bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
DWELLING ON THE ROAD: ROUTINES, RITUALS AND ROADBLOCKS IN SOUTHERN GHANA
Authors: Klaeger Gabriel
Published: August 2013

The Accra–Kumasi road, one of Ghana's most important trunk roads, traverses numerous towns and settlements whose residents at times engage intimately with the road on their doorstep. In this article, I provide ethnographic insights into the ways in which roadside dwellers conceptualize – and spatialize – the road and its roadside through distinct repertoires of movement (performed and encountered), through localized storytelling and narratives, through self-reflection, and also through disruptive and vigilante actions. I describe the spatial practices that are at the core of the dwellers' ‘anthropological’ experience of the road and its roadside, a space that is continuously domesticated, appropriated and, thus, implicated in the mundane and everyday. The dwellers' everyday practices, as well as the exceptional performances oriented to the road, appear as closely intertwined both with the liveliness, socialities and opportunities the road affords, as well as with its dangers and potential for destruction and death. Thus the ‘ambivalent nature of road experiences’, in Masquelier's phrase – namely the experience of the road as a space of both perils and possibilities – is crucial to how roadside dwellers socially produce the Accra–Kumasi road.
INTRODUCTION: THE PERILS AND POSSIBILITIES OF AFRICAN ROADS
Authors: Klaeger Gabriel
Published: August 2013

Roads and automobility on the African continent are commonly encountered with a rather ambivalent stance, both by Africans and Africanist scholars. This ambivalence emerges from what Adeline Masquelier describes as the ‘profoundly contradictory nature of roads as objects of both fascination and terror’ (2002: 381). In her widely received article on ‘road mythographies’ surrounding Niger's Route 1, Masquelier draws a vivid picture of the ‘contradictory aspects of the road as a space of both fear and desire’ (ibid.: 831). She highlights, in particular, how roadside residents perceive automotive travel as ‘a process fraught with risky and contradictory possibilities’ (ibid.: 832). A ‘pioneering study in the ethnography of roads’ (Campbell 2012: 498), Masquelier's account of people's profound ambivalence towards roads, mobility and transport in post-colonial Niger has been a source of inspiration for a range of scholars who have explored in a similar vein the intricate entanglement of people with (auto)mobility, space and modernity, both in Africa and elsewhere (see, for example, Khan 2006; Klaeger 2009; Dalakoglou 2010; Hart 2011). Five articles in this volume press ahead with the analytic theme of the ambivalence of roads. Through their historic analyses and ethnographic observations, the assembled case studies from Senegal, Ghana, Sudan, Kenya and Tanzania give a strong sense of how the perils and possibilities of roads, roadsides, traffic and transport have been and continue to be embraced in the everyday lives of colonial and post-colonial subjects.
ENVISIONING GOVERNANCE: EXPECTATIONS AND ESTRANGEMENTS OF TRANSFORMED RULE IN GLENDALE, SOUTH AFRICA
Authors: Dubbeld Bernard
Published: August 2013

This article explores how, in the village of Glendale in KwaZulu-Natal, residents and local government officials – including councillors and municipal technicians – ‘see’ the post-apartheid state. I show how residents of the village regard the government – despite extensive state intervention – as inadequate, complaining especially of their ‘invisible’ and ‘impersonal’ character. Indeed, for them, democracy has brought anything but ‘direct rule’. And yet, while chiefly rule is sometimes invoked as a favoured alternative, I argue that people's estrangement from democratic government is not the desire to return to ‘culture’ but rather an expression of structural difficulties central to South Africa's increasingly tenuous experiment with participatory democracy. I suggest that these difficulties are also not reducible to state failure or corruption but point towards contradictions in contemporary citizenship.
The Problem with Freedom: Homosexuality and Human Rights in Uganda
Authors: Boyd Lydia
Published: August 2013

The recent backlash against homosexuality in Uganda, culminating in the introduction of the 2009 Anti-Homosexuality Bill, has focused tremendous attention on the role religious activists have played in shaping Ugandan attitudes about sexuality. Drawing on long-term fieldwork among the Ugandan born-again Christians at the center of this controversy, I argue that anti-homosexual rhetoric is animated by something more than a parroting of American homophobia. Rather, it reflects a tension between two divergent frameworks for ethical personhood in Uganda, one related to the Ganda value of ekitiibwa or “respect/honor,” and the other based in a discourse of rights, autonomy, and “freedom.” The born-again rejection of a rights-based discourse is analyzed in relation to broader anxieties generated by a neoliberal emphasis on the autonomous, “empowered” individual during a period of growing inequality and economic and political dissatisfaction in Uganda.
Image of a Secretary: A Metapragmatic Morality for Post-Soviet Capitalism
Authors: Cohen Susanne
Published: August 2013

A prominent post-Soviet discourse on imidzh (image) advocates close attention to self-presentation as a means of reaching personal goals. Based on fieldwork in a St. Petersburg secretarial school, this article describes how discussions of secretarial imidzh countered anxieties about Russia’s “wild” version of neoliberal capitalism with a gendered morality that valorized “civilized” styles of market interaction. Rather than equating morality and resistance, I argue that people often work to endow capitalist practices with moral grounding. In particular, metapragmatic language about appropriate self-presentation and interaction styles is a key site for constituting moral relationships to capitalism.
Predictions as Lies in Ceará, Brazil: The Intersection of Two Cultural Models
Authors: Pennesi Karen
Published: August 2013

An examination of the interplay of cultural models of prediction and lie helps explain why climate forecasts are negatively evaluated by subsistence farmers in Ceará, Northeast Brazil. Analysis of linguistic differences between farmers and meteorologists reveals underlying conceptual differences that result in farmers interpreting the forecasts as false statements. Distrust of government, the unmet expectation of optimistic predictions, and the existence of alternative forecasts by traditional “rain prophets” create a context in which state meteorologists are called liars. Material context and emotions are shown to be crucial components of the models.
Sound Work: Music as Labor and the 1940s Recording Bans of the American Federation of Musicians
Authors: Peterson Marina
Published: August 2013

Twice in the 1940s, the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) banned recording by its members. According to the union, the use of records on radio and in jukeboxes was replacing live performers, thus eliminating work for musicians. In an era of shifting federal policies and changing modalities of labor, the bans put sound at the center of a struggle between labor and corporate interests. The bans provide a case through which to explore the significance and multidimensionality of music as labor. As a case that is integral to, yet distinct from, histories of audio technology and intellectual property, the bans are an important yet overlooked moment in the formation of current configurations of sonic value.
Tambor de Crioula in Strange Places: The Travels of an Afro-Brazilian Play Form
Authors: Pravaz Natasha
Published: August 2013

This article intervenes in contemporary debates on the nature of cosmopolitanism and the production of hybrid cultural forms by drawing on first and second hand ethnographic materials on tambor de crioula , an Afro-Brazilian play form. Alternatively emphasizing local, global, and diasporic connections, I chronicle the travels of tambor from peasant villages to a first world metropolis, considering the practice’s engagement in ethno-racial struggle, spiritual actualization, improvisational pedagogy, and “exotic” performance as markers of cosmopolitan city life. I argue that while postcolonial desire for Otherness shapes Western consumption of trans-national cultural goods, tambor offers resistant and rearticulatory forms of embodied emplacement and sociability that defy unidirectional interpretations.
(Be)laboring Childhoods in Postville, Iowa
Authors: Reynolds Jennifer F.
Published: August 2013

By examining a flagrant case of “child” migrant labor in a meatpacking facility, this article addresses the cultural politics of global childhood. Conflicting constructions of childhood first emerged informally within kin and community networks. Community-based constructions were later overshadowed and delimited in a child labor trial that took place two years after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (ICE) raided Agriprocessors, the town’s major employer. I trace the shifting contours of cultural and legal battles over childhood and forms of citizenship that, in microcosm, speak to on-going debates over immigration and economic policies tying the United States to Guatemala.

During a year of political campaigning, the Guatemalan president is assailed by reporters who hurl questions at him asking why he thinks he deserves to be re-elected. “You failed to keep your promise about improving the economy,” one reporter accused. The president, looking shocked and offended, replies, “What do you mean!?! Since I took office the economy has grown; now everyone has a job. Look!” he exclaimed, indicating a niño de la calle (street child) busily washing a parked car nearby. (Guatemalan political satire, originally circulated via a major Guatemalan national newspaper)
Imagineering Otherness: Anthropological Legacies in Contemporary Tourism
Authors: Salazar Noel B.
Published: August 2013

The role of anthropology as an academic discipline that seeds tourism imaginaries across the globe is more extensive than generally acknowledged. In this article, I draw on ethnographic and archival research in Indonesia and Tanzania to examine critically the recycling of long-refuted ethnological ideas and scientific ideologies in contemporary tourism interpretation. A fine-grained analysis of local tour guide narratives and practices in two popular destinations, Yogyakarta and Arusha, illustrates empirically how outdated scholarly models, including anthropological ones, are strategically used to represent and reproduce places and peoples as authentically different and relatively static, seemingly untouched by extra-local influences.
Hume's Theory of Mental Representation
Authors: Landy David
Published: August 2013

Hume's arguments in the Treatise require him to employ not only the copy principle, which explains the intrinsic properties of perceptions, but also a thesis that explains the representational content of a perception. I propose that Hume holds the semantic copy principle, which states that a perception represents that of which it is a copy. Hume employs this thesis in a number of his most important arguments, and his doing so enables him to answer an important objection concerning the status of the copy principle. I further argue that the semantic copy principle is necessary, a priori, and discovered through an analysis of our general idea of representational content.
Hume's Seneca Reference in Dialogues 12: An Assessment of Alternatives
Authors: Falkenstein Lorne
Published: August 2013

In section 12 of the Dialogues , Hume claimed, without reference, that Seneca had written that to know God is to worship him. His source has proven hard to find. This note identifies some possibilities and argues in favour of one of them—one that has not been recognized by recent editors of the Dialogues .
Spinoza and Hume on Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
Authors: De Dijn Herman
Published: August 2013

Spinoza and Hume are two naturalist philosophers who were among the first modern thinkers to study religion as a natural phenomenon. There undoubtedly are similarities in their accounts of the origin of religion in imagination and passion (emotion). But those who see Hume as a crypto-Spinozist are nevertheless confronted with serious differences between the two philosophers with respect to their understanding of religion and its various forms. These differences concern fundamental issues like the meaning and acceptability of the notion of God and its function in different spheres, the possibility of a kind of philosophical religiosity, and the possible advantage of religion, at least in some of its forms, to individual and social life. The militant "Spinozism" of Hume belongs to a world perhaps (in part) made possible by Spinoza, but nevertheless alien to him.
The Effect of Educational Attainment on HIV Testing Among African Americans
Authors: Onyeabor Onyekachi Sunny , Iriemenam Nnaemeka , Adekeye Oluwatoyosi A. , Rachel Sharon A.
Published: August 2013

A person is infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) every nine and half minutes in the United States. , Moreover, one in five people infected with HIV in the United States does not know their status. While African Americans make up just 14% of the United States population, they constitute 44% of new HIV infections each year in the United States.4 This study examined the relationship between level of education and HIV testing among African Americans. A sample of 3,254 African American men and women between 18–84 years of age was isolated from the 2008 National Health Interview Survey and analyzed. The results revealed that African Americans with greater educational attainment (high school diploma or greater) are more likely to report having been tested for HIV than those who have not graduated from high school.
Medical Home Disparities Are Not Created Equal: Differences in the Medical Home for Children from Different Vulnerable Groups
Authors: Zickafoose Joseph S. , Davis Matthew M.
Published: August 2013

Objective . To identify components of the medical home that contribute to medical home disparities for vulnerable children. Methods . Cross-sectional analysis of 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health. Prevalence of components of the medical home were estimated by special health care needs (SHCN), race/ethnicity, primary language, and health insurance. Results. Medical home disparities for children with SHCN were driven by differences in getting help with care coordination, when needed (71% vs . 91% children without SHCN, p<.001). Medical home disparities for other groups were largely attributable to less family-centered care (Hispanic 49% and African American 55% vs . White 77%, p<.001; non-English primary language 37% vs . English 72%, p<.001; uninsured 45% and publicly insured 57% vs . privately insured 75%, p<.001). Conclusions. The components of the medical home that contribute to medical home disparities differ between groups of vulnerable children. Medical home implementation may benefit from focusing on the specific needs of target populations.
Community Perceptions of Black Infant Mortality: A Qualitative Inquiry
Authors: Close Fran T. , Suther Sandra , Foster Anika , DrPH Salimah El-Amin , Battle Arrie M.
Published: August 2013

Infant mortality is a key public health concern in the United States. Although infant mortality rates (IMRs) have declined, the rates among Blacks are more than twice those of other racial/ethnic groups. Some Florida counties have Black IMR more than four times the White IMR. The purpose of this study was to explore community awareness and perceptions of the rising Black IMR in Gadsden County, Florida. Sixty-four Black men and women participated in eight focus groups. Data were transcribed then analyzed using NVivo 8™. Many of the respondents discussed issues dealing with access to health care services, trust in providers, and perceived differential treatment. Inequities in health care may contribute to a culture in which Blacks are resistant to seek care thus resulting in poorer outcomes. Overall, participants identified awareness and education as the most effective ways to address the higher rates of infant mortality among Blacks.
Perceptions of Harm to Health from Cigarettes, Blunts, and Marijuana among Young Adult African American Men
Authors: Sinclair Catherine F. , Foushee Herman R. , Scarinci Isabel , Carroll William R.
Published: August 2013

Objectives . To assess perceptions and knowledge of health effects of smoking tobacco, blunts, and marijuana among adult African American (AA) men aged 19–30 in five Black Belt counties of rural Alabama. Methods . Cross-sectional study using interviewer-administered oral surveys. Results . Four hundred and fifteen participants completed surveys. Cigarettes were the most common initial and current product used (40%) and there were more current than initial users of marijuana and blunts. Significantly more cigarette users (80%) felt that smoking cigarettes was harmful to health compared with marijuana (33%) and blunt (53%) users (p < .001). Many marijuana smokers (71%) and blunt smokers (48%) believed smoking their product was safer than cigarettes for reasons including more natural and less addictive . Conclusions. When compared with cigarettes, knowledge of the health-related effects of smoking marijuana-containing products among young African American men is poor. Intervention strategies focusing on the adverse health effects of smoking marijuana are needed.
Necesita Una Vacuna : What Spanish-Speakers Want in Text-message Immunization Reminders
Authors: Ahlers-Schmidt Carolyn R. , Chesser Amy , Brannon Jennifer , Lopez Venessa , Shah-Haque Sapna , Williams Katherine , Hart Traci
Published: August 2013

Appointment reminders help parents deal with complex immunization schedules. Preferred content of text-message reminders has been identified for English-speakers. Spanish-speaking parents of children under three years old were recruited to develop Spanish text-message immunization reminders. Structured interviews included questions about demographic characteristics, use of technology, and willingness to receive text reminders. Each participant was assigned to one user-centered design (UCD) test: card sort, needs analysis or comprehension testing. Respondents (N=54) were female (70%) and averaged 27 years of age (SD=7). A card sort of 20 immunization-related statements resulted in identification of seven pieces of critical information, which were compiled into eight example texts. These texts were ranked in the needs assessment and the top two were assessed for comprehension. All participants were able to understand the content and describe intention to act. Utilizing UCD testing, Spanish-speakers identified short, specific text content that differed from preferred content of English-speaking parents.
HIV, Tobacco Use, and Poverty: A Potential Cause of Disparities in Health Status by Race and Socioeconomic Status
Authors: Sowah Leonard Anang , Busse Sarah , Amoroso Anthony
Published: August 2013

Tobacco use in the U.S. has declined significantly since the 1960s, but differentially by socioeconomic status. Current HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection rates in the United States are higher in minorities and underprivileged individuals. Effective highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) has changed HIV into a chronic infection. Mortality among HIV patients is now as likely to be due to heart disease and cancers as HIV-related infections. In the current situation, one would expect public insurance plans to focus on interventions targeting lifestyle-associated behaviors such as tobacco use that have been found to be associated with increased risk for heart disease and cancers. Review of the AIDS Drug Assistance Program formularies and the Medicaid Programs of 50 states and the District of Columbia, however, revealed that coverage for smoking cessation is inadequate in most instances. To reduce health disparities, publicly funded programs that serve the nation’s most vulnerable should provide coverage for effective tobacco cessation.
An Intersectoral, International Policy Fellowship Experience as a Framework for Faculty Development: The Marshall Memorial Fellowship
Authors: Buckner Ayanna V.
Published: August 2013

This paper describes the experience of a faculty physician at a historically Black medical school who participated in the Marshall Memorial Fellowship, an intersectoral, international experience in which emerging leaders explore political, economic, social, and cultural institutions. The fellowship facilitates collaboration and sharing these experiences within academia and the community.
An Academic, Business, and Community Alliance to Promote Evidence-based Public Health Policy: The Case of Primary Seat Belt Legislation
Authors: Goldzweig Irwin A. , Schlundt David G. , Moore Wayne E. , Smith Patricia E. , Zoorob Roger J. , Levine Robert S.
Published: August 2013

An academic, business, and community alliance comprising 285 organizations, including 43 national groups represented on a Blue Ribbon Panel organized by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, targeted Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Wisconsin for high involvement/intervention consisting of community organization and other political action to support passage of primary seat belt laws. State-level alliance activities began in January 2003. All six states enacted a primary seat belt law between 2004 and 2009. From January 2003 to May 2010, passage of primary legislation was 4.5 times as likely (95% CI 1.90, 10.68) in states with high versus low alliance involvement. Positive interaction between high alliance involvement and offers of federal incentives may have occurred as well. This evidence of success suggests that academic-business-community alliances for action to promote evidence-based public health policy may be effective.
A Comparison of Colorectal Cancer Screening Uptake Among Average-Risk Insured American Indian/Alaska Native and White Women
Authors: Perdue David G. , Chubak Jessica , Bogart Andy , Dillard Denise A. , Garroutte Eva Marie , Buchwald Dedra
Published: August 2013

Introduction . American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) women have among the lowest rates of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. Whether screening disparities persist with equal access to health care is unknown. Methods . Using administrative data from 1996–2007, we compared CRC screening events for 286 AI/AN and 14,042 White women aged 50 years and older from a health maintenance organization in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. Results . The proportion of AI/AN and White women screened for CRC at age 50 was similar (13.3% vs. 14.0%, p =.74). No differences were seen in the type of screening test. Time elapsed to first screening among AI/AN women who were not screened at age 50 did not differ from White women (hazard ratio 1.0, 95% confidence interval 0.8–1.3). Conclusions . Uptake for CRC screening was similar among insured AI/AN and White women, suggesting that when access to care is equal, racial disparities in screening diminish.
Decision-Making Processes of Patients Who Use the Emergency Department for Primary Care Needs
Authors: Shaw Eric K. , Howard Jenna , Clark Elizabeth C. , Etz Rebecca S. , Arya Rajiv , Tallia Alfred F.
Published: August 2013

Emergency department (ED) use for non-urgent needs is widely viewed as a contributor to various health care system flaws and inefficiencies. There are few qualitative studies designed to explore the complexity of patients’ decision-making process to use the ED vs . primary care alternatives. In this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 patients who were discharged from the low acuity area of a university hospital ED. A grounded theory approach including cycles of immersion/crystallization was used to identify themes and reportable interpretations. Patients reported multiple decision-making considerations that hinged on whether or not they knew about primary care options. A model is developed depicting the complexity and variation in patients’ decision-making to use the ED. Optimizing health system navigation and use requires improving objective factors such as access and costs as well as subjective perceptions of patients’ health care, which are also a prominent part of their decision-making process.
The Impact of Parental Health Literacy on the Early Intervention Referral Process
Authors: Jimenez Manuel E. , Barg Frances K. , Guevara James P. , Gerdes Marsha , Fiks Alexander G.
Published: August 2013

Objective . To compare parents’ experience with the early intervention (EI) referral process based on health literacy level. Methods . We interviewed 44 parents of children referred to EI by their pediatricians. Parents completed the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) health literacy assessment. We analyzed transcripts using modified grounded theory and compared themes based on health literacy. Results . Forty parents completed the NVS. Twenty-eight (70%) had adequate health literacy. Four primary themes differed between parents based on health literacy level. Parents with low health literacy commonly reported that: (1) they lacked continuity with a single pediatrician, (2) they had difficulty contacting EI, (3) they were confused about EI or the referral process (4) their pediatricians did not explain EI and written materials were not helpful. Conclusion . Parents with low health literacy commonly reported difficulty with EI referrals including contact problems and confusion. Strategies that accommodate parents with low health literacy level may improve referral success.
The Triple Aims of Correctional Health: Patient Safety, Population Health, and Human Rights
Authors: MacDonald Ross , Parsons Amanda , Venters Homer D.
Published: August 2013

Correctional health systems represent some of the largest health systems in the United States, caring for patients with high rates of morbidity and mortality. The poorly understood realm of correctional health care represents a missed opportunity to integrate care for these patients with care provided by community health providers. Three aims are integral to effective correctional health: patient safety, population health, and human rights. Patient safety and population health are well-defined aims in community health care systems and emerging in correctional settings. Dual loyalty and other unique challenges in correctional settings make the human rights aim absolutely essential for promoting correctional health.
The Maternal Infant Health Outreach Worker Program in Low-income Families
Authors: Elkins Tonya , Aguinaga Maria del Pilar , Clinton-Selin Caitlin , Clinton Barbara , Gotterer Gerald
Published: August 2013

Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Maternal Infant Health Outreach Worker program (MIHOW) is a community-based intervention dedicated to enhancing birth outcomes and healthy child development. Trained neighborhood women provide home and group services to underserved families in rural and inner city communities. This report describes MIHOW’s history and work in Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme: Insights from Members, Administrators and Health Care Providers
Authors: Barimah Kofi Bobi , Mensah Joseph
Published: August 2013

The Ghana National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was established as part of a poverty reduction strategy to make health care more affordable to Ghanaians. It is envisaged that it will eventually replace the existing cash-and-carry system. This paper examines the views of NHIS administrators, members/enrollees, and health care providers on how the Scheme operates in practice. It is part of a larger evaluation project on Ghana’s NHIS, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Global Development Network as part of a two-year global research. We rely primarily on qualitative data from focus group discussion in the Brong Ahafo and the Upper East regions respectively. Our findings suggest that the NHIS has improved access to affordable health care services and prescription drugs to many people in Ghana. However, there are concerns about fraud and corruption that must be addressed if the Scheme is to be financially viable.
Comparison of Cancer Care and Outcomes between a Public Safety-Net Hospital and a Private Cancer Center
Authors: Bayraktar Ulas Darda , Warsch Sean , Chen Emerson , Lima Caio Max Rocha , Pereira Denise
Published: August 2013

We compared the cancer outcomes and care-associated service defects between Jackson Memorial Hospital (ABC), a large public safety-net hospital, and Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center (XYZ), a private not-for-profit cancer center in patients with stage II–III colorectal cancer (CC) who received adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) and in patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Colorectal cancer patients treated at ABC were more likely to have undergone urgent surgery. While in the CC cohort, three-year overall survival and relapse-free survival rates were significantly higher among patients treated at XYZ compared with those treated at ABC, there was no significant difference between patients treated for DLBCL in the two hospitals. Colorectal cancer patients treated at ABC were more likely to have undergone urgent surgery, to have delays before surgery or during chemotherapy, and to experience a system/patient-related service defect; whereas were less likely to complete a full course of AC.
Doctors and Lawyers Collaborating to HeLP Children—: Outcomes from a Successful Partnership between Professions
Authors: Klein Melissa D. , Beck Andrew F. , Henize Adrienne W. , Parrish Donita S. , Fink Elaine E. , Kahn Robert S.
Published: August 2013

Background . Clear associations exist between socioeconomic risks and health, and these risks are often amenable to legal interventions. Methods . This is a case study of an implementation of a medical-legal partnership (MLP) in three pediatric primary care centers that serve a predominantly high-risk population. Referral circumstances and outcomes over the first three years are described. Results . During the three-year study period, 1,808 MLP referrals were made for 1,614 patients by all levels of provider. Those referred were more likely to have asthma (p<.0001) and developmental delay/behavioral disorder (p<.0001) than the general clinic population. Housing (37%) and income/health benefit (33%) problems were the most common reasons for referral. Referrals led to 1,742 (89%) positive legal outcomes affecting nearly 6,000 cohabitating children and adults and translating into nearly $200,000 in recovered back benefits. Conclusion. Successful MLP implementation enabled pediatric providers to address social determinants of health potentially improving health and reducing disparities.
The Development and Evaluation of a Compassion Scale
Authors: Martins David , Nicholas Nichole A. , Shaheen Magda , Jones Loretta , Norris Keith
Published: August 2013

Compassion is the capacity for being moved by suffering of others and wanting to help alleviate it. Compassion may mediate health benefits and hazards of social networks/relationships. The monitoring/management of level of compassion across social networks/relationships may be critical to health benefits’ preservation and social networks/relationships’ health hazards prevention. We developed and evaluated the psychometric properties of 10-item self-report measure of compassion among 310 respondents from the University and surrounding communities. The mean total score was 3.62 (SD=1.09). The item-to-total correlations ranged from 0.50–0.71. The mean inter-item correlation was 0.33. The internal consistency was 0.82. The scale correlated well with Sprecher and Fehr’s Compassionate Love Scale (r=0.66; p=.000). Two factors measuring same construct explained 57% of sample variance. The scale is user-friendly, easy to score, and characterized by good psychometric properties. It can be used to foster understanding of the impact of compassion on disease and outcomes across social networks/relationships.
Implementation of Language Assessments for Staff Interpreters in Community Health Centers
Authors: de Jaimes Fatima Nunez , Batts Felicia , Noguera Christine , Guerrero Lourdes , Moreno Gerardo
Published: August 2013

Bilingual staff is used to provide interpreter services in community health centers. Little is known about the language proficiency of dual-role staff interpreters. Golden Valley Health Centers implemented a formal language assessment program to improve the number of qualified dual-role staff interpreters and ultimately improve the quality of patient care.
Losing Work: Regional Unemployment and its Effect on Homeless Demographic Characteristics, Needs, and Health Care
Authors: Burke Colin , Johnson Erin E. , Bourgault Claire , Borgia Matthew , O’Toole Thomas P.
Published: August 2013

Background . Who becomes homeless because of unemployment and what they need are poorly understood. Methods . Four-year time-series study. Homeless characteristics, co-morbid conditions, and needs are correlated with unemployment rates. Results . The unemployment rate averaged 6.7% during years 1–2 (N=198) and 11.8% during years 3–4 (N=202). Those presenting during high unemployment worked most recently in clerical positions (10.4% vs . 4.5%, p= .02) and reported unemployment (OR=2.0; 95% CI; 1.07, 3.76) and unaffordable housing (28.7% vs . 15.2%; p<.01) causing homelessness. Those reporting unemployment were more likely to be local residents (OR=2.1; CI=1.01, 4.53), but less likely to have family support (OR=0.4; CI=0.19, 0.87). While comparable proportions reported mental health conditions and received care, more high unemployment individuals reported needing additional care (59.9% vs . 42.9%; p<.001) and that this was necessary for leaving homelessness (58.9% vs . 44.1%; p=.05). Conclusions . High unemployment expands the population vulnerable to homelessness and influences health care needs and social needs.
Does the Association between Prescription Copayment Increases and Medication Adherence Differ by Race?
Authors: Wong Edwin S. , Maciejewski Matthew L. , Liu Chuan-Fen
Published: August 2013

Previous studies have shown prescription copayment increases are associated with decreases in adherence to diabetes and hypertension medications, but have not investigated whether these associations differ by race. Veterans Affairs (VA) administrative data were used to analyze medication adherence before and after an increase in prescription copayments from $2 to $7 for a 30-day supply in February 2002. Applying a difference-in-difference approach, we compared adherence changes among White and Black veterans who were exempt from or required to pay medication copayments. The likelihood patients were adherent to diabetes or hypertension medications decreased after the copayment increase for both White and Black veterans. However, differences in medication adherence reductions between White and Black veterans were small and statistically insignificant. Despite barriers faced by minority patients related to lower perceived value of medications, the impact of a copayment increase on adherence was similar across the two largest racial groups in the VA.
Shari‘ah Views on Adjusting the Repayment Amount of Loans and Debts According to a Price Index
Authors: Khan Issa , Rahman Noor Naemah Abdul , Yusoff Mohd Yakub Zulkifli Mohd , Abdullah Faruk
Published: August 2013

This paper investigates the views of Sunni and Shi‘a jurisprudents on adjusting the repayment amount of loans ( qard , pl. qurud ) and debts ( dayn , pl. duyun ) in accordance with a price index. Classical and contemporary Islamic jurists fall into two groups regarding this matter. The first group argues that loans and debts should be adjusted according to the customary value of a currency in accordance with the Qur’anic verse saying to give full measure when selling. However, the second group rejects the idea of adjusting the repayment amount of debts and loans with a price index; instead, they emphasize that Islamic law requires loans and debts to be paid in their exact, original amounts, and any excess in repayment would be seen as interest, which is strictly prohibited in Islamic law. After examining both sides of this debate, the authors conclude that the preferable shari‘ah view is that correlating loans and debts with a price index should not be allowed. However, debts and loans may be repaid according to the value of the currency in cases where payment of indemnity is necessitated.
From Tyre to Tehran: Transnational Links Amongst Lebanese Shi‘a Clerical Families
Authors: Shanahan Rodger
Published: August 2013

The contemporary Western view of Lebanese Shi‘a transnational links generally focuses on the political relationship between Hizbullah and Iran. However, while Lebanon and Iran have historical links, Lebanese Shi‘a transnational links are not limited to Iran. In particular, the relationship between Lebanese and Iraqi Shi‘a has been of great significance amongst the elite clerical families; however, this link has been little examined. Due to the extended periods of time spent by Lebanese in Iraq to acquire the knowledge necessary to return to Lebanon and teach the religious sciences, Lebanese religious students sometimes married into the families of their Iraqi teachers, or members of other Lebanese clerical families in Iraq, and on occasion became representatives for their Najafi mentors. Some members of these extended Lebanese families never returned to their country of origin and remained in Iraq, or in at least one notable case moved to Iran. These links have proved resilient over time, but the opaque nature of these interpersonal connections has disguised the depth of the ties that some traditional Lebanese Shi‘a families retain with Iraq.
In Defence of Bada’
Authors: Berenjkar Reza
Published: August 2013

Bada’ , which may be loosely translated as ‘the ability of God to change His decree’, is a characteristically Shi‘a doctrine that, historically, has been subject to severe critique outside Shi‘a circles. Here, I would like to respond to these criticisms by explaining how the Twelve Imams derived the doctrine of bada’ from Qur’anic verses. I would also like to clarify misconceptions about bada’ which commonly recur in polemical discussions. Finally, in response to the claim that, psychologically, belief in bada’ would weaken an individual’s faith and is therefore religiously undesirable, I would like to outline a view to the contrary showing how belief in bada’ can, in principle, strengthen individual and collective well-being.
The History of the Russian Semelfactive: The Development of a Radial Category
Authors: Nesset Tore
Published: August 2013

This paper explores the history of suffixed semelfactive verbs in Russian, i.e., verbs like maxnut’ ‘wave once’ with the - nu - suffix. It is argued that the semelfactive aktionsart is best analyzed as a radial category organized around a prototype with four properties: uniformity, instantaneousness, non-resultativity, and single occurrence, which are defined and discussed in the article. This paper further demonstrates that there is a small group of verbs denoting bodily acts that meet these criteria in the Old Church Slavonic texts, thus suggesting the existence of an embryonic version of the semelfactive aktionsart in Common Slavic. Although the cue validity of - nu - as a marker of semelfactivity remains stable, in Old Russian - nu - with semelfactive meaning is shown to spread to auditory verbs, optical verbs, and verbs of physical movement, which are argued to constitute a radial category organized around prototypical bodily acts. This gradual expansion through the lexicon continues in Contemporary Standard Russian; in particular a number of semelfactive behavior verbs have emerged, although many of them are of low frequency.
Verbal Prefixation and Metaphor: How Does Metaphor Interact with Constructions?
Authors: Sokolova Svetlana
Published: August 2013

This article argues that metaphorical and non-metaphorical content find different expression on the constructional level. The hypothesis is supported by two empirical case studies of the Russian Locative Alternation verbs, based on the data from the Russian National Corpus: the unprefixed verb sypat’ ‘strew’ (which does not have an aspectual partner) and the unprefixed verb gruzit’ ‘load’ and its three perfective partners with the prefixes na-, za- , and po- . It is argued that metaphorical extensions of these Locative Alternation verbs have a strong relationship with elaborations (interactions between different constructions), on the one hand, and reduction (Locative Alternation constructions with a reduced or omitted participant), on the other. The results indicate differences in metaphorical behavior of different prefixes (even when they are used to form perfective partner verbs) and different constructions (some constructions are more often instantiated as metaphorical extensions than the other).
On the Origin of the Slavic Aspects: Aorist and Imperfect
Authors: Andersen Henning
Published: August 2013

This article presents a sketch of the prehistorical development of the Common Slavic preterital imperfect/aorist category. The methods of internal analysis and linguistic geography are applied to mostly well-established data in order to reconstruct major elements of this development, in particular the relative chronology of the main morphological changes, correlations with well-known Common Slavic phonological changes, as well as correlations of regional morphological differences with major phonological isoglosses. The results contribute to our understanding of the development of Common Slavic and its dialectal differentiation in the period of the “Slavic migrations”.
See, Now They Vanish: Third-Person Perfect Auxiliaries in Old and Middle Czech
Authors: Dickey Stephen M.
Published: August 2013

This article argues that Czech retained a semantic distinction between the expression of current relevance/emphasis and a neutral preterit in third-person compound preterit forms until the late sixteenth century. The distinction was expressed by the presence (expressing current relevance/emphasis) vs. absence (neutral preterit) of third-person auxiliaries. The hypothesis is based on data from two late fourteenth-century narratives ( Asenath and The Life of Adam and Eve ) and from letters written by or to Czech women from 1365 to 1615. The results of statistical analyses are presented as support for the hypothesis, and it is suggested that the continued distinction between current relevance/emphasis and a neutral preterit in the third person is in part responsible for the fact that the two-way use of imperfective verbs never became a major usage pattern in Czech, in contrast with Russian, where the tense system was reduced relatively early.
Diatopic Patterning of Croatian Varieties in the Adriatic Region
Authors: Šimičić Lucija , Houtzagers Peter , Sujoldžić Anita , Nerbonne John
Published: August 2013

The calculation of aggregate linguistic distances can compensate for some of the drawbacks inherent to the isogloss bundling method used in traditional dialectology to identify dialect areas. Synchronic aggregate analysis can also point out differences with respect to a diachronically based classification of dialects. In this study the Levenshtein algorithm is applied for the first time to obtain an aggregate analysis of the linguistic distances among 88 diatopic varieties of Croatian spoken along the Eastern Adriatic coast and in the Italian province of Molise. We also measured lexical differences among these varieties, which are traditionally grouped into Čakavian, Štokavian, and transitional Čakavian-Štokavian varieties. The lexical and pronunciation distances are subsequently projected onto multidimensional cartographic representations. Both kinds of analyses confirm that linguistic discontinuity is characteristic of the whole region, and that discontinuities are more pronounced in the northern Adriatic area than in the south. We also show that the geographic lines are in many cases the most decisive factor contributing to linguistic cohesion, and that the internal heterogeneity within Čakavian is often greater than the differences between Čakavian and Štokavian varieties. This holds both for pronunciation and lexicon.
“Well I Don’t Care About History”: Oral History and the Making of Collective Memory in Punk Rock
Authors: Turrini Joseph M.
Published: August 2013

The history of punk rock has become a popular topic for historians, musicologists, journalists, and other social observers. In addition, those connected with punk music and culture have also been active in crafting their own history. How the history of punk is being created and who is best able to do this is contested terrain. This essay explores the role of oral-history publications created within punk culture, and their role in the creation of the collective memory in punk rock. It analyzes the format, motivations, and origination of a series of oral-history books on punk rock. It argues that a standard format has emerged for oral-history punk books that resulted from within the culture of punk, or, from its “cultural toolkit,” in the words of social theorist James Wertsch. The essay also examines how oral histories are becoming public and are being used to create collective memory within these communities. The essay explains how oral history is being used to not only fashion collective memory, but also how it is being transmitted and diffused. It argues that punk culture encourages people involved in punk to create their own history, and to privilege the oral-history format analyzed in this essay over other historical formats.
The Rise of Pathophysiologic Research in the United States: The Role of Two Harvard Hospitals
Authors: Tishler Peter V.
Published: August 2013

Pathophysiologic research, the major approach to understanding and treating disease, was created in the 20th century, and two Harvard-affiliated hospitals, the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and Boston City Hospital, played a key role in its development. After the Flexner Report of 1910, medical students were assigned clinical clerkships in teaching hospitals. Rockefeller-trained Francis Weld Peabody, who was committed to investigative, pathophysiologic research, was a critical leader in these efforts. At the Brigham, Harvard medical students observed patients closely and asked provocative questions about their diseases. Additionally, physicians returned from World War I with questions concerning the pathophysiology of wartime injuries. At the Boston City Hospital's new Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, Peabody fostered investigative question-based research by physicians. These physicians expanded pathophysiologic investigation from the 1920s. Post-war, Watson and Crick's formulation of the structure of DNA led shortly to modern molecular biology and new research approaches that are being furthered at the Boston Hospitals.
Two Philosophical Deaths: Hume and Hitchens
Authors: Miller Franklin G.
Published: August 2013

This essay describes the deaths of David Hume (1711-1776) and Christopher Hitchens (1949-2012). Both distinguished thinkers and writers, who shared much in their world views, died around the same age after a similarly prolonged course of terminal illness. However, the great difference in the power of medicine to intervene with the goal of cure or preserving life made their lives while facing death dramatically different. The narratives of these two deaths help shed light on some of the key features that make particular deaths and the processes of dying good or bad, as well as highlight the difficulty in achieving a good death in the world of contemporary medicine.
Medical Apps: Public and Academic Perspectives
Authors: Krieger William H.
Published: August 2013

Medical apps have featured in popular websites and mainstream news media in recent months. However, there has been almost no mention of these tools in journals focusing on relevant ethical or social issues, including conflict of interest, the role of politics in science, and technological oversight. This essay examines the role that these philosophical issues might play in answering both public and academic questions about these pieces of emergent technology.