There is a need for the continued exploration of gender inequities within substance abuse treatment centers that affect service delivery, and recovery among incarcerated African-American women. As a result of incarceration, these populations of African-American women are forced into recovery and are less likely to sustain their abstinence and relapse which increases their risk of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) upon release. This phenomenon of exploration also addressed how these women perceived their susceptibility of risk to HIV and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) infection. In addition, there are various factors as well as programmatic barriers that existed which pose as barriers to women who seek treatment for substance abuse. Eliason (2006) reported that African-American women have decreased recovery rates in substance abuse treatment due to gender inequities and culturally insensitive interventions. This study explored the factors that contribute to the manner in which African-American women seek and complete substance abuse treatment services as well as address service delivery, relapse, and overall perception of HIV risk among 20 incarcerated African-American women who are were over the age of 18 and self identified as having used an illegal drug such as crack/cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamines, and heroin. Each participant was carefully screened and selected to ensure meeting the criteria for participation in the study. Finally, the significance of the findings is discussed along with the implications for Social Work Policy, Planning, and Administration.

This study analyzed the perception of HIV/AIDS as it relates to sexual behaviors, cultural norms, and economic factors among the women in Cameroon, West Africa. Ninety-one survey participants were selected for the study utilizing non-probability convenience sampling. The survey questionnaire utilized a four-point continuum Likert scale. Findings from the study revealed that 30% of the respondents did not have any personal knowledge of HIV/AIDS. However, 70% of the respondents indicated that they did have some level of personal knowledge about HIV/AIDS. As well, 53.4% stated that their sexual behavior was influenced by their personal knowledge of H1V/AIDS.

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This study compared the effectiveness, cost and efficiency of four formative evaluation conditions: (a) revision based on learner data (RLD), (b) revision based on expert data (RED), (c) revision based on both learner and expert data (RBD), and (d) revision without data (RND). Two more conditions were present in the study: materials in draft (MID) and no treatment (NT). The NT condition consisted of students who were tested without exposure to the instructional materials. The instruction that was formatively evaluated was a six-page article describing the relationship between diet and cancer. The article was written by chemistry professors for an "undergraduate chemistry course for non-science students". Undergraduates (n = 187) provided the effectiveness data. They randomly received one of the four formatively evaluated versions of the article, read the article, answered questions on an objective test, and indicated their confidence with respect to their responses. Professional revisors (n = 8) provided cost data. Each revisor provided cost estimates for all formative evaluation conditions. Efficiency was provided by combining effectiveness with cost data. Effectiveness differences were found between the MID and RLD, and the MID and RBD. The mean test scores, as well as the mean confidence-weighed test scores, of both RLD and RBD were significantly higher than those of the MID. Cost differences indicated three levels of cost. RND was the least costly formative evaluation condition. RLD and RED were equivalent in cost and more costly than RND. RBD was the most costly formative evaluation condition. With respect to efficiency, RLD was recommended. RLD was the least costly condition that was significantly more effective than MID. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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Background. Numerous methods have been developed to model longitudinal data. In HIV/AIDS studies, HIV markers, CD4+ count and viral load are measured over time. Informative drop-out and the lower detection limit of viral load assays can bias the results and influence assumptions of the models. Objective The objective of this thesis is to describe the evolution of HIV markers in an HIV-1 subtype C acutely infected cohort of women from the CAPRISA 002: Acute Infection Study in Durban, South Africa. They were HIV treatment naive. Methods. Various linear mixed models were fitted to both CD4+ count and viral load, adjusting for repeated measurements, as well as including intercept and slope as random effects. The rate of change in each of the HIV markers was assessed using weeks post infection as both a linear effect and piecewise linear effects. Left-censoring of viral load was explored to account for missing data resulting from undetectable measurements falling below the lower detection limit of the assay. Informative drop- out was addressed by using a method of joint modelling in which a longitudinal and survival model were jointly linked using a latent Gaussian process. The progression of HIV markers were described and the effectiveness and usefulness of each modelling procedure was evaluated. Results. 62 women were followed for a median of 29 months post infection (IQR 20-39). Viral load increased sharply by 2.6 log copies/ml per week in the first 2 weeks of infection and decreased by 0.4 log copies/ml per week the next fortnight. It decreased at a slower rate thereafter. Similarly CD4+ count fell in the first 2 weeks by 4.4 square root cells/ul per week then recovered slightly only to decrease again. Left-censoring was unnecessary in this acute infection cohort as few viral load measures were below the detection limit and provided no improvement on model fit. Conclusion. Piecewise linear effects proved to be useful in quantifying the degree at which the HIV markers progress during the first few weeks of HIV infection, whereas modelling time as a linear effect was not very meaningful. Modelling HIV markers jointly with informative drop-out is shown to be necessary to account for the missing data incurred from participants leaving the study to initiate ARV treatment. In ignoring this drop-out, CD4+ count is estimated to be higher than what it actually is. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

Despite the emphasis that is placed on collecting learner data in formative evaluation, there has been little research to support its use in the revision of instructional materials. In addition, although the literature suggests that different revisers making changes to the same instructional materials will yield different revisions, little research has been conducted to confirm this. The present study addressed these two issues by having four instructional designers, acting as revisers, make revisions to a draft version of an instructional presentation while thinking aloud. A coding scheme was applied to the think-aloud protocols. Revisions were sorted using a product attribute categorization system consisting of three main categories central to evaluating instructional materials. The results suggest that revisers do give a considerable amount of attention to learner data when revising materials. In addition, there was a great deal of uniformity among the revisions that were generated by the different revisers.

<p>The Human Immune Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) isa pandemic that has worsened the plight of vulnerable communities and environments in Africa. It is estimated that 40,3 million adults and children are living with HIV and AIDS and 3.1 million adults and children died in 2004 in the world. Southern Africa is the most affected region with a very high HIV/AIDS prevalence rate. The primary objective of the proposed study was to examine livelihoods and coping strategies of HIV/AIDS-affected households of Zaka District in Zimbabwe. Attention was given to institutional frameworks for HIV/AIDS interventions as district and village level. A second objective of the study is whether interventions are appropriately aligned and responsive to household livelihoods and coping</p>