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Background: Symptom checkers have been widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic to alleviate strain on health systems and offer patients a 24-7 self-service triage option. Although studies suggest that users may positively perceive web-based symptom checkers, no studies have quantified user feedback after use of an electronic health record–integrated COVID-19 symptom checker with self-scheduling functionality. Objective: In this paper, we aimed to understand user experience, user satisfaction, and user-reported alternatives to the use of a COVID-19 symptom checker with self-triage and self-scheduling functionality. Methods: We launched a patient-portal–based self-triage and self-scheduling tool in March 2020 for patients with COVID-19 symptoms, exposures, or questions. We made an optional, anonymous Qualtrics survey available to patients immediately after they completed the symptom checker. Results: Between December 16, 2021, and March 28, 2022, there were 395 unique responses to the survey. Overall, the respondents reported high satisfaction across all demographics, with a median rating of 8 out of 10 and 288/395 (47.6%) of the respondents giving a rating of 9 or 10 out of 10. User satisfaction scores were not associated with any demographic factors. The most common user-reported alternatives had the web-based tool not been available were calling the COVID-19 telephone hotline and sending a patient-portal message to their physician for advice. The ability to schedule a test online was the most important symptom checker feature for the respondents. The most common categories of user feedback were regarding other COVID-19 services (eg, telephone hotline), policies, or procedures, and requesting additional features or functionality. Conclusions: This analysis suggests that COVID-19 symptom checkers with self-triage and self-scheduling functionality may have high overall user satisfaction, regardless of user demographics. By allowing users to self-triage and self-schedule tests and visits, tools such as this may prevent unnecessary calls and messages to clinicians. Individual feedback suggested that the user experience for this type of tool is highly dependent on the organization's operational workflows for COVID-19 testing and care. This study provides insight for the implementation and improvement of COVID-19 symptom checkers to ensure high user satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the topographical and socio-cultural developments during the Golden Age in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, three Beat Generation epicenters, which determined the deconstruction of traditional norms. Modifications at both city and society levels were represented by the emergence of countercultures, such as the Beat. The visibility received by urban problems, due to the increase in social demonstrations and activism, fostered the formation of a unified front that demanded equality and encouraged social and political movements, such as the Civil Rights and the Second Wave Feminism. The socio-political challenges which the American society was confronted with from the 1950s to the 1970s in these three cities, also reveal a few problems regarding the status of the Beats as well as of minorities in metropolises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug overdose is now the leading cause of unintentional death nationwide, driven by increased prescription opioid overdoses. To better understand urban opioid overdose deaths, this paper examines geographic, demographic, and clinical differences between heroin-related decedents and prescription opioid decedents in San Francisco from 2010 to 2012. During this time period, 331 individuals died from accidental overdose caused by opioids (310 involving prescription opioids and 31 involving heroin). Deaths most commonly involved methadone (45.9 %), morphine (26.9 %), and oxycodone (21.8 %). Most deaths also involved other substances (74.9 %), most commonly cocaine (35.3 %), benzodiazepines (27.5 %), antidepressants (22.7 %), and alcohol (19.6 %). Deaths were concentrated in a small, high-poverty, central area of San Francisco and disproportionately affected African-American individuals. Decedents in high-poverty areas were significantly more likely to die from methadone and cocaine, whereas individuals from more affluent areas were more likely die from oxycodone and benzodiazepines. Heroin decedents were more likely to be within a younger age demographic, die in public spaces, and have illicit substances rather than other prescription opioids. Overall, heroin overdose death, previously common in San Francisco, is now rare. Prescription opioid overdose has emerged as a significant concern, particularly among individuals in high-poverty areas. Deaths in poor and affluent regions involve different causative opioids and co-occurring substances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning in 1966, Victor Moscoso designed many of his psychedelic posters for the stroboscopic light shows of the San Francisco dance halls. Moscoso innovated a new mode of print that depended on its environment—kinetic lithography, a product of creative experimentation. He developed multiple iterations of this medium; however, installing it outside of its original context of the psychedelic dance hall continues to pose a unique challenge for preparators and curators alike. Today, museum display of his works relies upon experimental settings to activate his site-specific design. This article considers how immersive displays and antistatic artworks demand a new kind of relationship between visitor and artwork by decentering the museum's longstanding emphasis on the optical, a regime that has long served to frame posters and ephemera in contexts of display rather than as active objects. By analyzing two recent exhibitions displaying Moscoso's kinetic lithographs (The Summer of Love Experience, 2017, and Moscoso Cosmos, 2021), this article considers the mechanics of the print itself, curatorial decisions, and visitor engagement to assess the site-specific demands of a genre-bending medium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1990s and early 2000s, working-class and poor neighborhoods in San Francisco underwent dramatic economic and racial changes. One of the most heavily gentrified neighborhoods was the Mission District. As a result of local politics, housing and rental policies, real estate speculation, and development, thousands of Latina/o families were displaced. Using oral historical and ethnographic methodologies, print media, archival sources, and policy papers, this article traces the gentrification of the Mission District from the perspective of the Latina/o community. It also examines how gentrification was articulated as a positive turn within the larger public discourse on space and access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper briefly reviews the sociological literature on the ‘New’ Chinatown phenomenon stressing its structural location vis-à-vis the ‘Old’ Chinatown and the homeland. It defines the New Chinatown as a panethnopolis, that is a global neighborhood with a majority population of Chinese immigrants and of other ethnic groups of mostly Asian descent. It analyzes more particularly the formation, development, and integration of San Francisco's Richmond District's New Chinatown into both the city where it is located and the network of transglobal sites to which it belongs. It provides an interpretation of the New Chinatown as a cultural enclave within the context of globalization theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Open defecation due to a lack of access to sanitation facilities remains a public health issue in the United States. People experiencing homelessness face barriers to accessing sanitation facilities, and are often forced to practice open defecation on streets and sidewalks. Exposed feces may contain harmful pathogens posing a significant threat to public health, especially among unhoused persons living near open defecation sites. The City of San Francisco's Department of Public Works implemented the Pit Stop Program to provide the unhoused and the general public with improved access to sanitation with the goal of reducing fecal contamination on streets and sidewalks. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of these public restroom interventions on reports of exposed feces in San Francisco, California.Methods: We evaluated the impact of various public restroom interventions implemented from January 1, 2014 to January 1, 2020 on reports of exposed feces, captured through a 311 municipal service. Publicly available 311 reports of exposed feces were spatially and temporally matched to 31 Pit Stop restroom interventions at 27 locations across 10 San Francisco neighborhoods. We conducted an interrupted time-series analysis to compare pre- versus post-intervention rates of feces reports near the restrooms.Results: Feces reports declined by 12.47 reports per week after the installation of 13 Pit Stop restrooms (p-value = 0.0002). In the same restrooms, the rate of reports per week declined from the six-month pre-intervention period to the post-intervention period (slope change = -0.024 [95% CI = -0.033, -0.014]). In a subset of restrooms, where new installations were made (Mission and Golden Gate Park), and in another subset of restrooms where restroom attendants were provided (Mission, Castro/Upper Market, and Financial District/South Beach), feces reports also declined.Conclusions: Increased access to public toilets reduced feces reports in San Francisco, especially in neighborhoods with people experiencing homelessness. The addition of restroom attendants also appeared to have reduced feces reports in some neighborhoods with PEH. These interventions should be audited for implementation quality, observed utilization data, and user experience at the neighborhood level in order to tailor sanitation interventions to neighborhood-specific needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Lua Nova is the property of CEDEC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As immigrant gold miners migrated en masse to San Francisco and northern California during the Gold Rush-era (ca. 1849-1855), they experienced new animals. Stopping in ports throughout Central and South America, these argonauts saw, felt, smelled, heard, and occasionally consumed, mammals, birds, reptiles, and many more creatures, which were wholly exotic to those species found at home. Two types of animals that the Gold Rush populace encountered during this era include parrots and monkeys. Although found throughout tropical environments in areas far distant from northern California, these animals became quickly imported to San Francisco during the early 1850s. A wild, turbulent Gold Rush-era helped facilitate the importation of these exotic animal types, both for comfort and entertainment, as they helped provide a source of companionship for miners unaccustomed to the shock of 1850s northern California. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a historical overview of the efforts of residents, gay activists, religious leaders, and social workers to fight against poverty and to increase social equality in the Central City section of San Francisco, California between the early 1950s and 1967. Particular focus is given to the role played by the anti-poverty program Central City Target Area and the San Francisco Economic Opportunity Council (SFEOC), both of which were supported through federal funding from the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), in this movement. Other topics explored include urban poverty for racial and ethnic minorities in San Francisco and an overview of queer activism within the city.

The charging management of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in San Francisco considering the effect of drag force on the vehicles, the real driving routes of vehicles, the social aspects of drivers' behaviour, the type of PEVs and the PEV penetration level is presented in this study. In this study, the drivers' responsiveness probability, to provide vehicle-to-grid service at the parking lot, is modelled with respect to the value of the incentive, drivers' social class and the real driving routes in San Francisco. Herein, the Monte Carlo Markov Chain is applied to estimate the hourly probability distribution function of the state of charge (SOC) of the PEV fleet in the day. The main data set applied in this study includes the real longitude and latitude of driving routes of vehicles in San Francisco, recorded in every four-minute interval of the day. In this study, a stochastic model predictive control is applied in the optimisation problem to address the variability and uncertainty issues of PEVs' SOC and renewables' power. Herein, quantum-inspired simulated annealing algorithm is applied as the optimisation technique. It is demonstrated that the type of PEVs, the PEV penetration level and even the social class of drivers can affect the problem results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of the Institute of Latvian History / Latvijas Vēstures Institūta Žurnāls is the property of University of Latvia, Institute of Latvian History and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Geographer is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses Yucatec-Mayan immigrant and migrant satisfaction and social conditions within the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco, California and the Edison neighborhood of Kalamazoo, Michigan through the use of interviews and ethnographic information. Neighborhood characteristics affecting satisfaction discussed in the article include crime levels, relations with African American and white populations, and a lack of gangs. The author identifies the Mission neighborhood as a traditional migrant destination and Edison as a nontraditional one. It is concluded that Edison residents are more likely to pursue U.S. citizenship and increase stay duration than their Mission counterparts.

Copyright of Annals of the Association of American Geographers is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)