Using Technology to Facilitate Collaboration in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR)

This study explores the use of Computer-Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) technologies, by way of a computer-based system called iCohere. This system was used to facilitate collaboration conducting Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR). Data was gathered from 13 members of a Community Collaborative Board (CCB). Analysis revealed that iCohere served the following functions: facilitating communication, providing a depository for information and resource sharing, and allowing for remote meeting attendance. Results indicated that while iCohere was useful in performing these functions, less expensive technologies had the potential to achieve similar goals if properly implemented. Implications for future research on CSCW systems and CBPR are discussed.     

Community Wise: The Development of an Anti-Oppression Model to Promote Individual and Community Health

Communities with histories of oppression have shown great resilience, yet few health interventions focus on structural oppression as a contributor to health problems in these communities. This article describes the development and active ingredients of Community Wise, a unique behavioral health intervention designed to reduce substance use frequency, related health risk behaviors, and recidivism among individuals with a history of incarceration and substance abuse residing in distressed and predominantly African American communities. Community Wise, developed through the collaborative efforts of a board of service providers, researchers, consumers, and government officials, is a 12-week group intervention that aims to address behavioral health problems by raising critical consciousness in distressed communities.     

Integrating self-care into clinical practice with trauma clients

ABSTRACT

Self-care is recognized as an important aspect of social work practice. Beginning in educational settings, developing social workers are encouraged to learn about and practice self-care. However, self-care is typically promoted through strategies and approaches outside of the practice context. Social workers are oftentimes encouraged to use individualized self-care plans, which often feature a variety of relaxation and secondary techniques; focus on self-awareness and self-reflection; and have proper use of supervision. Although these strategies are invaluable, they do little to directly benefit the social worker during direct practice or while in session with a client which is a time period when clinicians are particularly vulnerable to distress or burnout. The importance of real-time self-care strategies is particularly critical for clinicians, especially those who engage in trauma work, given the sensitivity of topics that clients may have endured or benefit from assistance in processing. Further, little information has been published on the use of self-care techniques during a session with a client or in a clinical context. The purpose of the present paper is to discuss self-care strategies that can be useful both outside of and within a clinical setting and present a model of such strategies that focus on integrating self-care in clinical practice particularly for those engaging in trauma work. The paper will conclude by discussing the relevancy of the developed model in practice.     

Urban ecosystem Services in Latin America: mismatch between global concepts and regional realities?

Urban Ecosystems - Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is one of the most urbanized and biologically diverse regions in the world but is often characterized by weak environmental governance and...     

Community-Based Design Research: Learning Across Generations and Strategic Transformations of Institutional Relations Toward Axiological Innovations

The socio-ecological challenges facing communities in the 21st century are building towards a critical conjuncture of history, culture, power, and profound inequity. Scholars working in the service of social transformation and improving the wellbeing of communities are calling for creative, deliberate, and consequential interventions. Tharp & O’Donnell (this issue) call for increased engagement between Cultural-Community Psychology and Cultural-Historical Activity Theory to lead this kind of call. Drawing from our experiences in community based design research, we argue for cultivating axiological innovations in research and interventions. We explore three examples including: critical historicity, inter-generational learning, and strategic transformations of institutional relations.     

Approximability and exact resolution of the multidimensional binary vector assignment problem

In this paper we consider the multidimensional binary vector assignment problem. An input of this problem is defined by m disjoint multisets \(V^1, V^2, \ldots , V^m\), each composed of n binary vectors of size p. An output is a set of n disjoint m-tuples of vectors, where each m-tuple is obtained by picking one vector from each multiset \(V^i\). To each m-tuple we associate a p dimensional vector by applying the bit-wise AND operation on the m vectors of the tuple. The objective is to minimize the total number of zeros in these n vectors. We denote this problem by Open image in new window , and the restriction of this problem where every vector has at most c zeros by Open image in new window . Open image in new window was only known to be Open image in new window -hard, even for Open image in new window . We show that, assuming the unique games conjecture, it is Open image in new window -hard to Open image in new window -approximate Open image in new window for any fixed Open image in new window and Open image in new window . This result is tight as any solution is a Open image in new window -approximation. We also prove without assuming UGC that Open image in new window is Open image in new window -hard even for Open image in new window . Finally, we show that Open image in new window is polynomial-time solvable for fixed Open image in new window (which cannot be extended to Open image in new window ).     

Urbanization impacts the taxonomic and functional structure of aquatic macroinvertebrate communities in a small Neotropical city

Due to habitat fragmentation, resource disruption and pollution, urbanization is one of the most destructive forms of anthropization affecting ecosystems worldwide. Generally, human-mediated perturbations dramatically alter species diversity in urban sites compared to the surroundings, thus influencing the functioning of the entire ecosystem. We investigated the taxonomic and functional diversity patterns of the aquatic macroinvertebrate communities in tank bromeliads by comparing those found in a small Neotropical city with those from an adjacent rural site. Changes in the quality of detrital inputs in relation to lower tree diversity and the presence of synanthropic species are likely important driving forces behind the observed structural changes in the urban site. Leaf-litter processors (i.e., shredders, scrapers) were positively affected in the urban site, while filter-feeders that process smaller particles produced by the activity of the shredders were negatively affected. Because we cannot ascertain whether the decline in filter-feeders is related to food web-mediated effects or to competitive exclusion (Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were present in urban bromeliads only), further studies are necessary to account for the effects of intra-guild competition or inter-guild facilitation.