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<b><i>Background:</i></b> Latinos, whose views are infrequently examined in genomic research, may be at risk of missing out on the benefits of genomic medicine. <b><i>Aims:</i></b> To explore this possibility, we conducted a qualitative study of awareness and attitudes about genetic testing among Latinos with lower acculturation in New York City. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> We conducted four focus groups (7 English-speaking men, 5 Spanish-speaking men, 13 English-speaking women and 13 Spanish-speaking women) to explore factors that influence the adoption of new innovations through the discussion of genetic testing in general, and a hypothetical vignette describing a genetic test for skin cancer risk, in particular. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Through inductive thematic text analysis of focus group transcripts, our multidisciplinary team identified themes within knowledge and attitudes, communication and sources of information, anticipated responses, factors that may increase adoption, and barriers to adoption of genetic testing. Specifically, a majority of participants expressed some degree of uncertainty regarding the purpose of genetic tests and information these tests provide, rarely discussed genetic testing with others in their social networks, and expressed concerns about the misuse of and possible adverse emotional responses to genetic information. However, participants also expressed high levels of interest in receiving a skin cancer genetic test in response to the vignette and believed that receiving actionable health information was a primary reason to consider testing. Gender-based differences in perceived barriers to testing emerged. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> The results highlight beliefs and barriers that future interventions could target to help ensure that Latinos have adequate understanding of and access to genomic medicine advances.

<p>The Church Health Center (CHC) in Memphis was founded in 1987 to provide quality, affordable health care for working, uninsured people and their families. With numerous, dedicated financial support­ers and health care volunteers, CHC has become the largest faith-based health care organization of its type nationally, serving &gt;61,000 patients. CHC embraces a holistic approach to health by promoting wellness in every dimension of life. It offers on-site services including medical care, dentistry, optometry, counseling, social work, and nutrition and fitness education, to promote wellness in every dimension of life. A 2012 economic analysis estimated that a $1 contribution to the CHC provided roughly $8 in health services. The CHC has trained &gt;1200 Congregational Health Promoters to be health leaders and is conducting research on the effectiveness of faith community nurses partnering with congregations to assist in home care for patients recently discharged from Memphis hospitals. The MEMPHIS Plan, CHC's employer-sponsored health care plan for small business and the self-employed, offers uninsured people in lower-wage jobs access to quality, afford­able health care. The CHC also conducts replications workshops several times a year to share their model with leaders in other communities. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) recently completed a case study that concluded: "The CHC is one of a very few organizations successfully embodying all three components of the IHI Triple Aim by improving population health outcomes, enhancing the individual's health care experience, and controlling costs. All three have been part of the Center's DNA since its inception, and as a transform­ing force in the community, the model is well worth national attention." <em>Ethn Dis.</em>2015;25(4):507-510; doi:10.18865/ ed.25.4.507</p>

Introduction The purpose of this study was to begin validation of a scale that will be used by teachers of students with visual impairments to determine appropriate recommended type and frequency of services for their students based on identified student need. Methods Validity and reliability of the Visual Impairment Scale of Service Intensity of Texas (VISSIT) were evaluated using a mixed-methods survey research design. Participants used the VISSIT to determine services for at least one student and then completed an electronic survey regarding the use of the tool. Results Twenty-five participants completed at least one VISSIT and completed the electronic survey. Social validity was supported by 92% of the participants stating that the tool was easy to use as a way to determine service time and was also supported by 96% of the participants stating that they would use the VISSIT for determining the type and amount of service recommended for their students. Consequential validity was supported by 71% of the participants stating that the tool's results matched their professional judgment regarding student need and recommended service time and was also supported by 75% of the participants stating that the tool's results directly translated into type and amount of service they would recommend. Internal consistency reliability was demonstrated by the result of a factor analysis of Cronbach's Alpha statistic of .747 for the entire set of VISSIT items. Discussion The results demonstrate that the VISSIT is a moderately valid and reliable tool for helping teachers of students with visual impairments determine the type and amount of visual impairment services based on individual student need. Implications for practitioners The VISSIT is a tool that itinerant teachers of students with visual impairments can use to determine the appropriate amount of service for all students on their caseloads and offers a more objective way to recommend service intensity based on student need.

AbstractMany low‐ and middle‐income countries have experienced an epidemic of obesity in the last few decades. However, no studies have examined the relationship between country economic status and weight status among adults with ID. This study compared the prevalence of underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obesity among adult Special Olympics participants by country economic status. A total of 19,295 (men, n = 12,037) measured height and weight records were available from the Special Olympics International (SOI) Health Promotion database. The 159 countries in the database were recoded according to the World Bank's classification of country economic status as: low‐income, lower middle‐income, upper middle‐income, and high‐income. Body mass index (BMI; kg/m2) prevalence rates were calculated for underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obesity for men and women by economic status. Odds ratios, adjusted for age and sex, were used to examine differences in BMI by country economic status. Overall, 31.9% of SOI participants from low‐income economies, 48.6% from lower middle‐income, 43.6% from upper middle‐income, and 66.0% from high‐income economies had BMI indices outside of the normal range. For the low‐income countries, the proportion of underweight and overweight/obesity was similar (17.2% and 14.7%, respectively). For the other three levels of economy, participants with BMI levels outside the normal range were largely overweight/obese, rather than underweight. Women, older participants, and those from higher‐income countries were much more likely to be overweight/obese. Considerably, more research on the key behaviors associated with BMI status and the extent to which environments (economic, social, and physical) are obesogenic is needed to explain these differences and to begin to design interventions that can be both targeted for persons with ID and coherently implemented across sectors and settings.

Measuring Youth Media Exposure (MYME) methodology was developed in response to a need for more sensitive, comprehensive, and reliable measures of media use and exposure in a rapidly evolving and increasingly complex mobile digital environment. MYME combines multiple measurement modes to locate its findings in relation to historical trends and superimposes those components to complement, cross-validate, and provide strengths where other components have limitations. Self-collected as the individual moves through media-saturated environments, MYME combines established, validated media use measures, Recall Estimation and Time-Use Diaries, with Ecological Momentary Assessment in two forms, Questionnaire (Q-EMA) and Video (V-EMA). Triggered at random intervals during study participants' waking hours, Ecological Momentary Assessment captures in detail complex behaviors, including multitasking and background exposure, simultaneously with media content, contexts of its use, and individuals' responses, attention, and affective states. MYME measurement modes are focused, but open-ended so that they can be used to measure similar media uses and exposures as technology evolves over time. This allows MYME to be applied to prospective longitudinal studies of the temporal relations between media exposure, human development, and the physical, mental, and social health of children and adolescents, positioning MYME to test theorized contributions of media use to a wide variety of health and developmental outcomes. The pilot study reported here followed a cohort of 126 13- to 15-year-olds in three annual waves, measuring their media use and exposure, health status, and health-related behaviors. When implemented in future studies, MYME will be consolidated into a smartphone app which signals participants and collects and uploads time-linked data to a secure cloud-based data shell, where it can be accessed in a continuous manner and analyzed for specific research questions within and across participants.

This paper explores how approaches based on emotion and 'affect', and approaches based on language and discourse, may complement each other in understanding the relationship between music and spatio-temporal collectivities in Yugoslavia and its successor states. The study of popular music in this area has concentrated particularly (though not exclusively) on two kinds of collectivity, one of these being 'the nation' and the other being 'Yugoslavia' as a transnational collectivity that may still exist culturally although no longer exists politically. Accounting for the affective or emotional dimension of music casts attention on another level of collectivity, the 'zavičaj' ('birthplace'), which exists simultaneously as material landscape and a web of directly experienced social relations, through which notions of origin, ancestry and home can all be evoked. To remember the zavičaj is not to access a fixed impression of this space in the past but to construct a present memory of the past space. The emotions this evokes may be easily transferable on to the nation or may perhaps place the intimate zavičaj and the abstract nation in an antagonistic relationship. Evaluating textual and 'affective' approaches to understanding one particular mode of remembering the zavičaj in ex-Yugoslav/post-Yugoslav popular song, the paper argues that musicians and songwriters from the regions discussed here established a coherent set of emotional discourses that invited active remembering. Although during and after the break-up of Yugoslavia these practices became open to co-option as a means of evoking the nation (an abstract collectivity made up of multiple zavičaji), the zavičaj should still be recognised as a distinct form of collectivity that music researchers should treat as a level of analysis in its own right. More research is, however, needed on the differences in how emotional discourses of the zavičaj have been expressed in popular music from region to region.

Abstract
This special section of the Journal of Urban Cultural Studies engages with the idea of activating a 'sonic turn' in urban cultural studies scholarship, in part through the evocation of the paradigm of critical and participatory citizenship, as well as through critical approaches to understanding how sound and music are implicated in the texture of a city. This work is therefore informed by theorizations of topdown and of bottom-up approaches to engagements with, and representation of, the city, through sonic and musical means. Drawing on a variety of disciplinary approaches, including urban ethnomusicology, urban sociology, cultural geography, acoustic ecology and soundscapes studies, this introductory article examines what is meant by 'the sonic turn' as it relates to sound and music studies and how and why this should matter to the study of cities and of the urban experiences of citizens in the broadest sense. This introduction also summarizes aspects of the five papers in this collection, signalling the different approaches taken by each of the authors as evidence of the richness such sonic and musical investigations into the city and the urban experience can bring to urban cultural studies. With a focus on urban ethnography and on applied dimensions of research, particularly in the contemporary city, this article seeks to underscore the importance of listening to and hearing the city, especially for those citizens that do not necessarily have an 'official' voice or the technical means to interpret and engage with their sonic environments. Finally, this article suggests how sonic cultural interventions and engagements may assist, if not in social regeneration, at least in promoting a greater understanding of the complex sonic dimensions of city life as mediated and experienced by urban dwellers and as imagined by others.

The public brand is a relative newcomer to the public sphere. It is an expression of public marketing and an outcome of New Public Management (NPM). It is a lever that allows public organizations to get across their identity, assert their legitimacy and provide markers for the evaluation of their actions, but little research has been conducted into what it actually covers. The analytical framework of the social representation and, more specifically, that of the central core theory, makes it possible to identify, on the basis of a sample of 20 public brands, the values it carries, the influence of context on the configuration of the values and, more broadly, the use made of the public brand. Points for practitioners In a context of growing competition, a legitimacy crisis, fiscal pressures, technological revolutions that change relations with the user-client and staff, the place and operation of public organizations are being turned upside down. The brand is an important but under-exploited lever to restore legibility and legitimacy to public organizations, and also to assert its difference, express its skills and mobilize its officials. It is a way of combining traditional values and new practices dictated by performance requirements. Too many public brands are registered without coming into any real use. The establishment of the brand first calls for thought to be given to its anchoring, by defining pillar values that allow practices (that are sometimes misunderstood or poorly accepted) to be converged with the historical values associated with public services. Values are the basis of the discourse, they build the representation and are the key to the identity of public organizations. Furthermore, the field of public action is characterized by several branding levels that need to be considered according to the potential for legitimation presented by each.

Purpose– The topics of an emerging planetary civilisation and its common affairs, global problems requiring coordinated worldwide responses and contested forms of globalisation are collectively stimulating an international conversation about alternatives to the current system of global governance. The purpose of this paper is to introduce new voices to the conversation, providing unconventional perspectives of possible futures to those found in much of the scholarly literature. These perspectives are those of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO), an international non-government organisation comprising nations and peoples not represented at the United Nations (UN).Design/methodology/approach– Collectively the discourses and worldviews of the UNPO, feminists, social and environmental movements, Cosmopolitan Democrats, technocrats and the Commission on Global Governance reveal contesting images of global governance futures in which the UN is transformed in ways that are aligned to emerging forms of alternative globalisations. The Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) futures research method is used to construct models of each group's preferred global governance future from elements of their discourses and deeply held ideological commitments.Findings– Structural aspects are also considered and the author offers an analytical framework summarising the models against the layers of CLA and the history, power base, globalisation worldview and agency congruent with each model. The models are then presented as visionary scenarios generating images of future alternatives while providing an opportunity to hear what the nations unrepresented in the current system have to say.Originality/value– Their image produced a more inclusive, egalitarian and holistic image of a global governance future when compared with the "business as usual" UN future. As we approach 2015 and the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the UN, this conversation provides a timely prompt for the review of the UN system of global governance and an opportunity for the UN to consider how it might transform to retain relevance in a rapidly changing global environment.

Purpose– This exploratory study aims to explore the perceptions and experience of women doctors on working with each other and draw attention to their 'voice' on this issue. The equivocal and limited nature of relevant literature piqued our curiosity on how women perceive working with each other in work settings, particularly within the medical profession.Design/methodology/approach– Twelve women doctors within Australian public hospitals were interviewed through semi-structured informal interviews to "voice" their experiences and views on the comforts and discomforts of working with other women doctors. Their responses were compared to literature to determine similarities and uniqueness of their experiences to women in other settings.Findings– Insights from the respondent's perceptions and experiences highlight several constructive and negative aspects of working alongside women doctors. Social and psychological constructs of being a "woman" and being a "woman doctor" as well as systemic/cultural issues of the medical fraternity formed how the women in this series of interviews perceived and related to the women doctors they worked with.Research limitations/implications– This exploratory provides initial insights into the experiences of women doctors on working with each other. Many themes identified have been explored in other settings. Hospital as a workplace, presents many similar work dynamics when considering the work interactions of women in other settings. This study should be used to drive more rigorous enquiry and a larger sample size.Practical implications– The working relationships women build with each other influence individual careers and organizational outcomes. Understanding the dynamics that improve and hinder the development of constructive work relationships between women can strengthen women-focused managerial and organizational policies and practices.Originality/value– The consolidation of literature coupled with the exploratory insights of this research contributes to a limited depth of existing literature not only in the medical profession, but in other industries and settings as well.

There are many theories as to what form good-quality parenting should take. Attachment theory emphasises providing a secure base through sensitive responding at times of emotional need. Social learning theory outlines the need for firm limits in addition to the promotion of positive interchanges. These theories are supported by numerous quantitative research studies investigating which parenting styles are associated with better outcomes for children in general and for those with additional needs due to prior abuse or emotional and behavioural difficulties. However, there have been few systematic qualitative studies asking children themselves about their care experiences, particularly with abused or neglected children who are now safe in foster care. Using an adapted version of the Child Attachment Interview, we interviewed 12 children aged 13 to 15 years, who had been taken into care due to abuse and fostered for at least six months, with the aim of exploring their attachment to their birth parents, foster carers and attitudes to different parenting styles in general. Transcripts were analysed using the qualitative technique of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Overall, the abused children spoke more positively of foster care than the care provided by their birth parents. Parenting techniques mentioned in positive terms were a clear disciplinary style, setting firm boundaries, nurturing care, enjoyable time together and mentoring further development. Negative themes included angry or inconsistent disciplinary styles, failure to set appropriate boundaries, rejecting and neglectful behaviour, a lack of joint activities, a chaotic lifestyle and parental illness. This study provides a unique perspective on parenting, as the children studied have experienced both poor parenting and reasonably normal care. The findings are applicable to care provided for fostered children and could be relevant to the upbringing of children in general.

Significant disparities in the incidence of polio existed during its eradication campaign in India. In 2006, Muslims, who comprise 16% of the population in affected states, comprised 70% of paralytic polio cases. This disparity was initially blamed on the Muslims and a rumor that the vaccination program was a plot to sterilize their children. Using the framework of structural violence, this paper describes how the socio-political and historical context of Muslim populations in India shaped the polio disparity.A qualitative study utilizing methods of rapid ethnography was conducted from May-August 2009 in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. Field methods included participant observation of vaccination teams, historical document research, and 107 interviews with both Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) stakeholders and families with vaccine-eligible children. Almost all respondents agreed that Aligarh was a highly segregated city, mostly due to riots after Partition and during the 1990s. Since the formation of segregated neighborhoods, most respondents described that "Muslim areas" had been underdeveloped compared to "Hindu areas," facilitating the physical transmission of poliovirus. Distrust of the government and resistance to vaccination were linked to this disparate development and fears of sterilization influenced by the "Family Planning Program" from 1976-1977.Ethnic violence and social marginalization since the Partition and during the rise of Hindu nationalism led to distrust of the government, the formation of segregated slums, and has made Muslims victims of structural violence. This led to the creation of disease-spreading physical environments, lowered vaccine efficacy, and disproportionately higher levels of resistance to vaccination. The causes of the polio disparity found in this study elucidate the nature of possible other health disparities affecting minorities in India.This study is limited by the manual coding of the transcribed data, size, and some dialectal difficulties in translation.

IntroductionAt the epicentre of the HIV epidemic in southern Africa, adolescent girls and young women aged 15–24 contribute a disproportionate ~30% of all new infections and seroconvert 5–7 years earlier than their male peers. This age–sex disparity in HIV acquisition continues to sustain unprecedentedly high incidence rates, and preventing HIV infection in this age group is a pre‐requisite for achieving an AIDS‐free generation and attaining epidemic control.DiscussionAdolescent girls and young women in southern Africa are uniquely vulnerable to HIV and have up to eight times more infection than their male peers. While the cause of this vulnerability has not been fully elucidated, it is compounded by structural, social and biological factors. These factors include but are not limited to: engagement in age‐disparate and/or transactional relationships, few years of schooling, experience of food insecurity, experience of gender‐based violence, increased genital inflammation, and amplification of effects of transmission co‐factors. Despite the large and immediate HIV prevention need of adolescent girls and young women, there is a dearth of evidence‐based interventions to reduce their risk. The exclusion of adolescents in biomedical research is a huge barrier. School and community‐based education programmes are commonplace in many settings, yet few have been evaluated and none have demonstrated efficacy in preventing HIV infection. Promising data are emerging on prophylactic use of anti‐retrovirals and conditional cash transfers for HIV prevention in these populations.ConclusionsThere is an urgent need to meet the HIV prevention needs of adolescent girls and young women, particularly those who are unable to negotiate monogamy, condom use and/or male circumcision. Concerted efforts to expand the prevention options available to these young women in terms of the development of novel HIV‐specific biomedical, structural and behavioural interventions are urgently needed for epidemic control. In the interim, a pragmatic approach of integrating existing HIV prevention efforts into broader sexual reproductive health services is a public health imperative.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to offer novel insights into: knowledge of proto-feminism through description and analysis of the rule of the seventh century female Emperor Wu Zetian; postcolonial theory by revealing the existence and proto-feminist activities of a non-western female leader; and the literature on gender and invisibility through a study of a leading figure that is relatively unknown to western feminists and is even, in feminist terms, something of a neglected figure.Design/methodology/approach– In order to examine Wu's proto-feminist practices as recorded in historical materials, we use critical hermeneutics as a tool for textual interpretation, through the following four stages: choosing texts from historical records and writings of Wu; analyzing the historical sociocultural context; analyzing the relationship between the text and the context; and offering a conceptual framework as a richer explanation.Findings– Wu's life activities demonstrate proto-feminism in late seventh century China in at least four aspects: gender equality in sexuality, in social status, in politics, and women's pursuit of power and leadership.Research limitations/implications– Future research may dig into the paradox of Wu's proto-feminist practices, the relationship between organizational power and feminism/proto-feminism, and the ways in which Wu's activities differ from other powerful women across cultures, etc.Practical implications– The study encourages a rethink of women and leadership style in non-western thought.Social implications– The study supports Calás and Smircich's 2005 call for greater understanding of feminist thought outside of western thought and a move to transglobal feminism.Originality/value– This study recovers long lost stories of women leadership that are "invisible" in many ways in the historical narratives, and contributes to postcolonial feminism by revealing the existence of indigenous proto-feminist practice in China long before western-based feminism and postcolonial feminism emerged.

This paper investigates the evolution of the interest groups system in Denmark and Switzerland. Denmark is an emblematic example of social corporatism, while Switzerland is a paradigmatic case of liberal corporatism. However, neo-corporatist arrangements are put under strong and cumulative pressures in both countries, for instance through Europeanization, party polarization, mediatization, revalorization of the Parliament, "pluralization" of interest representation, etc. As similar external factors have impacted the two different interest groups systems, one might wonder if the transformation of corporatism in Denmark and Switzerland leads towards a new and common form of interest group system. The paper analyze the presence of interest groups, in the two major venues of the legislative process (administrative and parliamentary venues), and ask if we observe a decline in the role of corporatist interest groups. Can we observe a trend toward "parliamentary corporatism", marked by increasing involvement of corporatist actors in the parliamentary venue and declining presence in the traditional corporatist administrative venue? To address these research questions, a longitudinal study will compare which interest groups had privileged access in the decade 1975-1985 versus in 2010. In the administrative venue, we look at seats in public committees. In the parliamentary venue, we measure another indicator of privileged access, namely the number of interest groups to which an MP is affiliated (as simple member, board member or paid official) in 1985 and in 2010. The proposed combination of longitudinal, cross-sectional and cross-country comparisons aims at systematically mapping and comparing two national interest groups systems. This approach is innovative as comparative studies are not so numerous (page 3 and 4 of workshop call). Last but not least, the proposed paper lies at the crossroad of the literature on national interest groups system, and the neo-corporatist theory as developed by Schmitter and Streeck.