Racial Congruence and Its Effects on Social Integration and School Involvement: A Multi-Level Model

Several initiatives have been taken in order to diversify schools and communities in advance of scientific research investigating the effects of racial diversity on students. The present study used data from 41,639 students across 87 schools to answer the following research question: To what extent do students with high levels of racial congruence feel more socially integrated and experience higher levels of school participation than similar students who are racially incongruent in their school environments? Racial congruence is defined as attending a school with a high percentage of peers of the same race as oneself. This secondary data analysis used a nested-model (students within school social environments) and found a cross-level interaction between an individual's race and the percentage of same-race peers for certain racial groups. Findings support previous literature concerning the attenuation of individual-level racial group differences in social integration when Asian American students are in racially congruent schools

Latino Adolescent Sexual Behavior: Do Contextual Effects Contribute to Ethnic Group Differences?

Latino youths are at a higher risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections or becoming pregnant during adolescence than their non-Latino peers. Research has focused mainly on individual sociopsychological predictors of adolescent sexual behavior or on contextual effects of neighborhoods. The present study investigates potential contributions of school effects to the explanation of ethnic group differences in sexual behavior. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) are examined to answer the following questions: (a) Are Latino adolescents concentrated in areas where there is a more sexually permissive school culture? (b) Are sexually permissive school cultures positively related to sexual initiation? (c) To what extent do school characteristics or sexual norms moderate the relationship between Latino self-identification and motivations to engage in sex through a person-environment interaction? (d) To what extent do school characteristics or sexual norms moderate the relationship between Latino self-identification and sexual initiation through a person-environment interaction? Results suggest that Latinos are not concentrated in areas with a more permissive sexual culture and that the higher the proportion of Latinos in the school, the lower the proportion of students having had sex. Latino ethnicity is not related to motivations to engage in sex, but is positively related to sexual initiation. This positive relationship is attenuated in schools where there is a sexually permissive school culture. Across ethnicities, sexually permissive school cultures increase sexual initiation

Projecting the Future Numbers of Migrant Workers in the Health and Social Care Sectors in Ireland. ESRI WP275. January 2009

Ireland will experience population ageing in the coming years, whereby the percentage of the population aged 65 and over will rise from its current level of 11 percent to over 20 percent in 2035. A number of papers have looked at the implications of this process for the public finances. However, less attention has been paid to the human resource needs that will arise if increased demands are placed on health and social care systems. In this paper, we provide projections of the possible numbers that will be needed to work in the health and social care sectors out to 2035. We also consider what proportion of the extra employees will be migrants. We discuss both practical and ethical issues which arise when foreign health and social care workers are recruited

Respiratory disease in the Middle Nile Valley:A bioarchaeological analysis of the impact of environmental and sociocultural change from the Neolithic to Medieval periods

Today, poor air quality is a major world-wide health burden, causing 4.2 million premature deaths per year globally, including from respiratory disease. Particulate pollution irritates and inflames the respiratory tract, increasing susceptibility to the development of respiratory conditions. Non-specific bone changes in the sinuses and on the visceral surfaces of the ribs have been linked to inflammation of the respiratory tract, caused by sinusitis and lower respiratory tract diseases. Analysis of these changes in archaeological populations is providing an historical perspective on the impact of environment, activities related to occupation, and associated socio-economic factors, such as poor ventilation in living and work spaces and low levels of hygiene, which potentially can all lead to exposure to poor air quality. This study investigates the prevalence of abnormal bony changes to the sinuses and ribs in human skeletons from twelve Sudanese sites, ranging from the Neolithic to the Medieval periods (5000 BC – AD 1500), with a particular focus on the Fourth Nile Cataract area and comparative sites from other regions of the Nile Valley with differing sociocultural and environmental conditions. A total of 493 adults (aged 17+ years) were analysed. Changes in prevalence between sex, age, time period, and geographical region were examined. Prevalence rates of new bone formation on the visceral surfaces of the ribs displayed a general trend towards an increase in later time periods, while the frequency of bony changes associated with maxillary sinusitis remained remarkably consistent at around fifty percent in all Fourth Cataract sites. The data from the comparative sites displayed greater variation. The lowest prevalence rates for bony changes associated with respiratory disease were observed at the Neolithic site (R12) and the highest at the urban Medieval site (Soba East). In Sudan increasing aridity from the Neolithic period until the modern day may have led to a growing exposure to environmental particulate matter from airborne dust and sand. The impact of increasing aridity, agricultural intensification, urbanisation, craft specialisation, and the emergence of visible signs of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and leprosy, are all discussed in relation to the prevalence rates of respiratory disease between time periods and geographical regions. Changes in the environment in the Middle Nile Valley may have had a distinct effect on the presence of respiratory disease, in conjunction with exposure to other sources of particulate pollution and infectious diseases. This study of respiratory disease in Sudan provides a contextually driven perspective on a problem that is of increasing concern today across the world

Does Peer Education Affect our Prescribing Practice? Impact of Educational Intervention on the Prescribing of Medication Assisted Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder

BACKGROUND: Alcohol use disorders (AUD) are a common problem in the U.S and are associated with increased rates of early mortality and substantial morbidity. AUD and related complications are a common reason for ED visits, hospital admission, and readmission. Medication assisted treatment of AUD is effective, safe and evidence-based. Nationally and in New Mexico, effective treatment for AUD is underused. Numerous studies have demonstrated the utility of naltrexone and acamprosate, both FDA approved for the treatment of AUD. The hallmark meta-analysis highlighting the benefits of these medications was published in 2014 and there were multiple UNM hospitalist educational events on the treatment of AUDs starting in 2015. We aim to study the effect of these. METHODS: We compared the number of naltrexone and acamprosate prescriptions provided to patients discharged from an adult internal medicine hospitalist service over the course of a 5 year period beginning in 2014, and each subsequent year as measured via EMR queries. Peer education on best practices in the treatment of AUDs attended by UNM hospitalists and trainees included grand rounds, hospital medicine Best Practices didactics, Hospitalist Training Track didactics, journal article review, and professional society meetings. A handout was developed and disseminating explaining these medications including their indications, risks, and benefits. RESULTS: Prescriptions for naltrexone and acamprosate increased from 1-2 per quarter to up to 28 per quarter. CONCLUSION: The number of naltrexone and acamprosate prescriptions increased over the designated 5-year period in direct correlation with educational interventions, although absolute numbers were low. This helps demonstrate the importance of continued education regarding best practices for treating AUDs, while also highlighting limitations and opportunities for hard-wiring processes to improve prescription rates

Review of nomenclature for Actinidiaceae in Australia

A lectotype is chosen for Australia’s only native species of Actinidiaceae, Dillenia andreana F.Muell. A case is made for Saurauia andreana (F.Muell.) Oliv. ex F.Muell. to be treated as a new combination based on Dillenia andreana rather than as the name of a new taxon. Notes are provided on the classification of Yang-tao (Chinese Gooseberry or Kiwifruit), Actinidia chinensis var. deliciosa (A.Chev.) A.Chev., a taxon occasionally naturalised in Australia, for use on the online Flora of Australia

Topaz : Indian Summer (November)

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-ps/1949/thumbnail.jp

Gratitude for Help among Adult Friends and Siblings

Peer reviewe