The Boston Puerto Rican Health Study, a longitudinal cohort study on health disparities in Puerto Rican adults: challenges and opportunities

BACKGROUND: The Boston Puerto Rican Health Study is an ongoing longitudinal cohort study designed to examine the role of psychosocial stress on presence and development of allostatic load and health outcomes in Puerto Ricans, and potential modification by nutritional status, genetic variation, and social support. METHODS: Self-identified Puerto Ricans, aged 45-75 years and residing in the Boston, MA metro area, were recruited through door-to-door enumeration and community approaches. Participants completed a comprehensive set of questionnaires and tests. Blood, urine and salivary samples were extracted for biomarker and genetic analysis. Measurements are repeated at a two-year follow-up. RESULTS: A total of 1500 eligible participants completed baseline measurements, with nearly 80% two-year follow-up retention. The majority of the cohort is female (70%), and many have less than 8th grade education (48%), and fall below the poverty level (59%). Baseline prevalence of health conditions is high for this age range: considerable physical (26%) and cognitive (7%) impairment, obesity (57%), type 2 diabetes (40%), hypertension (69%), arthritis (50%) and depressive symptomatology (60%). CONCLUSIONS: The enrollment of minority groups presents unique challenges. This report highlights approaches to working with difficult to reach populations, and describes some of the health issues and needs of Puerto Rican older adults. These results may inform future studies and interventions aiming to improve the health of this and similar communities

Examples of conditional SIC-POVMs

The state of a quantum system is a density matrix with several parameters. The concern herein is how to recover the parameters. Several possibilities exist for the optimal recovery method, and we consider some special cases. We assume that a few parameters are known and that the others are to be recovered. The optimal positive-operator-valued measure (POVM) for recovering unknown parameters with an additional condition is called a conditional symmetric informationally complete POVM (SIC-POVM). In this paper, we study the existence or nonexistence of conditional SIC-POVMs. We provide a necessary condition for existence and some examples.ArticleQUANTUM INFORMATION PROCESSING. 14(10):3983-3999 (2015)journal articl

Individual, family and offence characteristics of high risk childhood offenders: comparing non-offending, one-time offending and re-offending Dutch-Moroccan migrant children in the Netherlands

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Childhood offenders are at an increased risk for developing mental health, social and educational problems later in life. An early onset of offending is a strong predictor for future persistent offending. Childhood offenders from ethnic minority groups are a vulnerable at-risk group. However, up until now, no studies have focused on them.</p> <p>Aims</p> <p>To investigate which risk factors are associated with (re-)offending of childhood offenders from an ethnic minority.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>Dutch-Moroccan boys, who were registered by the police in the year 2006-2007, and their parents as well as a control group (n = 40) were interviewed regarding their individual and family characteristics. Two years later a follow-up analysis of police data was conducted to identify one-time offenders (n = 65) and re-offenders (n = 35).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All groups, including the controls, showed substantial problems. Single parenthood (OR 6.0) and financial problems (OR 3.9) distinguished one-time offenders from controls. Reading problems (OR 3.8), having an older brother (OR 5.5) and a parent having Dutch friends (OR 4.3) distinguished re-offenders from one-time offenders. First offence characteristics were not predictive for re-offending. The control group reported high levels of emotional problems (33.3%). Parents reported not needing help for their children but half of the re-offender's families were known to the Child Welfare Agency, mostly in a juridical framework.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The Moroccan subgroup of childhood offenders has substantial problems that might hamper healthy development. Interventions should focus on reaching these families tailored to their needs and expectations using a multi-system approach.</p

A systematic review of randomised controlled trials assessing effectiveness of prosthetic and orthotic interventions.

BACKGROUND: Assistive products are items which allow older people and people with disabilities to be able to live a healthy, productive and dignified life. It has been estimated that approximately 1.5% of the world's population need a prosthesis or orthosis. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to systematically identify and review the evidence from randomized controlled trials assessing effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of prosthetic and orthotic interventions. METHODS: Literature searches, completed in September 2015, were carried out in fourteen databases between years 1995 and 2015. The search results were independently screened by two reviewers. For the purpose of this manuscript, only randomized controlled trials which examined interventions using orthotic or prosthetic devices were selected for data extraction and synthesis. RESULTS: A total of 342 randomised controlled trials were identified (319 English language and 23 non-English language). Only 4 of these randomised controlled trials examined prosthetic interventions and the rest examined orthotic interventions. These orthotic interventions were categorised based on the medical conditions/injuries of the participants. From these studies, this review focused on the medical condition/injuries with the highest number of randomised controlled trials (osteoarthritis, fracture, stroke, carpal tunnel syndrome, plantar fasciitis, anterior cruciate ligament, diabetic foot, rheumatoid and juvenile idiopathic arthritis, ankle sprain, cerebral palsy, lateral epicondylitis and low back pain). The included articles were assessed for risk of bias using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. Details of the clinical population examined, the type of orthotic/prosthetic intervention, the comparator/s and the outcome measures were extracted. Effect sizes and odds ratios were calculated for all outcome measures, where possible. CONCLUSIONS: At present, for prosthetic and orthotic interventions, the scientific literature does not provide sufficient high quality research to allow strong conclusions on their effectiveness and cost-effectiveness

How negative contact and positive contact with Whites predict collective action among racial and ethnic minorities

Positive contact with advantaged group members can improve disadvantaged group members’ attitudes towards them, yet it may also lower perceptions of group discrimination and consequent collective action. Little is known, however, about how negative contact with the advantaged predicts collective action among members of disadvantaged groups. With samples of Black and Hispanic Americans, we tested positive and negative contact with White Americans as predictors of self-reported collective action behaviour and future intentions. Across both samples, negative contact with White Americans predicted greater collective action, largely through the mechanisms of perceived discrimination and intergroup anger. Simultaneously, positive contact showed a negative indirect effect on collective action primarily through reduced anger. These findings suggest that negative contact may be a potential driver of social change among racial minorities. Implications of these findings for the contact and collective action literatures are discussed

Toward a comprehensive understanding of intergroup contact: Descriptions and mediators of positive and negative contact among majority and minority groups

Positive contact predicts reduced prejudice, but negative contact may increase prejudice at a stronger rate. The current project builds on this work in four ways: establishing an understanding of contact that is grounded insubjective experience, examining the affective mediators involved in the negative contact-prejudice relationship, extending research on the effects of positive and negative contact to minority groups, and examining the contact asymmetry experimentally. Study 1 introduced anger as a mediator of the relationships between positive and negative contact and prejudice among White Americans (N = 371), using a contact measure that reflected the frequency and intensity of a wide range of experiences. Study 2 found a contact asymmetry among Black and Hispanic Americans (N = 365). Study 3 found initial experimental evidence of a contact asymmetry (N = 309). We conclude by calling for a more nuanced understanding of intergroup contact that recognizes its multifaceted and subjective nature

Depersonalized extended contact and injunctive norms about cross-group friendship impact intergroup orientations

Five experiments examine the interactive power of descriptive and injunctive norms regarding intergroup friendships on the effects of extended contact – knowing ingroup members having outgroup friends – on intergroup orientations. We propose that the positive effect of extended contact can occur even when the ingroup members having outgroup friends are unknown to the individual who becomes aware of such contact – depersonalized extended contact. However, to be effective depersonalized extended contact requires ingroup normative support. We tested this prediction by providing participants with information about the number of ingroup members (Spaniards) who have outgroup (immigrants) friends -descriptive norms - and the normative support for cross-group friendship -injunctive norms. Three experiments tested how different levels of depersonalized extended contact (none vs. low vs. high), consensus regarding norms about cross-group friendship (low vs. high), and the source of such norms (ingroup vs. outgroup) impact intergroup orientations. Even low levels of depersonalized extended contact had positive effects on intergroup orientations, when there was normative support for cross-group friendship from the ingroup, but not from the outgroup. Two additional experiments extended these effects to a behavioral outcome, and showed that the positive effect of ingroup injunctive norms was mediated by the enhanced belief that outgroup members had a genuine interest in intergroup contact (integrative motives). However, the lack of effect of outgroup injunctive norms was mediated by the suspicion that outgroup members held utilitarian motives for contact. Implications of these findings for improving intergroup relations through depersonalized extended contact and injunctive normative influence are discussed

Depersonalized extended contact and injunctive norms about cross-group friendship impact intergroup orientations

Five experiments examine the interactive power of descriptive and injunctive norms regarding intergroup friendships on the effects of extended contact – knowing ingroup members having outgroup friends – on intergroup orientations. We propose that the positive effect of extended contact can occur even when the ingroup members having outgroup friends are unknown to the individual who becomes aware of such contact – depersonalized extended contact. However, to be effective depersonalized extended contact requires ingroup normative support. We tested this prediction by providing participants with information about the number of ingroup members (Spaniards) who have outgroup (immigrants) friends -descriptive norms - and the normative support for cross-group friendship -injunctive norms. Three experiments tested how different levels of depersonalized extended contact (none vs. low vs. high), consensus regarding norms about cross-group friendship (low vs. high), and the source of such norms (ingroup vs. outgroup) impact intergroup orientations. Even low levels of depersonalized extended contact had positive effects on intergroup orientations, when there was normative support for cross-group friendship from the ingroup, but not from the outgroup. Two additional experiments extended these effects to a behavioral outcome, and showed that the positive effect of ingroup injunctive norms was mediated by the enhanced belief that outgroup members had a genuine interest in intergroup contact (integrative motives). However, the lack of effect of outgroup injunctive norms was mediated by the suspicion that outgroup members held utilitarian motives for contact. Implications of these findings for improving intergroup relations through depersonalized extended contact and injunctive normative influence are discussed