Search

This paper first explores spatial distributions and patterns of COVID-19 case rates (cases/100,000 people) and mortality rates (deaths/100,000 people) and their disparities between urban and rural counties in the contiguous US. A county-level social vulnerability index was created using principal component analysis. Social vulnerability components were regressed against both county case and mortality rates. Results suggest that hotspots of case and mortality rates are clustered in Midwest and Upper-Midwest US. We found substantial disparities in case and mortality rates between urban and rural counties. County social vulnerability was positively correlated with both case and mortality rates suggesting counties with higher social vulnerability had higher case and mortality rates. Relationships between social vulnerability components and case and mortality rates vary across the conterminous US. Additionally, counties with increased racial and ethnic minorities, higher percentages of minors, and lower median household income are associated with higher COVID-19 case and mortality rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic libraries face periodic accreditation review, usually on a 10-year cycle in the United States. Being successful at accreditation is a milestone achievement and it takes careful and strategic planning for action items leading up to the review visit. This paper reviews the key activities undertaken by an academic library in a small sized college as it prepared for accreditation visit by Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Focus areas of activities include librarians’ collaboration with teaching faculty, information literacy and student learning outcomes, and library program review. A few recommendations are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the relationship between household income inequality and macro-economic uncertainty in the United States. Using a novel large-scale macroeconometric model, we shed light on regional disparities of inequality responses to a national uncertainty shock. The results suggest that income inequality decreases in most states, with a pronounced degree of heterogeneity in terms of the dynamic responses. By contrast, some few states, mostly located in the Midwest, display increasing levels of income inequality over time. Forecast error variance and historical decompositions highlight the importance of uncertainty shocks in explaining income inequality in most regions considered. Finally, we explain differences in the responses of income inequality by means of a simple regression analysis. These regressions reveal that the income composition as well as labor market fundamentals determine the directional pattern of the dynamic responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The goal of the paper is to characterize the geographic and sociodemographic patterns of policies prohibiting tobacco sales to people aged <21 years (i.e., Tobacco 21) at the local, county, and state levels in the U.S. before the national law.Methods: This study assessed area-level markers for region, race/ethnicity, education, poverty status, and smoke-free law coverage as predictors of Tobacco 21 passage as of December 20, 2019, using modified Poisson and negative binomial regression models with robust SEs. Data were analyzed in 2020.Results: Before the passage of the national policy, 191 million people were covered by Tobacco 21 laws. Counties with higher percentages of non-Hispanic Blacks and individuals living below the poverty line had a lower probability of coverage, whereas counties with higher percentages of Hispanics/Latinxs and individuals with a college degree had a higher probability of coverage. Tobacco 21 coverage also varied by region, with far greater coverage in the Northeast than in the Midwest and South.Conclusions: The national Tobacco 21 law may address disparities in coverage by SES, race/ethnicity, and region that could have lasting implications with regard to health equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions led to major transit demand decline for many public transit systems in the United States. This paper is a systematic analysis of the dynamics and dimensions of this unprecedented decline. Using transit demand data derived from a widely used transit navigation app, we fit logistic functions to model the decline in daily demand and derive key parameters: base value, the apparent minimal level of demand and cliff and base points, representing the initial date when transit demand decline began and the final date when the decline rate attenuated. Regression analyses reveal that communities with higher proportions of essential workers, vulnerable populations (African American, Hispanic, Female, and people over 45 years old), and more coronavirus Google searches tend to maintain higher levels of minimal demand during COVID-19. Approximately half of the agencies experienced their decline before the local spread of COVID-19 likely began; most of these are in the US Midwest. Almost no transit systems finished their decline periods before local community spread. We also compare hourly demand profiles for each system before and during COVID-19 using ordinary Procrustes distance analysis. The results show substantial departures from typical weekday hourly demand profiles. Our results provide insights into public transit as an essential service during a pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of education for a student with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is to help the person achieve a productive and independent life. This paper discusses the results of qualitative research that examine how educators in some Midwestern school districts describe the development of basic literacy skills by high school students with ASD. Important findings include the school districts' perceptions that (a) legal regulations often hamper the efforts of professionals who wish to impart literacy skills to students and (b) school districts' perceptions that parents have limited interest in literacy skills. Recommendations include suggestions about how laws could be modified and how pairing vocational rehabilitation counselors with professionals who work with students with ASD in public schools could improve the quality of life for students with ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well established that parental knowledge contributes to adolescents' well-being and school success and scholars have noted that parents and adolescents report different levels of knowledge. Discrepancies in parental knowledge have implications for adolescent outcomes such as risk behaviors, but little is known about the implications of knowledge discrepancies for adolescents' school outcomes. The present study examined discrepancies in parent and adolescent reports of parental knowledge and investigated the extent to which knowledge discrepancies were linked to school engagement. Participants were early adolescents ( N = 174; 53 % female) and their parents (90 % mothers). Adolescents (57 % African American/Black, 18 % multiracial, 17 % White/Caucasian, 7 % Hispanic/Latino and 1 % Asian American) attended a Midwestern, Title 1, urban, public middle school. Adolescents completed surveys in their homerooms and parents completed paper-pencil surveys at home or surveys via telephone. Results showed that parents reported more knowledge of adolescents' activities and whereabouts compared to adolescents' reports. Knowledge discrepancies were associated with school bonding and school self-esteem such that dyads in which adolescents reported more knowledge than their parents reported had significantly higher levels of school bonding and school self-esteem compared to dyads in which parents reported much more knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores associations between two demographic characteristics (i.e., sex and grade level) and the peer network features (i.e., size, density, and demographic homophily) of 144 third through eighth grade students (ages 8—15) in an urban, US elementary school with considerable diversity in race and socioeconomic status. The results offer only partial support for the two cultures theory, as sex differences in network size attenuated with increasing grade levels. The findings also highlight developmental trends, including a curvilinear effect of grade on network density and grade-level increases in cross-sex and same-race relationships. Finally, the paper includes a discussion of the importance of opportunity structures for, and the joint consideration of sex and developmental influences on, children’s peer social networks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the last twenty-five years, the rural U.S. Midwest has undergone dramatic demographic changes as the population of white people decreased in many areas and the number of Latinos surged. These shifts are especially noteworthy in areas that had stable, relatively homogeneous populations over at least the last half-century. Many Christian churches, both Protestant and Catholic, are responding by reaching out to new residents. Such efforts have sometimes led to tension as Anglo Christians seek to reconcile the moral claims of their faith communities with the prejudices and fears they have of Latino immigrants. This article describes how Anglo-majority mainline Protestant congregations and Catholic parishes are responding to these demographic changes, notes key differences between the two groups' responses, and then sketches several possible explanations for the differences, including the underlying theology of their efforts, the prior religious affiliation of Latino newcomers, the organizational structure of church bodies, and varying impetuses for action. The paper concludes with observations about the future of Christian communities in the rural Midwest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies a sociology of childhood approach to the study of the sexual socialisation of young children in the USA. It examines both children's and parents' active participation in this dynamic and collaborative process through conversations between 49 parents and their 54 preschool children that were audio-recorded while they read books about ‘where babies come from’. Parents also participated in a brief survey. The authors found that, while parents do foreclose such conversations as previous research has indicated, they also use a variety of other tactics, including adding information and emotion management. These findings illustrate children's active engagement in their own sexual socialisation through their questions, confusions and distractions, which affected the amount and type of information that was elicited. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Beginning in early 2011, crude oil production in the U.S. Midwest and Canada surpassed the pipeline capacity to transport it to the Gulf Coast where it could access the world oil market. As a result, the U.S. "benchmark" crude oil price in Cushing, Oklahoma, declined substantially relative to internationally traded oil. In this paper, we study how this development affected prices for refined products, focusing on the markets for motor gasoline and diesel. We find that the relative decrease in Midwest crude oil prices did not pass through to wholesale gasoline and diesel prices. This result is consistent with evidence that the marginal gallon of fuel in the Midwest is still imported from coastal locations. Our findings imply that investments in new pipeline infrastructure between the Midwest and the Gulf Coast, such as the southern segment of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, will not raise gasoline prices in the Midwest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of the some 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States, TASERs have been adopted by approximately 7,000 departments. Following on the call of White and Ready (2007) for more research on TASER use by police, this paper investigates the use of TASERs by a medium sized, Midwestern police agency. All TASER deployments by police officers in this Midwestern city are examined for a three-and-a-half-year time period (January 2004–August 2007). Findings indicate that the TASER was used primarily against physically resistant white male suspects with a history of police contact. The majority of the incidents took place at a private residence or apartment as opposed to a public place of business. The TASER was overwhelmingly effective and, as for officer safety, on the few occasions that an officer was injured, the injury was not related to the TASER. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Research on labeling mental illness has focused relatively little attention on practical organizational concerns in the process of labeling in community mental health services. This paper examines this issue through an ethnographic study of two multi-service community mental health services organizations for people labeled severely and persistently mentally ill in the Midwest United States. The findings show that the labeling process is structured by cultural and policy environments in which mental health services are able to provide resources otherwise difficult to obtain. Within organizations, official labels can be applied for reasons other than clinical practice; they channel resources to both organizations and clients. Informal organizational labels regarding client mental illness are not tethered to the bureaucratic apparatus granting access to and paying for services. Instead, they reflect workers'' real assessments of clients, which can differ from official ones. These informal labels determine how organizations deal with clients when rules and routines are violated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Prior research suggests that homelessness is a significant problem among young people aging out of foster care. However, these studies have not attempted to identify potential risk or protective factors that might affect the likelihood of becoming homeless during the transition to adulthood. This paper uses data from a longitudinal study to examine both the occurrence and predictors of homelessness among a sample of young people from three Midwestern states who recently aged out of foster care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to examine some of the factors associated with the decision to participate in the promotion process for female police officers in a Midwestern police agency. Design/methodology/approach - Face-to-face, structured interviews were conducted in the spring of 2006 with most (74 percent) of the female police officers employed by a Midwestern, municipal police agency. Findings - The authors identified several organizational and personal factors that impact on female police officers' decision to participate in the promotion process. This study also uncovers a factor that has not been addressed in previous research: how being married to fellow police officers (or part of a "cop couple") can restrict the upward mobility of female police officers. Research limitations/implications - Data for this study were collected from one municipal police agency in the Midwest; therefore, the research findings may not be generalizable to small or very large police agencies. In addition, the female officers in this police agency comprise a relatively high percentage of sworn positions (15 percent) compared to the national average of 12.6 percent; therefore, the experiences of the women in this department may not be representative of other female police officers working in agencies where women comprise either more or less than 15 percent of all sworn positions. Another limitation of this study is that the sample size is small. This is a limitation that most researchers will encounter when they choose to study female police officers, as there are so few women who work in American police agencies. Practical implications - By identifying the barriers that female officers face when deciding to go through the promotion process, the authors were able to provide several administrative changes that could be made to encourage more female officers to participate in the promotion process. Originality/value - There is very limited published research on the promotion of female police officers. This study uncovers a factor that has not been addressed in previous research: how being married to fellow police officers can restrict the upward mobility of female police officers, thus resulting in a "marriage tax" for female police officers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plains Indian drawings and historical records produced in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries made progressively greater use of nontraditional drawing materials such as commercial colored pencils, crayons, ink and watercolors. Similarly, cloth and paper begin to supplant traditional hide supports during this period. These non-traditional materials rarely have been studied in this context, yet their dates of manufacture and subsequent availability through traders and missionaries, or distribution by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, has the potential to inform about the creation date of a drawing or historical record. An analysis of the materials and methods used to produce the Rosebud winter count, a Lakota pictographic calendar, is described. Results indicate that the 136 motifs on the Rosebud winter count were produced, likely in sequence, by two different hands, followed by general outlining and finally, motif numbering. The materials used in the winter count were for the most part unavailable before the nineteenth century. Colored pencil containing the pigment Prussian blue was found to form an integral part of the winter count, thus allowing the date of manufacture to be placed most likely after 1883. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses work and industry in the northern Midwest portion of the United States. The article discusses books belonging to the Whitefish Bay Merchant and Traders Bank, which included information regarding business in rural America, the acquisition of Wisconsin-based paper mills by the American Sun newspaper consortium, and the acquisition of a Minnesota-based timber company called the Little Elk Timber Cooperative.

The wind moment frame (WMF) method has been and continues to be widely utilized in the central and eastern United States, resulting in a very large population of structures having been designed without a rigorous analysis with respect to lateral loads. The primary objectives of this paper are to determine whether moment-resisting frames designed by the WMF method are adequate to handle the increased demand on lateral resistance made by modern seismic codes, and to evaluate and compare the seismic performance of existing and new moment-resisting steel frames with partially restrained (PR) connections. Three prototype frames were designed and analyzed utilizing synthetic ground motions for the Mid-America region. The seismic performance of these PR frames was evaluated in accordance with FEMA 273/356 criteria. In addition, studies were conducted on the confidence level of the performance results to take into account the uncertainties and randomness inevitably involved. This analysis and evaluation found that all PR frames designed in this study satisfied the selected performance objective with 99% confidence level for the global performance limit. Thus, the seismic performance of the PR frames in the Mid-America region will be satisfactory even under large ground motions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much research on sexual deviance on university and college campuses is limited by its narrow focus on group affiliation. In this study, it is argued that prior deviance and opportunity serve as more robust predictor variables of sexual deviance. Using a sample of 304 male college students from four universities within the Ohio Valley Conference, this paper utilizes Analytic moment structures (AMOS) analyses to examine the relationship between prior deviance and sexual deviance. Results support the assumption that sexual aggression is significantly (β=.17) mediated or accounted for by opportunity. Overall, the relationships among variables lend support to the argument that alternative explanations of sexual deviance may provide a better understanding of such a complex societal problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the conversion patterns of students and scholars from the People's Republic of China studying at United States universities. Based on in-depth interviews and observations conducted on university campuses in two midwestern cities, we examine the similarities and differences of conversion between the two Chinese student communities. While the social and cultural contexts in China are prevalent in their conversion narratives, the local context or the ecology of local churches is important to explain the variations of the churches that the Chinese converts have joined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite efforts to decrease health disparities they continue to exist and have increased in some health areas. Interventions are needed that educate the public about health disparities and to determine ways to implement culturally appropriate and gender specific programs that include evaluation and monitoring tools. After the intervention has been completed it is important to track what progress the intervention made towards attaining the target goals outlined by Healthy People 2010. This paper documents health behaviors related to diet, nutrition and physical activity of African Americans living in the Midwest, compares their health outcomes to the targeted Healthy People 2010 goals, and determines whether the designed intervention improved their health behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Males are born slightly in excess of females and many factors have been shown to influence M/F, the sex ratio at birth. Seasonality has also been shown to impinge on M/F. This study was carried out in order to ascertain whether Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and Valentine's Day had any influence on M/F in the United States population, nine months later.Methods: Births by ethnicity, region and sex were obtained from the website of the Centres for Disease Control. Analyses were applied to seasonally adjusted time series and non-seasonally adjusted series. A seasonally adjusted indirect result was calculated for the sex ratio.Results: This paper studied 53,105,069 live births for 2003-2015 (27,178,968 males, 25,926,101 females). M/F rises exceeding 90th and 95th percentiles were strongest for the seasonally adjusted series for all births in regions: South (CENS-R3), West (CENS-R4) and the time series All-regions_All-race. When comparing unadjusted and seasonally adjusted series, a similar pattern was observed in the regions Northeast and Midwest for American Indian or Alaska Native and Asian or Pacific Islander. A similar pattern was observed for the region Midwest for the ethnic group White.Discussion: M/F rose above the 90th percentile in all the series and occasionally above the 95th percentile. Increased periconceptual coital rates increases M/F and this study thus lends further credence to the hypothesis that coital rates around the time of conception causally influences the sex ratio of subsequent births nine months later, possibly due to a hormonal mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]