Tennessee Wesleyan College

By Kellee R. Vess, PhD, RN, Tennessee Wesleyan University, Knoxville, [email protected]. The author declares no conflict of interest.

ABSTRACT This article studies an early-twentieth-century reform in local administration on the Kazakh Steppe. It was catalyzed by the massive in-migration of peasant settlers from European Russia, which required fundamentally new administrative forms and institutional decisions from the state. In 1902 the Russian Empire extended the Temporary Regulation on Peasant Nachalniks, which was previously law only in Siberia, to the steppe oblasts of Akmola, Turgai, Semipalatinsk and Uralsk. In examining discussions surrounding the implementation of the new law, this article uncovers the complexity and ambiguities of the decisions that were made, the problems the new law faced, and the wide array of participants in enacting it. The article also compiles a socio-cultural portrait of the peasant nachalniks and the activities they undertook. Finally, it addresses how the Kazakh population perceived these new officials, and how they interacted with representatives of the Kazakh administration, which was crucial to their effectiveness.

ABSTRACTMedication adherence and community living problems were assessed by a telephone intervention for stable outpatients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. A majority were white males who lived with family members. We conducted a descriptive analysis of data gathered during weekly calls to 87 participants receiving weekly TIPS for nine months. Analysis included traditional atheoretical content analysis, Pearson correlations, and Chi squares. The following themes emerged: mood disturbances and related symptoms, psychotic symptoms, coping problems, medication adherence, and substance cravings. The most frequently reported problems were mood disturbances: depression and anxiety. Forty two percent of Caucasians versus 72.1% of African Americans were prescribed intramuscular (IM) antipsychotic delivery (Chi square = 8.24, df 2, p = 0.016). Our findings regarding racial differences in antipsychotic delivery method warrant further investigation.

In the post-Soviet North Caucasus, the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, where political tensions among its constituent nationalities are never far from the surface, long sat precariously between the region’s peaceful northwest and its tumultuous northeast. Observers of the political and security situation in the North Caucasus have long viewed the multi-ethnic Kabardino-Balkar Republic as integral to the fate of the region as a whole. During the first fifteen years of post-Soviet history, Kabardino-Balkaria was conspicuous for its absence of violent conflict and relative inter-communal accord. Several Islamist-led attacks in 2004 and, more violently and infamously, 2005 shattered any illusions of Kabardino-Balkaria’s immunity to the violence that had plagued much of the region since in recent years. By 2010 and 2011 assassinations of high-ranking officials and public figures and attacks on police patrols reached a peak, and Kabardino-Balkaria ranked alongside Ingushetia and Dagestan as one of Russia’s most violent regions. Since late 2012, however, the scale and frequency of these attacks have diminished significantly. This article uses social media as lens to analyze the attitudes of residents of Kabardino-Balkaria toward issues of politics and security in the region. This article pays particular attention to commentators’ views on the Islamist insurgency and its ideological opponents (Circassian/Kabardian and Balkar national activists and the republic’s ruling elite). Specifically, this article analyzes the content of Kabardino-Balkaria-related discussion forums on the popular Caucasus news and analysis website Caucasian Knot (Kavkazskii Uzel). This analysis is contextualized with a brief ethnographic and historical survey of inter-communal relations, Islam, and politics in Kabardino-Balkaria.This article uses social media as lens to analyze the attitudes of residents of Kabardino-Balkaria toward issues of politics and security in the region. This article pays particular attention to commentators’ views on the Islamist insurgency and its ideological opponents (Circassian/Kabardian and Balkar national activists and the republic’s ruling elite). Specifically, this article analyzes the content of Kabardino-Balkaria-related discussion forums on the popular Caucasus news and analysis website Caucasian Knot (Kavkazskii Uzel). This analysis is contextualized with a brief ethnographic and historical survey of inter-communal relations, Islam, and politics in Kabardino-Balkaria.

Rural agencies frequently struggle to provide reasonable traffic signal operations because they lack the financial resources and traffic expertise common to larger cities. More advanced traffic signal controllers have many features that might help. One such feature is variable maximum green time (VMGT), also called the dynamic maximum, which allows the controller to continually adjust the maximum green in response to changes in traffic demand. Rural traffic signal operations are compared, given optimized timing with rural traffic signal control operations using a generic set of VMGT parameters. The research method included the use of software-in-the-loop simulation with VISSIM as the traffic simulation model and Econolite ASC/3 traffic controller software. Results from one high-volume and one low-volume site indicate that compared with optimized timings, a generic set of VMGT parameters can provide equivalent throughput, nearly equivalent average intersection delays, reasonable cycle lengths, and a more equal distribution of delay among approaches and movements.

This descriptive study examined the responses of outpatients with schizophrenia to a tool designed to measure comprehension before obtaining informed consent to participate in a research study. We used the Evaluation to Sign Consent (ESC) form to document comprehension in 29 schizophrenia outpatients. Participants living in supervised housing were significantly more likely to require prompts than those living alone (χ2 = 9.4, p = 0.024). Participants prescribed two antipsychotic medications were significantly more likely to require a prompt than those prescribed only one antipsychotic (χ2 = 5.12, p = 0.023). Nurse researchers should consider documenting comprehension with the ESC due to its availability, time efficiency, and utility.

Submaximal exercise tests are often used to estimate an individuals Max VO2 and thus fitness level. The purpose of this study was to compare two commonly used submaximal cycle ergometer tests estimated VO2 results to measured VO2 of a maximal bike test and a maximal treadmill test to attempt to validate which submaximal cycle ergometer test best predicts max VO2. Nineteen subjects (Age = 21.6 ± 0.8 yrs.; ht = 173.9 ± 10.7 cm; wt = 75.1 ± 13.3 kg) participated in a total of four randomized order exercise tests separated by a minimum of 24 hours. The tests consisted of a 12 min YMCA submaximal bike test (Y), 6 min Astrand-Rhyming submaximal bike test (A), Astrand max bike test (Bmax), and a Bruce protocol maximal treadmill test (Tmax). All max tests were performed to volitional fatigue. Predicted max VO2 were calculated as per instructions of each submaximal test. Data were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA and a Pearson product moment corelation. No significant difference (p>.05) was found between A predicted (44.7 ± 10.7 ml·kg−1·min−1) and Tmax VO2(48.1 ± 8.5 ml·kg−1·min−1;r = 0.58). A significant difference (p < .05) was found between Tmax (48.1 ± 8.5 ml·kg−1·min−1) and Y predicted (43.2 ± 7.2 ml·kg−1·min−1;r = 0.45) and also Tmax (48.1 ± 8.5 ml·kg−1·min−1) and Bmax (39.4 ± 10.0 ml·kg−1·min−1;r = 0.94). A significant difference (p < .05) was also found between Bmax (39.4 ± 10.0 ml·kg−1·min−1) and A predicted (44.7 ± 10.7 ml·kg−1·min−1;r = 0.56). These results, the NSD of A and Tmax, and the significant difference between Y and Tmax indicate that the Astrand-Rhyming submaximal test may be a better estimator of treadmill max VO2, but it appears that both submaximal test tend to overestimate bike peak VO2.