Search

This study evaluated the cross-cultural measurement invariance of the Pandemic Fatigue Scale (PFS) in five South American countries, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. A total of 1448 people selected through convenience sampling (295 Argentines, 294 Bolivians, 279 Uruguayans, 277 Peruvians, and 303 Paraguayans) participated. The two-dimensional structure of the PFS fitted well with the data from each country. Invariance analysis showed that PFS was completely invariant across countries, thus providing a solid basis for comparisons between groups. Adequate discrimination and difficulty were reported for all items. Adequate discrimination parameters would indicate that the PFS items would allow people to differentiate the choice of response alternatives based on the presence of PF. In addition, the difficulty parameters indicate that people require a greater presence of the latent trait to respond to the higher response alternatives of PFS. It was also observed that the boredom and neglect dimensions have a significant and negative impact on protective behaviors, providing evidence of validity based on their relationship with other constructs. In conclusion, the PFS presents evidence of validity and MI for the measurement of PF in the five South American countries included in this study. Thus, PFS can contribute to future empirical research that compares FP in different South American populations and cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous evidence showed a possible link of dyslipidemia with bone health. Nevertheless, the correlation of remnant cholesterol (RC) with bone mineral density (BMD) has yet to be well investigated. This study investigated the association of RC with total spine BMD in general Americans. Methods: This study explored the relationship of RC with total spine BMD in subjects aged ≥ 20 years from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2013–2018. After adjusting for covariates, multivariate linear regression and stratified analyses were conducted to determine the correlation of serum RC with total spine BMD in adult Americans. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) was applied to examine the nonlinear association of serum RC with total spine BMD. Results: This study included 3815 individuals ≥ 20 years old, 1905 (49.93%) of whom were men and 1910 (50.07%) of whom were women. After adjusting for all covariates, the results showed a negative relationship of serum RC with total spine BMD (β= -0.024, 95% CI: -0.039, -0.010). The interaction tests of age, sex, race, and BMI showed no statistically significant effects on the association. The RCS also indicated a negative linear correlation of serum RC with total spine BMD (nonlinear P = 0.068, overall P < 0.001). Moreover, RC had a stronger effect on total spine BMD than total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). Conclusions: This study found that serum RC was negatively related to total spine BMD in U.S. adults. These findings emphasized the important role of RC in bone health in American adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political polarization of Americans' support for climate policies often impedes the adoption of new, urgently needed climate solutions. However, recent polls suggest that younger conservatives favor adopting pro-climate policies to a greater degree than older conservatives, resulting in less political polarization among younger Americans relative to older Americans. To better understand these patterns, we analyzed Americans' support for various climate policies from 1982–2020, across 16 waves of historical, nationally representative survey data from the American National Election Studies (total N = 29,467). Regression models consistently show that, since 2012, younger Americans have been less politically polarized than older Americans on support for climate policies. Before 2012 and on non-climate policy topics, we did not find consistent statistical evidence for political polarization varying with age. These findings can inform policy debates about climate change and offer hope to environmentalists and policymakers who seek to build broad consensus for climate action at the policy level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How accurate are Americans' perceptions of the material benefits associated with union membership, and do these perceptions influence their support for, and interest in joining, unions? We explore these questions in a preregistered, survey experiment conducted on a national sample, representative of the US population on a number of demographic benchmarks (n = 1,430). We find that Americans exhibit large and consistent underestimates of the benefits associated with unionization, as compared to evidence from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and peer-reviewed academic research. For example, 89% of Americans underestimated the life-time income premium associated with union membership, 72% underestimated the percentage of union members who receive health insurance from their employer, and 97% overestimated the average union dues rate. We next randomly assigned half of the participants to receive a brief, informational correction conveying results of academic and government research on the material benefits associated with union membership, or not. Those who received the correction reported 11.6% greater interest in joining a union, 7.8% greater support for unions, and 6.9% greater interest in helping to organize a union in their workplace, as compared to the control group. These results suggest that, overall, Americans tend to underestimate the material benefits associated with unionization, misperceptions of these benefits are causally linked to Americans' support for unionization, and correcting these misperceptions increases a range of pro-union sentiments in the American mass public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Accumulating evidence suggests a pivotal role of vitamin B2 in the pathogenesis and progression of prostate cancer (PCa). Vitamin B2 intake has been postulated to modulate the screening rate for PCa by altering the concentration of prostate-specific antigen(PSA). However, the relationship between vitamin B2 and PSA remains indeterminate. Hence, we conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the association between vitamin B2 intake and PSA levels, utilizing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database. Methods: From a pool of 20,371 participants in the NHANES survey conducted between 2003 and 2010, a cohort of 2,323 participants was selected for the present study. The male participants were classified into four distinct groups based on their levels of vitamin B2 intake. We employed a multiple linear regression model and a non-parametric regression method to investigate the relationship between vitamin B2 and PSA levels. Results: The study cohort comprised of 2,323 participants with a mean age of 54.95 years (± 11.73). Our findings revealed a statistically significant inverse correlation between vitamin B2 intake (mg) and PSA levels, with a reduction of 0.13 ng/ml PSA concentration for every unit increase in vitamin B2 intake. Furthermore, we employed a fully adjusted model to construct a smooth curve to explore the possible linear relationship between vitamin B2 intake and PSA concentration. Conclusions: Our study in American men has unveiled a notable inverse association between vitamin B2 intake and PSA levels, potentially posing a challenge for the identification of asymptomatic prostate cancer. Specifically, our findings suggest that individuals with higher vitamin B2 intake may be at a greater risk of being diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer in the future, possibly indicating a detection bias. These results may offer a novel explanation for the observed positive correlation between vitamin B2 intake and prostate cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that ethnic–racial socialization (ERS) predicts education and mental health outcomes for adolescents. However, limited research has evaluated the ERS experiences of Latinx students. The current study examined ERS experiences of Mexican American youth in four focus group interviews that were transcribed and analyzed at both the individual and group level using interpretive phenomenological analysis. Main themes included feeling like an outsider, navigating discrimination, encountering social/emotional difficulties, and achieving a positive identity. Each theme contained two to three subcategories that provide further insight into the Mexican Americans' ERS experiences. Participants reported within‐group discrimination, motivation to disprove stereotypes, and infrequent understanding or compassion from adults. Teachers, administrators, counselors, and school psychologists can attend to and seek to promote social connections, implement social‐emotional learning interventions, foster resilience, work to dismantle racism, collaborate with parents, and create communities of inclusion. Practitioner points: Mexican American students reported benefitting from ethnic–racial socialization that emphasized the positive aspects of their culture.Students desired solutions for racism, real‐world skills for interacting across‐cultures, and emotional support.Given the students' focus on social interactions, educators can foster connections rather than simply deliver messages about ethnicity and race. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Charles Brockden Brown Society held its Fourteenth Biennial Conference at the University of Nottingham in the UK in September 2023. The conference focused on the theme of "Crime, Justice, and Cultures of Transgression in Early America" and featured presentations from scholars around the world. Topics discussed included the role of transgression in promoting natural human rights reform during the American Revolution, the rhetoric of imprisonment in captivity narratives, the concept of metaphysics in Brown's novels, and the portrayal of spies and espionage in Anglo-American writing. The conference also included discussions on disability, race, gender, and the portrayal of enslaved peoples in literature. Additionally, a sneak preview of the film adaptation of Brown's novel "Wieland or the Transformation" was shown. The conference provided an opportunity for scholars to explore the development of American democratic republican forms of government and social protest. [Extracted from the article]

Disparaging rhetoric about Arab people was prevalent during Donald Trump's political rise in the United States. Although this rhetoric was intended to energize conservative Americans, it also echoed throughout many liberal parts of the United States and around the world. In this research, we experimentally examined the effects of such rhetoric on American and Arab people's attitudes and visual representations of each other before and after Trump was elected. Although people overwhelmingly reported not liking the negative rhetoric, the rhetoric alone did not influence explicit and implicit intergroup biases in either location, as measured by feeling thermometers and Implicit Association Tests. However, the election outcome moderated the way rhetoric influenced how American and Arab people visually represented each other. Our research sheds light on nuanced effects of global politics on various information processing stages within intergroup perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Centers (OAIC) Program sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (NIA)./ Topics discussed include goal of the program, factor to which the OAIC Program's success can be attributed, and research themes of the OAICs.

Medicaid is the largest payer of long-term services and supports (LTSS) and millions of older Americans rely on this means-tested program, especially during late life. There has been longstanding concern that wealthy older adults may be accessing the program by opportunistically divesting assets in order to qualify for coverage rather than by having high medical or LTSS expenses on which they spend down their resources to eligibility levels. Few current studies analyze this question longitudinally. Thus, questions remain about whether states need to tighten asset eligibility rules to prevent opportunistic asset divestiture. This analysis explores robust longitudinal data to determine the extent to which older, wealthier Americans accessing Medicaid do so by engaging in opportunistic asset transfer. Our findings demonstrate that this may occur among a relatively small proportion of wealthy people, and that tightening Medicaid eligibility criteria would likely have only a very modest impact on program expenditures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly has long been viewed in Japan and abroad as demeaning Japan, portraying Japanese women as helpless victims of a cruel society, easily exploited by Japanese and American men. But a remarkable 1948 production by two Japanese men, Fujiwara Yoshie (1898–1976) and Aoyama Yoshio (1903–1976), reimagined the typical Euro-American staging to display their vision of a 'real' Japan, one they also believed most faithful to Puccini. Not only did their production mute the inequities present in the opera; it was initiated, funded, and fully supported by the US Troop Information and Education (TI&E) Section in Tokyo. Ultimately, the Fujiwara and Aoyama interpretation became the dominant staging of the opera worldwide for decades to come. Exploring the institutional, political, and popular interest in Madama Butterfly in occupied Japan, this article examines how this 1948 production bolstered the Cold War narrative of the US as a non-colonialist, democratizing power striving to liberate Japanese women while celebrating Japan's 'return' to its native aesthetic traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intervening in White youths' ethnic-racial identity (ERI) development during adolescence can support the development of positive anti-racist ideologies and behaviors that challenge privilege and oppression, increase awareness of and reduce implicit bias, and embrace positive intergroup contact attitudes; yet, little is known within developmental science regarding how White adolescents develop their ERI within the United States' sociohistorical context. Thus, this paper reviews the current literature on White ERI development and applies the Integrative Model (Garcia Coll et al., 1996), through its keen attention to how structures of power, privilege, and oppression have a direct impact on various environments and experiences for young people, to White youths' ERI development. The social stratification of whiteness, school ethnic-racial socialization, color-evasive and anti-racist adapting cultural systems, and ethnic-racial socialization in White families are explored as mechanisms that impact White adolescents' ERI development within a macrosystem characterized by white supremacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parents' familism values predict a variety of Latinx American youth's academic adjustment. However, it is unclear how cultural values such as familism interact with youth's brain development, which is sensitive to sociocultural input, to shape their academic adjustment. Using a sample of 1916 Latinx American youth (mean age = 9.90 years, SD =.63 years; 50% girls) and their primary caregivers (mean age = 38.43 years, SD = 6.81 years; 90% mothers) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, this study examined the longitudinal relation between parents' familism values and youth's school disengagement, as well as the moderating role of youth's neural sensitivity to personal reward. Parents' familism values predicted youth's decreased school disengagement 1 year later, adjusting for their baseline school disengagement and demographic covariates. Notably, this association was more salient among youth who showed lower (vs. higher) neural activation in the ventral striatum and the lateral OFC during the anticipation of a personal reward. These findings underscore the protective role of familism for Latinx American youth, highlighting the necessity of developing culturally informed interventions that take into consideration a youth's brain development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Low-cost debt can potentially enhance wealth and indirectly benefit health, yet Black Americans disproportionately lack this type of debt, which may constrain their ability to accumulate wealth throughout their lives and across generations. Our objectives are to develop a novel debt–asset measure, use it to quantify the Black–White differential in debt–asset profiles, and estimate its contribution to the racial gap in cognition. Methods Using the Health and Retirement Study (1998–2020), we grouped individuals based on debt and asset information during the preretirement period of ages 55–61, including the absence of debt and the relative amount of debt compared to assets. Linear mixed models were used to examine the extent to which cognition in later life (ages 62–80) differs across these debt–asset profiles and its role in explaining the racial disparity in cognition. Results Compared with Whites, Blacks were more likely to fall into categories characterized by high debt-to-asset ratio (DAR) or limited asset ownership. Low-asset nonborrowers displayed the poorest cognition, followed closely by high-DAR borrowers. The Black–White differential in debt–asset profiles contributed to the racial gap in cognition. Discussion There were 2 unfavorable debt–asset profiles: high debt relative to assets and little or no debt due to a lack of assets, which was more prevalent among Blacks than Whites. We discuss how institutional and structural racism shapes Black–White disparities in debt–asset profiles, such as limited access to borrowing opportunities, thereby contributing to health inequalities, including cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To compare the degree of acceptance of behavior guidance techniques (BGT) in pediatric dentistry between American and Colombian parents. Methods: American parents (n=150) and Colombian parents (n=150) of children between three and 12 years of age undergoing pediatric dental treatment participated in this multicenter cross-sectional study. Parents viewed a video depicting 10 BGTs approved by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and rated their acceptance on a visual analog scale. Differences in the degree of acceptance were analyzed using quantile regression analysis. The level of significance was set at five percent. Results: American parents generally demonstrated higher median acceptance scores across various BGTs compared to Colombian parents (P<0.05). American parents exhibited higher acceptance levels of tell-show-do, voice control, non-verbal communication, positive reinforcement, distraction, presence/absence of parents and nitrous oxide, with statistically significant differences noted. American parents also displayed higher acceptance scores for advanced techniques such as protective stabilization, conscious sedation and general anesthesia. Conclusion: American parents consistently exhibited higher acceptance BGTs, suggesting variations in cultural attitudes toward pediatric dental care between the two groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims – Small-celled araphid diatoms form an important part of the diatom flora in our rivers and lakes. Although several of these species are frequently reported, their correct taxonomic identity is often obscured due to a lack of good knowledge of the original (type) material. Material and methods – Several historical (nineteenth century) original samples were retrieved from different European and North American diatom collections. The samples have been analysed using light (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Key results – Staurosirella crux comb. nov., based on Ehrenberg’s Navicula crux, proved to be the oldest valid name for Staurosirella harrisonii, the latter now being considered a younger synonym. A new European species, S. neorhomboides sp. nov., is described to replace the name S. rhomboides, now considered a younger synonym of S. leptostauron. The North American populations of S. rhomboides and S. martyi differ sufficiently from the type populations and are described as new species: S. moralesii sp. nov. and S. manoyloviana sp. nov. The new combination Staurosirella informis comb. nov. is proposed for a taxon described in 1856 from the French Pyrenees as Odontidium informe. Staurosirella leptostauron turns out to be insufficiently described and is now documented for further use. Conclusion – The analysis of the original (type) material corrected several taxonomic errors and better characterised the morphology of several commonly observed Staurosirella species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aim: Multiple myeloma (MM) is a hematological malignancy that arises when plasma cells undergo malignant monoclonal proliferation. This study aimed to assess the demographic disparities and temporal trends in the mortality rates of this disease. Patients and Methods: We employed the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Wide-ranging ONline Data for Epidemiologic Research (CDC WONDER) database. Results: We found that for the overall U.S. population, the age-adjusted mortality rate per 1,000,000 (AAMR) decreased from 1999 to 2020. However, rates differed between demographic groups. In addition, we sought to find a significant average annual percent change (AAPC) in mortality rate from 1999 to 2020 for various demographic populations and compared groups to find disparities in mortality rate trend. In 2020, the AAMR due to MM was 38.0 and for women 24.1. The AAPC in AAMR from 1999 to 2020 in men was -1.0% (95%CI=-1.3 to -0.7) and in women was -1.6% (95%CI=-1.6 to -2.3). A significant difference in trend by sex was found, where women had a higher rate of decline. In 2020, the AAMR for the American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN) population was 15.0, the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) had 14.8, the Black and African American population had an AAMR of 55.6 and the White population had an AAMR of 28.1. The AAPC for the AI/AN population was -2.2% (95%CI=-3.5 to -0.9), for the AAPI population it was -0.9% (95%CI=-1.5 to -0.4), the Black and African American population had -1.5% (95%CI=-2.2 to -0.8) and the AAPC for the White population was -1.1% (95%CI=-1.6 to -0.6). A significant difference in trend of decline was found between the AAPI and Black and African American populations and between the AI/AN and Black and African American populations. When assessing the U.S. by states, the mid-southeast U.S. had the greatest density of the states with high AAMRs. Conclusion: These findings suggest which populations are at increased risk for mortality due to multiple myeloma and where we should apply additional resources and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexican American adolescents have a higher risk for experiencing a mental health disorder, specifically generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), compared to their non-Mexican American peers. This comprehensive narrative review examined the unique factors contributing to the manifestation of GAD among Mexican American adolescents living in the United States. The socio-ecological model (SEM) was utilized to explore bibliographic material pertaining to the various factors that influence GAD in Mexican American adolescents. Factors contributing to the manifestation of GAD were present at all multifaceted levels of the SEM. This research adds to the limited, yet growing, knowledge of GAD among Mexican American adolescents and the importance of culture, family cohesion and involvement, and the educational setting in fostering healthy development for this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]