Advancing Racial Equity in Housing and Community Development: An Anti-Racism Guide for Transformative Change

Racial equity will be achieved only through intentional actions and decisions. Even with intentionality, racial equity will be difficult to put into operation. Within the field of housing and community development, racial equity approaches intend to proactively address the enduring racism within contemporary policies, programs and practices that routinely advantage White people while further producing negative outcomes for people of color. Furthermore, racial equity approaches must also be focused to address the enduring racism within the private corporate sectors of the banking, investment, and real estate industries. Effective racial equity approaches also explicitly recognize the cultural assets, resilience, and strengths within communities of color. This means centering communities of color in the process of advancing change.

Integrating Health Literacy Questions into a Statewide Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) Questionnaire

Objectives. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the feasibility of adding health literacy questions to a state health assessment questionnaire. Methods. Researchers conducted a series of telephone interviews (N = 20) to test the telephone administration of three health literacy screening questions with a convenience sample. Feedback obtained during the telephone interviews was used to revise the questions for clarity. The revised questions were proposed as an addition to the Kansas Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Results. Pilot data included minor modifications to the language of the questions to broaden their interpretation outside of a hospital setting. Most participants (90%, n = 18) had adequate health literacy. The proposed questions were approved for addition to the BRFSS questionnaire. Prompts were added to a telephone script to aid BRFSS survey administrators. Conclusion. As one of the first statewide health literacy assessments, this study has demonstrated one method for collecting baseline data. This new methodology has the potential to impact both patient care and broad public health efforts

Comparison of Jump and Hop Test Measures Between NAIA and Division III Male Collegiate Basketball Players

Purpose: To report normative data for two functional performance tests (FPTs) (the standing long jump [SLJ] and the single-leg hop [SLH]) in a population of male collegiate basketball players and to identify differences in measures between athletes based on level of competition, starter status, and position. Methods: Eighty-six male collegiate basketball players from six teams were recruited for this study. Each athlete performed three SLJs and three SLHs (bilaterally). Results: Mean (± SD) FPT measures (normalized to height) for all basketball players were: SLJ = 1.0 ± 0.1, right SLH = 0.84 ± 0.1, and left SLH = 0.85 ± 0.1. Significant differences in FPT measures were observed both within and between groups based on: level of competition, by player position, and by starter status. Conclusions: The data presented in this study can be used by coaches and athletic trainers to assess aspects of athletic readiness in male collegiate basketball players

Examining Communication and Patient Recall in a Family Medicine Residency

Background. Understanding key aspects of effective physician-patient communication could benefit residency education and improve patient comprehension of health information. Discrepancies between what physicians say and what patients understand can reduce quality of care (e.g., patient adherence and satisfaction), making it imperative to know when gaps in patient understanding exist. The objective of this study was to identify residents’ efforts to assess patient understanding and the degree to which patients recalled information and instructions provided in the medical encounter. Methods. Residents and patients were observed in routine medical encounters in a Midwestern family medicine residency center. Patients were surveyed immediately following the encounter for recall of information and recommendations from the encounter, satisfaction with physician communication, and health literacy. Results. A total of 21 physician-patient encounters were observed. An inverse relationship was noted (Spearman’s rho = -0.43, N = 21, p = 0.05) between number of topics discussed during the encounter and the percentage of information recalled. Conclusions. Patient recall was related inversely to the number of topics covered by resident physicians. These results challenge physicians and medical educators to study and employ further those elements of physician-patient communication that enhance patient recall and understanding

Assessing agricultural risk management using historic crop insurance loss data over the Ogallala Aquifer

Much of the agricultural production in the Ogallala Aquifer region relies on groundwater for irrigation. In addition to declining water levels, weather and climate-driven events affect crop yields and revenues. Crop insurance serves as a risk management tool to mitigate these perils. Here, we seek to understand what long-term crop insurance loss data can tell us about agricultural risk management in the Ogallala. We assess patterns and trends in crop insurance loss data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency. Indemnities, or insurance payments, totaled $22 billion from 1989–2017 for the 161 counties that overlie the Ogallala Aquifer. We focused on the top ten weather and climate-driven causes of crop loss for the Ogallala, which comprised at least 92% of total indemnities. Drought, hail, and heat were the leading causes of crop loss for the region, and varied over space and time. For example, drought is a significant cause of loss across all seasons, while hail is more prevalent in the spring and summer. Spatially heterogeneous patterns emerged showing larger hail indemnities in the northern Ogallala versus larger drought indemnities in the southern portion. We performed a Mann-Kendall trend analysis of county-level annual loss cost values (the ratio of indemnities to liabilities). Drought and excess moisture showed significant increasing loss cost trends in the western counties of the Ogallala. In contrast, hail showed significant decreasing trends in the northern and eastern portions. These results suggest the northern counties of the Ogallala may perceive hail as a greater risk, and may be better equipped to handle drought losses as compared with the southern Ogallala. Crop insurance loss data play a role in integrating long-term trends with near-term management practices, and providing relevant risk information in producers’ operational to tactical decision making processes

Cardiff sciSCREEN: A model for using film screenings to engage publics in University research

Cardiff sciSCREEN is a public engagement programme that brings together local experts and publics to discuss issues raised by contemporary cinema. Since 2010, Cardiff sciSCREEN (short for science on screen) has exhibited more than 50 films alongside short talks and discussions that draw on a range of disciplinary perspectives to explore the broad repertoire of themes found within different film genres. The aim of Cardiff sciSCREEN is to increase the local community's access to university research, while enabling university staff and students to engage a variety of publics with their work. In this paper, we first describe our method of public engagement, and then draw on data from a research survey we administered to sciSCREENers to discuss the relationship between the theory and practice of public engagement. Using research from public understanding of science (PUS), public engagement with science and technology (PEST), science and technology studies (STS) and film literacy, we discuss the ways in which our flexible characterization of science has made the programme inclusive, attracting a wide and varied audience. We consider the benefits of cross-disciplinary perspectives when communicating and engaging contemporary developments in science, where the term 'science' is taken to stand for the breadth of academic research and not merely the natural sciences, as well as discussing the importance of space in public engagement events

Prácticas de laboratorio: Estrategias didácticas para facilitar el contenido del péndulo curioso en la interpretación de enunciados físicos sobre Movimiento Armónico Simple

El presente artículo es resultado de una investigación realizada en el año 2019, cuyo objetivo principal es utilizar las prácticas de laboratorio como una estrategia didáctica que desde el paradigma constructivista promueva la construcción de conocimiento científico escolar. El enfoque metodológico de la investigación es cualitativo, la muestra para aplicar entrevista fue de cinco estudiantes, tomando en cuenta las características y criterios y un docente de decimo grado y la muestra para aplicación de dichas estrategias fue de 12 estudiantes porque fue la cantidad que asistió a las tres sesiones realizadas. Se plantea como se diseñó y se aplicó prácticas de laboratorio en la educación secundaria en Modalidad de Jóvenes y adultos en el turno nocturno; realizando tres sesiones: La primera fue para identificar periodo y frecuencia, la segunda fue para calcular el periodo y la frecuencia de oscilaciones y la tercera fue para calcular la constante de resorte con distintas masas. Esta experiencia requiere del uso de cronómetros controlados por los estudiantes, calculador para comprobar el tiempo que tarda la oscilación y la frecuencia. Todo esto con materiales accesibles tanto para docentes como para estudiantes. Los resultados fueron significativos, se logró fortalecer en los educandos las destrezas y la comprensión de los conceptos relacionados con la temática

Challenging perceptions about men, women, and forest product use : a global comparative study

This study uses a multi-case dataset to question current assumptions about the gender differentiation of forest product use. We test some of the commonly held ideas on how men and women access, manage, and use different forest products. Overall, we found significant gender differentiation in the collection of forest products, which seems to support the claim that there are distinctive "male" and "female" roles associated with the collection of forest products. However, we also found that men play a much more important and diverse role in the contribution of forest products to rural livelihoods than previously reported, with strong differences across tropical Asia, Africa, and Latin America

LA CONTRATACIÓN POR ADHESIÓN, ESPECIAL REFERENCIA A LA CONTRATACIÓN ELECTRÓNICA.

El impacto del Internet ha abrazado en gran medida la vida de las personas, trajo consigo amplias ventajas para la gestión comercial, sobre todo en las relaciones contractuales. Los contratos electrónicos son aquellos donde no existe un contacto físico entre las partes para su perfección, sino que ocurre a través de la web y en ocasiones la entrada al sitio supone la vinculación automática, como es usual con los contratos “browse y click”. Una característica actual de los mismos está dada en su puesta en práctica a través de la contratación por adhesión. De este modo deben preverse los mecanismos, principios y condiciones generales que garanticen que no existan cláusulas abusivas que vulneren la posición jurídica del aceptante, más aún cuando lo que se adquiere venga de un servicio público, donde el predisponente tiene un lugar superior y posee amplias prerrogativas. Cuba no está alejada de esta realidad, es por ello que al hacer una interpretación extensiva de la reciente Ley de protección de datos personales, el Decreto ley 304 de la contratación, ofrece cierto respaldo, aunque la necesidad de pronunciamiento existe. La contratación electrónica es un hecho que cada vez más aumenta en masa y continuará en auge