This tribute to the enduring legacy of Bernard Diamond explores public perceptions of a link between mental disorder and violent behavior. Research on contemporary American beliefs is summarized and compared both to historical accounts of public perceptions in Western cultures and to anthropological investigations of public perceptions in non-Western cultures. The conclusion of these reviews is...

Neurologic disorders are often described in terms that relate to symptoms rather than specific etiologic factors. Such descriptive terms are confusing to healthcare professionals and to the parents of children in whom these disorders are diagnosed. Cerebral palsy is one example of a descriptive term that is applied to a disorder that is heterogeneous in its etiology, morbidity, and mortality. A...

BACKGROUND Obesity has been identified as an epidemic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rates of unhealthy body weight among children and adolescents have tripled since the 1980s to 15%. Media coverage of obesity has also increased, and the public is now highly aware of obesity-related health threats facing adults and children. METHODS RTI International sponsored a representa...

The field of animal biotechnology has been rapidly expanding and the development of transgenic animals has been part of this research expansion. How the public perceives such developments is an important component of policy considerations. In general, biotechnology applications have been judged with evident hierarchies of acceptability. There appearto be hierarchies in terms of the type of orga...

Who do people think are influential in their own community? This question is important for understanding topics such as social networks, political party civic engagement, and local politics. At the same time research on these has grown, measurement of public perceptions influence dried up. Years ago, researchers took active interest community influence. They found that most ordinary Americans c...