17 research outputs found
"Our hearts are not at rest": A critical look at the adequacy of Indigenous death investigations
No full textPREPARE2THRIVE: A COMMUNITY-BASED PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH PILOT INTERVENTION
No full textAfrican Americans living with HIV and serious mental illness (AALWH and SMI) experience multi-level barriers to treatment engagement including structural discrimination, HIV and SMI stigma, medical mistrust, and poor patient-provider relationships. Personal resources such as HIV treatment self-efficacy and active coping are identified in the extant literature as buffers to barriers to treatment engagement, and may be mechanisms by which individuals living with HIV engage effectively with treatment. Using Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) the current study piloted a culture-specific, group-level psychoeducational intervention to improve treatment engagement among AALWH and SMI (N = 16). Overall, acceptability for intervention was high (M(SD) = 33.18(5.66) [range 6-42]). Inferential statistics indicate significant increases in CD4+ counts; HIV treatment self-efficacy, perseverance; psychological appointment attendance; and instrumental support seeking. Additionally, there was a statistically significant decrease in medical appointment attendance and self-distraction coping. An increase in ART engagement, and a decrease in viral load were also observed, however these results were not statistically significant. The peer-led intervention was highly accepted by participants. Participants demonstrated increases in HIV treatment self-efficacy, psychological appointment attendance, and CD4+ counts following completion of the intervention; however, had worse medical appointment attendance. The author highlights the clinical significance of the findings here. Taken together, results support mixed outcomes for the CBPR-developed and peer-led intervention
Performing devotion : the theatrical staging of the cathedral in Picart and Bernard’s Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses (1723-1743)
No full textIn the engraving, ‘Ordre de la Procession pour la canonization de quelques Saints’ by the French Protestant Bernard Picart, we see a procession that marches through St. Peter’s Church in Rome. It is featured in the intriguing book, Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses. In the text that accompanies the engraving, the author tells his readers everything about this spectacular event. According to the description, all the avenues of St. Peter’s Square were occupied by an extraordinary large crowd of people. Magnificent church bells of the Vatican could be heard from afar and the people that were singing the Te Deum were accompanied by the joyous music of an ensemble of instruments when entering the Basilica. The festive atmosphere, the large number of devotees and the presence of the pope inflicted heavy emotions on the spectators. Following Bernard’s depiction, people started crying and screaming in order to catch attention and to receive the blessings of the vicar of Jesus Christ at first hand. In Picart’s engraving, the theatricality of the event is highlighted even more. Tapestries, paintings, curtains and statues decorate the enormous space. Everything is lid by candles that are placed near the rooftop, in chandeliers and in the hands of the clergymen. In this contribution, I would like to highlight the theatricality of the cathedral’s setting through the eyes of Picart and Bernard. Although St. Peter’s Basilica is itself not a cathedral, this case study, and the CCR in general, points to the exuberant character of Catholic places of worship and the specific role they fulfil in guiding the faithful. Hence, I intend to present Picart and Bernard’s depiction of the role of the church/cathedral in the Early Modern World as an enchanting, and thereby highly misleading instrument of Catholic devotion
Clustering of inertial spheres in evolving Taylor–Green vortex flow
No full textClustering of inertial spheres in a statistically unsteady flow field is believed to be different from particle clustering observed in statistically steady flows. The continuously evolving three-dimensional Taylor–Green vortex (TGV) flow exhibits time-varying length and time scales, which are likely to alter the resonance of a given particle with the evolving flow structures. The tendency of homogeneously introduced spherical point-particles to cluster preferentially in the TGV flow is observed to depend on the particle inertia, parameterized in terms of the particle response time τp. The degree of the inhomogeneity of the particle distribution is measured by the variance σ2 of Voronoï volumes. The time evolution of the particle-laden TGV flow is characterized by a viscous dissipation time scale τd and the effective Stokes number Steff = τp/τd. Particles with low/little inertia do not cluster in the early stage when the TGV flow only consists of large-scale and almost inviscid structures and Steff < 1. Later, when the large structures have been broken down into smaller vortices, the least inertial particles exhibit a stronger preferential concentration than the more inertial spheres. At this stage, when the viscous energy dissipation has reached its maximum level, the effective Stokes number of these particles has reached the order of one. Particles are generally seen to cluster preferentially at strain-rate dominated locations, i.e., where the second invariant Q of the velocity gradient tensor is negative. However, a memory effect can be observed in the course of the flow evolution where high σ2 values do not always correlate with Q < 0.acceptedVersionThis is the authors’ accepted and refereed manuscript to the article. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. The following article appeared in Journal of Applied Physics and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.000240
An Analysis of Missing and Murdered Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit Individuals (MMIWG2) in the United States
No full textIn the United States, there is a pattern of Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit individuals experiencing high rates of victimization. Although Indigenous persons have a higher rate of violence, there is little to no coverage or attention given to these victims. This leads to cases being overlooked by law enforcement and policymakers, which leaves gaps in the data that prevent efforts that could help affected communities. The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Two-Spirit (MMIWG2) database aims to address this gap in awareness by identifying MMIWG2 cases through public documents and records. The project goal is to code each case using the source materials found, and review to ensure quality and accuracy. Additionally, the data will be analyzed to identify geographical, temporal, and policy-specific trends. The MMIWG2 research is an active and ongoing database at the University of Idaho and requires continuous collaboration. These efforts will help promote awareness of this issue, and further progress action within the United States
The MMIWG2 Database: Addressing Canada\u27s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, & Two-Spirit People Crisis
No full textNorth America has a history of systemic oppression against Indigenous people that has contributed to a tragic epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit people. While Canada has recently begun to keep track of reported cases, there is a sufficient lack in research and attention to this crisis. Indigenous people suffer disproportionately high rates of violence and mistreatment, and official estimates cannot show the full scope of this problem. Data being inaccurate leaves cases undetected and unacknowledged. To address this problem, the MMIWG2 research actively collects and compiles all known information about Indigenous cases into a comprehensive database. This process clears up data discrepancies to improve government responses and prevent future violence for MMIWG2 individuals and their families. This research is ongoing and the MMIWG2 database needs continuous collaboration. These efforts will provide a more complete picture of this issue and support bringing justice and closure to affected communities
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit (MMIWG2)
No full textThe Issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit (MMIWG2) is a pressing matter within the United States (U.S.) and Canada. The MMIWG2 database consists of around 4,000 individual MMIWG2 cases within both countries. It is developed from community-led and government databases and sources from the U.S. and Canada. The MMIWG2 research confirms the existence of these cases through reliable news sources, thesis\u27s, government documents, etc. Facts of each case are broken down (victim demographics, offender demographics, date of incident, date of resolution (body was found), date of report (when the incident was reported to law enforcement), and more). Upon completion, the data set can be used for statistical analysis, public knowledge, law enforcement, etc. This is, however, an ongoing project. Thus, this summer, only about one third of the MMIWG2 data set will be coded (making two-thirds total because coders last year finished about one third of the set as well). Only about 600 cases have been coded thus far, for both the U.S. and Canada (half U.S. and half Canada). This section only views the Canadian side of the data set. Because it is not finished, no conclusions can be made from the data set. However, natural trends can be graphed and observed. Examples given in this presentation will be the geographical trends of the MMIWG2 cases, months in which MMIWG2 incidents occur, and the MMIWG2 case status percentages
A Neighborhood-level analysis of mental health distress and income inequality as quasi-longitudinal risk of reported COVID-19 infection and mortality outcomes in Chicago
No full textExtant literature investigates the impact of COVID-19 on mental health outcomes, however there is a paucity of work examining mental health distress as a risk factor for COVID-19 outcomes. While systemic variables like income inequality relate to both mental health and COVID-19, more work is needed to test theoretically informed models including such variables. Using a social-ecological framework, we aimed to address these gaps in the literature by conducting a neighborhood-level analysis of potential mental health distress and systemic- (income inequality) level predictors of reported COVID-19 infection and mortality over time in Chicago. Neighborhood-level comparisons revealed differences in mental health distress, income inequality, and reported COVID-19 mortality, but not reported COVID-19 infection. Specifically, Westside and Southside neighborhoods generally reported higher levels of mental health distress and greater concentration of poverty. The Central neighborhood showed a decline in reported mortality rates over time. Multi-level negative binomial models established that Zip-codes with greater mental health distress were at increased reported COVID-19 infection risk, yet lower mortality risk; Zip-codes with more poverty were at increased reported COVID-19 infection risk, yet lower mortality risk; and Zip-codes with the highest percentage of People of Color were at decreased risk of reported COVID-19 mortality. Taken together, these findings substantiate Chicago neighborhood-level disparities in mental health distress, income inequality, and reported COVID-19 mortality; identify unique differential associations of mental health distress and income inequality to reported COVID-19 infection and reported mortality risk; and, offer an alternative lens towards understanding COVID-19 outcomes in terms of race/ethnicity
Methodological quality of meta-analyses: matched-pairs comparison over time and between industry-sponsored and academic-sponsored reports
No full textContext: Meta-analyses are regularly used to inform healthcare decisions. Concerns have been expressed about the quality of meta-analyses and, in particular, about those supported by the pharmaceutical industry. Objective: The objective of this study is to compare the quality of pharmaceutical-industry-supported meta-analyses with academic meta-analyses and of meta-analyses published before and after companies started to disclose their data. Data Sources: We identified industry-supported meta-analyses by searching the Scopus bibliographic database, using author affiliations. We matched each industry-supported meta-analysis with an academic meta-analysis using high-level MeSH terms in PubMed. Study Selection: We included meta-analyses of randomized trials assessing the efficacy or safety of any pharmaceutical intervention in humans, published in 2002–2004 or 2008–2009. Cochrane reviews were excluded. Two individuals independently selected papers, with discrepancies resolved by two further individuals. Assessment: We developed and piloted a quality-assessment tool, consisting of 43 questions in four domains, with a key summary question covering each domain. Two individuals independently assessed each meta-analysis. Results: We examined 126 meta-analysis publications in 63 matched pairs. The average quality was low, with fewer than 50% adequate in three of the four domains. Industry-supported meta-analyses less ofte
Macroeconomic policy coordination during the various phases of economic and monetary integration in Europe
No full textEconomic Policy;International Economics;EEC;EMS
