Determinants of commercial bank growth

Banks and banking

Lessons from Listening to the Voices of Unaccompanied Central American and Mexican Children

Children make up half of the world’s refugees, yet limited research documents the views of youth about their own migratory circumstances and recommendations. This dissertation contributes new knowledge of migrant youths’ views by analyzing selected secondary data from United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) interviews conducted with unaccompanied children from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico in the custody of the U.S. federal government for entering the United States without the proper documents. In light of prior research focused on unaccompanied children’s protection issues outside of the home, the first section of this banded dissertation analyzes interviews with unaccompanied children who disclosed child maltreatment in the home or family setting. Examination of this dataset finds that females reported higher rates of maltreatment overall, a higher incidence of multiple abuse experiences, and nearly exclusively reported experiencing sexual abuse and domestic violence, as compared to their male counterparts. Girls were more likely to disclose maltreatment as a reason for migrating, while boys were more likely to disclose abuse as a form of suffering or harm, suggesting the need for varied methods of inquiring about maltreatment, as well as acknowledgement that maltreatment revelations depend upon the interviewer’s skills and not merely upon whether abuse occurred. The second section analyzes the responses of Central American and Mexican migrant children to one interview question regarding how to help youth like themselves, and identifies several implied “no-win” situations as potential reasons for the migration decisions of unaccompanied children. Furthermore, the children’s responses highlight the interconnected nature of economics, security, and education as migratory factors. Children demonstrated use of political speech, primarily through negative references regarding their home country’s government, president, and the police, with particular emphasis on police corruption and ineffectiveness. Their recommendations have implications for interdisciplinary and coordinated international development responses to migratory causes, and for providing youth with meaningful opportunities to contribute their views and suggestions. The third section concludes by using reflection on the research experience to examine various decision points before and during the research process. A “thesis\u3eantithesis\u3esynthesis” formula is employed to aid future researchers in predicting and resolving the research tensions discussed, and to protect the dignity of research participants, particularly when working with a vulnerable and hard-to-access population. Unaccompanied migrant children have many lessons to teach us about the gender and age-based risks they face, their recommendations for helping themselves and others like them, and research methods with young people. These lessons may not come in the manner, timeframe, or sense of logic that adults expect they should, and children may indeed view the world differently from adults. Even in this, children are trying to teach us something, if we are willing to listen

We\u27re All in This Together

The article discusses the relationship between library volunteers and the administrative staff in supporting libraries. To foster communication and exchange of ideas, a representative from each group should reportedly be appointed to the board of the other. It is stated that library staff and volunteers should be aware of all plans and their roles clearly defined, that surprises should not be practiced and that people should be advised of any personal agenda that may affect them

Lessons from Listening to the Voices of Unaccompanied Central American and Mexican Children

Children make up half of the world’s refugees, yet limited research documents the views of youth about their own migratory circumstances and recommendations. This dissertation contributes new knowledge of migrant youths’ views by analyzing selected secondary data from United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) interviews conducted with unaccompanied children from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico in the custody of the U.S. federal government for entering the United States without the proper documents. In light of prior research focused on unaccompanied children’s protection issues outside of the home, the first section of this banded dissertation analyzes interviews with unaccompanied children who disclosed child maltreatment in the home or family setting. Examination of this dataset finds that females reported higher rates of maltreatment overall, a higher incidence of multiple abuse experiences, and nearly exclusively reported experiencing sexual abuse and domestic violence, as compared to their male counterparts. Girls were more likely to disclose maltreatment as a reason for migrating, while boys were more likely to disclose abuse as a form of suffering or harm, suggesting the need for varied methods of inquiring about maltreatment, as well as acknowledgement that maltreatment revelations depend upon the interviewer’s skills and not merely upon whether abuse occurred. The second section analyzes the responses of Central American and Mexican migrant children to one interview question regarding how to help youth like themselves, and identifies several implied “no-win” situations as potential reasons for the migration decisions of unaccompanied children. Furthermore, the children’s responses highlight the interconnected nature of economics, security, and education as migratory factors. Children demonstrated use of political speech, primarily through negative references regarding their home country’s government, president, and the police, with particular emphasis on police corruption and ineffectiveness. Their recommendations have implications for interdisciplinary and coordinated international development responses to migratory causes, and for providing youth with meaningful opportunities to contribute their views and suggestions. The third section concludes by using reflection on the research experience to examine various decision points before and during the research process. A “thesis\u3eantithesis\u3esynthesis” formula is employed to aid future researchers in predicting and resolving the research tensions discussed, and to protect the dignity of research participants, particularly when working with a vulnerable and hard-to-access population. Unaccompanied migrant children have many lessons to teach us about the gender and age-based risks they face, their recommendations for helping themselves and others like them, and research methods with young people. These lessons may not come in the manner, timeframe, or sense of logic that adults expect they should, and children may indeed view the world differently from adults. Even in this, children are trying to teach us something, if we are willing to listen

High performance forward swept wing aircraft

A high performance aircraft capable of subsonic, transonic and supersonic speeds employs a forward swept wing planform and at least one first and second solution ejector located on the inboard section of the wing. A high degree of flow control on the inboard sections of the wing is achieved along with improved maneuverability and control of pitch, roll and yaw. Lift loss is delayed to higher angles of attack than in conventional aircraft. In one embodiment the ejectors may be advantageously positioned spanwise on the wing while the ductwork is kept to a minimum

Primary Care Validation of a Single-Question Alcohol Screening Test

BACKGROUND Unhealthy alcohol use is prevalent but under-diagnosed in primary care settings. OBJECTIVE To validate, in primary care, a single-item screening test for unhealthy alcohol use recommended by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). DESIGN Cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS Adult English-speaking patients recruited from primary care waiting rooms. MEASUREMENTS Participants were asked the single screening question, "How many times in the past year have you had X or more drinks in a day?", where X is 5 for men and 4 for women, and a response of >1 is considered positive. Unhealthy alcohol use was defined as the presence of an alcohol use disorder, as determined by a standardized diagnostic interview, or risky consumption, as determined using a validated 30-day calendar method. MAIN RESULTS Of 394 eligible primary care patients, 286 (73%) completed the interview. The single-question screen was 81.8% sensitive (95% confidence interval (CI) 72.5% to 88.5%) and 79.3% specific (95% CI 73.1% to 84.4%) for the detection of unhealthy alcohol use. It was slightly more sensitive (87.9%, 95% CI 72.7% to 95.2%) but was less specific (66.8%, 95% CI 60.8% to 72.3%) for the detection of a current alcohol use disorder. Test characteristics were similar to that of a commonly used three-item screen, and were affected very little by subject demographic characteristics. CONCLUSIONS. The single screening question recommended by the NIAAA accurately identified unhealthy alcohol use in this sample of primary care patients. These findings support the use of this brief screen in primary care.National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R01-AA010870

Host Cellular Response to Multiple Stressors Using a Chicken in vitro Model

Heat stress (HS) is a major environmental stressor to chickens because chickens lack sufficient physical ability to mitigate heat. One of the potential results of heat stress is the “leaky gut syndrome”, which allows gut bacteria to escape into the host and release toxins including lipopolysaccharide (LPS). To model the chicken immune response to bacteria toxins under heat stress, a chicken macrophage-like cell line, HD11, was subjected to HS, LPS, or HS + LPS treatments. Expression of a gene panel of heat shock proteins, stress-related molecules, signaling molecules, and immune response molecules were measured and analyzed at 4 time points across the 3 conditions. As expected, heat shock proteins and immune response molecules increased in expression during HS and LPS challenge, respectively. Treatment of HS + LPS increased the expression of these responsive genes even more than either treatment alone. This suggests that heat stress proteins not only mitigate heat stress, but also trigger a higher level of immune response in chickens