Barriers To Independence: A Study of Housing and Personal Assistance Issues for People with Disabilities Residing in Nursing Homes

Access Living and CURL began a collaborative partnership to document the conditions influencing the placement of disabled people in a nursing home, and to identify the barriers that prevent nursing home residents from living independently

Explaining and Forecasting Inflation in Emerging Markets: The Case of Mexico

The authors apply existing inflation models that have worked well in industrialized countries to Mexico, an emerging market that has recently moved to adopt an inflation-targeting framework for monetary policy. They compare the performance of these models with a mark-up model that has been used extensively to analyze inflation in Mexico. The authors focus on three models that have some theoretical foundations and that can therefore help explain the causes of inflation as well as be used for forecasting purposes: a mark-up model, a money-gap model, and a Phillips curve. The authors' empirical results suggest that the evolution of the exchange rate remains a very important factor for forecasting inflation in Mexico. Indeed, in the best-performing model, the mark-up model, the exchange rate plays the most significant role. The Phillips curve explains and forecasts inflation well when using actual values for the explanatory variables, but does not perform well when using forecasted values for the explanatory variables. The money-gap model does not appear to be useful in its current form, because it is unable to beat even a simple AR1.Inflation and prices; International topics

The Importance of Multi-level Theoretical Integration in Biopsychosocial Research

There is a growing interest in the unification of health research in a biopsychosocial framework. However, increasing specialization and advancement in instrumentation makes it more difficult to bridge understanding across areas. It would be very useful to ground biopsychosocial research in the most powerful explanatory framework in the life sciences, evolution by natural and sexual selection. This would require and explanation of the functional significance of the phenomena related to the area of study, in addition to descriptions of the mechanism. The application of an integrative evolutionary framework will be illustrated with the example of sex differences in human mortality rates, which are related to endocrine, psychological, and socio-environmental factors. The integrative evolutionary model will be contrasted with a theoretical model that acknowledges physiological and social influences, but artificially separates them

High Ringxiety: Attachment Anxiety Predicts Experiences of Phantom Cell Phone Ringing

Mobile cell phone users have reported experiencing ringing and/or vibrations associated with incoming calls and messages, only to find that no call or message had actually registered. We believe this phenomenon can be understood as a human signal detection issue, with potentially important influences from psychological attributes. We hypothesized that individuals higher in attachment anxiety would report more frequent phantom cell phone experiences, whereas individuals higher in attachment avoidance would report less frequent experiences. If these experiences are primarily psychologically related to attributes of interpersonal relationships, associations with attachment style should be stronger than for general sensation seeking. We also predicted that certain contexts would interact with attachment style to increase or decrease the likelihood of experiencing phantom cell phone calls and messages. Attachment anxiety directly predicted the frequency of phantom ringing and notification experiences, whereas attachment avoidance and sensation seeking did not directly predict frequency. Attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance interacted with contextual factors (expectations for a call or message and concerned about an issue that one may be contacted about) in the expected directions for predicting phantom cell phone experiences.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140350/1/cyber.2015.0406.pd

Geographical Information Systems Facilitate Child Lead Screening Efforts

Background: Children at the highest risk for lead poisoning are African American, living in families with low incomes, or are living in housing built prior to 1946. The Greater Flint Lead Safe Children Program (GFLSCP) was designed to increase the proportion of African Americans under 6 years of age who are tested for lead in a State-designated high risk area for childhood lead poisoning. Objective: We used Geographical Information Systems to create maps that facilitate program process and evaluation. Methods: We created maps of neighborhood outreach coverage and lead screening results. We identified areas with higher concentrations of African American children under 6 years of age and housing units constructed prior to 1940. Results: Digital maps organize program information and facilitate program process. Maps visually demonstrate the association between older housing stock and elevated blood lead levels, and assist GFLSCP staff in prioritizing areas at highest risk of lead poisoning. Analyses indicated that the proportion of houses built prior to 1940 predicted blood lead levels. Conclusions: Geographic Information Systems provide an intuitive, visual means of tracking program progress and correspondence of intervention activities within the focus demographic and identified areas of concentrated risk

An Evolutionary Framework for Understanding Sex Differences in Croatian Mortality Rates

Being male is the strongest demographic predictor of early mortality in Croatia. For every woman who dies between the ages of 15 and 34, three men die. Between the ages of 15 and 54, men are four times as likely as women to die from behavioral causes of death, such as accidents, homicides, and suicides. A causal explanation for sex differences in mortality must be based on an understanding of how sex differences were shaped by natural selection, and how those differences interact with environmental factors to create observed patterns and variations. In brief, males have been selected for riskier behavioral and physiological strategies than women, because of the greater variance and skew in male reproductive success. This paper examines the sex difference in Croatian mortality in three parts. First, we quantify the Croatian Male to Female Mortality Ratio (M:F MR) for 9 major causes of death across age group to provide a richer understanding of the sex difference in mortality from a life history framework. Second, we compare the Croatian M:F MR from behavioral, internal, and all causes with that of the available world population to demonstrate how Croatian mortality can be understood as part of a universal pattern that is influenced by unique environmental context. Third, we investigate how the War of Independence in 1991-1995 affected mortality patterns though its impact on behavioral strategies and the physical embodiment of distress

Drunchies Hangover: Heavy Episodic Drinking and Dietary Choices while Drinking and on the Following Day

Background and Purpose: Alcohol intoxication affects college students' eating patterns. Yet, little is known about dietary habits on the day after heavy alcohol consumption. The purpose of this study was to examine college students’ dietary choices during alcohol consumption and on the following day by gender and level of alcohol consumption (including none). Methods: Ethnically diverse undergraduates (N = 286; 52% male, 48% female, M age = 19, SD age = 1) at a public university in the Midwest completed an anonymous on-line survey. The survey included Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System nutrition items, items on consumption of "empty calorie foods," and open-ended response items on dietary choices that were coded by a nutritionist. Results: Participants reported differences in the likelihoods of consuming non-nutrient dense foods after drinking alcohol both before sleeping and the next day compared to at other times when they were not consuming alcohol. Conclusion: College students are more likely to eat after drinking alcohol and tend to consume less healthy foods. These dietary practices necessitate the need for customized interventions focusing on the dietary influences of alcohol consumption

Male Scarcity is Associated with Higher Prevalence of Premature Gestation and Low Birth Weight Births Across the United States

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/96668/1/ajhb22369.pd

An Historical Study of the First Year of the Canadian Association of Music Therapists

This study presents a historical narrative of the inaugural year (1974/75) of the Canadian Association of Music Therapists (CAMT). The purpose of the study was to examine music therapists’ lived experiences of the first year of the CAMT concomitantly with primary source documents published between the first two CAMT conferences (August 3, 1974 and May 2, 1975, respectively). The primary research question was: What are the experiences of music therapists who were involved in the CAMT during its inaugural year? The secondary research question was: How do primary source historical documents from the first year of the CAMT relate to the experiences of the participants? I combined phenomenological and historical methodologies in this qualitative interview study. I interviewed three Canadian music therapists who were active during 1974/75. The experiences they shared in their interviews were related to primary source historical documents the researcher obtained from the CAMT historical archives. Three primary themes emerged from the data analysis: “developing identity,” “defining music therapy/music therapist,” and “emerging alternative profession.” This study offers information about significant conflicts, issues, and developments in the early CAMT that was previously missing from the historical literature on Canadian music therapy