The development of the Moore-Austin Reverse Culture Shock Scale (RCS) was an attempt to identify reentry adjustment difficulties among missionary adults. The subjects of the study were 255 North American Church of Christ missionaries. A 12-page questionnaire which included the RCS was mailed to each subject. The following variables were determined, through multiple regression analysis, to be significantly correlated with RCS scores: education level prior to mission assignment, months in last location, age range upon last return, marital status, expectation of difficulty, and type of school attended before mission assignment. Responses to open-ended questions suggested that there are difficulties encountered upon reentry which were not included in the RCS scale. Procedures such as factor analysis might be used in order to ascertain the major areas of difficulty which need to be included in future instruments.

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Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) survival rates are increasing. Effective strategies to recruit CRC survivors to surveillance studies are needed. Objective We analyzed the barriers encountered while recruiting CRC survivors to a study assessing their surveillance care experiences. Methods The study included three phases: (I) focus groups/key informant interviews; (II) cognitive interviews; and (III) a statewide population-based telephone survey. Participants In Phases I-II, clinic-based data and cancer center registries were used to identify CRC survivors who had received CRC resection within the past 18 months. In Phase III, survivors who had received CRC resection within the past two years were identified via a statewide, population-based cancer registry. Results In Phase I, 16 survivors participated in focus groups at two National Cancer Center-affiliated sites (response rate=29.6%). Eighteen additional survivors participated in individual interviews (response rate=50%). In Phase II, 11 survivors participated in cognitive interviews (response rate=81.8%). In Phase III, 150 survivors participated in the statewide survey (response rate=62.2%). Conclusions Group-based/ in-person recruitment efforts were unsuccessful due to scheduling barriers, lack of transportation, and remaining discomfort from previous resection surgery. Telephone-based data collection strategies produced higher response rates. Practice Implications To enhance CRC surveillance research, future studies could incorporate CRC survivor-centered recruitment strategies.

Small, isolated populations of an Australian rodent, Melomys cervinipes, occur in rainforest fragments on the Atherton Tableland in northeastern Queensland. We studied the genetic structure of four of these populations: one island (4.3 ha; isolated in 1960), three fragments (2.5, 7.5, 97.5 ha; isolated between 1920 and 1930) and a control population in continuous rainforest. The relative density of M. cervinipes did not differ among the populations, hence population size was approximately proportional to the forest area. Electrophoresis was performed on blood samples taken from the populations. Average heterozygosity (H) was estimated from the allelic distribution of 24 loci for each population and varied from 0.01 to 0.05. The island population had reduced heterozygosity compared to the control population, but the fragment populations were not significantly less heterozygous than the control. Although the fragment populations were markedly different in size, they did not differ in heterozygosity among themselves. The ability of fragment populations to maintain genetic viability is probably due to migration. The rainforest fragments exist in an extensive grassland containing a variety of habitat corridors which could facilitate movement and gene flow. Following the electrophoretic work, spool-and-line and radio tracking and live-trapping were carried out in the corridors; the presence of M. cervinipes in the corridors and its use of the corridors for movement was confirmed. The island population appears to be substantially more isolated than the fragment populations as water is likely to be a much more effective barrier to movement in M. cervinipes than is heterogeneous grassland. The genetic viability of the island population has probably been reduced through drift, leading to fixation of alleles: six of eight polymorphic loci being fixed in the island population. We therefore suggest that retention or establishment of habitat corridors is an important means of sustaining the genetic variability of populations in fragmented systems.

PurposeTo evaluate the reliability of the Attitudes to Randomized Trial Questionnaire (ARTQ) in measuring perceptions of cancer clinical trials in a predominantly African American (AA) sample in South Carolina (SC).MethodsPrincipal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cronbach’s alpha estimates were used to assess the reliability of the ARTQ in a convenience sample of 315 participants (81.4 % AA) who were recruited from 2008 to 2013, and who live in eleven different counties in South Carolina with high rates of racial disparities in cancer mortality rates.ResultsSlightly more than half of the 315 participants had at least a college education (77.9 %), 84.8 % were female, and 53.1 % had an annual income of $40,000 or more. In this study, PCA confirmed that the ARTQ is unidimensional. Cronbach’s alpha for the ARTQ was 0.86.ConclusionThe ARTQ displayed strong evidence of high statistical reliability. This analysis has great implications for future research because it represents the first test of reliability of the ARTQ in a predominantly African American sample and lays the groundwork for use of the ARTQ in future studies in diverse populations.