A Synthesis of the Literature on the Relationship Between Food Access and Overweight and Obesity in African American Adolescents

Food access shapes a community’s nutritional environment and impacts the health and physical well-being of its residents. When a community does not have adequate access to outlets that offer healthy options, it is difficult to maintain a healthy diet. As a result, we often see higher rates of chronic disease, overweight and obesity among some populations. African American communities may be disproportionately affected by overweight and obesity because of limited food access. This literature review examines the public health significance of food access and how the presence of full service grocery stores impacts eating habits and overweight and obesity among African American adolescents. The results are primarily cross-sectional studies organized and presented in three sections: (1) food environment, (2) eating habits, and (3) policy implications. The findings in this literature review suggest that the problem of overweight and obesity in African American adolescents is indeed a multi-faceted issue. While there does appear to be a correlation between access to full service supermarkets and eating behaviors, overweight and obesity, there are other factors to consider. It is unclear if the presence of more full-service supermarkets alone is enough to significantly impact a reduction of overweight and obesity among African-American youth. While quantitative studies provide important baseline data, researchers should consider developing qualitative studies that may offer additional insight into individual, family and environmental factors that vary geographically

Individual Liberties and Intellectual Property Protection—Proprietary Software in Digital Electronic Voting Machines: The Clash Between a Private Right and a Public Good in an Oligopolistic Market.

The convergence of intellectual property protections afforded software, the fundamental liberty interests of voting rights of Americans and the conduct of voting machine vendors within an oligopolistic marketplace signals grave consequences for the public. In an election, Direct Recording Electronic voting machines (“DREs”) could be subject to malfunctions, inaccuracies and security problems. The DRE vendors have consistently failed to improve the voting machines or allow access for independent auditing and security testing. The vendors have operated collectively to maintain current inefficient output quality. Acting in concert to obtain higher pricing, the vendors operate against their individual self-interests, claiming proprietary protections. The result of this oligopoly is serious—the voting process, a public good, is diminished. Ultimately the federal judiciary and Congress will face the task of balancing these interests within the context of an oligopolistic marketplace. At risk is an American liberty

The Influence of Leadership Style and Personal Costs on Fraud Whistleblowing Intent

Using an experimental approach, this study examines employees’ intention to report occupational fraud through various channels based on the leadership style (transformational or transactional) of the manager and the expected personal costs (either high or low) of reporting. The study also focuses on the influence of value congruence between the manager and the employee, as well as trust factors that motivate employees to report occupational fraud. In examining these issues, I consider two types of occupational fraud schemes (misappropriation of assets and financial statement fraud). Unexpectedly, the results indicate leadership style and/or personal costs do not have a significant influence on reporting intention under most models examined in this study. The findings indicate that age, gender, and/or responsibility to report are significant factors influencing reporting intentions in several models analyzed in this study

Does mentoring cause a person to have learned optimism?

The purpose of the study was to explore optimism, the characteristics of an optimistic person, and the relationship to the mentoring experience. Are optimistic individuals, likely to engage in helping others through volunteering and mentoring? The study specifically focused on the experiences of being a mentor or mentee and a possible relationship to learned optimism. The relationship between the mentoring experience and learned optimism was examined through the Life Orientation Test Revised (LOT-R) and a demographic survey. The Life Orientation Test- Revised has been used in numerous studies done to measure optimism in people and to test whether a person is optimistic in their life expectancies. There were zero significant differences between the groups as determined by the one-way analysis of variance. It was revealed that there was no correlation between those who were mentors and optimism. A one-way analysis of variance revealed that there is no correlation between those who were mentees and optimism. A one-way analysis of variance revealed that there is no correlation between those who were volunteers and optimism. A one-way analysis of variance revealed that there is no correlation between those who indicated above involvement a positive impact on life and optimism

Clan in Da Front - Wu-Tang: An American Saga Review

@MarcusSmalls is a Teaching Artist and writer who uses his lifelong love of Hip Hop to moderate creative environments around spirituality and identity. He has been a writer in residence at Teachers & Writers Collaborative and a WritersCorps fellow at Bronx Council on the Arts and is the recipient of the 2021 St. Luke’s Alumni Artistic Achievement Award. Marcus has workshopped with award winning authors, M. Evelina Galang at VONA/Voices in 2015 and A. Naomi Jackson in Catapult’s Master Class in 2017. Marcus is currently featured on The MixTape Museum website. Marcus is a Teaching Artist for the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and is currently querying Literary Agents for his debut novel, The Divine Sinner Chronicles

Fall Prevention: The First Line of Defense. Integration of Innovated Strategies to Decrease Falls for the Hospitalized Patient

Background: Falling is defined as an accidental encounter with the ground or other surfaces. Individuals with dementia are at a greater risk for falls due to conditions such as neurological impairments in perception or cognition. Presently, 50 million people live with dementia worldwide, which is projected to increase to 152 million by 2050 because of a rise in life expectancy and an aging population. The incidence of falls has rapidly become a major public health problem around the world. Approximately 30% of people older than 65 years of age fall each year, and patients with dementia cost the nation $236 billion in 2016. However, what is available for patients at risk for falls is limited to standard interventions throughout health care systems, such as the use of safety alarms and hourly rounding. Innovative strategies such as early recognition of the disease process of cognitive impairment can decrease the occurrence of falls. Also, an abundance of the literature states approximately 78% of falls experienced are from patients who are predicted to be more prone to falls and incidents. Purpose: The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project is to assess the effectiveness of a specific patient-centered quality improvement study in a hospitalized setting as a potential strategy to reduce the number of patient falls. Design Method: A quasi-experimental design using hospital staff’s pre- and post-education test scores along with pre- and post-intervention fall data collection methods. Results: This project used a paired t-test to compare overall pre and post-test results related to knowledge gained from the educational intervention. The paired t-test looked at the pre-and post-education scores per participant. The mean participating staff test score prior to receiving education equaled 70.33 %. The mean participating staff test score after receiving education equaled 84.50%.The p value test results of the pre and post educational test scores was less than .001 (std +/- 7 test points) suggesting the Null hypothesis was rejected and showed the difference between the mean test scores were statistically highly significant. The pre-intervention mean score was 1.5 falls per month and a post-intervention mean score was 1.8 falls per month.These statistical findings may have been skewed due to potential unidentified outliers. Conclusion: Fall rates moderately increased overall within the pilot facility between September 2020 to May 2021. However, the fall prevention initiative did increase the staff’s knowledge on recognizing early signs of cognitive decline like dementia. Keywords: falls, dementia, cognitive impairment, fall ris

Utility of the implementation of programmatic systems to reduce and eliminate restraint use for the treatment of problem behaviors with individuals with mental retardation

Persons with mental retardation continue to remain one of society’s most vulnerable groups as the number of individuals served increases and non-proportional resources are allotted to take of their needs. With results of national investigations indicating widespread indiscriminate abuse of restraints and overmedication to manage dangerous behaviors, federal mandates have been initiated to ensure ethical, safe and clinically sound use of these techniques. This study addressed the implementation of systemic changes that included a restraint education program and policy changes, careful monitoring and review of restraint and behavioral programming by oversight review bodies, and intense training of preventative and de-escalation techniques to all staff. A statistically and clinically significant reduction in restraints was evidences upon programmatic implementation during this 18-month study. Psychotropic medication use also decreased significantly as did polypharmacy use for persons with mental retardation. Results supported research noting that reduction of behavioral restraint does not result in an automatic increase in alternative highly restrictive management techniques. Further research is warranted to isolate specific elements of effective systemic change which weigh more heavily in the improvement of behavioral management for persons with mental retardation

Sobek, God of the Nile

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The Perceived Impact of Relational Care on the Psychological Growth of African-American Males in an Alternative Educational Program in South Carolina

Alternative schools/programs are prevalent throughout this country; however, some struggle to meet the holistic needs of the students. Many alternative schools in this country are disproportionately populated by children of color. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how alternative education teachers in an urban school district in South Carolina embody the ethics of care to support the psychological growth of the students. Second, the study sought to understand the perceived influence of caring on student motivation and behavior. Using criterion sampling, the student population consisted of five African-American males who received their education in an alternative school for at least 9 weeks or 45 days and five teachers with more than 1 year of experience as an alternative education teacher. This research study is grounded in two theories: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Noddings’s care theory. While the student responses were far less numerous than the educators, the data clearly showed that all five students believed the teachers embodied care when they supported the students in getting their school work done. While the teachers offered a broader perspective of how they displayed care to students, the heart of caring manifested itself through nurturing behaviors and even serving as a second parents to the students when needed. In the words of the teachers, acts of concern for the students demonstrated care