Rates Of Obesity And Incidence Of Diabetes In Hispanics In The United States: An Examination Of The Epidemiological Paradox

Using pooled data from the 2008-2011 National Health Interview Survey and employing multinomial and binomial logistic regression methods, this research examines disparities in rates of obesity and incidence of diabetes between individual Hispanic subgroups in comparison to non-Hispanic whites and blacks. Immigration status(including nativity, duration in the United States, and citizenship status) is hypothesized to play a central role in rates and obesity and incidence of diabetes. Unlike Cuban-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, and other Hispanics were more likely to be overweight as well as obese when compared to non-Hispanic whites. Mexican-Americans had the only significance in prevalence of type 2 diabetes in comparison to non-Hispanic whites. Both of these health outcomes are strongly associated with the various immigration variables.

Where Stories Collide : Montage and the Short Story Cycle

This thesis uses Sergei Eisenstein’s filmic theories of montage to examine the modernist American short story cycle, a genre of independent short stories that work together to create a larger and interrelated whole. Similar to the shot-by-shot editing process of montage, the story cycle builds its intertextual meaning story-by-story from an aggregate of abrupt narrative transitions and juxtapositions. Eisenstein famously felt that montage, the editing together of film fragments, was not a process of linkage, but of collision –each radically different shot in a film should crash into the next shot, until audience members were intellectually provoked into synthesizing these collisions through dialectical processes. I offer montage as an interpretive strategy for negotiating the narrative collisions in story cycles such as Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, William Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses, and Eudora Welty’s The Golden Apples. For Go Down, Moses, I argue that Eisenstein’s politically rendered “montage of attractions” provides a template for investigating the shock tactics behind Faulkner’s chronologically and racially entangled stories of whites and African Americans. For The Golden Apples, I consider the opposites and doubles in Welty’s fiction with Eisenstein’s similar belief in the “opposing passions” of the world. Not only, then, do I suggest that the modernist story cycle bears a cinematic influence, but I also offer Eisenstein’s theories of montage and collision as a heuristic for formal, thematic, and even political patterns in a genre infamous for its resistance to definition and classification.

Service Use and Mental Impairment Among the Elderly: Arguments for Consultation and Education

Compared the service use patterns of older adults with varying levels of mental impairment, and assessed the effects of services received on their mental health status over a 1-yr period. Data were obtained from a US General Accounting Office (1977, 1979) study of 531 elderly persons (mean age 76.1 yrs), which included administration of a modified version of the Older Americans Resources and Services Multidimensional Functional Assessment Questionnaire. Ss were interviewed twice, 1 yr apart. 174 Ss were classified as having a mild psychiatric impairment, and 118 Ss had a severe psychiatric impairment. The existence of mental impairment was related to marital status, race, and level of education. Usage of mental health services was low, although mentally impaired Ss were more likely than unimpaired Ss to use social and medical services. Results also suggest that such services can have an important effect on the mental health of older persons.

The Resilience of Self-Esteem in Late Adulthood

OBJECTIVE: The authors examined the resilience of self-esteem after loss in the lives of older adults. Specifically, the authors investigated the relationship between loss and change in self-esteem during a 3-year period. METHOD: A subsample of older adults (n = 1,278) from the Americans' Changing Lives Study was used to examine loss in the domains of health, financial security, or work and career and self-esteem before and after the loss. RESULTS: There was a small but significant decrease in self-esteem between Wave I and Wave II of the study. Loss in one of the domains explained less than 1% of the variance in self-esteem change. DISCUSSION: The low incidence of loss and small change in high levels of self-esteem are further evidence of resilience in older adults' psychological well-being. The implications for older adults' use of cognitive strategies to manage losses and promote gains are discussed.

Mental Health and Aging at the 2005 White House Conference on Aging: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Success! At the 2005 White House Conference on Aging, three-quarters of the 1,200 national delegates voted to improve “recognition, assessment, and treatment of mental illness and depression among older Americans.” This resulted in mental health being ranked as #8 of the final 50 WHCoA policy resolutions resulting from the conference. Joining this resolution in the “top ten” were two resolutions intimately tied to hopes for addressing the mental health needs of older adults—at #6 “Support Geriatric Education and Training for Health Care Professionals, Paraprofessionals, Health Profession Students and Direct Care Workers,” and #9 “Attain Adequate Numbers of Healthcare Personnel in All Professions Who are Skilled, Culturally Competent, and Specialized in Geriatrics.”

Meanings of Citizenship: Czech Citizen in a Comparative Perspective

This was an interdisciplinary cross-cultural project which subjected Czech citizens to theoretical analysis and empirical examination. In the first, theoretical, part of the work a typology of post-totalitarian citizenship was proposed containing five types of citizens: responsible democratic, social materialistic, passive asocial, hedonistic consuming, and predatory antisocial. While democratic citizenship stems from preserved civic virtues, the deficient types of citizenship are partially caused by the post-totalitarian syndrome. In the concrete empirical studies of the international context the most significant aspects of citizenship were examined. Czech citizens (students) displayed an encouraging level of political civic culture when they loaded more often than six other national samples on the factor of democratic citizenship (based on a questionnaire and Q-sort by Feierabend, Q-factor analysis), but their level of loyalty and low critical rebelliousness can also be seen as reason for concern. The Czech population provided contrasting results in measures of civility; although chronically complaining about interpersonal relations, they passed relatively well in a series of situational field experiments even in the international comparison (Levine's helping measures. Czech nationalism is primarily "cultural nationalism", which is less favourable for democratic citizenship than the "civic nationalism" of Americans.

Toward the Equitable Distribution of Enriching Educational Experiences: Faculty Engagement with Racial Minority Students

Peña, Bensimon, and Colyar (2006) noted: “Not only do African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans have lower graduation rates than [do] Whites and Asian Americans, they also experience inequalities in just about every indicator of academic success – from earned grade point average to placement on the dean’s list to graduation rates in competitive majors” (p. 48). While these and other racialized outcomes disparities cannot be attributed to a narrow set of explanatory factors, one thing is known for sure: College students who are actively engaged inside and outside the classroom are considerably more likely than are their disengaged peers to persist through baccalaureate degree attainment. Furthermore, engaged students typically accrue the desired outcomes that are central to liberal education. This is especially true for engagement in what Kuh (2008) refers to as “high-impact” educational experiences – study abroad programs, learning communities, undergraduate research programs, service learning opportunities, and summer internships, to name a few. Unfortunately, racial minority undergraduates are considerably less likely than are their White peers to enjoy the educational benefits associated with these experiences.

Correlates of periodontal decline and biologic markers in older adults

BACKGROUND: There is limited information on infectious and host responses distinguishing older people with or without active periodontitis. This study measured bacterial and serum cytokine and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels in older persons. METHODS: Elders (mean age: 67 years), whose periodontal status had declined most or least (20% worst or 20% best) over 5 years, were enrolled. Two years later, they were classified as periodontally declining (active periodontitis [AP]), if they had at least five teeth with probing depth (PD) > or =5 mm, or stable (stable periodontally [SP]), if they did not. Groups were compared with respect to demographics, PD, clinical loss of attachment, subgingival bacteria, serum hsCRP, interleukin (IL)-1beta and -6, and chronic diseases. RESULTS: Ten AP and 24 SP subjects were identified; 13% of women and 44% of men from the original sample were in the AP group (P <0.05). Most Asians were SP; most whites and all African Americans were classified as having AP (P <0.01). More AP elders had osteoporosis (P <0.01), but the AP and SP groups did not differ with respect to IL-1beta and -6 or hsCRP. Bacterial counts were higher in the AP group for Parvimonas micra (previously Peptostreptococcus micros or Micromonas micros) (7.7 x 10(5) cells versus 3.8 x 10(5) cells; P <0.05), Prevotella intermedia (25.7 x 10(5) cells versus 9.8 x 10(5) cells; P <0.01), Tannerella forsythia (previously T. forsythensis) (16.2 x 10(5) cells versus 8.0 x 10(5) cells; P <0.05), and Streptococcus mutans (6.2 x 10(5) cells versus 2.0 x 10(5) cells; P <0.01). Three risk factors were most predictive of periodontal decline: PD, osteoporosis, and being white or African American. CONCLUSION: Periodontal decline was associated with osteoporosis, ethnicity, PD, gender, serum hsCRP, and levels of four bacterial species.

Social and Political Issues and the Finnish Deportees from North America

An important issue in both Canadian and United States immigration history has been the control of immigration, which includes possible quotas, immigration laws as well as denying entry, and finally, the deportation of immigrants. This paper is based on information that is available on the deportations of 167 people, most of them young adult males. Many assume politics was a key motivation for deportation. However, Finnish Americans were rarely deported for political activities. The paper discusses a few interesting cases of political deportations both during the interwar years, and after the Second World War. The information is mostly based on the correspondence between the authorities in Finland and the United States and Canada, available at the Foreign Ministry Archives in Helsinki, Finland. Special attention is directed to the social and political background of those people and of special interest are the specific reasons, social or health problems, which seem to be the basis of most deportation decisions.

Panel Discussion - Finns in the United States

“Book Notes with Four Authors from Finns in the United States: A History of Settlement, Dissent, and Integration” This panel presentation will highlight chapters in the newly released book, Finns in the United States, published by Michigan State University Press. Authors will discuss their contribution to the book, and highlight key aspects of their work. Finns in the United States has been touted as a fresh and up-to-date analysis of Finnish Americans, an insightful volume that lays the groundwork for exploring this unique culture through a historical context, followed by an overview of the overall composition and settlement patterns of these newcomers.

Arctic network builders : the Arctic Coal Company's operations on Spitsbergen and its relationship with the environment

In 1906, two American industrialists, John Munroe Longyear and Frederick Ayer, formed the Arctic Coal Company to make the first large scale attempt at mining in the high-Arctic location of Spitsbergen, north of the Norwegian mainland. In doing so, they encountered numerous obstacles and built an organization that attempted to overcome them. The Americans sold out in 1916 but others followed, eventually culminating in the transformation of a largely underdeveloped landscape into a mining region. This work uses John Law’s network approach of the Actor Network Theory (ANT) framework to explain how the Arctic Coal Company built a mining network in this environmentally difficult region and why they made the choices they did. It does so by identifying and analyzing the problems the company encountered and the strategies they used to overcome them by focusing on three major components of the operations; the company’s four land claims, its technical system and its main settlement, Longyear City. Extensive comparison between aspects of Longyear City and the company’s choices of technology with other American examples place analysis of the company in a wider context and helps isolate unique aspects of mining in the high-Arctic. American examples dominate comparative sections because Americans dominated the ownership and upper management of the company.

Effects of fixed night shift work on 24 hour blood pressure regulation, state anxiety levels and total sleep time

Nearly 22 million Americans operate as shift workers, and shift work has been linked to the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study is aimed at identifying pivotal risk factors of CVD by assessing 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure, state anxiety levels and sleep patterns in 12 hour fixed shift workers. We hypothesized that night shift work would negatively affect blood pressure regulation, anxiety levels and sleep patterns. A total of 28 subjects (ages 22-60) were divided into two groups: 12 hour fixed night shift workers (n=15) and 12 hour fixed day shift workers (n=13). 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure measurements (Space Labs 90207) were taken twice: once during a regular work day and once on a non-work day. State anxiety levels were assessed on both test days using the Speilberger’s State Trait Anxiety Inventory. Total sleep time (TST) was determined using self recorded sleep diary. Night shift workers demonstrated increases in 24 hour systolic (122 ± 2 to 126 ± 2 mmHg, P=0.012); diastolic (75 ± 1 to 79 ± 2 mmHg, P=0.001); and mean arterial pressures (90 ± 2 to 94 ± 2mmHg, P<0.001) during work days compared to off days. In contrast, 24 hour blood pressures were similar during work and off days in day shift workers. Night shift workers reported less TST on work days versus off days (345 ± 16 vs. 552 ± 30 min; P<0.001), whereas day shift workers reported similar TST during work and off days (475 ± 16 minutes to 437 ± 20 minutes; P=0.231). State anxiety scores did not differ between the groups or testing days (time*group interaction P=0.248), suggesting increased 24 hour blood pressure during night shift work is related to decreased TST, not short term anxiety. Our findings suggest that fixed night shift work causes disruption of the normal sleep-wake cycle negatively affecting acute blood pressure regulation, which may increase the long-term risk for CVD.

Reclaiming Indigenous Narratives through Critical Discourses and the Autonomy of the Trickster

How do prevailing narratives about Native Americans, particularly in the medium of film, conspire to promote the perspective of the dominant culture? What makes the appropriation of Indigenous images so metaphorically popular? In the past hundred years, little has changed in the forms of representation favored by Hollywood. The introductory chapter elucidates the problem and outlines the scope of this study. As each subsequent chapter makes clear, the problem is as relevant today as it has been throughout the entire course of filmic history. Chapter Two analyzes representational trends and defines each decade according to its favorite stereotype. The binary of the bloodthirsty savage is just as prevalent as it was during the 1920s and 30s. The same holds true for the drunken scapegoat and the exotic maiden, which made their cinematic debuts in the 1940s and 50s. But Hollywood has added new types as well. The visionary peacemaker and environmental activist have also made an appearance within the last forty years. What matters most is not the realism of these images, but rather the purposes to which they can be put toward validating whatever concerns the majority filmmakers wish to promote. Whether naïvely or not, such representations continue to evacuate Indigenous agency to the advantage of the majority. A brief historical overview confirms this legacy. Various disciplines have sought to interrogate this problem. Chapter three investigates the field of postcolonial studies, which makes inquiry into the various ways these narratives are produced, marketed, and consumed. It also raises the key questions of for whom, and by whom, these narratives are constructed. Additional consideration is given to their value as commodities in the mass marketplace. Typically the products of a boutique-multiculturalism, their storylines are apt to promote the prevailing point of view. Critical theory provides a foundational framework for chapter four. What is the blockbuster formula and how do the instruments of capital promote it? Concepts such as culture industry and repressive tolerance examine both the function and form of the master narrative, as well as its use to control the avenues of dissent. Moreover, the public sphere and its diminishment highlight the challenges inherent in the widespread promotion of an alternative set of narratives. Nonetheless, challenges to prevailing narratives do exist, particularly in the form of Trickster narratives. Often subject to persistent misrecognition, the Trickster demonstrates a potent form of agency that undeniably dismantles the hegemony of Western cinema. The final chapter examines some of the Trickster's more subtle and obscure productions. Usually subjugated to the realm of the mystical, rather than the mythical, these misinterpreted forms have the power to speak in circles around a majority audience. Intended for an Other audience, they are coded in a language that delivers a type of direction through indirection, promoting a poignant agency all their own.

Governor Tom Judge: Early Years - The Path to Becoming Montana's 18th Governor -- Sidney Armstrong, Larry Pettit & Kent Kleinkopf “In the Crucible of Change”

The dramatic period of progressive change in Montana that is documented "In the Crucible of Change" series really exploded with the election of Governors Forrest Anderson and Tom Judge. Anderson's single term saw the dispatching of the sales tax as an issue for a long period, the reorganization of the executive branch of state government and the revision of Montana's Constitution. As a former legislator, county attorney, Supreme Court justice, and Attorney General, Anderson brought unmatched experience to the governorship when elected. Tom Judge, although much younger (elected MT’s youngest governor at age 38 immediately following Anderson), also brought serious experience to the governorship: six years as a MT State Representative, two years as a MT State Senator, four years is Lieutenant Governor and significant business experience. The campaign and election of John F. Kennedy in 1960 spurred other young Americans to service, including Tom Judge. First elected in 1960, he rose rapidly through MT’s political-governmental hierarchy until he took over the governorship in time to implement many of the changes started in Governor Anderson’s term. But as a strong progressive leader in his own right, Governor Judge sponsored and implemented significant advancements of his own for Montana. Those accomplishments, however, are the subject of other films in this series. This film deals with Tom Judge’s early years – his rise to the governorship from when he returned home after college at Notre Dame and newspaper experience in Kentucky to his actual election in November 1972. That story is discussed in this episode by three major players in the effort, all directly involved in Tom Judge’s early years and path to the governorship: Sidney Armstrong, Larry Pettit and Kent Kleinkopf. Their recollections of the early Tom Judge and the period of his advancement to the governorship provide an insider’s perspective of the growth of this significant leader of the important period of progressive change documented “In the Crucible of Change.” Sidney Armstrong, President of Sidney Armstrong Consulting, serves on the board and as the Executive Director of the Greater Montana Foundation. Formerly Executive Director of the Montana Community Foundation (MCF), she has served on national committees and participated in national foundation initiatives. While at MCF, she worked extensively with MT Governors Racicot and Martz on the state charitable endowment tax credit and other endowed philanthropy issues. A member of MT Governor Thomas L. Judge’s staff in the 1970s, she was also part of Governor Brian Schweitzer’s 2004 Transition Team, continuing to serve as a volunteer advisor during his term. In the 1980s, Sidney also worked for the MT State AFL-CIO and the MT Democratic Party as well as working two sessions with the MT Senate as Assistant Secretary of the Senate and aide to the President. A Helena native, and great granddaughter of pioneer Montanans, Sidney has served on numerous nonprofit boards, and is currently a board member for the Montana History Foundation. Recently she served on the board of the Holter Museum of Art and was a Governor’s appointee to the Humanities Montana board. She is a graduate of the International School of Geneva, Switzerland and the University of Montana. Armstrong's Irish maternal immigrant great-grandparents, Thomas and Maria Cahill Cooney, came to Virginia City, MT in a covered wagon in 1865, looking for gold. Eventually, they settled on the banks of the Missouri River outside Helena as ranchers. She also has roots in Butte, MT, where her journalist father's family, both of whom were newspaper people, lived. Her father, Richard K. O’Malley, is also the author of a well-known book about Butte, Mile High, Mile Deep, recently re-published by Russell Chatham. She is the mother of four and the grandmother of eight. Dr. Lawrence K. Pettit (Larry Pettit) (b. 5/2/1937) has had a dual career in politics and higher education. In addition to being Montana’s first Commissioner of Higher Education (the subject of another film in this series); Pettit, of Lewistown, served as legislative assistant to U.S. Senators James E. Murray and Lee Metcalf, campaign manager, head of transition team and assistant to Montana Governor Thomas L. Judge; taught political science at The Pennsylvania State University (main campus), was chair of political science at Montana State University, Deputy Commissioner for Academic Programs at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Chancellor of the University System of South Texas (since merged with Texas A&M University), President of Southern Illinois University, and President of Indiana University of Pennsylvania from where he retired in 2003. He has served as chair of the Commission on Leadership for the American Council on Education, president of the National Association of (University) System Heads, and on many national and state boards and commissions in higher education. Pettit is author of “If You Live by the Sword: Politics in the Making and Unmaking of a University President.” More about Pettit is found at http://www.lawrencekpettit.com… Kent Kleinkopf of Missoula is co-founder of a firm with a national scope of business that specializes in litigation consultation, expert vocational testimony, and employee assistance programs. His partner (and wife of 45 years) Kathy, is an expert witness in the 27 year old business. Kent received a BA in History/Education from the University of Idaho and an MA in Economics from the University of Utah. The Kleinkopfs moved to Helena, MT in 1971 where he was Assistant to the Commissioner of State Lands (later Governor) Ted Schwinden. In early 1972 Kent volunteered full time in Lt. Governor Tom Judge’s campaign for Governor, driving the Lt. Governor extensively throughout Montana. After Judge was elected governor, Kent briefly joined the staff of Governor Forrest Anderson, then in 1973 transitioned to Judge’s Governor’s Office staff, where he became Montana’s first “Citizens’ Advocate.” In that capacity he fielded requests for assistance from citizens with concerns and information regarding State Agencies. While on the Governor’s staff, Kent continued as a travel aide with the governor both in Montana and nationally. In 1977 Kent was appointed Director of the MT Department of Business Regulation. That role included responsibility as Superintendent of Banking and Chairman of the State Banking Board, where Kent presided over the chartering of many banks, savings and loans, and credit unions. In 1981 the Kleinkopfs moved to Missoula and went into the business they run today. Kent was appointed by Governor Brian Schweitzer to the Board of the Montana Historical Society in 2006, was reappointed and continues to serve. Kathy and Kent have a daughter and son-in-law in Missoula.

Association of PPARG2 Pro12Ala variant with larger body mass index in Mestizo and Amerindian populations of Mexico.

Previous studies have sought to associate the Pro12Ala variant of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma2 (PPARG2) gene with type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, and obesity, with controversial results. We have determined the Pro12Ala variant frequency in 370 nondiabetic Mexican Mestizo subjects and in five Mexican Amerindian groups and have investigated its possible association with lipid metabolism, insulin serum levels, and obesity in three of these populations. Two independent case-control studies were conducted in 239 nondiabetic individuals: 135 case subjects (BMI > or = 25 kg/m2) and 104 control subjects (BMI < 25 kg/m2). The PPARG2 Ala12 allele frequency was higher in most Amerindian populations (0.17 in Yaquis, 0.16 in Mazahuas, 0.16 in Mayans, and 0.20 in Triquis) than in Asians, African Americans, and Caucasians. The Pro12Ala and Ala12Ala (X12Ala) genotypes were significantly associated with greater BMI in Mexican Mestizos and in two Amerindian groups. X12Ala individuals had a higher risk of overweight or obesity than noncarriers in Mestizos (OR = 3.67; 95% CI, 1.42-9.48; p = 0.007) and in Yaquis plus Mazahuas (OR = 3.21; 95% CI, 1.27-8.11; p = 0.013). Our results provide further support of the association between the PPARG2 Ala12 allele and risk of overweight or obesity in Mestizos and two Amerindian populations from Mexico.