Search

ABSTRACTImpoverished rural communities are disproportionately affected by a neglected tropical disease called Chagas disease. Because it is a disease that affects the poor, governments inconsistently respond and, when they respond, governments use insecticides that are expensive for the affected communities and unhealthy for their inhabitants. Primary prevention of Chagas disease is essential. The present study reports on an entertainment education approach that sought to raise awareness of Chagas and its insect vector, the triatomine bug. As part of our ongoing efforts in rural Ecuador, we worked with the children of Chaquizhca to create plays that would promote awareness of triatomine bugs and associate the bugs with Chagas disease. Through an analysis of the plays the children wrote, we demonstrate opportunities and challenges that local scale entertainment education approaches face in when adopting community-centered participatory approaches in rural communities.

ABSTRACTEfficient and effective communication in the wake of a disaster is essential to recovery efforts. Most disaster communication research has explored how individuals use communication channels in the Global North or in urban areas. Because media availability and selection are different in the Global South, it is important understand how communities in the Global South choose information sources. We used questionnaire and interview methods to understand how community members who experienced the earthquake in Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador in 2016 used various mediated and interpersonal channels to receive and disseminate information. Two hundred individuals completed surveys, and ten interviews were conducted with key informants. Results suggest that interpersonal channels, particularly family, are highly correlated and are used much more often than mediated channels. Cell phones were the most used mediated channel of communication. These data indicate that Global Northern derived strategies emphasizing social media and mediated communication may not be efficient or effective. We argue that an emphasis on a two-step flow of communication – one where family members with access to cellular technology disseminate mediated information through interpersonal networks – may be more effective and efficient in certain Global South contexts.

ABSTRACTCharitable organizations continue to increase in the United States. Procuring charitable donations and meeting fundraising goals can be challenging for new organizations. Mental representations, or construals of phenomena, often drive charitable behaviors, preferences, and choices. Healthy Homes for Healthy Living (HHHL) focuses on reconstructing houses to prevent vectors that spread Chagas disease in rural communities in Ecuador. Drawing upon construal level theory (CLT), we explored charitable giving behaviors of potential donors. Our findings revealed: (a) smaller psychological distances did not influence charitable giving, and (b) message recipients showed favorable attitudes toward unfamiliar charities dealing with unfamiliar issues. We offer implications for CLT application in the context of charitable giving and fundraising by new charitable organizations and intention to share messages.

When communicators use media and communication to address problems of development, we seek to assess whether those interventions are grounded in current development challenges and in patterns of media use. Additional challenges emerge, however, from patterns in media use between those used by development communication professionals and those that are accessible to communities. Electronic media, such as radio and television, or digital media platforms, including computer-based and mobile technologies, are available in urbanized areas of the global south, but are not accessible to all communities. Our study group has engaged three rural communities located in the mountainous province of Loja, Ecuador for over a decade through development communication efforts. Since these communities experience low access to electronic and digital media, our study group and the communities had to re-think what ‘media’ means in these communities. Drawing on our experiences of co-creating graffiti walls, songs and plays, we argue that development communicators must be open to channels of media that are neither electronic nor digital, but are accessible to communities in which we work.

In this essay, I draw on personal and institutional experiences to argue that, rather than false listening, and rather than speaking, white liberals need to engage in a more careful form of listening. I argue that we (by we, I mean, explicitly, white liberals) need to attend to whom we are listening and the reasons we are listening.

Abstract The role of the physician in providing basic genetic medicine is growing. There is fear that, within this trend, physicians will geneticize medicine by adopting deterministic and discriminatory attitudes [...]

Cystic hygroma is a congenital abnormality linked to lymphatic malformations. Should lymphatic vessels fail to connect and drain, they may result in a large, multilocal cyst. Cystic hygromas are most [...]

Context:The academic credential awarded to osteopathic physicians is the doctor of osteopathy or doctor of osteopathic medicine (DO) degree. Public recognition of the degree has been disappointingly low, however, leading some members of the profession to argue for a change in the degree's name and formal designation.

Objectives To ascertain attitudes of prospective patients relevant to the delivery of race-based pharmacogenomics.Methods Written anonymous survey and qualitative responses in two sets of reactance format focus groups over-sampled for minority groups in urban, suburban, and rural communities conducted from February through April, 2002 [N = 104] and August through November, 2002 [N = 120].Results Participants do not associate “races” exclusively with continental clusters. They have incomplete knowledge of their recent ancestors (39.6% do not know all their biological grandparents). They would be highly suspicious of race-labeled drugs; with 47.5% saying they would be very suspicious of their safety and 40.6% indicating they would be very suspicious of their efficacy. A substantial minority of African-American participants (13.2%) would prefer to take the drugs designated for European Americans. Effect of discussion of race-based medicine on racial attitudes is ambiguous.Conclusions Patient knowledge of ancestry and suspicion of race-designated drugs constitute substantial barriers that need to be incorporated in judging the likely effectiveness of race-based pharmacogenomics.

There is growing concern in the medical community about potential genetic determinism in the patient population. Limited information about the public understanding of genetic factors in disease formation is available. To access public perceptions of potentially deterministic phrasing of genetic risk factors, we sought to establish interpretations of the phrase, “a gene for heart disease.” Focus groups in urban, suburban, and rural communities were conducted from July through October, 2001 in Georgia. A total of 108 participants were recruited. Participants were recruited to balance sex and racial representation. We used three outcome measures for participants understandings of the phrase: (1) participants' statements of the meaning of the phrase; (2) the level of determinism assigned to genetic factors by participants; and (3) participant reports of the health consequences of having “a gene for heart disease.” Participants did not report a single interpretation of the phrase. There were dominant participant interpretations under each outcome measure: (1) “a gene for heart disease” was interpreted as meaning genetic and environmental factors both played roles in disease formation; (2) genetic predisposition was perceived as heightened, not absolute, risk; (3) the perceived health impact was a greater risk of becoming sick. Minority interpretations were found under each measure. Overall, naming “a gene for heart disease” does not appear to have a deterministic impact on a plurality of participants' perceptions of risks associated with genetic factors. Genetic fatalism in patient populations may be confined to a sizable minority. Important considerations for provider intervention and patient education are indicated. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

This essay explores justification in the 2001 Attorney General confirmation hearings. It argues that the hearings were a public fiction of deliberation that allowed the Senators to justify their support for or opposition to nominee John Ashcroft. After discussing the panel's argument, the paper indicates that power positions play a strong role in the kinds of justifications used. The arguments made in the confirmation hearing show that the Democrats on the panel used tactics of justified opposition and that the Republicans used a strategy of justified support to support Ashcroft. Implications for the study of justification in public argument are provided.

River systems and associated landscapes are often viewed to exist in a dynamic equilibrium that exhibits a natural range of variability until and unless external driving forces cause a radical change such as abrupt drainage reorganization. Here, we reinterpret the late Cenozoic evolution of the upper Mississippi River and present evidence that the uppermost Mississippi River basin (upstream of the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers) evolved as a late Cenozoic drainage system that carried water eastward into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and North Atlantic Ocean rather than to the Gulf of Mexico. Coring to determine the dip of a remnant strath surface in the lower Wisconsin River valley demonstrates that this valley was carved by an eastward-flowing river (opposite of the modern westward-flowing Wisconsin River). Geomorphic features, including the presence of numerous barbed tributaries along the lower Wisconsin River valley and the width and morphology of the Mississippi and Wisconsin River valleys, support this interpretation. GIS analysis of logs of water wells in eastcentral Wisconsin delineate the presence of a major buried valley system continuing east into the Great Lakes lowland. We herein refer to this ancestral drainage system as the "Wyalusing River". Quaternary glaciations played a significant role in reorganizing ancestral rivers in the Appalachians and eastern Great Lakes region to form the modern Ohio River as a tributary of the Mississippi River. We propose that Quaternary glaciations also played a significant role in capturing the Wyalusing drainage and routing it southward to the Gulf of Mexico. The total area diverted away from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and toward the Gulf of Mexico by Quaternary stream piracy represents at least ~420,000 km2 of the modern Mississippi River basin and provides nearly one quarter of the mean annual discharge of the Mississippi River. The permanent loss of that volume of freshwater runoff into the Gulf of St. Lawrence may have had a significant impact on North Atlantic thermohaline circulation and northern hemisphere climate dynamics through the Quaternary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]