Low Prospects and High Risk: Structural Determinants of Health Associated with Sexual Risk Among Young African American Women Residing in Resource-Poor Communities in the South

African American women at increased risk of HIV/sexually transmitted infection (STI) may engage in risky sex as a coping mechanism for depressed economic conditions. This study examines the association between high-risk sexual behavior and structural determinants of sexual health among a sample of young African American women. 237 young African American women (16–19 years old) from economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in North Carolina were enrolled into a randomized trial testing the efficacy of an adapted HIV/STI prevention intervention. Logistic regression analyses predicted the likelihood that young women reporting lack of food at home, homelessness and low future prospects would also report sexual risk behaviors. Young women reporting a lack of food at home (22 %), homelessness (27 %), and low perceived education/employment prospects (19 %) had between 2.2 and 4.7 times the odds as those not reporting these risk factors of reporting multiple sex partners, risky sex partners including older men and partners involved in gangs, substance use prior to sex, and exchange sex. Self-reported structural determinants of sexual health were associated with myriad sexual risk behaviors. Diminished economic conditions among these young women may lead to sexual risk due to hopelessness, the need for survival or other factors.     

Reading,spelling, and vigilance in attention deficit and conduct disorder

A group of 51 male children, average age 9.1 years, presenting at a child psychiatric clinic because of attention and conduct problems were investigated for reading and phonetic spelling ability, vigilance, and intellectual level. Each child was given a DSM- III diagnosis prior to being tested. The Boder Test of Reading and Spelling patterns was used to obtain scores for reading age, number of syllables read correctly in the word list at the child's reading level, and number of phonetically correct syllables spelled in the known and unknown word lists, at and just above the child's reading level. A factor analysis with varimax rotation produced two significant factors, a Reading factor with high loadings for verbal and reading scores, aand a second Vigilance factor. Phonetic spelling ability loaded separately from reading into the Vigilance factor. The Vigilance factor was significantly related to the diagnosis of moderate and severe attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADDH). The correlation of short- term working memory with vigilance in moderate to severe ADDH children is discussed.Fundling assistance was provided by the New South Wales Institute of Psychiatry.     

“What do we epistemically owe to each other? A reply to Basu”

Philosophical Studies - What, if anything, do we epistemically owe to each other? Various “traditional” views of epistemology might hold either that we don’t epistemically owe...     

Grain-boundary sliding and accommodation mechanism during creep of yttria-partially-stabilized zirconia

The role of grain-boundary sliding in deformation of ceramic materials is analysed from an atomic force microscopy investigation of the change in surface topography during high-temperature deformation of yttria-partially-stabilized zirconia polycrystals. From transmission electron microscopy observations of strained specimens, we attempt to model the accommodation mechanism of grain-boundary sliding.