What's culture got to do with it? Prevention programs for African American adolescent girls.

This paper examines prevention programming for African American girls by placing the prevention process within the larger African and African American cultural context. We provide an overview of the theories and issues we consider most relevant to African American culture, including Africentric theory, ethnic identity, gender identity and relational theory, developmental issues, the community context, and historical considerations. Drawing from our own drug prevention work, we provide examples of how to incorporate culture into prevention programs to make them most relevant for the target population.

Research and scholarship among R.T. educators.

Full-time registered radiologic technologist educators were surveyed to determine their professional profile and research/scholarship productivity. Overall, research and scholarship productivity was low. More than 85% of respondents had not authored an article in a peer or nonpeer-reviewed journal, although more than half of the sample reported other scholarly activities, such as reviewing books, developing continuing education material and presenting at professional meetings.

Variation in CR imaging plate readers.

This study investigated computed radiography (CR) image processing to determine whether variation exists within and among CR imaging plate readers. Photostimulable imaging plates were exposed using a phantom test tool and processed in 4 CR readers located in diverse settings in an urban academic medical center. Research results indicate daily variation of S-numbers within individual CR readers did not exceed tolerance limits, although over the 3-week study period, evidence of S-number variation within individual CR readers was mixed.

Hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus co-infection in women.

Women account for almost one of four newly diagnosed cases of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in the United States. It is believed that up to 20% of them are co-infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). AIDS is now the third leading cause of death in women aged 25 to 44 years in the United States.

Procedures provided to Medicaid recipients by pediatric, general and public health dentists in the commonwealth of Virginia: fiscal years 1994 and 1995.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to report any differences found among the mean percentages of procedures performed by three types of dental providers for each type of service performed. The study focused on the types of services provided by dentists to Medicaid children in Virginia.

Methods: Medicaid claims field for dental patients younger than age 21 were obtained and analyzed for fiscal years 1994 and 1995.

Biologic treatment planning for high-dose-rate brachytherapy.

Purpose: Interstitial brachytherapy treatment plans are conventionally optimized with respect to total target dose and dose homogeneity, which does not account for the biologic effects of dose rate. In an HDR implant, with a stepping source, the dose rate dramatically changes during the course of treatment, depending on location, as the source moves from dwell position to dwell position. These widely varying dose rates, together with the related sequencing of the dwell positions, may impart different biologic effects at points receiving the same total dose.

Advocacy meets the scientific method.

ABSTRACT Dr. Judith Bradford is a social science researcher who has been a key figure in the evolution of lesbian health research. With Caitlin Ryan, Judy was instrumental in creating the National Lesbian Health Care Survey (NLHCS) in the mid-1980s.

Provider efforts to increase mammography screening.

This article examines barriers to mammography screening and reviews the professional literature on provider interventions to increase screening. Interventions appropriate for radiologic technologists are evaluated and discussed in an effort to expand R.T.

Accelerated superfractionated radiotherapy for inflammatory breast carcinoma: complete response predicts outcome and allows for breast conservation.

Purpose: Chemotherapy and accelerated superfractionated radiotherapy were prospectively applied for inflammatory breast carcinoma with the intent of breast conservation. The efficacy, failure patterns, and patient tolerance utilizing this approach were analyzed.

Methods And Materials: Between 1983 and 1996, 52 patients with inflammatory breast carcinoma presented to the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals of VCU and the New England Medical Center.

Current options for the treatment of systemic scleroderma.

The epidemiology, pathology, diagnosis, and clinical manifestations of systemic scleroderma (SSc) are described, and therapeutic options are discussed. SSc is a rare condition of unknown etiology that occurs in a subset of scleroderma patients. It is distinguished by involvement of the small arteries, microvessels, and diffuse connective tissue.