Curricular innovation and emergency management in higher education: Making the general education connection.

Objective: As a distributed function, emergency management in higher education must involve students from outside the field. An introductory emergency management course was redesigned to be attractive and visible to nonmajors via approval for inclusion in the university's core general education curriculum.

Design: Pre-/post comparisons were made of enrollment data for two interventions intended to broaden the course's audience.

Explaining implementation behaviour of the National Incident Management System (NIMS).

This paper explains the perceived implementation behaviour of counties in the United States with respect to the National Incident Management System (NIMS). The system represents a massive and historic policy mandate designed to restructure, standardise and thereby unify the efforts of a wide variety of emergency management entities. Specifically, this study examined variables identified in the NIMS and policy literature that might influence the behavioural intentions and actual behaviour of counties.

Mitigating flood exposure: Reducing disaster risk and trauma signature.

In 2011, following heavy winter snowfall, two cities bordering two rivers in North Dakota, USA faced major flood threats. Flooding was foreseeable and predictable although the extent of risk was uncertain. One community, Fargo, situated in a shallow river basin, successfully mitigated and prevented flooding.

Practical moral codes in the transgenic organism debate.

In one study funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, people from North Dakota were interviewed to discover which moral principles they use in evaluating the morality of transgenic organisms and their introduction into markets. It was found that although the moral codes the human subjects employed were very similar, their views on transgenics were vastly different. In this paper, the codes that were used by the respondents are developed, compared to that of the academically composed Belmont Report, and then modified to create the more practical Common Moral Code.

Hepatic sarcoidosis complicated by hepatocellular carcinoma.

A case of a 63-year-old man with a long-standing history of portal hypertension secondary to hepatic sarcoidosis who developed hepatocellular carcinoma is reported.

The use of TIPS to control bleeding caput medusae.

Two patients with cirrhosis and portal hypertension had persistent bleeding from caput medusae and ascites. Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) resulted in regression of the caput medusae and ascites in both cases.

An empirical exploration of selected policy options in organ donation.

This paper presents findings from a mail survey of 414 persons regarding organ transplantation and donation policy issues. Three measures of support for organ donation were measured: donor card commitment, required request of next-of-kin support, and weak presumed consent support. High levels of support exist for organ donor cards and the required request of next-of-kin law.

Favourable prognosis following variceal haemorrhage complicating hepatic sarcoidosis.

Objective: To report the case of a patient with bleeding oesophageal varices due to portal hypertension complicating hepatic sarcoidosis.

Patient: A 43-year-old man.

Methods: Six subsequent bleeds over 12 years were treated with sclerotherapy.

Risk factors for and the prevention of root caries in older adults.

With the absolute and relative number of elderly people rising in most countries, it is essential that dental practitioners be knowledgeable about the normal changes and disease processes that occur in aging individuals. Especially prevalent in the aging population is root surface caries. Several variables may increase the risk of developing root surface caries.

Adolescent stress: issues of measurement.

The purpose of this study was to determine if variations in the construction and scoring of a life events scale (stress measure) for adolescents yield different outcomes. Scoring methods included frequency, sum, and average scores as indications of positive stress, negative stress, and a combination of both. Two types of comparison were used.

Adolescent stress and self-esteem.

The purpose of this study was to examine adolescent stress and its effects on self-esteem. A total of 2,154 North Dakota high school students between the ages of 14 and 19 participated by completing the Life Experiences Survey and the Self-Esteem Inventory. The findings indicated that as the number of life events increased, the level of self-esteem decreased.

Changes in doctor/patient communication of a terminal prognosis: a selective review and critique.

Numerous studies have examined the willingness of physicians to communicate a terminal prognosis to a patient. The pattern of results suggests that there has been a shift from a widespread tendency not to tell patients of such a prognosis in the 1950s to a widespread tendency to tell in the 1980s. This paper reviews ten articles which document this apparent shift.