Barbara J. Nelson

Making an Issue of Child Abuse: Political Agenda Setting for Social Problems

In this absorbing story of how child abuse grew from a small, private-sector charity concern into a multimillion-dollar social welfare issue, Barbara Nelson provides important new perspectives on the process of public agenda setting. Using extensive personal interviews and detailed archival research, she reconstructs an invaluable history of child abuse policy in America. She shows how the mass media presented child abuse to the public, how government agencies acted and interacted, and how state and national legislatures were spurred to strong action on this issue. Nelson examines prevailing theories about agenda setting and introduces a new conceptual framework for understanding how a social issue becomes part of the public agenda. This issue of child abuse, she argues, clearly reveals the scope and limitations of social change initiated through interest-group politics. Unfortunately, the process that transforms an issue into a popular cause, Nelson concludes, brings about programs that ultimately address only the symptoms and not the roots of such social problems.

Significant factors in the disinfection and sterilization of flexible endoscopes

BACKGROUND Many nosocomial infection outbreaks have been linked to improper disinfection of the flexible endoscopes used in hospitals and clinics. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of scope disinfection with glutaraldehyde and hydrogen peroxide in manual and mechanical protocols. METHODS Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas cepacia were the test organisms. Each channel in two different endoscopes was seeded and evaluated separately. Residual chemical germicide levels in the channels and in the work environment were also measured. RESULTS Parametric analyses were carried out on log transformations of number of colony-forming units recovered. Repeated measures analysis demonstrated that both the type of disinfectant and the method of washing were significant factors for disinfection. CONCLUSIONS Hydrogen peroxide proved to be more efficacious than glutaraldehyde for killing or removing B. subtilis in a 10-minute contact period. Automatic disinfection was more efficacious than manual disinfection for killing or removing B. subtilis in a 10-minute contact period. The channel being disinfected also proved to be a significant factor, with carbon dioxide and elevator channels the most difficult to disinfect consistently.

The Role of Sex and Gender in Comparative Political Analysis: Individuals, Institutions, and Regimes.

Engendering Democracy in Brazil: Womens Movements in Transition Politics. By Sonia E. Alvarez. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990. 304p.

The structure and function of endoscope channels: the inside story.

45.00 cloth,

Comparable Worth for Public Employees: Implementing a New Wage Policy in Minnesota

14.95 paper. Women in Taiwan Politics: Overcoming Barriers to Womens Participation in a Modernizing Society. By Chou Bih-er, Cal Clark, and Janet Clark. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1990. 207p.

Making an Issue of Child Abuse

30.00. Bringing Women In: Womens Issues in International Development Programs. By Nfket Kardam. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1991. 137p.

Women and politics worldwide

26.50. Persistent Inequalities: Women and World Development. Edited by Irene Tinker. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. 302p.

Wage Justice: Comparable Worth and the Paradox of Technocratic Reform

32.50 cloth,

Public Policy and Administration: An Overview

15.95 paper. Playing the State: Australian Feminist Interventions. Edited by Sophie Watson. New York: Verso, 1990. 243p.

Women and knowledge in political science: Texts, histories, and epistemologies

59.95 cloth,