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Dental care and oral hygiene are often neglected in nursing homes. This study examines the effect of an education program on the ability of nursing staff to conduct an oral health assessment for a population of persons with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. The findings of this study showed that the CNA's are as capable as the Licensed Nurses in assessing oral health status. In future training of nursing staff, increased emphasis on identification of problems in specific areas may improve the overall assessments by nurses and nursing assistants.

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Public school choice is a widely used tool for education reform and may be a way to improve school accountability and efficiency. This article examines what happened to student outcomes when Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, a large and diverse urban school district located in North Carolina, changed its assignment policy to one of open enrollment with mandatory choice. The previous policy used a broad array of magnet schools and a limited amount of mandatory busing to achieve desegregation. The new policy required that all students choose a school, and it specifically avoided using race or ethnicity considerations in assigning students. The article examines the impacts of the new policy on the end-of-grade standardized tests in reading and math. The article uses regression analysis to discover whether the scores of various groups of students increased or decreased after the policy change. The analysis suggests that the "race-neutral" assignment policy was neither neutral in the opportunity it provided students to attend their school of choice nor in its academic outcomes. Anglo students were more likely to receive their first choice of schools and to improve their scores. African American students were less likely to receive their first choice school and their scores declined. Copyright 2006 by The Policy Studies Organization.

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How do firms allocate their lobbying resources among their political goals? The authors approach this question using a game-theoretic model that integrates three concepts from the lobbying literature: the distinction between private and collective rents, the competition for a rent, and the impacts of political institutions. The model indicates how competition and political institutions affect lobbying expenditures and expected net returns for private and collective lobbying. The outcomes predicted differ with those of past formal models and produce the counterintuitive expectation that competition typically reduces expenditures. The authors test the model's predictions by examining the lobbying decisions of sixty-two firms.

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The wide-spread use of online social networking sites has sparked many psychological issues and research around the globe. A unique phenomenon has come into existence in which people rely on Facebook to satisfy their attachment need. It is one of the very innately psychological needs that presents throughout a life span. The present study investigated the interaction between attachment style and social networking site use. The result showed that attachment style contributed significantly to the level of social media use. It also pointed out that the attachment style distinguished significantly between active and non-active users. Future research and implications of the study were discussed.