Neighborhood Social Context and Individual Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Exposures Associated with Child Cognitive Test Scores

Childhood cognitive and test-taking abilities have long-term implications for educational achievement and health, and may be influenced by household environmental exposures and neighborhood contexts. This study evaluates whether age 5 scores on the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised (WPPSI-R, administered in English) are associated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure and neighborhood context variables including poverty, low educational attainment, low English language proficiency, and inadequate plumbing. The Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health enrolled African-American and Dominican-American New York City women during pregnancy, and conducted follow-up for subsequent childhood health outcomes including cognitive test scores. Individual outcomes were linked to data characterizing 1-km network buffers around prenatal addresses, home observations, interviews, and prenatal PAH exposure data from personal air monitors. Prenatal PAH exposure above the median predicted 3.5 point lower total WPPSI-R scores and 3.9 point lower verbal scores; the association was similar in magnitude across models with adjustments for neighborhood characteristics. Neighborhood-level low English proficiency was independently associated with 2.3 point lower mean total WPPSI-R score, 1.2 point lower verbal score, and 2.7 point lower performance score per standard deviation. Low neighborhood-level educational attainment was also associated with 2.0 point lower performance scores. In models examining effect modification, neighborhood associations were similar or diminished among the high PAH exposure group, as compared with the low PAH exposure group. Early life exposure to personal PAH exposure or selected neighborhood-level social contexts may predict lower cognitive test scores. However, these results may reflect limited geographic exposure variation and limited generalizability.     

Integrating Diabetes Self-Management Interventions for Mexican-Americans into the Catholic Church Setting

Churches provide an innovative and underutilized setting for diabetes self-management programs for Latinos. This study sought to formulate a conceptual framework for designing church-based programs that are tailored to the needs of the Latino community and that utilize church strengths and resources. To inform this model, we conducted six focus groups with mostly Mexican-American Catholic adults with diabetes and their family members (N = 37) and found that participants were interested in church-based diabetes programs that emphasized information sharing, skills building, and social networking. Our model demonstrates that many of these requested components can be integrated into the current structure and function of the church. However, additional mechanisms to facilitate access to medical care may be necessary to support community members’ diabetes care.     

describing sexual behavior in the era of the internet: a typology for empirical research

This article uses the Mobile Youth Survey (MYS) to quantitatively evaluate Elijah Anderson's seminal theory of African-American youth in Philadelphia, the Code of the Street. Using longitudinal data and Structural Equation Modeling, we identify characteristics that lead underclass youth to adopt or to reject a “street code” mentality. Like other studies of Anderson's Code of the Streets, we examine family and peer relationships, neighborhood control and stability, victimization and negative emotional reactions as predictors of adolescents' street code orientation. At the same time, we introduce for the first time, hopelessness, defined as a state of mind in which individuals have a negative perception of their future, into the intellectual and social equation. Results show that hopelessness plays an instrumental role in adopting street code beliefs. Specifically, adolescents reporting greater hopelessness in 2004 were more likely to identify with the street code in 2005; by extension, adolescents who identified with the street code in 2005 were also more involved in violence.     

angels,bandidos, outlaws,and pagans: the evolution of organized crime among the big four 1% motorcycle clubs

This study presents an examination of characteristics of men who engage in bareback sex for purposes of bug chasing and bug giving. Drawing on personal ads posted on an Internet website geared for men seeking male sexual partners, the present analysis focuses on identifying characteristics of men seeking to become HIV infected (bug chasers) and men seeking to intentionally infect others with HIV (bug givers). Nearly one in ten ads posted during a one-year period are identified as from bug chasers or bug givers and serve as the sample for analysis. Results reveal a profile of bug chasers and bug givers, with demographic, appearance, sexual activity preferences, and degree of openness differences between the two groups.     

Development and Validation of the Short Grit Scale (Grit–S)

Two experiments investigated the possibility that external statements in the Rotter I-E scale are more depressing in tone than internal statements, and thus depressed subjects may respond to external items due to item mood level rather than locus of control content. Results of Experiment 1 revealed that the external alternative was rated as more depressing than its internal counterpart for the majority Of the 23 I-E items (18 for females and 15 for males), while a small number of I-E items (3 for females and 6 for males) contained internal and external statements rated as balanced for depressing Content. For two I-E items the internal alternative was rated as more depressing. Results of Experiment 2 revealed that endorsement of external items was significantly related to self-reported depression for both total I-E score and for the item subset where external statements(as revealed in Experiment 1) were the more depressing of the item pair. External endorsement was not significantly related to depression for the I-E item subset where options are balanced for mood level, while endorsement of internal statements was related to depression only for the item subset where the internal option was rated as more depressing. These results were interpreted as supporting prior research which demonstrated mood response set using altered Rotter I-E scale items, Implications for use of the Rotter I-E scale in the study of depression were discussed.     

Caregivers’ beliefs about dementia: findings from the IDEAL study

Abstract

Objective: Informal caregivers of people with dementia develop their own beliefs about the condition, referred to as Dementia Representations (DRs), as they try to make sense of the changes they are observing. The first aim of this study was to provide a profile of the types of DRs held by caregivers. The second aim was to examine the impact of caregivers’ DRs on their well-being, satisfaction with life (SwL) and caregiving stress.

Methods: Participants were 1264 informal caregivers of people in the mild-to-moderate stages of dementia from time-point 1 of the IDEAL cohort study.

Measures: DRs were measured using questionnaire items covering: Identity, Cause, Control, and Timeline.

Results: Almost half (49.2%) of caregivers used a diagnostic term to describe the person’s condition, although 93.4% of caregivers stated they were aware of the diagnosis. Higher well-being, SwL, and lower caregiving stress were associated with the use of an identity term relating to specific symptoms of dementia, attributing the cause to ageing or not knowing the cause, and believing the condition would stay the same. Lower well-being, SwL, and higher caregiving stress were associated with believing there was little that could be done to control the effects of the condition.

Conclusion: Healthcare professionals should assess and gain an understanding of caregivers’ DRs in order to provide more tailored information and support.     

The perception of tempo in music

Tempo is one factor that is frequently associated with the expressive nature of a piece of music. Composers often indicate the tempo of a piece of music through the use of numerical markings (beats min(-1)) and subjective terms (adagio, allegro). Three studies were conducted to assess whether listeners were able to make consistent judgments about tempo that varied from piece to piece. Listeners heard short extracts of Scottish music played at a range of tempi and were asked to make a two-alternative forced choice of "too fast" or "too slow" for each extract. The responses for each study were plotted as proportion of too fast responses as a function of tempo for each piece, and cumulative normal curves were fitted to each data set. The point where these curves cross 0.5 is the tempo at which the music sounds right to the listeners, referred to as the optimal tempo. The results from each study show that listeners are capable of making consistent tempo judgments and that the optimal tempo varies across extracts. The results also revealed that rhythm plays a role, but not the only role in making temporal judgments.     

On teaching computer ethics within a computer science department

The author has surveyed a quarter of the accredited undergraduate computer science programs in the United States. More than half of these programs offer a “social and ethical implications of computing” course taught by a computer science faculty member, and there appears to be a trend toward teaching ethics classes within computer science departments. Although the decision to create an “in house” computer ethics course may sometimes be a pragmatic response to pressure from the accreditation agency, this paper argues that teaching ethics within a computer science department can provide students and faculty members with numerous benefits. The paper lists topics that can be covered in a computer ethics course and offers some practical suggestions for making the course successful. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2005 conference, Ethics and Social Responsibility in Engineering and Technology, Linking Workplace Ethics and Education, co-hosted by Gonzaga University and Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California, 9–10 June 2005.     

Good continuation affects discrimination of visual pattern information in young infants

A familiarization-novelty preference procedure was used to determine whether 3- to 4-month-old and 6- to 7-month-old infants utilize the Gestalt principle of good continuation to organize visual patterns. The study involved presentation of a target item (i.e., a square or diamond) either in-line or off-line with a set of distractor items (i.e., circles). Infants in both age groups responded to a change in the target element in the off-line, but not in the in-line, condition. The results suggest that infants organize visual pattern information in accord with the principle of good continuation. Implications of this finding for models of the ontogenesis and microgenesis of object perception in infants and adults are discussed.