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Parent care and the stress process: Findings from panel data
No full textPublished in: The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Volume 61, Issue 5, September 2006, Pages S248–S255.Objectives. The purpose of this study was to test with panel data an extended model of the stress process recognizing the separate effects of a parent's need for care and an adult child's caring activities.
Methods. Using data from the 1996, 1998, and 2000 waves of the Health and Retirement Study, we estimated nonlinear mixed models of mental health outcomes. We assessed mental health for separate samples of 3,350 men and 3,659 women by using an 8-item scale of depressive symptoms. We also explored the sensitivity of results to alternative measures and model specifications.
Results. We found that female, but not male, caregivers whose parents needed care exhibited adverse mental health consequences. However, we found that, generally, both male and female noncaregivers whose parents needed care were more likely to report symptoms of depression than were noncaregivers without disabled parents. Additional findings suggest that the stress process is still more complex among married couples.
Discussion. This study distinguishes the outcomes of parental care needs from those attributable to caregiving activities. Adverse psychological outcomes appear to be dispersed throughout the family. To focus narrowly on active caregivers is to underestimate the social burdens of disability at older ages
Neither Sea Nor Shore: Authenticity, Performativity, and Feminism In Yasumasa Morimura's Photography
No full textResearch paper submitted to American University in partial fulfillment of the Degree of Master of Arts; approved as non-thesis optio
The Triumph of Death: Another look at the Camposanto Frescos
No full textResearch paper submitted to American University in partial fulfillment of the Degree of Master of Arts; approved as non-thesis optio
HIV testing services in healthcare facilities in South Africa: a missed opportunity
No full textPublished in: Journal of the International AIDS Society, October 2019, Vol. 22, Issue 10, e25367.Introduction: South Africa (SA) has the world’s highest burden of HIV infection (approximately 7.2 million), yet it is estimated
that 23.5% women and 31.5% of men are unaware that they are living with HIV. The 2015 national South African HIV testing
guidelines mandate the universal offer of HIV testing services (HTS) in all healthcare facilities.
Methods: A multi-prong approach was used from January 2017 to June 2017 to evaluate the current implementation of HTS
in ten facilities in the Ekurhuleni District of SA. First, we conducted patient exit interviews to quantify engagement in HTS ser-
vices. Second, we systematically mapped the flow of individual patients through the clinic.
Results: We conducted a total of 2989 exit interviews and followed 568 patients for value stream mapping. Overall self-
reported testing acceptance was high at 84.7% (244), but <10% of the patients (288) were offered testing. Female patients
were more likely to be offered testing (233/2046, 11.4% vs. 55/943, 5.8% in males; chi-square p < 0.005), and also more
likely to accept testing (203/233, 87.1% vs. 41/55, 74.6% in males; chi-square p = 0.02). Value stream mapping revealed that
patients offered HIV testing had a total visit time of 51 minutes more (95% CI: 30-72) compared to those not offered testing.
Conclusions: The poor delivery of HTS appears to be due to a failure to recommend HTS and the added time burden placed
on those accepting testing. There were significant differences in both the offer and acceptance of testing by gender. Health
system issues need to be addressed to improve HTS delivery
Temperature affects coral disease resistance and pathogen growth
No full textPublished in: Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., 2007, Vol. 329, pp. 115-121.Temperature anomalies on coral reefs now routinely exceed coral stress thresholds,
making temperature a critical variable to consider in coral host–pathogen systems. While tempera-
ture is widely hypothesized to drive coral disease outbreaks by decreasing coral resistance and
increasing pathogen growth rates, tests of the temperature hypothesis are rare. Here we report
evidence from the sea fan coral Gorgonia ventalina –Aspergillus host–pathogen system that
temperature stress increases one component of sea fan resistance. Experimentally infecting sea fan
fragments while increasing temperatures to reflect summertime highs in the Florida Keys, USA,
caused a 176% increase in activity of host-derived antifungal compounds. Thus, temperature stress
and infection induce higher levels of resistance. However, pathogen growth rate also increases over
the same temperature range, providing an opportunity for pathogen establishment before host resis-
tance is maximal. This dual effect of temperature emphasizes the need to test intact host–pathogen
systems. Given predictions for future warming events, aspergillosis is predicted to continue causing
sea fan mortality in the Caribbean Sea
Frida Kahlo: The Masked Self Self Portrait as Allegory
No full textResearch paper submitted to American University in partial fulfillment of the Degree of Master of Arts; approved as non-thesis optio
Quantifying power and consequences of social media protest
No full textPublished in: New Media & Society 2018, Vol. 20(3) 990–1011.The exercise of power has been an implicit theme in research on the use of social media
for political protest, but few studies have attempted to measure social media power
and its consequences directly. This study develops and measures three theoretically
grounded metrics of social media power—unity, numbers, and commitment—as wielded
on Twitter by a social movement (Black Lives Matter [BLM]), a counter-movement
(political conservatives), and an unaligned party (mainstream news outlets) over nearly
10months. We find evidence of a model of social media efficacy in which BLM predicts
mainstream news coverage of police brutality, which in turn is the strongest driver of
attention to the issue from political elites. Critically, the metric that best predicts elite
response across all parties is commitment
Introduction: Non-state diplomacy from non-Western perspectives
No full textPublished in: The Hague Journal of Diplomacy 14 (2019) 199-208
A systematic map of evidence on the contribution of forests to poverty alleviation
No full textPublished in: Environmental Evidence, Volume 8, Article number: 3 (2019).Background
Forests provide an essential resource to the livelihoods of an estimated 20% of the global population. The contribution of forest ecosystems and forest-based resources to poverty reduction is increasingly emphasized in international policy discourse and conservation and development investments. However, evidence measuring the effect of forest-based activities on poverty outcomes remains scattered and unclear. Lack of systematic understanding of forest-poverty relationships, in turn, inhibits research, policymaking, and efficient financial resource allocation.
Methods
To identify relevant studies for inclusion in this systematic map we searched six bibliographic databases, 15 organizational websites, eight systematic evidence syntheses (reviews and maps), and solicited information from key informants. Search results were screened for relevance against predefined inclusion criteria at title, abstract, and full text levels, according to a published protocol. Included articles were coded using a predefined framework. Trends in the evidence, knowledge gaps and relatively well-researched sub-topics are reported in a narrative synthesis. Occurrence and extent of existing evidence about links between interventions and outcomes are presented in a visual heatmap. Data are available through the open access Evidence for Nature and People Data Portal (http://www.natureandpeopleevidence.org).
Results
A total of 242 articles were included in the systematic map database. Included articles measured effects of 14 forest-based intervention types on 11 poverty dimensions. The majority of the evidence base (72%) examined links between productivity-enhancement strategies (e.g. forest management, agroforestry, and habitat management) and monetary income and/or social capital outcomes. Other areas with high occurrence of articles include linkages between interventions involving governance, individual rights/empowerment or linked enterprises/livelihood alternatives with impacts on monetary income from direct sale of goods. A key knowledge gap was on the impacts of investment-based interventions (i.e. enhancing produced, human, and social capitals). Another was the impacts of forest-based interventions on financial capital (savings, debt), non-monetary benefits, and health.
Conclusions
The evidence base on forest-based productive activities and poverty alleviation is growing but displays a number of biases in the distribution of articles on key linkages. Priorities for future systematic reviews and evaluations include in-depth examinations into the impacts of rights-based activities (e.g. governance, empowerment) on poverty dimensions; and productivity-enhancing activities on social capital. More comprehensive and robust evidence is needed to better understand the synergies and trade-offs among the different objectives of forest conservation and management and variation in outcomes for different social groups in different social-ecological contexts