I Am My Identity Kit : using Artifact Data in Research on Identity

Este texto se presentó como comunicación al II Congreso Internacional de Etnografía y Educación: Migraciones y Ciudadanías. Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, 5-8 Septiembre 2008.This presentation addresses how to collect and analyze artifacts in ethnographic and qualitative research, and the value of using artifacts in research which seeks to describe and interpret the identities that research participants construct. We believe that artifacts can be very useful in such research, because they tell us about the every day, taken-for-granted cultural meanings that people give to their surroundings, the things they make, their tools, toys, clothing, and even natural objects that have been given cultural meanings. Artifacts can be used to determine what people value, and how they adapt the resources they have to their needs. However, artifacts most often consist simply of souvenirs and clothing collected by researchers; they usually are under-utilized as research data themselves. Artifacts are large and lumpy and difficult to ship home. They may be immoveable, as is the case with features of the natural environment-mountains, urban environments, etc. In every case, they are difficult to analyze directly because research privileges data that can be manipulated easily- numbers and words. Nonetheless, we believe that artifacts can provide both a stimulus for collecting rich information about people and their culture, and also a window into otherwise unexamined questions in anthropological, sociological, educational, and other social science research. Visual anthropology and sociology has made use of wide photographs to supplement verbal description (Collier and Collier 1986). Anthropologists also have analyzed artifacts in the process of describing manufacturing and economies in communities they study. However, we believe that artifacts have been little used in studies of education (but see LeCompte and Preissle 1993), and especially in the study of processes of identity construction and maintenance. In an era of highly mobile populations, home culture no longer provides the sole and stable anchor for identity. Many people migrate back and forth between several countries, communities and cultures. Personal and community identity, then, must adapt to several environments at once. We believe that migrants form hybrid identities made up of components from multiple cultures and environments. Examining the artifacts that they use and surround themselves with can provide a window into dynamic processes of identity construction. In summary, as ethnographic researchers we realize the value that artifacts have had for us, as data objects and as a way to create conversations with participants about the objects, their functions, and their uses historically and currently. We believe that this issue remains insufficiently examined in the literature

Antimicrobial resistance among migrants in Europe: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are rising globally and there is concern that increased migration is contributing to the burden of antibiotic resistance in Europe. However, the effect of migration on the burden of AMR in Europe has not yet been comprehensively examined. Therefore, we did a systematic review and meta-analysis to identify and synthesise data for AMR carriage or infection in migrants to Europe to examine differences in patterns of AMR across migrant groups and in different settings. METHODS: For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, PubMed, and Scopus with no language restrictions from Jan 1, 2000, to Jan 18, 2017, for primary data from observational studies reporting antibacterial resistance in common bacterial pathogens among migrants to 21 European Union-15 and European Economic Area countries. To be eligible for inclusion, studies had to report data on carriage or infection with laboratory-confirmed antibiotic-resistant organisms in migrant populations. We extracted data from eligible studies and assessed quality using piloted, standardised forms. We did not examine drug resistance in tuberculosis and excluded articles solely reporting on this parameter. We also excluded articles in which migrant status was determined by ethnicity, country of birth of participants' parents, or was not defined, and articles in which data were not disaggregated by migrant status. Outcomes were carriage of or infection with antibiotic-resistant organisms. We used random-effects models to calculate the pooled prevalence of each outcome. The study protocol is registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42016043681. FINDINGS: We identified 2274 articles, of which 23 observational studies reporting on antibiotic resistance in 2319 migrants were included. The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or AMR infection in migrants was 25·4% (95% CI 19·1-31·8; I2 =98%), including meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (7·8%, 4·8-10·7; I2 =92%) and antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (27·2%, 17·6-36·8; I2 =94%). The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or infection was higher in refugees and asylum seekers (33·0%, 18·3-47·6; I2 =98%) than in other migrant groups (6·6%, 1·8-11·3; I2 =92%). The pooled prevalence of antibiotic-resistant organisms was slightly higher in high-migrant community settings (33·1%, 11·1-55·1; I2 =96%) than in migrants in hospitals (24·3%, 16·1-32·6; I2 =98%). We did not find evidence of high rates of transmission of AMR from migrant to host populations. INTERPRETATION: Migrants are exposed to conditions favouring the emergence of drug resistance during transit and in host countries in Europe. Increased antibiotic resistance among refugees and asylum seekers and in high-migrant community settings (such as refugee camps and detention facilities) highlights the need for improved living conditions, access to health care, and initiatives to facilitate detection of and appropriate high-quality treatment for antibiotic-resistant infections during transit and in host countries. Protocols for the prevention and control of infection and for antibiotic surveillance need to be integrated in all aspects of health care, which should be accessible for all migrant groups, and should target determinants of AMR before, during, and after migration. FUNDING: UK National Institute for Health Research Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, Imperial College Healthcare Charity, the Wellcome Trust, and UK National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare-associated Infections and Antimictobial Resistance at Imperial College London

Surgical site infection after gastrointestinal surgery in high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries: a prospective, international, multicentre cohort study

Background: Surgical site infection (SSI) is one of the most common infections associated with health care, but its importance as a global health priority is not fully understood. We quantified the burden of SSI after gastrointestinal surgery in countries in all parts of the world. Methods: This international, prospective, multicentre cohort study included consecutive patients undergoing elective or emergency gastrointestinal resection within 2-week time periods at any health-care facility in any country. Countries with participating centres were stratified into high-income, middle-income, and low-income groups according to the UN's Human Development Index (HDI). Data variables from the GlobalSurg 1 study and other studies that have been found to affect the likelihood of SSI were entered into risk adjustment models. The primary outcome measure was the 30-day SSI incidence (defined by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for superficial and deep incisional SSI). Relationships with explanatory variables were examined using Bayesian multilevel logistic regression models. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02662231. Findings: Between Jan 4, 2016, and July 31, 2016, 13 265 records were submitted for analysis. 12 539 patients from 343 hospitals in 66 countries were included. 7339 (58·5%) patient were from high-HDI countries (193 hospitals in 30 countries), 3918 (31·2%) patients were from middle-HDI countries (82 hospitals in 18 countries), and 1282 (10·2%) patients were from low-HDI countries (68 hospitals in 18 countries). In total, 1538 (12·3%) patients had SSI within 30 days of surgery. The incidence of SSI varied between countries with high (691 [9·4%] of 7339 patients), middle (549 [14·0%] of 3918 patients), and low (298 [23·2%] of 1282) HDI (p < 0·001). The highest SSI incidence in each HDI group was after dirty surgery (102 [17·8%] of 574 patients in high-HDI countries; 74 [31·4%] of 236 patients in middle-HDI countries; 72 [39·8%] of 181 patients in low-HDI countries). Following risk factor adjustment, patients in low-HDI countries were at greatest risk of SSI (adjusted odds ratio 1·60, 95% credible interval 1·05–2·37; p=0·030). 132 (21·6%) of 610 patients with an SSI and a microbiology culture result had an infection that was resistant to the prophylactic antibiotic used. Resistant infections were detected in 49 (16·6%) of 295 patients in high-HDI countries, in 37 (19·8%) of 187 patients in middle-HDI countries, and in 46 (35·9%) of 128 patients in low-HDI countries (p < 0·001). Interpretation: Countries with a low HDI carry a disproportionately greater burden of SSI than countries with a middle or high HDI and might have higher rates of antibiotic resistance. In view of WHO recommendations on SSI prevention that highlight the absence of high-quality interventional research, urgent, pragmatic, randomised trials based in LMICs are needed to assess measures aiming to reduce this preventable complication

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Un matrimonio conveniente: diseño de investigación cualitativa y estándares para la evaluación de programas

This article provide a qualitative researcher's perspective on the 1993 Program Evaluation Standards. These new Standards are of critical importance for evaluators because they establish agreed- upons for proper behavior within the evaluation community. Three aspects of the Standards are most salient to qualitative researchers: the concern for the human aspects of evaluation; issues of validity and meaning; and a broadned definition of legitimate data collection and analysis techniques. It has taken several decades for the utility of match-making between qualitative and quantitative research designs to be recognized by the evaluation community. The 1993 Program Evaluation Standards update evaluation procedures and legitimate a sensible integration of the wide range of research procedures available to program evaluators.Este artículo proporciona una valoración, desde la perspectiva de la investigación cualitativa, sobre los Standards de 1993 para la evaluación de programas. En este sentido tres son los aspectos de los Standards que más aportan a los investigadores cualitativos: a) la preocupación por los aspectos humanos de la evaluación; b) los temas de la validez y el significado; y c)una definición más amplia de las técnicas legitimadas de recogida y análisis de datos. Han sido necesarias varias décadas para que la comunidad evaluativa reconozca la utilidad del enlace entre los diseños cualitativos y cuantitativos. Los Program Evaluation Standards actualizan los procedimientos de evaluación, a la vez que legitima una integración sensata de la amplia variedad de procedimientos disponibles para los evaluadores de programas

Un matrimonio conveniente: diseño de investigación cualitativa y estándares para la evaluación de programas

This article provide a qualitative researcher's perspective on the 1993 Program Evaluation Standards. These new Standards are of critical importance for evaluators because they establish agreed- upons for proper behavior within the evaluation community. Three aspects of the Standards are most salient to qualitative researchers: the concern for the human aspects of evaluation; issues of validity and meaning; and a broadned definition of legitimate data collection and analysis techniques. It has taken several decades for the utility of match-making between qualitative and quantitative research designs to be recognized by the evaluation community. The 1993 Program Evaluation Standards update evaluation procedures and legitimate a sensible integration of the wide range of research procedures available to program evaluators

I Am My Identity Kit : using Artifact Data in Research on Identity

Este texto se presentó como comunicación al II Congreso Internacional de Etnografía y Educación: Migraciones y Ciudadanías. Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, 5-8 Septiembre 2008.This presentation addresses how to collect and analyze artifacts in ethnographic and qualitative research, and the value of using artifacts in research which seeks to describe and interpret the identities that research participants construct. We believe that artifacts can be very useful in such research, because they tell us about the every day, taken-for-granted cultural meanings that people give to their surroundings, the things they make, their tools, toys, clothing, and even natural objects that have been given cultural meanings. Artifacts can be used to determine what people value, and how they adapt the resources they have to their needs. However, artifacts most often consist simply of souvenirs and clothing collected by researchers; they usually are under-utilized as research data themselves. Artifacts are large and lumpy and difficult to ship home. They may be immoveable, as is the case with features of the natural environment-mountains, urban environments, etc. In every case, they are difficult to analyze directly because research privileges data that can be manipulated easily- numbers and words. Nonetheless, we believe that artifacts can provide both a stimulus for collecting rich information about people and their culture, and also a window into otherwise unexamined questions in anthropological, sociological, educational, and other social science research. Visual anthropology and sociology has made use of wide photographs to supplement verbal description (Collier and Collier 1986). Anthropologists also have analyzed artifacts in the process of describing manufacturing and economies in communities they study. However, we believe that artifacts have been little used in studies of education (but see LeCompte and Preissle 1993), and especially in the study of processes of identity construction and maintenance. In an era of highly mobile populations, home culture no longer provides the sole and stable anchor for identity. Many people migrate back and forth between several countries, communities and cultures. Personal and community identity, then, must adapt to several environments at once. We believe that migrants form hybrid identities made up of components from multiple cultures and environments. Examining the artifacts that they use and surround themselves with can provide a window into dynamic processes of identity construction. In summary, as ethnographic researchers we realize the value that artifacts have had for us, as data objects and as a way to create conversations with participants about the objects, their functions, and their uses historically and currently. We believe that this issue remains insufficiently examined in the literature

LeCompte, Margaret D., and Judith Preissle Goetz, Problems of Reliability and Validity in Ethnographic Research, Review of Educational Research, 52(Spring, 1982), 31-60.*

Reviews threats to and strategies to enhance credibility in ethnographic research

LeCompte, Margaret D., and Jean J. Schensul, Designing and Conducting Ethnographic Research. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 1999.

Provides an overview of steps and procedures in doing ethnographic research; five related books from the same authors and publisher cover the same ground in more detail

LeCompte, Margaret D., and Kathleen Bennett DeMarrais, The Disempowering of Empowerment: Out of the Revolution and into the Classroom, Educational Foundations, 6(Summer, 1992), 5-31.

Traces origins of empowerment and its uses and misuses in education