Unacceptable Status Research Articles

Strategies to Promote Empowerment Status of Breast Cancer Women.

As the second leading cause of death in women in the world, breast cancer has several physical and psychological effects. Nowadays, nonclinical approaches such as patient empowerment have been considered by physicians along with clinical care. Given the increasing number of breast cancer women worldwide, promoting the empowerment of these patients is one of the key factors affecting their survival and quality of life. Therefore, because of no comprehensive research on the empowerment needs and related improvement strategies, this study is aimed at determining the empowerment status of breast cancer patients referred to the Shahid Motahari Breast Cancer Clinic in Iran, Shiraz, and at providing strategies to improve their empowerment in 2021. This applied study was conducted in two phases. In the quantitative phase, 310 Cancer-Related Patient Empowerment Scale questionnaires (Persian format) were distributed among the studied patients selected through the random sampling method in the clinic, and the items with "unacceptable status" became the basis for determining the empowerment strategies through the scoping review and semistructured interviews with 22 medical staff and patients through the thematic analysis. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS 20.0 and MAXQDA10 software. The mean score of the participants' empowerment strategies was 3.58. The results showed that trust in the physician, family support, and spiritual beliefs could affect the empowerment of the studied patients. Moreover, the participants needed empowerment strategies in 11 scale items with unacceptable status, for which 46 strategies were determined in the scoping review and interview phase. The results of this study provided useful strategies for empowering breast cancer patients, the most important of which were classified into five categories of financial support, informational support, interaction with the physician, occupational support, and complementary therapies, the use of which by the stakeholders could help to improve the patients' quality of life while improving their empowerment.

COVID-19′s Still-Urgent Lessons of Structural Inequality and Child Health in the United States

AbstractCOVID-19's lessons on structural inequality should have been painful and embarrassing to all of us. These daily experiences of an unacceptable status quo among US children are still with us in a post-COVID America. Addressing the multi-sectoral factors that undermine the nation...s health should remain urgent priorities for all health professionals.

Benthic Habitat Quality Assessment in Estuarine Intertidal Flats Based on Long-Term Data with Focus on Responses to Eco-Restoration Activity

A long-term assessment of the benthic habitat quality of intertidal flats in Liaohe Estuary was conducted by three integrating ecological indices, AZTI’s Marine Biotic Index (AMBI), Multivariate-AMBI (M-AMBI), and Shannon–Wiener diversity index (H′) based on macrobenthos data from 2013 to 2020. The results showed that the macrobenthic communities were characterized by indifferent and sensitive species of AMBI ecological groups. The annual ranges of H′, AMBI, and M-AMBI were 0.77–1.56, 1.44–3.73 and 0.36–0.54, respectively. Noticeable differences were found among assessment obtained by these biotic indices. Approximately 100%, 24%, and 78% sampling sites had “moderate”, “poor”, and “bad” statuses as assessed by H′, AMBI, and M-AMBI, respectively. Compared with H′ and AMBI, M-AMBI may be more applicable to evaluate the benthic habitat quality of intertidal flats in Liaohe Estuary. Results suggest that the benthic habitat quality in the middle parts of intertidal flats still had an unacceptable status and has not improved radically to date after large-scale “mariculture ponds restored to intertidal flats”.

Overcoming the Chasm Between Evidence and Routine Practice for Bladder Cancer; Just a Quixotic Notion?

There has been a failure to improve outcomes in bladder cancer over the last 30 years. This is despite clinical trial evidence showing a benefit of interventions such as neoadjuvant chemotherapy or concurrent radiosensitisation for non-metastatic muscle-invasive bladder cancer. The bladder cancer population is characteristically elderly, who typically suffer from multiple comorbidities. Historically, radical cystectomy has been heralded as the treatment of choice, with radiotherapy being reserved for those with inoperable tumours or those unfit for major pelvic surgery, despite a lack of robust comparative or quality of life data to support one treatment recommendation over the other. Although patients with non-metastatic muscle-invasive bladder cancer have potentially curable disease, a growing body of population-based analyses persistently highlights that most patients do not undergo curative-intent treatments – a trend that remains static. The causes for the disparity between evidence and routine practice is not clearly understood. Here, the facets of patient-centred evidence-based care, with respect to bladder conservation therapy, are examined, with proposals to reverse this unacceptable status quo.

Comparing Household Environmental Health Indicators between Oil-bearing and Non-oil-bearing Communities in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

Background: Household environmental health indicators have contributed to the quality of life of the populace in regions of the world where they have been made available. This study compared the indicators of household environmental health between oil-bearing and non-oil-bearing communities located in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
 Methods: An analytical, cross-sectional household survey was carried out among 601 households in six oil-bearing and non-oil-bearing selected communities located within the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Multistage sampling was employed, and an interviewer-administered questionnaire used to elicit data on the household environmental health indicators in the communities. The scores across the six indicator domains were summed and categorized into acceptable and unacceptable status. Results: Water sources in both oil-bearing 230 (76.4%) and non-oil-bearing communities 177 (59.0%) were sanitary. Sanitary sewage 250 (83.1%) and sullage disposal 210 (69.8%) was practiced by most households in oil-bearing areas. The minority of respondents in both oil-bearing 26 (8.6%) and non-oil-bearing 41 (13.7%) communities practiced sanitary refuse disposal. Households in oil-bearing communities had twelve times greater odds of having a satisfactory environmental health status compared to households in non-oil-bearing communities (Adjusted O.R: 11.70, 95% C.I: 7.75-17.65).
 Conclusion: Households in oil-bearing communities fared better in all household environmental health indicators. There is a need to address the economic and social determinants of health among households in the Niger Delta to improve household environmental health indicators.

Halliday, Daniel. The Inheritance of Wealth: Justice, Equality, and the Right to Bequeath. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. 256. $42.95 (cloth).

Halliday, Daniel. <i>The Inheritance of Wealth: Justice, Equality, and the Right to Bequeath</i>. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. 256. $42.95 (cloth).

The Standard Model vs. Physical Facts

Dynamical sectors of the Standard Model of particle physics are critically analyzed. It is proved thatquantum electrodynamics, quantum chromodynamics, and the electroweak theory are inconsistentwith fundamental physical principles. More than two examples apply to each of these theories, andany of these examples substantiate the unacceptable status of the relevant theory. Unfortunately,the mainstream particle physics literature ignores this situation and glorifies the Standard Modelas an excellent scientific theory.

Dignity, Fundamental Rights and Legal Capacity: Moving Beyond the Paradigm Set by the General Comment on Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Article 12 of the CRPD is often heralded as bringing about a ‘paradigm shift’ in the treatment of those with psychosocial disabilities. Historically, many persons with psychosocial disabilities have been treated as ‘objects’ and without considering their expressions of will even when they are capable of making decisions. That unacceptable status quo, of course, needed to change; yet, the shifts that have taken place - in a document such as the General Comment on Article 12 of the CRPD - I contend in this article actually reinforce the marginalisation of those with severe psychosocial disabilities and can harm their rights. The approach adopted in the General Comment does so, I argue, through reinforcing the traditional Kantian philosophical tradition which roots the very value and rights of individuals in their capacity to be autonomous agents in the world. That paradigm, unfortunately, is deeply flawed in its failure both to take account of those who lack autonomous agency and other decision-making capacities yet whose lives can go better or worse; and its failure to recognise and honour the value that lies in dependency and passivity as well as agency. I provide an alternative account which attempts to address these shortcomings and, in so doing, embrace the rights of those who are dependent on care and largely passive whilst not diminishing the importance of autonomy and agency for others. I argue, in conclusion, that South Africa should not follow the approach of the General Comment where it would jeopardise the rights of those with psychosocial disabilities and, instead, should, in its laws, give expression to the more normatively desirable approach articulated in this article.

Adolescents' awareness of fruit and vegetable consumption in Iran: An unacceptable status

Background: Knowledge and awareness of fruit and vegetable consumption is considered as one of the determining factors of this behavior in children and adolescents. This study is conducted to assess adolescents' awareness of fruit and vegetable consumption in Tehran city. Materials and Methods: The present research is a cross-sectional, descriptive-analytic study which is conducted to assess Tehranian adolescents' awareness of fruit and vegetable consumption. In this research, 500 students aged 11–14 years from middle schools in Tehran (250 boys and 250 girls) were studied. Participants were selected by multistage random sampling method. The inclusion criteria were age 11–14 years, informed consent and voluntary participation of students in the study. Data were collected by means of a researcher-made questionnaire which included 11 questions about demographic characteristics and 17 questions about participants' awareness. The face validity and content validity of this questionnaire are assessed, and its reliability is measured by internal consistency method (α = 0.7). Completed questionnaires were collected, and data were entered into the computer. T-test, one-way analysis of variance, and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the collected data by means of SPSS 18. Results: The mean scores of adolescents' awareness of fruit and vegetable consumption was 27.21 with standard deviation of 3.26. The awareness of fruit and vegetable consumption in 35 students (7%) was poor, in 266 students (53.2%) was moderate and in 181 students (36.2%) was good. The findings of this study showed a significant difference between boys' and girls' awareness of fruit and vegetable consumption. There was a significant association between student' awareness and age, number of family members, and mothers' education level as well. However, there was no relationship between participants' awareness and their fathers' education level and also a residential area. Conclusion: Tehranian adolescents' awareness of fruit and vegetable consumption is not acceptable. It is recommended to design and implement some interventional programs to promote adolescents' awareness of fruit and vegetable consumption.

Dignity, fundamental rights and legal capacity: moving beyond the paradigm set by the General Comment on Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Article 12 of the CRPD is often heralded as a ‘paradigm shift’ in the treatment of those with psychosocial disabilities. Historically, many persons with psychosocial disabilities have been treated as ‘objects’, without considering their expressions of will, even when they are capable of making decisions. That unacceptable status quo needed to change; yet, the shifts that have taken place – in a document such as the General Comment on Article 12 of the CRPD – actually reinforce the marginalisation of those with severe psychosocial disabilities and can harm their rights. The approach adopted in the General Comment does so, I argue, through reinforcing the traditional Kantian philosophical tradition which roots the very value and rights of individuals in their capacity to be autonomous agents in the world. That paradigm, unfortunately, is deeply flawed in its failure to take account of those who lack autonomous agency and other decision-making capacities, yet whose lives can go better or worse; and its failure to recognise and honour the value that lies in dependency and passivity as well as agency. I provide an alternative account which attempts to address these shortcomings and embrace the rights of those who are dependent on care and largely passive whilst not diminishing the importance of autonomy and agency for others. I argue that South Africa should not follow the approach of the General Comment where it would jeopardise the rights of those with psychosocial disabilities and, instead, should, in its laws, give expression to the more normatively desirable approach articulated in this article.

An unacceptable status quo: A sport development case study of swimming and drownings

This case study illustrates the complexity of sport development decision-making and specifically highlights the public health concern of drowning disparities in the United States. Using sport development research to demonstrate the linkage between empirical study and practice, students must consider various factors for the most effective approach to attract and retain participants involved in a local swimming program. The parks and recreation department director, Bob Shell, is tasked with determining the best program structure based on the sets of sport development proposals he received from a member of the management staff. To further ensure students are presented with a realistic scenario, this case offers a combination of fictional and real life events from an innovative swimming program in Memphis, Tennessee. Students must critically evaluate not only sport development practices and the merits of the swimming program, but other organizational partnerships that may be formed in the community. Therefore, students are placed in a decision-making role that is common to managers in many sport contexts beyond swimming. This case study is appropriate for both undergraduate and graduate sport management courses, with specific application to sport development, policy and governance, strategic management, and recreation or leisure topics.

Graduate Students Roundtable Introduction

Graduate Students Roundtable Introduction Akin Adesokan During the afternoon session of the symposium, five graduate students from various IU departments affiliated with the African Studies Program constituted a panel segment. The symposium’s concerns being prospective, it was felt that those in the process of becoming professional academics were well-placed to speak to this future. They had read all the speakers’ presentations and had prepared short texts in response, reflecting on the institutional challenges they perceive their respective disciplines to be facing. Their responses are articulate and specifically engaged, and the recurrent critical tone in them is indicative of changes that are sorely required. That such requirements pertain similarly to political science and comparative literary studies may be a function of the heightened awareness of students who have taken on the role of specializing in these fields, but it is also a function of the status of these fields in relation to the African continent. As unprecedented social changes put pressures on academic disciplines that subsist on tradition and predictability, conscientious scholars come to feel the pressures in the need to be reflexive and imaginative when confronted with an “object of study” which, while constantly changing, must subsist on the precarious practices of the roll of the dice. The genre of the “state-of-the-discipline” has already become a standard mode of self-accounting in African studies in the United States. The more serious of such studies may have effected consequential changes, and only those who know can tell. As the cultural theorist Timothy Brennan puts it in Secular Devotion, his study of Afro-Latin music as an imperialized form of leisure and entertainment, the African continent “has become an ethical destination of those who want to flee all associations with [the West’s exploitative role], the embodiment of an unacceptable status freely taken on.” Besides the aforementioned critical note, one other thing that recurs in the papers published below is a sense of the African continent as a destination. Perhaps the generation of scholars speaking through these voices would link that objective desire for another day at the office closely with the ethical awareness through which one’s destination is inseparable from one’s destiny. [End Page 101] NOTE Brennan, Timothy. 2008. Secular Devotion: Afro-Latin Music and Imperial Jazz (London: Verso), 3. [End Page 102] Copyright © 2016 The Trustees of Indiana University

Tuberculosis treatment and management—an update on treatment regimens, trials, new drugs, and adjunct therapies

WHO estimates that 9 million people developed active tuberculosis in 2013 and 1·5 million people died from it. Multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis continue to spread worldwide with an estimated 480,000 new cases in 2013. Treatment success rates of MDR and XDR tuberculosis are still low and development of new, more effective tuberculosis drugs and adjunct therapies to improve treatment outcomes are urgently needed. Although standard therapy for drug-sensitive tuberculosis is highly effective, shorter, more effective treatment regimens are needed to reduce the burden of infectious cases. We review the latest WHO guidelines and global recommendations for treatment and management of drug-sensitive and drug-resistant tuberculosis, and provide an update on new drug development, results of several phase 2 and phase 3 tuberculosis treatment trials, and other emerging adjunct therapeutic options for MDR and XDR tuberculosis. The use of fluoroquinolone-containing (moxifloxacin and gatifloxacin) regimens have failed to shorten duration of therapy, and the new tuberculosis drug pipeline is sparse. Scale-up of existing interventions with increased investments into tuberculosis health services, development of new antituberculosis drugs, adjunct therapies and vaccines, coupled with visionary political leadership, are still our best chance to change the unacceptable status quo of the tuberculosis situation worldwide and the growing problem of drug-resistant tuberculosis.

English

This paper addresses racism and white privilege in America. Racism is generally discriminatory policy and behavior aimed at oppressing non whites whereas white privilege is the advantage gained by whites that is not due to ability or merit. It is argued that white privilege is largely invisible and that this allows the current unacceptable status quo to continue. A survey of items is offered as a tool to be used by college teachers to sensitize students of the nature and effects of white privilege. &nbsp; Key words: Discriminate, racism, racial code words, racism, white privilege.

Superpower Agency and the 1973 Arab-Israeli War

One of the key challenges for scholars studying U.S. and Soviet power in the Third World has been to account for the agency of non-Western actors. In episodes ranging from Vietnam to Afghanistan, the Americans and Soviets found themselves hamstrung in small wars, fighting seemingly inferior opponents that were nevertheless able to block or at least complicate superpower ambitions. How much agency should historians assign to Third World actors, small states, and nonstate groups? It might be argued that during the Cold War, local players made their own history, but they did not always do so under circumstances of their choosing; rather, they did it under circumstances and structures created by the superpowers. By connecting the superpower politics of détente to the local dynamics of the Arab–Israeli conflict, Craig Daigle’s book offers a bold defense of superpower agency. The book focuses on the origins of the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, casting the regional story through the lens of the Cold War. Daigle’s core argument is that superpower détente helped to set the stage for war between Egypt, Syria, and Israel. The war was thus a “consequence of détente” (p. 331). During the same time that superpower rapprochement sought to reduce tensions between Moscow and Washington, Daigle explains, it threatened to freeze a fundamentally unacceptable status quo in the Middle East, leaving leaders in Cairo and Damascus with no other recourse than to go to war against Israeli military forces occupying Egyptian and Syrian territory. Cold War détente helped to produce an untenable stalemate in Egyptian–Israeli relations. Daigle’s time in the Office of the Historian at the U.S. Department of State is on display throughout. The author has mined the American archives to produce the best-documented account of U.S. policy toward the Egyptian–Israeli rivalry in the immediate run-up to the 1973 war.

Improving Science, Technology and Mathematics Students’ Achievement: Imperatives for Teacher Preparation in the Caribbean Colleges and Universities

The concerns of this article are the unacceptable status of Science, Technology and Mathematics (STM) Education in the Caribbean and how to improve the students’ achievement in the subjects involved through the instrumentality of better preparation of teachers by the Colleges and University faculties training teachers in the region. The index for measuring development among nations of the world is the level of scientific and technological advancement because the factors that influence development are based on human ability to explore, invest and utilize the natural endowments available in the nation. In other words, no nation can attain any reasonable level of development without meeting the vital demands of development particularly in the areas of science, technology and mathematics. Therefore, the article begins with the presentation of the importance and the status of STM education using the mirror of science students’ achievement at global level. Moreover, it is established that the Caribbean education also has some challenges to deal with in the areas of science, technology and mathematics education. The tertiary institutions, particularly the colleges training teachers and the universities are then challenged with suggestions of what they can or should do in teacher preparation that may have direct impact on improving the science students’ achievement in the Caribbean. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n1p97

Improving Science, Technology and Mathematics Students’ Achievement: Imperatives for Teacher Preparation in the Caribbean Colleges and Universities

&lt;p style="text-align:justify"&gt;The concerns of this article are the unacceptable status of Science, Technology and Mathematics (STM) Education in the Caribbean and how to improve the students’ achievement in the subjects involved through the instrumentality of better preparation of teachers by the Colleges and University faculties training teachers in the region. The index for measuring development among nations of the world is the level of scientific and technological advancement because the factors that influence development are based on human ability to explore, invest and utilize the natural endowments available in the nation. In other words, no nation can attain any reasonable level of development without meeting the vital demands of development particularly in the areas of science, technology and mathematics. Therefore, the article begins with the presentation of the importance and the status of STM education using the mirror of science students’ achievement at global level. Moreover, it is established that the Caribbean education also has some challenges to deal with in the areas of science, technology and mathematics education. The tertiary institutions, particularly the colleges training teachers and the universities are then challenged with suggestions of what they can or should do in teacher preparation that may have direct impact on improving the science students’ achievement in the Caribbean.&lt;/p&gt;

Assessment criteria for using the sea‐urchin embryo test with sediment elutriates as a tool to classify the ecotoxicological status of marine water bodies

A large, multiyear data set was generated by pooling the sediment elutriate (SET) results collected during previous studies conducted in the Galician Rias (northwest Iberian Peninsula) that met the acceptability criteria in the controls, to ensure optimum quality of data (n=162). Two subsets of equal to reference and lower than reference sites were identified by comparing the Percentage Net Response (PNR) value from each sampling site with nontoxic, cruise-specific, reference sites by using the t test with the unequal variance assumption. Ecotoxicological Assessment Criteria (EAC0, EAC1, EAC2, and EAC3) were then derived from those two subsets to classify the SET results into five categories of ecotoxicological status: high, good, moderate, poor, and bad, in line with the European legislation. The 50th and 5th percentiles of the PNR distribution of the equal to reference sites subset were EAC0=0.879 and EAC1=0.694. An EAC2=0.508 was obtained from the 50th percentile of the lower than reference sites subset. Because the PNR values of the entire database showed a distribution that can be adjusted to two normal populations, the EAC3=0.240 PNR was calculated as the intersection between the first and second normal distributions identified. Power analysis proved that the limit between acceptable and unacceptable status (EAC1) corresponded to a detectable PNR difference to control with a confidence level>99% and a power of 95%.

One Cheer for the Con-Con

THE CALIFORNIA Journal of Politics & Policy Commentary One Cheer for the Con-Con Peter Schrag* formerly with the Sacramento Bee As the old cliche goes, in politics you can’t beat some- thing with nothing. So even though the proposal for a con- stitutional convention is flawed—and while it involves all sorts of imponderables—absent a decent third alternative, it seems to be either the con-con or the continuation of an unacceptable status quo. A convention at least has a chance of bringing home to the delegates and, just pos- sibly, to many other Californians, both the seriousness and the complexity of the state’s dysfunctional governmental structure. There are no recent models of successful state consti- tutional conventions and there is always the fear of a run- away convention getting into divisive social issues and/or www.bepress.com/cjpp Volume 2, Issue 2, 2010 ignoring the complex structural problems that its backers hope to address. In the case of the proposal now being sponsored by the Bay Area Council, there’s also an equal but opposite danger. In a bow to what its sponsors imagine is an immu- table and rigid antitax orthodoxy, the initiative prohibits the delegates from including any “new language, or alter(ing) existing language, that directly imposes or reduces any taxes or fees; sets the frequency at which real property is assessed or re-assessed; or defines change in ownership as it relates to any tax or fee.” What that means is that Proposition 13, probably the most severe constitutional constraint on legislative discretion and on local government—and thus on representative democracy —would remain untouchable. Its perpetuation would set the hopeless muddling of state and local authority, and thus of * Peter Schrag is the retired editorial page editor of the Sacramen- to Bee and the author, most recently, of California: America’s High Stakes Experiment (2006). His forthcoming book, “Not Fit for Our Society: Nativism and Immigration,” will be published by the Univer- sity of California Press in the spring.

Unacceptable status quo in access to mental health care

‘I’m seeing a psychiatrist.” For any of us physicians who have said this (and the real number is both bigger than acknowledged and likely smaller than it should be), it immediately evokes a cloistered office where we can speak freely, at length, and regularly — with or without the aid of