Who Is Supporting Homeless Youth? Predictors of Support in Personal Networks

Homeless youth lack the traditional support networks of their housed peers, which increases their risk for poor health outcomes. Using a multilevel dyadic analytic approach, this study identified characteristics of social contacts, relationships, and social networks associated with the provision of tangible and emotional support to homeless youth (N = 419, M age = 20.09, SD = 2.80). Support providers were likely to be family members, sex partners, or non–street‐based contacts. The provision of support was also associated with contacts' employment and homelessness status, frequency of contact, shared risk behaviors, and the number of network members that were homeless and employed. The results provide insights into how homeless youth could be assisted to develop more supportive social networks.     

Measuring disparities in access to water based on the normative content of the human right

Measuring access to water in the Sustainable Development Goals era involves taking into account the human rights framework. Therefore, its content should be considered to conceptualize the level of service through adequate indicators and to follow-up inequities reduction at global, national and local level. This research develops and tests a methodology to measure intra-community disparities based on human right to water normative criteria through a stratified sampling, splitting households served by community based organizations and those self-provided. This approach implies considering much reduced populations, thus special care needs to be taken with sample sizes and uncertainty of estimators. The proposed methodology is practical to locate and accurately characterize minority sectors within rural communities and allows moving beyond central-tendency estimators. It implies higher costs for field data collection than traditional approaches, but this can be assumed given the relevance of the approach from a human rights perspective, which calls for adequate tools for equity-oriented policy making at local level. The research point out how results might be used to shape decision-making processes.     

Evaluation of the exercise intervention with the "Back School" education program in a Brazilian company of cigars: a case study

The purpose of this study was to assess the benefits of an exercise program associated to the educational phase of the "Back School Program" in the quality of life of workers from a cigar factory. This is a case study conducted over four months with three activities a week, two times a day, with the third day devoted to educational activities, focusing on healthy lifestyle, correct posture, postural orientations, daily living and work activities, work motivation, and other issues.     

Perceptual aspects of the use of faucets (taps)

This paper presents an assessment with simulated activities with the aim of analyzing the perception of ease / difficulty of the use of faucets (taps) handles by 180 Brazilian adults. Five different handles faucets were activated for subsequent collection of perceptual data. The procedures were based on main recommendations for biomedical ethics and human research. The results indicate that handles with levers are significantly (p ≤ 0.05) easier to use. The most difficult are characterized by not having support points for the rotation (levers) or more points of pressure concentration in the hand.     

Ergonomics in projects of oil platforms in a change context

The context of oil platform design is changing in order to increase competitiveness and be prepared for difficult operations, mainly in fields more distant from the coast, like pre-salt. The currently preceding context is marked by projects guidelines designed to reduce projects and operation costs, including an important reducing in the number of people on board. The main objective of this research is to verify and discuss if the experience of use in platforms designed in a previous context, in which the people on board is practically twice, can contribute and/or can be transferred to new projects. From the ergonomic intervention in the design of two oil platform, with the work of team on board investigated on previous projects as reference, it was possible analyze if the previous use is still applicable to new projects. As a result, about 90% of the recommendations based on use are applicable to the current context. The restrictions on the transfer or operational experience are mainly related to the time of entry of ergonomics in the design process, the subsequent transformations costs and the advance of the execution phase started with the detailed design.     

Host National Identification of Immigrants in the Netherlands

This study examines immigrants' identification with the host country. We use survey data of more than 1,700 Turkish and Moroccan immigrants and more than 2,200 natives in the Netherlands. We answer four main questions in this study. First, do immigrants have lower national identification than natives? Second, does the level of national identification differ between immigrant groups? Third, do economic and social integration similarly affect national identification among immigrants and natives? And fourth, what are important additional determinants of national identification among immigrants? The results show that, compared to Dutch natives, Turkish but not Moroccan immigrants have lower national identification. Being employed and socially integrated is associated with higher national identification among immigrants as well as natives, but only among immigrants is higher occupational status associated with higher national identification. For immigrants, Dutch language proficiency, perceived discrimination, and contact with natives proved to be important conditions for national identification.     

Dashed Hopes,Dashed Selves? A Sociometer Perspective on Self‐esteem Change Across the Transition to Secondary School

The transition from primary to secondary school challenges children's psychological well‐being. A cross‐transitional longitudinal study (N = 306; mean age = 12.2 years) examined why some children's self‐esteem decreases across the transition whereas other children's self‐esteem does not. Children's expected social acceptance in secondary school was measured before the transition; their actually perceived social acceptance was measured after the transition. Self‐esteem and Big Five personality traits were measured both pre‐ and posttransition. Self‐esteem changed as a function of the discrepancy between children's expected and actually perceived social acceptance. Furthermore, neuroticism magnified self‐esteem decreases when children's ‘hopes were dashed'—when they experienced disappointing levels of social acceptance. These findings provide longitudinal support for sociometer theory across the critical transition to secondary school.     

An Ecological Model for Quantitative Risk Assessment for Schistosomiasis: The Case of a Patchy Environment in the Coastal Tropical Area of Northeastern Brazil

We developed a stochastic model for quantitative risk assessment for the Schistosoma mansoni (SM) parasite, which causes an endemic disease of public concern. The model provides answers in a useful format for public health decisions, uses data and expert opinion, and can be applied to any landscape where the snail Biomphalaria glabrata is the main intermediate host (South and Central America, the Caribbean, and Africa). It incorporates several realistic and case‐specific features: stage‐structured parasite populations, periodic praziquantel (PZQ) drug treatment for humans, density dependence, extreme events (prolonged rainfall), site‐specific sanitation quality, environmental stochasticity, monthly rainfall variation, uncertainty in parameters, and spatial dynamics. We parameterize the model through a real‐world application in the district of Porto de Galinhas (PG), one of the main touristic destinations in Brazil, where previous studies identified four parasite populations within the metapopulation. The results provide a good approximation of the dynamics of the system and are in agreement with our field observations, i.e., the lack of basic infrastructure (sanitation level and health programs) makes PG a suitable habitat for the persistence and growth of a parasite metapopulation. We quantify the risk of SM metapopulation explosion and quasi‐extinction and the time to metapopulation explosion and quasi‐extinction. We evaluate the sensitivity of the results under varying scenarios of future periodic PZQ treatment (based on the Brazilian Ministry of Health's plan) and sanitation quality. We conclude that the plan might be useful to slow SM metapopulation growth but not to control it. Additional investments in better sanitation are necessary.     

Military Cultural Competence

This article offers a new definition of military cultural competence based on a review of the literature. As a starting point, the defining characteristics of military culture is discussed and includes the chain of command, military norms, and military identity. Having laid this groundwork, the multidimensionality of military cultural competence—attitudinal, cognitive, behavior—is discussed. Clinical applications of these various competencies are provided.