Craig ZumBrunnen

Prospectively Surveying Health-Related Quality of Life and Symptom Relief in a Lot- Based Sample of Medical Cannabis-Using Patients in Urban Washington State Reveals Managed Chronic Illness and Debility

Objectives: To characterize health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in medical cannabis patients. Methods: Short Form 36 (SF-36) Physical Health Component Score and Mental Health Component Score (MCS) surveys as well has CDC (Centers for Disease Control) HRQoL-14 surveys were completed by 37 qualified patients. Results: Mean SF-36 PCS and MCS, normalized at 50, were 37.4 and 44.2, respectively. Eighty percent of participants reported activity/functional limitations secondary to impairments or health problems. Patients reported using medical cannabis to treat a wide array of symptoms across multiple body systems with relief ratings consistently in the 7-10/10 range. Conclusion: The HRQoL results in this sample of medical cannabis-using patients are comparable with published norms in other chronically ill populations. Data presented provide insight into medical cannabis-using patients’ self-rated health, HRQoL, disease incidences, and cannabis-related symptom relief.

Distress, Coping, and Drug Law Enforcement in a Series of Patients Using Medical Cannabis

Abstract Patients using medical cannabis in the United States inhabit a conflicting medicolegal space. This study presents data from a dispensary-based survey of patients using medical cannabis in the state of Washington regarding cannabis-specific health behaviors, levels of psychological distress, stress regarding marijuana criminality, past experiences with drug law enforcement, and coping behaviors. Thirty-seven subjects were enrolled in this study, and all but three completed survey materials. The median index of psychological distress, as measured by the Behavioral Symptom Inventory, was nearly 2.5 times higher than that found in a general population sample but one third less than that found in an outpatient sample. The subjects reported a moderate amount of stress related to the criminality of marijuana, with 76% reporting previous exposure to 119 separate drug law enforcement tactics in total. The subjects reported a wide range of coping methods, and their responses to a modified standardized survey showed the confounding influence of legality in assessing substance-related disorders.

Spatial Database Development for Russian Urban Areas: A New Conceptual Framework

Existing data and conceptual frameworks for investigating spatial patterns of urban growth within and among Russias largest cities obscure contemporary growth. We propose a new conceptual framework for urban spatial data development that utilizes remote sensing, GIS, and external data to infer socioeconomic, ecological, and infrastructure data. Capturing urban growth patterns requires using multispectral (MS) land-use classifications, dasymetric mapping, areal interpolation, and visual interpretation of MS and panchromatic images. Employing these same methods to analyze rural and urban districts (rayons) allows development of the first compatible datasets for all urban administrative units, improving investigative capabilities because all data are aggregated at the same level.

Organization and institutionalization of Russia’s political parties in 1905—1917 and 1993—2007: Similarities and differences from two occidentalist periods

In this article, we use logit models to examine the role of the major characteristics of a political partys organization, (1) legitimation, (2) penetration/diffusion, (3) charisma, (4) ideology and (5) centralization/decentralization, in the institutionalization of parties in both pre-Soviet and post-Soviet Russian national parliamentary elections. The article begins by situating this research in the context of the theoretical and empirical literature on party origins, organizational development and institutionalization, in general, and party formation theories in post-communist countries, specifically. The impact of organizational features on electoral success or failure is analysed for 24 parties. The models correctly predicted both the successful and failed parties in the 2007 Russian Duma election and offer reasons for the apparent floating party system in Russia.

Hemlock: A Forest Giant on the Edge

Reading this volume has been a true labor of “love” for me. It impacted me greatly at my core being on both emotional and intellectual levels as no other scholarly book I have professionally reviewed ever has. Indeed, this book is much, much richer than purely a highly scholarly longitudinal biological/forest research work about a “foundation species”—the Eastern hemlock. Other readers’ comments and reactions printed on the book’s dust jacket echo my own. For example, Bill McKibben, a founder of 350.org, offers such phrases of praise as “. . .for any lover the eastern forest. . .” and “. . .the story acquires a majesty worthy of its subject.” Peter Crane, author of Ginkgo, characterizes it as, “A beautiful portrait of an evocative forest giant”; Peter Raven, President Emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden, refers to it as, “A nuanced and lovely account. . .”; Margaret Lowman claims the volume has the potential to serve as a landmark landscape history of New England and North America. Finally, Oliver Rachham, author of Ash, claims, “The hemlock tree warns of globalization of pests and diseases. . .” and that the book is a “. . .most meticulous ecological study. . ..” Allow me to continue by first offering my personal reflection as to why it impacted me so profoundly on an emotional level; clearly, as I have noted above, I am not alone in this regard. The near-poetic words often used in this multiauthored tome, much of it—if by no means all of it—focuses on decades of long-term, on-going bio-ecological research investigations and experiences at Harvard University’s Harvard Forest and other New England forests and the multitude of students, forest workers, and researchers who have lived and worked there. Their words, images, and photos brought me back to my own childhood in rural America, in my case in a mixed forest and farming region of Minnesota fifty miles northwest of Minneapolis, just south of the Mississippi River. From the age of six until I left for graduate school, I worked the farmland, walked though the forests, cleared land of trees, dug up nursery stock, and wrapped the root balls in burlap for transplanting from my father’s and other family members’ nurseries, took many a trip with my father to the Minnesota State legislature as he lobbied alone for the creation of what eventually successfully became Maria State Park, carved out of a beautiful tract of hardwood deciduous forest lands, small bogs, and Lake Maria. I routed, stained, and painted most of the initial wooden signs for the Wright County Park

Environmental Management in the Soviet Union

List of illustrations List of tables Foreword by Zeev Wolfson Preface 1. Introduction: the state of the Soviet environment in the 1990s 2. Managing the Soviet atmosphere 3. The Chernobyl legacy: whither nuclear energy? 4. Renewable energy resources 5. The quest for clean water 6. Controlling toxic and urban wastes 7. Managing Soviet forest resources 8. Soviet nature reserves 9. National parks: a new feature on the Soviet landscape 10. Managing wildlife and endangered species 11. Protecting the land 12. The water crisis in Soviet Central Asia 13. Assessing the environmental impacts of development 14. Glasnost and public environmental activism 15. International environmental cooperation 16. The future environment of the Soviet Union References Index.