Academic-community collaboration. An ecology for early childhood violence prevention.

The growing supportive evidence for multi-faceted approaches to violence prevention certainly demand that multi-agency collaborations will continue to proliferate as communities engage in early childhood prevention strategies. These collaborations often include partnerships between members of academia and community agencies that often produce unique challenges and benefits related to diverse experiences, skills, agendas, and practical constraints. This article describes the Jacksonville First and Best Teacher Initiative, an example of one such collaborative model for violence prevention, to illustrate many of the principles of effective academic-community collaborations and lessons learned in addressing the specific challenges of such programs.

The relationship between sexual abuse and purging: findings from community-wide surveys of female adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: The first objective of this study was to examine the relationship between sexual abuse and a bulimic behavior, namely purging, with a large sample of female adolescents. If sexual abuse was found to be significantly related to bulimia, then the second objective was to determine if the relationship between abuse and purging remained significant when other factors were controlled. METHOD: Two different analyses were conducted to address the questions outlined above--a contingency table chi-square test and a logistic regression analysis. A sample of 7,903 female adolescents was drawn from a large Midwestern state. RESULTS: The results of the bivariate analysis provide evidence that a relationship exists between sexual abuse and purging. However, the relationships between sexual abuse and purging did not remain significant when several other factors, including physical abuse, were included in the analysis. Several individual (a history of physical abuse and religiosity), familial (i.e., family support and parent-adolescent communication), and extra-familial (i.e., other adult support) factors were significantly related to purging. CONCLUSIONS: The data did not find a significant relationship between sexual abuse and purging when individual, familial, and extra-familial variables were included in the logistic regression. Unlike most earlier studies that focused on clinical samples, this study drew from a larger, more representative sample of female adolescents. The identification of significant predictors of purging at the individual, familial, and extra-familial levels suggests the importance of examining multiple levels of the teen's ecology for factors that may influence this behavior.

Effects of airborne fluoride emissions near an aluminium works in Wales: part 2--saxicolous lichens growing on rocks and walls.

Effects of fluoride (F(-)) emissions on previously unpolluted assemblages of saxicolous lichens, near an aluminium reduction works, are described. Lichens contained a mean 16 microg F(-) g(-1) dry weight in 1970 before emissions commenced. Subsequently, where annually monitored Ramalina contained >100microg g(-1) severe damage occurred, including loss of attachment to the rocky substratum. At sites within 1 km of the works well-exposed to emissions, fruticose (shrubby) lichens were eliminated, but in more sheltered locations 18% cover had survived by 1983. Some foliose (leaf-like) lichens tolerated >200 microg g(-1), while crustose (crust-like) species were least affected, 32% and 70% surviving, respectively. Concentrations of fluoride, and associated injury, decreased with increasing distance from the works. Fruticose and sensitive foliose species sustained 40-75% losses of cover up to 4 km NE, downwind of the works, where fluoride averaged 50-100 microg g(-1), but <40% losses were recorded in fruticose species up to 9 km, where concentrations averaged 35-50 microg. Saxicolous lichens were damaged less than corticolous species previously reported and, following decreased emissions, were also regrowing in sheltered and more distant locations by 1985.

Effects of airborne fluoride emissions near an aluminium works in Wales: part 1-corticolous lichens growing on broadleaved trees.

Effects of emissions, from a new aluminium works, on previously unpolluted assemblages of corticolous lichens, are described. Injury symptoms included chlorosis, red colorations, necrosis and weakening of attachment of thalli to the bark substratum, resulting in reductions in % cover. Before emissions commenced in 1970, lichens contained <10microg fluoride (F(-)) g(-1) dry weight. Where concentrations in annually monitored samples of Ramalina reached >100microg F(-1) g(-1), within 4 km downwind of the works, severe injury occurred with >75% losses of cover of some species. At increasing distances, injury, and F(-) concentrations, decreased. The lichen flora was almost eliminated within 1 km of the works: after 15 years' operation, 37 species are absent within 650 m, but at least 43 survive at 900 m. A range of sensitivity was shown between, and within, morphological types. Fructicose (shrubby) lichens contained >600microg F(-1) g(-1) after 4 years and were the first, and most severely, affected (<1% cover surviving by 1975). Most foliose (leaf-like) species were sensitive (88% losses by 1977), but some were more tolerant, containing >400microg F(-1) g(-1) after 10 years. Crustose (crust-like) lichens were affected least, some growing markedly to occupy the space formed following elimination of more intolerant species. Since 1978, in response to decreasing emissions, there has been a recovery of some fruticose and foliose species in less-exposed locations.