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Introduction: Action 3 of the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing plan is to deliver integrated care to improve older adults' lives. Integrated care is vital in meeting the complex needs of people with dementia but little is known about how this is or could be delivered in low and middle income countries (LMIC). This paper provides insights into previously unknown care system structures and on the potential and reality of delivering integrated care in Central America for people with dementia. Methods: A social network analysis (SNA) methodology was adopted to engage with providers of services for older adults and families with dementia in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama. Sixty-eight (68) semi-structured interviews were completed, 57 with organisations and 11 with families. Results: Across the five countries there was evidence of fragmentation and low integration within the dementia care systems. A variety of services and types of providers are present in all five countries, and high levels of diversified connections exist among organisations of differing disciplines. However, unawareness among network members about other members that they could potentially form active links with is a barrier on the path to integration. Conclusion: This innovative and robust study demonstrates SNA can be applied to evaluate LMIC care systems. Findings provide baselines of system structures and insights into where resources are needed to fortify integration strategies. Results suggest that Central American countries have the building blocks in place to develop integrated care systems to meet the needs of people with dementia, but the links across service providers are opportunistic rather than context based coordinated integration policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inclusion of data analytics in the accounting curriculum is an important task that has been recommended by professional and academic accounting bodies as well as accrediting agencies. This research paper is part of a survey which investigated how data analytics is being included in the accounting curriculum. This paper is an exploratory survey of the applications and software instructors are using in various accounting courses. The survey was sent by email to approximately 4,800 accounting instructors in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a life‐course measure of the legal pattern that accounts for the overall legal pattern over the lifetime of migration and explores the two main pathways to labour market outcomes: selecting into legal patterns associated with different levels of labour market outcomes and realising different labour market outcomes within each pattern. Results suggest that labour market outcomes depend on which legal patterns migrants end up with instead of what they realise within each pattern. Particularly, migrants with more human capital and better social capital select into legal patterns associated with better labour market outcomes, but they do not realise better labour market outcomes given the legal patterns they experienced. From the dynamic perspective, the economic integration of migrants depends on legal patterns. Migrants in legal patterns that initiate with temporary resident status experience economic integration over time. The growth rate is larger for the patterns that involve a transition in legal status. This paper makes important contributions to the literature. First, it identifies holistic legal patterns that account for the legal status over migrants' entire migration history. Second, it sheds light on the selection into different legal patterns and highlights selection as the major process in explaining migrants' labour market outcomes. Third, it shows how legal patterns, jointly shaped by initial legal status and legal transition, determine migrants' economic integration. Finally, the inclusion of temporary resident status, beyond the illegal–legal dichotomy, enriches our understanding of how liminal legality over the lifetime of migration shapes labour market outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inclusion of data analytics in the accounting curriculum is an important task that has been recommended by professional and academic accounting bodies as well as accrediting agencies. This research paper documents the results of a survey which investigated the extent to which data analytics is being included in various courses in the accounting curriculum and how universities are meeting the challenges of accomplishing this task. The survey was sent by email on October 20, 2019 to approximately 4,800 accounting instructors in the United States. The findings of the study indicated that most universities in the sample were including data analytics in their accounting curricula, and that AACSB accreditation seemed to influence the inclusion of data analytics. However, we found that some accounting programs were not including data analytics in their curriculum. The study indicated that AACSB-accredited schools were more likely to offer incentives to faculty to become knowledgeable about data analytics than other schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper introduces this special issue of JEMS on the role of the local context in immigrant and second-generation integration in the United States. Recent literature has argued that national contexts are important for understanding the integration of immigrants and their descendents. The articles in this issue make the case that local contexts, broadly defined at any sub-national scale, are also important for understanding integration within the US; they suggest that it is incorrect to think of a singular and spatially undifferentiated integration process for US immigrants. In addition to previewing the contents of the articles in this issue, our paper includes a review of the meaning of generations and integration and a general discussion of the roles of local contexts in mediating processes of integration. This discussion raises questions about the appropriate spatial scale for the analysis of integration and for comparisons of the integration experience across contexts. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research on local contexts of integration within the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health care provision in the US can be characterized by its ongoing consolidation of systems and facilities in its efforts to achieve clinical and business integration. An important goal in health care systems is integration to reduce fragmentation and gain value. Functional integration has a long history of association with clinical performance. Supply chain can dramatically support the goals of cost avoidance, improved clinical outcomes, and buffer the system from external dependencies. This paper examines the efforts by the Department of Defense to consolidate the medical supply chain and explores lessons for and from the civilian health sector supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culture can broadly be defined as "the values, norms, and assumptions that guide human action" (Wilson 2008, 14). In contrast with the broader civilian society, the experiences and environments within the military community create a unique cultural subset. The United States armed forces are unified by their primary mission to provide external defense, security, and protection, and each branch (Army, Navy, Marine Corp, Air Force, Coast Guard and National Guard) shares a unique core set of values and norms. Because this culture is so complex and unique, it can sometimes be a challenge for many civilian professionals to work with this community, so having a strong competency in understanding military culture, as well as knowledge of specific conflicts and wars, one is not only able to begin to understand the lives and personalities of our soldiers but also able to recognize that this culture aids in survival. This paper will demonstrate and discuss the importance of competency in military culture when practicing music therapy or other interdisciplinary approaches within the process of group therapy with veterans. Other topics covered will include: issues of social transmission as it relates to transitioning into civilian society; the importance of being a witness to veterans' stories; and facilitators' ethical responsibilities when working with this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does the ability of some brain dead bodies to maintain homeostasis with the help of artificial life support actually imply that those bodies are living human organisms? Or might it be possible that a brain dead body on life support is a mere collection of still-living cells, organs and tissues which can coordinate with one another, but which lack the genuine integration that is the hallmark of a unified human organism as a whole? To foster further study of these difficult and timely questions, a Symposium on the Definition of Death was held at The Catholic University of America in June 2014. The Symposium brought together scholars from a variety of disciplines-law, medicine, biology, philosophy and theology-who all share a commitment to the dead donor rule and to a biological definition of death, but who have differing opinions regarding the validity of neurological criteria for human death. The papers found in this special issue are among the fruits of this Symposium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results from a qualitative analysis study conducted on the integration of structure in a building. If integration is to become more of a priority, what does this mean to structural engineers, and how do they add value? Eighty-five total participants--38 architects, 46 structural engineers, and one practicing as both--were interviewed in four major U.S. cities to record their experiences. The practitioners identified structural integration as being multifaceted, and the scope of structural integration is bigger and broader than what has been presented previously. Due to the need to understand the perspectives for each of the fields individually and the large number of responses, the analysis presented here encapsulates the responses from only the structural engineering professionals. Engineering practitioners incorporate aspects of time, professional relationships, and a collaborative environment with structural integration. Integration also includes working toward goals such as technical innovation, constructability, architectural design, combining structures with other systems, and ensuring that the owner's needs are met. Both the process and the aims lead to the physical articulation of the structure through its expression, detailing, and construction. A proposed framework for structural integration has been constructed from the responses to expand the current definition. With the changing practice environment, structural engineers need to consider what integrated design means to their profession, and this paper is intended to aid this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine national survey data of police agencies in the USA to explore the current state of crime analysis integration to patrol crime reduction work. Design/methodology/approach – The data examined in this paper are from a national quantitative survey which sought to understand how crime analysis results are used by officers as well as higher ranking personnel in the patrol division and what types of strategies are implemented using crime analysis. Findings – The findings show that the routine use of crime analysis is not well integrated. Despite the low integration, however, some differences were found. Management uses crime analysis the most overall, but officers and first-line supervisors use tactical crime analysis more routinely than management, where management personnel use evaluation most routinely. Tactical crime analysis is used most often for directed patrol, strategic for both directed patrol and general information, and evaluation for both general information and crime prevention. Analysis of using analysis proactively shows that agencies use tactical crime analysis most proactively, followed by the strategic crime analysis, then evaluation. Research limitations/implications – The study relies on self-report surveys, so the results may suffer from some of the general limitations of self-reports. Also, the study resulted in a lower response rate than surveys of police agencies typically achieve. Although responding and non-responding agencies were comparable in terms of population size, number of officers, and region of the country, the response rate was about 55 percent. However, it is a possibility based on the analysis results that non-responses may reflect a disinterest in the topic or the lack of integration of crime analysis. Originality/value – This is the first national survey that focussed specifically on crime analysis integration in patrol work for crime reduction. The value of the results presented here are in the description of the current state of crime analysis integration in the USA which has not been investigated in such depth before and the identifications of gaps in both research in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the case of immigrant day laborers to examine how municipalities develop policies to integrate immigrants. In the 1990s and 2000s, local elected officials adopted integration policies to address the issues raised by the presence of day laborers in their jurisdictions. While first drawing on cases from around the country, the study then homes in on the case of Pasadena, California, to examine the implementation of integration in a moderately liberal city. The results reveal that many officials embraced both disciplinary and punitive tactics, making use of worker centers, aggressive ticketing, and solicitation bans for the purposes of controlling and governing an illegalized population. Some policies institutionalized the subordination of the population and heightened its deportability. The paper complicates the presumed binary between restrictive and integrative policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immediately following the attacks of 9/11 in New York, mainstream media outlets echoed the notion of Muslims as strangers who are unable to assimilate into American culture. The purported difficulty in the assimilation of Muslims in America was linked with their religious affiliation, an indelible marker of their ideology, and one that supersedes any national identity. Given the paucity of research on the assimilation of Muslims in America, this paper sought to explore if-and-how this group is assimilating into American culture. Utilizing a mixed-method design, we conducted focus groups, followed by a multi-state survey. Using segmented assimilation theory, we found evidence that Muslims with higher educational attainment and household incomes are well-assimilated. We also found that respondents who identify themselves strongly as Muslim are less likely to assimilate, preferring instead to maintain close in-group ties. We discuss the implications of these findings in greater detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual-energy CT (DECT) has been available for clinical use in the United States for close to 15 years. Although multiple applications in all areas of the body have been described that are only possible with DECT, the adoption into clinical practice has been slow. This paper will attempt to address many of the impediments the author has encountered from his discussions with radiologists across the country. A hopeful outcome would result in more practices adopting more DECT into their CT practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roman Catholic Studies has had little interest in or sources on Catholics marginalized by region or age or both. Challenging this assumed wisdom calls for a new orientation to the study of Catholicism, an orientation found in Anthropology. In this paper, I question why scholars have failed to ask questions about how age—different stations in life and varying generational contexts, across space, time and within one historical moment—shapes Roman Catholic practice on the individual as well as communal level? To attempt to answer this question, I use examples from my work; two ethnographic studies with Southern Catholics of all ages to explore how an interdisciplinary, anthropological approach provides scholars with a new set of questions, draws their attention to new arenas of religious action, and broadens the cast of characters who play key roles in religious communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to examine the effects of trading partner trust and trading partner power, on supply chain integration, and their impact on business performance in the context of Web-enabled supply chains. In doing so, the authors extend previous studies by exploring this phenomenon by using an integrative theory-driven approach. Design/methodology/approach: This study presents a theoretical model grounded on the resource-based and dynamic capabilities views and the social capital theory. Data collected from 175 firms in the USA are used to test the hypotheses using structural equation modeling. Findings: Results highlight the importance of trust and supply chain integration on business performance, whereas power did not appear to have an effect on supply chain integration in Web-enabled supply chains. The findings are robust to concerns of endogeneity, common method bias and alternative model specification. Practical implications: Companies engaged in Web-enabled supply chains need to focus on increasing their integration efforts, and these efforts must also be accompanied by partnerships built on trust. Trading partners who might be inclined to use coercive strategies to influence other members of the supply chain in Web-enabled environments may be better off using cooperative approaches based on trust to achieve their desired goals. Originality/value: This study integrates the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities view and the social capital theory to explore the dynamic relationships between trading partner trust, trading partner power and supply chain integration in Web-enabled supply chains. In doing so, this paper extends prior studies by examining supply chain integration's impact on business performance and its mediating role, as it relates to trading partner trust and power in Web-enabled supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents the speed of evolution (or lack thereof) of a range of values and beliefs of different generations of US immigrants, and interprets the evidence in the light of a model of socialization and identity choice. Convergence to the norm differs greatly across cultural attitudes. Moreover, results obtained studying higher generation immigrants differ from those found when the analysis is limited to the second generation and imply a lower degree of persistence than previously thought. Persistence is also country specific, in the sense that the country of origin of one's ancestors matters for the pattern of generational convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the extent of regional integration (or, conversely, segmentation) in US home values. In contrast to some previous studies, we examine the degree of integration in the US with a data set which runs into 2012 and thus captures the latest period of bubble and bust, and employing a recently developed set of tools which yield estimates which are 1) time-varying, and 2) account for differences not just in correlation but also in amplitude between different housing markets. Our results indicate that contrary to some previous findings, overall integration in the US was falling, not rising over the early years of the bubble (2001-05). This lends some credence to the 'lots of local bubbles' conjecture of Greenspan that the early stages of the bubble reflected froth in some individual markets, rather than a large underlying national bubble. However, the late stages of the bubble exhibit a very sharp rise in integration, so the later bubble and subsequent bust likely reflected national (or global) factors. Finally we find substantial variation across regions in terms of how integrated they tend to be. This comports with previous findings on the low level of integration of regional income in the US, and the ability of home values to maintain substantial segmentation makes the use of housing in monetary policy problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this paper is to explicitly test a research hypothesis that there was no integration effect among the U.S. and the eight Central and Eastern European (CEE) stock markets during the 2007-2009 Global Financial Crisis (GFC). As growing international integration could lead to a progressive increase in cross-market correlations, the evaluation of integration was carried out by applying equality tests of correlation matrices computed over non-overlapping subsamples: the pre-crisis and crisis periods, in the group of investigated markets. The crisis periods are formally established based on a statistical method of dividing market states into bullish and bearish markets. The sample period May 2004-April 2014 includes the 2007 U.S. subprime financial crisis. The robustness analysis of the integration tests with respect to various data frequencies is provided. The empirical results are not homogeneous and they depend both on the integration test and data frequency. Consequently, it is not possible to conclude whether integration between the investigated markets is present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the number of refugees in need of resettlement continues to climb worldwide, advocates and policy makers are searching for ways to leverage new support from private individuals, faith groups, and community organizations to complement and extend the capacity of traditional government resettlement programs. The United States is one of many countries considering the possibility of a "private sponsorship" model, which would allow private individuals and community groups to resettle refugees independent of traditional government resettlement agencies. While this particular resettlement model has not been implemented in the United States in more than four decades, the country has a long history of community involvement in refugee resettlement. Many resettlement agencies operate vibrant community sponsorship (or co-sponsorship) programs, in which community groups partner with resettlement agencies in delivering services and material support to refugees. However, due to a lack of publicly available data, the impact of this co-sponsorship model has been woefully understudied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of research in integrated environmental and natural resource management relies on the participation and involvement of different disciplines and stakeholders. This can be difficult to achieve in practice because many initiatives fail to address the underlying social processes required for successful engagement and social learning. We used an action research approach to support a research-based group with a range of disciplinary and stakeholder expertise to critically reflect on their engagement practice and identify lessons around how to collaborate more effectively. This approach is provided here as a guide that can be used to support reflective research practice for engagement in other integration-based initiatives. This paper is set in the context of an integrated wildlife management research case study in New Zealand. We illustrate how multi-, inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches can provide a framework for considering the different conversations that need to occur in an integrated research program. We then outline rubrics that list the criteria required in inter- and trans-disciplinary collaborations, along with examples of effective engagement processes that directly support integration through such efforts. Finally, we discuss the implications of these experiences for other researchers and managers seeking to improve engagement and collaboration in integrated science, management and policy initiatives. Our experiences reaffirm the need for those involved in integrative initiatives to attend to the processes of engagement in both formal and informal settings, to provide opportunities for critical reflective practice, and to look for measures of success that acknowledge the importance of effective social process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the USA today the academic field of economic history is much closer to economics than it is to history in terms of professional behavior, a stylized fact that I call the “integration of economic history into economics.” I document this using two types of evidence—use of econometric language in articles appearing in academic journals of economic history and economics; and publication histories of successive cohorts of Ph.D.s in the first decade since receiving the doctorate. Over time, economic history became more like economics in its use of econometrics and in the likelihood of scholars publishing in economics, as opposed to, say, economic history journals. But the pace of change was slower in economic history than in labor economics, another subfield of economics that underwent profound intellectual change in the 1950s and 1960s, and there was also a structural break evident for post-2000 Ph.D. cohorts. To account for these features of the data, I sketch a simple, overlapping generations model of the academic labor market in which junior scholars have to convince senior scholars of the merits of their work in order to gain tenure. I argue that the early cliometricians—most notably, Robert Fogel and Douglass North—conceived of a scholarly identity for economic history that kept the field distinct from economics proper in various ways, until after 2000 when their influence had waned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Donald Trump began his campaign for the US Presidency by emphasizing the supposed dangers of immigration, a theme that he then rode to victory in November 2016 won the 2016 US Presidential election. This paper asks whether the sociology of migration can illuminate the sources of Trump’s success and after quickly reviewing the key contributions concludes not. Insight, rather, is to be found by understanding the ways in which population movements across state boundaries are a source of both international integration and national dis-integration, producing conflicts over the number, characteristics, and rights of immigrants from which liberal societies can find no escape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the first decade of this century, public monuments to the memory of "comfort women" - women and girls forced into sexual service from the 1930s through 1945, by the Japanese Imperial Army - have been established in the United States by the Korean diaspora. This paper analyses recent memorials in the suburbs of New York that have experienced rapid immigration from Korea since the 1990s. The memorials met local resistance due to perceptions of unrelatedness to the American land. Such immigrant initiatives, however, have been supported by municipal governance. The project of inscribing a passage from East Asian history in the American context may be considered symptomatic of wider cognitive and social shifts in immigrant adaptation. Assimilation through the inclusion of immigrant heritage, along with an increasing sense of entitlement in being both "ethnic" and "American", have been integral to this contest regarding collective memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health care organizations increasingly employ community health workers (CHWs) to help address growing provider shortages, improve patient outcomes, and increase access to culturally sensitive care among traditionally inaccessible or disenfranchised patient populations. Scholarly interest in CHWs has grown in recent decades, but researchers tend to focus on how CHWs affect patient outcomes rather than whether and how CHWs fit into the existing health care workforce. This paper focuses on the factors that facilitate and impede the integration of the CHWs into health care organizations, and strategies that organizations and their staff develop to overcome barriers to CHW integration. We use qualitative evaluation data from 13 awardees that received Health Care Innovation Awards from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to enhance the quality of health care, improve health outcomes, and reduce the cost of care using programs involving CHWs. We find that organizational capacity, support for CHWs, clarity about health care roles, and clinical workflow drive CHW integration. We conclude with practical recommendations for health care organizations interested in employing CHWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the tensions between external accountability obligations, educator's professional values, and student needs. Strategic, cognitive, and moral dimensions of this tension are captured with the central category of integrity. Design/methodology/approach – This is a mixed methods study that compares five exceptionally high performing middle schools with four exceptionally low performing middle schools in the state of California (USA), controlling for demographics, school context factors, and below average performance range. Findings – It is found that schools under similar circumstances differ on the degree of integrity. Schools with high integrity have a good balance between values and reality, are more cohesive and more open to dissent. In each case, integrity was associated with an expansion of agency that combined moral earnestness with prudent strategizing and actively constructing interpretive frames that maintained a school's sense of self-worth. Integrity develops or survives with a good dose of educational leaders' personal strength, but also depends on leaders' insistence to fully exhaust the moral horizon of an institution which obligates educators to balance equity, system efficiency, child-centeredness and professionalism with prudence. Research limitations/implications – This is a case study of nine schools in one state. Explanatory relationships can be explored, but not generalized. Practical implications – The research has implications for leadership. It demonstrates the power of integrity as a key virtue of leadership under accountability pressures. It shows the different ways integrity can be forged in schools and the different ways it can be missed with consequences for school life. Social implications – The paper stresses the point that it is quite conceivable that ideological zeal, Machiavellian strategizing, or eager system conformism may produce more forceful agency than integrity. But as everyday responses they are not as realistic, ethical or productive as the striving for integrity. Originality/value – The practitioner literature often points to integrity as a desirable quality when dealing with tensions of the sort addressed in this paper, but little systematic theoretical thinking and empirical exploration of this concept exists. The paper makes an advance in both areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In French-speaking countries, the word 'inclusion' is sometimes used instead of the usual term 'integration' to refer to the schooling of pupils with special needs in ordinary schools. This paper proposes an analysis to throw light on the reasons for the emergence of a new term and the advantages of adopting it to denote educational principles in favour of pupils with special educational needs. A description of the situation in the USA will give a better understanding of what inclusive education is, and what benefit there is in distinguishing it from integrative education (and even from inclusive practices). In particular, it will be argued that in using the expression 'inclusive education', we can describe not more developed integration but differentiating practices. These differentiating practices allow children and adolescents, whatever their difficulties or disabilities, to find in an ordinary school an educational response, appropriate in its aims and means, in ways that do not differentiate between them and the other pupils of the school. With this approach, it is not the child who is included but the school and the teaching which are inclusive. The special needs are therefore no longer those of the child, but those of the school, and thus go beyond the limits of integration. The paper concludes by a presentation of the expected developments in the school which may make it, not an integrating school but an inclusive one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Better integration of project processes has often been identified as the key issue regarding construction performance improvement. In some countries lean construction has become well-established, although there appears to be considerable diversity in the interpretation of the concept. Lean construction initially focused on production aspects, but gradually design issues have started to receive more attention and integrating construction design and production processes from a lean perspective are beginning to be addressed. The purpose of this paper is to identify some of the practical challenges underlying the implementation of approaches promoted as "lean" and compare this with published research/theory. Design/methodology/approach - Following an extensive review of the literature, a multiple case-strategy approach was used to explore the practical application of lean approaches to design and construction integration in an organisational setting. Summaries of the case studies, one from the USA and two from Denmark, help to highlight a number of pertinent issues facing practitioners and researchers. Findings - Findings suggest that it is possible to identify a number of aspects that (in theory as well as in practice) both influence and, to various extents, limit the applicability of the lean philosophy to construction. Findings also help to emphasise the importance of a number of interdependent factors for achieving better integration, namely: value identification/specification; an appropriate project delivery framework; structuring and planning of delivery processes; transparency; management and leadership; learning; and the importance of local context. Originality/value - The findings provide an original contribution to the integration of design and construction activities from a lean perspective. The findings are generic and could be practically applied in a variety of contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines financial integration, interdependence and exogeneity within and between Latin American banking and Eurobanking systems during a period of relative stability after the oil and debt crises of the 1980s. Significant evidence of cointegration in both long- and short-term relationships is reported. Within Latin America, exogeneity lies mainly with the Brazilian system. Within Eurobanking, the U.S. system is the dominant influence. Between Eurobanking and Latin American banking systems, the U.S. system is the major driving force. With continued interdependence of these banking systems, systemic risk lingers, and vigilance is required in banking supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The losses associated with exile often leave refugees with limited resources to face the challenge of adjusting to a new society. To enhance the successful integration of refugees, it is important to assist them in their efforts in rebuilding and extending their support systems. By matching refugees with volunteers, Befriending Programs aim at creating a supportive environment. Based on information provided by twenty-five organizations that offer befriending programs in Australia, Canada, England, and the United States, this paper explores obstacles they face in the recruitment and retention of befrienders as well as their strategies in overcoming challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Health sciences librarianship has historically benefited from avoiding critical conversations around the role of race in the profession, reflected through a select few number of articles on the topic. The purpose of this study was to add to this body of literature and apply a critical librarianship framework on the early scholarly record of health sciences librarianship and the legacy of integration within the Medical Library Association (MLA). Three Southern medical works and the integration views of Mary Louise Marshall, the longest-serving president of MLA from 1941 to 1946, were thematically and textually analyzed to redress the profession's long-standing legacy with Whiteness and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) representation. In reframing the historic past of MLA both through Marshall's works and her views, the goal is to acknowledge ways in which the profession has impeded progress and present steps to remedy appropriate outreach for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I examined the experiences of Chinese international students in higher education and inquire about American domestic students' perspectives on the trend of increasing numbers of Chinese international students in their institutions. In this paper, I also aim to provide suggestions on encouraging multiculturalism and inclusive academic settings within higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper originally delivered as a keynote speech at the Turkish Migration Conference 2015 in Prague, Czech Republic on June 25, 2015. It focuses on civic engagementi political participation and citizenship practices of Asian Indians in Dallas Fort Worth Metropolitan area drawing on qualitative field research material. Community participation is a process. Embedded in this observation is an understanding that as the individual branches out, he or she is becoming involved with associations with great civic and/or political presence, moving from one community of practice to another, and from a peripheral position to one of greater participation to invoke the ideas of Lave and Wenger. But equally, these activities illustrate how new immigrants construct their own sense of belonging as they engage with and interpret what it means to be an American and what kind of an American they want to be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A demographic transition to greater ethno-racial diversity, the product in part of large-scale immigration over decades, will create challenges and opportunities for Western societies in coming decades. In this paper, based on our study of the USA and four Western European countries, we sift evidence from the first decade of the twenty-first century to look for clues about the possible consequences of the transition for the integration of the second generation, specifically, the children of low-status immigrants. We find unmet challenges when it comes to educational attainment and early labour-market position. That is, although on average the second generation advances beyond its parents, in each society it lags well behind its agemates from the native majority. Yet we also find, using data from the USA, that segments of the second generation are experiencing social mobility into the upper tiers of the occupational hierarchy and socially integrating with members of the majority group, arguably expanding the societal mainstream. This paradoxical picture, we argue, captures crucial dynamics that will affect the near future in the wealthy West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are frequently an immigrant's primary contact for support and service provision following deportation. We used semi-structured interviews and survey data collected in 2016 from the directors of 15 migrant-serving ONG in Tijuana, Mexico, to study how these Organizations support deportees. Building on the interdisciplinary nonprofit literature, we apply theories related to public values to frame our analysis. Our results suggest that NGOs in Tijuana contribute to public value across six roles while supporting deportees. As a pilot project, this paper provides a foundation for future studies of NGOs and the dynamics of U.S.-Mexico border cities receiving deportees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper formulates a new model of racial integration for African Americans in the United States, based upon a careful consideration of the weaknesses in previous models. Instead of spatial mixing, this model of integration calls for transformed habits of interaction between citizens in public spaces, as well as a redistribution of power, understood as access to resources and opportunities. Integration along these lines would produce mutual transformation rather than compulsory assimilation. However, this model does not necessarily answer the concerns of integration critics who question the capacity of the United States to achieve true racial equality. Hence, the conclusion considers three significant obstacles to the achievement of integration, and acknowledges that unprecedented, radical transformations would be necessary to lay the groundwork for integration. In the end, both integration pessimism and a renewed commitment to integration are reasonable and defensible responses to our still-segregated present. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The focus of this article is on categories of non-state actors: private and public-private companies in Europe and the US, NGOs, and the academic community. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a revival of importance of non-state actors. This article assesses the growing influence of European and American non-state actors on the integration of the transatlantic market, against the backdrop of changes in the international context. Particular attention is paid to the case of Romania since, in terms of integration, it is located at a key position in relation to the geostrategic interests of both the European Union and the United States. The article is based on an opinion survey of the Romanian population as well as interviews with professionals belonging to Romanian and American non-governmental organizations, employees of Romanian companies collaborating with American corporations, and Romanian scholars having studied at American universities. The article concludes that, in a system marked by global interdependencies, non-state actors are influencing the policy-making processes at both national and international levels, with the business sector being the most influential non-state actor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to simultaneously examine the impact of three types of supply chain integration (SCI) on three types of company performance from the perspective of organizational capability. Design/methodology/approach – Using data collected from 617 companies in China and the structural equation modelling method, the research investigates the relationships among internal integration, customer integration, supplier integration, supplier-oriented performance, customer-oriented performance, and financial performance from the perspective of organizational capability. Findings – The results show that internal integration improves external integration and that internal and external integration directly and indirectly enhance company performance. In addition, full or partial mediating effects among SCI and company performance are identified, and therefore explain the inconsistent findings in previous studies regarding the impacts of SCI on performance. Originality/value – This study contributes to SCI, organizational capability theory literature, and SCI practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that since the completion of the NAFTA in the early 1990s, there has been too much focus on what governments in Ottawa, Washington, and Mexico City have or have not been doing to deepen North American integration. The NAFTA was an anomaly that obscures the larger history of incrementalism that has shaped North America's political economy. A focus on large, government-led integration projects like the NAFTA as a model for North American integration distracts from an examination of the many connections and processes taking place across borders every day. Security has become fully entrenched as a driving paradigm of North American relations. However, much of the activity in this domain and others is taking place at the bureaucratic, sub-state, and non-state levels rather than via active direction from national leadership. As scholars and analysts of North America, we would do well to move away from the NAFTA as a model for negotiating North America's future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper comparatively analyzes processes of contemporary borderlands identity formation in the context of reinforced security and socio-economic integration in the cross-border regions of the Pacific Northwest and the Virgin Islands. Interviews and surveys of stakeholders reveal how narratives of belonging enable the articulation of a pluralist borderlands identity even in the context of re-aligned border security and socio-economic cross-border integration. The asymmetry in the relationships between the United States and its neighbors - Canada and the Virgin Islands - is as integral to security and integration as to expressions of borderlands identity. While notions of belonging in these cross-border regions remain in transition, expressions of localism are already creating a baseline for a pluralist version of transnational identity formation and culture. A tentative official movement beyond dominant notions of US security, as focused on its borders with Mexico and Canada, toward more flexible conceptualizations of perimeter security that have characterized the Virgin Islands, may also assist in the formation of such 'new regionalisms' and transnational borderlands identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Despite the importance of early writing development to children’s school success, research documents that early childhood teachers spend little time actively supporting children’s writing development in preschool classrooms. This article provides a framework for integrating writing experiences across the early childhood curriculum. Practical examples are given regarding how writing opportunities can be incorporated into existing activities and play settings. The metaphor of backgrounding and foregrounding writing experiences is used to illustrate ways that teachers can set writing rich environments and activities in a manner that makes it easier for teachers to bring these experiences into everyday learning opportunities. Attention is given to how teachers can bring writing to the foreground of the curriculum by drawing attention to writing materials, making natural connections with children’s interest and play, and scaffolding children’s early writing attempts and experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we focus on the efforts of educators at nine different research sites within the United States, funded by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), to develop and implement innovative, interdisciplinary curriculum on the relationship of the environment and human health. The NIEHS correctly maintained that the interdisciplinary nature of learning about environmental health would improve students' learning across several subject areas and should, therefore, contribute to students scoring higher on state's subject area based standardized tests. However, these goals were undermined by state polices linking standardized tests with student promotion and graduation, and the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that required public schools and districts to aggregate test scores which might have negative consequences, such as reducing school funding or privatizing school administration and state policies. These policies resulted in deleterious effects that undermined implementing environmental health curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I review and examine the assumed link between intermarriage and integration. I focus primarily on literature from the US and Britain. Intermarriage is said to signal a significant lessening of 'social distance' between a minority group and the White majority, enabling unions between groups which would previously have been taboo. It is often assumed that intermarriage for ethnic minorities is the ultimate litmus test of integration, but is it? And if there is a link between intermarriage and integration, what is the nature and extent of 'integration' achieved by minority groups and by the minority partner? I argue that the link between intermarriage and integration is both more tenuous and more complex than many social scientists have argued, and needs a critical reappraisal, especially in multiethnic societies which are witnessing unprecedented levels of diversity, both across and within their ethnic minority groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Political geographers have recently focused their attention on the performative nature and imaginative geographies of US security strategies. This work has illuminated a number of mechanisms through which geographical knowledge has been interpreted and reformulated to support specific political agendas. This paper builds upon and develops the insights of these recent studies, arguing that current US security strategies are constructed around a policy of integration, whereby states are encouraged, through a range of measures, to mesh with attitudes and perspectives on the world. It assesses the ways in which these integration strategies are being performed, through an analysis of US National Security Strategy documents, the works of writers such as Kagan and Barnett, and the imaginative geographies and popular geopolitical representations of the US and its enemies. This paper contends that these practices combine to produce the effects that they name, bringing to life an imaginary geography that mirrors and supports the particular logics of the US-led ‘war on terror’. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper examines the question whether the economic convergence brought about by the European Monetary Union resulted in increased correlations across EMU equity market returns, which subsequently lead to a reduction in the benefits for investors in these markets. The study employs data from 1988 to 2003 in which correlation, cointegration and causality estimation techniques are used to describe the behaviour of the seven European equity market returns. The paper focuses on the question of whether a foreign (US) investor can benefit from investing in European equity markets in light of the developments brought about by the European Monetary Union (EMU). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Jails and prisons have become a final destination for persons with severe mental illness in America. Addiction, homelessness, and fragmentation of services have contributed to the problem, and have underscored the need for new models of service delivery. Project Link is a university-led consortium of five community agencies in Monroe County, New York that spans healthcare, social service and criminal justice systems. The program features a mobile treatment team with a forensic psychiatrist, a dual diagnosis treatment residence, and culturally competent staff. This paper discusses the importance of service integration in preventing jail and hospital recidivism, and describes steps that Project Link has taken towards integrating healthcare, criminal justice, and social services. Results from a preliminary evaluation suggest that Project Link may be effective in reducing recidivism and in improving community adjustment among severely mentally ill patients with histories of arrest and incarceration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the US, school attendance is mandated for refugee children. These children endure sudden immersion and must acculturate into this novel culture, whose customs often vastly diverge from their native culture's values. Refugee children often struggle with acculturation-related mental health issues, such as internalizing significantly clashing native and host cultural values. Without navigational assistance, refugee children may get lost in the new culture. Possibly the best-suited helpers for them are school counselors, who are uniquely positioned to facilitate acculturation with group work experiences. This paper provides examples of group interventions and explores implications with a theoretically grounded acculturation model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some unaccompanied children (UC) who migrate to the United States (US) receive post-release services (PRS) to help them adjust to the US and access community-based supports. Upon their arrival to the US, UC discuss their need(s) with their PRS caseworker in order to identify their primary needs. This study examines factors associated with UC who reported education services as a primary PRS need. The sample is based on administrative data shared by a major nonprofit in the US that provides technical support for PRS for UC throughout the US (n = 851). The cross-sectional research design includes a binomial logit regression model. Older UC have higher odds of reporting educational services as a primary need and UC placed with their mothers have lower odds of reporting education services as a primary need. The results can inform how education professionals and social services assess the needs of vulnerable immigrants. For example, older UC may require additional support with navigating barriers for accessing education. Conversely, UC who are placed with their mother may require less support with accessing education. Future research includes examining education levels and need for education support, and qualitative methods that describe how family dynamics inform the need for education services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As medicine continues to advance, fragmentation problems in care delivery – and the promise of care integration to solve them – will remain central. But focused research over the past thirty years has yet to uncover the key factors that enable integrated care. In their paper, Burns and colleagues offer a path to new discovery in this well-trodden area: drawing on network theory to better understand the social processes through which integrated care is produced. Social processes are a vital and understudied aspect of integration, and applying network theory may help to refocus integration in a more comprehensive way. However, to transform our understanding of integrated care – and to enable impact in practice – will require expansion beyond the usual network approaches to also capture the communication and work processes that occur among entities. This is no small endeavor. It will take considerable humility, open-mindedness, and focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]