Global Health Equity and Advocacy: The roles of international Non-Governmental Organizations

International health equity and community empowerment are promoted through local and global collaborations with non-governmental organizations (NGO’s). Civil society organizations and inter-agency partnerships assume central roles in addressing global health inequity, within the context of national health and social systems, local realities and priorities. Community health promotion through public-private collaboration by NGO’s on health needs assessments and fund-raising is designed to increase support for local programs in the United States. This paper compares health promotion and advocacy roles of an international non-governmental organization in global and local arenas, based on community case studies by the author in rural Hungary and North Texas from 2009 to 2011, using ethnographic and qualitative research methods. Findings confirm the need for systematic evaluation of the effects of complex socioeconomic, political and multi-ethnic contexts, and the impacts of prevention programs and healthcare on health equity

Global Health Equity and Advocacy: The roles of international Non-Governmental Organizations

<div><p class="AbstractParagraphs">International health equity and community empowerment are promoted through local and global collaborations with non-governmental organizations (NGO’s). Civil society organizations and inter-agency partnerships assume central roles in addressing global health inequity, within the context of national health and social systems, local realities and priorities. Community health promotion through public-private collaboration by NGO’s on health needs assessments and fund-raising is designed to increase support for local programs in the United States. This paper compares health promotion and advocacy roles of an international non-governmental organization in global and local arenas, based on community case studies by the author in rural Hungary and North Texas from 2009 to 2011, using ethnographic and qualitative research methods. Findings confirm the need for systematic evaluation of the effects of complex socioeconomic, political and multi-ethnic contexts, and the impacts of prevention programs and healthcare on health equity.</p></div><br /

Electromagnetic multipole moments of elementary spin-1/2, 1, and 3/2 particles

We study multipole decompositions of the electromagnetic currents of spin-1/2, 1, and 3/2 particles described in terms of Lagrangians designed to reproduce representation specific wave equations which are second order in the momenta and which emerge within the recently elaborated Poincar\'e covariant projector method. We calculate the electric multipoles of the above spins for the spinor, the four-vector, and the four-vector--spinor representations, attend to the most general non-Lagrangian spin-3/2 currents which are allowed by Lorentz invariance to be of third order in the momenta and construct the linear current equivalent of identical multipole moments of one of them. We conclude that such non-Lagrangian currents are not necessarily more general than the two-term currents emerging within the covariant projector method. We compare our results with those of the conventional Proca-, and Rarita-Schwinger frameworks. Finally, we test the representation dependence of the multipoles by placing spin-1 and spin-3/2 in the respective (1,0)$\oplus$(0,1), and (3/2,0)$\oplus$(0,3/2) single-spin representations. We observe representation independence of the charge monopoles and the magnetic dipoles, in contrast to the higher multipoles, which turn out to be representation dependent. In particular, we find the bi-vector $(1,0)\oplus (0,1)$ to be characterized by an electric quadrupole moment of opposite sign to the one found in $(1/2,1/2)$, and consequently, to the $W$ boson. Our finding points toward the possibility that the $\rho$ meson could transform as part of an antisymmetric tensor with an $a_{1}$ meson-like state as its representation companion.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figure

Nucleon-nucleon interaction in the JJ-matrix inverse scattering approach and few-nucleon systems

The nucleon-nucleon interaction is constructed by means of the $J$-matrix version of inverse scattering theory. Ambiguities of the interaction are eliminated by postulating tridiagonal and quasi-tridiagonal forms of the potential matrix in the oscillator basis in uncoupled and coupled waves, respectively. The obtained interaction is very accurate in reproducing the $NN$ scattering data and deuteron properties. The interaction is used in the no-core shell model calculations of $^3$H and $^4$He nuclei. The resulting binding energies of $^3$H and $^4$He are very close to experimental values.Comment: Text is revised, new figures and references adde

Locating Community among People with Schizophrenia living in a Diverse Urban Environment

Increasing the community participation of people with severe mental illness is a primary goal of recovery-oriented services. Despite this emphasis, the construct of community remains understudied and poorly articulated. This study provides an in-depth examination of the experiences, beliefs, behaviors, and spaces that constitute community participation for a highly diverse group of people with schizophrenia who are urban dwellers. An in-depth, longitudinal qualitative design was employed with 30 individuals with schizophrenia residing in inner-city neighborhoods in Canada’s largest city. For these individuals, community participation is a dynamic process, shaped by illness and non-illness-associated social relationships and spaces, self-concept, and the resources accessible to the person. The complexity of factors that are associated with “community” for people with schizophrenia, with overlays of culture, poverty, victimization, and discrimination, calls for a critical examination of the community rhetoric employed in practice and policy contexts

NN potentials from inverse scattering in the J-matrix approach

An approximate inverse scattering method [7,8] has been used to construct separable potentials with the Laguerre form factors. As an application, we invert the phase shifts of proton-proton in the $^1S_0$ and $^3P_2-^3F_2$ channels and neutron-proton in the $^3S_1-^3D_1$ channel elastic scattering. In the latter case the deuteron wave function of a realistic $np$ potential was used as input.Comment: LaTex2e, 17 pages, 3 Postscript figures; corrected typo

Gender Disparities: A Medical Detoxification Program

Significant gaps exist in health care regarding gender in the United States. Health status, social roles, culturally patterned behavior and access to health care can be influenced by gender. Women have been the primary users of health care and minority women usually have received poorer quality care than Non-Hispanic White (NHW) females. The objectives of this study were to identify gender, racial and ethnic disparities in access to substance abuse treatment in a Texas hospital. Secondary data collected on 1,309 subjects who underwent detoxification were studied. Gender, race/ethnicity, drug of abuse, relapse and financial classification were included in the analysis. Results indicate Hispanic females and Non-Hispanic Black (NHB) females were about 5 and 3.5 more likely than NHW females to use Medicaid services respectively (p \u3c .05). NHW and NHB males were more likely to use Medicare than females (p \u3c .05). NHB and Hispanic females were 5.8 and 2.1 times more likely to receive care for abuse of cocaine when compared to NHW females respectively (p \u3c .05). Hispanic females were 2.3 times more likely to relapse than Non-Hispanic females, and uninsured NHB females were 7.1 times at a higher risk to abuse multiple drugs compare to NHW females (p \u3c .05). Socio-economic factors, lower labor force participation rates, and less financial independence can explain females utilizing more often Medicaid regardless of their race/ethnicity. These results can be also explained by aggressive case management utilization, socio cultural barriers and/or discriminatory practices, both intentional and unintentional

The homotopy theory of simplicial props

The category of (colored) props is an enhancement of the category of colored operads, and thus of the category of small categories. In this paper, the second in a series on "higher props," we show that the category of all small colored simplicial props admits a cofibrantly generated model category structure. With this model structure, the forgetful functor from props to operads is a right Quillen functor.Comment: Final version, to appear in Israel J. Mat

Determinants for Successful Agile Collaboration between UX Designers and Software Developers in a Complex Organisation

Agile and User-centered design processes have been reported to frequently putting contradictory demands on people working within these methodological frameworks. The current research addresses this point by focussing on the crucial relationship between software developer and designer. An online survey, a contextual inquiry, and a diary study were employed with 107 developers and designers in a large media organization to determine the factors for success in agile development cycles. The results from the survey show that while developers and designers have similar levels of satisfaction with agile processes, there are differences in the factors predicting those ratings. Developers are happier with the wider teamwork but want more access to and close collaboration with designers, while the latters’ concern was the quality of the wider teamwork. Additional contextual inquiries and a diary study with pairs of designers and developers reflected the survey findings that close cooperation (and proximity) was essential for improving communication, reducing inefficiencies, and avoiding suboptimal products being released. However, organizational processes, the setup of the work environment, and managerial traditions meant that this close collaboration and localized decision-making was found difficult to maintain. Results from the survey, the contextual inquiry, and the diary study found six factors for success from collaborations emerged