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Background Digital communication technologies had a crucial role during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the internet and Social Media as highly frequented sources for retrieving health information. University student's health and well-being were highly affected and most interaction with peers and professionals migrated to the digital realm, which made digital health literacy (DHL) a key competence to navigate digital health environments. The main goal of the study was to explore DHL of students in Germany. Methods A cross-sectional online survey among students (N = 14916) from 130 universities in Germany was implemented as part of the global Covid-HL Network, collecting data on DHL, physical and mental health, SoC and sociodemographics. Data was analyzed using univariate, bivariate and regression analyses. Results Assessing the reliability of information (5964/14,103, 42.3%) and determining commercial interest of information posed the most difficult tasks (5489/14,097, 38.9%). Difficulties were revealed for finding information (4282/14,098, 30.4%). Female students reported lower DHL and social media use was associated with lower judgment skills. 38% of all students reported low and very low well-being and 29% reported at least two health complaints weekly, while health outcomes follow a social gradient (lower SES and gender). Regression analysis showed significant association between SoC and well-being (OR: 1.2-2.03) and health complaints (OR: 1.58-1.71). Higher future worries were with low well-being (OR: 2.83) and multiple health complaints (OR: 2.84). Conclusions There is an urgent need to enhance DHL and SoC of students and implement health promotion strategies, using target group specific intervention. Gender and socioeconomic differences must be taken into account and interventions could be delivered within the university. Measures should also address student mental health.

Scholarship on contaminated communities has highlighted how residents living with the reality of significant environmental hazards often experience similar negative psychosocial stressors. However, relatively less is known about the mitigating factors that can explain divergence in these impacts such as levels of community efficacy and empowerment. This is critical as insight into these dynamics can provide answers as to why certain communities maintain a sense of efficacy whereas others do not. To address this question, we conduct a comparative analysis of two heavily contaminated communities in Oklahoma and Colorado. Our data come from extensive fieldwork, including in-depth interviews (n = 105) and participant observation. Our findings revealed a set of similar psychosocial outcomes in the two communities, but we argue that specific revitalizing events in one community played a crucial role in sustaining residents’ feelings of empowerment and persistence. Our paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of our research for future work on contaminated communities, technological disasters, and citizen participation.

Communities with a history of industrial production often face legacy pollution, or persistent contamination that remains long after production has ceased. Extant research informs our understanding...

The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre was distinguished by the scope of its prosperity damage as well as by the financial losses incurred by Greenwood residents. Property destruction was assessed at $1.8 million in 1921 dollars (Oklahoma Commission 2001), which would be equivalent to nearly $24 million a century later. Given the extent of human and financial loss, a presentation of Greenwood and its unique characteristics as a black community in 1921 provides further context.

James West was attending a play when a youth rushed in and delivered the warning that a resident of Tulsa, Oklahoma’s black district, might be lynched. West, a teacher and fellow resident of the district known as “Greenwood,” hurried home and awaited further development. Later that evening and into the early morning hours, West lay awake as the sound of gunfire erupted throughout his district. Shortly after 5:30 a.m., white men arrived at his home and ordered him outside. West was placed with a larger group and was violently escorted to Tulsa’s Convention Hall. Around the same time, Carrie Kinlaw and her sisters emerged from their Greenwood home after growing increasingly concerned about the safety of their mother, who lived a few blocks away. Upon arriving, they placed their mother on a cot and carried her while bullets flew all around. Eventually, gangs of rioters from all ages surrounded them, and they watched helplessly as nearby homes were broken into, looted, and destroyed (Parrish 1998, pp. 37, 50).

In the response stage of riots, officials make several decisions that are critical to the communities seeking to recover. First, officials make decisions about maintaining order and returning to the status quo. Second, they decide how they will publicly present, or frame the events. Broader perceptions of the riot will be heavily influenced by the official narratives that have been crafted for public consumption. Third, authorities must make a determination regarding resources. What, if any, will be made available? How will they be distributed? To whom will economic support be allotted? Finally, officials must take the future into consideration. What, if any, measures can be taken to rectify the conditions that led to the riot? What can be done for the people who had their property destroyed or lost family members? This chapter will examine the response stage of the Tulsa Massacre. While the massacre itself was devastating to Greenwood residents, government and agency responses to the violence were themselves crippling, and often amounted to a re-victimization of those already harmed.

When mentioned at all in the years that immediately followed the collective violence in Tulsa, most accounts continued to refer to the occasion as an “uprising” or a “race riot.” In fact, public discourse related to the events of May 31 and June 1, 1921, quietly disappeared both in Tulsa and beyond (Ellsworth 1982). A review of most Oklahoma history textbooks prior to the 2000s yields few references to the riot. Accounts that do exist tended to be brief, one-sided, erroneous, and/or sanitized, often casting whites in the role of savior, in the immediate aftermath. For instance, an Oklahoma historian referenced a “disgraceful race riot,” but offered few details about what precipitated the outbreak and what transpired during the event. Instead, he summarily reports that “…the civil authorities at Tulsa and in Tulsa County exerted themselves to the utmost to alleviate the suffering and distress of the negro people…The city of Tulsa promptly announced that it would rebuild their homes” (Thoburn 1929, p. 694).

Greenwood is but one example of the decimation of black urban districts that has claimed countless lives over the course of the nation’s history. These incidents, now commonly referred to as “massacres,” have also served as grave impediments to wealth accumulation and its transference to future generations. In the dozens of black communities that experienced similar fates during the early part of the twentieth century, rebuilding homes and businesses was left entirely to the victims, forcing them into debt, or deepening their existing arrears. In this respect, the scope of damage is impossible to ascertain fully. Regardless, the massacre financially harmed future generations, in large part due to insurance company and governmental decisions. Almost any source of wealth that was passed down to descendants (homes, cars, family valuables, and other assets) would have had to occur through post-massacre accumulation, or, in other words, after black families had been essentially wiped out. Survivors were left starting over from scratch; there was little or nothing left to pass on to future generations.

Movements that seek reparations against racial injustices must confront historic narratives of events and patterns of repression. These injustices are often legitimated through official narratives that discredit and vilify racial groups. This paper analyzes elite official frames in the case of the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, in which an economically thriving African American neighborhood was destroyed. Our research examines the official frames that were promulgated by white elites in defending the violent repression and analyzes the ongoing efforts by reparations proponents to seek redress. We delineate the discursive mechanisms used by proponents to challenge the dominant white narrative of the riot and to campaign for reparations. We conclude by discussing the implications of our research for future research on racial injustices and reparations movements.

Lead contamination is a significant health hazard in communities around the world, but this environmental toxin often remains unknown to residents living near hazardous sites. This research investigates a unique case where residents were informed of lead contamination but rejected official and scientific narratives regarding environmental risks. The case study involves a decommissioned smelter in Colorado. Drawing from data collected over three years, the researchers examine how officials and experts communicated the severity of environmental health hazards. Despite these efforts, residents opposed the Environmental Protection Agency’s attempts to place the site on the National Priorities List for federal cleanup. The government’s framing of science and environmental risk failed to resonate with homeowners, despite the known and significant scientific evidence confirming environmental health hazards, and residents’ perceptions of lead contamination were mitigated by material concerns, including pr...

The number of communities dealing with industrial pollution in the United States has increased dramatically over the past three decades. Environmental campaigns have consequentially emerged and so has research on successful mobilizing efforts. A gap remains, however, on cases where mobilization fails to materialize. In this article, we develop a typology of power’s multidimensional nature in an effort to address mechanisms by which elites prompt quiescence in the face of grievous injustice. We then analyze a case in point, Blackwell, Oklahoma—a community contaminated with lead, zinc, and cadmium from a decommissioned zinc smelter facility—and the proactive and coercive methods used to maintain local quiescence. Despite assurances that the community had been successfully remediated in the mid-1990s, residents learned in 2006 that environmental pollution continued to emanate from the facility. Our data come from in-depth interviews with community residents and city officials, participant observation, and document analysis. Findings highlight forms of control employed to keep citizens quiescent and to thwart the efforts of more vocal residents in the community.

Objective The Trails-X is a new type of trail-making test that emphasizes executive function and does not require either literacy or numeracy. The purpose of this study was to examine performance variability across trails. Method Participants were the Trails-X standardization sample and individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI), learning disabilities (LD), intellectual disabilities (ID), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and dementia. Trail-level performance was assessed via the mean Matrix, Connected Circles, and Time to Discontinue scores across trails. The Profile Variability Index (PVI) was calculated (Plake, Reynolds, & Gutkin, 1981) and clinical groups and standardization samples were compared via a one-way ANOVA. Results Across all trails, the mean Matrix score was 6 (possible range = 1-12) for the standardization sample and as low as 3 for the dementia and ID samples. The mean Connected Circles score was 16 (possible range = 0-22) and as low as 12 for the dementia sample. The mean Time to Discontinue score was 39 seconds (possible range = 1-75) and as high as 55 for the dementia sample. There was a statistically significant difference on the PVI score (F(5,845) = 6.921, p = .000). The dementia (M = 4.77) and ID (M = 5.11) samples had significantly lower (p < .05) PVI scores than the other samples, which were not significantly different from each other. Conclusions The dementia and ID samples were characterized by consistently low performance while the other samples were characterized by moderate amounts of variability, indicating that some variability across trails should be expected within less impaired individuals.

African-American athletes have been widely represented in the sporting world throughout the twenty-first century. Sport participation has been positive for the group and for American society as a whole by both aiding integration and providing opportunities, such as college scholarships, social mobility, etc. that may not have been available in other avenues. Comprising 78 % of the National Basketball Association and 67 % of the National Football League, African-Americans males’ overrepresentation as professional athletes seems to illustrate opportunities for the group unfettered by any major barriers (Lapchick 2011). However, contemporary scholars have debated whether or not sports are actually a way out of less than desirable economic and social situations for African-American males. Although most Americans, and athletes themselves, think of professional sports in terms of the fame and fortune experienced by the most successful athletes, this article examines the experiences that is perhaps most common among professional athletes through the lens of contested racial terrain.

Regional anesthesia has become the preferred method of anesthesia for many upper extremity operations and generally results in decreased hospital stays, postoperative opioid requirement, and postoperative nausea. Complications of regional anesthesia are rarely reported in the literature, possibly because of limited anesthesiologist-patient follow-up. Three cases of suprascapular nerve palsy after ultrasound-guided supraclavicular nerve block for routine outpatient upper extremity surgery are reported. All cases occurred in men who originally presented with shoulder pain, which resolved with time, followed by weakness in the supraspinatus and infraspinatus, which improved over time but did not resolve. One case resulted in ipsilateral phrenic nerve palsy as well. A review of the literature on the subject accompanies the report of these 3 cases.

People frequently overestimate their understanding-with a particularly large blind-spot for gaps in their causal knowledge. We introduce a metacognitive approach to reducing overestimation, termed reflecting on explanatory ability (REA), which is briefly thinking about how well one could explain something in a mechanistic, step-by-step, causally connected manner. Nine experiments demonstrated that engaging in REA just before estimating one's understanding substantially reduced overestimation. Moreover, REA reduced overestimation with nearly the same potency as generating full explanations, but did so 20 times faster (although only for high complexity objects). REA substantially reduced overestimation by inducing participants to quickly evaluate an object's inherent causal complexity (Experiments 4-7). REA reduced overestimation by also fostering step-by-step, causally connected processing (Experiments 2 and 3). Alternative explanations for REA's effects were ruled out including a general conservatism account (Experiments 4 and 5) and a covert explanation account (Experiment 8). REA's overestimation-reduction effect generalized beyond objects (Experiments 1-8) to sociopolitical policies (Experiment 9). REA efficiently detects gaps in our causal knowledge with implications for improving self-directed learning, enhancing self-insight into vocational and academic abilities, and even reducing extremist attitudes.

Extant research on official frames centers on state campaigns, yet nonstate entities also utilize their own official frames. We extend the existing social movement literature by examining the unsuccessful framing efforts of a uranium mill in Canon City, Colorado. Despite a history of environmental contamination and resultant health problems, the corporation deployed an official frame to reestablish the company's legitimacy and justify their actions following the controversy. Our data included newspaper coverage, archival documents, in-depth interviews, and direct observation. Findings highlight critical factors that can undermine corporate official frames, and show that failed framing efforts can ultimately erode elite legitimacy.

Im Rahmen des Forschungsprojekts „Gesundheitsforderung fur altere pflegende Angehorige“ wurde ein Assessment-Instrument zur Ermittlung individueller gesundheitsbezogener physischer und psychischer Ressourcen und Risiken pflegender Angehoriger entwickelt. Daraus wird der personliche Bedarf an Gesundheitsforderung ableitbar und ein entsprechendes Angebot unterbreitet. Die Implementierung des softwaregestutzten Assessments erfolgte in die Strukturen der gesetzlichen Krankenkasse Deutsche BKK in Wolfsburg.

Mammalian milk or colostrum contains up to 10% of carbohydrate, of which free lactose usually constitutes more than 80%. Lactose is synthesized within lactating mammary glands from uridine diphosphate galactose (UDP-Gal) and glucose by a transgalactosylation catalysed by a complex of β4-galactosyltransferase and α-lactalbumin (α-LA). α-LA is believed to have evolved from C-type lysozyme. Mammalian milk or colostrum usually contains a variety of oligosaccharides in addition to free lactose. Each oligosaccharide has a lactose unit at its reducing end; this unit acts as a precursor that is essential for its biosynthesis. It is generally believed that milk oligosaccharides act as prebiotics and also as receptor analogues that act as anti-infection factors. We propose the following hypothesis. The proto-lacteal secretions of the primitive mammary glands of the common ancestor of mammals contained fat and protein including lysozyme, but no lactose or oligosaccharides because of the absence of α-LA. When α-LA first appeared as a result of its evolution from lysozyme, its content within the lactating mammary glands was low and lactose was therefore synthesized at a slow rate. Because of the presence of glycosyltransferases, almost all of the nascent lactose was utilized for the biosynthesis of oligosaccharides. The predominant saccharides in the proto-lacteal secretions or primitive milk produced by this common ancestor were therefore oligosaccharides rather than free lactose. Subsequent to this initial period, the oligosaccharides began to serve as anti-infection factors. They were then recruited as a significant energy source for the neonate, which was achieved by an increase in the synthesis of α-LA. This produced a concomitant increase in the concentration of lactose in the milk, and lactose therefore became an important energy source for most eutherians, whereas oligosaccharides continued to serve mainly as anti-microbial agents. Lactose, in addition, began to act as an osmoregulatory molecule, controlling the milk volume. Studies on the chemical structures of the milk oligosaccharides of a variety of mammalian species suggest that human milk or colostrum is unique in that oligosaccharides containing lacto-N-biose I (LNB) (Gal(β1 → 3)GlcNAc, type I) predominate over those containing N-acetyllactosamine (Gal(β1 → 4)GlcNAc, type II), whereas in other species only type II oligosaccharides are found or else they predominate over type I oligosaccharides. It can be hypothesized that this feature may have a selective advantage in that it may promote the growth of beneficial colonic bacteria, Bifidobacteria, in the human infant colon.

Studies of race riots have identified several underlying conditions that contribute to their onset. This study builds on previous research and introduces an integrative approach for examining riots that includes the role of population characteristics, contextual factors, and cultural ideologies. An integrative approach is applied through a case study of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot. In addition to highlighting relevant structural and contextual under pinnings, this approach also emphasizes the role of racial frames, or lenses through which racial groups view and interpret events and conditions differenctially.

Drawing from in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis we examine a contentious environmental dispute surrounding contamination from a decommissioned zinc smelter plant in rural Oklahoma. Environmental grievances center around potential health effects associated with lead, cadmium, and arsenic contamination. The company that owns the former zinc smelter facility argues that they are operating in compliance with all environmental health and safety standards and many citizens applaud their ongoing remediation efforts. In an effort to improve its public image, the company has launched a community outreach program and is offering to sample residents' yards. A group of concerned citizens, however, believes that the health and safety of their community have been compromised by the environmental contamination. These residents have garnered legal support from a nonlocal law firm and they plan to pursue legal damages as part of their campaign of environmental cleanup. Both sides have enga...

This paper examines a contentious environmental dispute surrounding a decommissioned zinc smelter facility in Blackwell, Oklahoma. The environmental conflict stems from potential health effects associated with lead, cadmium, and arsenic contamination. The company that owns the former zinc smelter facility argues that they are in compliance with all environmental health and safety standards and city residents praise their ongoing remediation efforts. Based on in-depth interviews, observation, and thematic content analysis, we examine the company's establishment of an official frame to characterize their role in the environmental case. This frame is based on corporate citizenship, the diffusion of responsibility, and the multiplicity of contamination sources. We examine the salience of this frame within the broader community and address challenges to the official frame by local community activists. The results of the study indicate that local community residents are at a tremendous disadvantage when challenging large corporate polluters.

Drawing from fieldwork and thematic content analysis, we examine corporate responses to allegations of environmental misconduct surrounding a decommissioned zinc smelter plant in Blackwell, Oklahoma. Environmental grievances center on health effects associated with exposures to lead, cadmium, and arsenic and local activists charge the responsible company, Phelps Dodge, with pandering to local city officials and state regulatory agencies. Local citizens and their lawyers accuse the company of compromising public health and environmental safety by conducting improper soil samples and neglecting proper cleanup of resident homes and public spaces. Findings indicate that Phelps Dodge responded to charges of organizational misconduct by engaging in a strategic campaign of organizational impression management that included the development of a “good neighbor campaign,” the establishment of a community outreach program to promote their voluntary environmental remediation efforts, and the diffusion of responsibili...

Traditionally, people's closest family members resided locally where face-to-face interaction was the predominant mode of communication. Today, in addition to face-to-face visits, one can use a landline telephone, cellular telephone, or any number of the computer-mediated communications such as e-mail. This article explores the modes of communication people use most with their three closest family members with a particular emphasis on how mode of communication may vary by three factors: (1) family member locality, (2) physical distance of the family member, and (3) frequency of communication. The results from a 2005 random sample mail survey show that e-mail has become an important tool in maintaining core familial social networks, especially when these family members live outside the local area. The impacts of computer-mediated communications on the maintenance of familial networks and resulting social capital are addressed.

This research extends the theoretical concept of framing to the phenomenon of race riots using the Tulsa riot of 1921 as a case study. Media accounts of this riot published during 1921 illustrate both prognostic and diagnostic framing strategies and techniques and demonstrate how these processes affected official responses. Results of this research suggest that framing is a critical process associated with media and organizational representation of riots. Analyses indicate that the riot was officially attributed to an armed group of Black citizens whose goal was to protect one of its community members from a potential lynching. However, Black residents framed the riot differently in statements of their account of the events. A recurrent theme for both races and a number of media reports was that of inept and incompetent law enforcement officials. The authors suggest that prognostic solutions to riots (e.g., police strategies and tactics and reconciliatory attempts) are rooted in diagnostic assessments.

The present study investigated the utility of two assessment measures in detecting malingered posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): The Morel Emotional Numbing Test-Revised (MENT-R) and the Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test (M-FAST). The Detailed Assessment of Posttraumatic Stress (DAPS) was used as the criterion variable for the following groups: clinical PTSD, subclinical PTSD, honest responders, and coached malingerers. Total scores on the MENT-R distinguished among the four groups of participants. The three groups responding honestly averaged fewer than 3.5 errors, while malingerers missed over 5 times that number. Scores on the M-FAST were also higher for the group of participants malingering. Although the MENT-R and M-FAST correctly identified 63 and 78% of coached malingerers, respectively, the combined use of both measures resulted in the correct classification of over 90% of the participants instructed to malinger PTSD.

X-ray absorption spectra of aqueous 4 and 6 M potassium hydroxide solutions have been measured near the oxygen K edge. Upon addition of KOH to water, a new spectral feature (532.5 eV) emerges at energies well below the liquid water pre-edge feature (535 eV) and is attributed to OH- ions. In addition to spectral changes explicitly due to absorption by solvated OH- ions, calculated XA spectra indicate that first-solvation-shell water molecules exhibit an absorption spectrum that is unique from that of bulk liquid water. It is suggested that this spectral change results primarily from direct electronic perturbation of the unoccupied molecular orbitals of first-shell water molecules and only secondarily from geometric distortion of the local hydrogen bond network within the first hydration shell. Both the experimental and the calculated XA spectra indicate that the nature of the interaction between the OH- ion and the solvating water molecules is fundamentally different than the corresponding interactions of aqueous halide anions with respect to this direct orbital distortion. Analysis of the Mulliken charge populations suggests that the origin of this difference is a disparity in the charge asymmetry between the hydrogen atoms of the solvating water molecules. The charge asymmetry is induced both by electric field effects due to the presence of the anion and by charge transfer from the respective ions. The computational results also indicate that the OH- ion exists with a predominately "hyper-coordinated" solvation shell and that the OH- ion does not readily donate hydrogen bonds to the surrounding water molecules.

Health literacy is known to influence health. Findings on the unequal distribution of health literacy among less well-educated young people are presented. The influence of socio-demographic factors and the consequences of a low level of health literacy with regard to health-related behaviour are discussed.Data from a survey on the health literacy of young people with a lower level of education, older people and migrants (n = 1,000) were used. Health literacy was measured using the instruments of the European Health Literacy Survey (HLS-EU-Q47).The results demonstrate a lower level of health literacy among young people with less education and especially among young migrants. Explanations for a lower level of health literacy among young people with less well-educated young people were parents' educational background and parents' wealth. Migration-related factors had no influence on young people. Further correlations between health literacy and health behaviour were explored.It is concluded that health literacy is linked to health behaviour and that unequal distributions of health literacy among young people may increase health inequalities.

Oxygen K-edge X-ray absorption spectra (XAS) of aqueous chloride solutions have been measured for Li(+), Na(+), K(+), NH(4)(+), C(NH(2))(3)(+), Mg(2+), and Ca(2+) at 2 and 4 M cation concentrations. Marked changes in the liquid water XAS are observed upon addition of the various monovalent cation chlorides that are nearly independent of the identity of the cation. This indicates that interactions with the dissolved monovalent cations do not significantly perturb the unoccupied molecular orbitals of water molecules in the vicinity of the cations and that water-chloride interactions are primarily responsible for the observed spectral changes. In contrast, the addition of the divalent cations engenders changes unique from the case of the monovalent cations, as well as from each other. Density functional theory calculations suggest that the ion-specific spectral variations arise primarily from direct electronic perturbation of the unoccupied orbitals due to the presence of the ions, probably as a result of differences in charge transfer from the water molecules onto the divalent cations.