Health education for Somali Bantu refugees via home visits

Background: Somali Bantu refugees, with unique health information needs, created challenges for health and social service providers. Objectives: A service innovation was developed (i) to raise awareness, especially among local health and social service providers, about the Bantu refugees’ presence in the community, their culture, and their information needs and (ii) to deliver needed health information, emphasizing child health, to the Bantu mothers in their homes. Methods: The project consisted of: (i) a community conference targeting local health and social service providers, describing the refugees’ presence in the community, their culture, and information needs. (ii) Focus groups conducted with members of the Bantu population elicited additional information needs. (iii) Curriculum was developed based on identified needs, and (iv) the curriculum was delivered to the refugees in their homes. A clinical informationist and MP3 technology enhanced the project. Findings: Conference attendees’ evaluation responses indicated improved understanding of Bantu culture. Focus groups’ identification of health information needs provided a framework for the health education curriculum. A project website made educational materials available to other healthcare providers. Conclusions: The project raised awareness of the Bantus’ presence, culture, and information needs. Identification of other unmet needs demonstrated that additional support for refugees is required.     

让我们更多地认识城市与城市研究(二)

本文是美国圣地亚哥大学教授詹姆斯·A·克莱普2008年4月在北京城市学院的演讲,演讲共三场。为便于读者全面地理解克莱普教授的演讲内容,全部演讲内容被编译成一篇。本文是根据演讲记录稿整理后,经克莱普教授本人审定英文稿编译。     

Identification with sport teams as a function of the search for certainty

Based on ideas from subjective uncertainty reduction theory, we examined the extent to which individuals hold similar sport team preferences to their family and friends. We also assessed the extent to which perceived sport importance and personal need for structure are influential in the development of team identification. Australian high school students aged 15.5+/-1.0 years (mean+/-s) completed questionnaires containing the Personal Need for Structure Scale, the Relational-Interdependent Self-Construal scale, a Team Identification Scale, and items assessing perceptions of sport importance and team preferences. As expected, correlations indicated that preferences for sport teams were significantly related to the preferences of family and friends. Separate analyses of variance confirmed the remaining hypotheses. More specifically, individuals who perceived that sport was important identified with the team more than individuals who perceived sport to be less important. Also, individuals high in personal need for structure scored higher in cognitive/affective team identification than those low in this need. Individuals with differing needs for structure did not differ in their scores on other dimensions of team identification. The results support the notion that cognitive/emotional attachments to sport teams are influenced by perceptions of the importance of sport and by needs for subjective structure. It is possible that other psychological motives, such as the desire for self-esteem, facilitate the development of evaluative dimensions of team identification.     

Extending validity evidence for multidimensional measures of coaching competency

This study extended validity evidence for multidimensional measures of coaching competency derived from the Coaching Competency Scale (CCS; Myers, Feltz, Maier, Wolfe, & Reckase, 2006) by examining use of the original rating scale structure and testing how measures related to satisfaction with the head coach within teams and between teams. Motivation, game strategy, technique, and character building comprised the dimensions of coaching competency. Data were collected from athletes (N = 585) nested within intercollegiate men's (g = 8) and women's (g = 13) soccer and women's ice hockey (g = 11) teams (G = 32). Validity concerns were observed for the original rating scale structure and the predicted positive relationship between motivation competency and satisfaction with the coach between teams. Validity evidence was offered for a condensed post hoc rating scale and the predicted relationship between motivation competency and satisfaction with the coach within teams.     

On metrics matched to the discrete memoryless channel

A sequence of metrics {D_N} is said to be additive and matched to a discrete memoryless channel (DMC) if D_N is the sum on its coordinates of N single letter metrics and if the maximum likelihood decoder for sequences of length N is a minimum D_N-distance decoder. Necessary and sufficient conditions on the transition probabilities of a DMC for the existence of a sequence of additive metrics matched to it are given. In the case of the binary channel these are shown to be equivalent to the channel being symmetric. Explicit transition probabilities are given for a large class of ternary DMCs with an associated sequence of additive matched metrics. The problem solved here may be considered a generalization of the problem of finding the DMCs matched to the Lee metric solved by Chiang and Wolf in 1971 (2).     

Ladder realizations of multivariable positive real functions

Necessary and sufficient conditions are obtained for the realization of an m-variable positive real function (PRF) as the impedence function of a resistively-terminated ladder network of m lossless two-ports connected in cascade. Each two-port is a single-variable lossless ladder with all of its transmission zeros either at the origin or at finity. Conditions are also obtained when each of the two-ports is a Fujisawa-type lowpass ladder.