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The social constructionist perspective has become a useful framework for understanding women’s psychological experiences. However, tools for examining how women construct meanings of their experiences as female in relevant social situations remain limited. Over two studies, our article describes the development and psychometric properties of the Subjective Femininity Stress Scale (SFSS), which assesses women’s stress associated with their subjective experiences of being female. Participants ( N = 468) described their personal experiences of what it means to be a woman by completing the sentence “As a woman…” 10 times; participants then rated how often each of the femininity experiences was stressful for them. Participants’ qualitative responses were coded based on 20 dimensions of femininity experiences, and their relationships with SFSS scores were examined. Study 1 provided evidence for test–retest reliability, convergent, and discriminant validity of the SFSS. Study 2 demonstrated concurrent and incremental validity of the SFSS. Several dimensions of femininity experiences were significantly correlated with women’s stress appraisal. The open-ended nature of the SFSS is easy to administer in clinical and organizational settings. The dual qualitative/quantitative aspects of the SFSS enable clients to create personally relevant meanings for their femininity experiences while also providing a stress index for exploring links with health outcomes.

This study investigated perspectives of social justice activists who directly advocate for eliminating Native-themed mascots, nicknames, and logos. Using consensual qualitative research methodology, the research team analyzed transcripts of interviews conducted with 11 social justice activists to generate themes, categories, and domains within the data. The five domains included (a) deleterious impact of Native-themed mascots, nicknames, and logos; (b) reasons why members of mainstream society might support Native-themed mascots, nicknames, and logos; (c) reasons why some American Indians might support Native-themed mascots, nicknames, and logos; (d) frontline advocacy efforts; and (e) coping strategies for advocates. Results provided insights into the sociopsychological processes that allow the misappropriation of American Indian culture, symbols, and imagery in sport to continue to exist in society. Findings can help counseling psychologists understand the experiences of social justice activists while also highlighting ways that the field can support efforts to eliminate race-based mascots, nicknames, and logos.

This study evaluated the use of a video-based training environment, to support training the perceptual “rules” necessary for situation assessment during laparoscopic surgery. The training system shows multiple examples of procedural steps using edited laparoscopic surgery videos to enforce absorption, expose the learner to varied anatomy, and stress crucial maneuvers. A between-subjects experiment with 30 medical students showed a ten percent increase in cognitive skills as measured by pretest/posttest sets of test questions as compared to a control group who had access to the same videos but in an unstructured format for the same amount of time (p

On U.S. network television in the 1940s and 1950s, pioneering broadcasters such as Roy K. Marshall, Lynn Poole, and Don Herbert demonstrated that serious science programs could also be entertaining. Developers of early science series embraced television's ability to dramatize. They also mixed facts and fictions, combining real film footage of scientists with scientific explanations from animated cartoon characters, as in the specials underwritten by the Bell Telephone System. This survey examines the science content of early television broadcasting in the United States and the role played by key individuals, associations, and corporations in the development of innovative programming. It also considers the extent to which these programs and techniques were harbingers of trends observable in popular science communication today and identifies a number of topics deserving more research by historians of science communication.

During the formative years of radio broadcasting in the United States, information about science and medicine was initially packaged in formats common to educational settings, such as talks by individual scientists. Broadcasters eventually developed more appealing presentation approaches, adapting to the American listeners'expressed preference for drama and fast-paced entertainment, although the scientific community often hesitated to participate in such efforts to reach mass audiences. This survey of U.S. radio programming examines informational science series, broadcast from the 1920s through the 1940s, and the role played by key individuals, associations, and corporate underwriters. It identifies several trends pertinent to understanding the state of popular science communication today and raises questions for future research by historians of science communication.

In an overview of a special issue celebrating Science Communication's twentieth year, the editor describes themes common to all the essays and outlines a research agenda flowing from them. The essay suggests how social science research might assist in understanding the changing political environment for science communication efforts.

Those who wish to become informed about cyberspace policy can quickly find themselves drowning in a deluge of papers, positions, and proposals. This commentary describes some of the linkages which make current cyberspace policy debate so complex and which indicate the need for dedicated efforts to sort out the situation for citizens as well as policymakers concerned about communications networking technologies and their use or content.

The U.S. Army's CECOM Center for Night Vision and Electro-Optics (C2NVEO) has been conducting a series of human perception tests to complement results of field tests. The perception tests score military observers on their ability to identify and recognize simulated thermal images of combat vehicles. The results of these tests are used to develop and refine the Night Vision FLIR Performance Model (FLIR90/ACQUIRE) which predicts range performance for human target acquisition using different sensor designs. During the analysis of an early group of tests it became apparent that observers needed to be trained to equal levels of competence before taking the tests. For this purpose, we created a software package designed to teach observers about thermal signatures and to help the observer become more familiar with the target set used in our tests. In the following months we trained and tested dozens of soldiers and civilians with various backgrounds. These training and testing sessions provided a large database of observations for analysis. The paper includes discussions of the simulation techniques used to produce the test and training imagery and a description of the software package used for training. Conclusions are discussed in light of the patterns of learning achieved by the training and some implications for the human perception of tactical targets.

Purpose Melatonin has neuroprotective effects in animal studies and has been suggested to decrease adverse reactions of chemotherapy including neuropathy. This pilot trial aimed at assessing whether melatonin, given during taxane chemotherapy for breast cancer, will decrease the incidence and/or severity of neuropathy. Methods Twenty two consecutive patients beginning chemotherapy for breast cancer with paclitaxel, or docetaxel were enrolled. Patients received melatonin 21 mg daily at bedtime. Incidence and severity of neuropathy were assessed using neurological examinations, toxicity assessment per NCI-CTC 3.0 scale and FACT-Taxane quality of life questionnaire. Results Neuropathy was seen in 45% (n = 10) of patients, 23% (n = 6) grade 1 and 22% (n = 5) Grade 2 neuropathy. No grade 3 neuropathies were reported. The majority (55%) of all patients reported no neuropathy. Compliance with melatonin (>60% of dose) was seen in most patients (86%) No patient reported daytime sedation. The median FACT-Taxane quality of life end of study score was 137, with only a 0.5 median decline from baseline. Conclusion Patients receiving melatonin during taxane chemotherapy had a reduced incidence of neuropathy. Melatonin may be useful in the prevention or reduction of taxane-induced neuropathy and in maintaining quality of life. Larger trials are warranted to further explore the role of melatonin in neuropathy treatment and prevention.

Studies of U.S. schoolchildren, from the 1950s through the 1980s, show that both boys and girls see the "typical" scientist as male.l Some of these attitudes simply reflect statistical reality-far fewer women than men work as scientists2-but they also indicate continuing, deep-seated cultural bias against science as an activity appropriate for women. It is not just that science is regarded as a masculine occupation. Historical analysis of American popular culture shows that, throughout this century, the mass media have also purveyed a strongly negative image of women scientists, depicting them as both atypical scientists and atypical women. Popularized science-that is, descriptions and discussions of science directed at audiences outside the scientific research community3-contributes to cultural beliefs about women scientists through journalistic practices and through the communication of images. First, the type of person who interprets science (e.g., who writes a magazine article or is interviewed on a radio show) influences an audience's ideas about who "speaks for" science, that is, about what type of person best understands science or best represents the research field discussed. If (as was true in U.S. magazines from 1910 through 1955) fewer women than men acted as the communicators of science, then readers were exposed to subtle messages about women's abilities to comprehend science. Second, popular biographies and other descriptions (or illustrations) of women scientists contribute to beliefs about what "typical" women scientists are like, in personality and character. If there were few such descriptions (as was true in the magazines), then the message given was that, aside from a few superstars, women played an insignificant role in the scientific research process. Although the quantitative data that I will cite in this article come from a content analysis of masscirculation magazines published between 1910 and 1955, comprehensive analysis of other media would, I believe, reveal similar negative images.4