult family members with chronic illnesses or physical disabilities during a one-year period. These caregivers help their family members remain at home by providing assistance with such things as bathing, preparing food, eating, managing money and medication, traveling for medical appointments and other activities, and safely transferring their family members from a bed to a chair or wheelchair. Although informal caregivers are unpaid, the value of informal caregiving has been estimated to be upward of $257 billion annually (Arno, 2002). Persons who are visually impaired experience a decreased ability to observe visual information and may have a reduced quality of life and limitations in functional activities (Chakravarthy & Stevenson, 2005; Hassell, Lamoureux, & Keeffe, 2006; Knudtson, Klein, Klein, Cruickshanks, & Lee, 2005; Lamoureux et al., 2007). Common functional problems that are associated with vision loss include significant difficulty reading small print and reading and writing checks; decreased facial recognition; a decreased ability to gather, store, and retrieve information; a decreased ability to administer medications; decreased mobility; a greater risk of injury resulting from falls; the inability to drive; and problems with shopping, cleaning, grooming, and other tasks that are dependent on vision (Bailey, 1988; Bullimore, Bailey, & Wacker, 1991; Cahill, Banks, Stinnett, & Toth, 2005; Klein, Moss, Klein, Lee, & Cruickshanks, 2003; Park, 1999). Numerous studies have shown that caregivers have high levels of stress and physical and psychological morbidity (Beach, 2005; Buck et al., 2000; Hirst, 2005; Mafullul & Morriss, 2000; Navaie-Waliser et al., 2002; Navaie-Waliser, Spriggs, & Feldman, 2002; Pinquart & Sorensen, 2006; Yakubu, 2000). Caregivers may be at an increased risk for illness, poor immune function, infection, and depression (Kiecolt-Glaser, Dura, Speicher, Trask, & Glaser, 1991; Vitaliano, Zhang, & Scanlan, 2003; Wu et al., 1999). At least one study suggested that caregivers with compromised mental and physical health may provide lower-quality care to the recipients of care (Beach, 2005). Caregivers who are visually impaired may have a variety of unique concerns because of their difficulties with vision loss and the exceptional burdens and strains of providing care for a family member who is chronically ill or disabled. …

Experimental and numerical study of compression after impact of sandwich structures with metallic skins

A finite element model is proposed to determine the residual print of sandwich structures with Nomex honeycomb core and metallic skins indented by a spherical indenter and to simulate its behavior when this indented structure is subjected to lateral compressive loading (known as CAI/ Compression after impact). The particularities of this model rely on representing the honeycomb with a grid of non-linear springs which its behavior law calibrated from uniform compression test. This simple model, after integrating the cycle behavior law of honeycomb, allows predicting the geometry of residual print with a good precision. This model is then developed to propose a complete computation from indentation, residual print geometry to lateral compressive loading after indentation (CAI). This model also allows predicting numerically the residual strength of structure in CAI and the elliptical evolution of residual print geometry during CAI loading. A good correlation with test results is obtained except for the very small residual print depth.

Open access to open publish: National Library of Australia

Academic and scholarly journals are in trouble: small print runs, part-time editors, and dwindling funds are conspiring to crush them. But help is at hand: new trends in open access publishing support free, digital and open access to research literature, bringing writing and discourse to new and wider audiences.&#x0D; &#x0D; The National Library of Australia has created an Open Publish Web space, using the Open Journal Systems (OJS) digital publishing software to manage, host and deliver an online open access journal service.&#x0D; &#x0D; The Library's objective is to establish "new ways of collecting, sharing, recording, disseminating and preserving knowledge". We want "to ensure our relevance in a rapidly changing world, [by participating] in new online communities". For these reasons, the Library decided to engage in an open access journal publishing trial.&#x0D; &#x0D; This paper outlines the collaboration between the Library and the Association for the Study of Australian Literature to migrate their peer-reviewed journal, JASAL, to an online format.&#x0D; &#x0D; The successful outcome has informed the Library's decision to include Open Publish journals in the Library's collections.

Health Literacy Levels Among Adult Support Group Members and the General Adult Public : A Focus Group Approach

ABSTRACT Health literacy has been identified as lacking in 47% of Americans (The National Academies, 2004). While health literacy reports of studies conducted in the southern section of the United States are available (DeWalt et al., 2004; Kennen et al. 2005), this research team found limited research that provides health literacy levels of the southeast, rural Georgia population. The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine and compare health literacy of health-related support group members and non group members in southeast Georgia utilizing a focus group methodology developed by Kreuger (1994). After Institutional Review Board approval at a local university, the research team utilized 5-10 established Health-related Support Groups of 6-10 individuals in the southeastern part of the United States. An additional four focus groups composed of persons not associated with a health-related support group were also used for comparative purposes. Participants were recruited with the assistance of local health care providers. The initial open-ended questions consisted of items such as: “Describe your experience reading health resources.” What makes a health resource difficult to read, as well as easy to read? The moderator utilized additional probing questions and reframing comments as necessary (Kreuger, 1994). The data were analyzed by the qualitative content analysis method described by Berg (1989). The themes that emerged across groups reflected confusion about medication directions, health terms, and communication from health care providers and doubt about the integrity of and inability to read the small print of health information. Prevention and faith in God were identified as important to self-care. Rationales for themes and future research ideas are discussed.

Editorial: Signing off

Editorial: Signing off