Description: This paper discusses research on the effects of trauma intensity on posttraumatic growth. Abstract: Research within trauma literature discussing the consequences following a traumatic experience has indicated that there is the capacity for both positive and negative consequences. Though there is more literature on the negative effects, there is growing interest in the positive results from trauma is posttraumatic growth (PTG), which can be described as the victim's ability to thrive and increase life resources (emotional, cognitive, psychological). Research in this area has been inconsistent and some results were unclear. The aim of this study was to assess the associations among posttraumatic growth, depression, social support, coping, and gender. This study also examines the effect trauma intensity has on the relationship between PTG and those variables. Correlations were completed for PTG with depression, coping, social support, and gender, with trauma severity used as a moderator. A median split was completed for PCL scores (trauma severity) and comprised two separate trauma groups (low/high). Correlations were completed between PTG and the outcome variables for each trauma group. For the median split, the statistically significant relationships in the high trauma group were stronger than those with the low trauma group, with increased negative ...

Description: This paper discusses research on Man Ray's 'Noire et blanche'. Abstract: Man Ray's photographic series, 'Noire et blanche', 1926, consists of more than twenty photographs of a pale-faced, female model holding a darkly stained African mask. Most of the photographs draw our attention to similarities in the shape of the model's face and that of the mask, as well as contrasts between the model's paleness and the mask's darkness. Although the first photograph from the series was published in 'Vogue' and 'Variétés' during the 1920s, the series did not gain attention in the art world until the 1980s when scholarly and critical interest in primitive art redeveloped within the contexts of postmodernism and post-colonialism. This paper advances beyond the too often superficially noted formal similarities and contrasts between the representations of the woman and the mask to identify cultural connections between the representations of the woman and the mask to identify cultural connections between them involving sexual and racial "Otherness". Establishing the connections involves a consideration of why modern artists often used African art or the female figure in their work. Importantly, by analyzing how the photographs foster formal similarities rendering the model and mask alike, the author is able ...

Description: This paper discusses research on American quilts and women's political engagement. Scholarship and museum exhibitions value quilts as women's craft that is separated from the public sphere of political activity. This paper argues that such treatment erroneously diminishes the significance of quilts as evidence of their makers' participation in political and social movements of the day. To advance this argument, the author uses Robin Hodgkin's linguistic theories to clarify how the representation of quilts in scholarship and in the exhibition "Partisan Pieces," held at the Dallas Women's Museum during 2008, distorts both the significance of quilts when they were made and their subsequent historical importance. The author redresses the exhibition's interpretations with additional research on a quilt made by the abolitionist, Deborah Coates. The author concludes that treating quilts in ways that underscore their status as craft obscures their validity as historical artifacts attesting to their makers' participation in American socio-political developments.

Description: The research in this paper examines the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) among foreign-born Asians living in Tarrant County, Texas. According to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), TB in native-born Americans is steadily decreasing, while remaining constant for the foreign-born. In 2007, the TB rate among the foreign-born was 9.7 times that of U.S.-born, but among Asians it was 22.9 times the rate among Whites (CDC 2008 September). Data for this study were taken from a tuberculosis screening program conducted in Tarrant County from 1993 to 2006. Using Geographic Information System and statistical analysis, the study explores the relative contribution of traditional epidemiological factors including crowdedness, poverty, and less common factors such as self-reported incarceration, drug use, and other risky behaviors. The results indicate that although Asians make up 4.2% of the population, they account for 18% of TB cases. Surprisingly, however, Asians with TB are less likely to participate in the traditional high-risk behaviors that are normally associated with tuberculosis, including drug use (X2 = 57.426, p = .000), alcoholism (X2 = 39.776, p = .000), homelessness (X2 = 37.029, p = .000), and previous incarceration (X2 = 27.359, p = .000). Traditional programs targeting such high-risk ...