Health Disparities among Latinx Communities: Issues of Access to Information, Interpreters, and Bilingual Providers

Health Disparities among Latinx Communities: Issues of Access to Information, Interpreters, and Bilingual Providers Shea Wenzler, Depts. of Psychology and Political Science, Roma Kankaria, Sydney Welles, and Anubhav Thapaliya, with Dr. Indira Sultanić, School of World Studies Members of the Latinx community in Richmond and the United States face challenges in obtaining equitable health care access because of socioeconomic and systematic barriers within the healthcare system. This analysis conducted by the Collective Corazón—a VCU student organization that addresses Latinx healthy equity through service and advocacy—examines the underlying causes of Latinx health disparities. Special emphasis is placed on access to just, equitable, and ethical care, information, qualified interpreters, and bilingual healthcare providers—with the objective of proposing viable solutions to alleviate health disparities. This study found that while the U.S. Census Bureau identifies the Latinx population as the fastest growing demographic in the country, the group’s average income and educational attainment fall below the national average, causing increased amounts of stress and thus contributing to poor mental and physical health outcomes. The health disparities created by these socioeconomic factors are further exacerbated by discrimination by healthcare workers and language barriers that result from a lack of qualified interpreters and bilingual providers. This situation creates a cultural divide in which Latinx individuals who are less comfortable speaking English are more likely to turn to alternative forms of support, such as religious and community institutions. This study contends that increasing physician and interpreter training, designing and delivering culturally specific eHealth and Telehealth tools, connecting language access to patient safety and quality of care, and encouraging connections with community leaders are ways to lessen the challenges faced by Latinx individuals in healthcare.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1335/thumbnail.jp

Hydrologic verification: A call for action and collaboration

Traditionally, little attention has been focused on the systematic verification of operational hydrologic forecasts. This paper summarizes the results of forecasts verification from 15 river basins in the United States. The verification scores for these forecast locations do not show improvement over the periods of record despite a number of forecast process improvements. In considering a root cause for these results, the authors note that the current paradigm for designing hydrologic forecast process improvements is driven by expert opinion and not by objective verification measures. The authors suggest that this paradigm should be modified and objective verification metrics should become the primary driver for hydrologic forecast process improvements. ©2007 American Meteorological Society

Exploration of Stable Isotope Analysis to Identify Prior Host in Ixodes scapularis

One of the most enigmatic concepts in tick-borne disease ecology is how to identify the prior host of a questing tick. The ability to do so would provide predictions to directly aid in controlling the spread of the many tick-borne pathogens, including the bacterial spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease in humans. I explored the application of a novel technique, stable isotope analysis (SIA), to identify the most recent host in molted Ixodes scapularis (black-legged tick). The common reservoir and feeding host, Peromyscus leucopus (white-footed mice; n = 46), were trapped, infested with nymphal ticks, and fed restricted diets, simulating feeding guilds, to confirm previous findings regarding the temporal enrichment of δ13C and δ15N in molted adults. Over a feeding period of up to seven days, δ13C was found to be significantly higher in molted ticks that fed on animals on a corn diet than wild (p = 0.014), standard (p = 0.013), and meat diets (p = 0.002), but was not significantly different in δ15N (Tukey HSD). To directly test the feasibility of SIA to identify prior hosts, I used isotopic data from multiple years of research to generate a k-means cluster analysis model using isotopic signatures from ticks fed on standard-fed and wild-fed hosts, organized by both feeding guild and species. I then tested the model using field-collected ticks. Seventy-two percent of field-collected ticks fell into the model’s five 95% confidence ellipses. I propose the potential application of SIA to the identification of a prior host in questing ticks as an alternative or enhancement to DNA-based methods in the trophic ecology of tick-borne diseases

Medieval Stupidity

Medieval stupidity should be easy to characterize It should be Christian stupidity However a look at the historical record indicates much less Christian behavior than belief during the Middle Ages so stupidity in this era of religious violence was more a function of the Church reacting to medieval realities as a ruling rather than Christian institution Still although the Christian schema was not much of a guide to medieval behavior being more a set of rituals than a code of ethical integrity it inhibited appreciation of the secular di-mension of life and it was this inhibition which actually char-acterized medieval stupidity This condition was more noticeable among the intelligencia such as it was which had been indoctrinated with theology than among the people or the prag-matic rulers of the Church or states Certainly the political be-havior of medieval leaders was clearly shaped more by some eternal transcendent power ethic4 than by either a sense of Christian virtue or a inherent desire to understand what they were doin

Center on Contemporary Art: Facility or Facilitator?

The Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA) was founded in Seattle in the early 1980s and continues to exhibit contemporary art today in 2019. This case study looks at the organization through the lens of ecology and living systems to discover its place within Seattle’s greater arts ecosystem, focusing specifically on how and why CoCA emerged; how the organization evolved during the 1980s; how the environment shaped the organization and how the organization in turn shaped its environment

Further Exploration of Stable Isotope Analysis to Identify Prior Host in Ixodes scapularis

One of the most enigmatic concepts in tick-borne disease ecology is how to identify the prior host of a questing tick. The ability to do so would provide predictions to directly aid in controlling the spread of the many tick-borne pathogens, including the bacterial spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease in humans. We explored the application of a novel technique, stable isotope analysis (SIA), to identify the most recent host in molted Ixodes scapularis (black-legged tick). The common reservoir and feeding host, Peromyscus leucopus (white-footed mice; n=46), were trapped, infested with nymphal ticks, and fed restricted diets, simulating feeding guilds, to confirm previous findings regarding the temporal enrichment of δ13C and δ15N in molted adults. Over a feeding period of up to seven days, δ13C was found to be significantly higher in molted ticks that fed on animals on a corn diet than wild (p=0.014), standard (p=0.013), and meat diets (p=0.002), but was not significantly different in δ15N (Tukey HSD). To directly test the feasibility of SIA to identify prior hosts, we used isotopic data from multiple years of research to generate a k-means cluster analysis model using isotopic signatures from ticks fed on standard-fed and wild-fed hosts, organized by both feeding guild and species. We then tested the model using field-collected ticks. Seventy-two percent of field-collected ticks fell into the model\u27s five 95% confidence ellipses. We propose the potential application of SIA to the identification of a prior host in questing ticks as an alternative or enhancement to DNA-based methods in the trophic ecology of tick-borne diseases

A Survey of Attorney-Client Privilege in Joint Defense

Slowly, courts are clarifying the scope of the attorney-client privilege that arises when codefendants or potential codefendants cooperate in a joint defensive effort. This article surveys the progress of the law and raises questions about the impact of cross-claims

Spiritual and philosophical concerns

None provided

A Survey of Attorney-Client Privilege in Joint Defense

Slowly, courts are clarifying the scope of the attorney-client privilege that arises when codefendants or potential codefendants cooperate in a joint defensive effort. This article surveys the progress of the law and raises questions about the impact of cross-claims