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This paper attempts to clarify the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between socioeconomic status and health outcomes. Former studies of this relationship have largely focused on the materialist predictors of health outcomes, examining variables such as income, access to healthcare, or quality of housing. The current study, by contrast, looks at individuals' behaviors and attitudes, particularly in relation to physicians, and their impact on the quality of care patients receive. Using data from a sample of 64 hemodialysis patients in a middle-class suburb of Long Island, I examined the effect of comfort and ease with doctors and willingness to engage them on patient compliance. The findings suggest that patients who are more comfortable asking their doctors how they feel, and those that push for more information in general, tend to be more compliant, and therefore enjoy better and more successful patient outcomes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the underlying factors that have impacted lay-expert collaboration in the Breast Cancer and Environment Research Centers (BCERCs). The NIEHS and NCI initiated these projects in the wake of controversy regarding the role of lay women in the Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project. This study finds that effective community-based participatory practice has only been partially achieved, and that there are gaps in its implementation. I collected quantitative data in the form of a survey and qualitative data including interviews, ethnographic observations and documents. Findings show that although participatory mechanisms have been a focus of these Centers, and sometimes even meet community-based participatory principles, underlying differences between lay people and experts have gone unaddressed. The findings suggests that issues of trust, respect and frustration among lay and expert participants are actually symptoms of other issues that can be improved upon to reduce these problems. In the case of the BCERCs, lack of understanding of and training in CBPR as an alternative inquiry paradigm and divergent prior assumptions about and desired outcomes regarding environmental causes of breast cancer created challenges to effective CBPR. These issues were not consistent across BCERCs, rather, differences between BCERCs and even among advocates and scientists within individual BCERCs highlighted these problems while demonstrating the potential for overcoming them. These differences may result in new controversies once the research is completed and findings are released and need to be addressed before the Centers are refunded or similar projects are established. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on empirical evidence consisting of interviews conducted with key leaders of non-profit, advocacy groups, members and leaders of local civic associations, and local business leaders and politicians in order to answer the question about the way in which their civic participation activities connect and interrelate. In view of the long-term trend towards professionalization of civic activism as evidenced by the emergence of numerous "non-profit" advocacy groups which employ professionally trained staff, how do citizen civic associations fit into the picture of local civic activism that focuses on the achievement of community development goals that overlap with the goals advocated by non-profit organizations? Based on new empirical data, I explore the methods that both the leaders of advocacy groups and the leaders of citizen civic associations use in order to communicate their civic goals to each other and in order to achieve these goals through various forms of civic participation. I focus in particular on examples of civic participation and coalition-building on Long Island, New York ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the presentations and discussions of the Beam-Beam’03 workshop, held in Montauk, Long Island, from May 19 to 23, 2003. Presentations and discussions focused on halo generation from beam-beam interactions; beam-beam limits, especially coherent limits and their effects on existing and future hadron colliders; beam-beam compensation techniques, particularly for long-range interactions; and beam-beam study tools in theory, simulation, and experiment. © 2003 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Use of public spaces for day labor markets has generated controversy in municipalities across the United States. Local officials have two main policy options in responding to these marketsâ?”repression or management. We theorize that, when compared to repression, managing day labor markets by creating official hiring sites more effectively challenges the discursive stigmatization of minorities, creates a structural basis for cooperation by balancing inter-group power, and reduces uncertainty by building cooperation and trust. We further assert that these ameliorative effects reduce human rights abuses against immigrant workers and promote harmonious community relations. Findings from multivariate regressions analyses using data from a survey of 145 day laborers participating in eight major day labor markets on Long Island support our assertions. Instances of repression were significantly related to a wide range of human rights abuses as well as poor and worsening community relations. In contrast, workers surveyed at official hiring sites were significantly less likely to report several specific types of abuses and more likely to report good relations with strangers and improving relations with contractors. The conclusion underscores how important inclusive, empowering negotiations and accessible locations are in order for official hiring sites to have a positive impact. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between race, income level and social capital among families in four elementary schools of a racially and socioeconomically diverse suburban school district located on Long Island in the state of New York. This comparative analysis uses the results from a validated social capital survey (McDonald & Moberg, 2002) collected from 1,089 elementary school district families to identify levels of parent-school, parent-parent, parent-child and total social capital among families. Dimensions of social capital were compared to family racial category and income levels using correlational analysis and one-way analysis of variance. White families had significantly greater levels of all dimensions of social capital. Hispanic/Latino families had significantly lower levels of all dimensions of social capital than did all other racial categories. Families in the top three income brackets had significantly greater levels of all dimensions of social capital except parent-school social captial than those families in the bottom two brackets. Finally, there were no statistically significant differences in levels of social capital between those families who indicated participation in the FAST program (designed to foster the social capital of participating families) and those who did not participate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]