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Background: Establishing standardized Quality of Life (QOL) core outcomes in stem cell clinical trials is important to ensure (1) researchers and clinicians can make informed decisions, and (2) clinical trials use and consistently measure the same units (Clarke, 2007; Thornley & Adams, 1998). This study reviews the most common QOL methodologies, timing/frequency of the measurement, and outcomes in cardiovascular stem cell clinical trials.Methods: To identify instruments, the study reviewed MEDLINE, Scopus, and US Clinical Trials Register through September 2010, and randomized BMSC controlled trials of clinical trials from 2000-2011. The trials all used the terms (bone marrow stem cell AND quality of life OR heart OR cardiac) AND cardiac AND quality of life OR QOL. The study included a Likert scale web-based questionnaire comprised of eight questions designed to assess QOL patient satisfaction post cardiovascular stem cell treatment.Results: Of the instruments identified, the study found that bone marrow stem cell (BMSC) clinical trials used 35 different types of methodologies, whereas cardiovascular BMSC employed more consistent methodologies. Timing, frequency, and baseline were consistently measured in BMSC clinical trials, whereas cardiovascular BMSC lacked baseline consistency and were measured primarily after treatment. Cardiovascular BMSC outcomes were consistent, whereas BMSC clinical trials had multiple outcomes.The mean participant age was 56.25 years with a minimum age of 46 years and a maximum age of 61 years. Participants generally were educated with a minimum education level of an Associate degree and a maximum degree of Doctorate. The patient satisfaction survey revealed that participants preferred yes/no questions and surveys that required less than 15 minutes to complete, received via email, easy to understand, not too personal, relevant to feelings, containing a baseline measure, and medical-condition specific.Conclusion: QOL outcomes are rarely assessed in BMSC cardiovascular trials. Treatments are performed all over the world, and no one knows whether these treatments actually are effective. Both standardized measurements and additional studies are needed.

Workplace bullying, the repeated and regular act of harassing, offending, socially excluding someone, or negatively affecting someone's work over time has been recognized as a serious threat to the health and well-being of employees. This study sought to explore resilience as a coping strategy to help improve the physical and mental health effects of professional women who have or are experiencing workplace bullying. The central research question was, how does perceived resilience, when used as a coping strategy, help with the physical and mental health stressors while helping to improve the overall well-being of professional women who were or have experienced workplace bullying? Using a qualitative methodology with a single-case study design, 10 professional women who have and are still experiencing workplace bullying were commissioned to participate. To increase the validity of the results, four data techniques were employed: open-ended interviews, researcher notes with observations, and two surveys-the Resilience at Work (R@W) Scale, and the SF12v2 Health Survey. Four major themes emerged: Negative Experiences, Consequences of Bullying, Impact on Health, and Support Systems. It was discovered that the majority of the participants believed that they were targeted at their workplace because of their race, followed by their gender, and age. The women shared that the negative experiences and consequences of bullying can serve as indicators that workplace bullying is evident and that it can affect their health negatively. Additionally, the participants reported that various support systems and networks greatly increased their resilience at work.

The Kurdish question started to be discussed especially after the establishment of Republic of Turkey in year 1923. This problem has many different aspects, as well as sociological and political problems. PKK, the terrorist organization, constitutes another dimension of this problem.The peace process for the sustainable peace regarding with the Kurdish question and PKK took place in year 2009. This process aimed to end the PKK terrorism and to solve the Kurdish question from its roots through effective and permanent methods. However, the solution process begun in year 2009 by the AKP government in Turkey could not be resolved but it turned to a stalemate because of inconclusive and abstracts steps followed in the process, as well as the foreign difficulties. This research will examine why and how this peace process failed. This study, which includes the interviews with Isik Kansu and Osman Taney Korutürk, aims to shed some light to the resolution process in Turkey from different political and sociological perspectives, by considering discussions on the political failures, political judgement and strategic decisions.

This book explores the challenges of cross-cultural translation of American literary works into Arabic which, I argue, have prevented many nineteenth-century literary works from being translated into Arabic. I have used the Arabic translations of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and an abridged English text accompanying one of the translations as a case study. Since most of the Arabic translations of English and especially American literary works are merely linguistic oriented ones, I reinforce the importance of adopting a period-specific cultural-oriented approach that maintains the cultural context of American literary works, including the historical, cultural, religious, geopolitical, and gender-based elements, during the literary translation into the Arabic culture. I start with discussing the internationalization of American works and the importance of a cultural reading of these works. Reviewing many translations of English and American works in general, I categorize the challenges of cross-cultural literary translation from English into Arabic into the following: cultural, religious, geopolitical, and gender-based ones. While I am not calling for accurate cross-cultural literary translations since it is impossible, however, I am advocating for faithful translations which maintain the literary text's cultural and historical contexts. The accuracy of a literary translation depends on the amount of linguistic skill a translator has while the faithfulness of a literary translation is based upon the translator's sincere effort to include the literary text's entire cultural context including the historical, cultural, religious, geopolitical, and gender-based elements. Using Uncle Tom's Cabin as a case study, I discuss how the previous challenges had negatively affected the translation process of the work. Despite the fact the work has been translated seven times into Arabic, due to the linguistic-oriented approach, the historical and cultural significance of Stowe's novel has not yet been introduced to Arab readers through translation. Due to the current era of globalization that demands individuals to have multicultural knowledge and understanding and due to the recent cultural and translation projects of literary works from English into Arabic, this book reinforces the importance and possibility of addressing the cultural, religious, geopolitical, and gender-based challenges while using Uncle Tom's Cabin as an example.

The issues of multicultural counseling competence within intensive in-community counseling stem from the lack of research on the lived experiences of African American families receiving intensive in-community counseling services. This research project includes exploring the perceptions of counseling experiences within the African American family, examining the perceptions of multicultural counseling competence in the African American family, and providing a document that explores the African American viewpoints of the home-based counseling experience. This study incorporated phenomenological research and used the CCCI-R to rely on the participants' views of the multicultural counseling competence of home-based therapists. The themes include: (a) awareness of cultural differences; (b) comfort in the session; (c) time to understand the family needs; and (d) counseling strategies. A summary, conclusions, and recommendations for future research are included.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential for increasing informal music-making in elementary school culture, and create a model of such music-making. Precedence for this model can be found in the literature of ethnomusicology, educational psychology and learning theory, multicultural music education, and cultural anthropology. Literature from four distinct traditions and contexts of music-making in integrative sociocultural contexts-sub-Saharan African ngoma, and Community Music as manifested in New Orleans second lines, old-time music and dance, and summer camp music-making-was parsed with a philosophical lens to determine and assess possible areas of intersection between these four participatory cultures and North American public school culture. Each of these five areas was examined through a comprehensive review of literature to define their salient characteristics. These characteristics were sorted to determine commonalities between areas, and the zones of intersection became the basis for a speculative model of integrative music learning, featuring the inclusion of musical opportunities and interludes throughout the school day, thus taking school music beyond the confines of the music room. Instruction in music classes would still continue, enhanced in this model by supplemental learning opportunities inspired by the informal learning of traditional world musics, the participatory practice of New Orleans second line parades, old-time music and dance, and summer camp music culture. This model of integrative learning is also informed by current educational best practices such as child-centered learning, peer tutoring, experiential learning, and multicultural perspectives. It acknowledges the diversity of traditions consulted, while aiming for the unity in their seemingly disparate disciplines. Five universal characteristics were uncovered in the search for areas of intersection between North American elementary school culture, child culture, ngoma music-making, and Community Music-style music-making in New Orleans, old-time music and dance, and summer camp contexts: (a) Song; (b) play; (c) informal learning, as evidenced by oral tradition, peer tutoring, self-learning; (d) kinesthetic learning; and (e) contextualized learning, as evidenced in the sociocultural uses of music and situated learning. This model strives for the enactment of school music as a vital and integral part of daily school culture.