Beyond Collective Efficacy: New Brief Measures to Assess the Outer Layers of the Social Ecology

Abstract Introduction: Community support can be a valuable interpersonal resource anywhere, yet past research has largely been focused on adults in urban neighborhoods. Because communities are no longer solely defined by a shared physicality, we offer psychometric data on three new measures to assess other communal resources: informal community support, support for community youth, and workplace integration. Methods: Participants (N=1706) from a largely rural, low-income Southern region completed a computer-assisted questionnaire as part of a larger study on character development and personal strength. Ages range from 11 to 70 years old (M=29.3 years; SD=12.3 years); 63% of participants are female. Results: Internal consistency was good for our 3 new measures, .70 to .86 and each scale comprised a single factor in exploratory factor analyses. Correlations with collective efficacy (convergent validity) were all positive and significant and range from .18 to .57. Correlations with measures of subjective well-being range from .21 to .29, and correlations with mental and physical health outcomes ranged from .14 to .23. Implications: Studying communities in addition to individuals and families can potentially shed light on the variety of ways in which community ties can foster well-being and resilience. The three new measures presented here assess important but understudied aspects of communities

Racial Disparities in Liver Disease in the US: Addressing the High Prevalence of Hepatitis B Infection in the APIA Community

Chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma are some of the leading causes of death in the United States, resulting in a number of annual deaths that has only increased over the past several decades. A vast proportion of these liver-related deaths is due to chronic hepatitis B infection, which currently affects approximately 1.2 million people in the US. However, the hepatitis B virus does not affect every racial group in the United States equally: Asian Americans experience a disproportionately high prevalence of HBV infection. In fact, even though the APIA community comprises only 4% of the US population, they account for approximately 60% of the 1.2-2 million individuals affected with chronic hepatitis B in the US. This striking racial demographic of HBV-infected individuals is due to a myriad of biological and cultural factors such as emigration from regions with high HBsAg prevalence, a high rate of HBV vertical transmission from mother to child, and suboptimal HBV screening and management among immigrants and non-native English speakers. This paper proposes a two-part study, which utilizes surveys distributed to patients and health providers to create a free clinic event that will model optimal HBV screening and treatment strategies for Asian immigrants. From this study, we hope to implement changes in healthcare for Asian immigrants that will remedy cultural barriers and the disproportionate prevalence of HBV in APIA communities, in order to ultimately lower the overall rate of liver-related death in the US

Study of the integration of wind tunnel and computational methods for aerodynamic configurations

A study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of using a low-order panel code to estimate wind tunnel wall corrections. The corrections were found by two computations. The first computation included the test model and the surrounding wind tunnel walls, while in the second computation the wind tunnel walls were removed. The difference between the force and moment coefficients obtained by comparing these two cases allowed the determination of the wall corrections. The technique was verified by matching the test-section, wall-pressure signature from a wind tunnel test with the signature predicted by the panel code. To prove the viability of the technique, two cases were considered. The first was a two-dimensional high-lift wing with a flap that was tested in the 7- by 10-foot wind tunnel at NASA Ames Research Center. The second was a 1/32-scale model of the F/A-18 aircraft which was tested in the low-speed wind tunnel at San Diego State University. The panel code used was PMARC (Panel Method Ames Research Center). Results of this study indicate that the proposed wind tunnel wall correction method is comparable to other methods and that it also inherently includes the corrections due to model blockage and wing lift

Zapped: A Typology Of Use And Misuse Of The Taser

Police use of TASER force is currently a hot topic of controversy in the intersections of society and the criminal justice system. Proponents, including manufacturers and law enforcement, value the TASER as a less than lethal alternative to deadly force; providing increased safety for officers as an aid to maintain distance between potentially threatening suspect(s) and officer(s) while preserving the life and well being of suspects in such encounters. Civil and human rights advocacies argue the TASER to be associated with many deaths, serious injury and abuse of power by law enforcement. Those who lean more toward the opposition of the TASER argue it is being abused and misused by law enforcement, resulting in cases of excessive force and wrongful death. The controversy surrounding TASER use of force has received a great deal of media attention; fueling the fire on both sides of the TASER controversy. Manufacturers, law enforcement and other proponents often argue the level of force to be justified and in line with policy while opponents claim excessive force, and occasionally wrongful death, in association with identical cases being justified by police and their departments. It is apparent that much research is needed in this area to gain general knowledge in the reality of TASER use and misuse to positively influence TASER policy in departments across the U.S. Just as a wide array of terms are used to reference the TASER in literature and in the field (Taser, ECD, ECW, CED, etc.), it is a research endeavor to explore if the same ambiguity in terminology is reflective of the TASER practice and policy used in the U.S. criminal justice system. The purpose of this thesis study was to examine and identify police officer prescribed and proscribed TASER use of force. The study is a content analysis of secondary data collection that included articles collected from a National Police Misconduct Statistics and Reporting Project (NPMSRP) website, InjusticeEverywhere.com. Data were examined to identifying common prescribed and proscribed use of force themes in accordance to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling (Bryan v. MacPherson, 2010). This paper extends knowledge and understanding of current themes of prescribed and proscribed TASER use of force by law enforcement agencies. One-hundred thirteen cases were collected and supplemented with additional resources as they became available. This includes, and is not limited to, non-duplicated online news articles and available court case rulings pertaining to each subject/case. The research was used to create a typology of use of TASER force. The author is not determining the appropriateness of each use of TASER force instance; rather the author provided a contribution to the knowledge base and categorization guideline for future police departments, policy makers, etc. to analyze their own trending , which is strongly encouraged by PERF (Police Executive Research Forum, 2010). While it is important to explore TASER associated fatalities, health consequences, and potential risks with its use, it is also important for police organizations and researchers to conduct simultaneous research on use and misuse of the TASER to its near entirety. Continued evaluations of its use and misuse by law enforcement agencies will aid in evaluations of policy, training, education and practice

Key Issues in Understanding the Economic and Health Security of Current and Future Generations of Seniors

Examines key issues seniors face in ensuring economic and health security and the role that Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security play in ensuring seniors' financial security, including concerns about medical debt and disparities by race/ethnicity

Care, Control, or Criminalization? Discourses on Homelessness and Social Responses

There has been a resurgence of political and media interest in homelessness, particularly in major urban areas throughout the United States. This interest is credited to a number of cities that declared a State of Emergency (SOE) due to their homelessness crisis in 2015. The motivation to declare homelessness as an urgent priority of local politics assists cities in temporarily overcoming longstanding budget and bureaucratic barriers. Undoubtedly, the criminal justice system is part of social response following a declared SOE, and homelessness is not an exception. Little attention has explored the historical, social, and political processes of problematizing homelessness from a criminological perspective. Drawing on theoretical insight from David Garland, Jonathan Simon, and Loïc Wacquant, the politics of homelessness and crime found in New York City (NYC) is interrogated through discourses in the New York Times (NYT) from 1970-2012. This research examines how talk about homelessness responses creates, enacts, and enforces technologies of the criminal justice system. This study finds the politicization of homelessness over time produces and legitimates increased controls and management of marginalized groups, where state authorities are experts, and the boundaries of care and criminalization are blurred. This study has implications for the management of homelessness and policies that further socially exclude the homeless from overcoming such conditions