Neighborhood and Individual Level Socioeconomic Variation in Perceptions of Racial Discrimination

In approaching the study of racial discrimination and health, the neighborhood and individual-level antecedents of perceived discrimination need further exploration. We investigated the relationship between neighborhood and individual-level socioeconomic position (SEP), neighborhood racial composition, and perceived racial discrimination in a cohort of African-American and White women age 40-79 from Connecticut, USA. Design. The logistic regression analysis included 1249 women (39% African- American and 61% White). Neighborhood-level SEP and racial composition were determined using 1990 census tract information. Individual-level SEP indicators included income, education, and occupation. Perceived racial discrimination was measured as lifetime experience in seven situations. Results. For African-American women, living in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods was associated with fewer reports of racial discrimination (odds ratio (OR) 0.44; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.26, 0.75), with results attenuated after adjustment for individual-level SEP (OR 0.54, CI: 0.29, 1.03), and additional adjustment for neighborhood racial composition (OR 0.70, CI: 0.30, 1.63). African-American women with 12 years of education or less were less likely to report racial discrimination, compared with women with more than 12 years of education (OR 0.57, CI: 0.33, 0.98 (12 years); OR 0.51, CI: 0.26, 0.99 (less than 12 years)) in the fully adjusted model. For White women, neither neighborhood-level SEP nor individual-level SEP was associated with perceived racial discrimination. Conclusion. Individual and neighborhood-level SEP may be important in understanding how racial discrimination is perceived, reported, processed, and how it may influence health. In order to fully assess the role of racism in future studies, inclusion of additional dimensions of discrimination may be warranted

Analisis Hubungan Stresor Kerja (Kondisi Pekerjaan, Hubungan Interpersonal Dan Tampilan Pekerjaan-rumah) Dengan Kinerja Pada Pegawai Puskesmas Tongkeina Kota Manado

: Problems that often arise in health centers are among others issues of medical and paramedical personnel performance which appear on the quality of work or the quality of service and achievement of the programs implemented at the PHC. Individual performance is related to the working person's behavior. Employee behavior will result in a positive long-term performance and increase the ability of personnel, or vice versa, causing a negative long-term performance and a decrease in the ability of personnel. This study aimed to determine the relationship between working stressors and employee performance at Tongkeina Health Center Manado. This was a descriptive analytical study with a cross sectional design conducted at the health center Tongkeina from August 2013 to November 2013. The results showed that there was a relationship between job condition, interpersonal relationship, and homework presentation with employee performance. Interpersonal relationship was the most dominant variable affected the performance of employees in the health center Tongkeina

Framework for the effective implementation of building regulations and policies – the case of Sub-Sahara African countries

This study of the effective implementation of government policies appraises the implementation of building policies in developing African countries, with the view of developing a framework that could increase their effectiveness. Cases of several African countries including Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana were reviewed, and then a single case study was conducted in order to effectively reach the research goal. The target country used as case study was the Republic of Cameroon. The aim of the study was attained by collecting data through a desktop review of building policies, survey questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussions with the stakeholders in Cameroon. The data was permanently triangulated using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The analysis of the collected data was guided by codes designed and developed through the usage of analytical instruments such as the Bristol Online Survey and the Nvivo10 software, as well as through the thematic analysis process. The themes were designed around various drivers of effective policy implementation theories focussing on the relationship between the overseen causes, resulting effects and observed practices in building construction procedures. The findings indicate that Building Policies are not effectively implemented. In the quest of how to address the shortcomings it transpired from the literature that although there are various instruments aiming at developing and implementing policies, there were no specific strategies with the focus on building policies or to the enhancement of the implementation level of building policies in developing countries. The lessons learned from the experiences shared and the content of various implementation theories informed the development of a strategic framework aiming at improving the implementation of existing building policies. On the basis of the data analysed, the framework for effective implementation leaning on the RIBA 2013 Plan of work was developed and assessed. A validation assessment of the potential effectiveness of the designed instrument was conducted through a focus group discussion populated by experienced representatives of most category of stakeholders of the building construction field. Feedback from the discussions and a survey gathered from participants indicate that the proposed framework which covers the entire life-cycle of a building construction is fit for its purpose and could lead to bridging the gap between the existing building policies and their effective deployment on the ground in developing countries

Big data: Finders keepers, losers weepers?

This article argues that big data’s entrepreneurial potential is based not only on new technological developments that allow for the extraction of non-trivial, new insights out of existing data, but also on an ethical judgment that often remains implicit: namely the ethical judgment that those companies that generate these new insights can legitimately appropriate (the fruits of) these insights. As a result, the business model of big data companies is essentially founded on a libertarian-inspired ‘finders, keepers’ ethic. The article argues, next, that this presupposed ‘finder, keepers’ ethic is far from unproblematic and relies itself on multiple unconvincing assumptions. This leads to the conclusion that the conduct of companies working with big data might lack ethical justification

Multi-omics analysis identifies a CYP9K1 haplotype conferring pyrethroid resistance in the malaria vector Anopheles funestus in East Africa.

Metabolic resistance to pyrethroids is a menace to the continued effectiveness of malaria vector controls. Its molecular basis is complex and varies geographically across Africa. Here, we used a multi-omics approach, followed-up with functional validation to show that a directionally selected haplotype of a cytochrome P450, CYP9K1 is a major driver of resistance in Anopheles funestus. A PoolSeq GWAS using mosquitoes alive and dead after permethrin exposure, from Malawi and Cameroon, detected candidate genomic regions, but lacked consistency across replicates. Targeted sequencing of candidate resistance genes detected several SNPs associated with known pyrethroid resistance QTLs. The most significant SNPs were in the cytochrome P450 CYP304B1 (Cameroon), CYP315A1 (Uganda) and the ABC transporter gene ABCG4 (Malawi). However, when comparing field resistant mosquitoes to laboratory susceptible, the pyrethroid resistance locus rp1 and SNPs around the ABC transporter ABCG4 were consistently significant, except for Uganda where SNPs in the P450 CYP9K1 was markedly significant. In vitro heterologous metabolism assays with recombinant CYP9K1 revealed that it metabolises type II pyrethroid (deltamethrin; 64% depletion) but not type I (permethrin; 0%), while moderately metabolising DDT (17%). CYP9K1 exhibited reduced genetic diversity in Uganda underlying an extensive selective sweep. Furthermore, a glycine to alanine (G454A) amino acid change in CYP9K1 was fixed in Ugandan mosquitoes but not in other An. funestus populations. This study sheds further light on the evolution of metabolic resistance in a major malaria vector by implicating more genes and variants that can be used to design field-applicable markers to better track resistance Africa-wide

Institutionalizing Provider-Initiated HIV Testing and Counselling for Children: An Observational Case Study from Zambia

Background: Provider-initiated testing and counselling (PITC) is a priority strategy for increasing access for HIV-exposed children to prevention measures, and infected children to treatment and care interventions. This article examines efforts to scale-up paediatric PITC at a second-level hospital located in Zambia’s Southern Province, and serving a catchment area of 1.2 million people. Methods and Principal Findings: Our retrospective case study examined best practices and enabling factors for rapid institutionalization of PITC in Livingstone General Hospital. Methods included clinical observations, key informant interviews with programme management, and a desk review of hospital management information systems (HMIS) uptake data following the introduction of PITC. After PITC roll-out, the hospital experienced considerably higher testing uptake. In a 36-month period following PITC institutionalization, of total inpatient children eligible for PITC (n = 5074), 98.5 % of children were counselled, and 98.2 % were tested. Of children tested (n = 4983), 15.5 % were determined HIVinfected; 77.6 % of these results were determined by DNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing in children under the age of 18 months. Of children identified as HIV-infected in the hospital’s inpatient and outpatient departments (n = 1342), 99.3 % were enrolled in HIV care, including initiation on co-trimoxazole prophylaxis. A number of good operational practices and enabling factors in the Livingstone General Hospital experience can inform rapid PIT

Propaganda in an Age of Algorithmic Personalization: Expanding Literacy Research and Practice

In this commentary, the author considers the rise of algorithmic personalization and the power of propaganda as they shift the dynamic landscape of 21st‐century literacy research and practice. Algorithmic personalization uses data from the behaviors, beliefs, interests, and emotions of the target audience to provide filtered digital content, targeted advertising, and differential product pricing to online users. As persuasive genres, advertising and propaganda may demand different types of reading practices than texts whose purpose is primarily informational or argumentative. Understanding the propaganda function of algorithmic personalization may lead to a deeper consideration of texts that activate emotion and tap into audience values for aesthetic, commercial, and political purposes. Increased attention to algorithmic personalization, propaganda, and persuasion in the context of K–12 literacy education may also help people cope with sponsored content, bots, and other forms of propaganda and persuasion that now circulate online

Market innovation as framing, productive friction and bricolage: an exploration of the personal data market

This paper explores the possibilities offered by recent Science and Technology Studies (STS) research on markets for engaging with market innovation. Although there exist few reflections on how innovation happens in markets, market innovation has not been singularly theorized in STS-inspired market studies. In this paper, we explore the potential analytic utility of different sets of ideas in the field of market studies, such as ‘framing’ [Callon, M. (1998) ‘Introduction: the embeddedness of economic markets in economics’, in The Laws of Markets, ed. M. Callon, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 1–57; Callon, M. (2007) ‘An essay on the growing contribution of economic markets to the proliferation of the social’, Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 24, no. 7–8, pp. 136–163], ‘productive friction’ [Stark, D. (2009) The Sense of Dissonance: Accounts of Worth in Economic Life, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ] and ‘bricolage’ [MacKenzie, D. & Pardo-Guerra, J. P. (2014) ‘Insurgent capitalism: Island, bricolage and the re-making of finance’, Economy and Society, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 153–182]. Drawing on our research into the online personal data industry and start-ups developing personal data control products, we put together five sensibilities that we think are of use for broader considerations of market innovation