Language attitudes and language shift among ethnic migrants in Khartoum

This paper investigates language attitudes among ethnic migrant groups in Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan. A questionnaire was used to collect data on language preference, language parents prefer their children to learn, and reasons for language preference. Results suggest that while positive attitude played a significant role in learning Arabic among some of the groups under investigation, it proved to be of no help in maintaining the groups’ ethnic languages. Arabic was reported as very important for education, religious activities, economic privileges and social interaction. Ethnic languages, on the other hand, were preferred for purely symbolic reasons (symbolizing groups’ ethnic identity).

Guest Editorial: Racial and Ethnic Conflict and Violence

Racial and ethnic violence takes many forms. Genocides, ethnic cleansing, pogroms, civil wars, and violent separatist movements are the most obvious and extreme expressions, but less organized violence such as rioting, and hate crimes by individuals or small groups are products of racial and ethnic conflict as well. Also, the distribution of criminal violence within societies, which may or may not be aimed at members of another group, is in some places a by-product of ongoing conflicts between superior and subordinated racial or ethnic groups. Although estimates of the number of deaths attributable to ethnic violence vary widely, range of eleven to twenty million given for the period between 1945 and the early 1990s show the gravity of this type of conflict (Williams 1994, 50). So it comes as no surprise that scholars have paid increasing attention to such conflicts over the last decades.

Etiology of ethnic differences in childhood spirometry

OBJECTIVES Age- and height-adjusted spirometric lung function of South Asian children is lower than those of white children. It is unclear whether this is purely genetic, or partly explained by the environment. In this study, we assessed whether cultural factors, socioeconomic status, intrauterine growth, environmental exposures, or a family and personal history of wheeze contribute to explaining the ethnic differences in spirometric lung function. METHODS We studied children aged 9 to 14 years from a population-based cohort, including 1088 white children and 275 UK-born South Asians. Log-transformed spirometric data were analyzed using multiple linear regressions, adjusting for anthropometric factors. Five different additional models adjusted for (1) cultural factors, (2) indicators of socioeconomic status, (3) perinatal data reflecting intrauterine growth, (4) environmental exposures, and (5) personal and family history of wheeze. RESULTS Height- and gender-adjusted forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expired volume in 1 second (FEV1) were lower in South Asian than white children (relative difference -11% and -9% respectively, P < .001), but PEF and FEF50 were similar (P ≥ .5). FEV1/FVC was higher in South Asians (1.8%, P < .001). These differences remained largely unchanged in all 5 alternative models. CONCLUSIONS Our study confirmed important differences in lung volumes between South Asian and white children. These were not attenuated after adjustment for cultural and socioeconomic factors and intrauterine growth, neither were they explained by differences in environmental exposures nor a personal or family history of wheeze. This suggests that differences in lung function may be mainly genetic in origin. The implication is that ethnicity-specific predicted values remain important specifically for South Asian children.

Ethnic/racial diversity, maternal stress, lactation and very low birthweight infants.

OBJECTIVE: (1) To compare maternal characteristics and psychological stress profile among African-American, Caucasian and Hispanic mothers who delivered very low birthweight infants. (2) To investigate associations between psychosocial factors, frequency of milk expression, skin-to-skin holding (STS), and lactation performance, defined as maternal drive to express milk and milk volume. STUDY DESIGN: Self-reported psychological questionnaires were given every 2 weeks after delivery over 10 weeks. Milk expression frequency, STS, and socioeconomic variables were collected. RESULT: Infant birthweight, education, and milk expression frequency differed between groups. Trait anxiety, depression and parental stress in a neonatal intensive care unit (PSS:NICU) were similar. African-American and Caucasian mothers reported the lowest scores in state anxiety and social desirability, respectively. Maternal drive to express milk, measured by maintenance of milk expression, correlated negatively with parental role alteration (subset of PSS:NICU) and positively with infant birthweight and STS. Milk volume correlated negatively with depression and positively with milk expression frequency and STS. CONCLUSION: Differences between groups were observed for certain psychosocial factors. The response bias to self-reported questionnaires between groups may not provide an accurate profile of maternal psychosocial profile. With different factors correlating with maintenance of milk expression and milk volume, lactation performance can be best enhanced with a multi-faceted intervention program, incorporating parental involvement in infant care, close awareness and management of maternal mental health, and encouragement for frequent milk expression and STS.

Multiple independent genetic factors at NOS1AP modulate the QT interval in a multi-ethnic population.

Extremes of electrocardiographic QT interval are associated with increased risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD); thus, identification and characterization of genetic variants that modulate QT interval may elucidate the underlying etiology of SCD. Previous studies have revealed an association between a common genetic variant in NOS1AP and QT interval in populations of European ancestry, but this finding has not been extended to other ethnic populations. We sought to characterize the effects of NOS1AP genetic variants on QT interval in the multi-ethnic population-based Dallas Heart Study (DHS, n = 3,072). The SNP most strongly associated with QT interval in previous samples of European ancestry, rs16847548, was the most strongly associated in White (P = 0.005) and Black (P = 3.6 x 10(-5)) participants, with the same direction of effect in Hispanics (P = 0.17), and further showed a significant SNP x sex-interaction (P = 0.03). A second SNP, rs16856785, uncorrelated with rs16847548, was also associated with QT interval in Blacks (P = 0.01), with qualitatively similar results in Whites and Hispanics. In a previously genotyped cohort of 14,107 White individuals drawn from the combined Atherosclerotic Risk in Communities (ARIC) and Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) cohorts, we validated both the second locus at rs16856785 (P = 7.63 x 10(-8)), as well as the sex-interaction with rs16847548 (P = 8.68 x 10(-6)). These data extend the association of genetic variants in NOS1AP with QT interval to a Black population, with similar trends, though not statistically significant at P<0.05, in Hispanics. In addition, we identify a strong sex-interaction and the presence of a second independent site within NOS1AP associated with the QT interval. These results highlight the consistent and complex role of NOS1AP genetic variants in modulating QT interval.

Alles koscher? Die Erfindung eines jüdischen "ethnic food" im urbanen Kontext

Die Erfindung eines jüdischen „ethnic food“ im urbanen Kontext Die religiösen Speisegesetze, die Kaschrut, sind heute nur noch für eine kleine Minderheit der Juden im Alltag verbindlich. In urbanen Zentren Europas finden sich heute jedoch eine Vielzahl von Restaurants, die Bezug nehmen auf das Judentum und seine kulinarischen Traditionen. Am Beispiel von fünf verschiedenen Städten (Berlin, Lodz, Paris, Wien, Zürich) wird aufgezeigt, wie „jüdische“ Gastronomie vor dem Hintergrund unterschiedlicher historischer Erfahrungen und vielfältiger Migrationsbewegungen von Juden aber auch von Nichtjuden neu interpretiert werden können. Auch wenn die meisten Gaststätten keine koscheren Speisen im religionsgesetzlichen Sinne anbieten, sind diese Restaurants doch ein wichtiges Merkmal eines innovativen und integrativen Umgangs mit Europas jüdischem Erbe.

Wie fremdenfeindlich ist die Schweiz? Fünf Feldexperimente über prosoziales Verhalten und die Diskriminierung von Ausländern

Umfragen über Vorurteile führen oft zu verzerrten Ergebnissen, da die Befragten häufig „sozial erwünschte“ Antworten geben. In unserer Studie über Vorurteile und Diskriminierung haben wir dagegen vier Feldexperimente in der Stadt Zürich durchgeführt, in denen jeweils von Angehörigen verschiedener Nationalitäten oder religiöser Gruppen eine Hilfeleistung erbeten wurde. Beispielsweise wurden Passanten von einer Person mit Kopftuch um eine Hilfeleistung gebeten; in der Kontrollbedingung dagegen ohne Kopftuch. In einem anderen Experiment wurden Personen in Hochdeutsch angesprochen und in der Kontrollsituation im Schweizer Dialekt. Ein fünftes Experiment bezog sich auf die Reaktionen von Arbeitgebern auf Initiativbewerbungen. Es zeigte sich, dass im Alltagsverhalten keine signifikanten Unterschiede im Ausmaß der Hilfeleistung zwischen den Gruppen nachweisbar waren. Alle vier Experimente zu kleinen Hilfen im Alltag ergaben weder bezüglich Deutschen noch muslimischen Minderheiten Hinweise auf diskriminierendes Verhalten. Deutliche Hinweise gibt es dagegen für die Diskriminierung bestimmter ethnischer Gruppen auf dem Arbeitsmarkt, auch wenn Bewerber die gleiche Qualifikation wie Schweizer und die Schweizer Staatsbürgerschaft besitzen.

Ethnic differences in do-not-resuscitate orders after intracerebral hemorrhage.

OBJECTIVE: To explore ethnic differences in do-not-resuscitate orders after intracerebral hemorrhage. DESIGN: Population-based surveillance. SETTING: Corpus Christi, Texas. PATIENTS: All cases of intracerebral hemorrhage in the community of Corpus Christi, TX were ascertained as part of the Brain Attack Surveillance in Corpus Christi (BASIC) project. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Medical records were reviewed for do-not-resuscitate orders. Unadjusted and multivariable logistic regression were used to test for associations between ethnicity and do-not-resuscitate orders, both overall ("any do-not-resuscitate") and within 24 hrs of presentation ("early do-not-resuscitate"), adjusted for age, gender, Glasgow Coma Scale, intracerebral hemorrhage volume, intraventricular hemorrhage, infratentorial hemorrhage, modified Charlson Index, and admission from a nursing home. A total of 270 cases of intracerebral hemorrhage from 2000-2003 were analyzed. Mexican-Americans were younger and had a higher Glasgow Coma Scale than non-Hispanic whites. Mexican-Americans were half as likely as non-Hispanic whites to have early do-not-resuscitate orders in unadjusted analysis (odds ratio 0.45, 95% confidence interval 0.27, 0.75), although this association was not significant when adjusted for age (odds ratio 0.61, 95% confidence interval 0.35, 1.06) and in the fully adjusted model (odds ratio 0.75, 95% confidence interval 0.39, 1.46). Mexican-Americans were less likely than non-Hispanic whites to have do-not-resuscitate orders written at any time point (odds ratio 0.37, 95% confidence interval 0.23, 0.61). Adjustment for age alone attenuated this relationship although it retained significance (odds ratio 0.49, 95% confidence interval 0.29, 0.82). In the fully adjusted model, Mexican-Americans were less likely than non-Hispanic whites to use do-not-resuscitate orders at any time point, although the 95% confidence interval included one (odds ratio 0.52, 95% confidence interval 0.27, 1.00). CONCLUSIONS: Mexican-Americans were less likely than non-Hispanic whites to have do-not-resuscitate orders after intracerebral hemorrhage although the association was attenuated after adjustment for age and other confounders. The persistent trend toward less frequent use of do-not-resuscitate orders in Mexican-Americans suggests that further study is warranted.