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This paper will discuss Internet based data collection and analysis utilizing a Windows 95 and a UNIX hosted system. Forms on the World Wide Web (WWW) that illustrate the use of this technology in medical research, conference registration, and. patient care will be highlighted. Some of the details involved with creating data collection forms will be presented. The paper concludes with the recommendation that the Health Telematics curricula should include a unit on creating Internet based data collection forms.

This article examines the description of Russia in German history and geography textbooks. Nineteenth-century German pedagogical theory linked the natural sciences and the human sciences; the connection supplies further evidence of the perceived organic nature of the nation-state. Although regional and confessional differences among the German states affected the description of German history, the depiction of Russia was consistent. Russia was depicted as a barbaric, backward, and Asiatic empire. The implicit, and often explicit, comparison in the texts was between Russia and Germany. The description of a foreign power served to reinforce German national identity. Moreover, an examination of German geography and history textbooks reveals striking similarities between the perception of Russia in Germany and the Anglo-French depiction of the Near East. Dieser Aufsatz befaßt sich mit dem Rußlandbild in deutschen Schulbüchern für Geschichte und Geographie. Deutsche Pädagogik im 19. Jahrhundert verband die Naturwissenschaft mit der Geisteswissenschaft; diese Verbindung ist noch ein Beweis für die Auf- fassung des Nationalstaats als organisches Wesen. Obwohl regionale und konfessionelle Unterschiede unter den deutschen Ländern die Darstellung von deutscher Geschichte beeinflußten, war die Schilderung von Rußland übereinstimmend. Rußland wurde als ein barbarisches, rückständiges, asiatisches Reich gezeichnet. Der unausgesprochene, und manchmal doch ausgesprochene Vergleich in den Büchern galt Deutschland und Rußland. Die Darstellung der fremden Macht verstärkte die deutsche Nationalidentität. Außerdem enthüllt eine Untersuchung der Schulbücher überraschende Ähnlichkeiten zwischen der deutschen Beschreibung von Rußland und den englischen und französischen Darstellungen des Nahen Osten. L'auteur de cet article analyse l'image de la Russie dans les manuels scolaires allemands d'histoire et de géographie. La pédagogie allemande du 19ème siècle faisait le lien entre les sciences naturelles et les sciences humaines; cette association fournit une preuve supplémentaire du fait que l'Etat-nation était perçu comme un organisme vivant. Alors que les différences régionales et confessionnelles existant entre les différents Etats allemands influençaient la présentation de l'histoire allemande, la description de la Russie était concordante. La Russie était dépeinte comme un empire barbare, arriéré et asiatique. La comparaison implicite, et souvent explicite des textes scolaires concernait la Russie et l'Allemagne. La représentation d'une puissance étrangère servait à renforcer l'identité allemande. En outre, l'analyse de ces manuels révèle des ressemblances étonnantes entre la perception de la Russie et les portraits français et anglais du Proche-Orient.

Eminent scholars provide an overview of what we now know about slavery as an institution and way of life in cultures around the globe from ancient times to the present day. Drawing on the virtual explosion of empirical research and theoretical discussion on the subject over the past thirty years, many of the articles overturn conventional wisdom and illuminate little-known aspects of the subject, with essays on topics such as concubinage, eunuchs, and occupational mobility.

English and Spanish clearly differ in their encoding of motion events, but what is the exact nature of this difference? How does it influence language use? These questions were investigated in two studies of adult English and Spanish speakers' descriptions of static (Study 1) and dynamic (Study 2) motion events. English speakers overwhelmingly used manner-of-motion verbs (e.g. run). Spanish speakers used more path-of-motion verbs (e.g. salir/exit); however, with some motion events they strongly preferred to use manner verbs as well. The two language groups also differed in the degree to which they mentioned the manner of motion at all, and in the types of sentence frames they preferred, but not in the sheer number of verb types produced. The results am discussed with respect to the varying contexts of language use, refinements to typological differences between English and Spanish, and implications for children's acquisition of motion verbs.

The relationship between religiosity and environmentalism has previously been examined by studying conservative versus liberal Christian affiliation. This study explores environmentalist attitudes amongst persons whose religiosity does not fit conventional patterns: the so-called “alternative” or “countercultural” spiritual community (e.g, New Age, Neo-Paganism). This network of individuals finds commonalty and solidarity not through organizational ties or a singular theology, but through an overriding ideology that challenges the alleged rigidity and dualistic dogma of mainstream society, and so suggests a new form of social movement. Central to this critique of the mainstream is the notion that the earth is just as sacred as the “heavens,” and so by preserving the earth, one is being “spiritual. “ Excerpts from in-depth interviews with 22 alternative spiritualists feature numerous key environmental/spiritual themes. These excerpts indicate that issues such as religiosity, “liberal” versus “conservative” affiliation, and environmental politics can take on different meanings when explored outside of mainline Christianity.

This paper examines the factors surrounding the use of alcohol among Latino males. Prevention and treatment strategies for the provision of culturally competent treatment services are proposed, based on an analysis of the literature.

This article reports data collected from a national survey of all accredited social work programs conducted between December 1995 and February 1996. The purpose was to assess current usage of distance learning in social work education. The findings suggest that the use of distance learning has increased, and that the most prevalent issues reported by educators involve adapting instructional material for course presentation and faculty preparation. Implications of the study findings for social work education are also discussed.

Hypotheses concerning possible correlates of sexual satisfaction in marriage were tested using the replies of 797 married women and men of diverse ages to a 70-item mailed questionnaire that contained seven Likert-type sub-scales measuring different sexual and non-sexual variables. Multiple regression analysis, using sexual satisfaction as the dependent variable, yielded a five-variable model that accounted for a significant portion of the variation in sexual satisfaction (Adjusted R Squared = .602). The variable 'overall satisfaction with marriage' had the highest correlation with sexual satisfaction (r = .622), followed by 'satisfaction with non-sexual aspects of the relationship' (r = .609), frequency of spouse/partner orgasm per sexual encounter (r = .529), frequency of sexual activity (r = .370), and 'sexual uninhibitedness' (r = .230). None of three measures of religiosity made a significant contribution to explaining the variation on self reported sexual satisfaction. Men and women did not differ in level of sexual satisfaction, and adding gender to the regression model did not increase the level of explained variation. The results indicate that sexual satisfaction in these married respondents could not be compartmentalized to their sexual interactions, but was strongly associated with non-sexual aspects of the overall marital relationship as well.

In Experiment 1, pigeons' pecks on a green key led to a 5-s delay with green houselights, and then food was delivered on 20% (or, in other conditions, 50%) of the trials. Pecks on a red key led to an adjusting delay with red houselights, and then food was delivered on every trial. The adjusting delay was used to estimate indifference points: delays at which the two alternatives were chosen about equally often. Varying the presence or absence of green houselights during the delays that preceded possible food deliveries had large effects on choice. In contrast, varying the presence of the gr een or red houselights in the intertrial intervals had no effects on choice. In Experiment 2, pecks on the green key led to delays of either 5 s or 30 s with green houselights, and then food was delivered on 20% of the trials. Varying the duration of the green houselights on nonreinforced trials had no effect on choice. The results suggest that the green houselights served as a conditioned reinforcer at some rimes but not at others, depending on whether or nor there was a possibility that a primary reinforcer might be delivered. Given this interpretation of what constitutes a conditioned reinforcer, most of the results were consistent with the view that the strength of a conditioned reinforcer is inversely related to its duration.

The current study examined the stability of mother-adolescent AIDS conversations. Twenty-four mother-adolescent dyads (9 boys, 15 girls) participated at Time 1 (adolescents aged 10-14 years), and again 2 years later. Mothers and adolescents engaged in a videotaped conversation about AIDS and completed AIDS questionnaires. Conversations were coded for content and the extent to which mothers dominated conversations. Conversational dominance remained stable over time. AIDS knowledge was greater for mothers than adolescents, but it improved over time for adolescents while remaining stable for mothers. Mothers who reported discussing AIDS-related topics with their adolescents had less discrepancy between their own and their children's AIDS knowledge. Conversational dominance at Time 1 predicted discrepancy in AIDS knowledge 2 years later, whereas discrepancy in AIDS knowledge at Time 1 did not predict conversational dominance two years later. These results suggest the importance of interactive conversations as a more effective way of teaching than didactic conversations.

Two experiments studied the phenomenon of procrastination, in which pigeons chose a larger, more delayed response requirement over a smaller, more immediate response requirement. The response requirements were fixed-interval schedules that did not lead to an immediate food reinforcer, but that interrupted a 55-s period in which food was delivered at random times. The experiments used an adjusting-delay procedure in which the delay to the start of one fixed-interval requirement was varied over trials to estimate an indifference point-a delay at which the two alternatives were chosen about equally often. Experiment 1 found that as the delay to a shorter fixed-interval requirement was increased, the adjusting delay to a longer fixed-interval requirement also increased, and the rate of increase depended on the duration of the longer fixed-interval requirement. Experiment 2 found a strong preference for a fixed delay of 10 s to the start of a fixed-interval requirement compared to a mixed delay of either 0 or 20 s. The results help to distinguish among different equations that might describe the decreasing effectiveness of a response requirement with increasing delay, and they suggest that delayed reinforcers and delayed response requirements have symmetrical but opposite effects on choice.

For several decades, choice has been the focus of considerable research by those who study operant behavior. This is not surprising, because the topics of choice and operant behavior are intimately intertwined. In everyday life, people can choose among a large, almost infinite set of operant behaviors, and they can choose not only which behaviors to perform, but under what conditions, at what rate, and for how long. Because choice is an essential part of human (and animal) life, it has been studied with great interest not only by behavioral psychologists, but also by decision theorists, economists, political scientists, biologists, and others. The research methods used in these different disciplines vary widely, and a review of all of the different methods for studying choice is well beyond the scope and purpose of this chapter. Instead, the chapter will focus on the techniques most frequently used in operant research—techniques that involve single-subject designs, that allow precise control of the reinforcement contingencies, and that produce (in most cases) large and clear effects on each subject’s behavior.

In this paper, we analyze the political and socioeconomic factors that may be associated with black and female employment in American public higher education. We develop representation ratios for black females, black males, white females, and white males who serve as full-time faculty members in public higher education institutions in the American states. Our analysis shows that region, in this case the South, provides the best indicator for black female and black male faculty employment in public higher education. The percentage of black state legislators is also associated with black faculty employment. For white women, we found that although they are well represented on faculties, their numbers do not reach their share of the population. None of the variables examined explained their employment as faculty members. Women as a group had a particularly weak presence in state legislatures and continue to have less political power than blacks and white males. We suggest a number of possible avenues for future research to clarify these findings.