Social and demographic trends are placing an increasing number of adults at risk for loneliness, an established risk factor for physical and mental illness. The growing costs of loneliness have led ...to a number of loneliness reduction interventions. Qualitative reviews have identified four primary intervention strategies: (a) improving social skills, (b) enhancing social support, (c) increasing opportunities for social contact, and (d) addressing maladaptive social cognition. An integrative meta-analysis of loneliness reduction interventions was conducted to quantify the effects of each strategy and to examine the potential role of moderator variables. Results revealed that single-group pre-post and nonrandomized comparison studies yielded larger mean effect sizes relative to randomized comparison studies. Among studies that used the latter design, the most successful interventions addressed maladaptive social cognition. This is consistent with current theories regarding loneliness and its etiology. Theoretical and methodological issues associated with designing new loneliness reduction interventions are discussed.
Objectives. The objective of this study was to test a conceptual model of loneliness in which social structural factors are posited to operate through proximal factors to influence perceptions of ...relationship quality and loneliness. Methods. We used a population-based sample of 225 White, Black, and Hispanic men and women aged 50 through 68 from the Chicago Health, Aging, and Social Relations Study to examine the extent to which associations between sociodemographic factors and loneliness were explained by socioeconomic status, physical health, social roles, stress exposure, and, ultimately, by network size and subjective relationship quality. Results. Education and income were negatively associated with loneliness and explained racial/ethnic differences in loneliness. Being married largely explained the association between income and loneliness, with positive marital relationships offering the greatest degree of protection against loneliness. Independent risk factors for loneliness included male gender, physical health symptoms, chronic work and/or social stress, small social network, lack of a spousal confidant, and poor-quality social relationships. Discussion. Longitudinal research is needed to evaluate the causal role of social structural and proximal factors in explaining changes in loneliness.
The article analyses Muslim first Italian-born children of migrants’ experiences of learning to read in both religious and school contexts in Lonato del Garda, a small town in the north of Italy. ...Based on ethnographic observation, the article focuses on reading as a social practice where the issue of identity is critical. For Muslim first Italian-born children of migrants, learning to read is also about the experience of their hybrid identity. In a context where state school and the Islamic Centre fail to build an effective dialogue and strategies to connect the different learning experiences, children end up learning also to deal with the “boundary work” that will characterise their life in the peculiar everyday multiculturalism of contemporary Italian society. However, practices are not impermeable to each other. The state school model has an impact on religious education and several changes were made to adapt the learning practices. On the other hand, children can use religious learning habitus, such as memorisation, as a way to deal with the learning to read in school.
Breast cancer is the most common noncutaneous malignancy and the second most lethal form of cancer among women in the United States. Mortality from breast cancer has declined since the late 1980s, ...but this decline has been steeper among white women compared with black women. As a result, the black:white mortality rate ratio has increased over the last two decades. Other ethnic minorities also suffer from disproportionately high breast cancer mortality rates. This review discusses the causes of racial and ethnic disparities in breast cancer mortality and describes the most common approaches to reducing these disparities. The literature suggests that outcome disparities are related to patient-, provider-, and health system-level factors. Lack of insurance, fear of testing, delay in seeking care, and unfavorable tumor characteristics all contribute to disparities at the patient level. At the provider level, insufficient screening, poor follow-up of abnormal screening tests, and nonadherence to guideline-based treatments add to outcome disparities. High copayment requirements, lack of a usual source of care, fragmentation of care, and uneven distribution of screening and treatment resources exacerbate disparities at the health system level. Although pilot programs have increased breast cancer screening among select populations, persistent disparities in mortality suggest that changes are needed at the policy level to address the root causes of these disparities.
This paper presents the results of an extensive set of laboratory experiments performed to design a demonstrative electrokinetic plant for extracting heavy metals from marine sediments dredged from ...the Livorno marine harbour. The investigated sediments displayed a high salinity, a high acid neutralization capacity, a low electrical resistivity (0.5Ωm), a high alkalinity (pH≈8) and a large fraction of fine particles. The target metals were Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn at relatively weak and inhomogeneous concentrations with high non-mobile fractions. After an accurate characterization, several screening and full electrokinetic tests were performed using cells of two different sizes, several conditioning agents (HNO3, HCl, H2SO4, citric acid, oxalic acid, ascorbic acid, EDTA), different applied current intensities and durations. The tests highlighted the need for long treatment times in order to obtain a significant pH reduction, with some appreciable metal removal being attained only after several weeks. The best results were obtained with strong acids used as the conditioning agents, with significant specific effects of each acid, including pronounced resistivity increase (from 0.5 up to 10Ωm) and a high electroosmotic flow (EOF) with H2SO4, or a reversed EOF (electroendosmosis), and minor resistivity changes with HNO3. The use of the obtained data to design a demonstrative plant is also presented in the paper, with considerations on operating parameters such as energy and reagent consumption, characteristics of plant components and required safety measures.
•We conducted a laboratory diet analysis to define predator–prey interactions.•We expounded on this laboratory data by assimilating two, more robust data sets.•We produced maximum likelihood ...estimates (MLEs) and associated error ranges.•MLEs describe the likely diet contribution that a given prey item contributes to a predator's diet.•We use the MLEs to depict the trophic interactions between aggregated groups of species within our model study area.
Trophic ecosystem models are interactive tools that allow decision makers to analyze how a management decision can impact an ecosystem on a multi-species level, and are increasingly being used as a supplement to the current single species approach to fisheries management. The functionality of such a model is dependent upon an accurate representation of the trophic interactions occurring within a study area. Typical methods for developing a diet matrix to be used in ecosystem models often fail to account for uncertainty associated with sampling; this is especially relevant when dealing with small diet data sets. In this case study of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem, we have conducted a laboratory diet analysis to define predator–prey interactions for non-commercially important predator species resident to the study area, and then expounded on this laboratory data by assimilating two, more robust data sets. By applying a maximum likelihood estimation method, we combine these data sets and produce maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs) and associated error ranges, which describe the likely diet contribution that a given prey item contributes to a predator's diet. We use the resultant mode values to develop a preliminary food web diagram, depicting the trophic interactions occurring between aggregated groups of species within our model study area. These results will be used to parameterize the availabilities (diet) matrix of an Atlantis ecosystem model of the Gulf of Mexico.
Prior research has established associations between pregnancy outcomes and specific neighborhood characteristics, including economic disadvantage, violent crime, and racial/ethnic segregation. ...Recently, associations have also been found between various health outcomes and group density, the degree to which an individual is a racial or ethnic majority in his or her local community. The objective of this study was to determine the extent to which census tract economic disadvantage, violent crime rate, and group density are associated with pregnancy outcomes among White, Black, and Hispanic infants in a large metropolitan setting. This cross-sectional study utilized 1990 census data, 1991 crime data, and 1991 birth certificate information for singleton live births in Chicago, Illinois. Results show substantial racial segregation in Chicago, with 35% of census tracts having more than 90% Black residents and 45% of census tracts having fewer than 10% Black residents. After stratifying by maternal race/ethnicity, we used multilevel analyses to model pregnancy outcomes as a function of individual and census tract characteristics. Among all racial/ethnic groups, violent crime rate accounted for most of the negative association between tract economic disadvantage and birth weight. Group density was also associated with birth weight but this association was stronger among Whites and Hispanics than among Blacks. Further analysis revealed that group density was more strongly associated with preterm birth while violent crime rate was more strongly associated with small for gestational age. These results suggest that group density and violent crime may impact birth weight via different mechanisms.
The recent COVID-19 emergency has shaped economic performance across all sectors, and the fisheries and aquaculture sector did not come out unscathed. The need to protect against risks has always ...been primary for economic operators, but COVID-19 has accentuated the need to obtain coverage for health risks. In this regard, the European Union has moved quickly with an amendment art. 35 of European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (Regulation EU No. 508/2014), including "public health crises" among the causes considered valid for compensation in mutual funds. In this paper, we analyze the evolution of Regulation 508, focusing on Article 35 and its most recent amendments, to understand if the new reform is adherent to the needs of the fisheries sector in Italy, one of the only two States that have documented in their Operational Plans the intention to implement mutual funds. The work involved an empirical analysis through the use of multivariate statistics carried out on 61 Italian stakeholders. Several company profiles were identified and then the likelihood of subscribing to a mutual fund was estimated based on their focus on health crises. The work underlines that the amendments meet the demands of the sector for improved mutual fund clauses, but it’s not yet an attractive tool for the Italian market.
Hydrogels are commonly studied for tissue engineering applications and controlled drug delivery. In order to evaluate their reliability as scaffolds and delivery devices, literature describes many ...release studies performed involving different analytical techniques. However, these experiments can be expensive, time-consuming, and often not reproducible. In this study, two injectable agar-carbomer-based hydrogels were studied, both being loaded with sodium fluorescein, a harmless fluorophore with a steric hindrance similar to many small drugs, such as for example steroids and other neuroprotecting agents. Starting from simple, traditional, and inexpensive release experiments, it was possible to indirectly estimate the self-diffusion coefficient (D) of loaded sodium fluorescein. Such a parameter was also directly measured in the gel matrix by means of high resolution magic angle spinning (HRMAS) diffusion-ordered spectroscopy NMR. Because of the agreement between the calculated values and those measured by HRMAS-NMR spectroscopy, the latter approach can be considered as a simple and fast alternative to long analytic procedures.
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