Characterizing the neighborhood risk environment in multisite clinic-based cohort studies: a practical geocoding and data linkages protocol for protected health information v1

Methods. This protocol demonstrates how to: (1) securely geocode patients’ residential addresses in a clinic setting and match geocoded addresses to census tracts using Geographic Information System software (Esri, Redlands, CA); (2) ascertain contextual variables of the risk environment from the American Community Survey and ArcGIS Business Analyst (Esri, Redlands, CA); (3) use geoidentifiers to link neighborhood risk data to census tracts containing geocoded addresses; and (4) assign randomly generated identifiers to census tracts and strip census tracts of their geoidentifiers to maintain patient confidentiality. Results. Completion of this protocol generates three neighborhood risk indices (i.e., a Neighborhood Disadvantage Index, a Murder Rate Index, and a Assault Rate Index) for patients’ coded census tract locations. Intended Usage. This protocol can be used by research personnel and clinic staff who do not have prior GIS experience to easily create objective indices of the neighborhood risk environment while upholding patient confidentiality. Future studies can adapt this protocol to fit their specific patient populations and analytic objectives.

Characterizing the neighborhood risk environment in multisite clinic-based cohort studies: a practical geocoding and data linkages protocol for protected health information v1

Methods. This protocol demonstrates how to: (1) securely geocode patients’ residential addresses in a clinic setting and match geocoded addresses to census tracts using Geographic Information System software (Esri, Redlands, CA); (2) ascertain contextual variables of the risk environment from the American Community Survey and ArcGIS Business Analyst (Esri, Redlands, CA); (3) use geoidentifiers to link neighborhood risk data to census tracts containing geocoded addresses; and (4) assign randomly generated identifiers to census tracts and strip census tracts of their geoidentifiers to maintain patient confidentiality. Results. Completion of this protocol generates three neighborhood risk indices (i.e., Neighborhood Disadvantage Index, Murder Rate Index, and Assault Rate Index) for patients’ coded census tract locations. Intended Usage. This protocol can be used by research personnel without prior GIS experience to easily create objective indices of the neighborhood risk environment while upholding patient confidentiality. Future studies can adapt this protocol to fit their specific patient populations and analytic objectives.

Harshness and unpredictability: Childhood environmental links with immune and asthma outcomes

The environment has pervasive impacts on human development, and two key environmental conditions – harshness and unpredictability – are proposed to be instrumental in tuning development. This study examined (1) how harsh and unpredictable environments related to immune and clinical outcomes in the context of childhood asthma, and (2) whether there were independent associations of harshness and unpredictability with these outcomes. Participants were 290 youth physician-diagnosed with asthma. Harshness was assessed with youth-reported exposure to violence and neighborhood-level murder rate. Unpredictability was assessed with parent reports of family structural changes. Youth also completed measures of asthma control as well as asthma quality of life and provided blood samples to assess immune profiles, including in vitro cytokine responses to challenge and sensitivity to inhibitory signals from glucocorticoids. Results indicated that harshness was associated with more pronounced pro-inflammatory cytokine production following challenge and less sensitivity to the inhibitory properties of glucocorticoids. Furthermore, youth exposed to harsher environments reported less asthma control and poorer quality of life. All associations with harshness persisted when controlling for unpredictability. No associations between unpredictability and outcomes were found. These findings suggest that relative to unpredictability, harshness may be a more consistent correlate of asthma-relevant immune and clinical outcomes.

Female Homicides and Femicides in Ecuador: A Nationwide Ecological Analysis From 2001-2017

Background: Gender-based violence is a major public health concern arising from the structural discrimination of women and girls. In 2014, Ecuador criminalized acts of femicide in response to a growing crisis across the region. As no epidemiological studies on the state of female homicides have been published, we estimated trends occurring between 2001 and 2017. Methods: Using data from the National Institute of Census and Statistics we estimated the annual mortality rates, cumulative incidence and incidence risks differences for female homicides, from 2001 – 2017. The impact of aggressions, assaults and violence on years of life lost due to premature mortality was estimated using the Human Capital method. Results: Over the period, at least 3,236 cases of female homicides were reported. The highest murder rate occurred in the province of Sucumbíos (6·5 per 100,000) and in the Putumayo canton (12·5 per 100,000). The most common way to murder their victims was using firearms (38%). The highest incidence risk was estimated for women aged between 25-29, at 4·5 (3·9 – 5·1), of primary school attainment at 17·2 (14·6 - 20·3) and of Afro-Ecuadoran descent 18·1 (10·5- 30·9). Femicide-related costs reached, on average, $35 million per year and more than $500 million lost from 2001 to 2017. Conclusions: The high rates, distribution and cost indicate that investments are urgently needed to address the structural causes and reduce the impact of femicides in Ecuador; thereby protecting the livelihood and well-being of their women and girls.

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This article investigates sex work among Black transgender women in Chicago’s ballroom scene, drawing on ethnographic data to argue that Black transwomen engage in sex work as a practice of self-investment undergirded by an epistemological shift regarding the centrality of affective labor to their work. In so doing, interlocutors reap the benefits of deploying embodied knowledge—the harnessing and transformation of insight derived from lived experiences of racial, gender, and sexual subjection into useful strategies, tactics, and tools—to secure material and human resources necessary for survival. A focus on how Black transwomen live, despite continued physical, spiritual, socioeconomic, political, and cultural annihilation, remains critically important given the myriad indicators (low average life expectancy, low annual income, disproportionally high murder rate, etc.) that expose the world’s indifference to the plight of this community and Black bodies writ large. Further, the author places interlocutors in conversation with Black feminist historians’ and theorists’ discussions of sex work among Black women to expose points of convergence between Black cis- and transgender women. The author also complicates narratives that link sex work to “survival” and subsequently obfuscate explorations of limited and situated agency among Black women that have significant historical precedent.

The beta and simplex regression models to explain homicides in state capitals of Brazil

The intentional killing of one human being by its own kind is considered the worst of the crimes. Therefore, homicide prevention is a major concern for policy makers in both developing and developed countries. We propose regression modeling for the homicide rates in Brazil along with appropriately chosen distributions for these responses that are in agreement with the restriction of values to the unit interval. We adopt the beta and simplex regression models with systematic components for the mean and dispersion parameters to explain the homicide rates in 27 state capitals of Brazil from the following explanatory variables: time, Gini coefficient, municipal human development index (MHDI), illiteracy and poverty rates. We employ standard likelihood techniques, perform influence and residual analysis and calculate goodness-of-fit statistics to select the best regression to explain homicides rates in these capitals. We perform the computations in the R package. The main results suggest the following: the mean homicide rate is increasing over time; there is a negative correlation between MHDI and murder rate; the poverty has a quite small negative impact on the mean homicide rates in the beta regression. The Gini coefficient and the illiteracy and poverty rates explain the dispersion of the homicide rates.

Murder for Hire: Criminological Analysis of the Current Situation in the Russian Federation

This article offers a criminological analysis of murders for hire, from the moment of their regulation in the current Criminal Code of the Russian Federation until 2019. Since the procedure of statistical registration of these crimes changed several times during this period, comparable indicators were presented based on these changes. The base period is from 2003 to 2019. In the course of criminological analysis, the authors used official statistical data and calculated the dynamics of absolute and relative indicators (growth rates, specific weight, intensity coefficient) of crimes of the studied type. As a result, the authors came to the following conclusions. In the Russian Federation, murder for hire is not a common crime: its share in the structure of murders over the past decade has not exceeded 0.15 %, although murders account for no more than 0.5 % in the overall structure of crime. The analysis of the dynamics of this crime revealed not only a steady downward trend in its quantitative indicators, but also a faster rate of decline in comparison with the dynamics of murders in general (the absolute number of criminal cases of murder for hire decreased 6 times during the examined period, while the absolute murder rate decreased only 4 times, and the rate of decline for the basic indicator of murder for hire was higher by 8.7 %). The coefficient of intensity of murders of this type during the examined period also decreased 6.5 times. The rate of decline in the indicators of assassinations committed by organized criminal groups and criminal communities was 2 times higher than the rate shown by the entire set of murders of this type. At the same time, the share of murders for hire committed with the use of firearms, explosive devices, and explosives has not actually changed, despite a six-fold decrease in absolute indicators. However, the share of such crimes is not dominant in the structure of homicides for hire. In addition, murder for hire is a crime with a higher degree of latency than manslaughter. At the same time, a complicated system of registering murders for hire under various indicators makes it possible to disguise the real situation with this crime.

AUDIO DESCRIPTION AND DIVERSITY AWARENESS: FLUTUA MUSIC VIDEO

ABSTRACT Brazil has the highest murder rate of transgender people in the world. The paper will focus on a debate of how audio description of some audiovisual products should be used to call the attention to the discrimination and violence suffered by homosexual couples. We have chosen a Brazilian music video called Flutua produced and performed by Johnny Hooker with special participation of the Brazilian singer Liniker, a black trans woman. The clip presents an outstanding visual narrative involving contemporary themes such as gays with disability, gender-fluid and homophobia. During the video a gay deaf couple spends a day having fun with friends in an urban scenario composed by known streets and places of Sao Paulo capital. At the end of the day a member of the group suffered a very violent attack. The audio description of the most relevant scenes, the identities and outfit of the singers, and their movements will be presented having in mind the music as protagonist of Flutua.

Mexico political dynamics test security strategies

Subject Insecurity in Mexico. Significance Mexico saw its highest murder rate on record in 2019, according to figures released by the Executive Secretariat of the National System of Public Security (SESNSP) on January 20. The news follows President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO)’s announcement last month of a new ten-point security plan. While AMLO recognises the gravity of the situation, however, his plans remain vague and lack a coherent strategy. Impacts AMLO’s poor record on curbing violence does not inspire optimism about his most recent security template. Arbitrary and poorly explained security decisions will pose security threats for governors. AMLO’s constraints on the use of offensive force will break down in local contexts.